CONVERSATIONS from RURAL AMERICA (formerly
Conversations with Dr. Joe) appeared on KBLF, 1490AM, Red Bluff, from Sep. 6,
1992, to Mar. 24, 2001. It was “a talk show designed to help restore and revitalize
the cultural, religious, and intellectual infra-structure, the heritage that once made
America great.” Its theme was Social and Cultural Issues Pertinent to Rural
America, and it was billed as “a show at the depth of NPR which considers
the sides of things rarely considered by All Things Considered.”
C.R.A. aired Saturday mornings at
7:30, ran for 90 minutes, and had a mix of about 3:1 national figures and authors to local
personalities. Its aim was to explore the presuppositions that underlie the thinking, and
actions, of those active in shaping the world. “Presuppositions, of course, are those
pre-conceived notions we have about reality, about knowledge and how we acquire it, about
what we think is truth. They are the biases — sometimes subconscious — that we
all have, biases that color the way we view, and interpret, the world.” For further
exploration, click an underlined hyperlink or read on below the hyperlinks: (Because of
time constraints, Dr. Joe has taken a break, a hiatus if you will, since the end of March,
2001.)
Dr. Joe's worldview is conservative (Classical Liberal) and
he is a religious man (an orthodox Christian). Like any other person, his worldview
permeates the choices in his life: he is married (with two small children) and is hence an
“old daddy”; and he is a board-certified psychologist with 30 years experience
in both the trenches and the salons of mental health, which gives him perspective on the
struggling welfare mother, the yuppie professional who cannot hold a relationship, the
drug addict, the victim of rape and abuse, the criminal pleading not guilty by reason of
insanity, and the couple struggling to keep a marriage together.
He is an avid reader and doer with an extremely wide range
of interests, which he pursues through his side-line of hosting a radio program that
explores in depth a topic and the presuppositions of the guest. Dr. Joe is up front about
his own biases and presuppositions, and so long as the guest is straightforward about his
or hers, just about any subject can be intelligently discussed or argued, often with very
interesting meetings, or diversions, of the mind.
Another sub-theme of Dr. Joe's shows is to help shift the locus of
culture from the Eastern seaboard toward the center of the country. After all,
“redneck” originally meant an honest yeoman who worked hard, out in the sun, for
his daily bread.
Just as Agatha Christie's Miss Marple saw her tiny village as a
microcosm of the larger world, so Tehama County, California, is “the locus of true
culture and intelligence, the middle of Nowhere and hence the Center of Civilization, that
part of California — no, that part of the USA — no, that part of the world
— where the good, the beautiful, and the intelligent people live, right here in that
hotbed of true civilization: pristine, bucolic, dirt-rich and money-poor Tehama County,
California — where we have the biggest 3-day rodeo in the West — where you
can’t open your car door against the world's highest curbs and all three of our
parking meters were shut down by a citizen's revolt — where cows outnumber people
— where the rattlesnakes, skunks, and coyotes are not the human kind —
where the spotted owl is more likely to appear on the menu than on the endangered species
list — and, most interestingly — where the nuts come from (walnuts and ah-monds,
that is).”
We must realize that ethnocentrism is alive and well and living in all
of us, so good doses of lèse majesté are tonic for the soul and fiber for the
intellectual diet. . . .
Dr. Joe first appeared on a weekly talk-show at KFAX, 1100AM, a 50,000
watt station in the San Francisco Bay Area, from September 10, 1988 until March 31, 1990.
For further information, see his Curriculum Vitae (or
résumé).