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book. The book itself is a combination of stories from this podcast, interrupted by a series of stories from my own misspent youth and dubious career in the world of nonfiction television, eight brag, but it is the New York Times best seller and my mom says it's. The feel good head of the holiday season had an about that, but we do have a few autographed copies left at micro, dotcom, Slash book and I'm told they would make ideal. Christmas presents hashtag just say and pick up a copy micro dotcom, Slash book stuff me in somebody stocking I'd, be grateful this the wire.

Eugene was staring at a thin ribbon of mist, trailing behind the number two engine of the Lockheed Constellation and hoping against hope. His eyes were deceiving him. They lost the first engine an hour after departing Karachi, but the pilot felt confident the remaining three could get them safely. To stand. Bull

It's not the call Eugene would have made, but, as the third officer on the PAN Am crew, it wasn't his call to make, but now ass he watched that troubling ribbon of mist, darken and thicken Eugene knew the captain. It gambled poorly with the lives of thirty six people who share the bad news succinctly with the one word guaranteed to strike terror into the hearts of mariners and aviators the world over fire. The plane descended quickly. It shook and shuddered ass. The pilot did what he could to keep them from those diving, but there was no doubt among passengers and crew they were going to crash at all. Eugene could think was not again against some very long odds. Eugene.

Already survived to deadly plane crashes in the Second World WAR, walking away from a third was statistically impossible, so Jean prepared to meet his maker, he thought about the eighty. Nine bombing raids he had flown over the South Pacific is be seventy. He considered the many tons of ordnance he had dropped upon the enemy and the countless lives he had extinguished serving his country. The army had called him a hero and awarded him a distinguished flying cross, but for what Eugene wandered for killing strangers from a great height was that to be his legacy? The airplane smashed into the syrian desert, with a sickening impact that seem to go on for an eternity Eugene felt his ribs crack. He heard the screams from behind him and smell the jet fuel when the plane finally came to a stop. You

Jeanne paused for a moment on shore that he was still among the living. Then he freed himself from the cockpit and ran straight into the burning fuselage. He grabbed anyone. He could find pulling them onto the sand and smothering the flames ass best. He could again and again Eugene returned to the passenger compartment before the wind picked up and engulf the entire aircraft and flames. The last person Eugene pulled out of the plane, died in his arms to truly survive a crash. You have also survive the aftermath: Many suffer from survivor guilt and retreats into themselves. Others vow never to fly again. Eugene had survived not one but three deadly crashes, and now he was questioning everything. Why had he been spared? Was the universe trying to tell him something: Eugene was not

religious man, all he knew for sure was that saving lives felt a lot better than taking lives. So he resolved and that moment to do something more with the life that he still had. He joined the LOS Angeles police Department and dedicated him After helping others for seven years, Eugene protected and serve the people of LOS Angeles, but the work took a tall. As a cop Eugene saw man's many flaws up close and personal, the ugliness, the pettiness, the racism that so stupidly divides us. He yearned even more for a better world but wondered what one man could do in the face of so much wickedness may be the best way to change the world was to simply create a new one. Eugene left

left the police force and put pen to paper flushing out the rules of an imaginary society, a meritorious culture in which everyone had an equal shot or technology level. The playing field and people of all races work together toward a common goal. He turned his vision into a screenplay and showed it to some producers. In Hollywood, where more than a few eyebrows were raised, interracial relationships, good guys from calm you, countries who was this dreamer. There was a cold war raging in the civil rights movement. It barely begun to move what was Eugene thinking. Eventually, Hollywood come around and throw some money Eugene's utopia, but even then

The small screen was too small for such a big idea and, after a short run on NBC Eugene's vision for a better world was cancelled. That's the trouble with being ahead of time. You need to wait for the rest of the world to catch up, but if your patient and prescient who knows your vision of a better world just might morph into a multi billion dollar enterprise. Likewise, the next generation might credit you with envisioning cellphones, touch tablets, gps and face time decades before they actually appeared. In truth, it's hard to know what our world would look like today. Without the decorated war hero who valued peace, above all things, the combat pilot who cheated death three times turned his back on aviation and then created them.

Famous aircraft in the history of modern flight and deed. You have to live in some parallel universe, with no television to escape the impact of the man who created STAR Trek, a man who saw world where everyone might live long and prosper. That was the true final frontier for a dreamer named gene Roddenberry. That's the way I heard it.