Second Amendment As NPR put it in a recent article, the Second Amendment is "short on words but long on dispute."  How can something apparently so simple--a 27-word sentence--be so confusing?  What is so hard to understand about "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed"?  With the multiple tragic shootings in Colorado, Oregon, and Connecticut, and other places getting so much attention, proponents and opponents of guns are pushing and shoving each other with the Second Amendment caught in the thick of it.  To reign back the current arguments for a moment and shed some much-needed light on the actual history of the Second Amendment is legal historian and UC Davis law professor Carlton Larson.

 

 

The Fear Project Nothing holds us back more than fear--it often dominates our lives, paralyzing us into complacency and stopping us far short of our goals and ambitions. In his newest book, The Fear Project: What Our Most Primal Emotion Taught Me About Survival, Success, Surfing...and Love, award-winning journalist and surfer Jaimal Yogis sets out to better understand fear.  In the  porcess, he plunges his readers into great white shark-infested waters and brings them along to surf deadly 40+ foot waves in the dead of winter.  He also takes his readers to some of the leading neuroscience labs and gives them access to conversations with some of the world's best extreme athletes and psychologists.  Jamail is holding a book signing at Time Test Books in Sacramento on Wednesday, January 16 and he's doing it in true fear-facing fashion: by swimming 10 miles of the Sacramento River in the dark with world famous ultra runner Jamie Patrick, and then climbing out for the book signing.

 

 

William Ishmael What inspires artist William Ishmael?  "The effects of time and weather--the stained and varnished rocks of the Grand Canyon, corroded metal, weathered and peeling paint, eroded hillsides, desert streambeds, 2000 year old Roman walls..."  This abstract aesthetic of natural layers and unlayers has served Ishmael well, as he has been named "Artist of the Year" in 2012 by the Sacramento Arts and Business Council.  He joins us today to talk to us about his unique painting style, an approach called "wabi-sabi" by the Japanese, which centers around the acceptence of transience and imperfection.

 

 

Jennifer O'Connor and Chris Brokaw Singer/songwriter Jennifer O'Connor takes "the raw power of rock and merges it with the plaintive honesty of folk to make honest, unpretentious, affecting music." Coming of age during the late '80s and early '90s, Jennifer attracts frequent comparisons to Liz Phair and other artists of that era. Her journey has been a long and weaving one, including stints as a bartender on Broadway, freelance writing, eBay selling, and playing music with the likes of Cat Power, The Mountain Goats, Feist, Nada Surf, and Yo La Tengo.  She's currently collaborating with Chris Brokaw, a major player in the American indie rock scene of the 1990s and who has often been cited for helping kick-start Liz Phair's career.  Both Jennifer and Chris join us for a talk before their show at Naked Coffee in Sacramento.