Hanna Rosin — “God’s Harvard”

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Originally recorded on July 21, 2007.

Since 2000, ambitious young evangelicals have made their way to Patrick Henry College, a small Christian school near Washington, D.C. Most of them are home schoolers whose idealism and discipline put the average American teenager to shame. At “God’s Harvard” they are groomed to become tomorrow’s elite, dispatched to the front lines of politics, entertainment and science to “take back a godless nation.” Hanna Rosin, author of “God’s Harvard: A Christian College on a Mission to Save America,” visits the nerve center of the evangelical movement and describes who they are, their background, goals and desires.

The book Hanna Rosin recommends is “The Golden Compass,” by Philip Pullman.

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Charles Ferguson — “Will This War Ever End?”

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“The Endless War,” a movie released in late July 2007, written, directed and produced by Charles Ferguson, depicts the blunders and ill-prepared manner in which the United States initiated and carried out the war against Iraq. This full-length feature film juxtaposes the statements and actions of the Washington leadership of the war, which at the outset failed to include President Bush – the Commander-in-Chief, with the leadership’s actions and grievous consequences that followed.  Charles Ferguson holds a Ph.D. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has extensive experience in foreign policy analysis, and lives and works in the San Francisco Bay area. When I spoke with him on July 20, 2007 we began with his explanation how the war and the occupation of Iraq were shaped by an extremely small group of people In Washington D.C., with limited foreign policy and post war occupation experience.

The film he recommends is “The Lives of Others,” a story about East Germany under the community regime.

 

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Andrew Keen- “Does The Internet Really Kill Culture”

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Those of us who use the internet are subject to the words and wisdom, or lack thereof, provided by the people and or machines that upload ideas and content. The democratization of the internet, allowing anyone to post anything is, in the mind of Andrew Keen, our guest of this edition of Radio Curious, creating a “cut-and-paste” on-line culture which threatens copyright protection and intellectual property rights at the expense of those who create original work. Andrew Keen is the author of “The Cult Of The Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture.” When I spoke with him from his home in Berkeley, in early June 2007 we began with his explanation of the democratization of the internet.

The song, film and book recommended by Andrew Keen are the U2 song “Vertigo,” the movie “Vertigo,” by Alfred Hitchcock, and the book “Vertigo,” by W.G. Sebald.

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Tom Allman- “The Sheriff and Marijuana”

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This program was originally broadcast on June 19, 2007.

Marijuana, some say, is on the lips of many people here in Mendocino County, California, and likely many other places throughout the world, to some with pleasure and to others with distaste. Nonetheless it doesn’t seem that marijuana will go away. Not withstanding federal laws prohibiting use and possession of marijuana, the people of the State of California adopted the Compassionate Use Act in 1996 and in November 2000, the voters of Mendocino County approved a resolution by a vote of 58% to 42% to decriminalize the personal use of marijuana. In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with Tom Allman the Sheriff of Mendocino County to discuss the enforcement of the many conflicting marijuana laws. Estimates of the value of the crop produced in Mendocino County vary from five to ten billion dollars. We began when I asked the Sheriff to comment on this estimate.

Tom Allman recommends “The Hunt for Red October,” by Tom Clancy

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