Also this weekend on booktv on our after Words Program, author sebastian mall by talks about his new biography on former Federal Reserve chairman alan greenspan. Youll see the 2016 National Book awards, and we visit pittsburgh to tour thattys literary sites that citys literary sites. For a complete schedule, go to booktv. Org. Booktv on cspan2, its 48 hours of nonfiction books and authors, television for serious readers. And now well kick off this weekend with a ram from 2009 with a program from 2009. This is the late gwen ifill who taped an after Words Program with us in 2009. She died at the age of 61 from cancer this week. She was a journalist, of course, and author with more than 30 years of experience covering washington and the white house. Host hello. Welcome to after words, my names david brooks, im a columnist from the new york times, and im joined today by an author, gwen ifill, and we are not only going to talk about er book [laughter] no, we are going to talk about her book
Now. The night that i win the emmy. Being on the Supreme Court was an improbable dream. Its hard work and its controversial. Without information, there is no freedom. And its journalists who provide that information. Window rolls down and this guy says, hey, he goes to 11 00. [laughter]. David axelrod, welcome. Good to be here, evan. Congratulations on believer. Thank you. This is a wonderful book and deserves to be a bestseller. Thank you so much. I hope youre very happy with the success. I want to talk about i got to talk about rahm emanuel first. Were sitting here, less than 24 hours as we sit here after the first round, it turns out a first round of the primary for mayor in chicago in which your old friend, your old running buddy rahm emanuel did not clear the 50 threshold. Right. And so it has to go to a runoff. We have seen in texas and elsewhere times when the person who was presumed to win got just below 50, but then when the runoff came it was the opposite result. So why shoul
Was going to make. The reason why ultimately chief parks didnt get rehired is because mayor jimmy haun in an act of political courage we havent always seen in this city, decided that he didnt want to see bernie parks retired, and thats the rehired, not because the Police Commission made the decision but jimmy haun cost himself the next election. How hard was it to for you to get information . How difficult was it for you to tell some captain to do this thing and unless you wrote it down and you kept after it, you got it. Its very, very difficult, and when youre parttime, and the the name of the judge, federal judge on the ninth circuit right now yeah, line rhinehart, called them the masters of the half truth. Has that been your experience . This is simple for me. Commissioners need training. They nigh need training to know when theyre being bull shitted, and training to know its not a level situation. Youre climbing a hill like this. Human nature doesnt want oversight. Human nate tower
And by that i think you meant black peoples party. And you mentioned that, of course, you wanted to write your party. History tells us that this was not always the case. As you talk about, at the beginnings of the book, talk about the evolution, how did it come to black people being all republicans to black people being all democrats . I am an older black folk from the south who to this day is republican because they have a visceral reaction to the word democrats. When they were growing up it was the democrats who were abusing and terrorizing their communities and parents to keep them from exercising there rights, from going to schools with white children. It was the liberal party for much of its history. In the 20th century when the Great Depression hit, it was the democratic president , Franklin Delano roosevelt, who put this rescue plan in place. The new deal. The new deal. A lot of compromise. Baked it into the new deal. That because of that dynamic rescue massive amounts of africa
Is terrorism and existential threat . No. We are the mythbusters, as it were. Host what do you teach unchallenged . Guest skepticism 101. Im thinking like 18 yearolds right out of high school and teaching them how to use their brain,brain conjured in their brains from marsh and to Critical Thinking machines. Host what does it mean to think scientifically . Guest reasoning, thinking critically, be skeptical, dont claim to have accept claims office of it. Ask for evidence, challenge it. Everyone whoi thought it was a fearful office to the philosopher . Guest so i think the great enlightenment philosophers, people who opened the doors up. These are the great rational, skeptical scientific groups. Host a lot of people here at freedom fest like john locke. Guest i would throw him in there in the top five host the moral arc is the name of the book. Justice and freedom. Michael shermer is the author. Is there a Nonfiction Author book you would like to see featured on book tv direct send us an