In summit earlier than planned after a spat with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau NATO overcame objections by Turkey to back plans to deter Russia but that unity was marred when Trump called Trudeau 2 faced after the Canadian prime minister was caught poking fun at him on a microphone trouble often criticizes NATO but led to its defense responding to French President Emanuel McCall's comments that it was suffering brain death many Welcome Trump's supportive words including City current mayor of the host city London the USA is crucial to nature's success and so what we want from you know the leader of the free world the leader of the only superpower left is multilateralism we get nervous when we hear u.s. President talking about America 1st NATO still faces many divisions including over its relationship with Russia and how to address terrorism Frank Langfitt n.p.r. News London Chinese tech giant One way is asking the u.s. Court to strike down a rule barring phone carriers from using government subsidies to buy its equipment the f.c.c. Says that one way and its rivals e.t.e. Are a threat to u.s. National security this is n.p.r. News. A judge in Texas is temporarily blocking a private border wall project along the Rio Grande and set a December 17th hearing on the matter the injunction was told by a private nature preserve which says private construction could worsen erosion and affect personal property the International Boundary and Water Commission also opposes the private Border Project the commission was set up by the United States and Mexico to ensure that both countries agree to cooperate on any changes along the Rio Grande and some of the government is shut down to try to get a hold of the measles outbreak that's killed at least 60 people mostly children N.P.R.'s Ashley Westerman reports that the small Pacific island nation has been under a state of emergency since mid November more than 4000 measles cases have been reported since the outbreak began in October for context Samoa's population is only about 200000 people Dr Allan Wright is there with a medical assistance team from New Zealand really days even as lots of people presenting with young children with Barry the nasal sweep complications we actively have to manage she price and it's probably I would tend to die before they become stable are right says Samoa's rural spread out population has been a hurdle to getting a handle on the outbreak this government shutdown is meant to help focus on getting vaccinations out to those harder to reach places Ashley Westerman n.p.r. News an Asian stock market shares are higher following gains on Wall Street the Dow Jones industrials rose 146 points on Shay Stephens n.p.r. News in Washington support for n.p.r. Comes from n.p.r. Stations other contributors include the pajama gram company creators of matching holiday pajamas for the whole family including dogs and cats with Charlie Brown Star Wars and Grange games in its fleece and flannel available at pajama gram dot com. And I've looked at this from every angle. For presidents have to sources to continue we examine the media coverage of women and minority candidates including. Perceptions on the take away from. Q. On c.b.c. Radio one in Canada across North America on Sirius x.m. 169 n.p.r. . That is the theme music from h.b.o. Show succession if you don't know about the show I mean you probably heard like a coworker or a niece or nephew. Like have you ever had the experience of watching a t.v. Show and the character you connect with the most actually sort of someone who gets introduced a little bit later or someone on the periphery of the story sometimes those characters can become your sort of unlikely favorites and if you're a succession fan I'm willing to bet your favorite character might be causing Gregg Now listen if you don't know the show it takes you into the back biting world of the family business 4 siblings each trying to succeed their aging father Logan Roy who runs the business they do some pretty ruthless things to one another in the process and cousin Greg is the likely pot smoking in a car great nephew who stumbles his way into this 1000000000 Dollar Game of Thrones Nicholas Braun is the actor who plays him and he's with me in studio live right now hey. It's good it's great great to be here it was nice to hear you describe the succession theme is a banger Oh it's a banger it's an absolute. Banger fat fat and I love that song it's Listening To be honest it's about I saw you I was watching the Raptors game last night yeah and then who shows up on my screen I was up there on the old Jumbotron How was that I didn't know where your records man. I'm a basketball fan so they offered me tickets to go to the game and I was very excited to go in and watch those guys I mean they're just some of the best big fan and Kyle Lowry in all this you know they found it it was a bit of a trip that you're in this like on the show like this now that you're in this moment where you are you go to these you know basketball games you end up on the jumbotron in a country that's not yours yeah. It's a pretty well it's a pretty weird thing. You're like do I just look into this camera which then projects into this room of many many many people are doing I don't you don't really know what to do but yeah but it's you know this show has been amazing I feel like very lucky to go around and talk about it and be a part of it and yeah you could do the thing where you like talk to your friend next to you and I'm not really kind of ignore the Jumbotron you know yeah my brother was right there I should have just like yeah I acted as if there wasn't just kind of wave Yeah yeah I'm busy in a conversation but oh yeah tell. Me Just get me to set this up for everybody so Cousin great sort of stumbles into the show's main plot which is the family battle to succeed the aging patriarch Logan Roy. Greg not like the other boy is for people who haven't seen the show where does he fit in cousin Greg he is the nephew of Logan who's who's this the patriarch. The He's the grand Greg Greg is the grandson of Logan's brother and they're actually Canadian they're from the Canadian side of the family like the farming side I guess the family owned a paper business when they're younger and Logan took the paper business and my grandpa my character's Grandpa took the farming side and we kind of got the short stick Logan became a billionaire and we became maybe like 100 millionaires and. You know like give me a break we really got shafted right. So Greg the pilot of the 1st season starts and Greg is trying to get into the corporate world by being a mascot at the amusement park that is the way Star Royko amusement park and gets too high and ends up throwing up through the eye holes of his cost him and. His mother is basically like look this is your chance to get in go to your uncle's birthday uncle on his birthday and make an impression and get your job back and I go there and I think the sort of spoils of of it all are very enticing and very exciting and. And I want more than just my mascot job back and so I start to maneuver Yeah and I 1st episode and it continues from there so I want to play a clip from succession that sort of shows obvious maneuvering a sort of this awkward maneuver a Take a listen to this I'm not bringing this up and it's almost right but. So you know when you have to destroy those documents it cruises. You know. Why I kept it. I kept you all of them just in case I got in trouble in because I was worried that maybe I was straight since of criminality. So. I don't want to bring anything up to know whether things like horrible would it be bad for me to like mention you know you ask a black male. I would I could he tell I don't like you it's just you know context very well it's at you're black brown accept or black male that's the cousin Greg Nicholas Braun is with me as did you he plays cousin Greg awkwardly blackmailing Tom But is there an argument to be made that late Greg is the only good person on the show I mean these are such hateable characters these sort of billionaires a Greg sort of comes in from a middle class or like he's at 100 millionaire class background and yeah yeah I think yeah he comes from a more modest upbringing than the kids you know than the main children of Logan So I think he doesn't come from like a cut throat mentality. You know he's he wasn't like learning how to be greedy and learning how to make deals as a kid you know so so he comes and naive. But he's highly ambitious too so he sort of I think is I think Logan senses that in him and sort of like Prague's it yeah and you know and as the series goes on I think you. He slowly loses that moral center but I often wonder whether he's like a stand in for the audience because I think when I when I would watch the show I would think and by the way I sort of embarrassingly disclosed to make before we started that I watched the whole thing in like 4 days and by the way you can watch the whole thing in life or do you know how do the feel it felt you know creatively exhilarating physically not great yeah you know I was kind of tired by the end of it and probably chips Yeah well yeah you're eating chips thought I'm Ok that's not healthy amount up to this which hummus Yeah exactly you know some carrots or something now yeah but but yeah I guess you can you can watch it very quickly because there's something kind of I mean to me like when I watch some of the episodes they're like kind of sickening but at the end you know like I gotta see where that goes yeah. So yeah but it's also just so unlikely you know it's so it's unlikely these days that there seems to be a show that everyone can sort of agree on that everyone seems to be watching again and when did when did you start to know that the show had become something special keep an actor for a while didn't work for a while yeah yeah I have. I think. What we didn't really know what it was the 1st couple episodes I don't think I mean maybe maybe other people didn't just see our writers as brilliant guy. And has been running for a long time and it has mixes genres and tones and humor into all the things he does but I think. I think we did you know we shot the pilot we all thought thought it was good I think we had a good time making it and then as we read episodes 2 and 3 and 4 you're doing table reads and it's like really funny like we're making an hour long drama for h.b.o. You know it should feel heavy and sometimes it really did but then it was really hell Arius in these table reads and we're like are we making a comedy and me and Matthew Macfadyen who plays Tom are like are we are we or I don't I can't speak for him but I was like in my ruining the drama part of this because this is funny and like people are laughing and maybe we should go for that I want to play something because it's a bit of a trip talking to you right now just because I watch the show so much I want to play this clip from your interview Stephen called their show Ok we had one of your other costars Nicholas Braun Yes Les cousin eg Ryan glass Did he seem was mocking his character is all forgotten every night by the state very sweet very very nice I had real confusion because the 1st season I used to call him Greg because I got his name wrong but it was part of the script the 2nd season I kept calling him that. When I should've been calling him Greg and they said No Brian it's Greg not Nick I said he's so like the character I can't tell the difference so that's the Scottish actor Brian Cox who plays Logan Roy sort of the aging multi-billionaire patriarch on succession and I'm here Nicholas Browne from succession and he says something there that I had to the method I'm sort of feeling right now which is that you seem very similar to a Character Are You very similar to your character I have there's a lot of similarities I think yeah I mean. I don't I try to put a lot of myself into this guy and. You know he's uncomfortable in this world when the show starts and I think as it's going on he's getting more comfortable or getting a little bit more like solid in himself and in these rooms and learning how to operate a little. Better and blackmail you know blackmailing even though it's sort of reluctantly blackmailing. But I pile like to put a lot of my own awkwardness and my own. Things into it and to Greg and that feels really good to me because I think that's what's interesting about him is that he's like the most sort of vulnerable in this you know everybody else is kind of cold and they kind of shut down emotions and they can't show this or that to each other OSs they'll get you know look at me funny or Logan will you know remove them from their position in the company or something if they show too many emotions. And Greg I think my take on Greg is that it's fun it's fun to watch him feel all of the stuff that he feels and these places and like gets excited about getting flown to Hungary you know in the season we fought hungry you know or any of those things so the stuff that they take for granted you can see you getting very excited about and that's going to see my said we got to see the audience in the right we see ourselves at what we would be pretty excited to be flown to Hungary and you know to eat a bird with a blanket over our head you know these things evolve a very exciting right you know now yeah I have you found yourself like this is such a world of like high finance and you know it's going to billionaire class and so many kind of read about in the news and something that we know about from television and stuff like that but now that you've sort of portrayed members of that class have you found yourself being welcomed into it have you found yourself being invited places have you found yourself you know people reaching out that they think you're part of that world. I mean I yeah I guess I guess so yeah. Yeah it's kind of opens up. It's kind of opened up some some some fun. Hangs but. I don't know I'm I told the story on Caldera when I went on but I you know I got to meet the Clintons at a party and both of them yeah both of them know you know I was not chatted up with them I mean pretty awesome pretty awesome bill is like such a charismatic man and. And and Hillary to you know. I voted for Hillary so I was I was very sad to meet her and decided to tell her I don't think I did tell or yeah the weird thing to say when Yeah yeah yeah I was I was in my opener you know. You got my vote. Started happening Are you Ok. How do you know but this is all of the media's whole theory in a I guess I have to call it a theory for legal reasons that that that the royal family given their media tycoon with the you know aging the leader from and now the country other than the United States and there's a power grab between the siblings about who's going to take over everyone thinks about the Murdoch's right everything's about Murdoch's Murdoch's of course famously from you know a powerful media family Fox News in the Wall Street Journal in the Times in London where you were you that aware of the Murdoch before you took this on no not really not really I mean I you know I saw a lot of those headlines about life of you know Phone phone scandal and war and all that stuff but I didn't really follow it and I don't follow that much of the news and and all that sort of stuff so I didn't yeah I didn't know it was what was the deal with the Murdoch have it have any of them reach down now to me you know but I fear some of them have watched it. We hear little things you know the cast like sort of gets little whiffs of stuff like a Lizabeth Murdock's seen it or you know is there a cousin is there cousin Greg in the Murdoch family. I don't know. I looked up I looked up the Murdoch's when I was when we 1st when I 1st got the part. And there was some guy I can't remember his name but he just looked like a cousin Greg and he was in a bunch of photos and it was just sort of like it's like his suits didn't quite fit and his hair was not great and he looked like he was trying to lean into pictures with people. Like he wasn't immediately included in that picture but he sort of got his way and you know and I felt like that's the Greg I don't know maybe he's just some guy that is around but photo bomb Yeah exactly that's no not yeah he's doing a good job being around essentially wanted a gigantic news you know junkie before he took this job on but I have to imagine that you know being in a show that's sort of about the manipulation of news and I should point out to people who have watched the show the royal family own sort of a media conglomerate a lot of their conversation on the show is about you know how they might twist the news for political means or for business means he has being in the show changed the way you watch the news or consume media. I guess I guess I read things sometimes and I'm like that could be a succession story line or that is what we just chop you know or just came out. On our show so so there is. Yeah I guess I am sort of sensing it like like there was a. This isn't exactly news but in New York we have these these like electronic billboards and there was something on there that was that was like President Trump tries to shut down biography. You know someone writing a biography that's bad paraphrasing but that's what he was doing and that's something that was a storyline that we were already shooting in succession where Logan is trying to shut down a woman in season 2 who's trying to write his biography and Greg just started to talk to her yeah a little bit. And so you had stuff like that I guess I'm just I just have a more of a keen awareness of of how the media you know these big families are using the media or how trumps using the media. So yeah there's there's definitely a bit of that they're just tuning in and speaking with Nicholas brand you might know him as cousin Greg from H.B.O.'s show succession speaking of bangers Take a listen to this the last word to. Your favorite. Mix what are we here and why I can't just play that's what isn't. True that's so cool that you just played it this is a song that I made a. Couple years ago when I had it in my computer and I never put it out man. One courageous night like maybe 6 months ago or something I say I'm just gonna put his hands on my Sound Cloud and see if anybody likes it and it's one of my favorite things I made. I made it with a little like a drum electronic drum machine is part of my fair part turn up. Yes. Sounds good. From no delay was music a plan for you before acting oh. Yeah I've always loved making music I yeah I sang I was a I was a kid you know I was I was Ok I was a kid I sang in my school choirs and I sang in acapella in high school and. I loved making music I love writing songs I love help playing piano I can't read music but I like playing and so all the songs I make are just sort of finding chords and notes that sound good to me and feel like I'm not like I can write a melody over them. And so and me and my brother made some songs for bed and we're starting to make music again and it's something that I I think about all the time but I just don't have time for it enough and you know now I'm on the show and I'm acting and and working a lot but I love to make music and. Yeah so I'm hoping to get back to it more now that we have a few months off. Also here because the Canadian Canadian music. I hear you like like and I'll show you you know like you know like Daniel Caesar and you lay Yeah Canadian artists I actually didn't know Daniel Caesar was going to go awesome yeah I love Daniel Caesar I love Andy Shaw for I think any shot makes such beautiful. His lyrics or some of the some of the best lyrics I love how he performs he sings with such like amazing intent I don't know if you've seen him perform live yes I saw him at a church last year is incredible yeah yeah so good he didn't know I was there but that's I'm going to church but chances are it looked you directly in the eyes that's the way he performs because he wasn't performing he was just at church yeah right he's from being fetes a sketch and yet deep out there apparently right do you really small town yeah shut up if you listen to this I'm being favorite now Congrats on your favorite son and a chef Yeah you're on your man he's doing great so before you go who do you think I'm going to ask this like you know in the end I can't spoil the end of season 2 I think the last episode of Season 2 is one of my favorite television episodes of all time thank you but you know who you think is going to win this thing who you think is going to win the succession Game of Thrones like do you have any predictions. I I don't I yeah I don't I don't see a laser kind of pointed at your head right now yeah right. Now because because because our show runner so smart he's going to he's going to make this a real dance for a while so. So he knows how to craft it but I mean. The all 3 of I liked what they did with cure and caucus character towards the end of the season especially the last 2 episodes without saying too much he just grew you see some different sides of him that make him more of a contender. And I mean I'd like to see Greg you know like take some big swings at some point which he's starting to to at the end of that season. But I don't know who's going to get the get the gold and it was nice to me it is great to meet you yeah this is so fun and this is fun to. Read on the h.b.o. Show succession I'm Tom Power and we'll be right back with more q. From c.b.c. Radio and p r x. . A critical species is dying biologists is scrambling to find out why how the demise of freshwater mussels could affect the ecosystem and our water supply tomorrow on Morning Edition from n.p.r. News weekday mornings on 89.3 k.p.c. Supporters include float the fly over all traffic shuttle passengers can fly to work every day instead of driving on the freeways and sitting in traffic learn more about flying to work at float shuttle dot com They either love Los Angeles a historic landmark an event then you located on Wilshire Boulevard in the heart of the city with Italian Renaissance style architecture sustainable locally sourced cuisine and a commitment to warm personable service they evolve Los Angeles is a location available for weddings corporate events or film premieres for more information you can visit eat Bella valeted dot com at each. Of dot com. Q. On c.b.c. Radio one in Canada and across North America on Sirius x.m. 169 n.p.r. My name is Tom. Do traditional t.v. Talk shows seem a little predictable by now the sleek couch the comfy chairs the host behind the big important open desk a big celebrity telling an enduring story. Or being forced to reach into a box blindfolded to play a terrifying game in front of the nation what if we just exchange all of that for a bunch of teens sitting in their bedrooms talking to cameras and string it all over the world if you're into the Raj twits that's exactly what you'll find a talk show but for the Internet you might be wondering what is the what prompted the teens to do this to put down the 10 o'clock she is a host a talk show her generation that doesn't really watch t.v. Is this the future of talk shows Al-Ameen has just heard commenting on sad Christmas songs is the social media editor at Buzz Feed he's here to tell you about the future of talk shows Hi Al-Ameen How you doing not too bad it's nice to see it you forgot about the branded mugs when it comes to t.v. Talk shows by the way yeah Elmina's currently holding on to the cute mug Yeah my favorite mug in the world did you get one to take home I sure did Ok good let's start at the beginning what is this show the rock show right it's a well it's a show that is broadcast on Twitter which is the streaming service and the way that it works is Raj The host it's kind of in the middle and. By that I mean his screens it's in the middle and then other people streaming from their own homes are sort of invited onto the screen as it's just to do comment on the lives of other twits streamers it's very insular It's very like exist within the sort of twit universe in this place we can stream video games resurrect not necessarily a place you'd expect to watch non video game content like a talk show exactly but if that but these shows are averaging you know an audience of about 20000 people yeah it is pretty great for for just a random little streaming show that you put together so this is kind of like a Jay Leno style show or this is kind of like The Bachelor What is this thing it's a little bit of all of those things so it sort of begins with here's a let me tell you a little bit more about Twitter's like twitch being this platform where you stream yourself talking or video games they decided that there's a good subsect of people who actually just want to use it to stream their daily lives to just chat about whatever like you would of course. Stream yourself talking about bluegrass presumably and then many people tens of people. Would do it and say hey I want to watch Tom talk about but bluegrass and the case of Raj he sort of tapped into this market of how people who use twitch want to talk about other people who use twitch and so it ends up being calm and a commentary on the very personal lives of who is sleeping with who who really beating who in terms of streams you know the kind of because these streamers I mean I know I watch a little bit of Twitter. These become celebrities in their own right there follow to do or you know so then what Raj does is like on top of inviting them to just chat with one another and he also invites them to do this kind of bachelor style show right we have a clip from the raw show take a listen. To the rush to Mr Assad of Syria. Today is the day that you find a woman of your dreams Ok the woman it always seems is out there she is waiting for you and she is in this room somewhere Ok all right Ok I cannot wait for you to maybe that is a clip from the the Raj. Sounds like a pretty disorganized version of The Bachelor but exactly what it but it makes me think about like you know when we were growing up there was this you know you could you could hope to become like Conan O'Brien or you know Jay Leno or you could try to be Deni petty or something like that right but but it seems like the this new generation talk shows is doing something completely different for a completely different audience right with the idea that the streamers would become sort of Microsoft pretty stupid right comes also the necessary extension that you might actually enjoy watching them kind of it is very informal and organize environment and he has a lot of fun with it but also when you would watch a traditional talk show say when you would watch David Letterman I'm running at a talk show host mention would you watch David Letterman you mentioned so many he'd be passive right you'd sit in your home and you'd watch the show yes if you're lucky enough to get a ticket you'd watch the show from the audience I know when I watched a streamers on Twitter or twitch dreamers I. You know you can often type along I don't but you can def and type along and you can like speak to the person who's streaming as they're streaming How does that fit into this idea of a new talk show so the Roger show uses that mechanism to end up like kicking people off the show or inviting new people on the show by having people who are commenting and follow along with the stream and sort of give their feedback and say no we don't want to hear any more from this person we want to hear more from this person and so it becomes kind of a new level of audience interactivity and it particularly works because there's such an investment in these characters right because if you are a part of this community already then you care about the stream is a lot you know a lot of their personal lives already because you watch them stream for so much and so you just lean into that and say hey I want more of this and less of this is this the future of talk shows and reality t.v. Or is this just you know further information that lets us know that media as a mass thing is becoming more and more relevant that just can be tiny little pockets of what we're going to why not both I mean there's a there's a there's a real but I just shrugged and just said Ok I give up with this Internet thing but truly I think it's a little bit of both in the sense that as audience is fragmented more and more you're going to have shows like this a target a more specific population so yeah it might average an audience of 20000 people it doesn't need to draw an audience larger than that. And that might be the future of our of how we consume ideas I talk to I mean I've been making money is this like is this can they can they can yeah maybe can they can run ads or they can run different sponsorship so there's no reason why they can't make you know if you tell me that I should start my bluegrass talk show I would join it. I know nothing about literature but the ideas would very quickly kick me off and like I don't know let's do it the tumble aggression I was here to teach If you're just tuning in my name is Tom Power you listening to Q l mean Abdel not Newt is here he stops by every couple weeks to talk about what's happening online and before we let you go there's something else you want to get your thoughts on. But 1st we have a clip Take a listen to this from the deepest reaches of space. Comes in it's true of. Who has captivated the hearts and minds humans. Without further ado please welcome. So on the topic of nontraditional media this what is that that is that is a clip from the little bugs show who is Little Bob I love time of the Internet cat was an Internet cat to me not like a cat like in the in the fifty's they would talk about a person who was going to run a cool cat like a literal feline a literal feline right. Was a cat that gained a lot of Internet fame in part because of her really unique appearance so she'd be her genetic makeup meant that her her her arms should have always expressed out and her eyes were bulging and her tongue was always out and she became she became a regular feature on Internet cat means so often times she would she would be the image that you would share when you're looking surprise or sad or upset about something a little bug is that sort of one of the Central Figures of cat Internet I guess and sort of like and I'll jokes aside sort of like another another bit of evidence that the Internet is weird that you can you can have a lot of like tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people tuning in like they used to tune in for like Jay Leno Petunia in for a cat Palace try 2000000 that was a following that little bug had a. Had a following of 2000000 people on history and that's people who are like yeah I'll follow Lubov like I follow my friends I want more and more updates about this cat's life so passed away yes this dispensed on this past Sunday obituaries for him ran on c.n.n. New York Times and Rolling Stone to name a few feels like this is feels like a bit of a moment was a moment I mean listen this year we lost grumpy cat earlier this year and. And I think that this is just a testament to the fact that if you follow Internet cats and they're a regular feature in your life and they are popping up regularly on years to get feed then they become kind of like characters that you become invested in like you know you've seen the video of a little back a little bub playing with and I don't know what and that becomes like something that you send your friends and it brings you joy and now you sort of look at it is a proper mourning that's why you know I would be very runs in place of the c n n the New York Times but yeah I mean important cultural figure even if I can hear your tweets at me right now yes but I kind of can cause of this when I wasn't playing and ask you know this but I want to ask you about this I feel that this entire time that we've been talking about and the changing of talk shows that you have twitch starting new talk shows that you have. That you have the you know little bug getting this big audience but then you have Lily saying who started on You Tube and going to a traditional talk show form and it was that the wrong way to go I don't know if it was the wrong way to go I think it's this is sort of a symbiotic relationship it's not like t.v. Unmask me are going away anytime soon we're just kind of figuring out our own different little niches on the Internet as well and like you can make a pretty decent living just existing off of those nations you can make a pretty decent living probably getting all the bluegrass people in one room and then talking bluegrass with them or whatever your niches but there's also still that interest in sort of consuming what the mass media is telling So you know there's no it's not a surprise that the top You Tube videos top You Tube clips every day are just like the talk show host from the from the night before right so it's not like we're completely abandoned one realm for the other the relationship kind of goes both ways I mean things are coming in My pleasure. As a social media editor at Buzz Feed He joined me live here in Toronto Ontario and he's planning on being the Ed McMahon and my future bluegrass round table show. Coming up next on the show if you start a Star Trek not not personally. Yeah me neither but you know once I started to get into the show and reading about it I learned about this person in d.c. Fontana and she created a lot of the storylines in the original Star Trek series she's an incredibly important figure in writing in television writing and she just passed we're going to rear my conversation with d.c. Fontana from just a few years ago on q. If you want to follow the show. On Instagram. I mean 88. 88. Member coming up. Next time on we'll look at the 1st House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearings for legal scholars testified whether the case against President Trump is worthy of impeachment will look at how the day long hearing fits into the overall impeachment process. Weekdays attack Iran 89.3 p.c. See. If you're planning to make a gift to k p c c before December 31st do it. And you could save on your taxes before the end of the year find out more. Supporters include voted Pasadena's best event space in $21000.00 by the readers of Pasadena weekly located in Pasadena nor provides banquet rooms and catering for. Less and special occasions and are Events dot com. It is an e.q. On c.b.c. Radio one in Canada cross North America on Sirius x.m. $160.00 and from p.r. My name is Tom power what you're hearing right now is the theme to the original Star Trek series. There's been a lot written and said about what made Star Trek work but the original stories might have been the real secret sauce on those early episodes the indelible characters they created the surprisingly progressive themes and the writer behind a lot of that died earlier this week at the age of 18 Her name is Dorothy Fontana but she's better known to legions of Trekkies and trackers as d.c. Fontana the byline and some of the show's most classic early episodes I had a chance to speak with her and another Star Trek writer David Gerrold 3 years ago as part of the show's 50th anniversary celebrations that conversation began with each of them talking about that music we just heard well it always brings back wonderful memories actually. It was written specifically for Star Trek obviously and the 1st time we heard it it was like Oh that's great and then you've got Bill Shatner's opening narration over the 1st notes and you have to say. This is going to be good David how about you that music always gets me and for me it evokes the charm and the sense of wonder of that 1st season when everything was brand new and we'd never seen any of it before it's just one of my favorite pieces of music for our audience who may not be familiar with your well they may be familiar with your work but they may not be as familiar with your story and let's give them some background David you were a fan of Star Trek before you wrote for the show is that right I was still in school still in college and I was a big fan of science fiction I'd been reading it since I was old enough to read and but I had been taking classes in screenwriting and playwriting and also other theater arts and so when I saw the 1st episode. I was ambitious enough to say I don't want them to screw it up by doing the last it's a sort of monster of a week and so I submitted an outline and the producer wonderful man named Gino Coon who doesn't get anywhere near enough credit is he deserves invited me down to the studio and he said we're all bought up for this season but please him get some outlines for 2nd season and I did and Dorothy Fontana read one of them and said this has them whimsy let's hire real right by the story and hire real writer Well the way it worked out was Gene gave me the chance to be that real writer Wow Dorothy you came at Star Trak Amy That's awful nice of you to give David his break by the way as kind of you know I do if you came in star trek from a completely different direction you did have a career before Star Trek Can you fill us in. Well I sold my 1st story to television in 1960 to a show I was working on at the time it was the Tall Man starring clue Gallagher and very solvent I was 21 years old and my boss Sam peoples had said to me if you write a good story I will buy it so I wrote one and he bought it and then I did another story and then I said I want to write a full script so he said Go for it I came in with another story and that's when I began my 1st story and teleplay and got that and I did another tall man so that was for tall man I did a rewrite on a shotgun Slade I did. A show called flatteries people which started on the air and then got cancelled and I also did the road west again starring Barry Sullivan all in between 196966 when we went into production on Star Trek but in 1963 I went to work at m.g.m. Studios in Culver City and I was working for Dell rise man who is the associate producer for Gene Roddenberry on the lieutenant which is where I met Gene Roddenberry and. After the lieutenant was canceled Roddenberry handed me about 12 pages and said Tell me what you think of this and it was Star Trek and I was very impressed I really liked about my 1st question was who play Spock and he shoved a picture of Leonard Nimoy across the desk at me because Leonard had done a guest star on the on the lieutenant and I said great because I had known him since 906 when he started the very 1st story I sold to televisions. It all comes around goes around it all comes around. And I stay with Roddenberry actually as he tried to sell Star Trek we finally got it sold made a pilot and 964 and then one in 5 and finally we got it on the air in 1966. You know a lot of Trekkies listening to this right now might know you as d.c. Fontana talk to me about why I chose to go by that name well the 1st 6 credits I had were Dorothy and then I began running into that oh I don't know if a woman could write my show it's about a high school what's your problem you know. So I just went with the d.c. Figuring well. They can't tell if I'm a man or woman if they haven't met me yet so. I sold under d.c. Funtown I sold k.c. I sold the script to Ben Casey series and that was the start of it I haven't changed it since except for one street in San Francisco where the producer wanted to show people that he did hire women so he said can you use your for your real name on one episode and I said Yes with just one and that was the only time and that was in the let's see. Early seventy's I want to play a little bit from the episode that you mentioned just a little while ago celebrating its 49th anniversary which is The Trouble With Tribbles Yes. On migraine. Card I am going to hold you responsible. Be thousands of them hundreds of. 1000000 771561. That's assuming one should hold applying with an average literate 10 producing a new generation every 12 hours over a period of 3 days assuming that they are 3 days ago and allowing. Consumed storage. There you go I'm Tom Power You're listening to Q I'm speaking with Dorothy fountain and David Gerrold 2 writers of the original Star Trek series David that's a clip from one of your most iconic episodes The Trouble With Tribbles for the uninitiated what the trouble. Trouble is a small furry creature I had originally thought of rabbits in Australia but we couldn't have real creatures and a young lady who I was hanging out with in the school named Holly Sherman had a key chain with a big fluff ball on it and I looked at it and said That's cute it'll work and. So that's how I described them and a remarkably talented prop man named watching arranged to have about $500.00 triples made in that clip you heard both William Shatner as Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Spock David when you were sitting down the late great William shall Are we just lost in this year he's marvelous man and you guys were sitting in that chair either writing on a typewriter or writing longhand I mean you know with computers back and what was it like I didn't read those 2 in mind for Shatner anymore. Well I had the advantage of being able to visit the set and watch them work so I would listen to how they spoke and so when I was at my typewriter I would kind of close my eyes and try to hear their voices in my head and because I had gotten such a strong sense of who the characters were and how they spoke it was. I could say no I can't type that Shatner wouldn't say it that way and I can't type that anymore I wouldn't say it that way so I had to listen to their voices and and write for the way they spoke and I think that's part of why the script succeeded was that I had spent so much time listening to how the actors worked with each other Dorothy how about you what's it like to write specifically for those 20 well I was involved with them on you know working with. Roddenberry on the 1st 2 pilots building the 2nd pilot of course but Leonard did both the 1st and 2nd pilots and I became used to how they both. I did their lines and in addition to usually making a run down to the stage once or twice a day to see that everything was Ok and reporting back later on I became the story editor so I was kind of responsible for seeing that other people also wrote the what are the way Leonard and Bill Shatner would deliver their lines sometimes they get way off they were you know other writers they were listening as David listened and you'd have to straighten out the dialogue a little bit to make it more Shatner more Nimoy. Gene Roddenberry created this show that I think now when you look back on it it's kind of ahead of its time when it came to diversity in terms of and any quality racially especially David did you get that sense at the time when you were writing for it Oh absolutely in fact I got a chill up my spine just watching the 1st episode of the man trap because the salt vampire creature could make other people see it as whatever it wanted them to see and so when Michelle Nichols Lieutenant Doris walking down the hall the salt vampire shows up as this very handsome black man and I got this chill up my spine recognizing Yes that's exactly right and so from the very 1st moment as aware of that that diversity aspect of Star Trek and it was one of the most exciting parts of the of meeting the characters on the show there are objections from some stations in the South when they saw a shell Nichols on the bridge in a fairly prominent role and they were refusing to carry the show and Gene Roddenberry said you know it's a swear words and too bad for you you lose and it turned out later on those stations did come to heel and did run the show but at 1st there were these objections because there was a proud moment on the bridge Dorothy you wrote the introduction to David's novel Blood in fire and you wrote that Star Trek quote expressed itself as episodes that dealt with bigotry and racism the Vietnam War The generation gap and slave meant other races fights for equality in many other issues of the time with hindsight how much of an effect on those issues do you think Star Trek had well our audience is very intelligent and I think we got the messages through. For instance the Vietnam War nobody else could write about that we did under cover of it being on an alien planets and it was you know over different things but it was really about the Vietnam War and we were also able to tackle issues like race and gender is a met all these other things that. A lot of other shows could not approach but we could under the guise of science fiction Star Trek is again experiencing a renaissance there are 3 new Star Trek films there's also a new streaming television series for c.b.s. Called Star Trek discovery David why do you think this show is resonating with audiences still after after 50 years well there's a lot of factors at work but I think basically and I said this like 4950 years ago is that it presents an optimistic view of the future and I've never had to change my mind on that it says whatever problems that we as a human race are experiencing we're going to outlive our problems we're going to solve them we're going to become better we're going to create a world that works for all of us with no one and nothing left out so that inspires people the idea that there is a bright optimistic hopeful future if we're willing to work for it and I think that particularly among young people the idea that life can get better that whatever problems are in front of us today are solvable I think that brings them to the show because they see here's a team of people and sambal working together for a common cause and I can't think of anything more inspiring than that Dorothy I want to close today's interview with a question for you if you were to write a new episode of Star Trek given in mind that you spoke about all those issues that you're able to pursue in your writing of that show what do you think you'd write about. That's not so much an issue out in the world so much I always wanted to do the story of Dr McCoy's daughter Joanna and. She would be a nurse she would be have graduated from medical school nursing school and she would be. You know now with the with the Federation going on these starships and she would meet her father whom she hasn't seen for quite a long time because he's been off in space for 5 year missions etc And there's a distance between them and yet they want to be father and daughter and how do they make that work. I've always been more interested in the personal stories and then put the science fiction and the issues around that so I would like to do Joanna and I've been threatening to write it as a novel for some time now. With Dorothy and David thank you both so much for talking to us today really appreciate it my conversation from 26 teamed with Star Trek writers d.c. Fontana and David Gerrold the minds behind some of the show's greatest episodes d.c. Fontana died on Monday she was 80 years old. Listening to. Radio host on the. Way it is December so all through this month we're going to be playing some of our favorite moments that happened live music wise in our studio usually just behind me every Thursday someone performs live music on our show and it is just one of the greatest treats of my job people to be able to sit here and listen to it and to allow you to hear it I one of my favorite moments this year was a discovery for me it's a great Canadian artist named Amal Check this out. If Is the greater on a singer songwriter Amal and later recorded live in our studio all this month will be. Some of our favorite live performances on q. And a. New album discovering Canadian music. On the next morning edition there's a lot of research on how a military service can lead to p.t.s.d. And depression but little attention to grief we think soldiers. Don't have. Long term about one of the 1st studies of grief among veterans and catch the rest of the day's news on Morning Edition weekdays tell mine on $89.00. Support for the California report comes from hint water hint is water infused with food essences including watermelon and Black Berry no sugar no sweeteners no calories available in grocery stores mouthwatering water. This is $89.00 k. P.c.c. Pasadena Los Angelos a community service or Pasadena City College offering the p.c.c. Promise program for students who can afford tuition Berdmore at Pasadena that you do you. Know and welcome to News Day on the b.b.c. World Service with. Thank you for joining us. On a clock in Paris nationwide strike against present pension reform is threatening to par in law is the country. To France shortly also why the Chinese tell the way is taking legal action against the United States from will be on our Business Desk outrage in Pakistan after the latest incidents of violence against women we hear from a feminist. In the heart of Bellin that is now turning into a diplomatic route between Germany and Russia to Russian diplomats have been will Moscow now retaliate in kind more on that plus we'll have the latest update with Matthew the sports news but 1st the latest world news. News with Comrie a nationwide strike is being held in fronts against proposed changes.