On a means to a new trade agreement to that end N.P.R.'s Emily Fang tells us Beijing has announced it will waive the tariffs on some shipments of American pork and soybeans China's finance ministry said American pork and soybean sellers could apply for tariff waivers but didn't say the quantity of shipments involved Americans Libyans import had been subject to an extra 25 percent tariff since last July but an ongoing swine flu epidemic has decimated China's pig herds by as much as 40 percent causing prices to skyrocket N.P.R.'s Emily Fang reporting despite an appeal from Turkey a NATO allies at this week's summit in London appear unwilling to endorse uncurse policy of designating Syrian Kurdish fighters as terrorists the Turkish government's latest protest comes months after its cross border offensive against Syrian Kurdish fighters despite the diplomatic clash Turkey eventually dropped its objection to a NATO pact that would bolster the defense of Poland and the Baltic states neighboring Russia this is n.p.r. News. A drug that reduces delusions for patients with Parkinson's disease might also help patients with dementia and Alzheimer's Here's N.P.R.'s Patti naman with details the medication brand named new plays it was approved in 2016 to treat Parkinson's related psychosis it's a daily pill researchers think works by blocking a chemical in the brain that causes delusions researchers were studying whether the drug might also help to mention patients the study was called to a stop when it was determined the drug was beneficial patients on placebo were more than twice as likely as those taking new places to have to Lucian's side effects were relatively minor headaches and urinary tract infections the drug's manufacturer plans to meet with f.d.a. Officials early next year to work toward approval of the drug for dementia related psychosis Patty naman n.p.r. News at a conference yesterday Biogen offered up more data that it said supported the possibilities of an experimental Alzheimer's drug the company present findings for as you can imagine that one point was considered a failure Amazon's conceding it's having trouble delivering packages on time this holiday season the online retail giant is warning its customers that they may have to wait longer than initially estimated because of the sheer volume of orders made during Black Friday and Cyber Monday this after Amazon staked its reputation on on time deliveries Amazon says it plans to spend one and a half $1000000000.00 in part to hire more people to pack and ship orders this is n.p.r. News support for n.p.r. Comes from Capital One offering the spark cash card for businesses committed to helping business owners turn purchases into meaningful investments that can help drive business forward Capital One what's in your wallet more at Capital One dot com and Americans for the Arts. Like so many African-American kids the young baritone on from the top grew up singing rousing gospel music in church his grandma sang on the same touring circuit as a wreath the Frank let his uncle perform with Louis Armstrong but it's classical music that's reading this teenager to excel hear him sing the music of Scarlatti on this week's from the top hope you can join us Sunday night at 11. This is Fresh Air I'm David Bianculli editor of the website t.v. Worth Watching sitting in for Terry Gross. That's Aaron Copeland's believe the kid performed by the San Francisco Symphony conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas our 1st guest today on fresh air this weekend Thomas will be one of 5 honorees saluted for a lifetime artistic achievement at the Kennedy Center Honors celebration in a star studded tribute which will be televised December 15th on c.b.s. The other honorees this year are Sally Field Linda Ronstadt Sesame Street and the r. And b. Band Earth Wind and Fire. Michael Tilson Thomas was only $24.00 when he 1st conducted the Boston Symphony filling in mid concert for the ailing conductor he founded the New World Symphony and also served as music director of the buffalo Philharmonic and principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra Terry Gross 1st spoke with Michael Tilson Thomas in 1905 shortly after he became the music director of the San Francisco Symphony which he continues to lead today. As a teenager you participate in the Premier of works by bless Stockhausen Copeland Stravinsky. You worked with them directly yes yes indeed Yeah so did they give you a sense of what to expect. If you made music into your life you know if you live the life of a musician. Well they did many people did I mean also. Copeland But I very early perceived that there were some people in the music business who had been playing music for their whole lives who seemed to be ennobled and transfigured merely by the process of making music and others who seem to be very unhappy embittered by the experience of making music and so I was trying from the very beginning to understand what was the difference between these people and where did the choice live between having a life in music that made you very very happy or one that made you very frustrated when we able to figure out well I decided way back then that it was important for musicians to kind of take a musical Hippocratic oath before they went into the fashion and what is the of that you have to discover that it's just necessary for you to make music I mean to be a musician you have to love. Music as much as eating or sleeping or dreaming or all those other ngs and you can't be sure when you enter the profession of music where it may take you it is uncertain it depends a lot on being very well prepared and being in the right place at the right time but I remember a moment when I was around 18 or 19 I was walking on the u.s.c. Campus where I was going to school and I thought to myself well I know that I'm good enough I know I'm good enough I could be a university musician and they're wonderful things happening at this music at this music school of great quality and expression and if I could do this as long as I can make music I'll be very happy and if it turns out that I can make music in some larger arena Well we'll see about that but it's I know that it's music itself which is this process this dialogue with. With something in my spirit that I must pursue and then I knew I was going into music with. No with no other agenda it was just the music itself that mattered it was those people who for whom music truly mattered who were the ones that had wonderful lives as musicians you know and you said you thought musicians should take a Hippocratic oath I thought it would be you know 1st do no harm and that would be something like never perform boring works. Well never perform with your heart not being in it never never allowed yourself to get to the point where it's a job always make sure that your spirit is focused so that so that communicating music to other people is it is a central priority for you. Conducting a question and I mean a stick stick question you studied you know classical stick technique how much of that do you use now and how much of your take is is based on what you've Like learned in improvised over the years it's definitely a mixture of both I think the easiest way for you to understand this is that there's a constant given take process going on in the rehearsals and in the performance itself so there are certain key moments where I have to really indicate the exact of a certain moment in time to get around a particular corner and then having done that then I what I want to do is sort of turn over the lead of the music to perhaps a solo oboe player or perhaps the viola section or maybe a brass chorale all those different groups within the orchestra have their own have their own reaction time they all take breaths at a different speed they all have a a different way of into reacting and it's possible with my battle or with a little bit of body language or in using my eyes a lot mostly in using my life facial expression my contact with the orchestra shapes all those things. You are very close to Leonard Bernstein do you feel like you learned a lot about conducting technique from him of course I learned a lot from him by observing him and mostly through the kind of colloquy concerning music that we had over many years when I was studying pieces I had the opportunity to you know to call me up and ask questions and. The best kind of a rabbinic style almost always when I asked him a question he would ask me a question back and by this kind of dialogue of questions you know he would help me to really find my own way. Of doing the music that was of course terrific and. I guess my conducting style has become a lot freer it's a lot more economical now maybe than it was 10 years ago but you know these things these things change I I can only say that now it feels to me in the repertoire that's really the mind that as if I'm making the music happen in space as if I'm touching the notes and actually molding them and shaping them in some kind of plastic way you know with within Time itself you are in the role of the James Brown ones right now well I was with him for a couple of days I met him in Boston he was doing a little he was doing a show in a small jazz club and I told him I was a great admirer of his and he said Well come on the road you know see how we do it because I asked him how he got the band to be so tight and this is the time when he was doing sex machine was his big hit and I spent 3 or 4 days with him in Atlanta Ga and in Washington d.c. Watching from backstage just what he did and it was a great thrill so did you learn anything you could apply absolutely because what I realized that he was focused on the exact duration of the perceivable present in every particular piece the stroke of the Beat had a certain length he one of the the truck driver to be out in front in the hand drummer to be in the back and the bass player to be right the center and he had an exact idea of how wide in time that stroke of the chunk chunk would be would be and he any used that was something very sophisticated and just the kind of thing that composers like Igor Stravinsky thought about a great deal so did it change the way you conducted it all or the way you organized your beat it didn't change the way I conducted so much but it changed the way I could listen to music and imagine how the it too is the exact moment of the attack of music could be really artfully crafted to propel the music in different ways but you didn't have the artist to do the beat on the one. I had the Orks to do whatever's necessary right. That's conductor Michael Tilson Thomas speaking to Terry Gross in 1905 after a break we'll hear a more recent interview about his grandparents the Thomas chef skis who were prominent stars of the year theater This is Fresh Air. I'm Ira Flatow join me on Science Friday for the best science book. And this time we're throwing in Best Science Board games too and we want your suggestions so chime in on the Science Friday vox pop out of the park. To answer mysteries about the sun up close and personal it's all on Science Friday. Afternoon. This is Fresh Air conductor Michael Tilson Thomas is one of the honorees who will be saluted at this weekend's annual Kennedy Center Honors Terry Gross spoke with him again in 2012 when he had written and appeared in a p.b.s. Great performances special on his grandparents Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky who were prominent stars of the year. Boris was a producer he built theaters and he starred in productions of new plays and musicals as well as classic plays translated in the. Bar as did the 1st year production of Hamlet when he died in 193330000 people gathered on the Lower East Side for his funeral Boris and Bessie each emigrated to America from the Ukraine in the 880 s. Before we listen to Terry's 2012 conversation with Michael Tilson Thomas let's hear an archival recording of Boris Thomas singing a song in the film bar mitzvah. Was. Was to. Be. He. Was. So that's Forrest Thomas Esky the star of the it ish stage who is the late grandfather of my guest conductor Michael Tilson Thomas Michael Tilson Thomas welcome back to Fresh Air Thank you pleasure so your grandfather sang in synagogues in the Ukraine and on the Lower East Side of Manhattan before singing on the stage do you think he was influenced as a singer by the cantorial tradition. Very much so because in bourses family all my great great grandfathers had been mostly Cozzens counters except the ones who had become instead bodkins let's to say kind of village entertainers people who would get up on a chair at a wedding and sing a song which was completely appropriate to the occasion which was expected on that occasion and yet it would have improvised lyrics little outtakes that made it completely individual to that night so there was that sacred and profane division always in the family and Boris's father who already had a kind of wandering spirit as it was called nonetheless sent Boris to the best cum Tauriel school in Russia in bar ditch of where he became a star. The rule of the a dish theater was very important for Jewish immigrants United States many of whom spoke only and so they couldn't read the regular newspapers a lot of the English language theater would not have literal meaning to them because I wouldn't understand the language of the stage I mean that was a really important particularly New York a really important. Place for gathering and for. Doing anything cultural Well absolutely because there were very many newspapers in New York and Philadelphia and Chicago and all these major cities at that time but for the audience to go to the theater to experience a show especially a show which was very often my grandfather's case a kind of spectacle gave them a sense of the importance the sheer scale of what was achievable by an immigrant in the United States it inspired the old ladies used to come up to be on the street and said we were kids we had nothing but once a week or once a month we went to the theater and we saw the red velvet curtains with the name Thomas chef ski and large gold letters and we thought if that's possible for him it's possible for us to do the name Thomas Esky is such a famous name in the world of theatre and in the world of years theater I grew up knowing that name I knew that there were times were famous for a performance on the stage but that's about all I knew your last name is Thomas which is an abbreviated version of Thomas chefs he had a Thomas become Thomas. It really started with my father who was trying to make his own way in life in the theater and he simply was unable to do that everywhere that he went he would mention his last name and right away it was oh you're Boris the son and therefore of a he didn't want that he just wanted to be able to find his own way in life and in the theater so he was the one who changed his name initially to Ted Thomas and quite frankly. He also want to to escape from that whole crazed celebrity situation which my grand parents inspired and I think he also wanted to protect me from that because there were crazed fans the only way of describing there were stalker kinds of people who were pursuing my grandparents and their children and with the same kind of ardor that we're accustomed to thinking of crazy paparazzi or fans pursuing stars today were you aware of that when you were growing up your grandfather was dead but your grandmother there didn't tell you were 16 or 17 and she lived nearby and I think you were pretty close to her did you get a sense of people stocking her or is it way too late for that she was already in her seventy's. Well she had also moved out to l.a. And one of the reasons of for doing that outside of getting some character parts in movies she hoped for. Was that she wanted to get away from the whole scene in New York a town as she said with too many ghosts but what I really became aware of the shadow of Boris for the 1st time was when I went back East when I was perhaps 11 or 12 and I was going to a lot of shows stage manager cousins of mine because so many members of the family were still in the business in showbiz not necessarily as actors on stage but in everything having to do with the behind the scenes life. And we used to go to just one scene every place so theater people they say oh a kid the good seem to see the Lunts Act 2 finale is good for his joke in the 2nd scene of the 1st act is good you know saw that kind of stuff but there was this one show My Fair Lady and everybody was talking about it and I thought I'd like to see it my mother said Don't ask Cousin Georgia to get you into that show it's the hardest ticket to get and just be a monster so of course when I saw him I meet at the said could we see My Fair Lady we went to the theater people were lined up. Run the block to hopefully get some returns and he went over to the stage door knocked into the hay is Iran and Izzy company manager came out and my cousin indicated me as a hey Izzie see this kid Boris Thomas chef ski's grandson 2 minutes later we were in row 5 right in the center of that theater over your grandfather died before your you were born you got to know your grandmother Bessie Thomashefsky pretty well and tell us about the kind of parts that she played in the a dish the hair. Bessie started out as a young girl she was about 5 and she arrived in the United States from the Ukraine and she met Boris kind of eloped with him when she was young teenager and 1415 years old and she began finding her way in the theater 1st playing kind of innocent young girl roles but as time went on She also discovered her enormous abilities as a comedian and she very often played trouser parts or parts involving. Women being disguised as men for particular political or educational social purposes a little bit like what the story of a young till is right Bessie did a lot of plays like that where a woman disguises herself as a man in order to gain the advantages of education or whatever that a man can have what did she tell you about women's rights and the disparities facing women won she was young well she went from being a little girl in a village that was asked to bring in the goats and do other domestic chores to working in a tobacco factory in Baltimore and then suddenly finding herself on stage as a star pretty quickly. But she went beyond that she wanted to know everything about the structure of the theater and she became a very effective producer and manager and someone who paid far more attention to the whole business and organization aspect of the theater than my grandfather did who was the kind of big dreamer and partier and that was so unusual for a woman of those days I have some correspondence of hers where she's writing to us of people who put into an ad in some big paper that she was going to be a part of some season they were doing and she writes to them saying that she absolutely has not agreed to do this and these are the conditions which they must immediately fulfill in order for this to happen it's really very very tough and straight talk and there's a lot of stuff about her I didn't have room for the show remarkable things like when she was arrested by Theodore Roosevelt this happened in this way in New York there were blue laws at the time meaning that performances were forbidden on Sunday but of course in the interest theater Sunday was a very big day because Saturday was the Sabbath so they played on Sunday at one point when t.r. Was police commissioner of New York he and some of his men raided one of the Thomas eskies theaters and he came in. He saw Bessie who was very young and who looked much younger than she was always and he said Look out little girl and she said little girl my ass I'm the star of anybody's being taken and it's my. That's so funny so she got arrested she jest exactly the way she told me the story little. Insisted on getting arrested yet she was going to be in the center of it and I mean women's rights feminism was a very big part of the uterus theater but along with a lot of other social issues with the interest that are plays even the so-called. Sort of low every day play is were about issues like women's rights like about labor capital and labor child labor about degrees of religious observance about the whole issue of assimilation about reproductive rights of women and also a lot about the language are we going to speak Yiddish are we going to speak English. What language at home what language in the rest of the world and what about the much larger issue which is how can it be that somebody who was such a big shot in the old country became a nobody in America and some little shell meal from nowhere in a tiny village has suddenly in the United States become such a mosque or such a big shot and what does an immigrant pool of people do to understand where now is on or where is tradition. Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas speaking to Terry Gross in 2012 after a break we'll continue their conversation and we'll also remember children's advocate Mary Previti the New Jersey politician who died last month at age 87 I'm David Bianculli and this is Fresh Air 2. The new of our Family Foundation supports w.h.y. Wise fresh air and its commitment to sharing ideas and encouraging meaningful conversation support for n.p.r. 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This is Fresh Air I'm David Bianculli in for Terry Gross back with more of Terry's 2012 interview with conductor Michael Tilson Thomas he's among this year's recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime artistic achievement which are given out this week when we left off Terry was asking about Michael Tilson Thomas his grandparents Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky who were stars in the year is theater they emigrated to the u.s. From Ukraine in the 1880s. So I want to play a recording by your grandmother the late Bessie Thomas chef Skee singing a song and I'm going to have you introduce it this is actually from a d.v.d. Outtake from your show. So tell us about this song and when you think it was recorded. This is a little introduction to a song called mink as Solomon has monologue one of Bessie's most famous parts in which she's playing a girl from a little village who's come to United States and is on the eve of a huge adventure a Pygmalion like experimented which she will be elevated from her lowly parlor maid status to being the lady of the house Ok so this is Bessie Thomashefsky recorded approximately 1920 while Ok here we go. Was. Kind of. Thank. You. Karen Maginnis thank you thank. You think I think for me I want to thank God I thank you. So that was the late Bessie Thomas chef the singing and Nash and she and Doris Thomas Esky are the late grandparents of my guest conductor Michael Tilson Thomas so. What kind of music did your grandmother introduce you to. I was lucky enough to hear her deliver a lot of her biggest numbers right there at our living room since she would arrive every weekend to our house and we would put on a little show together in which I would accompany her and some of her songs and she would do recitations and we did little scenes together so although with my parents fondest hope that I would become some kind of scientist or mathematician I realized that she was already getting me into the whole theater experience right there at home that's really interesting you know one of the things she says one of things you describe her having said to you when you were young and as. You're more like me than your parents are they're more conventional and you have more of what she's saying like a creative spirit or something that she said Your parents are very lovely people but terribly conventional your like me you're an adventurer you'll have to prove something if you take that to heart. I paid attention to it I didn't know quite what it meant as I listened to her tell all these stories of her life from her childhood through her stardom and then even her reflections on the way fashions changed and the way she was in her late life of quite lonely person. I took it all in. What I kind of understood from her was that it had been a very interesting ride that she really was proud of what had been accomplished and when she saw somebody a very successful entertainer coming up and she could see in them something that had come from the kind of things that they had done in the theater she was very proud of it she recognized them and appreciated them so when your grandmother died and you were I'm 16 or 17 was there music at her funeral. There wasn't much music at my grandmother's funeral there were a few prayers and there were very few people there her plaque just says Bessie Thomashefsky theater pioneer star which is exactly what she wanted it to say but of course there's a whole repertory of songs that we played at home all the time whatever we thought about her and that I still play it was a very big moment a big rite of passage in my life. The 1st day that I took over playing her songs instead of my father playing them and measuring the way I was playing them against the wonderful nuances that he and my grandmother had brought to the music I was lucky to hear my family play that music for me I wanted to keep in my ears exactly the way they had sung the song some play there with all the irony and Morgan c. And snappy little gestures and comebacks. So you mentioned some advice in your show that your grandmother gave you about when you're onstage you have to remember that the people in the uppermost balcony are the people who paid the least but are enjoying it the most and you have to even if you're whispering You have to make sure the throws people can hear you how has that affected you as a conductor. My way of expressing what she said to me is what is it like for people beyond the 6th row. That we play in such big halls sometimes in classical music and there they're halls designed to be very rich which is on the one hand very nice the gorgeous Sabates there but to get the sound to be distinct is difficult and I sometimes tell my students that playing classical music is like making an announcement in an airport that you hear someone say passengers on Flight 3900. 80 mediately plays. So you're trying to make every single moment completely distinct another way Bessie had of saying that she said listen Danielle blowing up x. And you've got of child for the 9 void that's the night void that stands of us because you're saying I was going to the park one day and I noticed the most beautiful suddenly go around you'll suddenly drop the ox and you'll drop it you've got to keep the cod 2 of all the way going through same thing in music and that's really great. My cousin Thomas thank you it's been great as always thank you conductor Michael Tilson Thomas speaking to Terry Gross in 2012 he's one of the honorees who will be saluted at this weekend's Kennedy Center honors the annual salute to the arts will be televised on c.b.s. December 15th after a break we remember child advocate Mary Previti as the director of the Camden New Jersey Correctional Center she was devoted to the compassionate care of troubled young people Previti died last month at age 87 this is Fresh Air. Scandals surprises wars of war it's not it's not your favorite t.v. Drama this is real life and it's major news unfolds Morning Edition moves faster to break it all down to give you context understand what's happening in politics and when you need a break. With stories on science and art and even some humor claims his roommate. Listen every day from n.p.r. News. And weekday mornings from 5 to 9. Support for n.p.r. Comes from this station and from Sierra Nevada Brewing Company family owned operated and argued over since 1980 proud supporter of independent thought whether that's on line over the air or in a bottle more of Sierra Nevada dot com and from Dana Farber Cancer Institute developing ways to use the p.d.-l one pathway and immunotherapy to treat cancer committed to making contributions in cancer treatment for 72 years Dana Farber dot org slash everywhere this is Fresh Air child advocate Mary Previti spent 3 decades devoted to the compassionate care of the troubled young people in her charge at the Camden County Youth Center in New Jersey a private he died last month at age 87 she was born in China in 1932 and during the 2nd World War spent more than 3 years of her childhood incarcerated in a Japanese concentration camp after the war she emigrated to the United States got a master's degree in education in English and taught high school. Previn's lifetime focus was on improving the lives and education of children that letter to a job as administrator of the Camden County Youth Center a detention center in New Jersey where young people accused of crimes are held as they await trial the conversation we're about to hear is taken from interviews Terry Gross recorded with Mary Previti in 1903 in 1904 the 1st weekend private he took over the youth Correction Center in 1974 she had a riot on her hands when I arrived on the 2nd floor the boys were locked down they were behind steel doors they were doing a clanging banging just just like bringing the roof down with the noise that was what I came and of course my officers are standing by I'm a brand new political appointee a suburban housewife homemaker and here I am walking on to the floor I know you won't believe this Terry in a hostess dress I had been giving a dinner party Crystal and China and candlelight at my home when they called and said there's a riot so I come out on on to this floor and my officers are standing by watching because nobody believed that I was going to last in that place this is your big test there was no question I mean here they're standing by these are people that had been punched in the face kicked there had been violence against the staff there had been violence against kids it went both ways so they knew how dangerous these youth were I mean these are teenage boys charged many of them with felonies I had not a clue what to do the only thing that I knew what to do was to get up to the 1st youngster that I had begun to develop a relationship with and I went to his stores name was Stevie and I lowered my voice really softly and began to talk with him and I said Steve what is this about or you could just hear the noise level go down the hallway because everyone wanted to know whether Stevie was going to be a rapper. So this lady standing there whispering or talking really softly at one door through the Great into his bedroom everyone down the hall softened down declining and noises one of the biggest trippers riots just that awful noise it does something to your head it does something to your you know if this is it just like it sets you up for war so what did he say when you said what is this it was just something about recreation or something and I thought well you know you could fix something like that there were ways of fixing no recreation or not enough fresh air or something up something you could fix but it really it was sort of a missing gently to kids as to what what what was it about inside them that triggered this type of rage How else did the kids test you that evening Well really that was that was really it was it was like a test to see if I was part of the them the them were officers that had been involved with brute force against youngsters the business of mace Mace was regularly used it was kept immediately available in a locked cabinet there on them and mayor up there on the floor and there were officers that would even boast that they just knew the way you could get a kid fixed down real quick you just put you just put some type of a blanket over his door you'd spray the mace across his his radiator in his room and lock him in and you could keep the kid choking and gagging for entire 8 hour shift and have him out of your out of your hair merry brevity you are not physically imposing presence about 5 foot $425.00 pounds. You know you live in the suburbs you're not the kind of person is going to show muscle and people will feel so intimidated by you that they'll behave when you showed up that night you know. When the riot. Kids start asking questions like How much did that dress cost absolutely because you're drinking well kind of food reserving and now when I read this in your book I was and going Well this happened to me I wouldn't know how to interpret it because I figured they were testing me but I wouldn't know like what. What they were looking for in my response you you know where they where they see seeing it if I if they could ask me questions that were too personal that I shouldn't be responding to like what my dress cost or what I was doing at home that night or should I just respond and just be really open with you know that well that was my feeling on me I would be open I felt that I need to not needed to show myself as an ordinary human being because when you put violence and force out as your weapon guaranteed violence and force is what you will get back I could never win on that playing ground you know as you say in your book there's a lot of detention officers correction officers who work by the creed that if you treat people with kindness they will see your kindness as weakness and they will take advantage of what they perceive as your weakness they'll take advantage of your kind I don't think that's what you're describing is true I disagree with that and I just I don't operate my youth center from that I have personally observed over 20 years that the officers that are most successful in connecting with young men and young women are the ones who come across as human beings that demonstrate that they really care they're interested they're absolutely delighted with the youth and you can laugh over something that with that they do that's the kind of person that develops a relationship that's the kind of person that almost never gets the challenge of a fist or a fork or spitting or something awful that's the kind of officer that usually can calm a scene when there's difficulty brewing. What's your philosophy at the detention center about how to help the young people who are there and the short time that you have to spend with them well 1st of all there's only one set of rules Mary Previn he's rules. The boys and girls come from a squishy world with no rules no structure do whatever you want if there have been no parents around they come and go in their homes as they please when they please I had one boy say to me and he was a 13 year old charged with murder he said a mom spose to say don't do that and he was horrified when he says you climb out the window or you go way and she ain't even ask you when you come in a world of no rules and here is a kid saying but she's supposed to ask me begging for structure so I say we will make a world that is comforting in a predictable. There's nothing squishy about the floor you put your foot down here you will do it this way and only this way is not going to be unpredictable it's not going to be uncomfortable you will know every day when someone's going to wake you up you will know every day when it's time to clean up you will know when you're going to go to school you will know when you're going to eat you will know when you're going to go to bed and there's a certain way that you talk to people and there's a certain way that you were taught that you will respond to people so the predictable structure our children are living in an unpredictable world that is so frightening because they don't know when they're they put their foot down on any day whether it's going to be solid or when it's going to be squishy no child can feel safe in a world like that. Have a lot of the young people who you've seen been abused by their parents is that a contributing factor to the thing they're a very common I think one of the thing that really astonished me we began to see boys and girls just blossoming in our classroom and you say why is this We've had people walk down the halls and say what these school rooms here would be the envy of any school room in America we wouldn't walk in any public or private school as orderly as this and I began to wonder how that could be with children in a juvenile detention center all of a sudden taking seriously their school will have to give a lot of credit to the teachers but then I can be again began to dawn on me we took terror out of their lives we discovered that when boys and girls come in one of the 1st messages the officers will say is we will not let you hurt somebody while you're here and we will not let anyone hurt you so there was a sense that you're going to be safe in this place. Want to ask you about something in your background that I have a feeling has some connection to the work you're doing now and the philosophy that you take. You grew up in China where your parents were Methodist men missionaries and I believe it was the beginning of World War 2 you and all the students and teachers from your school were taken prisoners in a Japanese concentration camp after Japan invaded China. Did you have experiences in this concentration camp that helped you. Do the work that you're doing now in some way or understand how you should be doing it well I didn't think of that until much later but I think a lot of what I do at the youth center is very similar to what our teachers a March were marched off to prison camp with us we had these marvelous Victorian schoolmarm type missionary teachers in our school that were marched off with us we didn't see our parents for 5 and a half years so you've got a whole school of children with no parents and. They seem to know what instinctively what to do with kids in a prison camp it was the most astonishing thing when we did the teachers or the years did the teachers did on here regard dogs and electrified wires and and bayonet practice and all this the all the other horrors of war that no no child should ever know and these teachers would say they didn't say it this way but it was they made a very predictable atmosphere we knew when we'd get up in the morning does that sound like what I said you a bit ago when you when we would get up in the morning we'd hear Mr Mark come in to not just old to get up we knew when we had to scrub our little portion of floor that was round our steamer trunks we slept on steamer trunks there were no beds we knew when we were going to March off to $2.00 to $5.00 to eat and the teachers insisted that we were going to continue with school even though it meant sitting on the floor or sitting on the steamer trunks and using slates and a piece of chalk to do our schoolwork and they. It was a very comforting Lee predictable structure and of course absolutely God was going to take care of us there was no question about that so that was a very comforting thing they surrounded us with a world that we knew what to expect despite Japanese guard dogs and Japanese band practice around us and I think I do much of the same thing at the youth center and what kind of what kind of expectations of your behavior did the teachers have while you were in the concert hall all well our teachers of we were we were growing up in the time of Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret Rose who were the princes of in Buckingham Palace I was born British So these were great characters in our life and our teacher said you will sit up straight with your backs up straight at the at the dining hall where you might be eating slop out of a tin can and they said there is not one set of rules for Buckingham Palace or outside world and another set of rules for the way she and concentration camp so we had to have rules and manners just like Princess Margaret rose and Princess Elizabeth even in the confines of a Japanese prison camp Mary privity from conversations recorded with Terry Gross in 1903 in 1904 more after a break this is Fresh Air. Comes from the Yale Institute of sacred music incarcerated men reimagine the divine comedy in a reading at Yale voices from prison takes place on December 7th and chapel New Haven. Edu. Will. Now I get to talk to the. Community Theater at the Thomas. Sponsor of energized c.t. Offering energy saving solutions for home or business learn about energy assessments energy saving products customer recommendations and on the spot improvements at com This is Fresh Air Let's get back to Terry's conversation from 1903 in 1904 with children's advocate who died last month at age 87. You are from such an incredibly different world. Then the world that you work in now and you are you were the child of missionary parents you grew up in China we have parents who are Methodist missionaries you went to. A kind of fine and very strict school for the children of missionaries then we'll get to in a 2nd you spent several years in Japanese concentration camp do you tell the young people at the detention center about your experiences in the concentration times I do they're absolutely fascinated what do you tell them about it well the whole story sometimes you will sit down and a whole group and I'll tell them the whole story and they will just be fascinated I was sort of a born storyteller so I love to go and tell them stories and often their stories about me one of the stories I bet the young people really want to hear about you has to do with Have you lost your hand that that will that will shut them down to complete quiet when I tell them how I lost my hand in an accident and all of a sudden it's like I broke a code you don't talk about somebody has one hand or some you know some something that makes them quite different so when I open the door oh oh well now that is it's just mass quiet and this is how I want to tell the story well let me start over you I want to say you were wearing a short sleeved red white polka dot dress today and your arm is severed a little above the wrist and you're not wearing a prosthetic device to cover up the fact that you're missing a hand. It's you know if you look at you in a short sleeve dress it's very obvious right so for a young person who's meeting you for the 1st time they're going to notice that you're so and as you said they're not going to ask about it because you don't do that so how do you bring it up well sometimes I'll bring it up there I tell the story for a couple of different lessons so I may tell it in a different way each time some kid will say so and so just got sentenced and he was so nice and he was only 14 and also let me tell you a story I said I was so nice and I was only 14 and I one time my hand upon a revolving saw and now I'm look how old I am and I'm carrying a mistake that I made when I was only 14 sometimes saying you're sorry does not make the mistake go away so you have to be careful what you do that making a mistake even when you're so young as 14 can leave you Mark for the rest of your life. The kind of work that you're in there such a high burnout level there and it just get emotionally exhausted but I think after a while you know there's no instant solutions you're not you're not kidding yourself about how you're like working complete magic everybody walks out of your center is saved what keeps you going in spite of all the obstacles and all the losses. The little gifts I get so many little gifts every day and I look for the short term and the little because I can never expect the long term and when a girl that has been in crisis and just just so hurting will put her arm around me well asked me to sit down next to her at the table or a boy that I have just been working with a lot or he and I have written a story for our student newspaper together and I'm walking down the hallway and then he will reach across the hallway and pat my arm I go home like knowing every day that I get so much more than what I give I get so high from those little touches that you know you've connected with a youngster in a very private way I have never been burned out. There pretty Thank you so much thanks Terry children's advocate Mary Previti spoke to Terry Gross in 1903 in 1904 Mary brevity died last month at age 87. On Monday's show you should do Stephen and I can help you our guest will be Alex Borenstein she's won 2 back to back Emmy Awards for her role as manager for a housewife turned standup comic in the Amazon Prime series the marvelous Mrs maze she's also been on Mad t.v. The h.b.o. Series getting on and the Fox animated series Family Guy I hope you can join us. Freshers executive producer is gay any male our technical director an engineer is Audry Bentham with additional engineering support from Joyce Lieberman and Julian Hertz from our associate producer for digital media is Molly seated next river to shore up directs the show for Terry Gross I'm going to be. Support for n.p.r. Comes from this station and from Capital One committed to reimagining banking offering savings and checking accounts that can be opened from anywhere Capital One what's in your wallet Capital One and a. And from Echo publisher of all awful of sons new novel The Sacrament a nun's past returns tour when she and a former student investigate the death of a priest and a series of abuse claims that a Catholic school in Iceland available now. For local news you trust ask your smart speaker to play Connecticut Public Radio support comes from New Morning Market in what Berry family owned for 48 years helping to bring families together with healthy food this holiday season options for Quito paleo vegan and gluten free goodness is in New Morning Market dot com. President Trump says it was completely normal to hold security aid to Ukraine why would you give money to a country that you think is or is corrupt people in charge of the funds don't buy it. They've never expressed concern to us about corruption. Or frankly any so which is normal when it comes to foreign aid this afternoon on All Things Considered from n.p.r. 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Hi I'm all about transparency today so I'm going to tell you that I'm sitting in a studio in New Haven recording this right now and I sort of don't even understand when you're going to hear it and we've we don't do a lot of you know elaborate pre-recording but the show is recorded out of sequence and so I'm very disoriented which is good because this is the will be you know play that we're talking about today and we'll you know as plays do feature quite a bit of disorientation and the one thing that I the rock that we can lean on though is Harris you and I got you seen in dozens and dozens of movies or television shows you may not remember every performance you ever Sarkozy disappears into these character will spark we're going to talk to the 82 year old icon Harris Ulan and playwright we'll you know after this. Live from n.p.r. News in Washington I'm Lakshmi saying for the 2nd time in less than a week officials are investigating a deadly shooting on a military base this time in Pensacola Florida 4 people including the gunman are dead the shooter has been identified as a Saudi aviation student authorities are investigating whether this was an act of terrorism details from N.P.R.'s Debbie Elliott authorities say they responded to an active shooter in a classroom at Naval Air Station Pensacola early this morning as can be a County Sheriff David Morgan says deputies killed the shooter that's right it's been a gated our community a secure at this time we have no reason to believe or are we looking for any additional shooters within.