at the top of the page. so now on to the main event. we re very lucky to have a guest with us this morning, lyz lenz, the writer currently contributing to columbia journalism review. her writing has appeared all over the place, and her essay all the angry women appeared in [inaudible] not that bad. she also has a second book called belabored which is coming out in 2020. in god land, lyz lenz asks the question what is happening to faith in america. at a time when more than 70% of americans consider themselves christians, yet many religious leaders are decrying a loss of faith, the relationships and division our country s facing. let me just say that it s a very timely book. and without further ato do, please help ado, please help me welcome lyz lenz. [applause] hi. can everybody hear me okay? i m used to doing, like, midwestern events where there s always the one woman in the back with, she s like, please, talk louder. you re like, i m talking as loud as i want to, e
let me just say that it s a very timely book. and without further ato do, please help ado, please help me welcome lyz lenz. [applause] hi. can everybody hear me okay? i m used to doing, like, midwestern events where there s always the one woman in the back with, she s like, please, talk louder. you re like, i m talking as loud as i want to, ethel. [laughter] so when i heard c-span was going to be here, they were, like, do you have any questions? and i said [inaudible] c-span encourages shorts, but i felt after that reply that i had to. the i want to also just acknowledge the shirt i wore specifically for you, washington d.c. it says, iowa: for some reason you have to come here to be president. [laughter] sucks. so is i wanted to just tell you the origin story of the book, because this is a book about religion, and you don t really want to, like, just hear me read from a book about religion. if you wanted to do that, you could go to christmas dinner with your grandma. sh
that is incredible, something that he can make it out nobody would believe. i love what mark twain once said that action must be possible. truth needn t be. so i look for an implausible truth, something that actually happened, and then my question is, how much can we know? because if you can know everything about that implausible truth from the past that is not a job for a novelist. it s a job for a narrative historian pics i m looking for an implausible truth about which we can know interesting things that we can t know everything because the historical record has fallen silent or the voices of the protagonist at the time our voices that were not recorded. they are the the unheard voicem the past, and i know it s a job for me. host: how many levels doesn t take to get to one of your books? how many levels of imagination, research? guest: it starts with overhearing something or on location on a map or an artifact, a civil war belt buckle dug up on the porch of my house. i
something that if you make it up nobody would believe. i love what mark twain once said that fiction must be possible truth needn t be. so i look for an impossible truth, something that actually happened, and then my question is, how much can we know? because if you can know everything about that and possible truth from the past, then it s not a job for a novelist. it s a job for a narrative historian. so i m for an impossible truth about which we can know interesting things but we can t know everything because the historical record has fallen silent, or the voices of the protagonist at the time of voices that were not recorded, the unheard voices from the past. and then i know it s a job for me. host: how many levels does it take to get to one of your books? how many levels of imagination, research? guest: it starts with overhearing something or a notation on the map or an artifact, a civil war belt buckle dug up on the porch of my house. they can be anything that gives
women. here we are in concorde, massachusetts, where the redcoats marched into the northbridge on april 19, 1775, starting the american revolution. this house, eventually much later than that becomes the home of amos bronson alcott and his family. one of the daughters, louisa may alcott, in this house, writes a book the changes a lot of the way people think about children, the way they think about young women and mature women. it was a very progressive book for its day and in many ways today it still remains this because it is just a simple true to life story of four young women and their parents. mister alcott was an educator in the early days. a very progressive thinker who was deeply in love with mister alcott. they were in boston when mister alcott met ralph waldo emerson and struck up a deep friendship. he was well ensconced, he thought bronson alcott belongs here and the town had something special to offer, a political revolution in 1775 and a literary revolution in t