Radio Curious

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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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.

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The laws around the control of marijuana and medical marijuana usage are many and complex. How we find our ways through this maze and understand the rules and regulations surrounding the marijuana plant, allegedly 1000′s of years old, used legally and illicitly worldwide and well known in Northern California by many as an economic base and/or a source of pleasure presents many curious questions.
In this edition of Radio Curious we visit again with Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman in an attempt to clarify the laws and ordinances currently in effect in Mendocino County, California and how he as county Sheriff enforces them.
Sheriff Allman has been heard to say that he would “like to take marijuana off the front page.” We hear how he views the evolution of marijuana control and whether he can foresee a time when marijuana no longer is on the front page. We spoke with Sheriff Tom Allman in the studios of Radio Curious on April 13, 2009 and began by asking what changes he has witnessed with regard to marijuana beginning when he was a child growing up in Garberville at the southern end of our neighbor, Humboldt County.

The book he recommends is “Vet Tails” by Charlie Freed

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Do you know how the food you eat is raised? In this conversation host and producer Attorney Barry Vogel visits with Gene Baur, author of  “Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts And Minds About Animals And Food.” Gene Baur is the president and cofounder of Farm Sanctuary, the nations leading farm animal protection organization, which advocates the fair treatment of farm animals, a return to the roots of agriculture and the end of animals suffering for our consumption.

I spoke with Gene Baur at our studio in Ukiah, California on March 22nd, 2009 and began by asking what brought him to be involved in food and it’s production.

The book Gene Baur recommends is “Calling All Radicals: How Grassroots Organizers Can Save Our Democracy,” by Gabriel Thompson

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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.

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Ed Reinhart alias Earl Dixon, has been “boogying” his way around Mendocino County for over three decades. He has been calling himself “Rico Suave” since his last trip to Ecuador. Reinhart is best know as the king of boogie-woogie and blues. With his release in the mid 90′s of “Got Some On My Fingers”, which featured tunes he crafted, the CD was a regional hit with all of his fans and it established him as a musical force locally. He has been the front man for many local boogie/R&B bands including the “Burning Sensations”. Recently Reinhart has been living in Italy and Virginia, we began our visit by asking him what had taken him to live away from Mendocino over the last few years.

Ed Reinhart visited the Radio Curious studio on the January 12, 2009. The book he recommends is “The Pillars of the Earth,” by Ken Follett.

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Spanish songs sung and played on guitar is something I have enjoyed beginning when I lived in Peru in the mid 1960′s. I often have the pleasure of listening to and talking with Marcos Pereda, a person who can do just that. Marcos was born in Cuba and made his home there until the end of the last century when he moved with his American wife to the United States and soon thereafter to Mendocino County where he has settled, and can often be found playing his guitar and singing the soft sounds of his songs. Marcos Pereda joined Radio Curious at our studio in Ukiah on the 24th November 2008.

The book Marcos Pereda recommends is “The Course of Miracles” by Dr. Helen Schucman.

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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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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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