Krassner, Paul — Confessions of a Raving Unconfined Nut

Blessed with a sense of absurdity, journalist and satirist Paul Krassner was characterized by the FBI as “a raving, unconfined nut.” He liked that and incorporated those words into the title of his revised auto-biography, “Confessions of a Raving, Unconfined Nut:  Misadventures in the Counterculture.” Krassner wrote a lot about his personal philosophy, so when we spoke by phone on November 24, 2012, from his home near Palm Springs, California, we began when I asked him to tell us about his philosophy, what it is, and how it came to be.

The book Paul Krassner recommends is “Johnny Got His Gun” by Dalton Trumbo.

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Kleinedler, Steven — A Word For Everything

What does that word mean?  Why don’t you hear it on this radio station?  Can you use it in Scrabble?  Do you want some answers?   If so, don’t touch your radio dial even if your radio doesn’t have one.

Our guest in this edition of Radio Curious is the Steven R, Kleinedler, the Supervising Editor of the 5th Edition of the American Heritage English Language Dictionary.

Curious as I sometimes am, I wanted to know where all the words came from in the 2,084 pages of the American Heritage Dictionary.   So, when Steven Kleinedler and I visited by phone from his home near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on November 16, 2012, we began when I asked to explain the origin of word lists that we now call dictionaries.

The book that Steve Kleinedler recommends is “Cryptonomicon,”  by Neil Stevenson.

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Miller, Geoffrey — Sex, Evolution and Consumer Behaviour

Consumer behavior is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious in a conversation with Geoffrey Miller, professor of evolutionary psychology at the University of New Mexico, and the author of “Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior”.

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McCabe, Martha — Culture & Racism

Life, culture and racism is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious, in conversation with attorney/novelist Martha McCabe, author of “Praise at Midnight.”

Martha McCabe worked as a civil rights and criminal trial lawyer in deep east Texas from 1974 to 1985.  Her goal was to pour the raw material from her personal experiences as a lawyer into her story.  It took Martha McCabe ten years to complete “Praise at Midnight,” her first novel.  The deeper level into which she fell during that ten year period was recognizing the importance of consciousness and self awareness in avoiding the projection of one’s own dark side onto other people and then killing them, not only on a local level, but an international level as well.

Martha McCabe and I have been associates, good friends and colleagues since 1969 when we met at the University of Santa Clara where I was a law student.

When I spoke with Martha McCabe from her home in San Antonio, Texas on July 29, 2006, we began with her description of the culture of deep east Texas when she lived there from 1974 to 1985.

The books she recommends are “Reading Lolita in Teheran” by Azar Nafisi and “Caballero: A Historical Novel” by Jovita Gonzalez and Eve Raleigh.

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