November 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Interview with Mary Brigid Barrett [18:14m]:
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Talked about www.whitehouse.org and the wonderful children’s book about The White House. More information:Conceived and co-created by the National Children’s Book and Literary Alliance, this incomparable collection of essays, personal accounts, historical fiction, and poetry melds with an equally stunning array of original art to offer a multifaceted look at America’s history through the prism of the White House. Starting with a 1792 call for designers to plan a presidential mansion and continuing through the present day, OUR WHITE HOUSE takes in everything from the amusing antics of presidents’ children and pets to the drama of the White House ablaze and the specter of war; from the role of immigrants, African Americans, and Native Americans to the thoughts and actions of many presidents themselves. These highly engaging writings and illustrations, expressing varied viewpoints and interwoven with key historical events, are a vital resource for family sharing and classroom use — and a stirring reminder that the story of the White House is the story of every American.
November 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Dr. Kent: Welcome to Sound Authors! Today is Friday, June 27. On this day in history a lot of interesting things happened. In 1868 way back then, 140 years ago, Harpers Weekly featured a cartoon about the black voting rights in the presidential election of 1868. We got that on our mind again with Barack Obama being elected (to run) against John McCain this fall. Today it’s a gloomy day out here in New York; its humid, it’s warm but its summertime, which is always wonderful. I have three guests on the show today instead of the usual four. I have a very special guest coming on in the first spot. His name is Simcha Jacobovici.
The second guest will be Gayle Greene who is the author of Insomniac and will talk to us about sleep disorders. At the end of the show a special musician, Dale Ann Bradley an incredible voice, an incredible talent. But my first guest is the author of a book and the director of many films, producer of many films television shows and things like that. The way that I came across his work is through The Lost Tomb of Jesus. There’s a movie, a documentary, and then there’s a book – The Jesus Family Tomb that he coauthored with Charles R. Pellegrino. Welcome to the show Simcha.
Simcha Jacobovici: Thank you very much; nice to be on.
Dr. Kent: Now can you explain to me how to say your name exactly?
Simcha Jacobovici: Well you said it pretty good; you didn’t say it badly at all. You could go Simka Jacobovichi or I’ll pronounce it for you the way it really is simkha yacobovich but simka jackobovich works too.
Dr. Kent: Very nice. So it’s a real honor speaking with you. Tell me a little bit about the Lost Tomb of Jesus the documentary.
Simcha Jacobovici: We have the Lost Tomb of Jesus, which was a two hour documentary which I co produced with Rick Vianstock and Phillip Scoluvab and our executive producer was James Cameron and it aired a year and a few months ago on Discovery US. The Jesus Family Tomb, which came out just in paperback a few weeks ago, you can get it on Amazon for Harper-Collins and these two tell the story, the book and the film, of a discovery in 1980 in the spring in Jerusalem, rather halfway between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, where it suggests of a family tomb dating to the time of Jesus, first century.
Then this family tomb they found ten limestone coffins or actuaries, bone boxes and six of them had inscriptions. One of the inscriptions seemed to suggest to the every day mind that this might be or at least should be considered to be the tomb of Jesus. One of the austuaries said on it Jesus, son of Joseph. Another said Maria. There was another Mary in the tomb, there was a Josey, which the Gospel of Mark tells us that particular nickname is what one of the brothers of Jesus was known as; Josey, Josain or Josef in Hebrew.
There was a Juda son of Jesus. Anyway these austuaries were put in a warehouse kind of Indiana Jones-like. They were put in a warehouse and not reported and the tomb was literally covered up with cement and everybody more or less forgot about it until we came along and we discovered the tomb and brought the whole story to the world and it became a front page story. Although some people like it to disappear and they were pressures put on the broadcasters not to air again and so on.
Dr. Kent: I was there. I watched the original Discovery airing of it and I immediately bought the book because I was so fascinated. I guess what captured my attention the most was I guess the hunt for there were these spirit pipes where you put the camera down and then you went somewhere else and it’s just this fascinating search for this one spot and you finally find it and it’s this simple, cement block. Talk a little bit about hwy that cement block was there.
Simcha Jacobovici: You know people are always bestsellers of the Templar and all of this. This is a real life thing, this is not fiction, this is real life. In 1980 they find this tomb. What happens in Jerusalem is the way tombs are found and about over 600 have been found. Either they are looted or a bulldozer finds them when they’re building a building. This one was a bulldozer found it. So you know you’re a contractor, you’re building a high rise, you start breaking ground and you come across a tomb.
According to Israeli law then you have to contact the Israel antiquities authorities. So the archaeologists come over. Time is money, you’re a builder, you put pressure on the archeologist. In this instance they took out all the austuaries and they gave the go ahead to the builders to destroy the tomb and build their building. The builders decided it was too complicated to build over the tomb and what they did is that they built the building a few yards away from where they originally planned. The tomb ended up being in the garden between these four or five high rises. The kids were playing in the tomb, the parents weren’t happy, along came a Yeshiva.
A Yeshiva is an academy and they have holy books. They have books that synagogues have. They study from them, they pray from them. According to Jewish law you’re not allowed to throw out holy books. So what you have to do is bury them as you would a human being and there is not much space to bury holy books in. So there’s a nearby Yeshiva or academy, they find out that there’s this open tomb in the garden between these buildings. So they say can we put all our books inside this tomb? The local residents say yeah, but you got to seal it because we don’t want our kids going in and out. So that’s what happened. It got sealed with a cement block; it gets filled with holy books. The holy books come apart right? You bury used, unusable holy books that can no longer be used and it gets sealed.
Now as far as the archaeologists are concerned they think the tomb has been destroyed when the building went up. They don’t know and we didn’t know that it still existed so what we did is we made a hunt for the tomb. Does it exist? Where is it? Are there more inscriptions in there? Are there bones in there? Can we get DNA from it? so our film and our book was based on this hunt and we knew that there was another tomb at the same time found some 20 to 30 meters away and in the course of looking for what we called the Jesus Family Tomb, we found the other tomb. Now the other tomb had pipes coming out of it and the reason being is that if there are still dead people in a tomb, according to Jewish law, if you covered the tomb up you have to in a sense provide access for the souls by having these soul pipes you know? These just ordinary pipes that give access between the tomb and the outer air.
When we located that other tomb, it’s under someone’s patio. I mean only in Jerusalem can it happen that you’re living in an apartment and under your patio there’s a 2,000 year old tomb with a bone box still there. You know, dead people still there and there sticking out of your patio floor are these soul pipes. What we did as you say is in the hunt for the Jesus tomb we found this other tomb. We put our robotic cameras, it sounds like National Treasure but its real life. We put our robo-cams down the pipes and we discovered this other tomb that people had forgotten about.
We really retrieved the first ever shots of an unexcavated tomb from the time of Jesus from Jerusalem. So we build the drama of by looking for the tomb along the way we found this other tomb. We realize that’s not the Jesus family tomb, we finally located the tomb in the garden, we were able to remove the cement cover and then was this climactic moment when I actually climbed into what I believe is the Jesus Family Tomb. So all that was dramatic central arc of the film and the book but along that if I could point out there were other investigations. DNA, statistics, patina, people will say statistically what are the odds that the Jesus who was buried in this tomb is Jesus of Nazareth. Maybe it’s another Jesus.
So we looked at stats to understand what are the odds that it is Jesus given the cluster of names. So we looked at patina. Patina is thin layer of sedimentation that occurs when you leave your house for many years you’ll come back and there will be you know dust, chemistry starting to happen on the walls. These tombs have their own chemistry. They have dripping water, they have whatever so there’s encrustation, a skin on top of the limestone on these bone boxes and we did chemical analysis of them to see if they have a fingerprint. Its forensic science meets archaeology. So that was the story, the search for the tomb and the science related to identifying whether it is or is not the Jesus Family Tomb.
Dr. Kent: I guess my real interest lies, that was all fascinating to me and built on top of that there’s this controversy of is James, there’s Mary Magdalene, was she the wife of Christ? Agnostic gospels; how’s it been in the aftermath of releasing this? I can imagine a lot of Christian groups are angry. What does Israel say? What kind of controversy have you been embroiled in?
Simcha Jacobovici: Well when we announced the film at a press conference in New York, James Cameron was there, scientists were there, Discovery was there, it made front pages pretty much all over the world. I was on CNN, on Larry King and so on. The reaction was there were different reactions. We didn’t get into theology. We didn’t say we didn’t get into resurrection and these kinds of things.
What we did is we reported on the existence of the tomb. But people some people were delighted. They said wow, I thought you know. Some people just liked it as an adventure, as a real life national treasure of a real life templar mystery. Some people were delighted that Jesus was not a myth because they thought he was a myth and here we had brought archaeological evidence to suggest that he and his family were real and there is history in the Gospels. Some people have started going to the tomb and treating it like a shrine, leaving flowers on Easter and so on and making physical contact with Jesus and His family.
But some people were very upset because they thought well you know, their understanding of say ascension is that Jesus ascended to Heaven with his body, bones organs and everything so therefore the fact that there were bone chips in the austuary called Jesus son of Joseph might mean that he did not ascend to heaven physically. Some people said well he could have ascended spiritually but others said no, we don’t buy that. This could not be Jesus because there wouldn’t be any bone chips.
We retrieved DNA from that and next to the Jesus son of Joseph in this tomb there’s a woman named Maria Mena. Maria Mena is a Greek version of Miriam. According to Christian tradition, it’s what Mary Magdalene was known as. Mary Magdalene means Mary of Magdala; it’s like Mary the New Yorker. That’s not what it would say on her tombstone. So what would it say? Well it would say her name and Christian tradition says that her name was the Greek version of the Hebrew Miriam. In the acts of Phillip for example, fourth century text, we have her, she’s named Mariam Mena or Mariamnae and its used to differentiate her from the mother of Jesus, which is known as Maria as in Ave Maria. An Aramaic becomes a Latin version of the Hebrew Miriam.
So next to Jesus here there is a Maria Mena, just what you would expect Mary Magdalene to be called. Now if you’re buried in a family tomb you’re either related by blood or by marriage. We did DNA on bone chips, from little tiny chips from the Maria Mena austuary and from the Jesus austuary. They did not match up, suggesting that they were married rather than related by blood and suggesting that Juda, son of Jesus, buried in this cave, was their son. Now for some people all of this was very disturbing because they said wait a minute, Jesus didn’t physically descend to heaven? Wait a minute, you mean he was married to Mary Magdalene? Wait a minute; they had a son named Judah?
All of this was upsetting so what happened was a tremendous amount of, I mean there’s a lot of internet chatter, there’s been I think six books against my book. Dr. Charlie Pellegrino and I, we wrote the book and I think there have been six books and three films already arguing against our presentation that this might very well be the tomb of Jesus. There’s so much pressure brought to bear on Discovery that they aired it once and even though it was their highest rated show of the year, actually more than a year, they never aired it again. They pulled all subsequent airings. Because there were over a million emails I think threatening sponsors and so on.
I don’t understand that because if somebody is strong in their faith, the way to maintain their faith, I don’t understand you maintain your faith by censoring of the people. My computer doesn’t compute that. In the UK, channel 4 bought it and never aired it even once. On the other hand, in France it aired. It aired in most places in the world to high ratings, lots of debate, and right now it kind of went off the front pages because one side is being censored, at least on television.
Dr. Kent: What does it feel like within your own life? There’s some chance that it’s not the tomb of Jesus, but from going through the proof, it’s quite likely. What does it feel like within your own life to have maybe found it?
Simcha Jacobovici: How would you feel if you brought to the world what is, I think you know, what all of these, what all of Hollywood fantasizes, right? There all these books about templars and tombs and blood lines, all these things are fantasy and yet how would you feel if you actually did the real thing? Suddenly there was this tremendous pressure on the one end to basically stifle the debate. I find it amazing that everybody is not talking about it all the time. I think it says something about the psychology of our predominantly Christian society that the society would rather deal with a tomb of Jesus in fiction than with the real thing. You know what I mean?
Dr. Kent: The Holy Grail, right?
Simcha Jacobovici: Yeah, but don’t show up with the Holy Grail. Let’s just keep making movies for the search for the Holy Grail. Lets make movies and write books about the bloodline, DaVinci Code, but don’t actually introduce me to someone, don’t actually show me an austuary that says on it indisputably, Jesus. Don’t show me that.
By the way, I’ve got to tell you that I think this story you know I mean you could shut up Galileo, you could shut up Copernicus, you could argue that the earth was flat for a while and you think you won a victory on the day you shut up Galileo, but at the end of the day the earth is round and its not at the center of our universe. So at the end of the day, truth has a funny way of coming out.
Dr. Kent: When people in predominantly the United states talk about creationism, we’re not descended from apes and they talk about things like that. This is very near to that. Its fascinating to me that Discovery Channel didn’t re-air it. I was waiting for it. I watched it when it came out, I caught the press release from New York. Is it frustrating to you that this project is over? I know you’re working on many other projects; you’ve won tons of awards. Is this project a pet project of yours? Is it something you always come back to?
Simcha Jacobovici: I don’t think it’s over. I think there’s science happening as we seek pursuing it. I think you hear the noisy scientists that say oh this is nonsense, this is bullshit, but you don’t hear the ones that are quietly working in labs around the world trying to see or in libraries. You don’t hear from them but for example, this statistician Professor Andre Foyerburger in our film and our book, he estimates in the film the odds of this is tomb of Jesus are 600:1 in favor. Everybody said oh, he’s just hamming it up for the camera, he didn’t write a scientific paper, he wasn’t peer reviewed, this is nonsense.
Well, in the years since, he’s refined his model; he presented his paper at the biggest gathering of statisticians in the world. This past month or last month, his paper was published after being peer reviewed and I think its called the Annals of Applied Statistics, the most prestigious statistical journal in the world. It turns out that the odds aren’t 600:1 in favor; they are actually 1600:1 in favor. Now that didn’t make headlines that the odds that this is the tomb of Jesus. It went up from 600 to 1600 and guess what? The paper wasn’t just peered on television. So it was peer reviewed and published in a prestigious journal.
So the science is ongoing and I think sooner or later this story, like I said the paperback just came out and sooner or later the story will be back on the front pages because the evidence continues to suggest and just more and more evidence is suggesting that this is the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth and most of his family.
Dr. Kent: What I find fascinating about it is I didn’t know much about austuaries. I spent time in Jerusalem but it’s not something that is really all that public, the knowledge that there’s this tomb. They’d leave the body out until it become bones and then they’d put the bones in these bone boxes. Can you talk a little bit about the actual story of what might have happened?
Simcha Jacobovici: Well, people have mythologized the story of the historical Jesus and when they come into contact with the actual history they are sometimes elated and often upset. My job by the way, I don’t cross I don’t argue with people theology. I respect peoples beliefs and I don’t, I’m not a Christian, I’m a Jew, and I don’t believe in the divinity of Jesus and so on, but I’m not a profitizer. If somebody believes what they believe, it’s fine. It’s not my business to argue theology. My business is not to have archaeology cover it up.
I report on archaeology and so my business is to provide people. I won last year an Emmy along with my colleagues on a film of sex trafficking of women from the former soviet union, which by the way was very odd to me to win an Emmy in investigative journalism in the same year I believe I found the tomb of Jesus but I didn’t get the Emmy for finding the tomb of Jesus. But the thing is, my job as a journalist and I’ve got three Emmys in investigative journalism. I’m not bragging, that’s my profession. So my job is to report, to investigate and report. People mythologize the story; my job is to bring the facts out.
When you read a story in the Gospel that Jesus was crucified, his body was taken down, it was wrapped in a shroud; you know people think it’s the shroud of Turin and then it was put in a tomb. Then they came three days later; the shroud was empty, his body wasn’t there, the tomb was empty and there were sightings of Jesus and therefore he was resurrected and so on. When you read that, I remember as a young person when I read that and I heard that, I asked a simple question to myself. I don’t get that story. Why did they put him in a tomb or a cave? People die, you take them off a cross, you dig a grave and you put the dead person in the grave. I mean, you know, everybody agrees.
Its part of Christian theology that he was dead for three days. The pope believes that. Before you can have a resurrection the person has to die. Everybody according to the Gospels were surprised that he arose. So for three days he’s dead. Now if you take a dead body, why didn’t they just put him in a grave? Why did they put him in a tomb and roll a stone and all the rest of it? Well if you don’t know that’s how some people were buried in Jerusalem in that time, the story makes no sense. But in fact, the Gospels are accurate. It’s called secondary burial.
Many people what they did is they took a body, wrapped it in a prayer shawl or shroud, left it on a shelf in the rock hewn tomb because according to Jewish law you have to be buried in the ground before sunset. Again you’ve seen the Gospel said we’ve got to bury him before sunset; that’s accurate. It’s Jewishly accurate. Let’s not forget that this is not happening in Japan this story, its happening in Judea, the land of the Jews. All the Apostles, all the Disciples, everybody except the Romans are Jewish. So what’s happening is, including Jesus is Jewish. He’s getting wrapped in a shroud, he’s put in a rock-hewn tomb because according to rabbinic law that counts as being buried in the ground, and he’s left there.
Now why is he left there? I mean there’s thousands of such people that have been found. People were buried that way and what would happen is families would come back a year or 14 months later after the body had decomposed and gather up the stone, the bones, and put them in stone bone boxes. Now, why did they do that? We don’t know. Some people speculate it had something to do with resurrection. There was a Messiah fever in the air. People thought it was the end of days.
You know the resurrection of the dead is about to happen so in a kind of ancient what’s it called when people freeze dry their bodies now; cryogenics. They wanted to keep their bones together in a box for the day of resurrection. I heard people say no, that’s not why; land was scarce in Jerusalem but putting people in these boxes, you could fit three, four people in a burial site. It was economic; the family could visit the tomb and so on.
For whatever reason, the way Jesus is buried in the Gospel is an actual rendition of a secondary burial. That means you leave the body to decompose, that’s the first burial. Then you come back, gather the bones and put them in a bone box. That’s the second burial. The gospel says well, they came back three days later and there was no more body; He had risen. But the Gospel of Matthew says that some people say the Disciples came and took the body and buried it elsewhere. So right in the Gospels you have an alternative theory.
They may have believed in a spiritual resurrection, but right in the Gospel it says that some people say the disciples came after the Sabbath and reburied him. If that’s accurate then the tomb that we identified or publicized and made famous may be that second tomb.
Dr. Kent: This has been a real pleasure; I could speak with you for hours. I believe that you did find the tomb of Jesus and after reading the book and watching the film, I think many people do and at the very least I think it’s a beautiful thing to bring out to the public and show this was a human being and this is an archaeological find that could be world changing.
Simcha Jacobovici: It could be the greatest archaeological find of the millennium. By the way we have a website called losttombofjesus.com and a lot of this controversy and Professor James Stabler of the University of North Carolina in Charlotte; he has this Jesus dynasty website. He did this dynasty and you can really track it; biblical archaeology review magazine has a website. You could track and you say you could talk forever. People have been debating is that really Mary Magdalene, maybe it says something else, there’s like still a lot of passion and debate on the internet over the book, the film. You can order the film by the way and you’re not going to see it on TV. I think the last word hasn’t been said on the subject.
Dr. Kent: The paperback just came out of The Lost Tomb of Jesus and the film is available.
Simcha Jacobovici: Jesus Family Tomb.
Dr. Kent: Right, the Jesus family tomb.
Simcha Jacobovici: The lost tomb of Jesus is the DVD and the book is called the Jesus Family Tomb. If you go to amazon.com you can get both.
Dr. Kent: Wonderful; and I have the DVD in my collection and I passed it along to my parents and my mother especially loves it. Its been a pleasure speaking with you and I wish you all the success in the world.
Simcha Jacobovici: Thank you.
Dr. Kent: I’ve been speaking with Simcha Jacobovici it’s been a real pleasure.
November 3, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Interview with Nikki Grimes [10:44m]:
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New York Times Bestseller Barack Obama children’s book; wonderfully crafted by two stalwarts in the children’s book industry. More about the book from www.nikkigrimes.com :
About the Book
They called him Barry, this son whose story stretched from Kansas to Kenya. Born of a white American mother, and a black African father, Obama’s unique origins and fascinating life experiences form a story that begs to be told. Whether it’s spearfishing with playmates in Hawaii, playing with pet gibbons in Djakarta, or journeying to Kenya to feel the embrace of his father’s family—and his own, Obama’s story is a rich one. And it is still being written.Son of Promise, Child of Hope lays out the path Obama took from student, to organizer, to Senator, to Democratic Nominee for President of the United States of America. The brilliant work of illustrator Bryan Collier is as stunning as Obama’s story itself.
How I Came to Write This Book
On December 18, 2007, I received an email from my agent. Her tone was a bit sheepish because she knew my schedule was already crazy-busy, and here she was asking me to consider one more project. I sighed heavily, and read on.She’d forwarded an email from Justin Chanda, VP of Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, asking me to consider writing a picture book biography of Barack Obama. I groaned.
How could I possibly agree to commit to one more project? I had just turned down a project from another publisher two weeks before. Still, this project was different. I decided to sleep on it.Over the next 48 hours, I weighed the pros and cons of saying yes. The biggest “con” was the insanely short time-frame. If I was to finish the manuscript in time for the illustrator to do his work and get the book into production, I would literally have to research and write this manuscript in under three weeks. Not to mention, in order to do so I would have to drop every other project on my desk. That’s a pretty big “con.” On the pro hand, though, I would have the opportunity to introduce to young readers a rising star in American politics, one who had already made history. In the end, the pros won out.By January 10 2008, I had signed on for the ride.Most of my picture books take from three to six months, on average. Usually, that gives me plenty of time to try out various ways of writing the story. In the case of Son of Promise, though, I had to go with the first idea that came into my head. My only hope was that it would work! Thank God, it did.The idea was simple: to tell Obama’s story in a cycle of poems. Okay, well maybe simple was not the right word, because I also thought it would be interesting to create a story within a story by having a mother tell the story to her son, and having them comment on Obama’s story throughout.Why a story within a story? Wouldn’t that complicate things unnecessarily, you ask? Well, I never choose easy. You’ve read my books—you know that by now! Besides, I wanted to give the reader a young character to relate to, from beginning to end.
This was a hard book to write, I won’t kid you. I knew it would be, which is why I emailed and telephoned a few friends and told them “Start praying now!” And they did.For starters, I knew almost nothing about Mr. Obama, so I had tons of research to do. I put myself on a reading diet of 100 pages a day. I read Dreams From My Father, and The Audacity of Hope, both by Barack Obama. I read a number of quotes, biographies, speeches and articles, some of them found online. Once I’d crammed as much information into my brain as I had time for, I began to write. Sadly, there was no opportunity to interview Mr. Obama. He was busy with his campaign, and my time-frame was severely limited.When I started, the plan was to complete the first draft in three weeks. But a miracle happened: I finished the draft in two weeks! It was amazing.Of course, there were rewrites. (There always are!) But once the bulk of the manuscript was done, I could breathe again.I have to tell you, this was the most stressful project I’ve ever undertaken. By the end of it, I broke out in hives from head to toe! Mind you, I had good reason to feel overwhelmed. What exactly did the publisher have in mind, I asked myself. What if they didn’t like what I wrote? What if I didn’t get it done in time? What if, what if, what if? The questions drove me crazy.
Now that the book is finally on its way to stores, my biggest question is: Will Mr. Obama like it? I sure hope so. I put my heart into it, and so did the brilliant illustrator, Bryan Collier.I know one thing. Come November, Barack Obama has got my vote! And no matter what happens in the election, he is a man who has made history: the first man of color to win a major party nomination for President of the United States. That’s why his story is an important one for young readers to know. That’s why I wrote Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope.
November 2, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Interview with David Mendell [25:20m]:
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Incredible insight into Barack Obama’s candidacy and rise to power. From “I’m LeBron, baby” before the Democratic Convention in 2004, Mendell’s book is beautifully written, and has accrued multiple awards. More about David Mendell from http://davidmendell.blogspot.com :Journalist David Mendell has been writing about urban issues and politics for the Chicago Tribune since 1998. Over his tenure at the Tribune, Mendell has also covered breaking national news including the Columbine High School shootings and the Seattle riots spurred by meetings of the World Trade Organization. From October 2003 to November 2004, Mendell covered Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate campaign for the Tribune. Having gained intimate access to Obama and his top aides, the journalist spent nearly three years thereafter researching and writing a biography of the Senator. The 400-page account of Obama’s life was released by HarperCollins Publishers in August 2007. Mendell, a native of Cincinnati, lives in Oak Park, Illinois.
November 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Interview with Eric Appleman [14:40m]:
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Eric Appleman was a great guest. He spoke to us about his books of political cartoons. One for the republicans, and one for the democrats. About the democratic book:A good editorial cartoon can capture the essence of an event or a candidacy like few other media. This collection of over 250 editorial cartoons by more than 75 artists provides insights on the candidates for the 2008 Democratic nomination and the process that led up to the Convention in Denver.The 2008 Democratic presidential primary race was one of the most intense nominating campaigns in a generation. A record 35 million people voted in the Democratic primaries. The Democratic candidates raised over half a billion dollars, also a record.Starting with the Iowa caucuses on January 3, 2008, early contests winnowed the field; veteran Sens. Joe Biden and Chris Dodd, Gov. Bill Richardson, and Rep. Dennis Kucinich all ended their campaigns in January. Former Sen. John Edwards tried to hang on, but ended his quest at the end of month, leaving Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama engaged in a titanic struggle. Democratic voters faced a historic choice between the determined Clinton, who saw her mantle of inevitability slip away, and the youthful Obama, who combined an inspirational message and unprecedented campaign organization. For a time it appeared that superdelegates might decide the nomination or that the race might go all the way to the convention.In this collection, many of America’s top editorial cartoonists offer their views on the historic Democratic nominating campaign that went all the way to the last primaries on June 3.
November 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Dr. Kent: Welcome back to Sound Authors. Today is June 6, 2008 and my next guest is Steven T. Wax. His book is called Kafka Comes to America; Fighting for Justice in the war on terror. Welcome to the show.
Steven Wax: Thanks very much for having me.
Dr. Kent: And you are a federal public defender in the district of Oregon. You’re going to have to explain that to me and some of the guests. What does that mean?
Steven Wax: The federal defender is the person who represents people charged with crimes in the federal courts who cannot afford to retain counsel, which means that most of the work I do involves representing people charged with immigration crimes, drugs, bank robberies and so on.
Dr. Kent: What inspired you to write a book about somewhat about what you do, about this topic with the war on terror? What inspired you?
Steven Wax: Well starting about within a month of September 11, my office and I became involved in a series of cases involving people accused of terrorism in Oregon. Then in the fall of 2005 I was asked by the people in Washington D.C. whether or not my office could help out in representing some of the men who were in prison in Guantanamo.
The work that I have done in the terrorism cases, both in Oregon and Guantanamo put into high relief I guess I would call it for me, the tension between security and freedom and the assault on our liberties as a result of some of the policies of the war on terror. The book just started pouring out of me after the second visit I made to Guantanamo. Things that I seen I thought needed to be more widely told.
Dr. Kent: Along with many, many Americans, I’m fascinated by Guantanamo in a horrible way but what is it like to visit this place? I’ve seen maybe six or seven images from Guantanamo that we see on CNN all the time you know if they say something about it. What is it like there?
Steven Wax: Well it’s a very mixed bag. On the one hand, you’re in Cuba but you’re not in Cuba. When your at the base, you first see a dry landscape that could be anywhere in the southwestern US, any small town, any small military base. There are McDonalds, KFCs, there’s a golf course, it’s browned out because it’s a part of Cuba that’s dry. And there’s a prison.
The prison based on the experience I have prosecuting and representing people both on the east and west coast is in some respects just like any other prison, but its not because it is filled with men who the overwhelming majority of have never been charged with anything, will never BE charged with anything. They’re held without any process, without hope, without despair, they’re not serving sentences. There’s no way out and they’re completely isolated. The only visitors they can have; those that have lawyers, are the lawyers and the interpreters who get down there to see them.
Dr. Kent: What is their condition like? Do they get good food? I mean, what is daily life like for them there?
Steven Wax: Again, it’s variable. Some of the men are kept in what look like standard issue federal maximum security prisons. The men in those prisons are locked down generally 22 hours a day. When they are out for what’s called recreation, they’re in little fenced in or concrete fenced recreation areas maybe 15 to 30 foot square. Horrible isolation.
There are some men who are in what are called the other camps. Camp delta section 4 is a place where it’s a dormitory like setting and the men there are in some respects living in a way that is similar to men in a standard prison in America in the sense that they get to talk with their fellow prisoners. They can move around, they can go outside and see the sun. They can’t see the Caribbean which is just a few hundred yards away, but at least they can see the sun. But even those men are in total isolation. There can be no visits, no contact with their family or the outside world.
Dr. Kent: Tell me a little bit now about why you were there and then get into what this book was about.
Steven Wax: Why I was in Guantanamo is because in the fall of 2005 my office and I were assigned to represent seven of the men who were being kept there. fortunately four of our clients are now back in their own countries, three with their families and as the representation is to say to the federal court in Washington DC that it should review the legality there in prison.
We went out and gathered evidence of innocence on a number of our clients, tried to present it to the court, but the government has taken the position through the administration that the men have no right to even be in court and the reality is that in the six years of the existence of the prison, not one man has had a day in court, has had a hearing into the legality of the administrations imprisonment.
Dr. Kent: Before you go on to the book, is that why it’s in Cuba? Just like the school of Americas not being here, is that kind of the?
Steven Wax: The administrations theory in the beginning was that if they put the men in Cuba it would be a place of total isolation and it was a place where the administration argued to the courts they had no jurisdiction and the supreme court has rejected that argument twice, its going to be deciding a third time whether or not the most recent change in the law that the administration and congress made actually does strip the courts of jurisdiction or whether the supreme court is going to say for a third time that they’re wrong.
Dr. Kent: So tell me about the book now. What is your purpose behind writing it as a public defender? You’re already serving your purpose to an extent. You’re saving peoples lives; you’re bringing them back their families, why did you write the book?
Steven Wax: Both through my representation in the courtroom of the Brandon Mayfield who was mistakenly connected to the Madrid train bombings of 2004 and through my representation of the men in Guantanamo, I was in a position in which I was able to see first hand some of the abuses in the war on terror, some of the excesses of the administration and I was in a position in which I was in possession of evidence that some of the statements that were being made by the administration were just not true.
It seemed to me to be important to spread that word. Its one thing to sit idly by, its another thing to work on behalf of an individual client, but it seems to me that the issues we’re dealing with here are so fundamental to the existence of freedom in this country, to the balance of power in this country between the executive and congress and judiciary, that it was important to tell to however many of the American people I could what I’ve seen and to let them know that there are important issues about which other people should be speaking up.
Dr. Kent: Just listening to you I guess the way you put your sentences together I hear a little bit of I guess the same, maybe it’s because your both at Harvard, but I hear a little bit of Barack Obama. I hear the very intellectual, very calm and collected speaker. What do you think about Obama and what might happen in the fall if he’s elected or if McCain’s elected?
Steven Wax: I would only be speculating about that. All three of the senators who have been in the race until very recently have spoken against torture. They have all spoken about the need to close down Guantanamo. Whether or not any of them are able to follow through with that or how they follow through remains to be seen. It is at least a hopeful sign that they have all spoken publicly at least at this stage about the need to do something different. I can only hope that they keep that in mind, whoever is in the Whitehouse next January and do something about it.
Dr. Kent: Speaking about the Bush administration, there’s so many things that I mean its not even secret. Half of the horrors that have happened during this administration. What is the most I guess the most frustrating for you with this “war on terror” where it pretty much gives carte blanche to the government to do whatever they want? What’s the worst part of that? What worries you the most?
Steven Wax: What worries me the most is that the positions taken by the administration both publicly and in court harkens back to a time before the kings of England were reined in by the English judiciary. If you go back to the 1600s, King Charles had a war with Spain, threw people in the tower and said “Hey as king I can do this. I have the power on my own to be judge, jury and executioner; make the arrest, hold them in the tower until death.”
The English justice said no sir king, you don’t. the type of arguments that the Bush administration has made including in the US Supreme Court are to me reminiscent of that kind of assertion of power that as Commander-in-Chief, the President says that he can unilaterally decide who to seize, who to imprison, and hold them indefinitely without any process. To me that is a very serious affront and attack on the rule of law.
It is in my judgment unnecessary. We can prosecute the war on terror in the criminal courts through the standard uniform code of military justice and consistent with the Geneva Conventions. I don’t think that we need to throw out the rule of law and a tried and true system in order to protect ourselves from the terrorists from whom we do need protection.
Dr. Kent: There’s a big difference in the clientele you represented. The famous ones you were talking about the Mayfield case and these Guantanamo prisoners. What is the difference between the cases? How difficult is it to represent the Guantanamo prisoners? What do you want us to know about that?
Steven Wax: Well in terms of the difficulty of representing them, when we went to Guantanamo for the first time, we didn’t know if we were going to be representing hardened terrorists, Al-Qaeda fighters, or innocent men. And the reality is, it didn’t matter because we were there to fight for the rule of law. We were there to say whether these men are terrorists or not, they’re entitled to some process, some meaningful review of if they’ve done anything and if so, what they’d done.
The reality is it turned out to be somewhat easier because with respect to most of my clients we were able to go out and to uncover in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, and in the UAE evidence of innocence, get sworn statements of people attesting to what these men had been telling our military for some time now up to six years that our military never even bothered to investigate. At the end of the day, the representation in most respects is very similar to what I do and my office does on a daily basis with our regular clients if you will back in Oregon.
Dr. Kent: So tell me a little bit about where can we find more information about the prisoners, about what you do, and about your book, Kafka Comes to America.
Steven Wax: Well, about the book if you go online and type in Kafka and Wax you’ll come up with a number of sites. You can go to a number of websites, there was a local group in Portland that sprung up called Local Hamad, which focuses on the client Adel Hamad and you can find a couple of professors back east, the ### have done a study of the prisoners based on the military’s own records and studies about that are available online.
ACLU, Amnesty International, there are many citizens groups in this country that have pulled together. Documentation, records, et cetera about the men in Guantanamo, about men like Mayfield who were arrested on material witness warrants and questions have been raised about whether the use of those warrants was an abuse and so on.
Dr. Kent: Are you working on another project? Would you like to stay in the world of authors?
Steven Wax: I did this on my own time from five to seven a.m. before I’d get up and go to my regular job, on the weekends and late at night. A wonderful and fascinating process but an exhausting one and right now, I am running the office full time as I have been all along. Whether or not I’m going to be able to have the energy to get up every morning before dawn and write out another book, time will tell.
Dr. Kent: Well I sure hope so. Kafka Comes to America is an enlightening view of the war on terror called Fighting for Justice in the War on Terror by Steven T. Wax. Go ahead and Google Wax and Kafka and we’ll find a ton of information online and visiting Amnesty International online and a number of other organizations. Thank you so much for being on the show, it’s been my pleasure.
Steven Wax: Well I appreciate it, thank you for having me.
October 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Dr. Kent: Welcome back to Sound Authors. It’s my great pleasure to welcome Nikki Grimes to the show. She’s authored many, many children’s books. Her latest book is Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope. She is the winner of the Corretta Scott King Literary Award; she’s been on the New York Times Bestseller List with this book. Welcome to the show.
Nikki Grimes: Thank you so much.
Dr. Kent: Tell me about what this book means to you.
Nikki Grimes: Well I was happy to have the opportunity to write it. As often happens when writing a book and researching it, I made lots of discoveries in the process. I knew very little about Senator Obama when I began but I got very excited about his candidacy the more I learned about him so that was a great thing.
Dr. Kent: The book itself is so beautiful. Illustrated by Brian Collier and the two of you are both award winning children’s author and illustrators. What does it mean to write a book about a political character in political season?
Nikki Grimes: Well that’s been a bit of a challenge. I hadn’t realized it never having done this before, chosen a political person to write a biography of and certainly not during the political season. It’s been really crazy because the book has been positive as some sort of primer on the electoral process for the young set, which it is not and dealt with as a political football which has been a bit disheartening and I can say, “No, no, no, this is a biography.” Because that’s what it is, it’s a biography and so yeah it’s been a bit crazy actually.
Dr. Kent: He’s such a fascinating character. His life story and then lets talk about you focus on his name, which has been such again like under scrutiny, it’s been in focus in the media. His name was Barry growing up. Talk about his change of name from Barry to Barack.
Nikki Grimes: It was a very personal decision. I mean, Barry was sort of just a nickname and when he went through a long period of time really of asking himself who he was and trying to deal with his own personal identity and realized he needed to just stake a claim for himself. He took that name as part of that process of becoming his own person of stepping away from anybody’s expectations or ideas of who he was and just claiming, well this is who I am, Barack is my name and I’m going to make it mean what I want it to. I think that was a big part of that. This is his way of naming himself and claiming who he was.
Dr. Kent: What I love about this book is at the bottom there’s this little dialogue going on about the book itself and this is not a very frequent thing used in children’s book. You’ve framed his story with a character who’s reading the story, a character who’s following along with you; David, right?
Nikki Grimes: Yes. It’s a story within a story and I chose that format because we’re writing about someone who is an adult and usually in children’s books the main character is a child. I wanted to make sure the young readers would be able to resonate with his story. So in addition to pulling out those aspects of his own childhood. I wanted to have that young perspective throughout the book. What this all must look like from a child’s eye view. That is my job as a children’s author, to always be thinking about the child’s eye view and this allowed me to do that.
Dr. Kent: So tell me the book itself is gorgeous of course and really stunning but now politically as a children’s author you are as my first guest on the show talked about, you’re a member of this national children’s book and literacy alliance. You are an African American woman; what does it feel like to be writing a book that is in the middle of this political fray and honestly its beautiful and does have impact on children in that way.
Nikki Grimes: Well thank you. I was honored just from the point of view of this is history making. I grew up at a time prior to the voting rights act and so the very possibility of an African American running for presidency on a major party ticket was not even thinkable in my generation. So to not only witness it but to be even in a small way attached to it is pretty phenomenal. I feel definitely graced to be involved with that whole process.
Dr. Kent: You’ve written so many books. What books are you working on now?
Nikki Grimes: I have a new young adult novel which I just completed, I have a new chapter book series which will launch next year and I have some work with historical novels which I’m going to research on Harriett Tubbman and Susan B. Anthony so lots of irons in the fire.
Dr. Kent: At the beginning of writing; it’s really a gift to write for children. When people pick up the book they think oh, there’s not many words here but it’s a real gift to be able to speak to children especially about a topic that’s not easy to read about, like politics. What started you out as a writer? What kind of advice did you get?
Nikki Grimes: Oh lots of advice. From my father just to develop a writer’s eye and ear at a very early age to just really take in everything that goes on around me. I’m just constantly editing; I don’t even think about it anymore. From picking up dialogue heard at a restaurant at another table to really just honing in on conversations when I have them so I can be truly in the moment and just filing those things away; dialects and dialogues in the environment in which I stand sort of things so that when I come to the page those things come forward as I need them to when I’m creating a scene or creating dialogue or fleshing out characters.
And it’s a question of practice. I mean the two things I say to young people who want to know what it takes to be a writer and you have to read, read, read and write, write, write. You can’t be a writer without first of all being a good reader and taking from all of the beautiful works of literature of the past in terms of lessons. And of course in order to write you have to practice because writing is a muscle that has to be exercised and there’s no way to just suddenly be there you have to work to get to that place and that takes a lot of practice. So read, read, read and write, write, write.
Dr. Kent: It’s been a wonderful show today because my last guest David Mendell is a biographer of Obama; he’s got a great biography. He said when he spoke with Barack Obama about his speaking ability he said practice, practice, practice. So I guess its read, read, read, write, write, write and practice, practice, practice.
Nikki Grimes: That’s right.
Dr. Kent: I’m running out of time here so I want to go back to Barack Obama. What do you feel like in this silly season? This back and forth bordering on hysterics in some of the campaign meetings. What do you feel like the American people are going through right now?
Nikki Grimes: It’s difficult and I think we’re all just one out from the campaign, the length of it and we’re on so much turmoil in terms of our financial situation. It’s not the best place in America on the whole. The drama just sort of adds to it. I think we all just want to focus on the important issues, the issues that are going to touch our lives, that are touching our lives now and will be the issues after Election Day. If we can just stay focused on that we’ll be okay.
Dr. Kent: It’s been a real honor speaking with Nikki Grimes. Her website is nikkigrimes.com. There’s some great stuff on there and if I had children I’d certainly buy all 50 books that you’ve written. The latest book is called Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope. Its gorgeous and the story inside will surprise children and adults. When I read the book I was surprised how personal and how wonderfully soulful the story itself is. It’s not just a political posturing book, this is a book about the story of a person and it’s beautiful.
Nikki Grimes: Thank you so much.
Dr. Kent: It’s been an honor speaking with Nikki Grimes and on the show earlier today, the biographer David Mendell and of course Mary Brigid Barrett talking to us about Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out. Have a safe week; we’ll see you the next time.
October 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Dr. Kent: Welcome back to Sound Authors. Today is Friday October 24th, just a couple weeks until a huge election here in the history of the country and the whole world is watching after a ridiculously long period of vetting all of the candidates here. It’s my honor to welcome my next guest David Mendell. He’s the author of Obama: From Promise to Power. It’s a wonderfully written book; good looking and well written. He’s a native of Cincinnati, Ohio and began writing about urban issues in politics for the Chicago Tribune ten years ago. Welcome to the show David Mendell.
David Mendell: Well thanks for having me, I appreciate it.
Dr. Kent: Tell me about your experience I guess over the last year, having written this book and sort of being thrust into the spotlight that Obama has here.
David Mendell: Yes, it’s been quite a ride. It’s sort of like I hopped onto a rocket ship a few years ago and you’re just not sure when it’s going to land or where it’s going. You’re just trying to sort of hold on for dear life. I was with the Chicago Tribune in 2002-2004 when Obama ran for the US Senate and I was at the time to cover his US Senate campaign on the democratic side of the ticket.
So that’s where I entered the picture and I didn’t get too far into that race when I realized that perhaps there was a very important subject and I need to explore it with greater depth. So I went off after that election, after that year and spent the next couple of years researching his life and trying to keep up with his current methods at the time and his political trajectory and produced what I hope is a pretty objective biography of him.
Dr. Kent: What’s fascinating to me about Obama is that in a sense the people around him and you of course detail them very well in this book. The one that fascinates me the most is Michelle Obama and I just heard her speak via You Tube clip a couple of weeks ago and was just astounded at the depth of her intelligence and poise. Talk a little bit about her role in this book.
David Mendell: Oh yes, she is exceptionally important to Senator Obama’s career even though she wasn’t centrally involved in his political career until his movement for president. She provided numerous interview clearances and some counsel along the way actually as to places I should go and people I should talk to, to get at the essence of her husband. She told me I needed to get to Hawaii to interview relatives there and to just see how Hawaii added so much to his character. She is poised, charismatic and all those things.
What she brings to his character I think is sort of a skeptical nature that he found in his grandmother who he is now visiting in Hawaii who is gravely ill. Obama’s mother was a real dreamer, a romantic type of person. She really saw the good in people but his grandmother was very skeptical of people and Michelle fits in both categories. She can size people up pretty quickly and she has been a very good counsel to him in that regard. He seeks out her advice when he asks should I trust this person. What’s your feeling? And she’s also connected to the American community in a way that he hasn’t been historically in his growing up so she has a good radar when it comes to appealing to that community. So she has been exceptionally influential with him in his personal life and his professional life.
Dr. Kent: As one of just a tiny group of biographers of Obama, and this book of course is a Washington Post Bestseller, how have you seen this character Obama change? Of course, I myself over the last couple of years have been amazed to see Obama grow and change as have many of us that have watched but you’ve watched him much further and you’ve delved into his past and you talk about how his grandmother thinks about his political career and his wife. How have you seen him change and how has he changed to become this character?
David Mendell: Well I don’t think the core of him has changed; he’s really grown as a candidate from when I saw him. Of course he’s much more scripted and he sticks to his lines better now than he used to. He would, the voice I covered deeply as the senate race was a much more organic thing. He was pulling his ear at times and was very effective in that way because he could come across as authentic to reporters and to the general public, which they really enjoyed. He didn’t give any scripted speeches, it was something that was never written down, he just memorized it and would deliver it in different ways to different groups of people.
But I don’t think he really acted like a political candidate and I’m sure that he’s mentioned that he isn’t an extraordinarily skeptical person. I would imagine that he’s a little naïve primarily. He could be a little naïve about politics. There were a couple of debates in which some of his opponents kind of attacked him and he didn’t quite understand why but I think he’s got a much better conception of the politics than he did a few years ago.
So he’s a little less naïve and a little more polished; he’s much more polished as a political candidate because he’s grown in public debates very well. He wasn’t a very good debater. When I first started covering him he is a very talented orator meaning he can deliver a speech from beginning to end and have a theme throughout.
Dr. Kent: That’s one thing that fascinates the world about him, whether conservative or liberal is his oration ability. I remember distinctly sitting with my folks actually I believe it was during the holidays and watching his Iowa acceptance speech on the TV live and we had just watched John Edwards and were moved by John Edwards and I remember evoking responses to Obama. I remember he would say things and I would speak back to the television. At the end of that speech my mother said, “He’s the next president of the united states.” I’ve never heard her say anything like that in my life, but that’s how powerful his oration is. What does it mean to be an orator today?
David Mendell: I think he’s the most inspiring political speaker we’ve seen in a long time. I saw flashes of that when I started covering him. There were some speeches where he would just really nail it and to see the audience reaction to him I would say I’ve never seen a speaker connect with an audience like this. But there were also speeches that were very flat and very dull. If he was not channeled in, it used to be that he could speak a little above people, he could be a little professorial but David Axelrod, his chief consultant, really instilled in him that you have to speak in terms of people in your speeches and their concerns and their lives.
Once Obama mastered that type of speech where he was talking more about people and less about policy, that’s when he became the speaker that you see today I think. He’s exceptionally gifted and something he’s obviously worked on endlessly. He told me that to be a good public speaker its just practice, practice, practice. He would go every Sunday to African American churches; three, four or five in a row and deliver a political speech. Those speeches and his talking to crowds one after another has really helped him in this campaign. He evolved into this masterful speaker where he doesn’t have the flat, dull moments like he used to.
Dr. Kent: Talk about David Axelrod; see this is something we don’t hear much about. I was a junkie for the television show with Martin Sheen and all of that about the White House; it sort of talked about behind the scenes and all of that. You rarely hear about David Axelrod’s role and the huge cadres that Barack Obama has built around himself to propel himself to this point. What kind of insight did you get into that sort of entourage?
David Mendell: He has 2,700 people working for his campaign now, it’s a huge operation and his advisors have expanded to some very polished, professionals from Washington and beyond. But there’s nobody who’s been more influential than David Axelrod. He is the premier political consultant here in Illinois who had worked on various national campaigns, senate campaigns and he is very adept at, he has a skill for (Axelrod does) selling a candidate in broader communities. That’s been some talent of his for sometime now.
He helped elect Michael White to be mayor of Cleveland and obviously Obama as a senator here in Illinois and perhaps now as president with this huge talent of his. He really understands racial dynamics especially when it comes to politics. What can sell in each community, what part of a candidate can sell in each demographic group? The counsel that he provided to Obama, he is the coach who really nurtured this young prime athlete into the professional who we see today.
They would spend hours on the phone each day when Obama would go over this kind of strategy or that kind of strategy and what he should say in the speeches, what he should deliver to the press, what messages he should deliver to the press, and David Axelrod was that guy of political ruler and he still plays that role although there are a lot more of them now. Another one who is key is Robert Gibbs, a communications director who came along a few years ago. He’s a tough guy who isn’t shy about beating up on the press and lobbying hard for his candidate. As Obama put it, if he’s over in a foxhole this is the guy he wants beside him.
These are people who you know, if you watch the Sunday talk shows and cable news you see David Axelrod but I cant mention enough how important these guys are to the development of Obama as a very skilled and practical politician.
Dr. Kent: I love at the very beginning of the book; it’s a shocking quote from Barack Obama, a kind of a neat one that frames his character. He’s a basketball player of course, we all know that and he says, “I’m LeBron Baby.” Talk about that.
David Mendell: That was sort of an unguarded moment. I spent a lot of time around his campaign and around him in that year in 2003, 2004 and got to know him very well and he really got quite comfortable with my presence. Occasionally something would slip out that he didn’t want to slip out but we were walking around outside of the Som Center in Boston after the 2004 democratic convention and he had about ten reporters following him. He and I had slipped through security before the rest and it was about three to four hours before he made his address to the convention.
I was trying to gauge whether he was, how he was going to do. I thought is this guy going to be a big star or is he going to be a big failure because he’s never had to deliver a speech like this so I was kind of trying to take his temperature and I said to him you do pretty well with the interviews this week, you’re really impressing a lot of people. And he just kept on walking in this sort of cocky stride that he has and that’s when it popped out, “Well, I’m LeBron baby! I got some game; I can play at this level.”
I just thought the quote was so apt to have this young talented politician rise into the national ranks and it really reflected how many skills he had himself and he uses them the best. LeBron James has become arguably the best player in the NBA and Obama has become arguably the best politician in the country. So I thought that quote really encapsulized who Obama is.
Dr. Kent: Let’s talk about the election coming up. Its silly season as Obama said and as one of my twitter friends says in NASCAR all the time. Obama is so far ahead in so many polls, but his side, including me, I support Obama and I’m terrified that he’s going to lose this thing because I think he’s such a fresh voice and amazing soul. What’s your take on this whole election and where it’s going?
David Mendell: If you look at the polls in the key states he looks to have a pretty safe advantage but you never know in an election. I never try to call an election, especially a national election this far in advance. There’s still many days here and things can happen in that period but all signs certainly point to him winning the key battleground states, pushing him ahead. But historically the democrats have elected in the last 30 years one president. So we have to wonder about that and I also have to think that race is a factor.
You probably can shave off a few points in a lot of these state polls in some of these states where race will play a factor. One in 20 people or one in 15 people who now say they’re supporting Obama may get in there and say gee, I’m not sure about electing a black man. I think we’ve come a long way on this issue in this country, but there’s still a strain on racism and so that’s a little bit of a wild card. He has put together a massive political operation with so much money and with the get out the vote effort is going to be very strong.
His grassroots work is very strong and I suspect in some of these states we’re going to see a massive turnout for Obama, especially by African Americans, something that’s probably unprecedented. And I think he’s going to have a lot of young people turn out in unprecedented numbers. The McCain campaign has all the looks of a failing operation at this point. So all things point his way but having said that, you never know in politics until the votes are counted.
Dr. Kent: One thing that amazes me is that the Chicago Tribune endorsed Obama; for the first time they’ve endorsed a democrat in their history. Is that right?
David Mendell: Yes it is. It’s a very republican paper but in the last generation or so its generation has gone mainstream; the reporting and news coverage has become very balanced. Its editorial pages have remained conservative or tilted towards the center-right, but even that’s balancing out. Chicago is a mostly democratic town, we’re a blue state here and I think the newspaper just has to start realizing what its audience is and not alienate its audience. I have always loved Barack Obama. I write in my book how he has met news editorial writers at the Chicago Tribune and David Axelrod was key to that.
Axelrod is a former Chicago Tribune writer who had a lot of influence with some key editors. They knew him very well so he was always lobbying for his guy and pitching his guy. The truth is Obama in his races a democrat was going to win in his legislative district and he seemed to be the most knowledgeable and best candidate in his democratic primary US Senate race. So the Tribune has been a fairly ardent supporter editorially of Obama over the course of his career and he’s their native son aspect to this for Chicago and Illinois to have him in the White House.
Dr. Kent: Let me ask you one last kind of tricky question here about the very first sentence on the back of the book on the copy on the cover. It’s published by Amistad Harper Collins but Barack Obama is arguably the most dynamic political figure to grace the American stage since John F. Kennedy and then of course the second sentence talks about your subtitle him rising from promise to power. How would you compare him to John Kennedy? The interesting thing is Obama is really poised to be a huge figure in the history of the country and the world. So how would you compare him to John Kennedy?
David Mendell: I don’t think we’ve seen a charismatic figure in the presidency since Kennedy. Clinton was charismatic but we know his presidency kind of had its difficulties. But Obama has an aura about him and his family has an aura; he has a very attractive family. As an African American voters are telling us that he’s our JFK. The first time I heard that was here in Illinois before it really sunk in that he probably would run for president one day. So he has that ability to inspire people with his speeches.
I think he actually, having studied John F. Kennedy for researching this book, he perhaps has more political skills than Kennedy did. Kennedy hadn’t learned the business because his older brother Joe was really supposed to be the politician. Kennedy was somewhat of a shy guy; initially he would go into a function and sort of melt away. He didn’t glad hand people and he had to learn to give a good speech and with Obama it comes much more naturally to him. In a lot of ways he’s the head of John. I think his development as a politician is ahead of Kennedy. I think he may be even more intelligent man than Kennedy; Kennedy was smart but Obama is exceptionally bright.
He can absorb things around him faster than anybody; it’s like a quarterback studying the field. He picks up on things, he can remember things, little insignificant things that I would forget and they would still be lodged in there. He’s a very smart man so we’ll have to see how a potential Obama presidency would enfold. But I think there’s definitely a mystique and he’s a man who inspires people like Jack Kennedy in some small ways like Bobby Kennedy.
Dr. Kent: It’s been a real honor speaking with David Mendell. He’s a biographer of Barack Obama. His book is called Obama: From Promise to Power. Extraordinary writing; it’s a Washington Post Bestseller and it’s the winner of the NAACP Image Award for outstanding literary work. Thank you so much for being on the show.
David Mendell: Thanks for having me Dr. Kent; I appreciate it.
Dr. Kent: My next guest is another author who has written a biography of Barack Obama. It’s for children and it’s called Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope. Nikki Grimes will be with me after this short break.
October 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Interview with Leonard L. Berry [17:00m]:
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About Leonard L. Berry:Dr. Leonard L. Berry is Distinguished Professor of Marketing, and holds the M.B. Zale Chair in Retailing and Marketing Leadership in the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University. He is also Professor of Humanities in Medicine in the College of Medicine at The Texas A&M University System Health Science Center. He was one of two Texas A&M faculty members honored at the University’s commencement ceremony in May 2008 by being named a Presidential Professor for Teaching Excellence. During the 2001-2002 academic term he served as a Visiting Scientist at Mayo Clinic studying healthcare service. He is the founder of Texas A&M’s Center for Retailing Studies and served as its director from 1982 through June 2000. He is a former national president of the American Marketing Association.
Professor Berry’s latest book, Management Lessons from Mayo Clinic, was published in 2008 by McGraw-Hill. Other books include Discovering the Soul of Service, On Great Service, Marketing Services: Competing Through Quality, and Delivering Quality Service.
Dr. Berry has been recognized on three occasions with the highest honor Texas A&M bestows on a faculty member: the Distinguished Achievement Award in Teaching (1990) and the Distinguished Achievement Award in Research (1996, 2008). He is the recipient of the 2008 Paul D. Converse Award from the American Marketing Association, the 2007 AMA/McGraw-Hill/Irwin Distinguished Marketing Educator Award, the Career Contributions to Services Marketing Award from the American Marketing Association’s Services Marketing Special Interest Group, the Outstanding Marketing Educator Award from the Academy of Marketing Science, and the Pinnacle Award as Marketing Educator of the Year from Sales and Marketing Executives International. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Marketing Science. Texas A&M University named him a University Distinguished Lecturer for 2002-2003.Dr. Berry is a member of the board of directors of several major public companies and national not-for-profit organizations.
October 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Interview with Ella Curry [19:10m]:
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About Ella Curry from her website:Ella Curry is determined to become one of the most powerful literary conglomerates in the industry. Offering the self-published and independently published author the same quality of exposure as the traditionally published author. By 2012, we hope to have our own radio show on AM radio, our cable TV literary show launched and to bring new books and the authors who create them, to millions of readers around world. Join us in this drive to Give the Gift of Knowledge!
October 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Dr. Kent: Welcome to Sound Authors. Today is Friday, October 10th and fall is underway. The weather is getting cooler, there’s some beautiful things happening now we’re all thinking about which new president is going to be elected. We’re waiting for the coming of winter, the cooler months but people are in a lot of panic right now about the economy. So I’m happy to welcome my first guest Eric Gerst. He’s an attorney and an author, his book is called Vulture Culture; Dirty Deals, Unpaid Claims, and the Coming Collapse of the Insurance Industry. This is a timely book and it will be a joy speaking with Eric Gerst. Welcome to the show.
Eric Gerst: Well thank you very much Dr. Kent. I’m glad to be here.
Dr. Kent: Now in the book you forecasted the collapse of the insurance industry well before the financial meltdown happened. How did you do that and what do you think now?
Eric Gerst: Well, we have a very serious problem as everyone knows. The insurance industry is 1.4 billion dollars in annual revenue in the United States alone and it’s the backbone of our economy. We rely on insurance with peace of mind. But the peace of mine has now gone and with bad economic times what happens is the insurance company doesn’t have the money to pay us.
What happens if one out of every ten consumers use gas at the gas pump and can’t pay for these other items, necessary items? Besides that, insurance is one of those discretionary items and they stop making payments or cut out insurance all together. If that happens one out of every ten, that could be 140 billion dollar loss to the insurance companies. That’s very serious.
Dr. Kent: What exactly happened with AIG? Everyone knows I guess the general news about what happened but the ins and outs of it is a little hard to understand.
Eric Gerst: Well, the AIG situation is not unique. The problem is there is a problem throughout the entire insurance industry and that is they have lax regulations and they have reserves that may not be adequate. In AIGs case, they were betting on the mortgage market staying stable and everybody’s paying their mortgage payments on time. So they decided to insure all of these mortgages, or at least a lot of them.
So there was a subsidiary of AIG in London that started to insure a huge amount of these sub-prime loans. Once the default occurred, AIG looked around and said my gosh, we’re going to be short $75 billion or something like that and they called on the federal government to come in and help them out. The government decided and probably rightly so to prop them up so they could get through this hurdle because of what’s happening with oil and the other insurance companies.
Dr. Kent: How could anybody possibly solve this whole problem?
Eric Gerst: Well, there are short term solutions and there are long term solutions. First of all let me say that I think the insurance industry can be fixed. I think I’m looking at it optimistically. We can do this on a short term basis. We can have the state regulators go in and immediately audit all insurance companies to see that they are solvent, that they are putting money aside for claims and that they’re in accordance with the current state insurance law. They can also put pressure on the newspapers to check and keep moving to see whether insurance companies are providing adequate fair remedies for consumers.
For the long term however we have to look at changing the law and you have to do a federal regulated system. Right now we have a state by state system, which is uneven and it’s not uniform so you never know from one state to the other what kind of a law you’re going to get and it’s a luck of the draw. We need a uniform standard with one federal regulator and all state insurance departments can act to carry out federal law.
Dr. Kent: Now how does this affect average Americans? This whole you know, what you described as the Vulture Culture, back to your book. What is this you call dirty deals, unpaid claims and the collapse, all of this, how does this affect the average person on Main Street?
Eric Gerst: Financially the average person on main street or take the average person who has a homeowners claim. In Katrina for example, there is still 17,000 claims outstanding by my count. There’s almost $2 billion of money that has not been paid to legitimate claims and what has happened is the insurance companies have used a clause; not all of them but most of them. Some of them anyway have used a clause called; well I call it a doctor clause. They said if you had wind we’ll pay for it, if you have wind and water we won’t pay for it.
There are people who thought they had hurricane insurance and really didn’t have that and they were very surprised. So what the average consumer has to do is he has to realize that he has to tighten up. The insurance companies line up, we have to have regulators come in there and it’s been deregulated over this period of time and the states that are either unfeeling or unable to actually monitor what’s going on. So the consumer tends to beware but there is a positive side in certain insurance companies now are willing to realize that they’re going to lose a lot of their customers and in this shaky economy they can’t afford to do that.
Dr. Kent: Well now how about the whole situation, we’re in the middle of an election season and it doesn’t seem like either candidate is really committing to a solution for this whole problem probably because they want the responsibility to fall on the current administration. But is there a way for a politician to guarantee a way out for this whole thing?
Eric Gerst: Yes I think so. I’ve recommended to the campaign that they consider not only a federal regulator but also consider what I call the FIGC, the Federal Insurance Guarantee Corporation similar to the FDIC, which is for the banks. Everyone with an account knows they’re guaranteed payment by the federal government up to a certain amount and I suggest that we do the same thing for policy holders.
So a policy holder when he knows that if a company goes bad he doesn’t have to worry about the state having a guaranteed fund that may not be fully funded or may have administrative hurdles. If you have one standard federal program with the federal government standing behind it, it will put a lot of peace of mind back into the system and it will help the insurance companies too because they’ll be able to say that we not only have a policy that we really stand behind but the federal government will stand behind.
So I think that’s a win-win situation and I recommended it. Whether they accept it or not I don’t know but with all of the other guarantees that they’re doing now they should consider this one.
Dr. Kent: Do you have a positive spin for yourself on the future of all of the insurance industry? Of course it’s necessary for all of us to be insured and trust these companies; do you see that all of this is going to clear up and get better?
Eric Gerst: I do; I’m an optimist. I always see the glass as half full not half empty and I think in this situation you have a lot of good people in the insurance industry who are willing to make things right. And they’ve seen all of the problems that have occurred over the last few years with embezzlement, big rigging, and the problem that Katrina showed about not paying claims. They’re very effective now I think to making the consumer feel at home.
Dr. Kent: Well it’s been a real pleasure speaking with Eric Gerst; he’s the author of Vulture Culture. The fantastic front cover on the book with the shadow of a vulture over the title. He predicted this collapse of the insurance industry. The next edition will have to say the collapse that already came. It’s been a pleasure speaking with you.
Eric Gerst: Thank you very much Dr. Kent, it was a pleasure speaking with you.
