Live at the Corner Cafe: it’s GetSmartRadio!

I’m walking by Duboce Park cafe wanting a cup of soup, and there’s some talk going on in front of a live audience and everyone is riveted, so I go in (ducking under the camera) and order my soup (whispering) and the show is about incarceration and different viewpoints and approaches with a focus on Bay Area programs.  There’s a cop, a lawyer, and a super sharp/funny host (Deborah Pardes) actually they were all smart and informed, cared deeply about the issue, and were speaking from a real experience of the situation.

One highlight was when they’re talking about convicts doing Vipassana meditation in prison, and the cop says something like “Oh great, the victim has 300 stitches, and the perp gets to meditate.” And the lawyer manages to totally include that perspective, and adds: but if sitting 10 days in silence helps them to arrive at enough consciousness of what they did and awareness to NEVER do something like that again, isn’t that the point of jail in the first place?

To learn more listen to their podcast!!!  but I just want to say how utterly cool it is that they do this in a neighborhood cafe with a live (and sometimes serendipitous) audience. Sure the The Colbert Report and The Daily Show are smart, and pretty cool, and have some high production values.  But what are the chances that you can stumble onto the set while in search of a cup of soup?

Next time, I’m going to try to actually show up on the set of this show on purpose.  Yeah!