Radio Curious

Black history is acknowledged in the month of February in the United States and is lived every day in the African continent. The history of the continuing genocide by attrition within the nation of Sudan is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious. Sudan is located in northeast Africa, south of Egypt, and east of the Red Sea and the nations of Eritrea and Ethiopia.

The people of Sudan continue to be killed by war and famine as has happened for generations.

Twice Radio Curious has considered this little discussed topic with University of Arkansas Professor Emeritus Sam Totten, author of “Genocide by Attrition: Nuba Mountains, Sudan,” and “An Oral and Documentary History of the Darfur Genocide.”  Totten is a scholar who has devoted his career to the study of genocide and genocide by attrition. In 2011, we first discussed the disaster in southern Sudan. Again in 2013, Totten described the genocide by attrition of the people of south Sudan, which has continued to become increasingly drastic in the past two years.

Professor Totten continues to follow this crisis between the people of the Nuba Mountains and the Sudanese government in the state of South Kordofan, Sudan. In late December 2014, he returned from what he described as “a tough, tough trip to the Nuba Mountains in order to carry up ten tons of food to desperate civilians who face daily bombing sorties by the Government of Sudan using Antonov bombers.” He reports some very close calls, traveling with rebels to recently bombed villages. When Sam Totten and I visited by phone from his home near Fayetteville, Arkansas, on February 19, 2015, he began with a brief history of this continuing crisis.

The book Professor Sam Totten recommends is “Touched With Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament,” by Kay Redfield Jamison.

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In the years between 1915 and 1970 almost six million black American citizens from the south migrated to northern and western cities seeking freedom and a better life. Our guest is Pulitzer Prize winner, Isabel Wilkerson author of “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration.” Her book tells the untold experiences of the African-Americans who fled the south over three generations.

Wilkerson interviewed more than 1,000 people for her book. She is the first black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize and is a recipient of the George Polk Award and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow. Her parents were part of the great migration, journeying from Georgia and southern Virginia to Washington D.C.

In part one she discussed what she called the “biggest untold story of the 20th century.”  In part two of our conversation, recorded from her home near Atlanta, Georgia, on September 28, 2012, Isabel Wilkerson describes the inspiration behind her narrative non-fiction story of the six million African-Americans who migrated from the south between 1915 and 1970.

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In the years between 1915 and 1970 almost six million black American citizens from the south migrated to northern and western cities seeking freedom and a better life. Our guest is Pulitzer Prize winner, Isabel Wilkerson author of “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration.” Her book tells the untold experiences of the African-Americans who fled the south over three generations.

Wilkerson interviewed more than 1,000 people for her book. She is the first black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize and is a recipient of the George Polk Award and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow. Her parents were part of the great migration, journeying from Georgia and southern Virginia to Washington D.C.

In the first of two interviews recorded from Isabel Wilkerson’s home near Atlanta, Georgia, on September 28, 2012, she begins with a description of the “biggest untold story of the 20th century.” 

The book Isabel Wilkerson recommends is “The Ark of Justice,” by Kevin Boyle.

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Marcos Pereda, a native of Havana, Cuba, and a singer-songwriter who lives in Ukiah, California, is our guest in this edition of Radio Curious. The background music in this weeks program is a song titled “Center” that he wrote and then performed on his guitar in our studios.  Pereda returned from a two month visit in Havana on December 20, 2014; he traveled there to attend his mother’s funeral. 

In our visit, recorded on December 22, 2014, Pereda shares his music and songs, his thoughts and experiences about life in Cuba and in the United States, and his hopes for the new relationship between the the two nations.  We began our conversation when I asked him to tell us about his mother. 

Marcos Pereda’s email is: marcosinsonte@hotmail.com.

The book he recommends is “The Little Prince,” by Antoine St. Exupery.

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The shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed 18 year old black teenager, in Ferguson, Missouri, on August 9, 2014, by a since retired white Ferguson, Missouri, police office, Darren Wilson, is the subject of this, the first of two Radio Curious interviews devoted to this topic.

Our guest is Law Professor James A. Cohen, who has tried over 100 criminal jury trials and teaches criminal law and related topics at Fordham University Law School in New York City.  Professor Cohen and I review the evidence, including Wilson’s spoken testimony, the written police reports and medical reports presented to the St. Louis, Missouri, grand jury, by District Attorney Robert McCulloch.  His office exclusively organized and presented that evidence, which “with some exceptions,” according to Prosecutor McCulloch, was “made public” shortly after he announced that the grand jury failed to return criminal charges against former Officer Wilson, on November 24, 2014. 

When Professor Cohen and I visited by phone on December 5, 2014, we created a context for what occurred when the Ferguson Grand Jury met between August 20, and November 21, 2014.  We began our conversation with a brief history of grand juries, originally organized in England to protect the people from wonton acts of the King. 

The books that Professor Cohen recommends are those written by Anders Ericsson:  “The Road To Excellence: The Acquisition of Expert Performance in the Arts and Sciences, Sports, and Games” and “Development of Professional Expertise: Toward Measurement of Expert Performance and Design of Optimal Learning Environments.”

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Until September 11, 2001, The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of March 25, 1911 was the deadliest workplace disaster in the history of New York City.  The fire shocked the nation and exposed the life-threatening conditions in America’s sweatshop industry.  It gave energy to the labor movement and unions, and remade the Democratic Party of the time. 

Our guest, David Von Drehle, is the author of “Triangle, the Fire That Changed America,” a book that presents a detailed examination of how this single event changed the course of the 20th century politics and labor relations. In this book, Von Drehle concludes:

As for the mostly nameless young women and men who went on strike in 1909 and bravely walked those relentless picket lines through a freezing winter—and especially those remarkable young people who later died at the Triangle—their memory grows.  Their individual lives are mostly lost to us, but their monument and legacy are stitched into our world. 

David Von Drehle and I visited by phone from New York City in early September 2003, and began with his description of the fire on March 25, 1911 that changed America.

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

This program was originally broadcast on September 9, 2003.

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Welcome to part two of our conversations about the erosion of gender equality in China with our guest Leta Hong Fincher, the author of “Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China”. Her book is based in part on her research for the Ph.D. in sociology she received in 2014 from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.

In this 2^nd conversation we discuss the extent of what if anything is done about domestic violence in China, the difference in the retirement ages for women and men and the requirement that women submit to a gynecological examination before obtaining a civil service job.

When Leta Hong Fincher and I visited by phone on August 9, 2014 we began with a discussion of domestic violence in China.

The book Leta Hong Fincher recommends is “The Birth of Chinese Feminism: Essential Texts in Transnational Theory,” by Lydia H. Liu, Rebecca E. Karl and Dorothy Ko.

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The “responsibility to protect,” established by the United Nations, is a governmental duty to respect and protect international human rights. This responsibility, its adoption, and how countries, especially the United States exercise it, is the topic of our second, 2014 conversation with Dr. Seyom Brown.

Dr. Brown is currently an adjunct senior fellow at the American Security Project, in Washington, D.C. He has previously held senior research and policy analysis positions at the RAND Corporation, the Brookings Institution, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the Kennedy School of Government. He has also served as a Special Assistant in the Office of International Security Affairs at the Department of Defense, and to the Director of Policy Planning in the Department of State. Dr. Brown has taught at Harvard, Brandeis, John Hopkins, Columbia, University of Chicago, and UCLA. He is the author of twelve books on the United States’ foreign policy and international relations.

When Dr. Brown visited Radio Curious on July 4, 2014, we began this conversation with his description of “responsibility to protect” and the history of how it was established.

The book Dr. Seyom Brown recommends is “Five Myths About Nuclear Weapons,” by Ward Wilson.

You also may hear our first 2014 conversation about the contradictions of United States’ nuclear policy here and two 1995 Radio Curious interviews with Dr. Seyom Brown discussing then President Bill Clinton’s foreign policy here.

For full disclosure, Dr. Seyom Brown is the uncle to Radio Curious host and producer, Barry Vogel.

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Contradictions in the United States’ nuclear weapons policy is the subject of this edition of Radio Curious. Our guest is Dr. Seyom Brown, who during the past 55 years has taught at major universities, been a special adviser to the Department of Defense and Department of State, and has written twelve books on the United States’ foreign policy and international relations.

Dr. Seyom Brown is currently an adjunct senior fellow at the American Security Project, in Washington, D.C. and previously held senior research and policy analysis positions at the RAND Corporation, the Brookings Institution, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the Kennedy School of Government. He has served as a Special Assistant in the Office of International Security Affairs at the Department of Defense, and to the Director of Policy Planning in the Department of State. Dr. Brown has also taught at Harvard, Brandeis, John Hopkins, Columbia, University of Chicago, and UCLA.

His current work is the study of and writing about what he describes as the “disturbing contradictions” in United States’ nuclear weapons policy. When we visited in the studios of Radio Curious on July 4, 2014, I asked him to explain and discuss these contradictions.

The book Dr. Seyom Brown recommends is “Five Myths About Nuclear Weapons,” by Ward Wilson.

The article to which he refers in this interview, “Beyond MAD: Obama’s Risky –But Realistic –Effort to Reduce the Role of Nuclear Weapons” is found in the December 2013 issue of Survival Magazine.

You also may hear two 1995 Radio Curious interviews with Dr. Seyom Brown discussing President Clinton’s foreign policy here.

For full disclosure, Dr. Seyom Brown is the uncle to Radio Curious host and producer, Barry Vogel.

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