As this book continues they are grateful for your continued support so we hope youll also consider making a donation. You can do it online or text donate, heres the number. 415 329 4231. 4153294231 and you can text the word donate tothat number. Id also like to thank the foundation for supporting todays good little event. I like the name of that. It is my pleasure right now, my just overwhelming, deep , i cant even tell you how much i love this woman, its my Church Welcome my dear friend sunny hostin, any awardwinning legal journalist and cohost. I worked with sonny for many years and we talked about likeisters and brothers we fight and its almost read her new book is called, here it is. I am thestruths. Its a memoir of identity, just and living between worlds. Its a revealing look at her really incredible story. Sonny grew up in thesouth bronx and through hard work , determination and her parents and family she obtained a law degree. She went on to become a federal prosecutor and was soon recognized for her work with women and children. Shes a fighter, shes in it to do good and help people. She went to notre dame and after the courtroom sonny became an illegal analyst and was one of the first reporters to cover trade on martintaff. Shcontinues to use her platform to be an advocate for social justice and provide a powerful voice for voiceless people of this world. I am sthrilled to be here today to discuss her story and the timely things thatshe explored throughout her book. One more note before we get started, a quick reminder we will be tang audience questions and we may do it at the end but we may do it throughout. It just depends if something is related to what were talking about so please submit your questions in the chat box. Sunny hostin, we have so muc to talk about, how are you . Im well, im so happy to be here with you even though its virtual. I wish we were there in the same roobut im happy to be on this journey with you my friend. Why did you decide to write i am ese truths . I just feel that the truth of it all is that you dont hold the power to be the difference and you know that ive alwaysbelieved that. And i think that at this time were in the middle of a pandemic, and economic crisis , a National Debate over policing. A delayed, what i think is a delayed reckoning with systemicracism. And i have been journaling for so long and i have been writing and i thought if not now, wn . And i have spoken to Justice Trayvon Martin which sounds like a huge name drop but its the truth. I talked to her a lot about sharing my story and my story as you know don has no shortage of success and i thought its time to share that, work and all because my story is painful, when you grow up in the south bronx project with teenage parents and you want to share all of that. Is it aspirational enough and she said youve got to share it as it is. And if you gave your story to other people and promise me one thing, you do it in spanish and in english because its so important for those people that may be struggling with english as a second language and english as you know is my second language. With everything thats going on in the world, do that for the little girl and little boy that will read you in spanish and have hope. Im sure you saw what are people going to learn, if anyone is writing a book they do that and especially when you have the humility, you wonder is anyone going to care what i write . You said you have more failures than you have successes. But people dont realize its kind of like those, you take those failures and those are Building Blocks to success. Why did you feel that way, why did you feel like you have a lease failures and whatever and did you struggle with thinking that no ones going to care or absolutely. In the age of social media i get immediate feedback on the show and i tried to be a voice for the voiceless because that seat on the view iso very important. I would get these messages like were talking about income ineality and youre talking about verty and youre talking about all that. Youre sitting on the view. You dont know anything about it and i justrember thinking they dont know. People dont know my story. They dont know how hardits been. Acu on the view and they think overnight success. They dont know youve been working at this for decades. For well over 25 years. Its just, this is the success youre seeing but youre not seeing a failures d there have just been so many of them. What did you learn from those failures as people are listening, what did you learn from that . You say i always use myhaters as motivators and what did you learn from those failures . Ive learned a tremendous amount of resilience. Ive learned as my father used to say you have to be go twice as long to go ha as far. No onesoing to take excellence fm you so every time, there have been many times my contract was in the news so i knew that i had done my best. That i had been excellent. And so i could lead with my head up. And i certainly learned that and i learned that there would be another day. I learned to use my voice. I learned that humility is okay. I actually also learned recently that im not as good at sticking up for myself as i am at sticking up for other people. Who told you that . My husband told me, you did. I know manny told you that. Our office used to be right across from each other and we would often look to each other for comfort and feedback but go on sunny. Youve often said lean in, sunny and if you dont stick up for yourself and its so true. And i write in the book how its really easy to stick up for other people, to tell other peoples stories. It certainly was hard for me to tell this story but i tell the story of my parents, im telling my mothers story, my mother didnt mefor about a week after she read the book actually. I talk about addiction, i talk about Mental Health and i bear a lot of secrets in that sense. And i found that my, i did not want to talk about discrimination, i did not want to raise my hand and say this is happening to me, is this true . Dont treat me this way. I should be valued more. I did not want to do those things. I found that outabout myself. Its a little bit shocking i talk the talk and i can defend other people and stick up for victims but there was, it was really hard for me to do it for myself. Let me ask you, i want to ask you about the title of the book but i have to ask you to speak up on something you said which is i think being where we are , theres a lot of advice we can offer people. Not just in business but in professional life,anywhere. You said often times when you get to be the person we know as you get up its a pyramid, its rarefied air. So you want to stick up for yourself and you want to stick up for other people but then you wonder, you worry if i do that, am i going to lose my platform and therefore there wont be anyone like me with this voice. Was that part of it . It was a huge consideration. Theres this se that i dont get an email or a twee or you kno, id be on the street and mothers and even young pelecome up to me and say my g, thank you for being who you are. You represent me. And that meant a lot for me. And then i would say if i sticmy neck out even for myself, there wont be someone like me onhe view and i rememb i write about it in the book, one of the reasons don that i always wanted to be a broadcast journalist is because on television, we had one tv growing up and i read a lot of books but we didnt watch lots of tv but what we did watch his 60 minutes. We watched it every sunday religiously. And i would pretend to be one of the reporters. They didnt even look like me and my parents were like dont do that as youre not going to be able to seat yourself so i remember the power of representation so the thought that i would take a chance, being that representation for those people that stopped me on the street were nerveracking and i remember asking my family when i was typing the forward, i typed in 25 minutes and it just poured out of me and i remember thinking is this smart . And i showed it to my husband and i said this is professional suicide, right . He said yeah, probably. And i was like, right but he said maybe and i did it anyway. You see . Lean in. I felt like my goodness, again, economic crisis, National Debate over policing. People of color affected more by this crisis. And i dont have the courage to bring up what i talk about every day on the show . Im in a privileged position. I would be a hypocrite. There you go, girl. And i can so relate to you because you remember when i came out, do you remember how hard that was . We talked about. I thought i was going to lose my job and i said im never going to work with the students again and it was the total right thing to do. You were, i was i always tell people to walkin their own truth , so youre living in your owntruth. Is that where that name comes from, i am these truths . I came up with the title of t book and iin my office now, my home officet my desk where i do all the writing and i have all these things on it d i ha all these books from the constitution. I used to keep copy of theconstitution on desk. It says we hold these truths to be selfevident, that allmen are created equal. And i just started thinking about all the themes in thebook about ecology. And systemic racism and pay inequity and i was like you know, im telling the truth. And these are my truths and i hope its not these people are not ashamed of where they come from and i was like wow, i am these truths. Thats where it came from because it was very powerful. To say that the truth of it all is that we are equal. And that we hold the power to be the difference. You are, thats when people of color, immigrants. You are the american story. So what if someone tries otherwise people of color. Its doubly insulting because of the work that people of color did, no pay , slavery, all those things, and so when people tryotherwise you and make you feel like youre not american , is that infuriating for you . Its painful. It used to make me angry but now its painful. And one of the best things that i thought about when i was writing the book , like, why do people still question my background . My ethnicity. Why is it so odd. We had just come when i was writing we had just come up after just come up again, we had introduced family on the show. And it was a spanishspeaking family. As one of the family members, the grandmother can speak english but i conducted the interview with her in spanish and i would translate for the audience. These are noxious weeds, i thought must be spanish today. Hes speaking with a spanish accent and it was just that i was mispronouncing words properly and i realized that my parents got married in 1968, just a year after e desion when interracial covers will allow to be married and my mother, my mom don, shes a white hispanic and of jish descent. And my fathers black guy. So when they got mried, they had justecome legal and i was like a unicorn, there were not people who look le me so people, i write about in the book how the tribe to go to geora which was crazy and the kkk ran out of town so f me i had been on therise my entire life. Even though im almos30 and in the 50s, there was just unusual so i think tt is why ive lived that life of a struggle of intity. But its saddens me that 50 years later, ople still question it. Because they still want to put you in this box. People have to be able to categorize nothing. To be comfortable. I can understand that a little bit but not as much as you because i wrote about in my book and i talk about the experience in louisiana with the brown per bag. The winter, i was light skin. In the summer i was da. It was just this weird color thing but i remember whene had the conversation about, don, you realize people cnn, they dont know that im latino. Theyust think in terms of africanerican most of t country is africanamerican or blackandwhite area i said sunny, let peopleknow that your recogniz. You did you feel stuck in that world . That no mans land, and best, am i that . Do i have to choose one . For a lot of reasons and it was weird because i work for cnn s annual so they didnt ask me to do any reporting on race. And i think one of the reasons i wre about also in the book, one of the reasons and i blame myself because i changed my name. My real name is kim. Did you more to make it more american or cuban . Tell me about it. The story is ive always been pension. My friends from back in the day called me ascension and when i was in college there were a couple of people that would say no, and i noticed it so i would say you can call me whatever you want and id say okay, fine. So they called me sunshine. When i started doing court tv , it was a great friend of mine. She could not pronounce my name and when i say could not, this struggle was real. She would be like our coast today is. [inaudible]. You can stop and atne of the race she said can i Say Something to you and she said what do you have to say, i said this name thing, its pension. I cant say it. And i said well, what would you like me to say about my name. She said you have anythi and i felthe pressure at that point and i had this legalegend. Teing me, this name is not. So when a lot of people call me sonny, right then she said sunny, she put that they are, i didnt even have to sell her. Teaching and i just went wi you. I didnt like it but after that, my career, took off. She knows tv. Sometimes sunny, maybe rightfully so sometimes people get offended but sometimes you just are looking out for your wellbeing and they know that she was like this will work for you because i know tv. So you just have to roll with it and yes. Thats what she told me, she told me and i write about that in the book, she told me that. She said youre going to make in this business. I have not seen anyone do this as well as you, you can make it through this area that name is going to hold you back, people cant remember and youve got to tell you she was right. I felt like i sold a piece of myself, my grandmother never gave me for it because i was named after her sister. People were sort of patting me and saying hi sunny and she would be like hockey. And i do think that at cnn, if i were just saying like soledad obrien, people would have known my identity. So i kind of did that to myself. And if i had to do itagain i wouldnt change my name. You wouldnt have . I would not have. I know, i would not have. And i look back now, Everybody Knows me now. My first when i was a reporter, she wanted me to change myname, she didnt like the last name lemmon. And i knew in tv if its snappy something that people can remember its great. And i go don lemon, thats a name that people change their names too. You dont want to be like don clark, don johns. Something really simple. No one will ever remember that. Everyone remembers don lemon, everyone remembers honey. But i want to ask you this because you talked about you were to light skin for the black community, to darkened peopledidnt get. F scott fitzgerald, i want to ask you about th. He wrote an essay called the crackup, the test of first rate intelligence is the ability to oppose ideas in mind at the same time. Why do you tnk it so hard for people, even intelligent people youvworked with in the past understand someone can be black and latino . Its fascining, isnt it . The prident is half black and half white but nobodys able to reconcile that. I think a lot of it has todo with the history of this country. The one drop rule where if you we one drop black you wereconsidered black. And i think, i remember growing up can we talk about that . You could be 99. 9 percent Something Else but if you had just a smidgen black in you, you were black. And because of that history in the country, legal documents reflect that and you know, race is just a social construct anyway but my Life Experience reflected that and so on my birth certificate it says black and it also says hispanic which is interesting because i looked back at and it says mother, white and then its interesting. But when you would show on any standardized test you have to choose black, white or hispanic. And i would sometimes try to choose everything. Of course you did. Reject the form. And i think again, it just goes back to the history of our country and the way people are indoctrinated to this day. And i remember feeling if i choose one, does that mean my mother doesnt exist . We can go out and drink our bourbon later and unfortunately i think that that kind of respect for difference of opinion is gone and its just gone and it requires this kind of relationship that we have done and requires a respect for a difference of opinion. A level of forgiveness and being curious rather than judgmental. Definitely requires intellectual curiosity and a lot of people unfortunately dont have that and they certainly dont have a respect of four difference of opinion and we talk about intellectual curiosity what that means in my view is why is this person saying that what has ledhis person to say that and do i see value in that there is always value in a different opinion and how that person adapt to it and its only for you to strengthen your feelings abo the opposite opinion and is only to make y do that and feel that way. For some reason we cant do that anyme. I was pointing to the relationship thatustice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and i and justice scalia. You rea their opinions and some of their desceents and you would think they hated each other. That was hard for me because i ow curiosity but sometimes im like okay, they are makin making they went out t lunch together every friday and they would correspond with each other and they didnt resent anything. I should have i left out a ry important part that your dad also had to change his name in here you are in the 2000s having to change her name. Did you talk to him about that . Yeah, he did. I write about that and he did it we call it code switching and theres all these you know what is weird you talk to people in one way and you talk that way but after a while you get to a certain position and it all becomes one thing and you just do it like it is much more natural now and if you dont, i find it now it doesnt surprise people and i told chris the other night are you stupid and i know its not proper english but thats how we talk to each other. Sorry. No, [inaudible] my father when my parents were coming up again it is now the early 70s and this interracial couple was trying to get an apartment in manhattan trying to get out of the south bronx in my school cant teach me properly and ive seen and weve got to get out of the projects so they start trying to introduce together for apartments and the minute they try to show up the apartment is no longer available and what my mother realizes is her maiden name was [inaudible] so she realizes if i change rosa to rose and my father names was coming so if i became Rose Cummings and i show up with my light hair and my light eyes im going to get the apartment but my father realizes when he sends his resume out as an it guy it is William Moses cummings there aren a lot of white guys named William Moses but ife changes it to Bill Cummings or William Cummings he will get the job so he changed his name to Bill Cummings. My mother named changed her name to rose cummgs and got the apartment in manhattan and he got the job that isust the way it was but what saddened my dad was that we still do it today it shouldnt be that way. But it is. I thinkhere was a little bit of difference and i understand what you feel about the name and especially because of your grandmother and their ownership and they are proud o you as we say and when i say latina. Yes, black lina but you did not do that because you know, you did it bause sunny was easy and perfect and fit but i understand how now if you look at the success you have would not have to change h name and people wouldnow and its a different time now but i have to ask you because were talking, you know, e always ask what woul you go back and tell your younger self because you got with you are nervous about and you miscarri about medical and fair treatment with medicine and being a woman that has kids in this biness and so on and so forth and i want to ask you when you look at whats happening out in the racial reckoning and we have i called it the summer of george floyd. Okay, if you could go back to your younger self in the wake of jacob blakes shooting what would you tell yrself back when you were reporti about Trayvon Martin or during law school or back when you are entering news televisionnd what would you say tohat society . Wow. I did not know you would ask that. [laughter] what i tell yourself, i would definitely thought that if you did the excellent work that you would succeed and i think that was a very simplistic way of looking at things and i think if i am being honest in the seat i sit and now i would advise my younger self that it isnt a meritocracy and to be ready for that. It isnt just working really hard and being excellent. Those things help but go on. But they help but it isnt just a meritocracy and that indeed, you do have to look out for those potholes and you do have to, and a sense, played the game and be more strategic like you have always been trying to do. Youve always got to be strategic. You are a fighter and you are an activist at heart and im like sunny, thats great but you cant always be but you got to be strategic. And certainly be more of an advocate for self. I think i would tell myself and i often found out that, as you know don, because its only about the work. It is just not. Its not only about the work but theres a Bigger Picture there. Yeah, as we now call worklife balance but what i saw and so admire about you is your activists and fighting spirit and your love of family and your sense of family and the mom you are and daughter and you are wellrounded and i dont know how or i think women are the smarter and most successful of the sexist because you can juggle so much and take care of the home and bring home the bacon and you can do all that and raise kids and produce children and if men had to do that so sunny, lets have questions and that type is small so forgive me but this is from i think it is [inaudible]. In this time of Racial Injustice covid, natural disasters how can we channel our anger and despair into positive action . And then there is another question for both of us which is what do you admire about one another but first to do that how do you channel your anger and despair and people asking how they can do it into positive actions . As don mentioned im always at 100. I always feel like there is work to be done and i start the book out by saying i was born in 1968 and you got the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement and youve got the backdrop of president kennedy and assassination of president kennedy, Martin Luther king jr. And i was born into that and so the era of unrest. So i feel like i get it on us. My spirit gets it honest. I really feel like we need people to understand that you do hold the power to be the difference and it doesnt have to be in these big ways. I think people feel like theyre powerless and what do i do . If you feel angry and that doesnt mean you have to channel that anger and that could be in many ways and that could be in being a poll worker, right . By making sure that people are not turned away in a properly and it could be as simple as making sure that you go to your local meeting and make sure tt your loc School District is doing right by the kids and in tes of the covid plan and it could be protesting or organizing a protest and gting a group of friends together and virtually anning something. One in five people there are so many ways i think to harness that anger in a positive way to affect change. Iften think about the stats when you think abo and this is not a partisan thing but lets say y are a good person and he decided because you did not think your vote would count but you thought you can make a difference but hillary lost miigan by 11000 votes. In some districtshe lost by sen votes. Seven votes. Imagine if o person said they made a difference and tk six friends. That would have been the difference so that is h i feel ke you channel your energy and whatever, you make your passion your purpose and you do something, something. As you say it doesnt always have to be 100 or be a fight or doesnt always have to be something that involves the legal system or police but i think i had an expience recently as he wen through the george floyd thingr i went to a sto and went to a store that they were openingnd walked by on the sidewalk and that said i wanted to buy something out of the store and the guys said i can sell it to you but you cant come in because of covid which i certainly understood so i bought the thing and then as i was walking back to Something Like a bag i saw this woman inside this white lady shopping who looked to me like it was shopping and i said to him on i thought what is going on and he said oh, shes training and so i wasnt sure if she was training or not and i i didnt know exactly what was but i asked him what was going on and he knew from the look i gave him in the conversation we were having he got it and i returned the items and i said im just not comfortable doing this but here are your items but he got it and he had his lesson in that moment without it being a big deal and it was just a thing. Ure right, you have to meure and figure out how to do that, right . Take a stand and it cld be however small but just somethi something, justomething. Somethin i admire and i ink i said that that what i admire about you but i could answer that and i love sonnys amtion but its not Blind Ambition but a position in the rit way and i like that you are able t evolve and i like the evolution that isunny and i told youhat else i admire about you. You know i admire a lot of things about you. Don, what a lot of people dont know is don is so supportive of others and so supportive and that is not just of me because ive seen that support across the board for a lot of people and there are many days when i was getting a text from don which will be as small as how are you doing or i just watched the show and that was bad ass . Well done. Or you could lean in here and u could have done this better but i always know he is wating and is supporting and he wants you to be your best. In this business andn life even there arent that many people tha are in your corner who want you be better version of yoursel and ive always appreciated that. Thank you, sonny. Listen, i am so lucky to have this and i say lucky because yeah, i think im talented and fine but there is a certain degree of lock being in the right place at the right time but there are so few people like me and you and these positions that we must look out for each other and not in competition with you and i dont feel like none can do meet like i can no one can do you but here is the thing to that i think people should kno its not always just sweetness and flowers and i will say sonny, don get mad at me but that lighting today no, and you can tell me that and ill say thats not my business. And dont forget to ask this. Ask this next because its so helpful and a lot of people wont do that. Wait, wait, listen, thats not the name of the person asking the question but thats the name of the person whos sending me the question and as a prosecutor who is also a person of color how do you view policing in america and what needs to change . Great question. I used two thank you for that, by the way, go on. I used to get a lot of flak actually for being a prosecutor because a lot of times when people of color go into criminal law they certainly dont go into that side of the law and they become civil rights lawyers and they become Defense Attorneys and even judges but certainly not prosecutors but people need to know the prosecutor is most powerful person in the courtroom and i write about this, not the judge, not the Defense Attorneys but prosecutors. That is why im so happy with such insights on Daniel Cameron in kentucky because you are like i do this because of this or because of this and youre like no, the prosecutor has the pow power. Has the power. They run the narrative. Sorry, go on. People are upset about just like breonna taylor. There are not being a diamond there, its upset because Daniel Cameron was the prosecutor and he had the power to bring the charges and he had the power to put the narrative in front of the grand jury and he chose a different narrative and that is what i chose to be a person of color as a prosecutor. You work intimately with Police Officers. I know firsthand they have a very difficult job. They want to get back home to their families as well. The problem is multifactorial but the Police Officers that i worked with and im still friends with tell me that they are sent into situations that they are not prepared for nor do they want to deal with. They are sent into schools to Police Children and they dont want to be there. They are also sent to deal with Mental Health situations and they dont want to do that either, nor are they prepared to do that. They are not trained to deal with that. They are sent into situations of broken policing and they dont want to do that either. They want to Police Murder cases. They want to deal with high level drug cases and they want to do real policing and so when you hear about this movement of defund the police whether or not you disagree with the terminology it is about Arming Police departments across the country with the right tools to police appropriately and that may be diverting funds to Mental Health professionals to answer those calls and diverting funds so that you have to pull professionals in school that are dealing with troubled children as opposed to guidance counselors. Yeah, things of that nature. This pice officers can look at lice worker whi is what they want to do and i think we are sendin place into situations where they have no business dealing with and i also think we have over militarized our Police Department and there is no reason why Police Departments have Armored Vehicles these assault weapons that are used in bayonets and some Police Departments and there is no reason why, you know, t Police Departments have huge budgets for stlements because they are not, because they are killing black a brown people as opposed to having in their budgets money for training, biased training, how to deescalate so there is a problem with training a resources that doesnt seem to be fixed ever. I also think that we need mor people of color that are not only enrolled in Police Academies but are also elevated into positionsr supervisory positions so that ty can teach lor level Police Officers to effectively police a communities of color. You think that we need to, as people say, reimagine policing in this country because weve gotten used to it being a certain wa we think that that is the best way and maybe it is, maybe it is, maybe it isnt but adjusting to me when people are offended by it and i rember the whole term defund the police is you know how i talk about that unlike sonny. Yeah, don hates it. We got into this argument about it and people on the street were like crowd surfing that term and taking it to advertising agencies and figurin out whether it was an inappropriate but this is something that has if a ticket to an advertising or Marketing Agency they woulde come up with Something Different but they didnt and its not so much about the term but about the idea that it comes from. Get it. Im just saying in electionyear youve got to be, you know what im saying . Justecause people are hyperaware and even more s the people who dont want what you want are going to use it as a dgel. They are using it its true. You got to realize thats not what it is about and i do write about policing and constituting these cases in the book. We talked about everything and you write about it in some way in this book. I had a birds eye view to that. That and how to be successful being a mom and a prosecutor and you write about all of that stuff in the book so speaking of, another viewer question, what is most of libyan professional learning you have experienced as it pertains to Race Relations and thats just a followup. What i have learned . Where . What ive learned the most significant professional learning you have as it pertains to Race Relations so probably like what is the biggest, what have you learned the most, i dont know, maybe what is one experience you had what is the most sniffing and professional learning you have experienced as it pertains to Race Relations. I think that my recent experience at abc, if i am being honest, has been, was eyeopening and i start the book out with it and that we dont attack sunny experienced someone who was who had a big role in her career at the company and in charge of people like sunny who is accused of making insensitive racial remarks. This included sunny and i said accused, right . An investigation. And she was fired or terminated or had to leave what i wanted to be, you know what im saying. So anyway, it was, it was some very harsh things come on professional about sunny and sunny bought that and is continuing to fight that. That is recent. Okay, yeah, it was recent. It was just the summer. For me professionally. Could i characterize it operly . Yeah, person responsible for contract negotiations for my career as well as development of my career and so turning the race relation what i learned is that i think we go through life again thinkin that its a meritocracy that people cant take excellence awafrom you and my father taught me that and my mother tght me that but what i did learn unfortunately is that i is not just a meritocracy and that race does still play a role in our lives and a role in our country. We do have to speak up and speak out about that although i am reluctant to do that b i chose to talk about it, write about it and what i learned is people, at least at abc, were very open about wow thank you for telling us this isow he felt and how you experienced this and we need to recalibrate and what can we do to make it better and how can we be better whereas i thought there would be this reluctance to talk about it and there was a reluctance to talk about it initially because when i first wrote the book and handed it in the response i got was no, you cant talk about yourself and you got to take it out and i thought but im not going to take that out but you will take it out and im like im not going to take it out. I almost had to hire a lawyer because i thought this is my truth and this is my experience but now fastforward over going through this delay racial records mean of systemic racism and people are talking about it and protesting it and i feel a real change because now the response has been how can we make it better . And so that is what i have learned and that has been a real professional change for me. You are standing up as we began this conversation and were standing up for yourself and that is something you wouldnt do in the beginning and what i admire about you is that evolution you have had. Unwittingly, you do not understand this at the time and by just standing in your own truth. I have. I will tell you that becau you know this person i just got a text from someone right before we started this and im reang your book and thank you so much and im experiencing the same thing and i really needed to read it and im going to take action myself and i was just oored that, you know, what i thought would be professional suicide ce turns out not to be that and it is giving other ople the courage to speak out but i think it i a moment we are in in this country. The power you have as an individual, you dont think that power . You dont. But you do. In other people do as well. To what extent someone wants to no, sunny, socialedia responsible for the demise of civility and the ability to communicate like human beings . Thats a loaded question. I feel like social media is like this two headed drag and we get so much from it and i thank you and i both cover a little bit of this arab spring and it can be used for such good and so many people in the social network. No, its new. I saw it. Its on netflix. Yeah, it will come to m it w merely we changed screen time for the kids because we were like wow, itshat destructive. And it goes to some of the things in theook that says people s things to each other whathey would never say in person or would not even say it like this because we cant see each other buteople become anonymous and so now all of the sudden they have these twitter fights in their basement and ey have this fake andow courage and it emboldens them to lose all their decorum and it st sort of keepsn replicating and i think it led to theemise of true civility and weve see it from the top. There hasnt been a htory in our president in our history is been willing to [inaudible] no qualmsbout it. Social dilemma by the way. Asked, social dilemma. Its remarkable and i think that social media has given everye permission to say these nasty things. If i read to you theame thing about me onocial media im like and im from the procts but every now and then im like w. [laughter] i have limited myomments on certain social media sites just to people i folw or w i know and especially on insgram and you can do it on twitter as well. Thones that you see a not everyone can respond. I didnt know you could do that. And called twitter to hook me up. [inaudible conversations] i love the feedback but it has led to this incivility that i never thought i would see. You want to hear the love and the hate fro the people you respect and you dont have to hear from theeople you dont love and respect. You know everyone loves you and you want to see those comments because you want to see in some way but thenhey dont and you dont need toee that. If im getting it wrong a i want to know that and ilso [inaudible conversations] bu im such a venue know this, im such a Firm Believer in the freedom of speech and i want to hear from people that i am always shocked again at t crass a pure incivility of it. Sunny, can we do a lhtning round because we literally have a couple minutes. Oh know. Cayou believe it . Sunny, why did you want to become aawyer . If there was one question you cod ask withresident trump what would it be . First of all, whyid you want to become a lawyer . And wanted to fight for people. I wanted to be someones superhero and i thought there would be the best way to do it. Is there o question you would like to askresident trump . Are you doing allf this because your father didn show you enough love . It says president biden. What would i asked present biden . Yeah. Oh, how are you what is the first thing you would do to restore the soul of this country . Wow. Those are good questions. I think i would have two. One is why are you so jealous of barack obama . [laughter] good one. Now it is because iraq has more money than he has. [laughter] the question is if you had to get the truth serum it would be and how much taxes did you really pay or didnt pay . After writing this book and sharing personal experiences is there anything that surprised you or that you learned about yourself . You know, when i wrote the chapter on motherhood which was the hardest chapteror me to write because i share that i went through infertility, five miscarriages and i almost lost my son in pregnancy and i had not actually told my children that they wer ivf babies and so i had to share that with tm before the book came out and i learn that when i married because i narrated the aiobook i sobbed in the booth and i kne that i had a really tough time when i was going through all of th but i realized that i wouldnt have faln into a deep depression and i realize that about myself because im generally such a happy perso and you know that and from a very happy person. Sunny, calm down for yr to happy right now. But i learnedhat about myself that i really have a newfound empathy for people tha deal with Mental Illness because i really felt all the pain that i felt when i married that part of the book. Oy, heres the last question for you. This is the question i always ask. Who do you think you are, sunny . I think that i am [inaudie] and i think i am the beneficiary of my parents sacrifice and the love and dreams of my ancestors. [laughter] i love you. Sunny, thank you. We have t get together when this is off of this or whatever this is we aren and do more than a vtual hug. Would like t thank sonny huston and everyone can applaud there where you are. Cohost of the view, autho of i am these truths a we encourage you to support our local bookstore, your local bookstore i should say and pick up your copyf sonnys new book today and if you would like to watch more virtual programs i will support the Commonwealth Club efforts you can visit this www. Commonwealth club. Org great my name is don lemon and i thank you for being here and i thank you and sunnyor everything great you are amazing so stay safe everyone and we will see you soon. Goodbye everybody. Goodbye, sunny. Week nights this week we feature booktv programs as a preview of what is available every weekend on cspan2. Tonight we focus on a science. First, political scientist deborah stone argues numbers arent objective and explains numerous ways numbers impact our daily lives. Neuroscientists and author David Engelman explores the evolution of the brain and looks at the future of Artificial Intelligence in his book live wired, the inside story of the everchanging brain. Later the female brain is more susceptible to dementia and alzheimers disease than the male brain and she writes that research has been centered around the male brain while treatment for women lags behind. That starts tuesday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. Enjoy book tv this week and every weekend on cspan2. Book tv on cspan2 has topped nonfiction books and authors every weekend. Coming up this weekend, saturday and 9 00 p. M. Eastern former president barack obama reflects on his life and clinical career and his newly released memoir, a promised land. Sunday and im him eastern on after words open markets Sally Hubbard and her book, monopolies sock, seven ways big corporations rule your life and how to take back contr. Shes interviewed by Bloomberg News reporter david mclaughlin. At ten, former appellate judge D George Mason University law professor Douglas Ginsburg and his book, voices of our republic examines the constitution through the eyes of judges, legal scholars and historians. Watch the tv on cspan2 this weekend and be sure to watch indepth live sunday, december 6, at noon eastern with our guest author and chair of African American studies at princeton university. Joe with biden president elect see what stay was span for live coverage of the live transition of power. Cspan, your unfiltered view of politics. Hello everyone. My name is autumn sanders and im
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