Radio Curious

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.

Click here to begin listening

Click here to download the podcast

Corporate development of an 800,000 square feet mega-mall in a small northern California community is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious. Guinness McFadden, a farmer and grape grower, who lives and works near Ukiah, California is a member of SOLE, a local grass-roots organization whose name is an acronym for Save Our Local Economy. In the conversation with Radio Curious host and producer, Barry Vogel, recorded on April 20, 2009, McFadden discusses the efforts and consequences of this mega-mall project, promoted by Developer’s Diversified Realty, the largest shopping mall builder in the nation, whose corporate stock fell from approximately $90.00 per share in 2007 to approximately $2.00 per share in April 2009.

The book Guinness McFadden recommends is the “John Adams,” by David McCullough.

Click here to begin listening.

Click here to download the podcast

Contrary to what people might assume, not all diplomats representing the State of Israel are Jewish. In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with Ishmael Khaldi the Deputy Consul General from the State of Israel and based in San Francisco, California. Ishmael Khaldi is a Muslim who was born and raised in a migrant Bedouin community in Galilee in Northern Israel. Ishmael Khaldi is the first Bedouin diplomat and the first Muslim in the Israeli Foreign Service. In this interview he shares his journey from his migratory tribal roots to Northern California as the deputy consul general, and some of the Israeli proposals for resolving the present day internal conflicts. Ishmael Khaldi visited the studios of Radio Curious, in Ukiah, California on February, 12th 2009. Our Conversation began when I asked him how he defines his identity, being both a Bedouin Muslim and deputy consul general for the State of Israel.

The book he recommends is “The Secret War With Iran; The 30 Year Clandestine Struggle Against The World’s Most Dangerous Terrorist Power” by Ronen Bergman Ph.D.

Click here to begin listening

Click here to download the podcast

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.

Click here to begin listening or on the media player below.

Click here to download the podcast.

Podcast: Download

• » Comments (0)

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

Click here to begin listening

Non-lethal chemical warfare may be an oxymoron to some, but it was actually the goal of a U.S. Army research program in the 1960s and 70s at Edgewood Arsenal, an army arsenal in Maryland. The research goal was to find incapacitating non-lethal chemical weapons that would cause the enemy to lie down, smile and laugh. The research team was lead by a then colonel in the U.S. Army, psychiatrist Dr. James S. Ketchum. The team attempted to determine if LSD, cannabis, or belladonna could achieve the goal. Dr. Ketchum, the author of “Chemical Warfare: Secrets Almost Forgotten,” visited the studios of Radio Curious on August 1, 2008.  We began our interview when I asked what originally drew him to participate in the project at Edgewood Arsenal.

The books he recommends are “Pihkal: A Chemical Love Story” and “Tihkal: The Continuation,” by Alexander and Ann Shulgin.

Click here to begin listening.

• » Comments (0)

State guidelines for growing and possessing medical marijuana, were issued by the California Attorney General on August 25, 2008. In this edition of Radio Curious, we visit again with Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman, who participated in the development of these guidelines, to discuss their implementation. This interview was recorded August 27, 2008, in the studios of Radio Curious.

The book that Tom Allman recommends is, “Reagan’s War: The Epic Story of His Forty-Year Struggle and Final Triumph Over Communism,” by Peter Schweizer.

Click here to begin listening.

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.

Click here to begin listening.

• » Comments (0)

Few people in Mendocino County who are not elected officials have created as much enmity and as many disruptive relationships as has Richard W. Johnson, Jr., the owner, editor and publisher of four local newspapers under the banner of Mendocino Country, since 1984. Johnson, who characterizes himself as a community organizer, lives in his office in downtown Ukiah, CA, overlooking Courthouse Square; he claims among many other things to be the original organizer of California Certified Organic Farmers, the Recipient of Walking Stick Award from Mendocino Environment Center in 1992 for promoting Ocean Sanctuary off the Mendocino Coast, and the original proponent of Measure G on the 2000 ballot. When I invited him to visit Radio Curious he said he would like to discuss “the amazing but little understood and seldom appreciated Richard Johnson, his life and times.” We touched on those and a few other topics in this conversation, recorded in the studios of Radio Curious on February 19, 2008, and began when I asked him about some of the areas where he would like to be better understood.

Richard W. Johnson, Jr. said he does not have time to read, but you can read what he writes in his newspapers and at www.mendocinocountry.com.

Click here to begin listening.

• » Comments (0)