Radio Curious

Some of us may be curious about the vast diversity of plants around the world and might wonder who collects and identifies new species and where might we see them displayed? In this edition, the 2009 Radio Curious tour of Scotland continues as we visit with Alan Bennell, head of visitor services at the Royal Botanic Garden located in Edinburgh, Scotland. Alan Bennell guides us through this horticultural extravaganza and describes how the collection has grown since it opened in the 17th Century and how the research conducted there is used in conservation efforts around the world.

This interview with Alan Bennell was recorded on May 18th, 2009, a windy rainy day with birds singing in the background, in the Royal Botanic Garden located in Edinburgh, Scotland. We begin the conversation by asking him to introduce himself and the gardens. Please ignore the sounds of the wind and rain, but do enjoy the chirping of the birds.

The book recommended by Alan Bennell  is “The Chronicles of Bob Dylan,” by Bob Dylan.

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Attorney Susan B. Jordan, a good friend and colleague, died in a plane crash on Friday, May 29, 2009. For me personally, Susan’s death is a big loss.  Susan and I first met in the summer of 1970 working for a legal services program dedicated to developing legal strategies to change unconstitutional and unfair laws. We met again and became friends when she moved to Mendocino County in the late 1980s. We worked together here on many projects, the last being strategies to defeat the proposed mall project on the Mendocino County ballot this fall, 2009.

In this edition of Radio Curious all the guests and I are or were lawyers. We’ll hear portions of a Radio Curious interview with Susan B. Jordan recorded April 25, 1996, and thoughts about her life from Attorneys Steve Antler and Ann Moorman, and Judge David Nelson.  The book Susan B. Jordan recommends is “Bird By Bird,” by Ann Lamont.

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As part of a series of Radio Curious on tour in Scotland,  we interview Jim Fairlie, the organizer of Farmers Markets in Scotland. Jim is a farmer by trade at Logie Almond Farm near Perth in the southern end of the Scottish Highlands. A decade ago, following the mad cow disease crisis, Jim Fairlie saw the need for farmers to market their own produce rather than rely on Government subsidies. After returning from a holiday in France, where he was blown away by the local markets, he set up Edinburgh’s much celebrated monthly farmers market, which now attract as many as 10,000 visitors. In our conversation we discuss how the farmers market movement gained momentum and the trials and tribulations of getting farmers and consumers to understand each other’s needs.

I spoke with Jim Fairlie at his farmhouse kitchen table near Perth, Scotland on May 17th 2009. We began with his story of how farmers markets in Scotland began.

The book Jim Fairlie recommends is “We Need To Talk About Kevin,” by Lionel Shriver

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What is in the air that we breathe? We all know that there are various forms of air pollution that affect our health and the health of our environment, but what do we really breathe?

In this edition of Radio Curious, recorded in our studios on January 9, 2009 we visit with Dr. Dean Wolbach, former Air Pollution Control Officer for Mendocino County. Our conversation focused on the different types of air pollution and how they affect us both globally and at the local level.

We began by asking Dr. Wolbach to provide an overview of air quality issues across history, through to the present day here in Mendocino.

The books he recommends are “Dreams Of My Father” and “The Audacity Of Hope,” by Barack Obama,  “Samuel Adams: A Life,” by Ira Stoll and “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln,” by Doris Kearns Goodwin

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To Kill or Not To Kill: That is the question still presented to juries in capital cases in the United States, one of the few countries remaining in the world to employ the death penalty. In this edition of Radio Curious, we visit with Pastor Carroll Pickett, who served as chaplain for the Texas Department of Corrections from 1982 to 1995 and counseled 95 inmates on their way to death by lethal injection. “At the Death House Door: No Man Should Die Alone,” is a independent film documentary, directed and produced by Steve James and Peter Gilbert, that presents a personal and intimate look at the death penalty in Texas through the eyes of Pastor Pickett, a Presbyterian minister. Over the years, after each of the 95 executions, Pickett would record his experiences with that person on the tape he used to practice his sermons. Although he never listened to those tapes, they became the thread and primary source for the movie. I spoke with Pastor Carroll Pickett on May 23, 2008 from his home in Texas, after hearing him speak at a special hearing on capital punishment in San Francisco, CA, while he was on a break from a national publicity tour. We began when I asked him to explain what brought him to work with condemned men and be with them in their last hours. This program was originally broadcast on June 25, 2009.

The book Carroll Pickett recommends is “Just Call Me Mike: A Journey to Actor and Activist,” by Mike Farrell and Martin Sheen.

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Reinforcement of desired behavior is the key to animal training. As humans, we are subject to the same way of learning. Amy Sutherland, author of, “What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love and Marriage: Lessons for People from Animals and Their Trainers,” shares many ideas about how to achieve more desirable relationships with friends and loved ones. This Program was recorded on March 19, 2008.

The book Amy Sutherland recommends is, “Demonic Males: Apes and the Origin of Human Violence,” by Richard Wrangham and Dale Peterson.

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Years ago, before the myriad of things to buy were as available as they are now, retail businesses were most often locally-owned and operated, often for generations. This all began to change in the middle of the last century, as many of the items in the Sears Catalogue became available in towns and cities across the nation for consumers to feel and touch. But, it wasn’t until approximately 25 years ago when Wal-Mart, Target and other big-box stores appeared nationwide in small communities, to the detriment of locally-owned businesses and the social and economic benefits those businesses provided to their communities.  Michael Shuman, an attorney and an economist, is the author of, “The Small-Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses are Beating the Global Competition.” This book addresses the issues and problems of locally owned businesses and how they can successfully compete with the big-box stores owned by corporations foreign to the region. We began our conversation, which occurred on January 21, 2008, when I asked Michael Shuman to describe how a corporation comes into being, as a basis to understand some of the problems of locally owned businesses in competition with the big box stores.

The book he recommends is, “The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work,” by John Gottman.

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Mike Thompson represents the First Congressional District of California, including the North Coast and Mendocino County, the home of Radio Curious, in the United States House of Representatives. In this interview recorded in his Washington, D.C. office on October 11, 2007, we discuss the war, its funding, medicare, marijuana and children’s health insurance. The House of Representatives was not able to overturn the president’s veto of the children’s health insurance program in a vote that occurred after this interview.  This program was originally broadcast October 24, 2007.

Mike Thompson recommends “Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army,” by Jeremy Scahill.

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The chance to interview another interviewer is an opportunity I like to take. A chance came on September 4, 2007, when I was able to visit with Ira Flatow, the host of “Science Friday,” a part of Talk of the Nation, on NPR. We talked about some ideas and concepts he raises in his new book, “Present at the Future: From Evolution to Nanotechnology, Candid and Controversial Conversations on Science and Nature.”  I think that after thirty-five years as a science journalist, Ira Flatow has seen enough to know unexpected changes are in order. He refers to that at the close of the introduction to his book and writes,

“After watching science do its thing for a while, you realize knowledge is really a moving target. What we know today will probably be wrong tomorrow. And science is that tool for discovery. When science tells us something, chances are that it will tell us something different a few years from now.”

And that’s where Ira Flatow and I began our conversation, which was originally broadcast September 5, 2007.

His website is www.iraflatow.com and the book he recommends is “The World Without Us,” by Alan Weisman.

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