Public Library learn more at w. G.b.h. Dot org slash b p L's studio I'm reporter Mark hers and you and I are listening to 897 w g b h w h h d one Boston online g.b.h. News dot or. Austin's local n.p.r. . You're listening to. Find out more and explore the Amazing. Public. Record. You're listening to blank where lost interviews come to distributed by the Public Radio Exchange p r x dot org Captain My Captain David Garrow our. Walt Whitman on this class to be to call me Mr Keating slightly more daring captain I kept Robyn Williams In the 1989 film The Dead Poets Society Williams played an English teacher at a prestigious all boys prep school who ruffled the establishment and the teacher's lounge bringing theatrical to class to inspire his students to devour literature follow their own path gather you wrote you may seize the day that sentiment is. See the day like so many Hollywood greats Williams' character was in fact loosely based on a real person loosely the key word in this case it's a guy named Sam Pickering Jr who actually taught the movie screenwriter when he was a teen and has been in the classroom for over 40 years. School was a book I read everything I ever read but there's a friend of mine told me once and he didn't come forward. Sam you had. That. I did not do that I scratched it down put it at the great line. John Dankosky they're getting a rare interview with Sam Pickering in September 2012 and despite becoming quite a famous college professor after Dead Poets Society. Mount Pickering has said that he only recognise bits of himself in the film in fact he has his own thoughts on the art of teaching and sure real life. And world changing then it is in the movies but here's our question teaching in real life actually be more entertaining maybe even more eyebrow raising than fiction. How long. Since 1900 What's changed at the university. Changed Yeah. My God what have that handsome young man who is. Staring at me. Every I mean for God sakes I still have you know. But my marbles have not rolled out of the door yet I have a couple of cats as an egg and I'm not completely God So if I want to class I teach a date and it. Says I'm alert I'm usually they at 715 because as a man you get up at 4 30 in the morning you never sleep anymore anyway how do you grade Well I've gotten very impatient for. The way to grade and to be happy is to give each student half a grade that he or she could imagine getting in their fondest imagination. I mean you know look I've been in schools since kindergarten at 67 years after. After maybe 50 or 60 years grades become just little nuisances. Running across the kitchen floor you have to take care of them but I don't pay much attention to for example I. Get posted with. A mouse being posted she wrote me asking why she got on a mountain. And you want to be very Can you don't want to say that you've got a name when he really does. So you give but it's not something I think about. Do you think that there's too much emphasis in our society placed on grades and I think there's too much emphasis is placed on a lot of things grades maybe maybe even on education itself as it's so i. Written a piece a long time ago which I said that college was really. Colleges only college and it does not necessarily predict who's going to do well in life. It just is not a predictor now and graduate school is not even to predict I can remember in graduate school some of the people that will vanish. You don't have an answer but a lot of people probably come to you for answers you've got students coming to you for all sorts of other things. You know I mean it's awfully easy to give an answer you know answer a simple life is complex Well let's talk about teaching writing yeah we. Sentences subject predicate period well life itself is not a sentence life is a complex language. And once you put it in declarative sentences you understand that you're distorting everything. Statuses because that's really only the right but I was more complex. The really good committed to mediocrity. You know he doesn't set some impossible he lives a pleasant happy life he's nice to people is nice he did he become satisfied with you know one slice of cake you don't have to have the. Many many years ago he said that teaching was being that your personality and that's what it is you have to. The entire interview. Where we live in Connecticut. Dot org. It's a simple way to send an e-mail newsletter from the people behind Mail Chimp tiny letter dot com. For producing this with me. And for all the journalists interviewers. There who want to hear your interviews. Interview. Is distributed by the Public Radio Exchange x. . Where does the mind stop and the rest of the world begin That's the question philosophers Andy Clark and Dave Chalmers pose in their essay on the extended mind many of us would say the mind stops where the brain stops but these scholars disagree they claim that features of the environment form parts of our minds if they are correct our minds are not in our heads but actually extend out into the world the idea that the mind actually extends into the world might sound like the plot of a science fiction novel but Clarke and Chalmers illustrate the idea with the following thought experiment a man named auto suffers from Alzheimer's disease he uses a notebook to store information that he wants to remember Otto always carries his notebook with him and when he learns something important he writes it down one day Otto hears of an exhibition being shown at the Museum of Modern Art and decides to go he consults his notebook finds directions to the museum and makes his way to the exhibition. Otto uses his notebook in much the same way that we might use our memories the information contained on the pages of The Notebook helps guide auto's behavior like our beliefs help to guide our behavior the differences that Otto's beliefs so to speak lie on a page rather than in his head beliefs and memories are uncontroversial parts of the mind but if beliefs and memories can be stored on the pages of a notebook then notebook pages can be parts of the mind so there is some reason to think that auto's mind is not in his head the auto case might require a stretch of the imagination but to bring the point closer to home just consider the way smartphones guide much of our day to day behavior when a piece of technology is so thoroughly integrated into once daily life is it so crazy to think that that piece of technology is a piece of one's mind Albert Einstein was once asked why he couldn't remember the speed of sound he supposedly responded I do not carry such information in my mind since it is readily available in books. Perhaps Einstein was wise to avoid memorizing such information but mistaken in assuming that the books containing that information were not parts of his mind now that we can carry the Internet on a pocket sized device should we bother memorizing much of anything perhaps we should simply recognize that such devices literally extend our memories and our minds by allowing them to include information that resides in the world rather than in our heads. This episode of humanity's minutes was written by Matthias Barker read by Maggie Wilhite and produced by the humanities Media Project and the College of Liberal Arts at u.t. Austin. Like to have our broadcast which are a lot of small we like to have a broadcast. Well. That's all for this morning tomorrow morning same time so everybody. My boss called me into his office in Nairobi and handed me a list with 112 names on it and he said Sasha I want you to go into the Congo to get these people out. This story takes place in February 2000 Congo was at war the extremists who were responsible for the Rwandan genocide had gathered their forces in the Congo the Congolese president said it all to seize in the country are the enemy and need to be hunted down and killed people were being killed in the streets in terrible ways. My name is soft Chana I live in Somerville Massachusetts. I've only been in Africa for about 6 months my boss is David at the time and he was spearheading this u.s. Rescue operation David said to me above all you have to stick to this list you cannot take anybody who's not on this list if you try to add more people the Congolese government you're going to have to get their permission and then at the last minute maybe even on the plane Del pull your people off and you won't get anybody out. David also said that he was sending in his right hand woman her name was shake so shake and I flew into the capital of Congo we rented a car and we drove out to this safe haven. These big black door swung open and we drove in somebody looked in the car and saw her and then this whole mob of people rushed around the car and started pushing the car up and down and chanting her name and I remember David telling me that people would go crazy with relief when they saw us because they think that they're going to died there. But I wasn't prepared for the fact that there were far more people than 112 on our list as well. We set up a table and we took our list out and one by one we started calling names of people . There was a guy standing off to the side with this sports coat and when I asked Shaikh of who he was she said he's a Genesee bear he's one of the killers from Rwanda and they've probably been sent in to maybe try to assassinate people in this compound or try to sabotage what we're doing. We registered all the people who are on our list and as we are trying to leave a guy said You see that tent over there you have to go in and look at the people who just came into this safe haven so I said we can't take anybody else but as I was saying that I was walking towards the tent and then shaken I stepped into the tent. And felt like time stopped. There was a whole group of young children and 3 women whom we found out later were widows. I mean these people looked bone thin they had these just hollow stares. And. I remember. Shakeout leaning over to a 3 year old girl who was holding a doll and saying oh let me see your doll What's your doll's name and all of a sudden the doll's eyes popped open and we realized that it was some baby that looked more dead than alive. The guy who had brought us and said they were in a prison camp for 16 months where many of their family members were executed we don't know how they survived but they're here now and if you don't take them dealt I. Shaykh and I went to the hotel that night and we started arguing she said Sasha we have to take these people. And I said I want to as well but we can't we would be risking all the lives of the people that we knew we could get out had never been confronted with this kind of urgent life and death dilemma and we didn't have very much time to make the decision I decided we have to try to do this. Paintings money. I was born in Congo and I am one of those. People in the taint I think I was like 14. I mean they were just people waiting to die. It's like you were walking. In Phoenix Arizona I have been. Gentrification is a loaded word well it of minorities misled neighborhoods where the property by down going in they could come in and buy a fresh Elegy they buy a bar apartment a rebuilt it back that way no charge in a dollar a lot of them move back it's kind of one of those things that it's good to it's bad I think when it's defined as fat sort of class push it's about playing and it's defined as community improvements to a neighborhood that it can be perceived as a good thing to get it going to a strollers and higher credit spend thrift shop show up with your family members and they were we notice that we're not. I live in the North Oakland neighborhood of Thomas Scout what was once a working class largely black neighborhood is now loaded with young white students and families new businesses have moved them like. There's a place that sells chicken sandwiches. And. So I think it's fair to say in the process of gentrification there was a shift and housing prices skyrocketed it's no. Place to live Jeff Norman has lived for 26 years he's a community artist an amateur historian when he bought his house back in the eighty's was filled with mostly black working class families he says he'd never be able to afford his house today. According to Norman. Neighborhood transformation after the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire in 1006 a large number of Italians arrived. The Italians had a thriving business district then in the fifty's a highway was built through the neighborhood and decimating parts of the commercial district. The highway out to the suburbs where they could buy bigger houses. North and east so by the time Norman got here in the 1980 s. The neighborhood was filled with working class black families. African-American families living in the Thomas. Paine's. Of the city that works to develop and improve Oakland without displacing the people who live here she says according to the census black population has decreased in the last decade or so who is moving in well me and also Ethiopians Eritreans. And says that's not necessarily a bad thing we just have to be careful about it I think development is good I think figuring out how we make sure that everyone can participate and enjoy this new rich economy. Next Ustaz and again is just really for it believes there's a way to enjoy high end restaurants without 1st removing low income residents The trick is figuring out that formula for development. For philosophy I'm Caitlin ash . Way. Is a melting pot of radio documentaries podcast poetry music experimental sound and so much more. When Bollywood was just beginning back in the 1920 s. Movie producers had a big problem they couldn't cast female roles because Hindu and Muslim women were not allowed to act in the movies in fact any kind of public performance was considered improper verging on prostitution. Film Studies professor Nepa margined are some of the performing women the Indian performing women who played in the movies there was absolute silence about where they came from because they did in fact draw on stars who are might as well have been prostitutes so how would Bollywood find its movie stars well they often turn to Engle Indian women children of British diplomats and Indian citizens there were outcasts in both societies. But there was another ethnic group right there in Bombay had no taboo against public performance Baghdadi Jews like Rose as who is a leading lady in the 1930 s. Her daughter Cynthia remembers how the fans flocked to her there would recognise her car had a Pontiac. And there were probably running up and banging on the door Look at her we've been. Cut off they would come up here. Rose may have been accepted by union audiences but like most Baghdadi Jews she done a fight more with Western culture could really go right in the end I think that's good for the actor who had a male secretary that read the dialogue. And he wrote it down and that could and then that he did from a medical note but the biggest Bollywood star of the 1920 s. And thirty's was a nice Jewish girl named Ruby Meyers her screen name was slow chyna now in the case Ruby Meyers a lot was made about her private life meanly because that she started out as a telephone girl and was discovered in that role which kind of matched the kind the stories told about Hollywood stars starting in you know as working class girls then making it in Hollywood in Indian cinema the trajectory was actually the opposite you didn't want working class girls in the movies you wanted cultured ladies Baghdadi Jewish actresses fit a perfect niece they were outside the Indian caste system so they offended no one sensitivities and they had this indefinable ethnic look which got them the best parts India was becoming a modern country but it was still under British rule audiences wanted to see characters who were caught between 2 worlds like Ruby Meyers in a single movies for example a film called in the a in which she played this very westernized Indian woman who by the end of the movie learns her lesson and becomes appropriately Hindu Indian. By the 1950 s. Everything and changed social norms had relaxed progressive upper class Hindu women had broken the barrier against public performance in the partition of India and Pakistan and created massive social upheaval which prompted the Baghdadi Jews to leave and move to Israel or the West it seemed like the era of Bollywood Jewish stars was over in till for hot Ezekiel Madeira came along or as she was known to audiences to do. And then a church. Can imagine which. I had made of a stock. With. Deep dean of all men a deer on the set of a movie they were a generation apart but they became good friends and talk to every morning until near died in 2006 By the way that's And you're hearing the background as a fan it was a hot day in Mumbai and Deepti didn't want to turn her fan off she was something totally different from the we had voted on on the screen in those days they were kind of did me a beautiful they were caught a they were shy you know and here came somebody 5 c. And very straightforward very forthright her presence came to be symbolized with that kind of an image that era does not have a lot a line that her debut film on but she sends smoldering looks towards her male costar with her sultry eyes in sharp contrast to the innocent modestly dressed Indian heroine. According to Professor. Into You know audiences were feeling very nationalistic at the time and an actress who didn't quite look Indian like it was pigeonholed into a particular kind of role at this time if you have. The usually plea what ended up playing which is the bad cabaret dancer and be the bad westernized. Girl. Against the end and I said something about Islam and she said I wouldn't know too much about that as not to me the meaning and all that because I'm Jewish. And I said what I do. As a wife says Where have you been doing. And neither is a Muslim name and she said with. Me. I have a story. When I met her the very 1st time this is talked about I mean very very much on her mind Joan Roth travels the world photographing Jewish women she met a deer in the 1970 s. And they also became good friends at that point it was feeling depressed she didn't have a family of her own her mother warned her that if she acted. As the no Jewish man would ever marry her and she said none did and I asked her if she were to come back again in life but she choose to be. Woman and she said she'd still have to come back as twins one to man and one to be a star by the time Joan met her wasn't even a star anymore she was only offered big parts. Where what am I going to do always. Start doing these small pots. Does it know that you're already going to be given a lot of interesting roles which are short you know small smaller in length but how can you not do that by then dipping of all had become a t.v. Producer and she cast her old friend in a new kind of role that invigorated the dearest career the part of a traditional Hindu woman and I went to her and she says Are you really asking me to play Mrs Jo She and I said yes she says but you know nobody would recognize mean this. How did know it's me yes I was sitting there. At bed like she got so much acclaim for that for playing that thought she was wonderful and that drew near gave up a lot in order to be a Bollywood star she stayed behind when the rest of her family had left she felt isolated sometimes cop between 2 worlds but in the end she got the legacy she wanted her films can be found in any decent Bollywood store online or off. For talent magazine. You want to be able. To talk. To. 10 girls are sitting in front of 10 chess boards at a long bank of tables most of them are under 10 years old in pigtails and headbands but at the far end of the tables sits alone teenager with stylish side swept bangs back. To. Nor Cal house of chess and watching a Saima simultaneous exhibition that means all the girls at the table tonight are playing against one chess star tonight that star is grandmaster Susan Polgar our cameras are rolling taking video that will later be posted on as many chess websites and on You Tube amidst the hoopla calmly waiting to make her 1st move quickly to. One of the people with a camera. In From Virginia to attend the event. Sue hay is a children's book author and Youth Chess organizer and she's behind a lot of the online buzz about young the 2 met at the tournaments and Texas so he's actually the one who contacted the l.a. Times which led to young being splashed across its front page that was called the editor. Sue hey came up with the chess Cinderella name and she's been working at all over the Internet She even calls herself Young's fairy godmother in one article Sue hay believes that keeping young in the media spotlight can save her from getting lost in the system like so many foster kids do it's a big system it's a slow moving system even though all of the people in it care very much there's they're stuck with the system you know and I think it's important to keep the spotlight on a positive story and on the fact that when everybody got together and helped this one child this really huge positive ripple effect young entered the foster care system 2 years ago after some serious conflicts with her mom since then she's been bounced from placement to placement even spending a short stint in juvenile hall for disobeying a court mandate to return to her mom's house playing chess helped her find some stability her mentor Adisa Banjoko runs the Hip-Hop Chess Federation at John O'Connell High School he sees the game as a way young can focus her energy. And even though young. Not so sure that more media attention. Her. Young is currently living at the. Moment she just started her junior year at school and though she's working hard statistics. Nationally. Likely than their peers to graduate from high school as they get older it gets even. In California 65 percent of youth aging out of foster care have no place to live young age out in less than 3 years a stark reality compared with the Cinderella story that's been attached to her. Therapist and attorney on her daughter's 3rd. And she's uneasy about the teenager's newfound. Kids. Have much she tells me when she needed glasses it took 2 years to arrange for a prescription. Next month. For the moment she shares an upstairs bedroom with a girl she's only recently met. The room is small but neat with. The head of the bad. Child who might feel forgotten it's kind of a dream come true. With so many people focusing their attention on her says it's hard not to feel the pressure. To be. Back. Again. But the real tragedy and we have to be honest about this is that. If. She. Could be another statistic. That. Her. For her. Young has her own thoughts a. Fairy Tale are not her story should have. I mean people may look at my story. But. That is not what I am not who I am I am a diamond in the rough. He. Is more accurate because. A dime has to be pressure put on. You have to. You know. And I'm still going to. Know it all is shining you know probably my signing to be more. And when I become that. I will be one of the top lawyers one of the judges or even on the Supreme Court yes I'll see me again oh we're. Back in Fremont at the North cowhouse of chess is about to begin. In chess every move opens up new opportunities and obstacles the best players look further ahead in the game considering all of the possibilities Young has made it this far she eyes the board intently her hand into slowly toward a chess piece and hovers just above it. For crosscurrents I'm Gen. And I hope each one of you in going to story as much as I have telling it to. Moving house. Sucks. Which currently is one of the most special things Candy. When I bet he saw us loading up leaves on a mentioned a teeny to help moving his b. Times so 2 days after we moved and that his beings. Would come and. I recommend you go back in now are you going to get shut out of your cars. I was thinking would be keepers and quite right you can keep them somehow you are a kind of custodian off for peace of God. I always thought I would keep things but I was a bit afraid of it because of the trade of the responsibility and actually also still a bit apprehensive about the bees I have to learn to feel comfortable. And. Then not solitary creatures that absolutely social insects they have to have the colony in order to survive. He lives alone in his flat I don't really nice story he used to be an ambassador now he's in custody unit beats I think he has family maybe a son or daughter. But I don't see. It's getting dark when he arrives in his phone. It's freezing. But as soon as he removes the ceiling the 1st time they come pouring out. Instant stuff looking out where. They start sending that. Sky above. But it comes time to come in you've. Got. Several dozen. Sheep. That. Is free. But you still. Have to psycho. You don't understand to. Decide what to get to where. We don't understand what it is that makes them small. What makes them move homes we only know that's. They are creatures that place to come and we have Wolf over to that vigil. Existence and that they work toddy to sleep for the collective good. The bees make an impression on me it's our new flat I write notes to say hi to our new neighbors and invite them round for a cup of tea. No one comes they will not be. Be a good neighbor was produced by Tom and it's an official favorite from the 23rd coast challenge this audio challenge invited anyone and everyone to produce short stories that followed specific rules each story had to feature at least 2 neighbors and include a color in the title and 3 seconds of narrative. Tell the story you hear all 180 short talks and more than a 1000 other stories 3rd Coast Bastable for. The 1st. Song explainer where musicians take apart their songs and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made. Raphael city is a Grammy winning songwriter producer and artist from Oakland California he was the lead singer in the legendary ninety's r. And b. Group Tony Tony Tony and as a producer he's worked with t.l.c. When he Houston saw on channels Mary j. Blige and John Legend in August 21000 Rafi I released his 5th solo album which is named for his late older brother in the step aside he breaks down a song from the album he made with his nephew Dylan weekends called the King's far . I. My name is Raphael Saadiq. Actually wrote the song with my nephew Dylan Wiggins right here as my uncle but our a caller I feel Ray everybody in my family they all call him Ray what's up I'm doing Wigan's a case or doing from Oakland California he's been living in Los Angeles now for maybe like 6 or 7 years and we work on a lot of music together and he actually brought me to track. The 1st idea that came to me before I made that song was just this idea of these chords I had on the guitar. For I was a Otis Redding vibe something that just sounded like my grandfather's music or just something from back in the time you know chorus I was going to try motion. And then I ended up recording like a solo guitar to it. And then reverse the lead guitar I did. That's just to create a feeling of like following. After the chords came the germs. Have like a loop folder that was given to me by Ali Shaheed Muhammad from Tribe Called Quest legend and it has a lot of drum loops that sound spectacular images hundreds of them and I think they were samples from vinyl so I chopped a sample of and then you try to make you feel as real as possible one is as human as possible. Just really slowed it down and made it sound like old school. And then the electric sitar. Strung up like a regular guitar but at the bottom they had these pick up things. As the strings against the meadow and it kind of traces Teng sound. And that was the last thing that was on the. Line Dylan brought me to track it was called King's fall thing that's ever happened before or like name to be before the lyrics but to me it just sounded like something at the end of an almost an movie but like the end of something where the king is like you know I've done all I can do is going down and even the chords are going downwards. So you played it for me and you know it was right up my alley. Very excited because my record is a little darker than most records in here you're feeling a little vibe in my record is titled Jamie Lee So Jimmy Lee is my brother who had drug addiction so my record. About addiction and so I fit because it shows like very strong people in the beginning but you know drug addiction is something you can fall from you know no matter how big and strong you are beautiful you are so. I got to work with this we got to do somewhat this. It took me maybe one week before I started writing melodies and thinking about what I was going talk about our sing about I really love storytelling and. A lot of things in mind I was sort of talking about a friend of mine who has addiction issues to sort of a guideline to read into when I was singing a song. And . How much the pill. The song is really about not think guy who's on drugs it's about the dealer the person around you that makes it available and you know just like wants to keep you and wants to keep you down and it's about a supplier. In the us. The person that provides this applies to sort of hide in the dark and not be mentioned when everybody's going to a common a middle of the night they're always smiling. So I just wanted to give the attention to that that was my thing it was so my play on words was to say I want you to be but that's what you are anyway but we're just exposing it. He will literally be current by 2 o'clock in the morning with no internet and nobody at the studio but my vocal session was just one session. I knew that I wanted to be sort of gritty and direct in like a lot of. The troops in the state I find myself back in the me. Keep the. Seat. I can see which is flying everywhere just talking about the state of mind you are in when you chemicals are whatever kind of pills or whatever you jug of choice is when you're high and. You're seeing things you think people are chasing you people are following you and you wish it out it was a bad dream. Bratz in a song or Pantene is you know waking the body asleep in a cold sweat and just being scared you don't know what happened you know this was going on all my life so I wanted to put those bras behind a dope fiend reference. Was his thing. Even when I'm clean I'm still a dope thing I'm also talking about people who are now on actual chemical maybe is food maybe a sugar maybe sags maybe it's anger you know just something that you can't get away so leaving out the regular human you know we all have addictions. And the very end he cuts off of his doorbell. Here to doorbell at the end of the supplier to bring in a doorbell to bring it drugs bring you pills I want to sort of subliminally remind people you know I would Tanya I mean a cigar ring or somebody there to help you provide some time there. For what with bad intentions. But. After I send it for me I'll just go and who knows what's going to happen and then one time I come to the studio as I doubt play this song and then we played affirming a while wow I wasn't hearing that on there I was hearing something after we came with energy I was like day this took that super sad song to wake up a level of emotion that I needed to go to to really be someone. Who ought to be you know for me talking about addiction I've been around it going up to my brother Jimmy Lee He was a bit older to me from the time I knew him he was already addicted to drugs he was pretty much curiosity killed the cat he tried a chemical He never was able to leave his self. It's been laced in my music for some time but this is the 1st time I went 100 percent directly to it and you know that was my take on it was direct. a link to buy or stream the song sung explorers made by Rishi chase here away producer Christian Coons and me. I'm just listening for the year sitting in for Rishikesh Carlos Slim as our illustrator you can see his perch at our Rafi on the song Exploder website or Instagram. From the sun exposure is a proud member of a d h o p f m p r x a collective of creative independent typecasts you can learn about all of our shows that read utopia dot f. And you can also follow sun exposure on Facebook Instagram and Twitter at Song spotter and you can follow me at Talbot stadium I'm tell him thanks for listening. When you listen to Boston's local n.p.r. You're tapping into a neural network of journalists around the country public media is 4000 journalists strong with a direct connection to the town halls debates and stump speeches no matter where they're happening reported without partisan slant for election 2020 get national reporting told from the local perspective by listening right here 897. Bostons local n.p.r. Tonight the hit man Grammy winner David Foster returns in a great performance as special as he and his guests perform songs from his 4 decades of hits watch an intimate evening with David Foster tonight at 730 on w g b h 2 trusted. News.