The thing that i take away from it is really the thing at the end, after you read the story and youre kind of contemplating the meaning of it all, here is this note from you, the author, a couple paragraphs explaining the genesis of the title. And its the Henry Longfellow translation of dantes inferno, which i gather, im not a scholar on dantes inferno, but i know that this is not the most popular translation, is that right . Right. And so you are citing this as the origin of the title, and it goes, if i can remember this, its midway upon the journey of our life, i found myself within a forest dark, for the straightforward pathway had been lost. So look at that, i memorized that. Well done. Its a very elegant phrasing, and the concept of the forest dark obviously is yeah. You know, i find that translation particularly beautiful because it keeps the original order of the italian, so selva oscura, and you normally see that translated either as dark wood or dark forest. But theres somethi
Helen thorpe, welcome. Thank you so much. Im gonna pretend that we dont know each other. Stipulate, weve been friends for a long time, decades. 25 years, longer than that. And you know, the thing about this book, which made me cry, and i think is wonderful and is the best of your three books is, im overwhelmed with admiration for what youve accomplished here. Thank you so much. Its a great book and its a great book right now because of the world were in and the issues that are before us. And im trying to understand, even having read the book and having thought about what you must have been thinking about, how did you know that we would be having this conversation . I love that youre asking that question, because the world has changed so much in the course of just in that time. Yeah, while i was hanging out with these students. You started writing this book and researching this book, its the 201516 school year that is the guts of the reporting. Right, so to sort of bring us back to that
clapping and cheering Walter Isaacson, welcome. Thank you so much. Congratulations, another big success. Well, its great to be back with you, evan, thank you so much. And its a wonderful book, im moved to ask, although i think i know the answer, why him . You could write about anybody you could possibly imagine. And if you could write about anybody, why not leonardo . Id done books, starting with benjamin franklin, about really smart people, but i began to notice a pattern, which is, being smart doesnt count for much, you have to be creative and innovative. And first ben franklin, einstein, after doing that, i got to do steve jobs, and i realized that it was people who loved everything about the world, who loved art and science, beauty and engineering and technology. Those were the people who were the most creative, its like, here in austin, where you have a concentration of people who love both engineering and creativity and music, and the ultimate of that is leonardo, and i think the
Lyle lovett, welcome. Evan, thanks for having me. Nice to be back with you. Congratulations on 16 years of the show well, thanks very much. Cant believe it, time goes fast. It was first season that we first spoke. Yeah, thats right, you came back again one more time, and now here you are again, so see you in eight years. Thats how that goes, i think, right . Or Something Like that. Yeah. So were sitting here today against the backdrop of this awful weather in houston, flooding. A community that you know well, care enormously about. You were born in memorial hospital, right, in houston . In methodist hospital. Methodist hospital, pardon me, in houston, and you grew up in houston and around houston, and you still live in the still live here, still live right where i grew up. Yeah, i know its, ive been keeping an eye on the, and been on the phone all day back home. Lots of folks are underwater, where we are in north Harris County, were on high enough ground that were okay, but things are
Are you gonna run for president . Think i just got an f from you, actually. audience applauding kurt andersen, welcome. Happy to be here. Good to be with you, congratulations on this book. Well talk about it first, fantasyland, the timing of this book is exquisite. Im assuming its not entirely accidental. It is entirely accidental. It is entirely accidental. It is entirely accidental. I started thinking about this book many years ago. Really decided that it was a book i was going to write as my next book in 2013, started writing in 2014, still no donald trump on the horizon. No one had talked about fake news . No one had talked about fake new or post truth or any of that. Alternative facts . Alternative facts was not yet a phrase. And then, really as i was finishing the draft, i put him in the book. I dont think he, donald trump that is, would have appeared in this book had he not run for president. And this book would have appeared without donald trump. This book indeed would have app