a history of the laser by a guy that flew an inflatable chicken outside the white house, and high points from an economist who learned to fly. this week on "press: here." ♪♪ ♪♪ good morning, everyone.

i'm scott mcgrew. if you ride with me in a car, and i am the passenger, i am going to comment on the road ahead. i'll say things like bike coming up on the right. if we're backing up in a driveway and you're driving, i'm not, i'm still going to look behind us, as well. some people find my behavior very irritating, but it's a habit pounded into me 20 years ago by a flight instructor as part of something called cockpit resource management. we are in this machine together and we are going to communicate. there are a lot of things you can learn that flying teaches you that are applicable on the ground. patrick trovanic has written a book called $cleared for the option," he is an adviser for silver crest asset management and learned to fly during covid. we need to keep each other in check and not totally dork out over airplanes.

what do you say? >> okay. >> i was in the calk pits of a 707. a 707, i'm that old, when i was in the second grade, they invited me up after the plane had landed and are airplanes something that have fascinated you all along? >> i'm interested in history and so airplanes are a part of history. i had that fascination, but to tell you the truth, i never expected to become a pilot. i never expected to learn how to fly and that came about because basically, i was trapped with my family like a lot of people during covid, and i started seeking out an interest and began to pursue it. >> now lots of people fly, but not a lot of people know how to fly. you started your education on microsoft flight simulator and people who don't realize very much about airplanes may not realize that's an extremely realistic piece of software. >> it has become so. i didn't know what i was getting myself into.

like i said, i wanted to activity to keep me busy when i was at home. i got into that because it had just come out, and i became curious about a lot of questions. why do you do this? how do you approach the land? and i began to take an online ground school which is where they teach you the basics of learning how to fly, and they kept on talking about you'll be in your instructor and you'll be in the airplane and maybe i should give this i try for real and that is when i took my first discovery flight and a year later i got my license. what do you like best about it? >> one thing that might surprise people is how cerebral it is. we watched "top gun" and i feel the need, the need for speed and being reckless and dangerous. maybe fighter pilots are that way, i can't say, but learning to fly is about learning how to

be meticulous about a lot of things and absorbing a lot of knowledge that i never expected to learn about the weather, about navigation, about how the engine works and how it can break down. so i enjoy it as an intellectual pursuit and that's one of the reasons i wanted to share it because whether someone intends to become a pilot or not, i think that kind of knowledge is really interesting as a passenger to understand what's happening around you. >> i agree and that's why i was introducing you that this has stuck with me for so long is the procedure and the check the triple and the double-check et cetera and check it again that has become very valuable. i didn't write a book about it, and your book is very detailed. why write a book about it? >> it was fresh in my mind. i thought it was very interesting. like i say, for most of my life, for all of my life, i've been a

passenger and when the plane did this or i heard the pilot say something, i didn't know what they were talking about. it was a big mystery for me. for people aviation is very intimidating and you look inside the cockpit and the knobs and you don't know what any of it means, and so i thought it would be nice to share what i had learned for people who are passengers and also people who might not -- that might want to in the back of their mind think maybe i could do this, and i wanted to share what it was like to actually go through the process and do it. >> reading your biography, you've had an interesting life and you worked with john boehner being the previous speaker of the house. you've also worked with mother teresa which is the first time john boehner and mother teresa have been in the same sentence together. >> briefly. >> tell me about working with mother teresa. >> oh, that was many years ago when i was traveling through

asia. i took a year away from college and went to india and crossed the himalayas into china and crossed the himalayas through pakistan and it was a fascinating trip that whet my appetite for travel throughout the rest of my life, but that was a very moving experience because i volunteered in the home for the dying and these were people who were quite ill. there's very few resources and sometimes you're the last person that they see on this earth, and so showing a little bit of kindness, maybe pay it forward a little bit so someone would show that kind of kindness to you. >> my understanding is you've not only been in north korea. you've been to north korea twice? the opportunity came up to go to a different part of north korea. i've been involved in public approximately see for all my life. i've lived in china and interacted with the u.s. government when they were

negotiating with china, and i thought going and seeing anywhere, but going and seeing particularly north korea, a place where very few americans had been to try to absorb that and understand what that was really like was worthwhile. it was a nervous trip. you never really quite know where the boundaries are and what can get you into trouble and some people have gotten into serious trouble, as you know, going to north korea, but fortunately, i got out again, and it's certainly something i'll never forget. >> i'm not saying any viewer will never go to north korea, but what is the number one thing about going to north korea? i suppose it's follow all the rules. >> follow all the rules. in fact, that's why americans are no longer allowed to go to north korea by the u.s. government because people have gotten themselves into trouble and have been essentially held hostage and they've had to have negotiations to get them released. i obeyed all of the rules and

played it safe and expressed my thoughts after i returned rather than during. >> didn't post it all to social media at the time. >> no. you can't even use a cell phone there. >> that's a good point. i went to cuba, and i had much the same experience. patrick, i wish you just the best of luck with your book. it's an enjoyable read if you're an airplane geek like i am, and patrick, i a appreciate you joining us and his bock is "pressed for the option."

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you know what else is convenient? mobile banking that makes it easy to track your goals and manage your money get out of town. but we... just got here. when a bank helps you get and stay ahead. that's the bmo effect. ♪ bmo ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ i think there was a little chemistry there, don't you? >> yeah. we -- we -- -- >> we fell in love. >> welcome back to "press: here," what you just saw was a clip from the new documentary called the marriage of a scientist about nobel

prize-winning physicist charles towns who created the laser. the film will be airing nationally after the first of the year on pbs. good morning. you interviewed charles towns for your project. he was still around until very recently. i'm always surprised by how people who have made historical discoveries sometimes are still alive. watson and crick, for instance, james watson is still alive, as best i know. >> yeah. it's really incredible. a lot of science, engineering and technology has just come about in the last 50 to 100 years. >> the title kind of gives it away and it's a film about the invention of the laser, but really it's more about the relationship with his wife. why did you choose to go that direction? >> yeah. i felt like narratively one of the ways to create an interesting story that everyone could understand was approaching

it through his personal life and the lens of a marriage, and i think it makes the science more accessible. >> so how did you get to know him? >> i got to know him while i was a student at uc berkeley, and he was a professor there, and i found out one of the professors on campus invented the laser and i asked him for office hours and asked him a lot of questions and we got to know each other and one time i saw him outside of a physics lecture and he asked me for a car ride. >> what did you talk about in your car ride? like cal sports or the weather? >> sports probably wasn't his big interest, but i asked all sorts of questions on his discoveries from the laser through his astronomy discoveries like landing man on the moon and the discovery of the black hole at the center of our galaxy, and i would ask him a lot of like you would ask a father for advice, someone who has seen it all and met very powerful people and how to get

along with life and what's the next science and what are the keys to a good relationship. >> that would be intim dating, and if he asked what did you do? >> i had a great pizza and i solved the center of the upverse. >> why is the laz are important? what effect did the laser have on the world? >> the laser is important because it figured out how to get beams of light out of molecules. the thing is that these waves are in phase which technically means that you can add them up and create more power. so lasers produce, for example, the most intense concentrations of power on earth. they create the hottest temperatures in the universe as well as the coldest temperature in the universe. so their property and amplification of ways allows it to do pretty interesting,

scientific things that otherwise we were not capable of in work. >> his invention of this on a fifth grade level was this a eureka moment or built on ideas from previously. >> the laser build on what was previously a eureka moment when charles built the first laser which is the parent of the laser and operating in different wave lengths and the microwave wave lengths. >> and he also had interesting ideas on religion and philosophy, which you don't really necessary expect from a physicist. >> that's correct. actually, his most re-published paper out of 550 scientific peer-reviewed paper was called the cop version of science and religion. in it, he pauses that science and religion are similar and complimentary ways of understanding the universe and in his view, destined to

converge. >> which you would call him a renaissance man. he's thinking about concepts of all of the different angles. >> 100% to call him a resans man and it's an apt description. >> before i let you go. you're apparently the chicken guy. the guy who installed a giant chicken during the trump administration. how did that come about? >> that came about because for me public service and leadership has always been a big interest of mine. as a kid i was sent to boise state when i was a student at berkeley i took political science classes and i talked to charles about his interaction with politicians and leaders a lot, and so when everyone is free to have their opinion, i felt like trump wasn't a good leader for our country in terms of bringing people together. so i decided to organize a march for his tax returns which at the

time was the only bipartisan demand that democrats and republicans chaired and a good way to bring people together in a contentious time. during a march for trump's tax returns which i had organized in chicago a mascot was introduced and it was this balloon. at first i was hesitant, but then i took it up and quickly had the idea to place it after watching so much political news on the ellipse and thattings spot and reached out to the national park service and relevant authorities to get a permit and it was permitted and sure enough, it worked. >> have you kept the chicken balloon in case you need it again? >> i have not kept that chicken balloon. >> but you know who makes theic whichen balloon. >> i have some interesting ideas to follow it up with an even funnier piece. >> very good. i appreciate you being with us this morning. his film, the marriage of a scientist about nobel prize-winning physicist charles towns will be airing nationally

on pbs in february, but you can see it right now at sciencemarriage.com. "press: here" will be right back.

♪♪ ♪♪ welcome back to "press: here." michael cohen, the one-time lawyer and fixer for donald trump was the latest to fall from the siren song of ai, a brief without having to do the work and look up the bothersome case except neither did he realize ai didn't look it up either. cohen submit an argument that contained made-up court cases and they passed that on to the judge. it's not the first time a lawyer has used and been fooled by ai. back in june, a group of young lawyers submitted a legal brief based on fake caseses to a court

in manhattan. he is an expert between the intersection and the law. colin is the legal director for malbec, it's a leading contract management company. you yourself, i assume, have not submit fake court cases to the courts based on ai, but i'm assuming you have at least played with ai. what do you use it for? >> so, yes, i have not submitted false cases and yes, i do use ai. i currently primarily use it for two different reasons. one is to summarize documents and two is to help me analyze documents to find notable things, i.e., things to be more careful, unusual language and mistakes or inconsistencies between documents and things like that that i can do myself, but would be time consuming, but ai can do so much better.

>> the young lawyers and the paralegals go to the war rooms and someone brings in a million banker boxes and they find that one thing, and ai is surprisingly good at finding that one thing whatever it happens to be. >> yes. yes. ai is definitely good at finding that one thing or drawing out analysis, trends, that type of thing because it lives on data. so the more you feed it, the better it behaves for that type of activity. >> for our viewers who are interested, we did a podcast with the company called casetext about its venture backing and it was sold to thompson reuters for something like $600 million and i'll put up a link to our podcast about that, and the case they made over at casetext was that ai could help level the playing field. i think they were saying jay kell e the founder said it was

close to 16,000 paralegals and lawyers researching for an entire day. if imagine if you're a one-person, two-person company and you're taking some big, oh, i don't know, california power company or something like that, to some degree it helps even the playing field. >> it absolutely does, and the reason it helps level the playing field is it basically allows for what has to be done quicker and faster meaning that it's less expensive to get the help you need and define the data and information you need and on top of that it makes information more accessible. instead of turning to a lawyer and i can find that answer for you much quicker and much cheaper it was for the lawyer and sending them what you need and let them e-mail you back and filling in with that e-mail and so on and so forth. >> that's what i was thinking

and people in law school who are alarmed by ai, but if we think of ai as making the law more accessible and there's a certain logic as you were saying that demand would go up and people who never would have considered consulting a lawyer might consider to consult a lawyer because there's more talent out there. >> yeah. i think for a long time the barrier to entry for legal services has been tossed for a let of people. there have been more people in need of legal services than those able to provide it at cost that are affordable for most in need of legal service which tend to be people who can't afford a white shoe law firm's thousands of dollars for what they think is a relatively simple legal request. now lawyers can provide that quicker and they don't even need to go to a lawyer.

they can find it themselves which definitely, i think, helps in some ways narrow the gdp between the delivery of legal services. >> do you, as a lawyer, need to disclose to a judge that you used ai. i'm sure you're checking to make sure the case law that ai is quoting is real, but do you disclose that or do you disclose that to the client? >> so certainly, in my role as a lawyer, if i were to be before court it would depend on the rules and it would come up with the rules and the 5g9 circuit came out with a proposal that i disclose the youth of args. whilea is perhaps not necessarily the right approach, at the same time there were accusations of -- and we also the rise of a ian awareness we

need to have with respect to using it. do we need to use it? it depends on the rules, but i think we'll reach a certain point where the assumption will be that we all are using it because if we're not, we're not performing our duties as leaders. >> and then finally, colin, give me just sort of a what's ahead for the legal profession. ai will obviously continue. are there change ahead that you or someone who studies technology are coming? >> so i think what's coming is we have to grow comfortable being uncomfortable because ai continues to grow in its power and influence, specifically with respect to law we will need to be way more comfortable with data, analysis and analytics than we are now because our clients will be expecting us to be given that they'll be

familiar with technology more so. >> that makes sense. colin levy, i appreciate you being with me. he is an expert on the enter section of technology and law. thank you and "press: here" will be back in just a minute. the first time i tried to quit vaping, i told myself, that it was like a mountain

that i had to climb over. and once i got to the other side, it would be clear. but i couldn't make it over. what really got me to quit was my little sister. i saw her vaping. so i was back in the mountain, but this time. she was up there with me. it's weird what you can do for others that... you won't do for yourself. ♪♪ ♪♪ that's our show for this week. my thanks to my guests and thank you for making us a part of your sunday morning.

♪♪ ♪♪

look mom, i found one. oh, yeah, you did. but we need an atm from our bank unless you want to spend a small fortune in fees. uh, no, thank you. banking with us means more fee-free atms than the two largest us banks combined. well, that would be convenient but there is no b-m-o here. ah, you can just call us bee-mo, and there is now. you know what else is convenient? mobile banking that makes it easy to track your goals and manage your money get out of town. but we... just got here. when a bank helps you get and stay ahead. that's the bmo effect. ♪ bmo ♪

damian trujillo: hello, and welcome to "comunidad del valle." i'm damian trujillo, and today in all-out effort to read on your "comunidad del valle." when a bank helps you get and stay ahead. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪