Offen, Bernard: Surviving the Holocaust

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The internationally recognized date of Holocaust Remembrance Day corresponds to the 27th day of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar, a calendar based on the phases of the moon. That day also marks the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. In Hebrew, Holocaust Remembrance Day is called Yom Hashoah.  In year 2017 of the Gregorian Calendar Yom Hashoah falls on April 24.

From the Radio Curious archives, in honor of Yom Hashoah this year, we re-visit our 2005 interview with Bernard Offen.  He survived five Nazi concentration camps in Poland, during his youth in World War II. Bernard Offen has led tours of these concentration camps and in doing says, “You don’t have to be a survivor or Jewish. It’s for all the wounded who want to understand the power of good and evil and want to create goodness in the world.”

When Bernard Offen visited the studios of Radio Curious in April 2005, we began our conversation when he described some of his early childhood experiences in Krakow, Poland in the years just prior to World War II.

The book Bernard Offen recommends “My Hometown Concentration Camp: A Survivor’s Account to Life in the Krakow Ghetto and Plaszow Concentration Camp,” which he wrote.

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Grandin, Prof. Temple: What Autism Can Tell Us About Animals

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What animals think and how their thoughts might be understood is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious. A certain amount of insight into this curious question may be obtained from the book “Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior,” by Professor Temple Grandin.

Grandin, born in 1947, was diagnosed with autism at age 2 and did not begin to speak until she was 4 years old. She earned a master’s degree and Ph.D. in animal science, and is now a professor of animal science at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, Colorado.

In her book “Animals in Translation,” Grandin explores the world of animals; their pain, fear, aggression, relationships and communication. She believes that autistic people at times think the way animals think, putting them in a strong position to translate “animal talk.”

We spoke with Professor Grandin from her office in Ft. Collins, Colorado, in March 2006. We began our conversation when I asked her to define autism.

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Chikazawa, Owen and Krogh, Mary Ashley: Two Millennials “Bound for Nowhere”

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Two bold millennial adventurers, born in 1988 and 1989, serendipitously parked their Volkswagon Westfalia Camper Van in a campsite adjacent to the Radio Curious Mobile Studio–also a Westfalia Camper Van–near Lone Pine, California. Lone Pine is at the eastern base Mt. Whitney, about 90 miles west of Death Valley.

Mary Ashley Krogh, who goes by MAK (http://www.makwashere.com/about/), and her husband, Owen Chikazawa (https://www.wewander.tv/about/) have been on the road, “bound for nowhere” (http://www.boundfornowhere.com/), since the end of April, 2016. They’re my guests on this edition of Radio Curious.

MAK and Owen live and work in Stanley. That’s the name for their camper van home, which provides about 18 square feet of living space. MAK and Owen, both graduates of Savannah College of Art & Design support themselves as designers and illustrators. MAK creates apparel graphic art, branding and graphic designs. Owen designs, illustrates and animates broadcast television and startup explanatory videos. As they foment and pursue their wanderlust bound for nowhere, they remotely focus on their clients’ goals and meet their needs.

MAK, Owen, and I visited in their home office, aka Stanley, at Tuttle Creek Campground, just outside Lone Pine, California, on March 17, 2017.

The books that Owen Chikazawa recommends are The Martian by Andy Weir and The 39 Steps by John Buchan. The book that MAK recommends is The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson.

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Slater, Linda: Death Valley: The Hottest Place on Earth, and the Driest and Lowest Place in North America

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Death Valley, the hottest place on earth and the driest and lowest place in North America is a spectacularly beautiful 3.4 million acre National Park.  91% of this outdoor “classroom,” has been designated as a Wilderness and protected by Congress.

Our guest in this edition of Radio Curious is Linda Slater, a National Park Ranger for the past 30 years and currently the Chief of Interpretation at Death Valley National Park.

In this wildly beautiful and dangerously hot place is the lowest point in North America– at 282 feet below sea level. Death Valley, replete with rolling sand dunes, deep winding smooth marble canyons, spring-fed oases, and crusted barren salt flats averages 2 inches of rain per year.

We visited with Linda Slater on March 15, 2017, in the Radio Curious mobile studio. While parked next to a rock strewn area, so white that it appeared to be covered in snow, yet the outside temperature was 100 degrees, our conversation began with Linda Slater’s description of that white material.

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