host: memoir. sueshortly after the appearancen new york city in 2010, christopher hitchens was diagnosed with cancer. he joined us one more time and this was our q&a program from january 2011, talking about his life and his work. christopher hitchens. i just checked and i interviewed utah 20 times since 1983 and a mess and this is one of the hardest. because you haven't been well. sue and not very well printed. host: what is the current status of your cancer printed. christopher: i have a tumor in my esophagus. as metastasized and spread to my lymph nodes. and i'm afraid it's on my long. and it's a stage four. and the thing to note about stage iv is there's no hope except stage five. so it is concentrated.

but i have some wonderful oncologists working with me. more on verge of a whole number of treatments. the chemotherapy is holding sma. i apologize that my voice is bit husky today. that's the situation. i have to practice staying alive and preparing to diet the same time. which is my memoir said is actually what i have to do all of the time. you're never more than a breath away but it's a bit more vivid to me now. the doctors in the morning and lawyers in the afternoon. host: why did you take us through that journey. christopher: i was wondering whether i wanted to or not. in order to make a prayed of my condition. photos very intelligently press to do it.

i tried to do it in such a way that it wasn't to parade. i've been told that some people have been a bit identified with it to some degree. if you have a lemon, make lemonade. instead of staring at the wall. it is a great subject. everyone has to do this at one point or another. either survive or die. something like this. and it is something certainly one is born to do. so as an extension of the memoir that i published when i was still with us, i thought well, i should keep up the narrative. this is a very much part of my life. and i should add because of these treatments, i've had my

genome sequenced. some very lucky. i'm able to write about some squad exciting new things in the field. which i hope will sure to become more available to more people. through intense lysing time to have cancer. someone my age because there are treatments i can see there just starting. which is encouraging. in others. the constitution is very good. my vital signs are excellent. my blood pressure is excellent. suburb in fact, and justly so. if i can hang on, with quite expedience. i can attempt to try. host: just had your gallbladder out printed. christopher: a couple weeks ago. in a crash. my doctor is an admirable guy. he had a milk bento.

that can happen with chemotherapy. and at the same time my gallbladder went rancid and i was in terrible pain. it was really flat out. and have gained some blood transfusions. ... ...

>> because i had to cancel a book tour right as it was beginning in the summer, i couldn't just go into treatment and make a public statement why couldn't keep the appointments and i had to say something. so overnight it was a news item i guess it was a slow week. i imagine partly because of my

opinions of the supernatural and religious life. people.now i would make reconsideration and make my peace with the church and it was a day of prayer and the national day of prayer for me. i took kindly of it. there were other people who lobbied in the opposite direction in either case it seems presumptuous but people can't help that. i had an amazing number of letters from people and they still get them as well as

e-mails to my office in new york saying the nicest things, most of them and to assure me my life hasn't been a waste even if it ends prematurely. i'm 62 in april if i make it that far. and those that are known to me but never put off writing a letter to someone it's always very much appreciated. i'm not asking for more people to write to me but if they have someone in mind it's been a terrific help to me. and i'm not particularly a vulnerable person in that way or easily stirred but this has been very moving and confronting for me. >>cspan: have any professional enemies come to you during this time? >> professional enemies are those that take the opposite view. they've all been very nice in

newspaper columns have been written about me in "the new york times" david brooks wrote a generous column there was an editorial in the times of london. i began to feel i was reading my obituary because i was still alive. it's nice but i gave it a creepy feeling of being premature as well. i don't know how many personal enemies i have. or on those nerves i get the people who have written to me say they hope i suffer now and forever after i die i would say that is small. >>cspan: go back it was a series of events. i have your memoir in my

hands. >> so should everybody. >> the first seven pages are about that. >> that is weird. i had a free gift for the national portrait gallery in london which publishes a magazine for subscribers there was an expert it one - - exposition of a friend of mine. that included me while the catalog was going to press the put the late history for hit on desk restrictions next to mine they wrote to me groveling i think they thought i would sue in said only if you got out. i said send me as many as you have got.

because it makes a wonderful many introduction to my memoir. is called the prologue the premonition of meditation on death but at that stage i had no idea. >>cspan: you went on the daily show with jon stewart right around the time you found out. >> today i was diagnosed. >>cspan: did you know what at the time? >> yes i woke up feeling ill i was told in the morning and was taken to the hospital they said it's not your heart you can discharge yourself if you want we recommend you stay for observation. but whatever you do the next stop is an oncologist it's a tumor probably in your esophagus but it has spread i wanted to do the stewart show

also a big event of the 92nd street ymca which i managed to do but i just had the sentence read to me. >>cspan: let's watch a little bit of the stewart show so people can see this you know you have a real problem. >> have never seen it. >> so start the day every day to work for ten years. that concentrated my mind. to hear the sentence but for now screw you. and that unseal the memory then of course and then the

comment isn't it a bit soon? maybe but now it's not too late now. >> people should be able to decide for you you said when you turn 60 i'm very impressed someone who has clearly lived you have lived it. you haven't taken it easy on this model but yet you don't look like it and you should ended somewhat upsetting. [laughter] >> there is an oil painting in my attic. [laughter] >>. >>cspan: as i saw you you look

like you had a sense of humor but what was your head telling you? >> i just buried the thought and then later the on stage event went very well only the dinner after that i felt i couldn't carry on anymore. but every opportunity i was violently sick and throwing up powerfully. >>cspan: you had any indication at all? >> known. nothing but a very good annual checkup reports. >> your dad died of esophageal cancer at 79. did that penetrate? >> i would have written that if i found out myself. i suppose because i used to smoke heavily i was afraid it would get into the long. i seemed to live a charmed life but you can have it for quite a while and it's very hard to detect unless you have

one almost every month and looking for your likely to miss it. it doesn't usually present until it has metastasized. until i went to the doctor for a biopsy you could feel it on my neck which is not a good sign. >>cspan: you begin what type of treatment? >> treatment of chemotherapy which then made me lose all my hair which is now going back slightly. i lost a lot of weight and i'm tired. but it was measurably reduced. >>cspan: where was this done? in july and it still going on.

>> i'm hoping now thanks to wonderful american doctor head of nih with the national cancer institute who did the human genome project half the time and under budget, he and i have met because we had a religion debate and we became friends that way and he is a very convince christian we have become friendly and he's taken kindly interest in my case and has helped me had my genome sequenced looking for a more identifiable match for a mutation peculiar for me for this drug. today is friday the 14th. i don't know when this will be shown on monday i hope to try that if my bone marrow has

recovered enough and i'm strong enough. that is 6 billion dna matches of my tumor said against 6 billion dna matches of my blood to look at something individually mutated absolutely extraordinary what can be done now. we have to go to st. louis and that's for the project is to find out how it can be applied to individuals predicaments in medicine. it will be commonplace soon. there is a terrible lack of funding so people can write their congressman in the recent budget a terrible collapse of funding with the stupid attempt to limit the extent embryonic cells can be used for this kind of thing.

i would like to become an advocate to overcome the's obstacles for medical research. >> chemo treatment at nih? >> no. i just go to my regular oncologist in bethesda who consults over the internet with the panel of like-minded experts they work at sloan kettering it worked out the protocol for me adjusting every few weeks. >>cspan: you wrote about a woman who came up to you tell it. [laughter] >> with cancer etiquette publishing in the debate about islam and there was a long

line. the woman at the front comes towards me and doesn't have a book and says sorry you are ill she said a cousin of mine had cancer. in the liver. i said that's awful. she said that he got better. i said good. but then he got much worse again. i said i'm sire and she said of course he was a homosexual and he died alone and in great pain and agony and incontinence and pain and humiliation and indescribable horror. i was beginning to run out of things to say and she said i just want you to know i know exactly what you are going through and then left.

[laughter] i thought would she have treated me like that if i was well? of course not. we need to reciprocate i actually have a badge that says don't ask and i won't tell. some people do make a huge parade of their condition. i tried to write about it and other context and the national day of prayer and why wasn't joining it i don't just want

to write my own. >>cspan: you wrote in your prologue that is called hitch 22. to be there to do something when it comes for me. why? >> this is what i thought then. ideally i would like to make a speech or make love were sitting with friends. or to be where people gather around and then it had cause to we consider that because if

this cancer does not go into remission, it's a very unpleasant way to die. another way is to choke on your own puke. so it's not that you're going to die and be reconciled to that but that you are tortured for a bit before you die. but i'm not so sure that they could slip away in that stupor.

based on very old-fashioned the it is part of life. >>. >> how much do you talk about that with your wife? >> a lot. she does things i don't like to do like looking up every treatment and looking for new doctors and avenues. and my determination as i will not die right now. and that is a possibility to be the experimental subject. and until you have done something you should be

ashamed. so that does something for humanity. i would be willing to do it. >>cspan: in the middle of this a couple of weeks ago you debated tony blair in toronto. we covered it i want to run a clip of you making some points he sitting on the stage with yo you. >> as long as you don't want your religion talk to my children in school, given a government subsidy, imposed , you are fine by me. [applause] >> i prefer not even to know what it is that you do in that

church of yours. in fact if you force it i will consider it a breach. have your blood he christmas. [laughter] do your slaughtering and don't mutilate the genitals of your children. [laughter] don't you think that's reasonable pluralistic? >> why is that? >> of course not and it's a mystery to me i will share it with you. if i believe there is a savior sent by god who loved me and wanted the best for me and that i process the means of grace and glory, i now i might be happy.

why doesn't it make them happy? isn't that a perfectly decent question? they weren't happy until you believe it also because that's what the holy books tell them. [applause] >>cspan: why did you do that debate? >> thanksgiving. >>cspan: what condition were un? >> i timed my treatments because i had a lot of notice of the event so it would come at the end when i'm usually much stronger. it was a huge event and a lot of money went to fixing it up insecurity. i don't like to cancel anyway i was very tired but physically all right and mentally alert.

the first time blair had a public debate on any subject since stopping prime minister. >>cspan: what was your take? you tell us. >> and rabbi and all kinds of people that blair is a new convert to catholicism i wanted to question about that and the point i wanted him to concede the evils that people like myself talk about to say

this is done in the name of religion. and very clearly in the holy books to be in the word of god so that is a copout. >> in fact to say what had been the strongest point made by the other he said he agreed i was right. that is my best memory of the night. and then i wanted to know

if the catholic church was the one true church it was quite strange. he didn't come up to fight me on that he didn't tell me he was a roman catholic at all he could of been a week christian socialist liberal that christianity is okay making people do good work. nobody denies that's true but has nothing to do with the relevance are the truth of the matter and i have known a little bit for a long time excuse me. sorry. >>cspan: 1983 the first interview i ever had with you on the call in show we will do the one minute 24 seconds. >> when journalists lose their credibility based on past performance with no types of checks and balances they are doing with this gentleman is doing here. report the faults for don't take a deep enough look at the positive aspects of what the free press really is. >> how do you presume to know the american people are speaking to the extent that you can speak for them? >> you can only know it from

the free press that reporting the fact that time in which he admits it's true on reagan's side but if you want your press to be treated as the british treated their press do not prevent me or anyone else from reading them. >>cspan: you can see how times have changed you are on the set smoking. i can't remember when we stopped. >> and then cronkite announcing the president at the whole studio looks like chernobyl. >> and you called me david on

the show but sorry all the same. >>cspan: it is fun for both of us to go back to that time. but in those days a lot of bravado about smoking and drinking and for the first book notes i went with you to a bar with your computer in a glass of something and a cigarette. >> i used to write my columns my father was a pipe smoker and a drinker sure that's what contributed. we didn't learn much of his death because he was diagnosed

and died almost right away. no doubt in my mind it was fully inoperable but it wasn't a teaching moment. >>cspan: it cannot be cut out it spread and it's too near my lungs and heart to be properly radiated so it has to be targeted other is an illusion are not that helps my concentration stopped at the people being boring and to prolong the conversation last

but i do it again the answer is probably yes. maybe i would quit earlier. to say i do that again it would be hypocritical for me to say i wouldn't if i had known because i didn't know. i decided all of life is a wager and i will wager on this. i can't make it come out any other way. it is strange i almost don't regret it even the way should.

>>cspan: what has bored you? you use that word more than onc once. >> it was one of the deadly sins. i get easily tired of the committee meetings were waiting in line and very very impatient so i'm very happy by myself and then it was a formula.

>> how have you pass the time? have you had a lot of pain? >> yes. before i found out it was the gallbladder and not the side effects i thought i was overdoing the painkillers. i am living from pill to pill it shouldn't be taking this much. but i would like to think the gallbladder was the cause. it was quite manageable. >>cspan: how many days ago? >> eight or ten. >>cspan: laparoscopic quick. >> it was over very quickly. >>cspan: and you feel better? >> not yet general anesthetic

takes a while to wear off with me with how weak i was already and how much weight i have lost and how little food i am taking. i could not have done this yesterday for example. absolutely not. i could not get out of bed. >>cspan: 36 years ago a man in newsweek had leukemia the difficult leukemia and wrote about it did you go back and look at his columns? he told the story he was at nih i remember i was glued to it and took us all the way to the process. how much more will be hear from you? >>. >>cspan: what would you tell

us? >> the main thing is to emphasize the extraordinary innovations based on the new knowledge of our genetic makeup. and then in some detail on that was even for hard cases. >>cspan: any thought of writing a book? >> yes. that was about facing death and the struggle for life. and how one is precisely to see if i can participate.

>>. >> so what's the number one interest right now? >>. >> looking at today's paper i suppose it would have to be one version of or another like jihad. and in pakistani the last few weeks the whole threat seems to be empty up noticeably like we have not internalized that

murdered in cold blood on the grounds not even committing blasphemy so anyone is entitled to kill him. and this endorsement. it used to be bad enough at the court to face a death sentence. but now permission to appoint the executioner on the spot. that is fantastically

dangerous there are moderates to be found. >> especially if we are their

patron we are fooling themselves. >> what about facing the illness? you went off with some substance and some give that up when faced with a situation. what surprised you? >>cspan: that you have stage iv esophageal cancer what about the last six months? >> mm more of a person who just passed 60 has to face that.

it's commonplace. i don't sit around asking myself what i mean. it's a commonplace thing it is almost laughably predictable the very interesting thing about it of the treatments that were unknown until very recently that those are very lucky to count as friends. >> those we have known over the years those that will say something crude there was a reporter that the doctor called him and said guess what you have the big c. i can't believe that happened but what marks where you give the medical profession and have they given you hope? >> they have given me a margin it can be licked. i decided not to pass them at first until it would occur to me it would be useful to have

a rough idea because one has to plan in counting purposes. they don't like to be asked because they don't really know. the best answer i got if he took 1000 people that were my age gender and health half of us would be dead in one year of that it could be a considerable number this is from a very senior person from the nih. >>cspan: we come to your apartment. you know why we're here. are you surprised? >> a little bit. i was. yes.

>> and nothing to do with my stance on religion. doesn't that change of attitude. and i don't see why it should. i spent my life deciding there isn't any redemption or salvation if i was to tell you i have a malignancy in my esophagus it changes everything.

i enjoy taking part in that argument. even those people that have been praying for me. and i propose to trade-off. so in the last days if they said he will feel much

better. and then experience than don't believe in mythology and we don't do that. i don't presented at all but i do flatter myself as a public figure. >>cspan: let's get your reaction to this. >> it has always been the hatred that provides that energy is a terrific way to get out of bed in the morning. it can be into writing and in this country where people want to be nonjudgmental there is a lot of reputations floating around one wouldn't do one's jo job. >>cspan: is it still a good idea? >> since it's not really avoidable, i think the

question is turn it to the advantage. one of the things i don't like about christianity is compulsory love. people pretending to love more than they do. and coupled with the injunction to love of god you are supposed to fear. there is something honest by contrast something completely unbearable like kissinger. it's like alcohol a good servant but a bad master. i had a completely cold content and doesn't waste my time it just enables me to penetrate this bogus reputation.

and it doesn't eat away at me. and that is just a political disagreement and there is such a thing as evil in the world. and not under no obligation. >>cspan: does that change your mind about mother teresa? >> change my mind? i couldn't hate her because she was a pathetic figure in a way but i detested the influence that she had. because there was the apparent concern the poorest of the poor. but we know the cure for poverty that the empowerment of women. bangladesh, bolivia, to give them control the reproductive

system and stop them from reading in the level of poverty will decline. sharply. it's never been known not to fail. just an example spending her entire life opposing anything that works comparing birth control to abortion in her nobel prize speech that was a threat to peace which is a fanatical stupid thing to say. that caused the reputation. but people like charles keating was a great friend of hers she took stolen money from him and she took took money from haiti and gave them

to find sanction. it goes on. her whole effect was retrograde and there was not one story and told my critique and i make five or six other direct accusations backed up with facts that book is been reviewed and nobody is ever pointed out a mistake. not one. but i am used to this now people need a complete delusion and this is one. >>cspan: what do you do if kissinger decided to call you to bury the hatchet quick. >> it would be extremely interesting. one of the reasons i detest him as i know that couldn't happen he would agree to have questions submitted in writing let alone meet me when i was

writing my book about him he made a condition that he not be asked about the book i of the producers made a condition at the national press club which i don't think they've agreed that he not be asked about the book. there's no reason to like me but i know that i needled him. that lying about vietnam or chile or singapore. we have other. from our history tried to make a restitution that we suspected at the time it was bad or worse.

and those disclosures we should have at the time. of self-criticism. and to get very petulant and angry and spoiled when criticize. for that contingency is remote. >>cspan: we don't have much time. >> don't say that. >>cspan: [laughter] >> i will be the judge of that. >>cspan: if you knew there was a certain amount of time left are there things you want to do? >> yes but they don't tell you what kind of months they will be you probably remember the

late congressman. he died recently he had cancer and kept up interest in human rights and a lot of traveling but then he out word it was back and visit and made fairly short work a few weeks ago. that's what i need to know the great loss to me is the inability to travel. and then to california and with a private plane very kindly sent to me for speaking engagement in montana i finally got to see the little bighorn which i always wanted. and the wonderful national park and three american states then dakotas and nebraska. >>cspan: any plan to go back

to your home country? >> someone said to be randomly you are afraid of not seeing england again? >> yes i was i cannot bear not to go back at least once but i could not do that now. i would have to be on the chemo holiday. >>cspan: we are out of time the best way to say that is i will see you in a couple of years. >> thank you brian. it is brian isn't it? [laughter]

>> the last time christopher hitchens appeared on c-span and book tv january 2011. mr. hitchens appeared over 100 times during his career and all of those appearances and programs are available online at book tv.org.

to read what was said about thomas jefferson as an infidel and a pagan of the french government. and to be a dictator does come with the territory and trumps case post-world war ii we have never seen anything like it.

writing for the wall street journal and what struck me is how little america resembled reporting through the poverty

stats showing dismal health situations with threadbare social cohesion and then to take over in my mind how could a country this rich have such a crummy deal to so many people? so to understand my grandparents with the exception not the normal they receive their prosperity within a few decades after world war ii i now understand that window was only open for whites. the question that popped up at the time is why did this window close when so many were on the outside?

that then he took interest in the social science about racial division with a lot of research by political scientist and psychologist how intense racial divisions are. you can call it fear or bigotry or racism but how these feelings stand in the way of that empathetic thinking like the social safety net to pull them together with research how public schools in california to put them in private schools and research how cities with more diverse communities and street maintenance and

research how they put lesson the collection basket at church. so that was a vulcanized city so looking through the economic outcome for much of that population why doesn't the us behave like the prosperous country that it is? and that conclusion was that racial division just got in the way and that is the admitted the old part of the story in a new side which is shorter, just a few years ago

when trump decided to run for president. from his very first speech blasting mexicans and illegals over the border he has worked really hard to rekindle those divisions that lay below are political consciousness. appealing to racial animus was a slap in the face how racial hostility in the future to transform racial and ethnic reality. trump portrayed himself that forever has a range of power to pull up the drawbridge of a multiethnic and multiracial in witnessing such a large share

to protect their privilege i had to write the book and the politics have so ever damage the fabric of the nation undermine the social contract into a failed state. >> good evening. welcome. i would like to share a little bit of history. and by benjamin and bass from the original 48 stores over 93