RADIO CURIOUS: LONG FORM INTERVIEWS ABOUT LIFE and IDEAS
Welcome to the 31st year of Radio Curious, now proudly part of the Library of Congress, and regularly broadcast on approximately 100 radio stations.
Here you will find close to 1000 half hour interviews on a curiously wide array of topics concerning life and ideas. These programs are a gift to you from Radio Curious host and producer Barry Vogel. He started Radio Curious in 1991, to expand the work he began in 1974 as an Attorney, Counselor and Mediator in Ukiah, California, the Mendocino County seat, located about 110 miles north of San Francisco, California.
THIS WEEK’S INTERVIEW: My guest in this program is Mark Mello. Imagine growing up in a tightly bound community of no more than 60 people who worked from dawn to dusk and who were subjected to unimaginable indignities and torture. Why? Because they were African Americans born into slavery in the United States prior in the first half of the 19th century. They hoped and dreamed of freedom, freedom to an unknown place; that freedom served as a guide for those who risked their lives to flee the bondage.
Freedom for some was found in the seaport town of New Bedford, Massachusetts, where escaped former slaves were welcome. New Bedford was the richest city in the world in the 1850s, a city run by Quakers and other abolitionists, who created a safe haven for black people from the south. The 1,000 plus men and women who found refuge in New Bedford were more than enough to hide the newcomers as they arrived. Often the men found work on the whaling ships that ventured forth around the world from the New Bedford harbor. More can be learned about whaling in New Bedford in a two part Radio Curious program here.
In this series about New Bedford as a safe haven on the Underground Railroad, we explore the lives of freedom seeking ex-slaves who safely made the journey to the south east corner of Massachusetts. In this, the second of a two part program, we continue our visit with National Park Ranger Mark Mello. Part of Ranger Mello’s work is that of a tour guide interpreting the history and stories of pre-civil war New Bedford. His interpretations focus on the bravery and dedication of New Bedford residents at that time.
I joined Mark Mello’s walking tour about the Underground Railroad’s connection to New Bedford in the Old Town Section on September 2, 2016. This edition of Radio Curious begins with Ranger Mello’s story of Nathan and Polly Johnson, a free black couple who lived and worked there–he as a pharmacist and she a confectionary.
The books Mark Mello recommends are “Fugitive’s Gibraltar: Escaping Slaves and Abolitionism in New Bedford, Massachusetts,” by Kathryn Grover; “Whale Hunt,” by Nelson Cole Haley; and “Leviathan,” by Philip Hoare.
All programs are free for anyone to enjoy, download, copy, share or rebroadcast as you wish. Please credit Radio Curious and let us know what you like about the program. There are several hundred more editions that are in the upload queue. If you are a station that airs Radio Curious or a listener please let us know so we can add you to our announcement list when we have specials and take vacations. Contact us at curious@radiocurious.org.
Our programs may be found using the search box or by category, or by year of broadcast on the left margin of this page.
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We always welcome your comments and ideas. Please send them to vogel@sonic.net.
“Radio Curious” and the “Radio Curious” logo are trademarks and property of Barry Vogel, Retired Attorney and Counselor, 700 West Smith Street, Ukiah, California 95482 USA. Phone (707) 621 5075. Email is vogel@sonic.net.
Please ignore Copyright dates in the footer of the page— Copyright © 1987 – 2026 by Barry Vogel