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Writers Bloc Presents Jared Diamond and Sandra Tsing Loh

Tradition. Sometimes it's a great thing, where we understand the purpose and the meaning of a tradition as a means of regulating society, of keeping order of time and place, of family and greater community. Sometimes traditions don't make much sense in our modern world but Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Jared Diamond says that traditions from ancient societies have a great deal to teach us in solving universal problems that never go away whether elder care, child rearing, conflict resolution, or even personal fitness.

In his book, The World Until Yesterday, Diamond discusses some primitive societies from his decades of award-winning research (at UCLA) in the Pacific Islands and elsewhere, and their methods of dealing with such contemporary problems as babysitting, care of ageing and ill parent, business and family conflict, and fat kids. Diamond concludes that although continents and light years apart from us, we as a modern civilization could stand to pay a bit of attention to them. Jared Diamond's books are so engaging, entertaining and thrilling because they explain through stories, and through historical and geographical data just how our world is the way it is, and why. From Guns, Germs and Steel to The World Until Yesterday, Jared Diamond warns us that the lessons of the past will literally save our lives.

Science has never been so much fun, with Sandra Tsing Loh and her terrific Loh Down on Science, sponsored by UC Irvine and aired on KPCC. She packs a wollop into a moment of radio time, about facts that we never knew we couldn't live without. In her inimitable and great humorous style, she entertains while teaching us about stuff as varied as sea creatures' mating habits to kissing to body odor to anything we could ever wonder about. Sandra is a contributor to the Atlantic Monthly. She regularly writes controversially and candidly personal articles that become lightening rod topics of public discussion such as on marriage being outdated, the impossible situation of older, Alzheimer-addled parents, menopause, and more. And think of the fun she (and we) will have with Jared Diamond!