Category Archives: Friday Forum

The horror of genocide continues to plague the world, right now in Sudan and, just a few years ago, in Rwanda.  This month’s guest is a 79 year-old survivor of the Jewish Holocaust, Bernie Mueller.  Bernie was ordered into a slave labor camp at 15, was then sent to Terezenstadt and Auschwitz, ultimately escaping from the Germans near the end of the war.

Join host Stephen Spitz for this gripping account of life and death in Nazi concentration camps.

Produced with the assistance of Othiamba Umi.

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In the now-famous Drake equation, Carl Sagan and Frank Drake came to the startling conclusion that a million intelligent civilizations might exist in our Milky Way galaxy alone.  Given that our galaxy is but one of hundreds of billions in the Universe, the number of intelligent alien species may be as high as ten trillion.  Countering these estimates is a recent book by two prominent astro-biologists which argues that earth type planets, and hence intelligent life as we know it, are exceedingly rare. 

Discussing this issue, and how the current rover mission to Mars could answer some of these questions, this month’s guests are Dr. Carl Agee, Director of UNM’s Institute of Meteoritics, and Harrison Schmitt, an Apollo 17 astronaut, who is the last human to have stood on the Moon.   Join host Stephen Spitz for a fascinating discussion about space exploration and life in the universe.

Produced with the assistance of Tristan Clum.

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Host and producer Stephen Spitz speaks with Christopher Hitchens, a social critic and author, about his book, “The Trial of Henry Kissinger”. The discussion includes Mr. Kissinger’s involvement in the overthrow of Salvador Allende’s democratically elected government in Chile and Kissinger’s knowledge of subsequent kidnappings and murders by agents of General Pinochet. We also discuss the alleged leaking by Mr. Kissinger to Richard Nixon of U.S. negotiating positions at the Paris Peace Talks on Viet Nam, which helped Nixon win the 1968 presidential election.

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