If readers are thinking that 'The Mind-Body Mood Solution' is not my usual fare, well, they'd be right. But I frankly liked the approach, liked the book and my luck was in. Though Rossman was not touring for the book, he did happen to be in Santa Cruz, and available for a full hour on a Sunday evening. This gave me the opportunity to have him on a live radio show, Talk of the Bay, for KUSP. Now of course, my shows are both scheduled in an unseemly time slot for call-ins; I run from 6-8 PM. The first hour is The Agony Column, the second the call-in Talk of the Bay. I'll admit that I was afraid I was going to get call-ins, because I knew that there was a lot for me to talk about with Rossman.
Rossman was in town to visit his parents, and his father joined us in the studio. But even if he had wanted to talk, he wouldn't have been able to get a word in edgewise, because Rossman and I hit it right off. Now, I will admit that in live radio situations, time is a factor. I will often look up at the clock, see that perhaps five minutes have passed, and realize that I have 55 more to go. It's not like I can just end the interview when it feels right. I have a set time slot. With Rossman, it was the exact opposite of the usual experience. As we spoke, I'd look at the clock and think, "No callers, please, no callers! How will I get all my questions asked?"
As it happened, I could have spoken with Rossman for much longer, but I'm certain that our conversation is thorough enough to give readers a good flavor of the book and why I think it worth their valuable time and money. The great thing he does in this book is to synthesize a variety of health approaches and fit them together with suggestions that are actually doable. He emphasizes that every reader will have different needs, and thus, find different parts of the book of use.
He and I also talked about some of his patient cases, including some that were not in the book. And as for the book itself, the publisher, Rodale, is a pretty interesting case. They have a pretty interesting line of books, and it seems clear to me that Rodale is following in the path of independent publishers even if they have the might of Macmillan behind them. You can hear my conversation with Jeffrey Rossman by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
12-27-10:A 2010 Interview with Erwin Chemerinsky
"I think it was so important to articulate at that point the rule of law."
—Erwin Chemerinsky
Some things are worth traveling for. In this case, the time of Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, the author of 'The Conservative Assault on the Constitution' proved to be an excellent excuse to jump in my 1995 Honda Civic and drive 400 miles through the worst rainstorm in recent California history to the campus of my alma mater, the University of California at Irvine, which I had not seen since my graduation (which I did not attend) about 30 years ago. Needless to say, a lot has changed; not just the campus, but the nation.
On my way to UCI, I drove past one Sig Alert on the westbound 91, then, pulling onto the southbound 405, I navigated my way through some fFortean-sized potholes and a flooded freeway before landing in Irvine itself. Frankly because of the rain, and my tight schedule, I had no chance or even ability to appreciate the changes in Irvine. It was simply another huge sprawling, southern California city with buildings so high and so large that I really couldn't wrap my brain around to map the landscape.
It was easy enough to find the law school, though, and Dean Chemerinsky's office. I found him to be soft-spoken and eloquent as he told me about not just his successes in front of the Supreme Court, but just as often, his failures. Make no mistake about it, he is a master jurist and a man who has forged the way for freedom in hundreds of cases. But he has found himself pitted against a system that has been carefully stacked and architected to chip away at our liberties and rights by those, who, alas, most dangerously, think they have our own best interests at heart.
05-16-12: Commentary : Mark Sundeen Pays Out 'The Man Who Quit Money' : Over the Edges
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2012 Interview with Mark Sundeen and Daniel Suelo : "What would happen if we actually practiced this stuff?"-Daniel Suelo
05-15-12: Commentary : Archive Review: Clive Barker 'Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War' : Impure Life
05-08-12: Commentary : Archive Review: Clive Barker 'Abarat' : Reading in Color
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2012 Phone Interview with Mark Sundeen : "...over the years, I had heard through my friends that he had stopped using money and was living in a cave..."
04-30-12: Commentary : Christopher Moore Follows 'Sacré Bleu' : A Story in Color
Agony Column Podcast News Report: A 2012 Interview with Christopher Moore : "...it often isn't efficient to tell a story in chronological order..."
04-27-12: Commentary : Lisa Lutz on 'Trail of the Spellmans' : Meta-Fiction is Fun
Agony Column Podcast News Report: SF in SF from February 11, 2012 : Panel Discussion Moderated by Terry Bisson and Interviews with Rudy Rucker, K. W. Jeter, and Jay Lake
04-26-12: Commentary : Archive Review: Emmanuel Carrere 'The Adversary' : The Enemy Within
04-23-12: Commentary : T. M. Luhrman Listens 'When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship With God' : Science and the Supernaturaly
04-18-12: Commentary : Gregg Jones Stirs Through 'Honor in the Dust: Theodore Roosevelt, War in the Philippines and the Rise and Fall of America's Imperial Dreams' : A Dream Of Today From Yesterday
Agony Column Podcast News Report: A 2012 Interview with Gregg Jones : "The Philippinos would welcome us with open arms and greet us as liberators."
04-17-12: Commentary : Archive Review: Caleb Carr 'The Alienist' : Subterranean History
04-16-12: Commentary : Richard Zacks Visits 'Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt's Doomed Quest to Clean Up Sin-Loving New York' :The Wild, Wild East
Agony Column Podcast News Report: A 2012 Interview with Richard Zacks : "Roosevelt and Riis were out looking, and if they did find a cop, he was talking to a streetwalker."
