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Space Travel: The Past and the Future
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Space Travel: The Past and the Future

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Forty years ago today, Buzz Aldrin became the second man to walk on the Moon.  Was that the outer limit of human capacity?  Should we let robots take it from there or should we humans try to reach Mars? We talk with Buzz Aldrin and others.   Also, tensions rise in Afghanistan, and I.F. Stone, once accused as a Russian spy, later celebrated as Washington's premier investigative journalist. 

Banner image: Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin on the moon

Making News

Tensions in Afghanistan: Rising Death Toll, US Hostage Video ()

Four US soldiers reportedly have been killed in a roadside bomb blast in eastern Afghanistan, today. Over the weekend, various websites received video of PFC Bowe Bergdahl, an American soldier captured earlier in Afghanistan. Larry Goodson is Professor of Middle East Studies at the US Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Guests:
  • Larry Goodson: Professor of Middle East Studies, US Army War College

Main Topic

Space Travel: The Past and the Future ()

Forty years ago today, humans accomplished a goal as old as the species when two men walked on the Moon. We talk with Moonwalker Number Two about the Moon itself and the depression and alcoholism he faced on returning to Earth. Buzz Aldrin is among those who say the Moon itself is a dead end, but that humans could get to Mars before 2050. He insists that we should. Others point out that we've been there for five years, with robots, which make more precise observations and never need to come home.

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Reporter's Notebook

I.F. Stone, American Radical ()

amer_radical.jpgIn the 1960's, I.F. Stone's Weekly was must-reading in Washington, a one-man operation that often scooped the Washington Post and New York Times. The author and publisher had been a popular New York journalist during the Depression, who was effectively blacklisted during the McCarthy Era as an accused Russian spy.  D.D. Guttenplan is author of a lengthy new biography, American Radical: The Life and Times of I.F. Stone.

Guests:
  • Don Guttenplan: author, 'American Radical: The Life and Times of I.F.Stone'

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