Milt Rosenberg

The title of this program describes a noble fight. On the front lines of this battle are Americas physicians and support staff in the various studies of medicine. Weve enlisted the participation of three leading doctors from The University of Chicago Medicine, namely Drs. Douglas Dirschl, Jason Luke, and Nir Uriel, a surgeon, an oncologist and a cardiologist, respectively. This discussion covers lifestyle, patient-doctor relations, treatments, technology, the healthcare business, dealing with insurance companies, and the future of medicine.

Man is causing the Earth to warm. Industry and mans poor stewardship of the planet will lead to our ruin. This is not an uncommon opinion held by many. Indeed, labeling it opinion is heretical in some circles. But as there are many instances of the Earth shedding one climate pattern for another throughout geological time, in other circles any change in long term weather patterns is to be expected, and former changes occurred long before man and certainly before we were burning fossil fuels.

Interestingly, for this program, we found no takers who were willing to debate the case against anthropogenic global warming with two researchers at the Heartland Institute, namely James Taylor, VP of the Institute and Steve Goreham, author of Executive Director of the Climate Science Coalition of America and the author of a great book on the subject. So Milt took up the role of opposition. What followed was an illuminating study into just what, if anything, is happening to the Earth that should cause us fear.

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A collective cry resounds from coast to coast: Weve got to fix our broken education system! Yet what do we do? Young Americans are caught between schools requirements to maintain certain levels of testing and garnering a valuable, useful education that can manufacture valuable, able-minded citizens.

E. D. Hirsch is a pioneer in the field of cultural literacy. Being literate on ones cultural is as important as being literate in letters and the two are indeed married. When ones ability to read and write at an appropriate level is below certain levels, of course their understanding of their environment and culture is retarded as well.

This is a heartbreaking conversation of critical importance to us all. Hirsch is still at it, now heading the Core Knowledge Foundation. For anyone who has ever cared about what their child is learning and why, this is an episode not to be missed.

In anyones top ten list of great events of American history would be mans walking on the moon. This nation was the world leader in space exploration and, while weve scaled back our manned missions into the final frontier, there are still many exciting projects underway. Just this week there was debate about the mysterious pyramid looking structures on Ceres, not to mention the mysterious lights discovered not long ago. Soon, New Horizons will encounter Pluto, providing us with our first look at the former and now Dwarf planet.

With all of that in mind we welcomed show friends Bill Mellberg and Richard Easton, both sons of scientists who were influential in the beginning of the American space program. Youve no doubt heard them on this show before. Joining them is Dr. Paul Spudis, an Astrogeologist and moon expert, who would like to see us return there, saying theres still much to be learned and much to be gained from it.

Onward, to the Final Frontier....

John Kass should be appointed as the new head of FIFA. To be sure, its an appointment that would suit him. But as he may not have the necessary backing, he will have to rely on his current position as the hugely popular columnist for the Chicago Tribune. Mr. Kass sat in with Milt to talk about the business of radio, of newspapers, and of media in general. We also talk current news and the state of our union and free speech, with a touch of Greek culture.

We delve deep into issues political, scientific, academic and beyond on this program. This compels us to address news items of grave importance as they develop. So when the report from the Supreme Court came today of its historic ruling making gay marriage legal in all fifty states, we immediately assembled a panel to analyze that ruling. Joining Milt today are Jason Russell of the Washington Examiner, Professor Robert William Bennett of Northwestern, Roger Severino, the Director of the Devos Center for Religion and Civil Society at the Heritage Foundation, Phyllis Schlafly, who requires no introduction, and Professor Andrew Koppelman, who is the John Paul Stevens Professor of Law, also at Northwestern.

You will find quite an array of opinions expressed on the Courts ruling in this program from guests and listeners alike.

Kenneth W. Ford is one smart cookie. He went to work at Los Alamos at the ripe old age of 24, working alongside such physicist luminaries as Oppenheimer, Fermi, Wheeler, Neumann, and Teller. If these names dont ring a bell to you, then you have found this interview at the right time, because youd do well to learn a bit about how one of the worlds deadliest weapons came to be, what it meant to the economy, the military, peace, negotiations, and a whole host of other areas of life as we know it. Ford has just penned a book on his experiences on the birth of a weapon that is 700 times stronger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, and what he thinks about its usefulness and place, if any, in the world.

Senator George Mitchell was the Majority Leader until he did something we could only wish that other politicians would emulate: He retired from political life. He has just penned a memoir which is deeply readable. It is not merely a collection of self-congratulating tales from a political life, but there are some amusing and interesting anecdotes from his interactions with great personalities of American cultural and political life. A man of humble origins, Mitchell went from small town Maine to the highest quarters of power. He will be remembered most perhaps for his role in bringing peace to Ireland. Post-Senate, Mitchell went on to lead some of the worlds largest corporations, including Disney. We recommend the book. Start with this interview.

Theres a lot happening on the religious front. Pope Francis has weighed in on climate change. ISIS continues its mayhem in the Middle East. Church attendance in America is going the way of church attendance in Europe--many empty pews in houses of worship of nearly all denominations. To discuss these and many others of spiritual import we enlisted some of our friends who are in the know, namely Manya Brachear Pashman of the Chicago Tribune, Emily Soloff at the AJC and David Heim with the Christian Century.

Irwin Weil is a fine storyteller we have known for years. As professor of Slavic Languages and Literature at Northwestern, he is also an expert on Russian life and culture. He has just penned an autobiography, and joined Milt to talk Russian life, music, a bit of politics and culture and to share some of his memories of his encounters with great some of the great figures from Russian 20th century history.