>> amy poehler is here. she is an actor and comedian.

she is much more. she was a cast member on saturday night live. now she is the star of parks and recreation. she has written a book called "yes, please." this cost them maybe $150,000. lease, young yes commit to the following. i hereby promise to purchase the book and to read it. -- >> i wish you could keep reading that. that sounds nice when you read that, charlie. i put my life savings in that ad. canif they think amy deliver.

here you are at the ripe old age of something deciding it is time to write my memoir. i have so much to tell. >> i find myself stuck in the middle of life. young children, parents still alive. really busy. career luckily flourishing and feeling juicy. ofave a street level respective, not a birds eye view. a lot of ebola read our people who have perspective looking back over a long life or young people on the verge, ready to step into the next thing. i was interested in -- >> what is it like in the middle of it? >> it is she we. chewy.lavorful -- it is it is flavorful. there is a lot of confusion over who you are and what you're supposed to do. >> you and i went to a dinner

with norman layer. were you writing the book then, or did that inspire you to write the book? , andwas writing it then norman is a friend of mine, and i would speak about our books, and i would kind of laughed. it felt silly to talk about my memoir. he encouraged me and reminded me everybody is voice is distinct. i approached it less as this is my life and more this is how i am feeling and thinking. it is personal stories, and my goal was to be funny and truthful, which is hard to do. >> really? >> to be truthful and funny at

the same time? i think so. >> do you think being funny helps you with being truthful? >> i think writing as yourself was an exercise for me i hadn't done, where i had to figure out of what i wanted to share and how i wanted to share it. i was so used to writing a character. parkswriting scripts for and recreation, the show i am on, and it was like water being able to write in someone else's voice. >> i had to make a speech. i reached out. >> he must have been delighted. was he too busy? >> he was prepared. he said to me -- >> i am going to nail him. in the midst of practicing for something.

he said, i have tina and amy writing jokes for me. gave us some good fingers for the golden globe, and he tried to return the favor. >> who came up with it? >> that was the head writer, and exisn't x weekend -- n weekend update writer. was kathryn bigelow tonight. i haven't been following the , but when it comes to torture i trust someone married to james cameron. i just saw, what was the name of the movie? i just saw gravity. george clooney would rather

float into space than spend five more minutes with a woman his own age. he is a lot of fun, that one. >> the gift of being able to be funny. did you have that, or did you learn that? >> thank you. when you say that i don't even know -- it feels funny to but i foundhat, myself liking to perform at an early age. doinge in the book i was a performance of "the wizard of was in fourth grade, but emotionally probably four. i got a laugh. i remember this feeling of intoy liking it, leaning it, and wanting it again and again. i think i had to learn how to be a better performer. >> you learn timing. >> you learn how to work with

other people, to go against -- our first natural instincts are not always great. you have to sift through the first layer. you go through your instinct. it's not always great. learn it is instinct, timing, and it is also a craft. >> i have gotten better at knowing how i can deliver a know i don't know if i what a great joke in general needs. to read something and know i can deliver this, or if i tweak this

, it will come better out of my mouth. that is what weekend update helps with, it is doing joke after joke and learning what is working or, i am going to fast and i need to personalize this moment. that kind of stuff is certainly learned. >> it also seemed the ability to feel the funny of it. you tell it with a certain upness. but the audience can't be nervous or worried for you. relaxed. thefeel performers feel like they are in control and everything is going to be ok, even when they are on the wire and the audience gets excited. >> yes, please. what does that mean? >> it means two things for me. one is saying yes has really

given me pretty much everything i have in my life. it is the idea of agreeing and seeing what happens next. yes to things, including being asked to read a book. please is added because as i have gotten older i realized you cannot do it alone. it is a privilege to be able to do that. and aa statement question. it is a title my kids can say. they like to say it around the house. >> was it hard to do this? >> it was. i read about it being difficult. i don't know if it is self-indulgent, but i enjoy peeking behind the curtain in

work and in art. i like the people who don't pretend things are easy. i find with a lot of writers people treat them like beautiful golden eggs. i like the effort. >>ike showing my work. didn't you say it was like a screwdriver trying to pick out it? howny time somebody asks the book is doing you immediately start to live. i would say it is like rushing dirt from a fossil. they realize it is like hacking nice i a freezer with a spent. >> did tina help you? >> she was much too busy to help with the writing, but i reread

her book. i read a lot of nora efron. >> when you read a great writer, you think, i can never do this. >> it is really discouraging. when you are writing a book, you don't want to read any other books. try to inspire myself in many different ways. >> you said something interesting to me. you were talking about improv and feeling the applause. what happened after that? did you say, i know what i want to do?

>> i came from a blue-collar family. i live in a suburb outside of boston, so i thought, that's fun. i like to show off and get attention. then i tucked it away and was a kid in school. learning and being just a suburban kid. i never acted when i was young. ien when i got to college, joined an improv group and started understanding this idea of ensemble and getting the show on time and all that fun stuff. me.as a gradual build for >> you weren't thinking of a professional life at that time? >> i was thinking of being a teacher.

>> it turns you on. >> it's truly dangerous. alchemy that is very dependent on the other and active listening. >> what do mean -- what do we mean by improvisation? . it was inspired. >> it is from nine to nine.

to hour.er from hour a lot of times improvisation is mes, and we do long ones. it is really fun. >> you say sketch comedy gave that. i assume you tell me what that means. >> for some people it is their looks. for some people it is their brains. for some lucky people it is both. , iwillingness to transform funneled that into writing.

i don't have to worry as much about being pretty, which is every young person's unfortunate burden. who am i in relation to the rest of them? i escape from my own face. >> no need to do that. you also said improvisation is like the military. you leave no man behind. >> remember the times you are in battle and you never forgive them. like pushing you under a truck or something else? >> if you are in a scene that isn't going well and you turned your partner and their eyes are like, where are we going? and you think, i love you

forever, and if you look at someone, and they are gone, do you think, where did you go? as easy as it has ever been? you are doing scripted shows. i get a little in my head because i am not as loose as i used to be. i have been doing a lot of written stuff in parks and recreation films. i improvise all the time.

you have to show them a good time. i like that feeling about not treating anything too precious and having a place where you can stop him. >> you said you knew you were going to be on saturday night live. you phrased it this way. did i know i was going to be on saturday night live? answer is yes. >> i kind of did. >> you develop a currency. the community knows someone has got it. you don't know when it is going to hit. >> i didn't want to sound like i immodest, or being but there was a voice inside of me that a leave guy could do it, that show and think, i think i am going to do that. that feels not so far away for me.

that being said, never in my wildest dreams could i imagine i would be doing what i am doing now. if i was asked to draw a blueprint of my life, it would have stopped in my improv group in college. to saturdaygot night live, you and tina, was that instant chemistry? >> we met in chicago. we met in the early 90's in a io,e called improv olympic, and we were on a team together. we had performed for many years before we were on snl. when i arrived in chicago it was steve colbert and amy ceder is. chris farley had just left. mike myers had just left. the comedians working there were really special. i felt like i was part of something special, even though i

was waiting tables. became that. >> it is conveniently removed in a way that allows people to not feel the l.a. pressure to get cherry picked into doing shows. you kind of do the work. it is a theater town. >> was there chemistry between you and tina? >> right away. we like each other, and we saw talent in each other. clicked in terms of timing? all of those things? >> for sure. we had been sitting or standing next to each other for many years. became part of your circle. >> we started as n.l. together. >> he was a writer? >> he was a cast member. it was twot show, weeks after september 11 in

2001. it was a strange time to start a on a current comedy show. we kind of dug in, and we were figuring out where the bathrooms were together. we were getting the lay of the land. people were saying comedy was dead and we would never laugh again. of course we did. >> what did you come away with? confidence, experience? >> saturday night live is like comedy camp. you learn how to write, produce, think on your feet, get used to live television, not get too precious about your jokes. >> not be too precious? be willing to -- >> cut yourself.

work with different writers. let's say your show is three minutes over. you have to deliver a 21 minute episode. you are three minutes over and you say, this could go and this could go. people are like, i think that's funny. you are like, at this point everything is funny. that is what snl gets you used to. we call it, killing your babies. your perfect joke has to go. there isn't time. >> wended parks and recreation, up? >> that happened in 2008. are finishing our seventh season. that started in 2000 and eight. my son was born. we had gone off to work and search the american reboot of the office. he called me and said, i have this show.ea of

you're going to love the way we shoot. it is really fun and lose. script -- hethe said, read the scripts. see if you like it. like you read the scripts? >> i thought, i have got to do that. >> this is when leslie is answering a phone call. >> leslie knope. stop right there. .luoride protects your teeth he is an idiot, and if you believe it, so are you. >> you talk to that person like i talk to you. >> what are they going to do? kick me out of office. there are no consequences to my actions. nothing bad can happen to me. i am like a white male senator. [rings] fluoride is going into the water

. hello, mom. because all it does is prevent cavities. i expected more from you. been soas the show successful? is it the conceit of the show? >> i think people grew to care and love the characters. i think they wanted to see them every week. we always talked and that shows we love i always loved characters you could imagine on the weekends. i think it is populated by beautiful weirdos. i think the characters are people we wanted to check in.

it is about a character who is not very cool. >> tell me about this thing called smart girls at the party. you were talking at an earlier moment. it's a big idea that came from a small idea. they treated as seriously as a charlie rose style show. i sat with young girls in the studio and asked questions about a sister andeing what it's like to be alive. and what are you curious. is it is starting

to grow. are starting programming that is a celebration of being yourself. of alls an anticipation the crap that comes with it. >> good for you. the book is called "yes, please." surgeon, a public researcher, and a harvard professor. he has been a staff writer since 1998. it is called, being mortal. medicine, and what matters in the end. what is your schedule -- one book every three or four years?

you are still operating? >> i am still doing 120 cases a year. thate a research institute is help system innovation. my love is still what i get to do by observing carefully. >> it is analyzing and writing in a series of ways. >> i often am writing about things that confuse me. why are health care costs the way we -- the way they are? why are we mismanaging what happens to them? the writing has been my way of exploring. it ifs me an excuse -- it gives call people up.sa

>> how do most people think about that? >> we don't like to think about it much at all. byre is this great study woman at stanford. she is a psychology professor. she put pagers on people and track them over years of their life, more than 20 years. her team would page them in record what their desires and motivations and fears were over time. if you arehe found -- let's say death .ou are 20 we act like we are going to live forever. it is about achieving things and getting more stuff. when we become aware we might have a limited time on this earth, we suddenly care about family, about being connected to people we love.

we tighten it in. that change is pretty dramatic. it ends up, at the same time you have people who are happier as they get older. more perspective and getting some connection to people they want to be connected with and not trying to chase the next dating. >> at the same time there is this argument about people who have this certain proximity. out thein to seek scientific means we have now to prolong life. >> why not? medicine is giving

incredible capabilities. it can be as simple as they replaced a knee replacement that adds 10 years of mobility and made a huge difference in people's life. on the other hand, i did a study with my team. we found the most likely week you're going to have surgery in your life is the week before you die. the most likely day is the day before you die. that is when it adds the least value to your life. if anything, we find that aggressive treatments when the likelihood of benefit has become really tiny, you are getting all the harm, all the pain, all the suffering.

>> there are two fundamental points. the first fundamental point is people have priorities in their life besides just living longer. whether my brain works or whether i get to spend time with my dog or whether i get to the home instead of in the hospital. but whether i am in pain or not. >> the second fundamental thing is the most reliable way to find out what people's priorities are is to ask them. we don't ask them. less than a third of patients in the cancer trial have looked at people who had on average four months to live. a third of doctors asked, what are your fears and goals? the ones who did have that conversation had less suffering.

>> if you have that conversation you suffer less. >> people often choose. they will stop chemotherapy earlier. they will end up spending less time in the hospital. they will start hospice sooner. if they tended to live 25% longer by reaching that decision. when death isl coming within 48 hours or 52 hours? >> there is always uncertainty. i tell the story of my father. my father was diagnosed with brain cancer in his brainstem and spinal cord. i had seen the way i had taken care of my patients. he had seen the way he had taken care of his patients. >> how old was he? >> right around 70. it was an incurable tumor. i asked those questions about,

what are your priorities? what is the understanding of your condition? he said, i know i am going to when. whatdon't know are your worries for the future? he said, i fear this is going to that hequadriplegic. would be in terrible pain. what are your goals if time becomes short? to keep doing work that makes a difference. connected. stay gore --off on undergoing surgery as long as he could build his surgery himself.

it made his life worse. when chemotherapy was taking away some of those priorities, he actually stopped the chemotherapy and live longer than we thought he might. why do you think he might? >> when he stopped some of the medications, the side effects were less. when we had a hospice nurse who focused every day on what do we need to have the best possible day today, let's worry about your day today, what he ended up identifying with was that he was falling several times. each fall was making sure he would be in bed for two or three days and get weaker or weaker. >> why do old people fall? no sense of allen's? >> you lose some sensation in you also sometimes can take care of your feet.

i saw this patient in their 80's who said, surely the most important thing is the fact she chestone not till and her x-ray, and that could be really dangerous. look at her feet. she has got calluses. when sheobbling walked. she has medications that are going to make her dizzy and dehydrated. no one is taking care of her feet. her a yearn on later. she hadn't had any falls. therefore she didn't die in six months. we don't teach that. ask the average doctor what are the three most important things to keep someone at risk of falling from falling. they couldn't tell you. >> is there an argument for putting someone in a nursing

home or not? >> yes, we all reach a point in our lives if we are able to avoid what my father faced with a sudden catastrophic cancer, that we will become frail and begin to need help. it might be because we cannot remember everything. disabled.physically the argument against these oures, they have inherited medical values. those are health, safety, and survival come first. when we live in our own home, we make choices all the time that well-being and life is bigger than just surviving and being safe. my wife's grandmother was admitted to a nursing home because she was having falls. theye nursing home wouldn't respect her privacy. . sheould have her roommate

would it get to stay connected to the church she was part of. they didn't make it possible to see the friends she would have. suddenly she had what i read about is called the three plagues. boredom, loneliness, and helplessness. she had no purpose, and she was miserable. places that let people make choices, even ones that are supposedly safe, like, i want to have a drink. an alzheimer's patient only on peer eight foods. what is the biggest complaint -- on pureed foods. what is the biggest complaint? that they won't eat improper food. i have read they are hoarding cookies. let them have the cookie. they won't live long. the studies show that giving people more purpose in their

lives, they live longer. >> it deems to me the essence is to ask people what they want and what they need and what makes them happy. that is the crucial question. areto understand where they because it is their life. it's hard. >> when i have to ask my father what he really cares about, he wouldwhat outcome for you not be acceptable? of? are you afraid those are tough conversations. would he continue to do surgery when his left hand got paralyzed? was, youl conversation have to give the scalpel. you cannot operate anymore. >> what is interesting is this thing about my mother. my father died instantaneously

when i was away. he was exercising and collapsed of a heart attack and is doubly died. -- instantly died. somother had lung cancer, they made the diagnosis. you're the end i flew down to north carolina -- near the end i flew to north carolina. do you wantaying, to have a conversation? i realized, in her own mind, she just wasn't there. i said, what would you like? we had the conversation like you are suggesting. >> you know the facts. how are you going to have that

conversation. i found families and clinicians that are good at these have three words they use. like,ally give the facts you have a 90% chance of dying in the next five days. time may be your what people want is the meaning behind the data. that is what we have learned not to do effectively. all these you decide things i fear are here. i am lonely. i have no purpose. all these things that you used to do, everything that interest me. my wife is deceased. my children have grown the way. -- away.

i cannot move. the person says, because of those things, i am ready to die. time.ay that all the >> and we argue we have all these reasons to live. you can say, that's ok. and there are possibilities to change that. i describe an experiment in the nursing home in upstate new york alle they decided to give the people who lived in the nursing home and let them have their own pet, not bring a dog who happens to walk through, their own pet. it could be a couple of parakeets, cats, dogs. the fascinating thing is dealing with the regulation of, you cannot have birds. it is unsafe. they overcame that. there was a man who lost his wife.

he got a broken hip and a car crash. he was depressed, nothing to live for. a pair of birds. you have to help take care of these birds. >> they need you. >> having a chance to take care of these birds, he ignored them. he started noticing one of them was having trouble and reported it to the nurse. after that he accompanied the nurse on rounds to be able to feed the other animals. within three months he was returning back to function enough that he went home. >> the book is called the a mortal. what matters is being able to ask a question and express your own wishes and other things. back in a moment. stay with us.

>> the president of the center for justice. he served as the speech writer

for bill clinton from 1999. it is called the second amendment biography. i am pleased to have michael waldman back. >> we would be in a lot clearer place if the sentence was clearer. it is only 27 words. it is a militia necessary for the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. we have been wrestling with what that means ever since. >> give me the interpretation. debating gun laws

and gun safety. we have hadrst time that debate with the second amendment on the tip of everybody's tongues. the supreme court never ruled the second amendment recognizes an individual right to gun ownership until 2000 and eight. that was the case justice scalia wrote. it said what it really recognizes is an individual's to be in the home. actually what the second amendment was saying was less individual and more about society. it was more about militias. >> let's talk about it. oh well regulated militia being necessary to the security of the framework.

out for the framers that was really important. those militias were at the heart policy. every adult white male was in the militia for their entire adult life. they were required by law to own a gun and keep the military weapon at home. was the constitution debated, they thought those were really important as a bulwark against totalitarianism. they were worried the new central federal government was going to be like that. they wanted to protect those. that was the motivating force. >> being necessary for the security of a free state and the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. >> live from pier three in san

shall not be infringed. >> bear arms principally had a military meaning. in a days we aren't all militia. the country has evolved. it turns out when you look at the second amendment, the way we understand it is not the product of some pristine text, but always the result of rough-and-tumble of political advocacy and public argument. understood it differently. it is the case that until recently the experts didn't inc. the second amendment represented an individual right to government. he said the idea the second -- recognizeommend

an individual right he said was a fraud on the american people. that seems like ancient days. >> tell me about the heller decision. in 2008.r decision was it was written by justice scalia. it struck down a law that made it hard to have a handgun in your home. a band.y close to justice scalia said he was only going to follow original intent. this was the only legitimate way to understand the constitution was to ask what it meant at the framers, two people at the time. scalia says this opinion was the vindication of original was him. i went back and looked at the actual records of the debate over the second amendment, and it told a surprising and different story. you can look at james madison's from the constitutional

convention. the records of the ratification convention with a few exceptions or the debate at the u.s. house of representatives at the floor, and there is not a word about having a gun for self protection or hunting, all the things we think about. it was all this question about the militia. madison's original proposal had a conscientious objector clause. had religious scruples about bearing arms you don't have to do the service. >> if you look at the original intent you will discover that they meant for someone to be able to have a gun in their own home. that is a constitutional right. they never discussed the idea. had to donversation with militias. >> that's right.

it is important to be clear there were plenty of guns in colonial america, in the period.onary they had guns. early americans had the right to defend themselves, but there were also gun laws. gun safety and gun control laws. at the time of the bill of rights, it was illegal to have a loaded weapon in your home in boston because they blew up. the gunpowder was very dangerous. from the beginning there was a sense of individual rights and collective societal responsibility. don't think the evidence suggests that they were writing into the constitution. but what is the debate today? >> what changed is the role of the rifle association.

pivoted sharply and refocused as arguing the second amendment said an individual right that any infringement on the second was trampling on freedom. they waged a classic thirty-year constitutional campaign. they move public opinion. of course it refers to an individual right. that is a common view. only eventually did they go to court. it felt like a ripe apple from the tree. it wasn't very controversial.

you have to win in the court of public opinion before the court of law. >> they won in the court of public opinion? >> they won in the court of public opinion and then the law. >> you do the election, and then you change. >> we backed candidates. they backed scholars. change theought to position of the justice department, which over many years republicans and democrats had said this wasn't an individual right. this kind of broad public constitutional argument, if you think about it, it's how we got civil rights. it's how the fight over voting rights and campaign finance is happening, and it's the way we look at the second amendment changed. it's a classic story of a campaign for change. >> how would the debate be played out in terms of the second amendment?

ask it's really interesting. the opinion was very dramatic. it was the first time it was an individual right. it was the original intent, but consequences have been less romantic than people expect. the court said if you strip away all the historical trappings of what scalia wrote, it was like, -- it said, yes, it is an individual right. it didn't say what the limitations were, but there could be limitations. that is up to the rest of us. there have been dozens of cases where people challenge existing gun laws since 2000 and eight, and overwhelmingly the courts have upheld the laws. right, butdividual there are rights society has also. we have a compelling public interest in strong gun laws.

it seemedn out while like an earthquake this really ratifies the common sense approach a lot of americans have, which is they think they ought to be able to have a gun, but they also think there ought to be rules. >> it is a biography of the second amendment. take you for joining us. see you next time. for joining us. ♪

>> with all due respect to our colleague, josé canseco, tonight we will keep the safety firmly in place. tonight, it is our game show edition. the demoractic surrogate play the weakest link and mark against plays weakest link and jeb bush tries his hand at "what's my line." less likely to do the democrats chances of keeping control of the senate are better than the conventi