In the first half, Chris Hadfield, former Commander of the International Space Station, discussed his journeys as an astronaut, as well as his new novel, a thriller about the Cold War and the space race. Life on the space station is quite busy, he noted, as about 200 different experiments are being run at any one time, and there is a long list of maintenance tasks and repairs that need attention. While there, your time is scheduled down into five-minute increments, and instead of being bored or claustrophobic, "it's like this constant race to just try and keep up," he added. Many astronauts develop vision problems because of the lack of gravity, which changes the tearing function. For Hadfield, he was temporarily blinded after a contamination issue during a spacewalk.
He described the incredible vistas one can see from space, such as viewing all of the Great Lakes or Europe at a glance. "When you're overhead London, you can see Rome and Stockholm," he marveled. Upon returning to Earth, he had to re-acclimate his balance after being weightless, but his perceptions were permanently enhanced with his birds-eye view, as well as an understanding of the commonality of the human experience after seeing the planet as one. His new book, The Apollo Murders, imagines an alternative history for 1973, in which the canceled Apollo 18 mission actually takes place with a top-secret agenda to stop a Soviet space station from spying on America.
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In the latter half, mundane astrology expert Mark Lerner talked about the implications of the total solar eclipse in Sagittarius on December 4th, as well as the important transits coming up in 2022, and what we might expect in the year ahead. The solar eclipse, which will only be visible over Antarctica and the southernmost tips of countries like Australia and New Zealand, appears close to the horizon. In that sense, it will have a very enlightening energy, he commented. In the days just preceding the eclipse, Neptune will be motionless, and this can represent confusion and/or spiritual or visionary energy, he detailed. Neptune, which has a 165-year-cycle related to America's birth chart, is returning to the position it was in during the Civil War, which may account for the increase in polarizing views, he added.
He also talked about Jupiter's 83-year-cycle, which points to a connection between 1938 (the brink of WWII) and 2022. He cautioned that there could be another war brewing, particularly involving Russia and Ukraine. Coming up in December, the major planets Saturn and Jupiter will once again square off, which can indicate conflict, and in the first two months of 2022, the asteroid Ceres and dwarf planet Sedna will be in conjunction, he continued. Lerner, who gave readings to callers in the last hour, also mentioned a Venus and Mars conjunction in mid-February through mid-March 2022, which he characterized as an extraordinary event.
News segment guests: Lauren Weinstein, Steve Kates