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Respect for horses a path to healing at recovery ranch Apr 02, 2020

Show notes

Equine animals have roamed the earth for over 40 million years. Homo sapiens, a scant 300 thousand.

The image of power, pride, and soulfulness horses represent has deep meaning. They hold a unique place in our history, stories and myths. Yet, it has only been 6 thousand years since we began domesticating them. How they think and behave is still a legendary mystery to us. Most of us.

Ginger Gaffney is a respected horse trainer, and the author of Half Broke: A Memoir. It’s the story of her time working with horses and residents at an alternative prison facility-- a New Mexico ranch run by the Delancey Street Foundation.

Gaffney says she is shy: “I grew up an extreme introvert, and like many introverts, I felt an early comfort and kinship with animals. As far back as I can remember the language of movement has been my native language. Whether I am in a round pen or a crowded room, I’m scanning the intimacies of bodily movement.”

Here, she tells the story of “the most dangerous horse situation I had ever encountered” and the chance at redemption the ranch embodies.

The story of what the people and horses who find themselves at this ranch can achieve serves as a remarkable lesson of recovery.

Gaffney was joined by former Delancey Street resident Ayla Jarvis.

Ginger Gaffney and Ayla Jarvis spoke at the Seattle Public Library Central Library on February 25. Elliott Bay Book Company co-presented the event. KUOW’s Sonya Harris provided our recording.

Please note: This recording contains brief language of an adult nature.

E.J. Dionne to liberal and moderate anti-Trumpers: Pick a lane Mar 26, 2020

Show notes

Americans congregate philosophically and politically to the left, right and center. Author and commentator E.J. Dionne has been thinking about what those divisions foretell for opponents of President Trump.

Dionne’s latest book is Code Red: How Progressives and Moderates Can Unite to Save Our Country. As the subtitle suggests, he’s urging anti-Trumpers to come together or risk re-electing him.

Mr. Dionne is a Washington Post columnist and a professor at Georgetown and Harvard. If you enjoy hearing his Week In Politics analysis on NPR most Fridays, you’ll appreciate hearing him at length. This talk is an informative time capsule in this fast-changing political and public health landscape.

E.J. Dionne had this conversation with KUOW’s Ross Reynolds at Town Hall Seattle on February 26. Jennie Cecil Moore recorded the event.

As usual, when things were usual, Town Hall’s Weir Harmon introduced the event. We wish our friends at Town Hall and at other venues in the area as quick a return to regular programming as possible.

Feminism v. Patriarchy (Psst! It’s not Women versus Men) Mar 19, 2020

Show notes

As the COVID-19 crisis plays out and we all take a mandated break from each other — no sexist pun intended — it may be an opportune time to consider another kind of social distancing: sexism.

To women who ask, “What’s wrong with us?” and men who don’t feel personally responsible for the sexist culture we inhabit, Joanne Bagshaw says “It’s not you, it’s the patriarchy.” Furthermore, she offers solutions we all can use to confront sexism.

Bagshaw is a professor of psychology and women’s studies and the author of The Feminist Handbook: Practical Tools to Resist Sexism and Dismantle the Patriarchy.

As the title suggests, Bagshaw’s book is a primer of sorts on how to change the status quo. Our society is marked by high rates of rape, sexual assault, and intimate partner violence. In turn, that reality results in high rates of depression, anxiety, PTSD and eating disorders. This conversation offers a path out of a dynamic that hurts everyone in our society.

Joanne Bagshaw teaches at Montgomery College and writes the popular feminist blog, The Third Wave for Psychology Today. She had this conversation with former Seattle City Council member and current interim Executive Director of NARAL Pro-choice Washington Kirsten Harris-Talley at Town Hall Seattle on March 3.

KUOW’s Sonya Harris recorded the event.

Drawing the line on progress, for certain citizens Mar 12, 2020

Show notes

Seattle Rep theater presented a production of August Wilson's play Jitney this spring. Unfortunately, the run was just cancelled due to Coronavirus concerns.

Wilson wrote a series of 10 plays about the African-American experience. Each is set in a specific decade of the twentieth century.

Wilson won the Pulitzer Prize for Fences, set in 1950’s, and The Piano Lesson, set in the 1930’s.

August Wilson had a connection to Seattle. He moved here in 1990 and finished the last half of his cycle here. He was diagnosed with inoperable liver cancer in 2005 and died that year at Swedish Hospital.

Wilson is considered one of the great playwrights of the twentieth century, on par with Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller.

Set in 1970’s Pittsburgh, Jitney is the story of a rideshare service run by Jim Becker. His business emerged in response to redlining practices. It is being forced to close due to gentrification.

Redlining was devised by the federal government, theoretically to help banks in the wake of the Great Depression. The practice, steeped in racism, was embraced by local governments. The story of Jitney resonates for us in Seattle, a place which, like cities around the country, is still grappling with the legacy of targeted discrimination and disenfranchisement.

In a collaboration with Seattle Rep, we invited a number of local leaders to join a discussion on the history and legacy of redlining and gentrification. We hope that through this discussion, framed by personal experience and the lens of the play, we can reflect on what we want for our city in the coming decades.

This recording took place on March 8 in the KUOW studios. KUOW’s Zaki Hamid spoke with Diane Sugimura, former director of Seattle’s Department of Planning and Development; Inye Wokoma, co-founder of Wa Na Wari, the center for Black art, stories and social connection in the Central District; and Vivian Phillips, a communications and arts advocacy consultant and a member of KUOW’s board of directors.

Excerpts from Jitney were read by Ronnie Hill, Brandon Jones Mooney, Malcolm J West and Alex Lee Reed.

Please note: This recording contains an unedited racial slur.

Indigenous Reparation and Recognition in Seattle Mar 09, 2020

Show notes

When we’re out at public speaking venues in Seattle these days-- if we’re out in public at all —we’re likely to hear some version of this statement:

“We acknowledge that we are on the traditional land of the Coast Salish people, including the Duwamish People past and present.”

It has become de rigueur for organizations to make such acknowledgements, but they are just words. They seek to honor the people who lived here before us, people who live here still, but is that enough?

This past January, reporter Marcus Harrison Green wrote an article titled “Does a Wealthy City Owe Its First Residents Reparations?” This panel discussion addresses that question and explores ways we might better recognize the legacy and current reality of the people we displaced.

Bitterroot Magazine managing editor Maggie Mertens moderated the conversation, which included the following participants:

Russell Brooks (Southern Cheyenne): Executive director of Red Eagle Soaring Native Youth Theatre in Seattle.
Marcus Harrison Green: Publisher of the South Seattle Emerald.
Rachel Heaton (Muckleshoot): Co-founder of Mazaska Talks, a tool that supports community divestment from banks that finance fossil fuel development.
Fern Renville (Dakota): CEO of SNAG Productions.
Robin Little Wing Sigo: Director of the Suquamish Research & Strategic Development Department and a member of the Suquamish Tribal Council.

Town Hall Seattle, the South Seattle Emerald and Bitterroot presented this discussion at Town Hall on January 22.

Ampersand Magazine live show: Edgy and nerdy Mar 08, 2020

Show notes

Once a year, Ampersand Magazine puts on a live show. The event culls ideas, artists and initiatives the Ampersand staff found swirling up in another spin around the sun.

The hope is to put on “a somewhat edgy, somewhat nerdy, always engaging showcase for a dozen diverse voices.” As you’ll hear, they more than succeeded. The mix of music and truth and storytelling is just what we need this time of year.

Ampersand Magazine is a production of Forterra, a powerhouse land conservation non-profit with a broad mission to promote sustainability in our natural, built and social realms. This year’s program was curated by Seattle musician Tomo Nakayama. The full program includes the following participants:

Michelle Connor | CEO & President, Forterra
Ken Workman | 4th generation grandson of Chief Sealth
Paul Chiyokten Wagner | Musician
Anna Brones | Illustrator/Author
Whitney Mongé | Singer/Songwriter
Natalie Mutter | Dancer
Stefan Gruber | Animator
Neil Welch | Saxophonist
Greg Lundgren | Museum of Museums
Dakota Camacho | Multi-Disciplinary Artist
Tamara Power-Drutis | Storyteller
Black Stax | Musical Duo
Inye Wokoma | Visual Artist
Shin Yu Pai | Poet
Sera Cahoone | Singer/Songwriter
Judy Twedt | Climate Scientist
House Band: Tomo Nakayama, Alina To and Chris Icasiano

Ampersand Live 2019 took place on November 7 at The Moore Theatre. Seattle Channel provided our recording.

Let’s do the Entropic 2-step again! Feb 29, 2020

Show notes

Here’s a Leap Day treat for you: an exploration of the nature of the universe from the acclaimed physicist Brian Greene.

Look forward to a wide-ranging discussion that touches on The Second Law of Thermodynamics, human consciousness, materialism, how evolution equipped us to survive, quantum mechanics, the future of artificial intelligence and an argument for why you don’t have free will, among other things.

Brian Greene is a professor of physics and mathematics, and the director of The Center for Theoretical Physics at Columbia University. The Washington Post called him “the single best explainer of abstruse concepts in the world today.”

Greene’s new book is Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe. He spoke with KUOW’s Ross Reynolds on February 27 at the University Temple United Methodist Church. University Book Store presented the event.

In the Dream House: A writer’s journey through and past abuse Feb 28, 2020

Show notes

“What kind of relationship did you have to have with who you used to be, who you are and who you are becoming?”

The writer Carmen Maria Machado floated that question on her recent visit to Seattle. It represents the kind of depth she braves in her work.

Speakers Forum featured Machado two years ago, reading from her acclaimed short story collection Her Body and Other Parties. She’s out now with a memoir, In the Dream House. It tells the story of an abusive romantic relationship that marked her past, and the silence around domestic violence in queer relationships. The work weaves between the depths of her personal experience and the cultural landscape that shaped and allowed it.

“I am proud of this book. I think it’s a good book. Time and other people will tell of it’s an important book, and if it’s meaningful to even one person then I’d like to think this has all been worth it, but I hate this book. I know that’s a shocking thing to say. It’s like saying you hate your own child. But I don’t know what else to say about a book that reminds me, often, of a terrible past, of the hamster wheel of pain that some younger version of me ran around until she collapsed. I want to run to her, hold her, tell her it’s gonna be okay, but I can’t, and this book reminds me of that fact.”

Much of this talk and conversation steers toward Machado’s writing process, an artistic life, and how, with difficulty, she came to write about her abuse.

Carmen Maria Machado is the Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania. Seattle Arts & Lectures presented her talk as part of their Women You Need to Know (WYNK) series at Town Hall Seattle on January 24. Seattle author Kristen Millares Young moderated the discussion. Marina Chen read her poem Valentine to open the program. KUOW’s Sonya Harris recorded the event.

Please note: This recording contains unedited language of an adult nature.

The rule of law according to Preet Feb 26, 2020

Show notes

Preet Bharara sums himself up this way on Twitter: Patriotic American & proud immigrant. @Springsteen fan. Banned by Putin, fired by Trump. Former US Attorney, SDNY. Host of "Stay Tuned."

Bharara came to national attention as a highly successful federal prosecutor who refused to resign from his post in the Southern District of New York. As noted, President Trump dumped him.

Mr. Bharara is the author of Doing Justice: A Prosecutor’s Thoughts on Crime, Punishment, and the Rule of Law. His book has earned praise for its thorough, jargon-free exploration of the workings of our justice system.

“You will not find God or grace in legal concepts, in formal notions of criminal justice. Certain values and ideals are beyond justice. These include mercy, forgiveness, redemption, dignity. Also love.” –Preet Bharara in Doing Justice

He spends his free time now as a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at New York University’s School of Law, a Senior Legal Analyst on CNN, and the host of "Stay Tuned with Preet," a podcast about justice and fairness.

Preet Bharara was interviewed by King County Executive Dow Constantine at Town Hall Seattle on February 7. KUOW’s Sonya Harris recorded their conversation.

A world where poetry meets magic and wonder Feb 19, 2020

Show notes

When we edit audio these days, we have the option of marking voice or sound clips in various colors. I did that for this episode. The effect is quite beautiful.

In this case, the colors represent a seemingly simple tableau: a variety of poetry, music and conversation. The event was the first in a new series, Lyric World, curated by the poet Shin Yu Pai:

“…a series that could focus on the social role of poetry, how poetry can be relevant to our everyday lives and its power to provoke deeper conversations on matters of being human together.”

In this first iteration, you’ll hear from and about the poetry, music and magic of Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma. His most recent collection of poems is The Safety of Edges.

“Pruiksma touches upon the similarities between poetry, magic, and music to explore the boundaries and edges of what’s visible and to gaze more deeply into the nature of wonder.”

You’ll also hear pieces by the kora player and griot-trained jeli Ibrahim Arsalan. “In West African society, the jeli preserved ancient stories and traditions through song, throughout the generations. They are believed to have deep connections to spiritual, social, and political powers.”

Then Seattle-based poet Melanie Noel joins Pruiksma in conversation about his work. We can’t provide you with scenes of the visual magic that took place at this event, but here’s hoping you’ll feel it.

Shin Yu Pai is the author of ten books of poetry. Her next collection, Ensō, comes out in April. This first Lyric World event took place at Town Hall Seattle on January 30. The next event in the series is coming up on March 19. It will feature the work of poet Koon Woon.

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