This episode of the Truth includes descriptions of sexual acts and an anti-Semitic attack.

It is not intended for children.

Every Friday for the last three years, I've made the long drive up to Washburn Hill,

way out in the middle of nowhere, to visit my good friend Bernie.

Bernie struggles with mental illness and sometimes he gets hard for him to take care of himself.

I cook us dinner and I load his fridge up with food for the week.

And then we sit and we spend the night listening to the sky together with the radio telescope Bernie made himself.

He's a wizard with electronics.

We can hear stars and galaxies and black holes, which all sound like snow.

But it's still a pretty amazing thing when you think about it.

We can hear the echo from the big bang.

I guess what we're really listening for are messages from the dead, from heaven.

Some kind of proof of an afterlife.

So far we haven't heard any of those.

My son died in an accident that wouldn't have happened if I'd been paying more attention.

There's nothing that can prepare you for what that kind of pain is like.

The bottomlessness of it.

Bernie likes to point out that the sky is bottomless too.

That when we're looking up, we're really looking down and when we're looking down, we're really looking up.

Because when it comes to space up and down, mean the same thing.

Which is a nice thought in a way.

9.12pm.

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