Radio Curious

Frogs play an important role in the world’s ecology and are their occasional demise is sometimes noted as an impending ecological disaster. In 1961, a newly elected member of the California State Assembly, Jerome R. Waldie, introduced a bill that read in full:  “Frogs may be taken using slingshot.” Little did he know that this bill would plague him throughout his political career, in the California Legislature, United States Congress, and as a candidate for Governor of California. Our guest is Nestle J. Frobish, the Chair-Creature of the World Wide Fair Play for Frogs Committee, an organization founded in Berkeley, California soon after Waldie introduced what became to be known as the “Frog Murder Bill.”

“Fair Play for Frogs, The Waldie – Frobish Papers,” the collected correspondence between Nestle J. Frobish and Congressman Jerome R. Waldie was published as political spoof in 1977.  Around that time some misguided people, including Congressman Waldie accused me of being Nestle J. Frobish.  Let me make it clear, here and now:  I Barry Vogel am not now, nor ever have been Nestle J. Frobish. However I did speak the with Chair-Creature Frobish by phone as he lurked near a pond at Frog Central in northern Vermont on May 21, 2007, so this rather preposterous story could be told from at least his perspective. My interview with Jerome R. Waldie, humbly presents his perspective and may be found on this web-site.  The interview with Frobish was originally broadcast May 21, 2007.

The book Nestle J. Frobish recommends is “State of Denial,” by Bob Woodward.

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Until September 11, 2001, The Triangle Shirtwaste Fire on March 25, 1911 was the deadliest workplace disaster in the history of New York City.  David Von Drehle, a political writer for the Washington Post, is the author of “Triangle, the Fire That Changed America.” It’s a detailed examination of how one event changed the course of the 20^th century politics and labor relations.

At the end of his book Von Drehle concludes that the workers who fought the management in 1909 and died in the fire of 1911, where they were locked in the building during the fire, did not die in vain.

This conversation with David Von Drehle, was recorded in September, 2003 from his office in New York.

The book David Von Drehle recommends is, “Plunkitt of Tammany Hall,” by William Riordan.

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A sports icon of the first half of the 20^th century, Jim Thorpe, was a Native American athlete who rose to athletic stardom at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, winning two gold medals at the 1912 Summer Olympics and continued, despite some controversy, to gain fame in professional baseball and football. In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with Tom Weidlinger, the director and co-writer and co-producer of the movie “Jim Thorpe, The World’s Greatest Athlete.”  Tom Weidlinger spoke from his home in the San Francisco bay area on Sunday, May 30^th 2010.  I began by asking him “Who is Jim Thorpe?”

The book  Tom Weidlinger recommends is “Cutting For Stone” by Abraham Verghese.

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What would it be like for you if you were deaf? If you could not speak your first word until you were six? If you had three years of education, your first language was German, and you later emigrated to another country where they speak English?  Ingelore is the first name of a woman who was born in Germany in 1924, and came to America in 1940 at the beginning of the Third Reich, right after Kristallnacht. The film “Ingelore” was made by Inglelore’s son Frank Stiefel, and it tells his mother’s story.  This edition of Radio Curious begins with we a piece from the movie “Ingelore” in which she explains who she is and a little of her story. As we hear is her ability to articulate words in English it’s important to remember  she cannot hear.

This interview was recorded on May 29th, 2010 with Frank Stiefel from his home in Santa Monica, California.

The books that Frank Stiefel recommends are “Hand Of My Father,” by Myron Uhlberg, and “The Road,” by Cormac McCarthy.

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Howard Zinn’s productive insights into history came to an end with his death in January 2010.  This edition of Radio Curious shares a previously not broadcast interview with Howard Zinn, recorded on July 7, 2006, where he discusses the important role of civil disobedience in creating new social and legal policies which he states are impossible to foment using established legislative or judicial practices.  Radio Curious host, Barry Vogel, Esq. begins this memorial program with the last few paragraphs of the first chapter of “A People’s History of the United States, 1492 to Present,” written by Zinn and published in 1988.  Vogel also shares his recollection of Zinn when they met in Greenwood, Mississippi in 1963.  The song “Ain’t Gonna Let Segregation Turn Us Around,” sung by the Freedom Singers is found on Broadside Records #301, recorded in 1962.

The books Howard Zinn recommends are “Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal,” by Anthony Arnov, and “Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change From Hawaii to Iraq,” by Stephen Kinzer.

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25 years before the Battle Of The Little Bighorn, 40 years before the Battle Of Wounded Knee, there was the Bloody Island Massacre in the spring of 1850 in Lake County, California, near a community which is now called Kelseyville. The massacre of the Lake County Pomo people, which was an immediate prelude to the massacre of the Mendocino County Pomo people in the Yokayo valley (where the community of Ukiah, the county seat of Mendocino County is now situated), was in retaliation for the Pomo’s murder of Charles Stone and Andrew Kelsey, brought about by the way Stone and Kelsey and other European settlers of that time treated the Pomo people. Ukiah resident Bill Walls has written a play about the events that led up to the massacres – “A Time Before Dogs: A True Tale of Two Executions That Led To The Bloody Island Massacre”. This massacre occurred in 1850, the play however ends in December 1849. Our guests in this edition of Radio Curious are Bill Walls and Denise Kawkeka, they read portions of the play and talk about the issues that led up to the massacre. I visited with Bill Walls and Denise Kawkeka in the studios of Ukiah Valley Community Television and began by asking Bill Walls what drew his attention to the background of this play.

This interview was recorded in the studios of Ukiah Valley Community Television on January 18th 2010.

The book that Denise Kawkeka recommends is “The Mutant Message Down Under,” by Marlo Morgan. Bill Walls recommends “Homer and Langley,” by E.L. Doctorow.

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From interrogating Japanese prisoners of war to working as an anti-war activist, Ukiah, California resident Charles Fogg has led a varied and fascinating life. At 91 years of age he talks through his life’s journey. After studying Oriental studies at the University of California, Berkeley and traveling through Japan and China during those studies, he was drafted into the military and attended the Monterey Language School, where his proficiency in Asian languages grew. During World War Two he interrogated Japanese prisoners of war and Chinese prisoners of war in the Korean conflict. After retiring from the U.S. army in 1966 as a Lieutenant Colonel he became active in George McGovern’s presidential campaign and the anti Vietnam war movement. I spoke with Charles Fogg in the studios of Ukiah TV on December 11th 2009 and began by asking him about his early travels in Japan and China.

The book recommended by Charles Fogg is “The Raj Quartet,” by Paul Scott.

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Why is it that Thanksgiving is celebrated almost exclusively in the United States and Canada. How has it been celebrated and how is it celebrated now? Professor Hugo Freund teaches Social and Behavioral Sciences at Union College in Barbourville, Kentucky and visits with us about the roots of Thanksgiving beginning in the 1600s, in what is now the north-eastern United States, through to it’s role as a gathering of friends and family without sectarian religious direction. The program was recorded in 2002 at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association in New Orleans, Louisiana in the lobby of a rather noisy hotel. It was first broadcast in 2009 after most of the hotel’s background rumble could be electronically hushed. We began our conversation by discussing how the contemporary concept of Thanksgiving is acknowledged.

The book Hugo Freund recommends is “The Popes Against The Jews: The Vatican’s Role In The Rise Of Modern Anti-Semitism,” by David I. Kertzer.

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Consider spending time on death row and turning that experience into the drive to get a doctorate? In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with Professor Rudolph Alexander Jr. Ph.D., author of “To Ascend Into The Shining World Again”. As a 17 year old student Rudolph Alexander found himself in a threatening situation in which he felt compelled to shoot another man. In his trial he felt he was badly misrepresented by his attorney and was convicted and sentenced to death by the electric chair in the State of Georgia. Following a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1968, Rudolph’s sentence was changed to life imprisonment. He was later granted trusty status, which aided him in securing parole in 1975. Rebounding from his ordeal, Alexander began college, earning four degrees, including a Ph.D. in Social Work from the University of Minnesota. Presently Alexander is a full Professor at Ohio State University.

We spoke with Rudolph Alexander from his home in Ohio on October 26, 2009 and began by asking him to reflect on the extremes he has experienced in his life.

The book recommended by Rudolph Alexander is “My Grandfather’s Son: A Memoir,” by Justice Clarence Thomas, of the United States Supreme Court.

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