Radio Curious

Click here to begin listening.  River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze Imagine arriving by boat in a rural town of 150,000 people where two rivers join in central China. Imagine being one of the first two Americans to live there in 50 years, and speaking very little Chinese. That is experience of Peter Hessler, the author […]

Click here to begin listening.  Fast food is what many people eat in America, and increasingly in other countries. It is advertised to be fun, tasty, and easily available. Americans spend more money annually on fast food than is spent on higher education. Eric Schlosser is our guest in this archive edition.  He’s the author of Fast […]

Click here to begin listening. In June, 2002 I overheard an American woman now living in Israel passionately describe her belief that teaching children to be suicide bombers is the worst form of child abuse imaginable. I invited Elana Radley Rozenman, an organizer of the Women’s Interfaith Encounter, a group of Muslim, Christian and Jewish […]

Click here to begin listening.  The Territory of Men “The Territory of Men” is an intimate self-expose written by Joelle Fraser, a former Mendocino Community College English teacher. Written as a series of short episodes and adventures, Joelle shares the life of a woman who was raised in the hippie life of the 70s, and now […]

Click here to begin listening.  Earl Dixon is a veteran traveler, a veteran piano player, and he’s actually a veteran, too. An interesting story. Earl Dixon, the man on this show, traveled around the world, and has a lot of familiar stories to tell to those of us here in Mendocino County. Originally Broadcast: June 11, 2002

Click here to begin listening. Zoya’s Story, An Afghan Woman’s Struggle for Freedom Zoya, a member of the RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan, tells the story of her childhood, her parents and her parents’ disappearance. She describes the wrath that first the Russians, then the Taliban and then the Northern Alliance have brought […]

Click here to begin listening. Take me with you: Around the World Journey to Invite a Stranger Home Have you ever made friends with someone from a place where you visited as a traveler? Have you ever wondered what it would be like for that person to visit you in your home and your surroundings? Well, that […]

Click here to begin listening.  No Turning Back—The History of Feminism and the Future of Women The place of women in the world and in the American society has changed in many aspects in the recent past. Many people say this is due to the politics of feminism, and some inquire where it will lead. […]

Click here to begin listening.  Love is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends Tim Sanders, the author of a “Love is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends,” is the Chief Solutions Officer at yahoo.com. Knowledge, network and compassion are the themes of his book and the basis for […]

Click here to begin listening.  Parents in Charge, Setting Healthy, Loving Boundaries for You and Your Child Children are too often seen and treated as small adults, too often dressed as adults, and too often have their lives planned out for them to be as busy as adults. Treating children as people older than they […]

Click here to begin listening.  Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word Few words in the English language have caused so much pain, hurt and emotion as the N-word. It is arguably the most consequential social insult in American history. The long history of the pejorative use of the N-word has given it an […]

Click here to begin listening.  African American Writers: Portraits and Visions The voice of a writer can be heard in words, and sometimes seen in the writer’s face. It is unusual to find both in a book in which the creator is both the author and the photographer. Lynda Koolish, our guest on this archive edition of […]

Click here to begin listening to part 1. Click here to begin listening to part 2.  Dead Reckoning, the New Science of Catching Killers In the fascinating world of medical discovery, the interpretation of how and when a person died can often be explained by looking at the bugs that are found on the body. Dr. […]

Click here to begin listening.  Down the Great Unknown, John Wesley Powell’s 1869 Journey of Discovery and Tragedy Through the Grand Canyon John Wesley Powell, a one-armed civil war veteran and passionate geologist, is a mostly unknown early explorer of the Grand Canyon. In 1869, he led a group of nine men on a 99 day […]

Click here to begin listening. The Coming Collapse of China Approximately 20% of the world’s population lives in the People’s Republic of China. According to Chinese-American lawyer Gordon G. Chang, China appears from the outside to be politically stable and economically strong. Chang, however, argues that China is in social, cultural, economic and political turmoil. He […]

Click here to begin listening The End of the Twins, a Memoir of Losing a Brother Ever wondered what it would be like to have an identical twin—how alike would you be to that person? How much of an individual would you be? Saul Diskin and his identical twin brother Marty grew up together in New York […]

Click here to begin listening to part 1. Click here to begin listening to part 2.  Have you ever wondered what it is like to work inside a prison? Well, Ted Conover, a non-fiction writer did, so he went to the New York Department of Corrections to ask if he could shadow a recruit at […]

Click here to begin listening.  Endangered Minds & Failure to Connect It used to be that children would play with objects, be told or read stories, or perhaps listen to the radio during a significant portion of their early years. With the advent of television, videos and computers, that tactile and oral world is often left […]

Click here to begin listening.  No Apparent Danger Volcanic eruptions are far more predictable than earthquakes. Scientific equipment is available to forecast an eruption with about as much accuracy as there is to predict a hurricane. These predictions can tell when it is time to evacuate areas surrounding an active volcano. Unfortunately, the information available […]

Click here to begin listening. Seeds of Racism in the Soul of America Racism, as a part of the American religious culture, can be traced to the religious concepts of some of the earliest European settlers in North America. Professor Paul R. Griffin explores these roots in his book, “Seeds of Racism in the Soul […]

Click here to begin listening. In England, in the 1830s, at the time of a major cholera epidemic, a young girl, the orphaned daughter of a prostitute, finds that working in a pottery factory does not earn her enough money for herself and her child. She must work at night like her mother, as a […]

Click here to begin listening.  Few words in the English language have caused so much pain, hurt and emotion as the N-word. It is arguably the most consequential social insult in American history. The long history of the pejorative use of the N-word has given it an unusual power that extends to the judicial system, […]

Click here to begin listening.  In part 2 of our conversation with Pulitzer Prize winner, Isabel Wilkerson, author of “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration,” we continue our discussion of the migration of almost six million black American citizens from the south to northern and western cities between the […]

Click here to begin listening.  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.” […]

Click here to begin listening.  How to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less Making people like you is a skill that anybody can learn. By reading body language and synchronizing behavior, it is possible to make meaningful connections with almost anybody in almost any circumstance. We appreciate and like people similar to ourselves, people […]