I think those are the two where the question is most relevant. Yeah. Well, i would just say it had an immediate effect on me, because i was supposed to be in germany right now at the bayer stockholders meeting. I had bought one share. I should mention, i was train by some really amazing historians, a bunch of people, but we didnt learn journalism, you know . We didnt know how to go on the ground. Ive had to learn on the fly. Buying a share, that sounds great. Ill tell you, the zoom version of the shareholders version was six hours straight, no breaks. No breaks literally just watching zoom from 4 00 in the morning germany until i dont know what time it was when i gave up. But and it was really interesting because heres the interesting confluence with this company, right . Its both a company thats on the cutting edge of health care and dealing, you know, so theyre talking a great deal about the pandemic at the exact moment in that stockholders e meeting theyre getting peppered by whats
Group in the middle of solvable problems that have not yet been solved. Thats what i call the perfect problem because that in fact is the focus of what i think entrepreneurship is. In other words, you are looking for a way to solve the problem that is solvable but has not been done. Youre going to have to do something new but you dont get a copy. What happened with jack, jack dorsey and i i hired jack when he was 15, he was a High School Student, came into work at a company that i still have and i dont run any of my companies they just sell them, this ones been around for 30 years and jack and i worked together and he went off to college and he got kicked out of twitter and the first time i guess. And they showed him the door and he came back to st. Louis and we were heading out and talking. And we decided we would Start Company together. So then we were kicking around for ideas, he did not have an idea and i did not have an idea so we look for problems i solve and we came up with the
And also the literary director of the library of congress. Much of my own writing has been about the history and the people of latin america, and the purpose of this conversation to share a little bit of that history and talk about how it compares with and connects to the pandemic that were living through right now, right here in april 2020. So many of us are at home, working at home, living at home and sheltering in place as science takes the on the covid19 virus. Im so fortunate to have a truly skilled and knowledgeable colleague joining me today, a scholar who wears many hats spanning history, science, linguistics, archaeology and geography. John hessler is the director of the kislak collection and a specialist on early america. He is the author of a book called collecting for a new world. John is also distinguished curator in the librarys geography and map division and an expert in mapping in general. Now, how does mapping fit in with all of this . Well, he is an adviser to a numbe
What were your politics in 1971 . I think a martian left would be the easiest way to sum it up. I was a leftwinger, but i didnt make enough sense to actually be a communist or a trotskyite or anything. When did the transformation occur . It was gradual. I just wrote about this. There is a book coming out from the huber institution is backing this. Edited by Mary Eberstadt called why i turned right and its the story of a bunch of us and why we became right and it is a long story and i wont tell it but ill give the shortversion. I was a radical leftist. Very much in favor of some sort of marcus socialist thing in america. I got a job. I got a job paying hundred 50 a week. I was a messenger in new york , hundred 50 in new york a week was a lot of money as far as i wasconcerned, i was on the Lower East Side and i was very broke. We got paid every two weeks and i was lookingforward to that 300 bucks. And so was my landlord i may say. And my drug dealer. And a number of other people and i go
Blow you off and keep going. He lives in his own world. I think people take his aloofness for rudeness which is not that at all. He used to be a darius outgoing guy and then had a traumatic brain brain injury and it changed his body. I think its evolved and you see in the fall and that my wife is funny, she read this book and she said i finally like him. He reached his humanity level. At the core. It took me four books to get there but i like complicated guys and hes complicated. Host thank you for being with us for our indepth program and in this special series we sit with authors for three hours talking about their life in their work. David baldacci will spend the time with us today and we hope very much for both of us as we enjoy your interaction that you will be a part of the conversation. As we continue along here we put the phone numbers on the screen and our facebook and twitter handles so you can join in on the conversation and we very much would like to from your questions abo