Imagine if the Beatles never broke up but instead worked out their differences and continued to make history with new revolutionary music. For author Bryce Zabel this alternate history is his latest exploration in a new book. Zabel joined Jimmy Church (email) to discuss why this idea is no fairy tale, but one that has been researched and extrapolated from the real people and actual events then bent and shaped to create an entirely plausible original story where the Fab Four find a way to stay friends and keep the band together.
"What I've tried to do with this alternate history is to give people another way to appreciate [The Beatles]... because we all kind of wish they'd stayed together," Zabel said. It's possible we could have had another 50 years of Beatles music, he proposed. Zabel's book continues the rivalry between The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, which ended in reality when the Fab Four broke up in 1970. Zabel depicts what would have happened had John Lennon acquired the rights to The Lord of the Rings books and hired Stanley Kubrick to direct the band members in a film version. He also tackled the 'Paul is dead' conspiracy theory alleging that Paul McCartney died in the mid-60s, noting "this didn't happen."
Zabel, who created the alien conspiracy television series Dark Skies (1996), also commented on UFOs, disclosure, and how the subject is treated in contemporary media. Alien visitation is good science fiction but for most people it is not a credible topic, he suggested, adding his series weaved actual UFO case files into a fictional narrative. "If you're willing to believe that we would like to go out there in search of aliens... then why wouldn't they want to do the same thing," he questioned. According to Zabel, at least some of the objects in our skies are from someplace else and are piloted by beings not from our world. He also shared details from a strange men in black encounter.
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First hour guest, Dannion Brinkley, in his annual Veterans Day interview, shared his work with vets across the US. Brinkley's end-of-life care organization, The Twilight Brigade, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. "I understood being a veteran myself, and I'm proud that 20 years this has been working, and over 7,000 people do palliative and end-of-life care," he said.
Brinkley himself has 32,000 hours at the bedside where he's personally attended to more than two thousands dying veterans—many of whom were all alone. He spoke about the necessity of the Whistleblower Protection Program and how right now is the time to effect change in Veterans Affairs. The culture of Veteran care must be changed and how end-of-life care is designed, Brinkley suggested, noting death is not the end. "I know there's no such thing as death... I have firsthand experience," he revealed.