Radio Curious

Imagine Darya, a twelve year old girl in a remote village of Afghanistan.  Her father forces her to marry a drug lord as part payment for an opium drug trade.  Her father is not home and she is about to be taken from her family.  Desperately, her hands trembling, she implores you, a complete stranger:  “Please don’t let him take me.”

In this edition of Radio Curious we visit Fariba Nawa, author of “Opium Nation: Child Brides, Drug Lords and One Woman’s Journey Through Afghanistan.”  Fariba Nawa was ten years old when her family fled Afghanistan shortly before the Soviet invasion in 1979.  Eighteen years later Fariba Nawa met twelve year old Darya when she returned to her native Afghanistan as an Afghan-American investigative journalist.  Her book tells Darya’s story, and reveals what the Afghan opium drug trade is doing to her native land in the midst of war.

Fariba Nawa and I visited by phone from her home near San Francisco, California on January 23, 2012. We began with her description of coming to the United States and flight from Afghanistan.

Fariba Nawa’s website is www.faribanawa.com. The book she recommends is “Day of Honey: A Memoir of Food, Love and War,” by Annia Ciezaldo.

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Gene expression:  Psychosocial and cultural genomics–a healing process that connects the mind-body to emotional and physical healing is our topic.  Our guest is Dr. Ernest Rossi, a practicing psychologist, hypnotherapist and an expert in dreams. Dr. Rossi describes how we humans can activate a specific gene within us to advance our abilities, or recover from an injury.

He suffered a major stroke in the early 2000s that impaired his speech and movement.  Dr. Rossi managed his own recovery using psychosocial and cultural genomics.  He and I visited at the 11^th Milton Erickson Psychotherapy Congress in Phoenix, Arizona in December 2011.  I turned on the recorder and asked Dr. Rossi to explain how gene expression works.

Dr. Ernest Rossi recommends your choice of the 36 books he has authored or edited.  For more information visit his website: www.ernestrossi.com.

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Are you interested in a social lubricant, perhaps social glue, or an antidote to depression, stay tuned, you’re in the right place here at Radio Curious.  In this edition we visit with Steven Sultanoff, who portrays himself as a mirthologist and humorologist with a Ph.D. in psychology.  Dr. Sultanoff frequently uses humor in his work, and regularly in his daily life.

Steven Sultanoff and I met when Radio Curious attended the 11^th Milton Erickson Psychotherapy Congress in Phoenix, Arizona in early December, 2011, where Steven Sultanoff presented a workshop about the importance of humor in psychotherapy and daily life.  I laughed at some of what I heard and asked him if we could visit in front of the Radio Curious microphone.  He agreed.  We began as he described the role of humor in society and his professional practice.

Steven Sultanoff, Ph.D. is a specialist in the use of humor in psychotherapy.  His website is www.mirthmatters.com.  The books Steven Sultanoff recommends are all by Malcolm Gladwell:  “Blink,” “Outliars,” and “The Tipping Point.”

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Founded in 1929, the Heard Museum’s mission is dedicated to educating people about the arts, heritage and life ways of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, with an emphasis on American Indian tribes of the Southwest. Committed to the sensitive and accurate portrayal of Native arts and cultures,  the museum successfully combines the stories of American Indian people from a personal perspective with the beauty of art, showcasing old and new hand woven baskets, kachina dolls, other art and cultural objects.

The museum showcases the art and regalia of Apache, Hopi, Navajo, Pueblo, and Yaqui, to name a few.  More than 2000 items make up the museums exhibition.  Artwork ranging from pottery, baskets, beadwork, dolls and paintings are on display.

Our guest is Debra Krol, the communications manager who shared portions of the Heard Museum with me on December 10, 2011.  We began our conversation with Krol when she introduced us to the Heard Museum and the unique features that reflect the evolution of south western Native American art.

Debra Krol recommends two books: “Ishi’s Brain,” by Orin Starn, and “Indians, Merchants and Missionaries: The legacy of Colonial Encounters on the California Frontiers”, by Kent G. Lightfoot. Our interview with Orin Starn may be found here.

The Heard Museum website is www.heard.org.

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