Radio Curious

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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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Of two people, William Shakespeare and Edward De Vere, whose lives overlapped, De Vere had many of the experiences described in the literary works attributed to William Shakespeare. This conversation with Michael A’Dair and William Ray, two gentlemen intellectuals from Willits, California explores some of the reasons they believe De Vere wrote what is generally attributed to Shakespeare. This program was originally broadcast March 27, 2008.

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Originally Broadcast: March 15, 2007

Born Into Brothels

“Born into Brothels” received the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2005. A tribute to the resiliency of childhood and the restorative power of art, “Born into Brothels” is a portrait of several unforgettable children who live in the red light district of Calcutta, where their mothers work as prostitutes. The most stigmatized people in Calcutta’s red light district however are not the prostitutes, but their children. In the face of abject poverty, abuse, and despair, these kids have little possibility of escaping their mother’s fate or for creating another type of life. In “Born into Brothels,” directors Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman chronicle the amazing transformation of the children they come to know in the red light district. Briski, a professional photographer, gives them lessons and cameras, igniting latent sparks of artistic genius that reside in these children who live in the most sordid and seemingly hopeless world. The photographs taken by the children are not merely examples of remarkable observation and talent; they reflect something much larger, morally encouraging, and even politically volatile: art as an immensely liberating and empowering force. Devoid of sentimentality, “Born into Brothels” defies the typical tear-stained tourist snapshot of the global underbelly. Briski spends years with these kids and becomes part of their lives. Their photographs are prisms into their souls, rather than anthropological curiosities or primitive imagery, and a true testimony of the power of the indelible creative spirit. You can learn about this film and Kids with Cameras at www.kids-with-cameras.org. I spoke with Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman in February 2005. Beginning the conversation first with Zana Briski, I asked her to explain what drew her to India before the concept of “Kids With Cameras” was even a dream.

www.kids-with-cameras.org

Zana Briski recommends “Secret Life of Bees,” by Sue Monk Kidd.

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Originally Broadcast: March 28, 2007

French Seduction: An American’s Encounter with France, Her Father, and the Holocaust.

In a passionate blend of autobiography and cultural history, love, sex and art collide with hatred, withering French xenophobia and death, Eunice Lipton, our guest in this edition of Radio Curious, describes her book, “French Seduction: An American’s Encounter with France, Her Father, and the Holocaust.” Lipton, who lives in Paris and New York received her Ph.D. in art history at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts. I spoke with her from her home in New York City the last week of March 2007.  Because she describes painting as her favorite companions, we began when I asked her to tell us about her friends who she calls art.

Eunice Lipton recommends “The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion,” by Ford Madox Ford..

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Originally Broadcast: June 28, 2006 and July 5, 2006
The Culture Code, An Ingenious Way to Understand Why People Around The World Live and Buy As They Do

The collective unconscious may be defined as a cultural code, a set of imprinted concepts that control how members of different societies live. Dr. Clotaire Rapaille, a French born psychologist brings together the concepts of Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud in his development of the collective unconscious in the book, “The Culture Code, An Ingenious Way to Understand Why People Around The World Live and Buy As They Do.” Dr. Rapaille thrives on new ideas, which is part of the reason he chose to become American. We visited by phone from his home in New York State, the last week of June 2006, and asked him to describe the development of his ideas.

Dr. Rapaille’s website is: www.archetypediscoveriesworldwide.com

The books Dr. Clotaire Rapaille recommends are, “The DiVinci Code,” by Dan Brown and “Straight From The Gut,” by Jack Welsh.

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Originally Broadcast: December 5, 2005.

Concepts of “reality” have many levels, some of which are gained by fasting, and/or the use of certain plants that allow a person to view the past, present or  and future.  This is especially true for cultures which cherish and practice the oral tradition and thrive among an abundance of flora and fauna, like those located in the Amazon basin of South America.  In Ecuador the knowledge of the effects of the various plants in the Amazon basin is held by Shamans.

Dr. Juan Martinez, our guest in this edition of Radio Curious, is a Professor of History and Anthropology at the University of Cuenca, in Cuenca, Ecuador.  He’s studied, written and lectured about Shamanic practices in the Ecuadorian jungle and the medicinal and spiritual effects of the plants native to the eastern portion of the Amazon basin.

Professor Juan Martinez and I visited in his office in Cuenca, Ecuador on November 17, 2005.  He began by describing the relationship of the people of Ecuadorian jungle to their worlds, the spiritual world, and the world in which they live on a daily basis.

The book Juan Martinez recommends is “Amazon Worlds,” a collected work published by Sinchi Sancha, an indigenous foundation based in Ecuador.

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Genocide is the intent to exterminate in whole or in part a specific group of people often based on nationality, ethnicity, race or religion. For the past two years, in the Darfur region of the nation of Sudan, located in north central Africa and populated primarily by black Africans, the Sudanese government has been committing racial genocide. Reports are that as many as 400,000 black African civilians have been murdered by the Sudanese government together with Arab rebel groups in Darfur. Professor Sam Totten, a scholar in Genocide Studies at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, visited the Darfur area in the fall of 2004 and has been examining this present day massacre that most of the world has chosen to ignore. I spoke with Professor Totten from his home in Arkansas and asked him to explain the reasons behind the genocide.

www.savedarfur.org

Sam Totten recommends “Shake Hands With the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda,” by Romeo Dallaire.

Originally Broadcast: June 7, 2005

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The war that the United States has invoked in what is often called the “War On Terror” is unusual in many ways. One of those ways is that this war is being fought against a network that is spread out in many unsuspecting and obscure places. It is not being fought as many wars have been in the past, directly against another county. Dr. John Arquilla, is a professor of defense analysis and co-director of the justify on Terrorism at the Naval Post-Graduate School in Monterey, California. In this program we talk with Professor Arquilla about the fighting tactics employed by networks as opposed to countries, the threats they pose, and some of the war tactics used against these networks.

John Arquilla recommends “Kim,” by Rudyard Kipling.

Originally Broadcast: June 21, 2005

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My Hometown Concentration Camp

Bernard Offen, age 72, survived five Nazi concentration camps in Poland during World War Two, when he was a young teenager. He now leads tours of these concentration camps and tells his story in this interview.

Bernard Offen recommends “My Hometown Concentration Camp,” by himself.

Originally Broadcast: May 3, 2005

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