These are dangerous times and history seems to be accelerating toward something big, but what? According to independent scholar Michael Grosso, Ph.D., it is starting to look like a big crash; not a clash of civilizations but civilization itself crashing. Grosso joined Dave Schrader (email) to discuss how world trends might be propelling us towards doomsday.

According to Grosso, it is meaningful to think about the end of world civilization as several trends happening right now that could quite possibly spell our annihilation: the inexorable march toward climate catastrophe is taking place faster than expected, the revival of nuclear brinkmanship has created a world where a global nuclear disaster could happen by accident, and the growing divide between rich and poor across the world. "They're all increasing... there's no evidence of any decline in these trends," Grosso warned.

Unless there is a drastic change in the general consciousness of people we are heading for rough times, he continued. According to Grosso, a transformation of consciousness can come out of an awareness of imminent danger. It's not until the situation becomes graphically challenging and obvious before such a necessary transformation can take place, Grosso explained. "We're not at the bottom yet, we're not at the edge of the near death experience, as it were, of our civilization before these changes can take place," he said.

Happy Days

First hour guest, Anson Williams, best known for playing Potsie on Happy Days, shared experiences from his time working on the legendary sitcom. "Before we became a mega hit we were almost canceled," he revealed, noting the show had fallen to 48th place in the ratings. After the second season, the show's production was changed from using a single camera and laugh track to three cameras and a live audience with Henry Winkler's Fonzie character taking a primary role, Williams explained. After that it became the number one show, he added. Williams recounted watching the brilliant Robin Williams invent the Mork character on the show. "Robin had a light on him," he said. Williams also revealed how an overwhelming sensation prevented him from boarding a doomed flight, and why he developed Alert Drops to help prevent tragedies on the road.