Episodes
Jan. 20, 2026
Hooray for Hoosiers
In December of 2025, 21 Republican Senators in Indiana’s General Assembly did the most patriotic thing they could do: They put country—in this case, State—over political party. Despite forceful pressure from President Trump’s administration to strong-arm them into drawing a new voting map, they joined with 10 Democrats in refusing to commit an unethical, mid-term gerrymandering of districts in order to gain two more Republican seats in the U.S. Congress. With the 2026 elections looming, and the...
April 16, 2024
It Can’t Happen Here: Part 2 – Betrayal -024
1Shorer, Mark; Sinclair Lewis, an American Life, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York, London: 1961, p. 610. 2Ibid., p. 608. 3Lewis, Sinclair; It Can’t Happen Here (1935), Signet Classics, Penguin Group, New York:1970, Chapter 1, p. 9. 4Ibid.; p. 8. 5Rowling, J.K., Harry Potter, the series, 1997ff. 6Op Cit., Lewis, Chapter 2, p. 18. 7Snyder, Timothy, On Tyranny. Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century, Tim Duggan Books, New York: 2017, pp.18ff. 8Ibid., p. 23. 9Ibid., p. 24. 10O...
April 16, 2024
It Can’t Happen Here: Part 1 – “I Saw Hitler” -023
1Shorer, Mark; Sinclair Lewis, an American Life, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York, London: 1961. 2 “Americans and the Holocaust,” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; https://exhibitions.ushmm.org/americans-and-the-holocaust/personal- story/dorothy-thompson 3Thompson, Dorothy; I Saw Hitler, Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., New York: 1932; p. 10. 4Ibid., p. 12. 5Ibid., p. 13. 6Ibid., p. 14. 7Ibid., p. 16. 8Ibid., p. 18. 9 Ibid., p. 4. 10Ibid., pp. v-vi. 11Ibid, p. 29-30. 12Ibid.,...
Oct. 1, 2020
Jersey Girls -020
Mysteries, Myths & More will take a short hiatus. My episodes will return early in 2021. Thank you for listening!
Sept. 1, 2020
Requiem for a Rooster -019
Cohen, Roger, “The Last Testament of Maurice the Rooster,” in Opinion, p. A22, The New York Times, Saturday, June 27, 2020.
Aug. 1, 2020
The Thing About Dogs . . . -018
a “Animals have complex dreams, MIT researcher proves. Study may advance understanding of human learning and memory,” Massachusetts Institute of Technology, News Office, January 24, 2001. b “Do animals dream?,” Posted by EarthSky in EARTH, February 7, 2019. c American Psychiatric Association, (2013) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.), 2013; Washington, DC d Peterson, T. (2016, February 4). Understanding PTSD Nightmares and Flashbacks, HealthyPlace. Retrieved on 20...
July 1, 2020
The Writing Journey -017
• “Walking,” an essay (also called, “The Wild”) by Henry David Thoreau, published in 1862, but delivered as lectures prior to that. • Rabbit-Proof Fence, 2002; produced by Phillip Noyce based on the book Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington Garimara in 1996. • 1917, 2019; writers, Same Mendes and Krysty Wilson-Cairns; director, Sam Mendes. • The Maze Runner, 2014 (and series); directed by Wes Ball, based on James Dashner’s 2009 novel of the same name. • Miguel de Cervantes, Don ...
June 2, 2020
Forgotten Lives, Part 4 Sylvia Hanish Berlin -016
Fiddler on the Roof, the musical, was first produced on Broadway in 1964 — with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein (who also wrote Zorba). It is based on the story Tevye and his Daughters (or Tevye the Dairyman) and other tales, published in 1894 by Sholem Aleichem, whose real name was Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich. From Wikipedia: “Sholem Aleichem died in New York on May 13, 1916 from tuberculosis and diabetes, aged 57, while working on his last novel, Motl...
May 1, 2020
Epidemiology and COVID-19 -015
SHOW NOTES • https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/preliminary-in-season-estimates.htm • Defoe, Daniel, A Journal of the Plague Year, 1722. • MacMahon, Brian, and Trichopoulos, Dimitrios, Epidemiology. Principles and Methods, 2nd Edition, J.P. Lippincott, 1996. • “Outbreak, On Assignment with Richard Engel,” on MSNBC-t.v., 15 March 2020. • Jane Qui, “How China’s “Bat Woman” Hunted Down Viruses from SARS to the New Coronavirus — Wuhan-based virologist Shi Zhengli has identified dozens of dead...
March 1, 2020
Willie Wideman Pleasants -013
Willie Pleasants is a longtime resident of Dorchester, Massachusetts, and an educator who holds a degree from the University of Massachusetts. As President of the Friends of the Uphams Corner Branch Library for the last 5 years, she was instrumental in finding funds to offer two Respite workshops to support the caregivers. She recently hosted a five-week writer’s program to help them to become published authors, which resulted in the anthology, Write On! Write On! (available through the Uphams C...
Feb. 1, 2020
Hope is the Thing With Feathers -012
We haven’t kept up with the Sally-B for many decades, but as I was researching this, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the plane is still flying. Although Ted White has died, Ellie Sallingboe continues to operate the B-17 with a faithful crew of pilots (apart from herself) and other volunteers. You can learn more about this plane in Wikipedia and/or by going to the official website www.sallyb.org.uk. To learn more about what we humans have done, and are doing, to birds, I recommend a comp...
Jan. 20, 2020
Dead Horse Swamp and the Feather Tree -011
Robert Burns, “To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest With the Plough, November, 1785. a www.Ancestry.com, Otto Rainer Burger, Passenger Lists. b Wikipedia, “Selective Training and Service Act of 1940,” online. c Berkshire Evening Eagle, Science Service, “James Bay Isle To Be Studied For Botany Lore,” 27 August 1946. d The Catholic University of America, “The Archivist’s Nook: Our Coolest Blog Yet – The Arctic Institute at Catholic University,” posted online by Shane MacDonald, 13 Augu...
Dec. 1, 2019
Forgotten Lives, Part 3 Valerie Burger Spiess -010
A Swiss woman honored by the First Nations people of Quebec. a www.Ancestry.com, Otto Rainer Burger, Passenger Lists. b Wikipedia, “Selective Training and Service Act of 1940,” online. c Berkshire Evening Eagle, Science Service, “James Bay Isle To Be Studied For Botany Lore,” 27 August 1946. d The Catholic University of America, “The Archivist’s Nook: Our Coolest Blog Yet – The Arctic Institute at Catholic University,” posted online by Shane MacDonald, 13 August 2019. e Shane MacDonald, ...
Nov. 1, 2019
Memoir Writing, An interview with author, Alberta Sequeira -009
Memoirs of an alcoholic family in crisis. Alberta’s books include the following~ On alcoholism • Someone Stop This Merry-Go-Round; An Alcoholic Family in Crisis • Please, God, Not Two; This Killer Called Alcoholism • What is and isn’t Working for the Alcoholics and Addicts; Their Own Personal Stories Other • A Spiritual Renewal: A Journey to Medjugorje • How to Self-Publish Your Own Book with Create Space: Easy Steps • Writing Memoirs • Bring Your Manuscript to Publication: A Guide for...
Oct. 2, 2019
Forgotten Lives, Part 2 -008
Books/Articles a Lucy Frucht, video interview, USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, recorded 12 October 1995 (Miryam Rabner, interviewer); viewed at Brandeis University, 7 August 2019. b Lucy Frucht, video interview, Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University; recorded 18 July 1994 (Dana Kline, interviewer); viewed at Brandeis University, 7 August 2019. c Diedre Bonifaz, “A Haven in Whateley. The Refugees Who Came to Our Farm,” in The Dispossessed. An Anato...
Sept. 1, 2019
Forgotten Lives, Part 1 -007
Books/Articles a Lucy Frucht, “Varian Fry” tribute (1991) and personal communication. b Hertha Pauli, Break of Time, Hawthorn Books, Inc., New York, 1972 (English version). c Hertha Pauli, Cry of the Heart;: The story of Bertha von Suttner, I. Washburn, New York, 1957 (English version). d Varian Fry, Surrender on Demand, Johnson Books, Boulder, CO, Published in Conjunction with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1997; copyrighted and published in 1945. e Diedre Bonifaz, “A Hav...
Aug. 3, 2019
Anna Garrity’s School of Dance -006
Little Architects of Time and Space: Poems by Susan Nissenbaum Becker (non-fiction) Published by WordTech Communications/Word Poetry (2013)
July 1, 2019
La Pedicure, A Symphony in Four Movements -005
“Finding Wabi-Sabi,”Lauren Hendrick, p. “Z1,” Better Homes & Gardens, June 2019. (Fiction)
June 4, 2019
Life Upon the Wicked Stage -004
A standing ovation is a playwright’s dream. (non-fiction)
May 1, 2019
Time is Short and the Water Rises -003
Describes the largest jungle-animal rescue project ever undertaken (nonfiction). To see the Walter Cronkite Documentary, go to YouTube “Operation Gwamba.” For the web article on Montserrat, see Sarah Schweitzer on the website, Truly Adventurous.