the guy, right? yeah, we grew up not too far apart. the past, the future. alexa, how old is tom brouk kau? 76 years old. did you think there was a lucky star hovering over ronald reagan? i was very blessed. did you have any clue? no, you were supposed to have the clu. unforgettable moments. from heroes to the greatest generation. you guys haven t been back here in 40 years. first time back. how does it look to you? peaceful. a half century of history. the soviet as we know it is breaking up now. and you were there, because he was. you are a legend. don t talk to my family about that. if you re not a legend, then what are we doing this special for? tonight, tom brokaw at nbc news, the first 50 years. the great plains of north america, my home state of south dakota. where the wind never seems to stop blowing. this is the land of the missouri river, crazy horse and sitting bull, lewis and clark and of course the hearty pioneers who came
and private family foundation dedicated to the interest in religion, community development and education. additional funding also provided by mutual of america. designing customized individual and group retirement products. welcome, i m bob abernathy. some are calling a hanukkah miracle. alan gross arrived safely in the u.s. this week after five years of imprisonment in cube a. the 65-year-old gross, a jewish aid worker had been jailed on charges of espionage although he maintained his innocence. the jewish council was among the many groups welcoming his release. gross thanked all those who prayed for him and said he would use his freedoms for good. we must never forget the two pillars, freedom and responsibility. i m incredibly blessed finally to have the freedom to resume a positive and constructively life. gross s release came as the u.s. and cuba announced a new era of normalized relations ending 50 years of hostility. the white house met pope francis and was instru
welcome. i m bob abernathy. it s good to have you with us for our annual look ahead at what the top religion and ethics stories of the new year may be. e.j. dionne is here. he s a senior fellow with the brookings institution in california, a columnist for the washington post, and professor at georgetown university. kevin eckstrom is the religion news service, and kim lawton is the managing editor of this program. welcome to you all. let s begin with that terrible terrible situation in the middle east with isis and whether it can be brought under control or defeated. who wants to predict anything there? it s one of the big questions the international community is going to have to continue struggling with in this year is how to stop isis. and for the u.s., unfortunately, that means i think some very difficult political debates about increasing the military operations there. and it s interesting that in the past we ve had some more debates about moral implications of u.s.
on it. so it is monday morning but we re still thinking about what happened over weekend. are you in recovery. a little bit. it was a busy weekend, that is for sure. keep your pictures coming. they are pretty cute. so, friday night, last friday i showed you this new independence beer garden over at sixth and market basically. opened tuesday night, last tuesday night, and on thursday they had 2200 people show up, so we check it out friday night, chris murphy and i went over there and our friend bob abernathy, oh, somebody from another station showed up too. hi, jill. i met so many people at the beer garden,. i think saturday i went over to the borgata in atlantic city and, the chef, jeffery suingarian, he and i hosted a cook being demonstration. i actually learn a lot. great. i don t eat much. but difficult this yesterday afternoon, when i got back. you made this. i made that, by following his instructions. he said mike keep everything simple. that is s
host: colman mccarthy come it s such an honor to be able to interview you about the book and your life, and i know you say don t give homework to your students, but sometimes you do and you tell them to say that they love somebody. so want to start out saying i love you. guest: you are sweet. you and our good pals and i have always admired your work and i remember that wonderful interview did with brian lamb on q&a. i thought that was a credit to both of you and you did that with great sincerity and honesty. host: as long as we are single the love i love c-span. brian lamb is such an amazing person and love the interviews he does. and c-span is such a gift. you as an educator must really appreciate c-span. guest: i do. in fact it s one of the things i m very proud of. one of my former students is steve scully who is here and c-span, figure a long time, a great interview. i knew stay when i was at american university in the 1980s. and another student that year was jim