Radio Curious

Have humans changed in the last 10,000 years? Or are we biologically the same as the last 40-50,000 years. Some recently considered evidence suggests that so called civilization has promoted rapid evolutionary change in our species in the last 10,000 years. In this archive edition of Radio Curious we visit with Gregory Cochran, a physicist and anthropologist, who has co-authored the book “The 10,000 Year Explosion – How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution.” His book asserts that changes in human biology, lactose tolerance and resistance to malaria for example, represent human evolution accelerated by civilization.

Over the course of two Radio Curious conversations with Gregory Cochran we discuss what some of these evolutions  have been and why they occurred. We spoke with Gregory Cochran from his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico on February 23rd, 2009 and began by asking him what biological indications exist to show an increase in human evolution in the past 10,000 years.

The book Gregory Cochran recommends is “Twilight Of The Mammoths: Ice Age Extinctions And The Re-Wilding Of America,” by Paul S. Martin.

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Recorded on January 20, 2009, the day Barack Obama became President of the United States, Radio Curious visited again with Congressman Sam Farr, who represents the south central coast of California in the United States House of Representatives. In our conversation we discuss Farr’s impressions of the inauguration, what it means to America and the upcoming congressional session.

The book he recommends is “Indian Tales (California Legacy)” by Jaime De Angulo.

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In 2004, filmmaker Katy Chevigny followed eleven Americans from dawn until past midnight and put a face on the voting rights issues to reveal the disparity between wealthy and poor neighborhoods, and the disenfranchisement of former felons. This became the documentary film, “Election Day.”

Katy Chevigny founded Arts Engine, a film making group with the goal to explore social issues in 1998. “Election Day” is now the centerpiece of  “Art Engine’s Ten Year Anniversary Collection,” a series of ten feature-length documentary and short films. Take a look at their website, www.artsengine.net for more information.

With fairness in the voting booth during the 2008 election in mind, I spoke by phone with Katy Chevigny on October 23, 2008. Our conversation began when I asked her to discuss how she became involved in making social films and the drama they carry.

The movie she recommends is, “Thrown Down Your Heart,” created by Sasha Paladino

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Polygamy used to be a central aspect in Mormon beliefs. However, it has not been for over 100 years now, due partly to considerable effort by Ann Eliza Young, one of Brigham Young’s many wives. In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with David Ebershoff, the author of “The 19th Wife”, recorded on August 29, 2008. “The 19th Wife,” is the story of Ann Eliza Young, and her realization and then quest to let the world know that marriage should only pertain to two people, instead of one man and a plethora of wives who were referred to as “sister wives.” We discuss what marriage is, how religion plays a large role in many people’s lives, and how the quest that Ann Eliza had effected her world and the world we live in today. Our conversation began when I asked David Ebershoff why Ann Eliza wanted to apostate (or leave without approval) from the Mormon Church in relationship to the politics then and now.

The book that David Ebershoff recommends is, “American Wife: A Novel” by Curtis Sittenfeld.

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Ukiah, California, a small vibrant community, approximately 100 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge is the home to the Ukiah Players Theater. An annual May fundraiser for the theater offers a tour of old and new homes on the west side of town, offered by the residents willing to share their history with community members. Kate Magruder, a founder of Ukiah Players Theater and considered by many to be the soul and life force of the UPT, successfully strives to search out and tell historical stories of the Ukiah, the ancestral home of the Pomo people who called the area Yokayo, meaning long narrow valley. In this program Kate Magruder explains the importance of place, knowing where we come from and our history, and in the benefits of telling communities’ stories. This interview was recorded May 11, 2008.

The books Kate Magruder recommends are, “Our Land Ourselves, Readings on People and Place,” and “The Great Remembering: further Thoughts on Land, Soul, and Society,” both published by The Trust for Public Land.

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There is a lot of discussion about hope in this time of the pending election for president.  Francis Moore Lappe, author of, “Diet for a Small Planet,” discusses the need to give up certain old assumptions in her new book, “Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity and Courage in a World Gone Mad.”  One path to abandoning old assumptions comes from curiosity, which is also a guiding principal for this program.  When I visited with Francis Moore Lappe on Feburary 20, 2008, from her office in Cambridge, Massachusetts, we discussed curiosity and her reflection that she should have included “curiosity” in her title of, “Getting a Grip.”

The book she recommends is, “The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe,” by Lynne McTaggart.

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North America, as we have known for millennia, has been populated by ethnic groups looking for a new place to live. Beginning in the early 17th Century and through the present time, Jewish people from around the world have seen North America as a favored place to live and in waves of migration over time have come here to make a new life as part of the American fabric. In the winter of 2008 the Public Broadcasting System presented a major six hour television series: “The Jewish Americans: Three Centuries of Jewish Voices in America.” A companion book to this series with the same name, written by Beth Wenger, the Director of the Jewish Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania, is a collection of first person stories about lives of American Jews who maintained their own culture as they became part of the American culture. Our visit with Beth Wenger in January 2008, by phone from her office at the University of Pennsylvania, began when she described the distinctions and similarities of the Jewish American experience as compared to other immigrant groups.  This program was originally broadcast January 30, 2008.

The book she recommends is, “The Yiddish Policeman’s Union,” by Michael Chabon.

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Independence unfortunately comes and goes, frequently under the guise of independence for other people. And independence is today’s topic. In this two-part Radio Curious interview, recorded on June 29, and broadcasted on July 4 and July 11, 2007, we visit the concept of independence as seen from the Lakota point of view. The Lakota nation was made up of the largest known group of North American native people and encompassed a large portion of the northern plains in what is now Montana, Wyoming, North and South Dakota. Our guest is Joseph M. Marshall, III, author if “The Day The World Ended at Little Bighorn, a Lakota History.” Growing up on the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation, where his first language was Lakota, Marshall is a historian, storyteller and author whose work shares the history of his people. I spoke with Joseph Marshall when he visited San Francisco, California. We began our discussion when I asked him to describe what turned out to be the largest and last gathering of the Lakota people when they met at Little Bighorn in July of 1876.

The books Joseph Marshall recommends are “The World We Used to Live in: Remembering the Powers of the Medicine Men,” by Vine Deloria and”The Snow Walker,” by Farley Mowat.

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As a lawyer and a student of political science, I have come to appreciate the anomalies and humor of politics. One story that fits both of those categories well is the relationship between Nestle J. Frobish, the Chair-Creature of World-Wide Fair Play for Frogs Committee and the late Jerome R. Waldie, his former nemesis a Member of Congress from Antioch, just east of San Francisco, California. Their dissension arose in 1961 when Waldie was a freshman member of the California State Assembly and chose to introduce what came to be known as the “Frog Murder Bill,” resulting in Frobish organizing what turned out to be a 45 year campaign to get Waldie to renounce, what Frobish called his “vestigial impurities” visited upon him as the “mad butcher of the swamp.” Waldie finally acceded in 2006 and in this interview originally broadcast on June 11, 2007,  tells us why.

The book that Jerome Waldie recommends is, “It Can’t Happen here,” by Sinclair Lewis.

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