Lee Stetson as John Muir: An Early American Conservationist

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The Wild Muir

One of the greatest early conservationists of America was a Scottish immigrant named John Muir who, as a young boy, went first to Wisconsin and then later, as a young man in the 1860s, moved onward to California. A friend of President Theodore Roosevelt, he successfully sought to preserve the spectacular Yosemite Valley and the Sierra Nevada range; it was joy in his lifetime. Yet the loss of the equally spectacular Hetch Hetch Valley to a dam to provide water for San Francisco was his greatest sorrow. John Muir founded the Sierra Club and is credited with founding the National Park System in the United States.

I visited with John Muir in the person of Lee Stetson in the studios of Radio Curious in October of 1995 and discussed his life and observations.

We begin with his comments on the effect that extinction of so many species during and since his lifetime has had on the Earth’s remaining species.

The book that Lee Stetson recommends is his own, “The Wild Muir,” by Lee Stetson

The book that John Muir recommends is “Sixty Miles From Contentment,” by M.H. Dunlop.

 

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Farr, Sam: On Trump and 23 years in Congress

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With the massive change in the government of the United States about to take place, I take this opportunity to share with you the views of Sam Farr, who is retiring after 23 ½ years as a member of Congress.  He represented Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties of the central coast of California.  About 80 miles south of San Francisco, this is one of the most beautiful coast lines in the world.

Sam Farr and I visited from his home in Monterey County on December 19, 2016.  That was his first full day at home, with no further responsibilities as a Member of Congress since June, 1993.  While in office he flew across the county twice a week, seven out of every eight weeks.

We began when I asked for his reflections on the changes in Congress between when he first arrived there and the current times.  Further in our visit we discuss what the nation might expect during the presidency of Donald Trump.

The book Sam Farr recommends is “Three Years in California,” by Walter Colton, published December 31, 1855.

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Axt, Robert: Mixed Messages and the Arts

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Intelligence bears the precious gift
of bringing into being
the dream only imagination
makes possible our seeing.

And the dreams found deep within
the chambers of our hearts
are best expressed and brought to life
by the creative arts.

This poem presents the world view of Robert M. Axt, our guest on this edition of Radio Curious. Axt is a retired contractor who self-studied to become an architect, whose last name was changed three times by the time he was ten years old, and now in his mid-eighties, a poet and patron of the arts.

Axt, who has lived in Ukiah, California, since the 1960s shared his childhood story in the November 2016 presentation of First Person Plural, a monologue series taught and directed by the Ukiah dramatist Ellen Weed.

Axt created an enriched family life for himself along with a live of artistic imagery which he manifests in his work as an architect and in his passion as a poet.

In the first half of this edition of Radio Curious, Axt reads his monologue, Mixed Messages. It describes the loneliness and cruelty of his childhood, while living with relatives or step-parents, and often alone by himself after age 12.

In the second half we discuss how his life might have been had his father not been banished from his life at age 2, and his thoughts about the importance of fomenting the creative imagination.

The book Robert Axt recommends is Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, by Louis Carrol.

This program was recorded on December 11, 2016.

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Werdinger, Roberta: A Woman of Words

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Story teller, writer, publicist and editor Roberta Werdinger is our guest once again.

In the course of our November 21, 2016, visit when Roberta Werdinger when her personal story Barbwire and Flowers, it was clear that she had more to say. Werdinger is a woman of words, who studies the origin of words and the way in which their meanings have changed throughout history. Fascism is one of those words.

How to recognize and respond to fascism, work with fear and go beyond trauma, is part of our conversation in this program. When Roberta Werdinger and I met in the Radio Curious studios November 26, 2016, she commented that she sees herself as having a hybrid life and modus operandi. We began when I asked to describe her hybrid life and modus operandi.

The book Roberta Werdinger recommends is “The Unconquerable World: Power, Non-Violence and the Will of the People,” by Jonathan Schell

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Darnton, John: Galapagos Islands–Charles Darwin

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Who was Charles Darwin and what led him to describe what we now call the theory of evolution? These curious questions are ones that I have been following since I was about ten years old. In 1978 I had the good fortune of visiting the Galapagos Islands, 600 miles west of Ecuador in the Pacific Ocean. Charles Darwin visited the Galapagos Islands in 1831 for month as part of a five-year voyage around the world. There he saw birds and animals that helped him formulate some of his ideas about evolution he published The Origin of the Species,” 22 years later in 1853. Since then the world, science and religion has not been the same.

Now, at a time when concepts of evolution and natural selection are attacked from certain theological and political perspectives, “The Darwin Conspiracy,” a novel has been written by John Darnton, a writer and editor for the New York Times. “The Darwin Conspiracy,” although fiction, is said by John Darnton to be 90% accurate. It covers Darwin’s life and thinking before and after his publication of “The Origin of the Species.”

I spoke with John Darnton from his home in New York City at the end of October 2005. He began by describing who Charles Darwin was, in his time and place.

The book John Darnton recommends is “Snow,” by Orhan Pamuk.

 

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