Valdis Abols is the editor of Rigas Laiks Magazine. He served as the Latvian ambassador to Spain for 4 years. Denis met him in 1989 when Valdis, an English teacher at Janis Rosenthal Riga Art School, organized an exchange program with Rita Auerbach, an art teacher at Clarence High School (a suburb of Buffalo, NY).

Denis and Valdis talk about Dundaga, Rock Music, The BBC, Voice of America, Glasnost, The Green Movement, Denis’ attempts to spread Christianity with a guitar, Valdis publishing the first Latvian translation of Walden, by Henry David Thoreau, the Chautauqua Institute exchange between The Eisenhower Institute and the Friendship Society, the recently opened archives of Checka, mass deportations to Siberia, and the beautifully terrifying film, The Chronicles of Melanie. [See Movie Trailer]

Earlier in the show, Denis mentioned Peter Kingsley and his book, In the Dark Places of Wisdom.