We ask you speak clearly into it and you keep your question to question. And then following everything, we have all the books on sale behind the Cash Register at the front of the store. So if you just want to get up and get those income back in matt will be more than happy to sign them. We ask you keep your chairs in place. We have another talk after this and they would greatly appreciate it. But yes, we host a lot of events this year or every year really. If you need any help with keeping track of all those we have the calendars up at her info desk, also check our website we update that all of the time, its just the best bit of information we can push that enough. Today we have the pleasure of hosting matthew tran eight matthew is an awardwinning journalist hes been on marketplace and the author of many books Harry Trumans excellent adventure, the president is a sick man among them, he is here to discuss his new book, all this marvelous potential, Robert Kennedys tour of appellation details of kennedys tour starting in mid february less than four months before his assassination. Books like recap the century story of the appellation life and what decisions were in place to generate the world as it became. Myself having lived near cumberland for years, has seen how this story told in the book, the title alone reds ignites with her population there. But even deeper into the book readers will be familiar with economic withdrawal and Party Infighting will find much to discover. Everyone please help me welcoming matthew algeo. [applause] thanks travis, im going to justice a little, hows herve feeling every feeling okay . Got this with handshakes . Its great to be at politics and prose again. I said it before, for authors this is like of Madison Square garden. It just smells better. Travis, was mentioning some of my earlier books, i kind of like where this fits into some of the previous books i have done. But a little background about myself is in order, its always good to let people know the person who wrote the book, the person hell be giving your money too, hopefully. I grew up in a town about 30 miles north of fillet delphian town called argosy in sin indian word for nuts are cracked. I went to college at the university of pennsylvania and philadelphia and i majored in folklore. Ive got that going for me. After i graduated, i couldnt find any work, of course. [laughter] my parents were surprised. [laughter] so i started working in public radio. Its kind of the place were folklore people went at the time. I worked a few stations in seattle, minnesota, i met my wife in st. Louis in 1997 and we are married in 1998. And in 2005, she was hired by the state department and joined the foreign service. And so, since then, i have been able to write these books because my wife has a real job. [laughter] this string of non bestselling books has given me something to do, at least while we are overseas. Quick plugs for some of my earlier books of i could, the first book was last Team Standing, thank you big van. The 1943 merger of the steelers and the eagles they became the steagalls because the nfl was so short of players during world war ii they had to merge two teams. The quarterback is blinded when i running back as ulcers, it all happens they are not the last Team Standing but the publisher insisting on calling at the last Team Standing but dont worry about that, its a good book. The next book was. Trumans excellent adventure which would trayce the road trip that theyd took in the summer of 53 right after they left the white house, this was before president s had secret service protection, so harry and bess just got in their chrysler and drove from independence to the east coast to visit their daughter margaret who is in new york at the time and drove back again. It was kind of a sweet book, harry and bess are just staying in motels and eating in diners it really speaks to a bygone era. I dont think x president s now are mid side corporations onto themselves. But when truman left office he was the last president to return to something resembling a normal life. It was a lot of fun to do that story. Grow quickly, i did the president is a sick man which is about the secret operation on Grover Cleveland to remove a cancerous tumor from his mouth. How are these not bestsellers i just cant believe this. [laughter] pedestrian ism the competitive of walking it was a sixday walking race. Okay . Okay . An avon fido, which was widely acknowledged as the greatest biography ever written of lincolns dog. [laughter] and lincoln plus dog come on. [laughter] what do i have to do . Alright so we will see about all this marvelous potential and how that fits into the scheme of things. This book came about in 2016 after the president ial election youre probably aware that donald trump is president and a lot of people were surprised when he was elected and they looked at the numbers and were specially surprising look at the overwhelming majorities he picked up and a lot of counties in appalachian people started writing about this and i thought well thats interesting, i wonder how that happened. I knew about the kennedy trip just as a piece of political trivia that Robert Kennedy and 68 agana one of his famous tours to Eastern Kentucky 80 punch and contacted the time kennedy was not officially candid but was considering running against Lyndon Johnson and the democratic primary. It was an effects kind of a Campaign Stop that had all the toppings of a Campaign Trip with Photo Opportunities and hearings in the speeches. And i just thought it was interesting that Robert Kennedy in 1968 is a liberal could go to Eastern Kentucky and then 50 years later, you see donald trump when in these counties was 60 or 70 of the vote. So i thought i should write a book about that, but everybody else thought the same thing so this book ended up being a little bit different if focuses more on the trip itself, i dont really get into too much of the analysis of why things change. I think i look smart how things change. I leave it up to the reader to decide whether the changes are for better or worse, they are worse. I went down to kentucky i began researching the book in 2017 i grew up in philadelphia outside philadelphia have a lot of biases attached to it. To the story of appalachia and off the 1960s. My ideas the 1960s was woodstock, the chicago convention, san francisco, who dont really think of kentucky when you think of the 60s. At least i didnt. For i came from. But the 60s happened in kentucky a lot. There were a lot of crazy things going on in appalachia and Eastern Kentucky. Things to do with environmentalism and poverty. That really surprised me and i really thought maybe that was the way to approach the story it and look at what the 60s were like in Eastern Kentucky. Just by way of background, before the trip in 1960s is brother jack ran for president in West Virginia was important primary for john kennedy to win. Bobby was his Campaign Manager and this was the first time that jack and bobby were really exposed to american poverty of right to think it really stuck with both of them. Theres a funny story from the 1960 campaign and West Virginia were an old coalminer came up to jack kennedy and said is it true that you have never worked today in your life . And jack kennedy said well yes there is some truth to that in the coalminer said will dont worry you havent missed a damn thing. [laughter] so kennedy really was enamored with the people in West Virginia and appalachia and i think they stayed with him in july of 63, harry accardo who is a writer from Eastern Kentucky road a book called mike comes to the cumberlands. It was really an expose on the exploitation of the people in eastern contacted by the Coal Companies. And the major corporations in the u. S. That depended on coal. And then in october of 63, homer was a reporter for the New York Times wrote an expose about poverty in Eastern Kentucky. I think jack kennedy had seen both of these and made quite an impression on him. He had planned to go, to Eastern Kentucky to see with the conditions were like for himself, and that trip was scheduled for december of 1963. So of course, that never took place. However, after his assassination, lbj stepped up and really took up the mantle for anti poverty campaigns. In his january 64 state of the union address, famously declared a war and poverty. In august to 64, just seven months later, the bill, the Economic Opportunity act was passed. Creating the office of Economic Opportunity or a leo which was the agency that oversaw all the war on Poverty Programs. And they were so may programs, takes a page in the book just to list all the programs but some of them are headstart, medicare is something that came out of the School Lunch Programs, things like this. So rfk, when he went to Eastern Kentucky in january 68 he had a few reasons to go. One was i think it was still in the back of his mind that his brother had wanted to visit kentucky and 63 it had never made it appear he wanted to gauge the success of the war and poverty. The bill to re appropriate Economic Opportunity was coming up so he wanted to see what progress had been made on the war on poverty. To think Robert Kennedy also wanted to show that poverty was not an africanamerican problem or native american problem or a Mexican American problem but an american problem that affected every community and every group in the country in Eastern Kentucky, particularly he thought it was important to show that to the country. The trip itself was two days he held hearings in a oneroom schoolhouse. And then at a gymnasium and a town called Neon High School gymnasium. And as i was writing the book, i thought it was more interesting i mean Robert Kennedy, a lot of books have been written about Robert Kennedy. Larry tehran and excellent biography and he gave me a good blurb, which really is the most important thing. And i did not want to write a book about Robert Kennedy and a biography as much as explaining what he did on this trip and the issues he faced. Try to put them into some kind of context of what was happening in the 60s. And what is happening today. Also, to show what changes have happened since the 60s and what changes havent. Just a few of the issues that he discusses, he confronted in Eastern Kentucky, one was stripmining. At the time, there was a system called the broad form ed, i dont know why they called it the broad form deed may be as big. These are deeds that people and signed over, the mineral rights to their property, often 50 to 100 years earlier. These deeds, give companies the right to strip mine, to strip the land that the coal was on. And the companies were not required to repair the lambs, they were not required to do anything to fix the damage that was created by stripmining, and so people would see Coal Companies command, dig up the land and dig up the leave. I was very environmentally was disastrous, it stripped hillsides of all the cover, so the hollows would flood every spring. Not to mention very exploitation since it really destroyed the land the people had and they got no benefits from the coal that was taken out. I think Something Like 1 trillion of coal is been extracted from Eastern Kentucky, and not much of that money made it back. Another issue that was pressing at the time was this concept of maximum feasible participation. The Economic Opportunity act, provided that people most affected by these programs, i. E. Poor people, would be given maximum feasible participation in deciding how the money would be spent. And what the money would be spent on, where the money would be spent. And so just as an example, there was a grassroots Citizen Committee and rapid counties that was organized, got a 40000dollar grant from the federal government to build new roads. This was a committee that was formed by minors in the counties. Seems like a really fantastic thing that they were able to get this money, but he you think did not like the fact that the federal government sent money directly to grassroots Citizen Committees. The state in the county politicians. They re seek to have the money go to them first and they would decide to that despite this to the world poverty in the economic act paternity act and the Economic Opportunity act with maximum feasible participation it was a fantastic idea but in a way, playing it a little seed of its own demise right there in the act. That it triggered such a backlash among the entrenched political interest. This wasnt only in kentucky but everywhere, and any of this money went. Of course, 1968, the president ial campaign was heating up at the time when Lyndon Johnson had not withdrawn yet from the campaign, that would come in march. Bobby would not announce his candidacy until march to february the trip takes place. We are about six weeks before Robert Kennedy officially announces his candidacy. But like i said earlier, really had the trappings of a Campaign Trip and its fun to have pictures in the book, kennedy aides did not expect quite the crowd of press to accompany the senator on this trip. So you would see these long caravans of cars following him and hed stop somewhere and go inside a house to talk to somebody he would be done and beyond to the next house before the caravan even finished pulling up to the house. So this kind of funny how much attention it got although i was surprised to learn that the networks did not archive nightly newscasts until august 1968. When the Democratic Convention came. So there would be an occasional newscaster that follows important essay once in a while the Network Newscast from kennedys trip was not able to find, i think they found they did not archive the newscast at that time. Their host of issues, one just real briefly, food stamps was one of the fascinating issues to me. That he learned about in this book. And mainly because people had to pay for food stamps. Which i hadnt really appreciated. But when the Food Stamp Program began, you paid for a certain denomination of stamps and then in addition to that you were given free stamps. So you would pay say 10 and get 15 with the food stamps. And the fee was determined by a number of factors the your income that sort of thing. They could be a fairly big price, kennedy, one of the people he talked to on the trip that one of the hearings was an unemployed miner main show wingo few gates. I love these nays. Who spent 72 a month for 94 in food stamps. So we had to pay 72 basically to get 22 in food stamps. Another minor was a guy name johnson who was a father 15 whose monthly income was 60. He paid 206 a month for 112 in food stamps just leaving 34 for all other expenses. Johnson said at to kennedy he said have you seen 15 kids in three beds . Robert kennedy said im headed in that direction. [laughter] he had ten kids at the time i think. And after the trip, one of the things that did come out of this was that eventually, the purchase requirement was lifted. Although it did not take effect until the food stamp act of 1977 and that did not take effect until january 1979 in the purchase requirement was finally ended and the participation in the Food Stamp Program went up 1. 5 million in one month. Set made a big difference in a lot of peoples lives just by lifting that purchase requirement. Was also interesting to find that food stamps or Welfare Program for people for the hungry. Also Welfare Program for walmarts, because about 4 of walmart sales come from food stamps. So its always interesting to see walmart, how they come down on legislation that makes it harder for people to get food stamps because it cuts into their revenue. Of course, after rfks assassination in june of 68, Richard Nixon was elected president. He had to appoint someone to oversee the office of Economic Opportunity to oversee the world poverty. Of course republicans for the most part did not like the war and poverty inhaled the programs. It kinda put nixon a tough spot who is he going to find to this thankless job that nobody wants. He found a congressman from illinois a guy named donald rumsfeld, who took over the office of Economic Opportunity and one of his first tires was a young ambitious congressional intern from wyoming, a guy named dick cheney. So in 1981, the office of Economic Opportunity oh eo, was finally abolished altogether. We couldnt give rumsfeld and cheney credit for ending at least one war, and that was the war on poverty. [laughter] what to soon . Finally, we took a couple statistics one is poverty was reduced, 1959 poverty was 22 , thats pretty crazy. Let me do the math thats one and four, one and five . And in 1973, it was 11 so is cut in half. In the space of 14 years. When you look at a graph a chart of where poverty was headed, from 1959 to 1973, its just straight down. But since 1973, when the effects of putting the brakes on the world poverty took effect, it is held steady. Its been about 11 to 15 since then. In some ways i think the warm poverty was a success in other ways it was not. Id be happy to take any questions if anybodys got them, you can step up to the microphone and let it rip. Somebody has to have a question. Thanks for being here, thank you for the talk. I look for to reading your book. My question is, i wondered if you could speak more about the decline in poverty . I work in Montgomery County with Patient Population of uninsured adults. The criteria to get into the program listed the below to below 250 of the poverty level. The federal poverty levels of same across the night safety and the cost of living is not the same across united states. When you went from 22 to 11 could you give us the context of where those numbers came from . One of the things, and a talk about it in the book, and excruciating but fascinating detail is how you determine poverty. This was a huge thing when kennedy came in and 61 and said what we do about poverty, the first thing you want to know is whats the number . People said we dont know what the numbers. I think rita or sharansky was her name at the department of agriculture was a woman who came up with a formula for determining what the poverty line was. And basically, she took the usda, im giving a longwinded answer here, she took the usda figures for nutrition for a family of four, she figured out the average housing prices et cetera et cetera, she came up with his number. Formula has basically been unchanged now for what are yet 60 years . And the problem is, at the time housing was very cheap and food is very expensive. Now, you have the opposite. Food is cheap housing is expensive. But if you made any changes to the poverty line, it would immediately put millions of people, technically in the poverty, no politician wants to do that. So they dont want to change that. She had these things with the criteria keep going so 250 of the poverty line, why dont you just move the poverty line . Why dont we just make a fluid by regions, by metropolitan regions or things like that. So i think, the problem its is so politically difficult for people to come up with a comprehensive and uptodate formula for exact determining exactly who is in poverty and where, theres just not the political will to do that, nobody wants to touch it. The war in vietnam, these young men who are out in the appellations and other poor areas of the country, how did he deal with sometimes the military was their only way out. And yes, how did he convey the fact that this was an unjust war, its best not to participate in it. And yet the military was often the only way out for these young men and often time these young men in these reason pension region will be on the front lines and more likely to be killed or injured. Statement kennedy had come out just a month before this deepening swamp speech in chicago where he had unequivocally came out from expanding the war in vietnam. And you are right, the support for the war and appalachia was strong. I think there is a lot, even in the people who supported the work, there is a lot of people opposed to the way is being managed. And they saw that their sons, and Eastern Kentucky or dying at higher rate than any other region in the country. West virginia had the highest casualty rate of any states in the vietnam war. And Eastern Kentucky the counties of Eastern Kentucky were considered their own state. It would have an even higher rate. Appalachians i was in a say appalachian boys their men, were considered especially good at walking points because they were film layer with mountain terrain. They were fantastic marksmen, and they were familiar with living in rough environments because they did for long periods of time. I think it was 8 of the combat veterans, of the combat soldiers in vietnam were from app to latch about 13 of the medal of honor recipients were for appalachia, so its a pretty big disparity. So to answer your question, there is ambivalence, definite ambivalence and appalachia the time. Young people unequivocally opposed the war. I think their parents were more ambivalent than that. They supported the war but they certainly did not like seeing their children go off and fight it and die in such proportion. What is known about the Health Effects of the war on poverty . It certainly must be something that has been studied, but i dont know anything about it for sure. You made in terms of so improvement in health at any age,. [inaudible] it was one of the fascinating things i didnt even mention some of the people while researching the book. Just amazing, the war on Poverty Program is the creation of Committee Health clinics and there are Still CommunityHealth Clinics that were founded 50 years ago. And Eastern Kentucky that are the primary Health Care Providers for communities there. And i would say, statistically i dont know off the top of my head, but the incidence of childhood diseases, which were still prevalent into the early 60s, home are bigger when he wrote his article in october 63, talked about the number of cases of child malnutrition that were documented there. And so they certainly, that decrease come the School Lunch Program helped immensely. This was a guaranteed meal that the kids had every day. They hadnt had a before even there they had political problems in trying to get those implemented. There were a lot of hurdles to tackle but overall public health, the effect was positive. Thanks. Thank you. We mention the people you met in your reporting, i wondered sort of what reflection or did you hear many reflections of people about kennedys trip . Or . This was cool its the one thats on most recent and happening so not very well worded, but you know what he mean. It was only 50 years earlier . Less than that. Theres still a lot of people who admit kennedy, the problem i had as id mentioned few gates everywhere. Theres isoms everywhere, the nays, everybody has the same nays or took a little work to track people down. But a lot of people had memories, firsthand memories of the trip itself. I think it was interesting to look at the impact it had on people, even to this day. People got really emotional talk about meeting Robert Kennedy. One of the women i talk to, she had gone with her sister to see kennedy at the high school in neon, and she had written on a piece of paper, and excuse slip and had kennedy sign it so she could get excused from school. Which was a good thing, because a lot of the schools did not want the children to attend. They didnt think Bobby Kennedy was a positive influence on the children at the time. So, yeah, it was a lot of fun finding people who remembered the trip and had firsthand memories. One of the guys i talk about in the book was a guiding steven kay when he was university of kentucky law student. He was a friend of karl perkins who was a congressman from Eastern Kentucky. One of the reasons candidate went to that he was going to go to carolina but fritz collings was running for reelection at the time and he was like hey bobby, maybe not shine a light on poverty in South Carolina weimer running for reelection. So kennedy said okay, and then hollings later supported some of the legislation. So went to kentucky because there is not a senator up for reelection in the congressman was karl perkins. He like held the job like the pope. He hadnt until he died, which is exactly what happened. Steven caywood was a law student who would occasionally come to washington and help out karl perkins in his office. So he finagled a ride in the car with kennedy. So with a state trooper that drove kennedy, karl perkins, kennedy and steve caywood, 23yearold prospective law student. It had a huge effect on steve caywoods life and he basically has worked in environmental and Poverty Issues ever since then. Ill even know if i answered your school did i . Yes. Smack good answer. [laughter] part of the enduring narrative of the 1968 president ial campaign, the ability of Robert Kennedy to talk to and to gain the support of African Americans as well as workingclass whites. In all of your preparation for this book, and all of your research in all your background, did you find trayce of that . Would you uphold that particular theory . Absolutely, one of the quotes i have in the book and im not going to go through, theres a quote from somebody a reporter who asked about her in indiana, white kid do support Bobby Kennedy he said yeah, well you dont like negroes around her very much and he said no we dont like negroes. While kennedy was to improve life for the negro, why do support kennedy . I dont know i just do. Think a lot of people saw kennedy had been the attorney general and so we kind of had that and he came from a background of lot order purity thing people saw him as being someone who would balance the interests of communities with law and order. The other thing that was interesting was in 64, George Wallace ran as a democratic candidate in the primary and in indiana he had like 24206 of the vote just running as a straight out racist candidate then four years later kennedy ran in indiana and at the primaries 40 of the vote. So clearly some of the people that voted for kennedy in 68. By the way, i go into George Wallace in your little bit George Wallace was a piece of work man, so at the time, and 68, when he was campaigning he couldnt run for reelection think they had their third child and 61 or 62, the doctor saw some suspicious tissue, but of course told george and not arlene and said you need to get arlene to get this checked out it might be cancerous tissue and she had cervical cancer. But george is running for reelection of time and said i dont want to deal with that. So he never told arlene. It wasnt until late 67 that arlene finally was formally diagnosed with cancer and then died and i think in march or april 68. Chris wallace was running farmed out his three kids for relatives. Not a nice details her time Interview Program with this house interviewing top nonfiction authors about their latest work. All afterwards programs are also available at broadcast first podcast. Such a pleasure to speak with you today about your book,