On how to react to the request 2 days into a ceasefire Turkish backed forces and Kurdish led forces are continuing to clash in northern Syria intense fighting began earlier this month N.P.R.'s Jenny gets right reports General David Petraeus previously served as the commander in charge of u.s. Forces in the Middle East he tells N.P.R.'s All Things Considered the u.s. Had a small strategic presence in northern Syria before the Trump administration decided to withdraw he says it was Kurdish fact forces who were on the front lines fighting ISIS the Kurds always used to say the current had no friends but the mountains and I would reassure say Americans are your friends we will not desert you sadly this is a 1000000000 betrayal about 30000000 Kurds live across Iran Iraq Turkey and Syria they're considered the world's largest stateless ethnic group Jenny gets right n.p.r. News this is n.p.r. News engineers will try Sunday to bring down 2 giant cranes leaning over a partially collapsed hotel in New Orleans they had planned a demolition Saturday but decided the cranes were more damaged than they had thought the hotel under construction near the city's historic French Quarter partially collapsed last Saturday 3 workers were killed. Johnson and Johnson has agreed to pay States more than $100000000.00 to settle claims that it misrepresented the safety of pelvic mesh Blake Farmer of member station w p l p w p l n n natural reports Johnson and Johnson has not admitted any liability but the settlement with 41 states requires the company to be more upfront with patients about the potential complications from using pelvic mesh for instance the company can no longer claim the material will remain soft and pliable in the body because many women have experience just the opposite with the mesh cutting and poking their insides and then surgeons having an impossible time retrieving all the pieces embedded in scar tissue several other states have individual claims against Johnson and Johnson's unit f a car in which makes the pelvic mesh the company faces trouble with several key products including opioid painkillers and this week it recalled some baby powder after regulators found trace amounts of its best us for n.p.r. News I'm Blake Farmer in Nashville the Houston Astros are going to the World Series they beat the New York Yankees 6 to 4 Saturday night to win the American League championship series in 6 games the play the Washington Nationals the 1st game will be Tuesday in Houston I'm sure Rahm n.p.r. News in Washington support for n.p.r. Comes from n.p.r. Stations other contributors include the Kresge foundation expanding opportunities in America's cities through red making and social investing more and Prezi dot org And the John d. And Catherine t. MacArthur Foundation Ed Mack founded dot org. From here Ex This is the mom Radio Hour I'm sorry. This episode is all about. Literal telephone calls and one story about a man's true calling I must say I don't love talking on the phone I'm a much stronger in person kind of friend but I've been practicing phone conversations more so when I do call my best friend well after she picks up the phone and says Wow I say we're doing our favorite saying We're talking on the phone . So we're doing this hour because when the phone rings it's like a great mystery and remember before caller id we didn't even know who was on the other line phone calls can change the direction of a story in an instant they reveal things like in this 1st story from Susan Feeney Susan told it one of our open mike stories slams in Seattle where we partner with public radio station. For a little appetizer of a story really sets the tone for this hour you'll see what I mean. Here Susan feel you live with a mom. So I'm a mental health counselor I work with families and teens and one of the biggest questions you get is how do you know what your teenager is really thinking about you and I'm here to tell you I have the answer you don't have to go through their room it's not about reading texts or going on the computer I found out the hard way . So I'm now buying a car with my 17 year old daughter counsellor so I had what I call the counselor car for many years they don't make it anymore a Honda inside it's a pretend Prius. So stripped down there's nothing in this car and I'm going to use. So that long you know gas mileage and all but we're going to we're going to bump it up a little bit and I'm going to buy this new car my daughter's with me we're going to learn how to buy a car this is going to be cool and who I get is the sales guy is Chris the college kid Chris the college kid showing us around showing me the new things that you can get in a car so I'm learning I'm liking this car my daughter's next to me Chris is in the back he showed me how all these things work in the car and it's got Bluetooth. I've never had Bluetooth I honestly didn't know how it worked people can hear things in their car this is amazing Chris show me Chris college kid how do you use Bluetooth these I can do this so he says to my daughter you got your phone you know he says Ok you got your phone i see i got he was Ok Right now call your daughter on the Bluetooth. Ok I call my daughter all the sudden all the sudden like surround like I want you to know what's happening bump on the bump on a bump 6. What is happening now if you don't know the sun coming up Purana you do know it because any movie that involves Satan has this song. I do not understand what is happening right now but Chris the college kid in the backseat does understand he and my daughter understand that this is her ring tone for me. I see him in the bad riverman he's like. This. So I can see my brother I try to understand he's like yeah yeah you called your daughter you could have a conversation now Ok. So so I did well up with was what really only a counsellor would ask I mean this takes training. I see Gabrielle. What is your father's I. And she comes back with the Imperial March I. So bottom line you want to find out what your teenager thinks of you ring tones baby it's all about the ring tones Thank you. That was Susan. Susan and her husband live in Seattle Washington where she still works as a counselor her daughter Gabrielle was in the audience the night Susan told the story Gabrielle says she remembers the incident in the same way but says that she was totally embarrassed and scrambled to turn down the volume on her phone ring. But now she and her mom laugh about it and they go to mosque shows together whenever they can. Our next story is told by Miranda surf Moran is a neuroscientist and probably the fastest talker ever to appear at the mosque he speaks so fast that the transcript of the story is also at the mosque you miss anything and you want to read it later this story is about a series of crossed wires and missed own paths Moran told it in the Adirondacks at a mosque Mainstage produced the North Country Public Radio Here's Moran surf life at the ma. I'm a neuroscientist. And I do research on people who don't get a lot of Fame doing that but I actually got tell your story about how I did somehow end up being famous for that so in my research I'm working with patients undergoing brain surgery and we try to do all kinds of things to help them but also the research with these patients and one of the things I did in the last couple of years was a study where we took patients who are undergoing brain surgery and put electrodes deep inside their brain during surgery to help them with clinical reasons but we also did something where we told them we're going to show you pictures and see how your brain looks when you see those pictures and we can have a map of your brain when you see those pictures and then we can basically know how your brain looks when you think of those things so a patient could sit in bed and think about the Eiffel Tower we would see a pattern that we heard from before and we would picture with Project a picture of the Eiffel Tower in front of their eyes submissions would basically sit in bed think about things and we would protect their thoughts on a screen in front of their eyes and this was only a multiple project it took us 5 years to accomplish and when we finished we were very excited and wanted to tell the world about it and the way scientists tell the world about things is by publishing it in a paper so we write a paper describing everything we did and we said we could have people sit in bed think about things and projector thought in a screen and then you send this paper to a bunch of journals. Journals with all kinds of ranking and what and the journals basically take your work and try to find flaws in it and if they conflict find any flaws they publish it and that's basically what you do as a scientist this is your career you know journalists get all kind of ranking and the highest ranking Journal in science they wanted to hire to get in is called nature nature is where you put your work if you really are going to change the world to give you an example this is where they discover of d.n.a. Was published and I think fifty's when they cloned the sheep Dolly it was published there when they discover a new galaxy they publish it there it's really the place where you put your work if you're going to change the wall so we submitted our work there and it took 6 months where people tried to find flaws in our work and eventually on October 1st I got the e-mail saying congratulations your work is going to be published in Nature in 3 weeks and I was excited this is something that doesn't happen regularly to scientists It happens usually 0 to one times a scientist so I was really happy that my work is going to be there I was still a graduate student at the time I was excited and then they tell you that they're going to come up to your work within 3 weeks we have 3 weeks to kind of prepared things and then they have a press release with their announce to the wall do work and usually those press release don't go well people don't get it right so I had this idea I contacted nature and I said why don't we create a You Tube video explaining the work we're going to make a life video interview myself my colleagues were going to show videos of the patients thinking about thing and projecting their thoughts and this video is going to explain to people how it's done and they were very happy with it and I said I'm going to make it I'm going to edit and make this movie so I spent the next weeks working and making this movie and I actually worked day and night and I learned stuff and I did a lot of cool things in the movie and I ended up working until the very last day until the day the person it was about to happen and I worked all night and it 8 am that morning I actually put this video out there on nature's website and I just waited now personally it was scheduled for 1 pm so I had 5 hours to sleep and I thought I'm going to go to sleep now lest. Before my glorious day comes out and I put my phone on vibrate and I went to sleep to actually read it and I was planning to wake up at 1 pm to see how things kind of come out but actually ended up working up an hour before because my phone kept vibrating the entire time in woke me up and I pick up my phone I look at it and I had 50 missed calls and my answering machine was full of messages and I didn't know what's going on and the phone was ringing right away so I pick up and phone and on the phone who is the senior producer for b b c nightly news and he says I saw your work I saw your video and I'm going to I'm going to want to open our nightly news with this video now here's the thing about the video in the video I asked one of my colleagues a neurosurgeon in our team to explain what this work can be in the future what could happen in the future with this work and he says well in the future you can use this thing to have machines work just using just thoughts using memo is using dreams and then the movie kind of ends gloriously with the future and we fade out and the guy on b.b.c. Calls me and says I saw your video and I want to know about this the recording thing that you're doing just to be clear the recording is not what we did we've never recorded when we have that in thing with dreams we only had patients think about things and protect our thoughts and just the movie ends with the final 2 words according dreams so you ask me about it I say no talking about what is the recording and he says Well some of you one of your colleagues in the team set up something about recording and I say well I don't think it's too maybe it was a mistake as I understand is it possible impossible as well until it's possible to say thank you to. And so the last thing that I said to the biggest producer was that they make all these possible and I say well it's not a big deal one thing one little mistake it's going to be a big deal probably $11.00 little fluke but doesn't matter now it's 1 pm and I look at the browser to see what comes out in the 1st thing is nature having dispersal is describing the the ability do it to have people think about things and see their thoughts and the 2nd thing is b.b.c. With a headline scientists say that coding is possible. And I say well one mistake not a big deal no one's going to notice that and I thought about it again then and Slater I must I'm busy scientists have been accordingly is the 1st of all other Fox News scientists going according to us and keeping them in storage the 1st about there was a journal called The team getting in there is they have 100 of years of the story gets bigger and bigger everyone talks about it the recording no one even mentions the ability to think of things and show them the screen no one even mentions it and as a person of ours are going to get in more and more news outlets are talking about the scientists at Caltech who can record your dreams and I'm really frustrated I don't want to do and people call me and I answer and I try to explain to one by one each that it's not the case but no one really cares that keep talking about the coding them to have a name for it now the deal in the Democratic machine and it has a place that people bite and there's like you can buy 10 for a dollar and people talk about this thing and and the most I comment about it no one really cares and I'm really frustrated because this is my career on this project and no one cares so I called my dad who's a journalist and I said Dad here's what's happening how can I kill this story because it won't die by itself and my dad say Look son. No one cares about science just turn off your phone for 2 days don't answer anything and the story's going to die by itself because no one cares about it and so I do just that 2 days later the story is number one they have like the strength of it's number one the b.b.c. And with n.b.c. Fox News was a General Motors everyone keeps talking about the recording machine and because I didn't pick up my phone for 2 days now people to me so I get most people sending me their dreams people asking me to do it too can go to hearings with the CIA explaining how they can believe. That for years now and I get more and more those emails all of that of course and I get this chef a famous British chef sends me says his dreams have been about this particular recipe and he can get ingredients and money to put their clothes in his brain and giving them credence and Apple cause when they say they want to have this limited machine in their next operating system and I say doesn't exist I don't know if they find you want to play it father that we're Ok We're going to open this thing so when you actually release this thing they're going to buy this it doesn't exist or you're really playing it Ok enough so people call me and ask about it and the story one day there's like something that the Queen said and still. Comes this thing and I don't know what to do with I'm feeling frustrated and my friends who've seen me upset for 2 days know the contact me to say you know it's hello we know we're 30 years it's like a fun night why don't you go out you just have a night out forget about this thing and just go out and I say fine it's a good idea I'm going to go out with you guys and I do that we go out and I dress up and it's in a kind of a self-deprecating sort of you are. Like Ford I put a little beard and a pipe and I cut my hair to the side and I have this little glasses and I go out and I we all have a great night out in New York and they take pictures of me and the night after they put it on Facebook and places and look for My Name Not only do they see my work but they also see a picture of me looking like a Ford with a fight with one certain to call them so the story gets even bigger because everyone now knows about this thing with actually the new Ford let's me. And I thought oh my god this story is never going to know what to do and I tried to find all kinds of tricks to do to kill the story by you but by going on live shows and explain that it doesn't it's not the case but knowing nothing happens now that people say you know what it's now over 30 years but in 4 days we're going to have the midterm election in the Us November fall Surely this story going to trump your story for days later the House changes hands but still Story number 2 know is about the scientists are going to call the games nothing will kill the story and I'm waiting it's been a week now and nothing nothing ends and I think that while this is never going to happen I'm at my scientifically is over and at the same time there are other scientists who have been trying to recordings were been commenting my work saying that it's impossible that I've been doing that because they've been trying for years now and other scientists to be competing with them say that of course they can do it because I'm better than them and there's like a battle between scientists all about my work where I'm not involved in and I think to myself Well this is not going to end and I just have to wait and give up my science because. When suddenly I get the phone call I was sitting in my office and the phone rang it was 6 pm and answered the phone and on the line was this woman she says I'm going to put up with you in a 2nd and I wait for a 2nd and on the line is a person who this is a self as Christopher Nolan. A famous filmmaker who just released a movie called inception about the same time about people who could do stuff with dreams and he calls in and says Look at me look at your work now for a few days it's great we're going to have a d.v.d. Release of inception in a few days and I want you to be the face of this thing we want you I want to go into Walter with me and explain how you've been doing it for a while so my work has been going to be getting the difficult toity the stamp and I say well. I don't want to say it's really great movie but you know we never did it we never recall dreams and I don't think it's possible in the sense that you think it is and. So I mean the paper I want to read it in fact he was the 1st and only guy out of all the reporters all over the world actually asked me to give him the paper so I sent in the paper and he read it and he called me back and I said look I look at your work yes there's nothing about dreams there but it doesn't matter I think you're going to do with me because you know the face of the recording everyone thinks you are going to do with me and expend how it can be done no one really cares about the details just go into the next thing I was done and I say well let me think about it because on the one hand lies fame and fortune and the other hand my integrity in science and I need 24 hours to think about which which of the 2 I'm going to choose so I spend 24 hours thing about it and after 24 hours the phone rings again and I think up and I say. As much as I would have loved to help you in this I don't think I can go in this world too with you and explain how dreamy coding is possible given that it's not. And he says well I understand if you ever change your mind we have a we were going to do and I say. You member and I call you back and so all I was left was with scientific logic that gradually went right way and people actually no know the truth about it in a story thank you. For it was my answer I ran as a professor of neuroscience at the Kellogg Business School and a professor at the American Film Institute prior to his career in opening and studying brains he worked as a hacker host and furniture designer told this story a while back and I asked him if people can record dreams now and he said numerous labs are pursuing it his lab is exploring it daily and they're getting closer and closer he says the only difference between science fiction and science is timing and by the way about his story I don't worry about time limits if it's running too long just faster. After our break an elevator mechanic gets an unexpected call from her mother and then another and then another when the month Radio Hour continues. Is supported by new offering a personalized weight loss program based on a cognitive behavioral approach with the goal of losing weight and keeping it off for good learn more at new and o.o.m. Dot com. The Moth Radio Hour is produced by Atlantic Public Media Woods Hole Massachusetts and presented by p.r. X. And support for k.q.e.d. . Comes from the San Jose civic presenting America's Got Talent star Jackie Evancho singing arias Broadway tunes and songs from Classic Movies Live in Concert Nov 11th tickets are available and that Ticketmaster dot com and European sleep works the story that bases its design and materials on research factors affecting sleep including comfort and support humidity levels and ease of breathing details online about their mattresses and bedding sleep work stop calm. Places. Disappear. In the next. Place. This. Cuddle up with someone snap judgment coming up tonight at 11. This is the Moth Radio Hour from n.p.r. X I'm sorry assed engine as we're exploring calls in this hour our next story is about a good kind of phone call it's the kind that changes your life in a positive way Nancy mall was originally part of a mock community workshop we taught with Congregation Beth Tiva a Reconstructionist synagogue and fountain Baptist Church in New Jersey it was a math workshop that brought together 2 different faiths to connect across traditions Nancy then told their story at a community showcase in Brooklyn New York here's Nancy my life at the mock. Thank you. It was a regular Tuesday at work it was a beautiful day and I was standing on the roof of the New York Times building in Times Square. I was on the roof because I'm an elevator mechanic and that's where the elevator machine rooms are. I was drinking a cup of coffee and watching the traffic below and I heard the phone ring in the motor and that usually is a bad thing it means somebody stuck in an elevator or somebody is complaining about something so I went in to answer the phone and it was my mother. I hadn't spoken to my mother in maybe 2 years so it was strange on so many levels it was strange that she would call me that she would call me on the roof or the New York Times that she would know that I was on the roof for the New York Times and she said Are you Ok I said I'm fine sorry I haven't called in and she said no really Are you Ok and I said I'm Ok Are you Ok she said I'm Ok I said Ok that's great. Syrup a plane hit the World Trade Center and I was worried about you and I said Well that that's sad and she said No really it's serious and and I just want to make sure you're Ok and I said Ok I'm Ok and we hung up and I you know how the rest of the day went. The next day I was back at work and in the phone rang in the motor room and it was my mother. And she said How are you doing or your friends Ok. Where do you live here is your house Ok And and I said My most of my friends are accounted for and houses Ok And and I'm I'm back in Times Square am I'm safe and and and she said well how's my city and me preface this by saying My mother was a New Yorker she lived in Jackson Heights Queens and and then in Maryhill and in 1037 she was missile arch monster she'd have you know. And we don't. Well we didn't we didn't get along we didn't we didn't agree on really much of anything. She's she was a Republican as a Democrat sliding toward communist. And she's a devout Catholic person and I'm very much not and she's she was straight and I'm gay and she didn't she had a really hard time with that and so any time we tried to talk about anything food movies politics religion. We did up in opposite corners of the room hissing at each other and and we just sort of gave up because there wasn't much in the relationship that fed either of us and every time we got together it ended in a terrible fight and and we just sort of let it go so here she was calling me a 2nd time and I was really touched it seemed like she actually cared which I did not think she did and. And she said you know during the war when your father was overseas all us ladies had to go out and keep everything open we had to go to concerts and sports events and in museums and you're going to have to do that you can have to keep my city alive for me. My mother had left New York and gone out to take care of a sick relative in South Dakota and was foolish enough to marry a cowboy so she was calling me from the west and she hadn't been back to New York and in decades. But she still thought New York was her city and she wanted to know how it was so we. We developed a kind of a rhythm every morning I'd get a little 5 minute phone call from my mother to see how her city was and she'd asked me what I was doing and and so I said well I got tickets to Joe's Pub and I saw Justin Vivian bonded and they sang Benny Goodman songs to keep everyone spirits up and she told me about going to the Waldorf Astoria and dancing to Benny Goodman and she said you know what are you going to do tomorrow so I every day I had to come up with like a little what did I do and and how was I keeping her city alive and I was going to theater and I was going to sports events which I hate and you know I was. One night I was an emergency call back walking through Times Square going up 6th Avenue and and my little flip phone rang and it was my mother because at this point she got my phone number so she could call me whenever she wanted to and she said how's my city do and tell me about it hold up your phone and let me hear so I walked along 6th Avenue and she could hear the horses clopping around Central Park and she could hear the taxis honking and she said what's it look like and I said well every Texas got this little plastic flag hanging out of the window every business has a flag on it even the gay bars have flags on them. So it looks like Kansas. And. My mother found that touching and she's like Well I'm glad you finally got some patriotism I and she said I I'm I'm. I'm thinking about visiting you so just put that in your mind and. This was a scary thought so I thought I'll just keep her at bay with a few more stories and then. I got to get tickets to the opera so the opera is something I never wanted to go to and I spent 4 hours listening to this Mozart thing that went on and on and on and everybody was just like my mother and it was very stuffy and it was very boring and then at the end this red haired lady came out and she sang this aria and it was gorgeous and I knew nothing about opera but I discovered that night that they sing without microphones they're just freaks of nature and they can fill this huge auditorium with just what God gave them and at the end of this aria all these stiff looking people stood up and they started pounding on the boxes and screaming and throwing flowers and shrieking and stomping and it was like Yankee Stadium in the cheap seats and I was like this is really raw This is really visceral I get. So when I told my mother about that she said we're going together I'm coming I'm coming to j.f.k. Come and pick me up so I drive out to the airport and I'm terrified because we've been having this beautiful little relationship where I make the city come alive for her and she makes the city come alive for me and everything's great in 5 minute increments but now we're going to be stuck together for a week and I don't know how smart this is because it's a beautiful thing and I think it's all going to go. So I picked her up get her gigantic suitcases and put it in the car and we're driving in semi silence because I think she's also scared and she says so if you've been going to Mass. And I just let that sit there for a minute. It was like you know. And then there was silence. And then she said well I have some things in the suitcase for you and hoping. Which is it turns out the Legion of Mary went all over Sun City and bought every dust mask they could find which was really sweet because we had known all of the people who work in downtown were out and and we appreciated that. And she said I got something else for you so we got back to Jersey City to my little skinny 12 White House and we went upstairs to the guest room and she ends up this bag and inside it was the flag from my father's coffin I think I mentioned here's a b. 17 pilot in World War 2 And this coffin flags are. In my house is small and she said Do you mind if we hang it on the house you know patriotic but. See here I would love it so we opened the 2 windows and we we dropped it down the front of the house and it basically covered the whole house. So if anybody doubted my patriotism they doubted it no longer. And the rest of the week went really well we had like one little fight and we worked it out and we stayed away from religion and we. Politics and we stayed on culture we went to things together and we loved each other and we enjoyed each other and we had those 5 minute phone calls for the next 9 years of her life and I missed every one of them and I have tickets to the opera for next Saturday was Nancy I'm on the as he still was opera in fact she just Bluebeard's Castle at the Met which coincidentally featured an elevator shaft as a principal visual element Nancy's mom came to New York one more time after this story took place she went to the New York Times to see her daughter and meet editors and reporters and the president at the times Nancy said her mom wasn't willing to ride on the top of than elevator but she did peek down the shaft and screen. To see a photo of Nancy and her mom plus the newspaper clipping of Miss Larchmont at the World's Fair in Flushing in $1039.00 go to the mob. Was. * A story from comedian and actor Cheech Marin of the comedy duo Cheech and Chong when the mass radio hour continues. Support for the mosque comes from new offering a personalized weight loss program that uses psychology small goals and technology designed to help people change happens and keep the weight off for good at noon and 000 am dot com. The most Radio Hour is produced by Atlantic Public Media in Woods Hole Massachusetts and presented by the Public Radio Exchange p.r. X. Dot org And support for k.q.e.d. Comes from the right. Them are in museums of contemporary art creating transformational experiences through art in education featuring 50 faces contemporary mosaic portraits from northern Italy a very world renowned artists actors and musicians Moca dot org the same as a civic presenting the king of romance angle Burt Humperdinck playing all his hits live in concert on October 27th and he pm tickets available now at ticketmaster dot com on the Next Radio Lab What is one more year or one more month or one more day of life worth to us worth that's in the Next Radio Lab. Radio Lab coming up at 3 o'clock tomorrow morning this is the month Radio Hour on k.q.e.d. Public Radio. You're listening to the Moth Radio Hour from n.p.r. X. I'm sorry assed engine s. In this hour all about calls our last story is about a calling it's from Cheech Marin some of you may know Cheech is an actor he's one half of the hilarious duo Cheech and Chong and they've made 8 films together this is basically teaches origin story it's how teach became Cheech and it takes place at the time of the Vietnam War He told this in a mock knight must Angelus that is produced in partnership with public radio station and this young couple is Cheech Marin lived to be was. I used to be a Cub Scout. I was a boy scout I was an altar boy I sang in the church choir I was a straight a student all through school when I graduated from high school I won the religion award I was the product of a Catholic education and I was prepared for anything that happened here in the 12th century I. My father Oscar was a cop 30 years l.a.p.d. . He was a World War 2 vet was in the Navy saw combat in the Philippines and he never talked about it except once he talked about that or stood why he never talked about it was horrific. And you only had one rule Oscar and that will was my way or the highway. We didn't get along really great. But it was just because of that is because he worked me to death I'd wake up in the morning all right make your bed are make your bed again those corners are right go out there and cut the lawn now edge a lawn now come in a vacuum now watch the car that Dad come on here hey listen you're a Chicano. And you're always going to have to have 3 jobs. So get used to it. So when I went off to college man I was ready for anything get me outta here so I worked when I came home from work and my roommates had a little party going on and there was music and there was laughter and the lights were low and it was really smoky in there for some reason. And out of the blue somebody handed me this little hand roll cigarette and well I'm here to try anything so I took it here. And I heard my dad's voice. If you ever smoke marijuana you're going to turn into a heroin addict and you're going to steal your mother's purse. So I took another hit an. Looked around and what else are they been lying about. For those of you who didn't go to college in the mid sixty's boy you missed it. Because it was happening there was a revolution going on there was a very unpopular un just immoral war going on and it was an in fouls of young men over there to die in the jungles of Vietnam and they lied to us every step of the way. And my college was a hotbed of radical activities were a string of of speakers that came in a riled us up there was Floyd McKissick from snake there was enough from the Chicano lan movement there was Timothy Leary of his. L.s.d. I became a good friend of mine. To didn't turn on to him and drop out 2 weeks before he was assassinated Robert Kennedy spoke at our university Martin Luther had been killed just before that now Robert Kennedy and they were they were murdered in our leaders but there was one person that came to school and he made the most impact on me he wasn't the most fiery he wasn't the most bombastic he was actually the quietest his name was David Harris and he was the leader of the draft resistance movement and he had a very simple message if you're not registered for the draft don't register if you're registered Nichol you offer physical don't go to the physical if you've gone to the fiscal nasty to step forward to be inducted in the army don't step forward refused to be a part of this machine. And there's only thing that made sense to me too in this hope hope period so that's what I'm going to do so I handed him my draft card gave it to David Harris himself and he put it on a collage that accompanied him and his new wife Joan Baez on the speaking tour throughout the United States and it was on the cover of Time magazine and if you looked real closely in the corner you could see my name. And I was a revolutionary now I was going to make a change I was I was fearless until about 2 weeks later General Hershey who was the director of the draft of the time you should this proclamation that anybody who burnt their draft card or turned it in or or demonstrated in front of the draft board would be immediately reclassified drafted and sent to the front lines of Vietnam and that was his fix and I thought it doesn't seem like it's quite so legal but anyways that's what he did so salute him from revolutionary to little scared revolutionary. But another miracle happened that time I discovered that I was an artist I couldn't draw and I couldn't paint or couldn't sculpt but I took a pottery class my last semester in school and my Mexican genes came trotting out. Here halls was were you big Come on man let's get on the well we're back ordered Let's go. And I made pottery from the time I woke up to the time I went to bed I was a pottery Macon fool. And that became a laugh unless I found my calling I was going to Potter has got to go out and I was a make dig in the ground to make clay and make pots for the rest of my life. And then I got. Another notice that I had been reclassified when a relative I was in school had a 2 s. Deferment but they reclassified me because my political activities only she's limited to the now so my pottery teacher who was kind of hip to what I was going through said you know what I have this x. To the mine who's a Canadian in his very successful maybe you could be his assistant that's all the man I get up gathered all the money I could which was 8 bucks. But a bus ticket got ready to leave and before I left I want to say goodbye to my mother and my father happened to be there at the house they were getting divorced of the time he learned about my plans and said you know what I don't believe in what they're doing over there but if they called me I would go well that's the difference between this isn't it. I have the strength of my convictions didn't set well with him. So we didn't part on really good terms but I was on the dog north. The last stop we had before we crossed over the border into Canada was Great Falls Montana we pulled in the Great Falls late at night I got off the bus bone weary went to check in those hotel and in the corner there was a bar with a bunch of cowboys having a good time getting drunk and one of the covers looked up halos like a draft dodger you draft dodger you go to go to kill the war you better not because we're going to be here in the morning we'll take care your ass. So I didn't spend quite so restful the night and I and I came downstairs quietly in early in the minute looked around the corner and there was no cowboys there I guess hangover Trump to print patriotism. So I got back on the dog and entered Canada now I had a picture of what I thought candidate was going to be like it was going to be Sergeant Preston of the Yukon with a team of dogs and Eskimos and igloos and then who caught the north man went into Alberta looked like Bakersfield of the. It's a really cold. Room and met the guy address and shut it once bicentennial exhibition of war that year I got there was a famous potter and I became Is the system that I went to work right the day I met him and said Ok Go start clean those bricks once I work my ass out clean those bricks and I worked my ass off every day and I did everything a party should do I dug clay I wedged Clay I pulled clay wrapped Clay I just never threw clay because that was his job and I had to work my way up to it and of Eventually I found a little look cabin to live in by the by the river and it had electricity had a possibility stove it didn't have any gas it didn't have any running water so every day I had to go down to the river for my water and had to chop wood every single day chop wood chop chop wood one night after work I was out there chopping wood it was already dark and man this is both wary and out of nowhere. The northern lights appeared. And they were Borealis and they surrounded me and I was standing in the middle of a cathedral of light with red blue yellow green orange pilot and cars like I got back up my car I'll never be closer to nature than at this moment and I went back to chopping wood because that's what I did every day it was the coldest winter in Alberta in 80 years and there I was 20 below chopping wood and I realized at that point that I can survive anything. But I can always support myself because I know how to work I know how to work because I was taught how to work by. So I went back to chopping wood and some of the couple guys in town they said hey you ever been skiing Oh yeah I used to ski all the time in South Central have. Some of the best hills around them Ok We're going to take you to a band from a teacher how does he know we rented some skis we went up on the Hill pointed me in a snowplow and says Ok this is how you turn this way for left this way for right and push me right now I'm picking up speed here this is cool man I look like the brown blur. And this guy the only thing they didn't teach me how to do was stop and I'm going to hit a back came down and broke my leg in half in half just like that. A compound fracture and I was in the hospital for a month I was in a full cast with with crutches for 6 months. So when I got out of the hospital my same friends said hey you want to come to Vancouver with us it's really cool there that's we're from so. They had such good advice in the 1st place. So I went to Vancouver and he was like San Francisco all of the time except without the drumbeats of war and the protests it was just peace and love than sex and girls and flowers and butterflies and Stanley Park and I had a ball and sooner or later met this other guy that had gone to school with and he was in Vancouver the same reason and he said you know there's this guy in Vancouver and he's running this weird thing that is an improv company in a topless bar. In Chinatown. Skid row. You can is would have a lot in common. So that's how I met Tommy Chong. He had come out the road with his band he had seen improv theater and that's what he wanted to do but he wanted to keep the topless girls at the same time you know because we needed customers and so we started doing topless improv. And what it was was hip people or less as we were doing and we own the club so we could do anything and we did 4 hours of naked improv every single night. And so at the end of 9 months the troop dissolved because all the members wanted to go to the hills to get their head together. My head was together my pocket book one together so I said we're going to make a living doing this and so when we just compact what we're doing with this troop and into 2 guys and and will go be a comedy team and Boko conquer the world yeah sounds good we could go to l.a. Where it was warm I knew everybody and it would be fun only one problem I was wanted by the f.b.i. At the time. And they were always coming around my mother's house according to her seeing if I was there so if I were going to get back of the country they had a brilliant idea of us borrow phony id. You magine that net. So I did I borrowed my my friend Bill Norris driver's license. With a picture of Bill nor on it. So I went up to the immigration guy at the airport hi and I held it up at the Hi I'm Bill nor I'm going down to the l.a. To do some interviews and he looked at the picture and looked at me we both kind of dark he says Well welcome us. And I was in. Wow so but still I was still one addon he was still coming around so I said What am I going to do and every time we go on stage Tommy will save a you know he's one of by the f.b.i. Should. You just kill him that's not funny and then another miracle happened. It was announcement in the paper that my case along with 600 others went to the Supreme Court it was a class action about that illegal drafting and then got thrown out. And so now we were not. We were not felons. So the government tried to redraft me the next day. 3 years later. And they sent me a notice for a physical. Center ban from my x. Rays and went down to the induction center to stand in my underwear with my x. Rays along with a bunch of other guys doctor comes out smoking a cigarette. Looks at me Hey you with a leg come over here it's me into his office these are x. Rays. Well you have about a 13 degree distortion in your leg that's going to come as bad news but you're not fit to be in the Army. I know it probably breaks your heart. But your for after. Lucky break. And. That's what the doctor said. Lucky break in Yes sir it was a lucky break so now it's free if you do anything I wanted to do is what's on my mom how you doing everything but had one last Sure. Article to my dad so I took my buddy along with me for moral support and we toured with house where he was living with his new wife and I walked upon the porch to be force knocked on the door I could see him in the kitchen he was in there and he was cooking towel over his shoulder and I stood there from this long as I couldn't till he saw me outside and. The man can see me for 3 years or we talked not one word not a letter nothing so I walked in and he looked me up and down for a long time so. You hungry you know when to. Sit down so he set down and then he didn't say mother for a long time. But looked at me and said. So what are you been up to. When you know this work and then. When you know how to do that. This is yeah. Thanks. That was Cheech muddiness Angelus. Speech is a 3rd generation Mexican American and in addition to his notoriety for Cheech and Chong he's directed Broadway shows been honored by the Smithsonian and he writes children's books his memoir Cheech is not my real name call me Charlie is out now. Cheech also holds one of the largest private collections of Chicano art in the world. So that's it for this episode of the math Radio Hour all about calls and Collings and if you want to contact us all of our information is at the Ma We hope you'll join us next time. You. Post this our last engine as there are also directing the stories in the show along with Katherine and Michelle the allows ski the rest of the director staff include Sarah Habermann Jennifer Hudson and made bowls production support from family couch more stories are true is remembered and affirmed by the storytellers with the music is by the drift of the music in this hour from. Choral. Sessions. A day as Mozart and Carlos Santana you can find links to all the music we use at our website the more 3 hours produced by j. . Alison with 15 marriage at Atlantic Public Media in Woods Hole Massachusetts this hour is produced with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts special thanks to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association charitable trust for supporting our Los Angeles Mainstage the moderate you always presented by p.r. Rex for more about our podcast for information on pitching us your own story and everything else go to our website dumb off. Support for k.q.e.d. Comes from Firefox the glass room disruptive experience with 50 art objects that challenge visitors to reconsider their daily tech use and the data it reveals a 38 markets treated 4th Street the glass room dot org And European sleep marks the store that bases its design and materials on research factors affecting sleep including comfort and support humidity levels and ease of breathing details on line about their mattresses and batting at sleep Works dot com. Next time on The New Yorker radio hour House Speaker Nancy Pelosi talks with staff writer Jane Mayer about the prospect of impeachment That's next time on The New Yorker Radio Hour. The New York Radio Hour starting tonight at midnight overnight lows in the forty's and fifty's tomorrow highs in the sixty's and seventy's. You're listening to members supported radio k.q.e.d. San Francisco k.q.e.d. North Highlands Sacramento. There are legends fables memories of people through the wailing of spirits. The streaker this a voice of the. People. Here. Live from n.p.r. News in Washington I'm nor Rahm President Trump tweeted Saturday night that next year's g. 7 summit will not be held in his Miami area golf resort he said he decided to remove the site from consideration because of what he described as a media and Democrat crazed irrational hostility the president said as an illustration is considering other places including the presidential retreat Camp David in Maryland defense secretary Mark esper says the nearly 8000 American troops withdrawing from northern Syria will be deployed to western Iraq. Through the Next President ordered American troops out of Syria which cleared the way for Turkey to launch a military operation against Kurt.