The war that the United States has invoked in what is often called the “War On Terror” is unusual in many ways. One of those ways is that this war is being fought against a network that is spread out in many unsuspecting and obscure places. It is not being fought as many wars have been in the past, directly against another county. Dr. John Arquilla, is a professor of defense analysis and co-director of the justify on Terrorism at the Naval Post-Graduate School in Monterey, California. In this program we talk with Professor Arquilla about the fighting tactics employed by networks as opposed to countries, the threats they pose, and some of the war tactics used against these networks. John Arquilla recommends “Kim,” by Rudyard Kipling. Originally Broadcast: June 21, 2005

Jason Rhee is an emerging documentary filmmaker who is editing his first film: EJ Lee: All-American . Eun Jung Lee, known as EJ, was a college basketball star in the 1980s, nicknamed "the Korean Magic Johnson of NCAA women's basketball."  She went on to work at her alma mater, University of Louisiana Monroe (ULM) as an assistant coach and recruiter for over twenty years. In 2022, at the age of sixty, after years of rejections, she finally was named head coach of a college basketball team in Texas.  Jason Rhee had been a comedy writer but was so taken with EJ's journey that he became a documentary filmmaker to be able to tell her story. In the podcast, we talk about EJ, how her story moved him so deeply, the connections he saw between EJ and his recently deceased mother-- an undocumented immigrant from Korea who had endured a great deal of hardship--and how EJ's story also speaks to the larger Asian-American experience in the United States. He also talks about the importance of basketball in his own life and the sisterhood he sees in the team EJ is now coaching. We discuss his pivot to doc filmmaking, his fellowships at Kartemquin and the Center for Asian-American Media, and the challenges and joys of documentary film.  Let us know what you think about Art Works—email us at artworkspod@arts.gov.

Originally Broadcast: August 30, 2006 Walking Tractor And Other Tales of Old Anderson Valley Stories of the days that no longer exist in rural areas tell us how things were, how people worked, lived and played, and bring to life conditions that most of us never knew existed. “Walking Tractor and Other Tales of Old Anderson Valley,” is a collection of stories written by Bruce Patterson, who lives in Philo, a rather small community in rural Anderson Valley, Mendocino County, California. The introduction to, “Walking Tractor,” quotes Ernest Hemmingway as saying, “You can only write about what you know,” something that is verified in the stories of Bruce Patterson, who is known to his friends as Pat. I met with Pat in the studio of Radio Curious, in the last week of August, 2006 to learn about his life, his stories and the man he is.

Did you see any of the celebrity-backed ads for the slew of now defunct crytpo businesses? Did they leave you scratching your head at the time? It was precisely the inscrutability of cryptocurrency that allowed scammers like Sam Bankman-Fried to pocket billions through crypto exchanges like FTX. That company’s pitch was essentially “it’s OK if you don’t understand how all of this works, we’ll handle it for you.” But then, of course, the bubble burst. This week on Sea Change Radio, we check in with Matthew Slater, a community currency engineer and blockchain expert with whom we spoke back in 2011, at the dawn of the alternative currency movement. Slater boils down the past decade of cryptocurrency mayhem into layman’s terms and explains why, despite the many bumps along the way, he still believes in a financial system based on what he terms “trade justice.”

Doublespeak! We look at unconscious ways we follow the rules of English by doubling sounds and words, and how meanings of words can change when we say them twice. Now: are you confused? Or are you confused confused?