Video Library

NOVEMBER 7, 1983, Christopher Hitchens discussed foreign policy under President Ronald Reagan and daily news headlines.

DECEMBER 24, 1985, Christopher Hitchens discussed political affairs in South Africa and responded to callers' questions.

FEBRUARY 10, 1987, Mr. Hitchens discussed how politics is being treated in the media and responded to callers' questions.

FEBRUARY 21, 1989, Christopher Hitchens discussed author Salman Rushdie’s book The Satanic Verses and the controversy it started. He answered questions from viewers.

MARCH 23, 1992, The journalists discussed the British election, the presidential primary, and current events in the news.

APRIL 5, 1993, On this viewer call-in program, the guests discussed the important events from the past week, including President Bill Clinton’s meetings with President Boris Yeltsin in Vancouver, Canada and the Forest Summit in Portland, Oregon.

AUGUST 23, 1993, Mr. Hitchens and Mr. Buchanan spoke on current events in Washington politics, including the performance of the Clinton administration to date, and the reaction of Western countries toward the civil war in Bosnia. The correspondents responded to callers' comments criticizing the Clinton administration.

FEBRUARY 14, 1994, In this Viewer Call In show, the guests, who are brothers, spoke on the top news stories of the previous week, including British politics, the recent visit of Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams to New York City, and the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. Topics also included the NATO decision to use airstrikes against Bosnian Serb positions around the city of Sarajevo, unless the Bosnian Serbs withdraw their heavy artillery. they took the questions and comments from viewers afterwards.

MAY 31, 1994, Journalist and brothers, Peter and Christopher Hitchens, spoke about life in the United States as well as other issues and took viewer calls.

MAY 15, 1995, Current news events and political issues were examined through reviews of the morning newspapers; interviews with journalists, newsmakers, and legislators, and viewer telephone calls, faxes, and electronic mail. In the first segment, Susan Dentzer of U.S. News & World Report discussed the upcoming week in Congress especially Medicare and the budget. In the newspaper roundtable, journalists Robert Kaiser and Jack Nelson talked about the headline stories. In the point-counterpoint segment, Education Deputy Secretary Madeleine Kunin and Representative Joe Scarborough (R-FL) debated whether or not the Education Department should be eliminated. Christopher Hitchens discussed his article for June “Vanity Fair” on “New York Times” editorial writer Maureen Dowd.

DECEMBER 8, 1995, Current news events and political issues were examined, through reviews of the morning newspapers; interviews with journalists, newsmakers, legislators; and viewer telephone calls, faxes, and electronic mail. Interviews included Nancy Roman, Washington Times and Christopher Hitchens, Vanity Fair, and Richard Brookhiser, National Review, who spoke during the Newspaper Roundtable.

APRIL 25, 2004, A panel titled “U.S. and Iraq One Year Later: Right to Get In? Wrong to Get Out?” was held in Royce Hall on the UCLA campus. The panelists each in turn stated differing views about the war in Iraq in an opening statement and a rebuttal statement. Then Mr. Wasserman, the moderator, asked a question of each panelist before they made closing statements. Afterwards, outside the hall, Mr. Mann was interviewed about the debate. He responded to telephone calls from viewers. Robert Scheer is the author of The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq, published by Seven Stories Press. Mark Danner is the author of The Massacre at El Mozote: A Parable of the Cold War, published by Vintage. Michael Ignatieff is the author of The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror, published by Princeton University Press. Christopher Hitchens is the author of A Long Short War: The Postponed Liberation of Iraq, published by Plume. James Mann is the author of [Rise of the Vulcans:

OCTOBER 27, 2004, Professor Edmundson talks about his book Why Read?, published by Bloomsbury USA. The book is on the relationship between a liberal arts education and literature. The author writes that literature needs to be the fundamental element of the liberal arts education because of the benefits books offer their readers. Mr. Edmundson also claims that current educational trends have either misused or neglected to recognize the vital role reading plays in a well-rounded liberal arts education. He talked about the value of fiction and non-fiction literature. This was the last program in the fifteen-year Booknotes series, and Mr. Edmundson commented on several authors' ideas and writing styles as clips of their remarks on previous programs were shown.

AUGUST 18, 2005, Mr. Hitchens talked about military operations in Iraq, justifications for war in the region on behalf of the Iraqi people, and media commentary about the war and reasons for the Iraq invasion. He also responded to viewer comments and questions.

OCTOBER 8, 2005, The tenth hour of the 25th anniversary of viewer calls focused on the year 1989 and on the role of the U.S. in the world. Mr. Hitchens talked about U.S. foreign policy over the past decades, military operations in the Persian Gulf War and current efforts in Iraq, and the challenges to U.S. foreign policy since the end of the Cold War and in the future. He also responded to questions and comments from viewers. An interview with 25th anniversary essay contest finalist Christina Carlson of Lihue, Hawaii, and clips from previous programming were aired. The program was part of a 25-hour call-in marathon commemorating 25 years of viewer calls that began with television’s first-ever, regularly scheduled, national viewer call-in program on October 7, 1980, when the 19-month-old network televised a live viewer call-in program from the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

APRIL 16, 2007, Participants talked about the future of relations between the U.S. and Great Britain following Prime Minister Blair’s time in office. Among the topics they addressed were the British political landscape and election outlook, the changing roles of the Labour and Conservative Parties, divisions over foreign policy issues, and the possible impact on the relationship between the British and American governments. Following their remarks they answered questions from the audience.

OCTOBER 22, 2007, Dinesh D’Souza and Christopher Hitchens debated the question “Is Christianity the Problem?” After speeches and rebuttals, the authors then questioned each other. Then they responded to questions from members of the audience. The debate was moderated by Marvin Olasky. Dinesh D’Souza is the author of What’s So Great About Christianity, published by Regnery Publishing. Christopher Hitchens is the author of God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, published by Twelve. Marvin Olasky, the King’s College provost and World magazine editor-in-chief, is the author of Compassionate Conservatism: What it is, What it Does, and How it Can Transform America, published by Free Press. The debate at King’s College was sponsored by the Society for Ethical Culture, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI), and tothesource.org.

MARCH 24, 2008, In Depth focused on the lives and writings of numerous authors. Authors included Shelby Foote, Ray Kurzweil, Taylor Branch, John Hope Franklin, David Lewis, Shelby Steele, Harold Holzer, Nell Irvin Painter, P.J. O’Rourke, Francis Fukuyama, David Horowitz, John McWhorter and Christopher Hitchens.

JUNE 11, 2008 | PART OF CAMPAIGN 2008 AND TECHNOLOGY, Panelists talked about the “pop culture phenomenom” of 2008 election. Topics included why satirical Daily Show-type shows and Web sites have become politically influential, using celebrities to pull voters into political discussion, and whether or not bloggers should identify themselves as journalists. After the discussion, panel members responded to audience members' questions. Tammy Haddad moderated. “Pop Culture Politics” was part of the forum “2008: The First 21st Century Campaign,” which was held in the Washington, D.C., offices of Google. It was co-sponsored by YouTube and National Journal.

APRIL 22, 2009, Christopher Hitchens talked about his career as a writer and social critic, as well as his views on religion, politics, international affairs, and journalism. He is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair and the Atlantic Monthly. He also writes for Slate. He is the author of many books, including For the Sake of Argument, No One Left to Lie To, The Trial of Henry Kissinger, and Letters to a Young Contrarian. His current paperback, God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything was a New York Times Bestseller and a finalist for The National Book Award. From 1982 to 2002, he wrote a bi-weekly column for The Nation. He has been a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley, the New School of Social Research, and the University of Pittsburgh. Christopher Hitchens was born in England and became a U.S. citizen in 2007.

DECEMBER 15, 2009, George Packer and Christopher Hitchens talked about George Orwell and his work. Mr. Packer selected the pieces that appear in two recently published volumes of George Orwell’s work: Facing Unpleasant Facts and All Art Is Propaganda. Mr. Hitchens, essayist for The Atlantic Monthly, is the author of Why Orwell Matters. close

MAY 27, 2010 | PART OF 2010 SUMMER READING MAY 27, 2010 | PART OF 2010 SUMMER READING, Christopher Hitchens answered the question “What are you reading?” He mentioned Dreyfus: Politics, Emotion, and the Scandal of the Century by Ruth Harris and A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry. He was interviewed May 27, 2010, while at the annual book publishing trade show, Book ExpoAmerica, held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City.

JANUARY 14, 2011, Christopher Hitchens was interviewed in his home about his life and work following a diagnosis of esophageal cancer. He authored over a dozen books including his recent memoir, Hitch-22. Other titles include, God Is Not Great, The Trial of Henry Kissinger, The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice, and Thomas Jefferson: Author of America. He was a contributing editor for the Atlantic Monthly magazine and a columnist for Vanity Fair magazine, where he has been writing articles about his diagnosis in the summer 2010 of stage four esophageal cancer.