Radio Curious

Do we need supplements to our diet? Does a normal balanced diet of food supply us with the nutrition we need? Our guest in this edition of Radio Curious argues that the supplement industry is confusing and misinformed, encouraging consumers to buy supplements we don’t need. Brian R. Clement is the author of “Supplements Exposed: The Truth They Don’t Want You To Know About Vitamins, Minerals, And Their Effects On Your Health.” His book examines the dietary supplement industry, what so called natural supplements from his perspective really contain and how they can affect our health for better and worse. I spoke with Brian Clement by phone while he was on an excursion in Mexico on November 9th 2009 and began by asking him about the drive to promote the supplement industry.

The book recommended by Brian Clement was “The New Gold Standard,” by Joseph Michelli.

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Susan Crane is a serious political activist of an unusual form. Instead of lobby the powers that be, she has taken a hammer to beat on weapons of mass destruction, and poured her own blood on those weapons. She says she is called to take these actions as a protest to war and the harm it causes to our fellow human beings. An occasional visitor of Ukiah, California, where she has friends and family, Susan Crane visits Radio Curious when she is here to give us an update on her life, thoughts and recent experiences. I met with Susan Crane in the studios of Radio Curious, on Labor Day, September 7, 2009, ten and one-half years since we last visited here. She then had just been released from federal prison, and picked up her story at that point.

The book recommended by Susan Crane is “Enemy Combatant: My Imprisonment At Guantanamo, Begram and Kandahar ,” by Moazzam Begg

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Can modern scientific methods and meditative spiritual theory compliment each other? In the past it may have seemed that Buddhist beliefs in re-incarnation, dharma and karma might not entertain scientific areas like ‘neuroscience’ or ‘evolution’ but a new project endorsed by the Dalai Lama is doing just that. The Emory-Tibet Science Initiative launched in February 2006, at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia is a historic initiative whose goal is to develop and implement a comprehensive science education curriculum for Tibetan monastics. Dr. Preetha Ram, our guest in this edition of Radio Curious, is the co-director of the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative. In our conversation we discuss how Buddhist monks respond to the modern science curriculum, how the program came to be, and how Emory University professors have responded to working with the monks, whose personal backgrounds are so vastly different from the professors’ academic backgrounds.

We spoke with Dr. Preetha Ram from her home in Atlanta on July 27, 2009 and began by asking how she enables Buddhists to understand the latest scientific discoveries as suggested by the 14th Dalai Lama.

The book recommended by Dr. Preetha Ram is “The Universe In An Atom,” by The Dalai Lama.

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What happens when the modern scientifc world and the ancient traditions of Tibetan monastics meet? Geshe Lobsang Tenzin Negi, our guest in this edition of Radio Curious has spent years in spiritual meditation training. He was raised in a remote village in the Himalaya and chosen at age 14 to study at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics, the private school of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Dharamasala. Geshe Negi is a senior lecturer in the Department of Religion and Director of the Emory Tibet Partnership based at Emory University in Atlanta Georgia. He also serves as Co-Director of the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative with the aim of developing and implementing a science curriculum for Tibetan monastics. His career has focused on the potential of mind to affect well-being on physical, emotional and mental levels. During our visit we discuss what it was like to move into monastic life at such an early age and how meditation can be beneficial to us all spiritually and physically.

I spoke with Geshe Lobsang Tenzin Negi by phone from Emory University on July 31, 2009 and began our conversation by asking him to tell us about his childhood.

The book recommended by Geshe Lobsang Tenzin Negi is “The Universe In An Atom,” by His Holiness The Dalai Lama.

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In this edition visit with Denis Dutton, author of ‘The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure and Human Evolution.”  A quote from this book, at page 46, provides a good idea of who we are and what the book is about.  “As much as fighting wild animals or finding suitable environments our ancient ancestors faced social forces and family conflicts that became a part of evolved life.   Both of these force fields acting in concert, eventually produced the intensely social, robust, love making, murderous, convivial, organizing, technology using, show off, squabbling, game playing, friendly, status seeking, upright walking, lying, omnivorous, knowledge seeking, arguing, clubbing, language using, conspicuously wasteful, versatile species of primate that we became.  And along the way in developing all this, the arts were born.”
Denis Dutton was a professor of ‘Philosophy of Art’ at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. We visited by phone from his home in Christchurch, New Zealand on July 17th, 2009 and began our conversation by asking him to further explain the birth of the arts.
The books Denis Dutton recommends are “Before The Dawn: Recovering The Lost History Of Our Ancestors,” by Nicholas Wade and “The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution,” by Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending. You can listen to a radio curious interview with Gregory Cochran by visiting the 2009 Radio Curious archives on our website www.radiocurious.org.

Denis Dutton died on December 28, 2010.

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The development of the large human head and broad shoulders provide many evolutionary benefits for our species but also require assistance for a safe birth, sometimes presenting life threatening complications in the birth process. Yet gorillas, our 300-pound primate cousins, give birth without assistance in approximately 15 minutes. In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with pediatrician Dr. Mark Sloan, author of “Birth Day: A Pediatrician Explores the Science, the History, and the Wonder of Childbirth.” In this conversation Dr. Sloan explains how our transition from being four legged creatures to two legged ones has forced us to cope with unique physical and cultural differences. We explore what some of the benefits of cesarean deliveries can be as well as the possible, but unverified consequences this birth form present.

This interview was recorded on July 3, 2009 speaking with Dr. Sloan from his home in Santa Rosa, Californa. The conversation began with an explanation of why the human birth process was more difficult than in other primates.

The book Dr. Mark Sloan recommends is “The Discovery of France” by Graham Robb.

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Cannabis, commonly known as marijuana has caused considerable debate and political discussion, but just what is in this plant which creates such controversy? In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with Dr. William Courtney, a cannabis Medical Consultant based in Mendocino County, California.

Dr. Courtney has studied the compounds of the cannabis plant known as “cannabinoids,” their various health effects, and the United States government patents held on these compounds. Further details on the legal status and current research relating to cannabis may be found on Dr. Courtney’s website www.leavesofgrass.info

This conversation with Dr. Courtney was recorded in the studios of Radio Curious, Ukiah, California on March 23, 2009. We began when I asked him to describe the compounds in marijuana.

The book he recommends in “The Continuum Concept: In Search Of Happiness Lost” by Jean Liedloff

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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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Why do smart people do stupid things? This is the question asked by Laurence Gonzales, author of “Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why” and “Everyday Survival: Why Smart People Do Stupid Things.” Gonzales examines the mental scripts we follow as we live our lives and how these scripts prescribe our response to a situation based upon our past experiences. The problem is that sometimes these scripts result in wrong and possibly dangerous actions based on insufficient evidence or memory in our past experience. Gonzales’ work demonstrates how these scripts can sometimes lead to us being our own worst enemy.

To break from this cycle and encourage full understanding of a situation and wise decision making, Gonzales encourages “curiosity, awareness, and attention.” He writes, “Those are the tools of our everyday survival… we must all be scientists at heart, or be victims of forces that we don’t understand.”

In a series of two Radio Curious visits with Laurence Gonzales we discuss how our mental scripts are created both genetically and from our personal experiences and how to keep them from getting us in trouble.

I spoke with Laurence Gonzales from his home near Chicago Illinois on January, 19 2009.  Our conversation began when I asked him how human behavior today has been shaped by that of our ancestors many thousands of years ago.

The book he recommends is “Survival in Auschwitz” by Primo Levi

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