earth the board friendship 7 welcome to the miller center forum. i m barbara perry and i m the director of presidential studies at the miller center where i welcome to the miller center forum. i am barbara perry. i m the director of presidential studies at the miller center. i also co-chair with russell riley. the presidential oral history program. it is great to have you with us today. to join us for, what i know will be a fascinating conversation with our guest, jeff shuttle. it is about his book called mercury rising. it is the story of john glenn, john kennedy, and the space race in the case of the cold war. he comes to us from the west wing writers room. he founded it as a speech writing business along with the strategic operation. and this comes from his experience as a speech writer for president clinton. he did a number of landmark speeches for the 42nd president. he also has a background in history from brown university. he was a rhodes scholar. he has a masters degr