Bir breadbox sir what an honor to be here with 01 of my mentors in the senate when they came in to the senate with barely there was a woman to be seen in mid you were there this book tells the story of how you got there barbara levy at the time november 111940 from a family of jewish refugees zero words were growing up in the shadow of the holocaust somehow ends up doing to a little place Sindh Brooklyn and you did go with such grace but also the art of the talks or want to talk about what that was like growing up and how you decided. Senator you said it was an honor but i am so excited you agreed to do this because that says a lot about our relationship and i am so thrilled i will get your question in a second but the kowalski set up me and so much to me when people say why . Are you disgusted . Not all been looking for those who can carry the banner so now to have you interviewing me i could not be more thrilled by getting to the issue was my life like it in this memoir when i sat down to write it, so long ago, a first thought it would be my dad he was my idol the dentist and nine brothers and sisters and of them graduated from High School Board 1908 and after he buries my mom he goes to the city college of new york at night, gets great grades becomes a cpa then after i am born, in the 50s he goes to law school at night and gets his degree so clearly it was my dad the way sit and think about the lessons those come from my mother. It was only such a burden on her and she was so sad she never graduated highschool i dont know exactly what happened but i do know she was smart in that kind of smart she had was from the heart and the sole. How can you do it . Even when everything is going against you in good Human Trafficking you know, what it is like if you know, its right you better do the right thing also never act out of anger these are the things. You tell a funny story how you were a agree on the playground and then haunting you the next day there is a dark cloud in front of the house did you thank you have killed him. With bad as a member you dont forget. But he was my nemesis and still little fivefoot period. Maybe with my high heels. [laughter] so why was the perfect target maybe they do still chase in school but one day i had it nobody was around hightech got my number two pencil and i stabbed him in the arm. He was stunned and so was i. If you and tell the story we thought you keep that our Little Secrets but then there is great big cloud over his home and lived in the innercity and i thought i killed him so i took it to my mother i said i think i killed albert. She said barbara sue. What did you do . She said you can do that but i dont take you killed him in the call. And his grandmother died i was so relieved i hugged him when he came back. She said never use violence and after that i never did. Sometimes i win sometimes i lose. But as a young girl you think about this and did you get a new carpet in city were just 10 years old your mother is in the hospital and you are not allowed to visit. Teeone to read that letter of the first organizing effort . That was after my mother died first i wrote to the doctor because kids can visit their parents. Dear dr. I am dead daughter of a but teeseven mother very much i didnt see her when she left but only five minutes before i went to school i have no sickness i will make a lot of noise at this my mother. So why can i see her . Thanks for reading this letter. Sincerely yours. Barbara. So that wrote a back to my mother if they dont let me in i could be so happy if i could see you. In school i of in the mexican group. A study group in fact, i am the chairman. Because they are memories that we have. But though whole idea that any kid could make it in america no matter where you come from is a big part of the book but one thing that is great about your stories is that you were a girl so here you are and you go to Brooklyn College following in your fathers footsteps in to get the degree you want to be a stockbroker city star interviewing and it was it easy back then to get that job. It was zero possible. There was a program up on wall street firms it was the people who work selling the securities they recall the customers men. So i was this man so when i got my first job it is a long story but it was the women who wrote about these letters but she never signed it elizabeth she signed it ee to disguise the fact that she was a woman and she never became a partner for a lot of years and was kind of in disguise. So i thought i will take a different path i will work for her and get a salary and that is that i had to make more sense least i could live in survive so i studied for the because if you got into the program you got trade it was like steadying for the eggs a. M. I was so excited i took it to elisabeth and she said i dont know. You have to go to washington but the shocking thing she said that not that it was like a fact of life but it is a days quotation so i wanted to have a little business on the side to have a little Side Business spirit that is why so many times in politics that it came in on your shoulders and Barbara Mikulski says when you came it is good for young people to read this and understand that the time when there is the secretary or nurse that was it. In fact, your brave has been they were married to in the say i often joke he married the Debbie Reynolds and woke up with barbara. [laughter] when we met girls or young women didnt have the opportunity is that they have today. So we have to settle for a lot less. Said you get together for a little party of the issues of the day scissors the talking about food or more appropriate things. And then i would go to the mens side and talk to them but i did it and the eric talk to them from highschool but the clear i was 18. I am might as well have been flying to the moon by myself to be in the senate but there was here was this decision that was monumental and then you decide to move to california how did that go . I went to visit my sister and i went with my parents out to california by eyes opened up i had never seen anything so beautiful. I grew up in brooklyn. But i talk about it did have some beautiful places where really it was the city so when i came to california the first thing ec is the duty in the north to the south the forest or the desert or the ocean it is so explicit i said i want to move here and that was wild and i said can remove . He said what . That we will have so much from the outside in the outdoors he said okay behalf to get a job in advance so we came now to california. Of course, then it was the excitement everything about it. Given a separate figure first board is board but then they will let him come in but the biggest is that this was said dangerous man that here you are on your own. But of course, you never forget. You never forget. But all of a sudden we had agreed to move so i said i will get as a place to live. You finish your exam your exams and the first day we get here he is born i was staying in resistors all a set of my water breaks i had not even that my doctor i have in the clinic at the hospital they were so wonderful to be. I had nothing. And they said did you know, its going to cost 1,000 . You can imagine today. We dont know how long he will have to stay if he survives. I am thinking this is the end of us. Everyway. There was the 50 50 chits they get out there as fast as they let him that was the most wonderful gift to us. She was premature but not so premature. That his shows. Leading into your support of the Womens Health care act and the affordable Health Care Act just as she grew up in the shadow of the holocaust but you are in california, Northern California in the shadows of the vietnam war. You learned the art of the talk but easter to be involved in organizing from the carpet lobby. [laughter] said taking the about is much bigger than the vietnam war to run as a supervisor. Yes. You are right. Because this is the core of be going into politics. As you know, you start to think differently you start to seek longterm and wonder what will she grew up in . What will my son say . All these issues cave with to the for the vietnam war in the Womens Movement and especially the vietnam war because it was the first one that came into your living room so i was part of the Antiwar Movement we used to take the kids and march in these parades and i became a real best and win the elections for the county supervisor opened in california which is a beautiful place north of San Francisco these issues were all of the issues theyre all local and also womens rights so they said will you run . And i said do it. They say it pays 11,000 the year widened you do it . So i ran. It was so crazy i came out on top the other two were republicans but you did run as a democrat or republican so before we had the though and i can vote on top, it was the incumbent and myself in the issue they tried to use the antichoice issue this candidates name was bill i was kind of excited because my campaign was going strong i said come over he says i am giving this a lot of thought he said my wife is the position it is hard for her and this is what i want to say. You should drop out. I said why would i do that . Because you were going to be bad for women. I said where did you get that . Because i remember of the we have to free you. Likewise have to free blacks that is the first thing that came to my mind because you fight against racism every hair on my body looks straight up in a said when somebody has gone over the line i said this meeting is over we got that he got up and i shut the door i slammed it but he was so mad at me he came out last and endorsed the other guy so i lost that by a small but. But just the sexes and back then we said how could he do this when you have four kids . He says i have to be said to you have for. What about the dishes . The book goes into what it was like to be a woman you have to have a sense of humor about it because if not he would go crazy so id knock down the door i would go doortodoor with a small election you needed 20,000 votes knock knock. Whos there . Barbara boxer first they would say i didnt kqed so small. What did they expect . A big person again expected to be so short. I say yes i am. And and say i could never vote for you excuse me i have two kids she said no you dont. She got in and argue with me and said if you have given birth you never forget it and i have done it twice then i walk away. Were you going to do . Another group was going great the everybody was nodding a very suburban part of my district i thought i am making it a hand goes up in the book back in the woman says how do you have time to do your dishes . Even then i was taken aback. For goodness sakes i said i used paper plates which was stupid because this was an Environmental Group it was a joke. Just the questions you were getting. There are a few like that these days but not many. It has come a long way. I lost that race they were not ready for me the only reason i stayed after that. Did you became a newspaper reporter. I did. I had a great life but i stuck with it because i read an article in the magazine and i write about in the book that said women take things too personally men will run 34 times but if clinton loses the first time they think they hate me because we are more sensitive so i thought this was a horrible experience im not going to take it personal. So there i was on these issues ahead of my time which i always have been. Even gay marriage. It continues say you have to say get people to vote for you because you are in it for the right reasons one of the most popular politicians in the state are in the country and they say are you in the for the right reasons . You really are trying to find the sweet spot you were working hard if you were not afraid and that is why people will vote for you who were from the other party would never voted for democrats in this is what i tried to show because believe better not between 50 and 70 percent of republicans and never would have gotten in and they said agree with her sometime this the she is a bid for the right reasons. Just to fastforward but one of the most surprising beings people may not know until they read your book or talk to you it is called the art of the tough. That part of the reason they may not know is you do stand your ground on many issues but i dont know if anybody knows about the times you did on the transportation bill recently with Mitch Mcconnell and before that you worked with other senators on the transportation bill the water bill or a number of things that you could do that by taking the budget democrats and republicans is out together for dinner am part of this is to start to learn the people you work with it you did that with your mentors and in fact, through the art of the tough when congressman burton called to add of the blue and when did you to run for his seat as he was going to rehabilitation. This was in the 80s aids was really beginning to show up and one of my mentors from congress had told me his whole career but then i was elected to the board of supervisors at the blue says he is addicted to drugs and alcohol checking into a Rehab Facility in arizona and what i seek reelection for his seat . Oh my god. My kids were in high school all little too young to be the perfect time but i took it up with them and they said these opportunities dont come along very often so i went for it and i got there. I got to the house for 10 years of very safe district and couldnt stay there but they were pushing me out. One of the interesting things focusing on the women mentors which you had with barbara in these women colleagues that were incredible and i love you tell stories about Dianne Feinstein and the is the policy but look at the male mentors look get this story is a horrible time of his life but he picks a woman he calls you. He did. Heed to my politics was progressive he knew he had taught me and he wanted me there but his brother than called which was even bigger and said i hope he will run and then fill will call you and i was shaking because he was so powerful that the time. I said hi. How were you . I am fine he said a thank you will run for john c. I am so honored but he said no [laughter] so to talk about coming down because he wasnt sure at all that i could do it. Said i am just a little worried about the ability. The money. I have to raise to order 50,000. 250,000. He said dont worry about that. It should have been like 75 cents. This issue came to me from a great staffewanting to work the. I had expectations and there were already people there. Issues were taken. In the house, you have to find a niche. They said no one is talking about this. They are talking about missiles. People cant think about what a missile should cost. How about a 600 which is what the pentagon wan spending for one reason, amy. They were not contracting out to small business. They were saying to lockede you to do thing. We wrote a bill, it is the law, and saved billions. I worked with chuck grassley. Can i tell you one great story . I was proud of the work i did on military procurement work. So i have a town hall meeting and tell the story of procurement reform and i say can you imagine a 600 toilet seat. What is it made of gold . And i asked about any questions and a woman raised my hand saying do you know where i can get one of those . Host there is a reason lily tomlin and orts endorsed your book because people forget about the humorous things that happen in politics. I think it is important because you want young women and men to run for office. I think that is the cool part about the book. Guest by the way, you may add that is why you are affected. People wonder do i need someone with a sense of humor or a person who wants to write leyris like i do and the fact is that is part of the act. Have a sense of humor. It enables you to survive. Exactly. One of the things in your book is you talk about how the women didnt have a gym or there was this big deal that was so unfair to try to get women to have access to a gym as well. You took this on, tip oneill made them the leader at the time. Guest he was the speaker. Host you take this on and you have a beautiful singing voice and documented many of your songs and verses in the book and you wrote a song about the women needing a gym and i asking you if you can sing it. Guest i will sing one verse and read the rest. To set the stage of what happened was here i came from california where the exercise ethic was really important. I get here and i find out there was a gym for women. It was about the size of this table. You could not do anything there. All it has was a bunch of hair driers. Dont ask me why. I called a meeting. I had a staffer who said i want to lead the women in exercises. Mccal ski was my colleague in the house. And gerald dean who and Barbara Thomas and olympia snow was there. We have this wonderful meeting in this tiny gym where trust me it was seven of us in the room and you could not special education out your arms because the hair dryers got in the way. Claudette who was leading us raise your hands up in the air, to the side and now put your hands on your hip and barbara yells out if i could find my hips i wouldnt be here. So things got desperate. A fewf of a few of us went to the men saying can we use this gym . Absolutely not. It is not fair. No, you cannot. Can we expand the womens gym . You cannot. It was just a horrible experience. So i used the art of the cuff and i said okay, i am going to use my sense of humor. I went to two colleagues, martha captor and mary rose from ohio and i said can you guys care a tune and they said yes. So i wrote this song and it was suggested i sing it to my colleagues to the leadership of the Democratic Caucus. We walk in and we had a guitarist. It went like this exercise, glamourize, where to go when you advice, cant everybody use your gym and then it went on equal rights, we will wear tights. Lets avoid those matcho fights in the end it went we are not trim, we are not slim, cant we make it him and hers. Cant everybody use your gym we are only asking. And we end the finish and get in the gym. It is the only time i have to admit that i ever changed policy with my lyrics but we did it. Host i think it is an example and this wasnt just a senate gym or the house gym but you are taking on the issue of using locker rooms or High School Girls having access to sport. Lets take the art of the tough to a more serious level and that is my favorite photo in the book. It is the picture of you leading, you are the fi