Hello everybody. Thanks for joining us. I host afternoons on your public radio and im also a contributor to the atlantic and when i do even like this where we have people with incredibly long resume as enabled of achievements, we do haiku introductions. Im not going to get them exactly right but you know who you came to see. Ambassador samantha power, ambassador of the United Nations from 2013 to 2017, war correspondent, author of the forthcoming education of an idealist. Ambassador susan rice ambassador to the un from 2013 to 2017, the director of netflix and state senator janet howell on the end, statincome is good senator from virginia, former teacher and the Family Violence law, child advocate of the year, author of leading the way women in our. And next to the senator is to reset the former book editor established the imprint of moon rising an author may be something beautiful, the best book of the year and the daughterinlaw of the state senator and coauthor of leading the way, women in power. [applause] i thought i would ask some specific questions about books and then we could go down to some bigger issues about women in leadership and power. Ambassador, your first book, 640 pages and view detailed how it almost didnt happen but it had gotten rejected repeatedly which i think is kind of interesting considering where we are. First of all, what made you keep going and realizing that you needed to keep going and make sure that the book got published selecpublished. I chose ttravails on my last boy current book which is much more personal than my prior writing. Of those struggling writers out there although there may be a few in th all of the chi. Which is such an unpleasanthat you areit was wh e how do the mechanicwhen it comet is the and being posed all the time what did you learn when you went from being an outsider and a critic what would you tell people now that you wished you had known when i and it feels it you, but its about something that could be done in the world of incomplete. The fact that i had written a book that my mother and father had read it deny satisfaction that i was desperate to put it out there you have an organic edition i wanwhich youmay like e that, motivation that gets you through throughout youthe political n separate you fro. At one point, one of your colleagues from cuba says not, thats what i want to do. Can you values and political s y unique. Everything is unique i guess, but the alchemy never felt what are we doing here. It just felt like differences over the means, not the end which makes the difference i think. But one of the stories that i tell them to vote is that of the Armenian Genocide resolution where we were sort of on the same side of the issue. This is a very small issue next to the issues of th National Security and affairs of the states the president had to deal with, but it meant a lot to the armenian americans. Candidate obama recognized the 1. 5 million were murdered in 1915, and president obama of course is looking at a very different picture. Hes looking at an ally that is going to go crazy. Hes looking at the troops in iraq supplied by turkey, and hes looking at the promises that he had made and the fact that the armenian American Voters and donors and others that rely on that promise. And hes weighing those things out and i am new to the government. I am twice, my first week on the job i spoke to i tell, so thint going all that well. Susan came down from ne new yors the ambassadoristhe ambassador,e minutes late for her because i couldnt find the oval Office Despite having printed out the map on the Washington Post website to tell me where it was. I was one story up rather than down so things were not going well. I wasnt the optimal advocate for recognizing the genocide because i wasnt ththat wasnt e bureaucrat in those days. But ultimately, i had the opportunity at the 11th hour to attend remarks by president obama was getting a was giving t museum about the importance of remembering genocide. And these rocks have nothing to do with the genocide. They were about the holocaust because ibut as it happened, thy we were about to not recognize the genocide in the Remembrance Day statement which doesnt use the word genocide for fear of pissing off turkey. I actually got separated from the vips and i got separated from the staff. So i was by myself, trying to figure out where even to go to sleep at a Security Guard comes up and says may i help you. And i say yes, im with the president and i have a temporary badge that looks like a laminated fake iv. I say with the president an imd he said yeah right. Come with me and starts to escort me out. Im eight months pregnant and the next thing i hear a familiar voice behind me. Shes with me. And it was obama looking for the restroom as it happens. So, i am there the day before we are about to not recognize the genocide in hes just trying to use the bathroom. [laughter] i sent mr. President , there is s something i really want to discuss with you. How is it going and, exactly. I went in that room and the conversation did not go well and as susan would test in the government or form and process are everything and timing matters. Anyway, it didnt go well. It ended badly. We didnt recognize it. My water broke and you can read this in the book my son was born on Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, but that was the hardest, not the hardest but an example i think of the tension between past assaults and present. Ambassador, in the book she said you gave some of the best advice ever which was dont let anybody out there. Act like your boss or people will take advantage of you. Did you know that from the beginning or did you learned tht the hard way . It isnt inconsistent with the title of my book, and the reason that i was able to say that its becaus because i dont is what i learned over many years working first in the Clinton Administration on some of the toughest issues related to africa and the eight years we spent together in the obama administration. I learned that from my family, from a parents coming into the book is about to im an who i ame i came from and what influences had found used shaped me. I had parents who come from different backgrounds, but what they shared was a determination that we will be responsible for thevince to other people. And it was a very deep family value and excellent and educational and resilient. So, on my mothers side of the family, i am the product of uneducated immigrants who came to Portland Maine from jamaica in 1912. On my fathers side as he was a defendant in South Carolina that his grandfather managed to the end of the civil war which he fought on the site of the union army to get a College Education. And so, my father was the Third Generation in his family to receive a College Education and served in world war ii with the tuskegee airmen. So, i was raised with dont let anybody get in your way. Youve got to know who you are, be confident in who you are and youve got to get out there and do your best. Let other people deal with it. If they have difficulty with the you are and what you are presenting. So what i was saying is whatever the issue is, dont let them get you down. Dont let them stand in your way. Youve got to know who you are and keep persevering or. In my 25 years or more serving in government. In the press materiaand the pree book it says people of color are few. Ionce was a time in your career who is keeping from getting what you want or trying to keep you from reaching a goal . Fortunate to grow up in washington, d. C. Born in the mid60s and grew up in the mid60s, early 70s in an environment where all of the issues from the day. In a family where we were taught we were not allowed to race get in our head of people are going to be racist or sexist, that was going to be the other persons problem. I spent all of my education in predominantly white schools and that stand for and oxford. And joining the field of National Security at the white house where its gotten better, but mostly men and mostly white men and more so even at the state department. And i certainly experienced many instances where i felt people were trying to discount my perspectives or sideline me. I think there were various factors. I was young above all. An africanamerican woman and i had not served 20, 30 years up to the ambassador rank an many f the people i was working with come and i think on a number of occasions since we worked through the tough issues and had the customary policy battles that there were those two that sought to sideline me and thought they could get away with it because of who i was. And i dont think that they succeeded. Young men and women and boys and girls whether it is aged nine and up. You wrote an introduction to how you wish you had a book like this when you were a little girl. When did h did you first clean e politics was something you could participate in, that you could make a difference . It was a slow discovery, very slow in my part. They were huge changes and opportunities for women when i was in high school in the early 60s, i was very interested in politics but the only role model i could find was Jackie Kennedy so i got it a night i was going tam i was going togrow up to ma. I had been working on this book with teresa and realized there actually were many old models out there, i just didnt know about them support of the passion about the book is to let younger women know that there are women who look like them and have backgrounds like that and come from all parts of the United States have made a difference through politics, and im hopeful that they will sort of catch that. We are beginning to in the last couple of years to realize that women are very electable, but i have to tell you when i first ran in 1991, i only one because of one thing. Some of you may remember the anita hill hearings. Those were going on when i was running for the very first time, and i was a democrat and republican district, but the moderate republican women were so angry that men were doing this to her that they came out and voted for me. So there were all sorts of unexpected things that happened in politics, but my one advice to anybody, incremental change. You are not going to change the world, you just have to be able to accept incremental change. And hopefully it is going to be coming in the direction you want. And if its not, be sure you know how to stop the nonsense. You are an author and also an editor. What is challenging writing a book like this that may not seem obvious . So many decisions both as an editor and as an author. I appreciate and enjoy the process and the team effort. Everybody comes together to benefit the book and mak makes p the vast. Its all about conversatio colld understanding everybody wants the best for the buck and to take input from everybody else had worked together. So, thats what ive learned. And it was interesting for me to be on the other side of the table. As an editor, you are the one who is saying this is wonderful, but then you get a little bit of pushback from your authors and when you are the author and someone says thats great but how about this. Its better because of that collaboration. Its a true collaborative process. For both of you of the book is nonpartisan. I read through it, and i think only twice you identified somebodys party. That was actually a conscious decision. At one point, we started identifying the parties. But in the end, you can make a difference no matter what your beliefs are and in this day and age we didnt want it to be about party and another thing that is going to divide. If house and a competent to speak for itself so it is a very conscious decision. Your book is easy 5 policy and whats going on behind the scenes, but the 15 but personal its really personal. Being on the phone with john kerry and he asks you what is the noise and you have to tell him. [laughter] but the firs first part of the k talks about your family, and i was struck by your relationship with your mom. Can you tell me a little about your mom and what you carry with you everyday but she still taught you i dont know how susan felt, but i found it to be a big adjustment to write a memoir and bite and the first person. I heard it said once the irish people dont even use the first person in therapy. Which rings very true to me, so i struggled initially to open and once i opened it, once i got the hang of it, i had to buy a pack in some places, but i thought that it was really important to define that we are so divided, when we are so polarized and as susan has argued elsewhere to our country and our welfare to try to tell the story that wasnt so much rooted in the policy and the ideology that is around us everywhere. But a story people dont want to read them and a character that hopefully even if they are irritated with at different times during the buck, but they will kind of ultimately root for. So for me, telling the story of how i came to this country, which was not the easiest my mother and my father were stepping up and it is much easier than those you read about it a particularly those of refugees or immigrants trying to come into this country and across the southern border. So, relatively, again, to what is in the news, but the difficult story for me and my family. So, theres no divorce and ireland back then and we even had a National Referendum where it was rejected out of hand and also o of course no control or anything like that in a country at that time the church was dressed completely dominant to the political life and family life. So, my mother met a man that she fell in love with that wasnt my father, and he was also married. They wanted to start a new life together community only place the, and the only placethey felo free from the scrutiny of the church anchurch and the communio forth is tha this country so thy ran away together to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and she was so brave to get on that airplane as a medical doctor, get a phd and loved seeing patients. Wanted to come to america and get exposure to the types of training. Training. The 2 22 you move to america you have to do your training all over again and residency and everything. So, while i was learning to speak with an american accent and how to play baseball, learning how not to wear my Irish Catholic School Uniform to my American Public school, she was just working nights in the emergency room and yet still managing to show up for my sporting events and managing to be a very remarkably present parent. So, she is my mentor, hero, at times desperately didnt want me to become a war correspondent for reasons i understand thoroughly now that i am a parent comunderstand, and yet ae her down, she found herself at one of the Electronic Stores not far from here buying me one of these 15pound laptops and muttering under her breath i cant believe im enabling this. And so sure she was going to regret it if something happened to me over in the balkans or if she has read every word of every draft of every book ive ever done. One of the stories i tell them the biggest Election Night where i made among terrible mistakes i decided to have an election party, which i did not come all of the ambassadors to the un, gloria steinem, Madeleine Albright, it was going to be a good night and a documentary film crew. To capture the crowning achievement for women but one of the most Amazing Things about that night is seeing my mother chatting away on one side with Madeleine Albright and thinking to myself, three trailblazers. I hope that comes across in the book. Ambassador right, they like to talk about you on fox news of the flick if you look at their names and video, and the fox news comes up. The primary motivation for me to write this was the fact that i feel like ever since 2012, there has been characterization and mischaracterization of who i am. It bears no resemblance to who i know i am. As long as i was in government, i was proud but constrained to speak for the president or obama. I couldnt speak for my self talk my own story in my own words. Thats why i wrote this book and ive tried to be as candid and raw as i can. I could go back to the Hard Scrabble stories of my parents and grandparents, my own challenges in childhood, my parents went through a painful divorce, and extraordinary shaping experience for me. To talk through what ive learned from being the kind of feeling that fox news likes to create and being characterized and mischaracterized in ways that are either correct and either extreme. Im looking forward to the opportunity to go out and be very candid about what i have experienced and learned. My view is, just bring it on. They are not going to stop. For them, it ratings. Its that simple. Human villains are individual humans are much more attractive than institutional balance. Thats one of the things ive learned in writing this book. Im not concerned about what they may say or do. Thats what i have been experiencing. I get to do this and im very excited about it. In 92, that was the first year of the women. Then we have the woman in 2018. What needs to happen so we dont have to wait another 25 years between . What do you think of a small change or incremental change that would make a difference . I think women got sick and tired of the way things were running into large numbers, they think they can do a better job than whats happening now. They are stepping up in huge numbers. In virginia, two years ago, ours are one year off from everyone else. Two years ago, the democrats picked up 17 seats out of 100. Fifteen of them where women, virtually all of them running for the first time. That got replicated with Congressional Elections just last year. Women are beginning to visualize themselves there. Thats one of our main goals is having that happen. Fifty women in its complete . What is common about these women . What did you notice . One of the things we noticed is that there is not necessarily one common thread. The only one i could really put my finger on his, they wanted to make a difference and they stood up and decided they would make a difference. The women come from all different backgrounds, different religions, different education background but they somehow were passionate enough to want to go follow their dreams and there are a lot of hurdles on the way. There is no single story that i saw throughout. Im happy we got to talk to you. Im mad it was only 30 minutes. We are already 45 seconds over. Join me in thanking our panel. [cheering] [applause] saturday on book tv at 10 00 a. M. Eastern, live coverage from the mississippi book festival featuring author talks on American History with author, eric. The civil war into the south with historian jaclyn. Race and civil rights with professor dave. True crime with author casey in world war ii with historian alex kirchoff. Then sunday at 9 00 p. M. Eastern afterwards with journalist natalie. Author of the knowledge gap. They dont have the background knowledge to understand their reading passages. Its not that they cant make a difference. Toddlers can make a difference but thats not the problem. The lack of knowledge and vocabulary to understand a passage. That has been the big problem overlooked. Watch every weekend on cspan2. Sunday on cumin day, New York Times photographer, doug talks about photos of president tom. He enjoys having us around. I feel he enjoys having us around because it helps drive his message into the news of the day, which he can do every day. Having us around allows him to do that. Sunday night at eight eastern on cspan2 q and a. Socialism and global politi politics. This is an hour and 25 minutes. Thank you for the hospitality and this is our best group. I will do my best
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