faq so much from the bottom of my heart. today is day nine of the book tour. we have been to new york and toronto and the d.c. tomorrow we have portland, seattle, olympia, boston and denver. and we're continually adding new places. so if you have friends in other places, to some of the look on our website. find that some of the other places that we are going tour. . .

>> thank you so much. [applause] this tour has been great largely because every rego

we have a huge gathering this is a great example especially of the power to get people together and communities that care about these issues. we're getting great media we are thrilled about this today i was on the list of 35 best sellers of "the new york times" and rahall big gets better. that is not bad for a book about stop. [laughter] i am not actually going to read from the book but you can do that years of fd by a top paper coelho if you buy your book from local bookstore will cost $28 more than from amazon but it creates the jobs and keeps money in local communities and has a space to gather force base is like this but buying a book online while it is better than not buying

it at all does not give the value to a committee that the value from a local bookstore does. [applause] instead of actually reading quickly what is in the book will share a story in the film which i hope to have seen i went to really believe fast going through their areas of that is the complete that i left something out by saying it is a 20 minute cartoon i talk fast but not that bass. a lot of the stuff that may left out is in the book i did not write this in a vacuum we received 80,000 e-mails from people asking for more information so i did my best to provide information on the resources and information that people wanted. there are these little road signs the you can flip

through the book there are examples of how we have solutions or make products about toxic chemicals or destroy the plan it. there's a lot of signs of hope there is a cartoon of the holding a sign that says it hope. one hilarious traders said were not for those signs of hope you might put a bullet to his head halfway through but it is full of signs of hope. people ask me what volumes so optimistic in spite of a grim data because everywhere we go that people are doing it right now. it is not just eco- pie in the sky paccar related spending over a decade traveling around the road visiting the factories and

the jobs were the stuff is dumped and shared a lot of personal stories of visiting seamstresses ended disney pajamas in haiti or the world's largest chemical industrial disaster or all over the world but some bank that is in the book how i came to make "the story of stuff" i want to show that year because there are some important take-home lessons for those of us that are looking to make changes at so many people who are making two of changes of those of you who know me for about 20 years i have been really interested in garbage. my friends, and many of you who know me to have humored me i was largely ignored. my friend said one good thing about being ignored

for 20 years you're really good at what you have to say. during these 20 years that deeper and deeper into my expiration of where our stuff comes from and where it go spurred if i was fascinated and developed a neurosis. i could not turn it off so my picked up anything yay cellphone or toothbrush or a pair of shoes sold by flips through my face. that is why i stumble along 1/2 to go into the crate and barrel outlet you may think i am stoned but i am not. the oilfields and the chemical factories in malaysia, mexico, i cannot turn it off. if you're going to have a neurosis it is a fascinating process two haft. are really recommended but sometimes the deeper i got

into it, i got lonelier because with might increasingly at expertise there was less able to talk to other people about it because i had so much jargon or insight so i had a real breakthrough at a workshop that was run by the rockwood leadership training program that also happens to be based in berkeley. it is an incredible leadership training anybody who wants to make a change in the robot environment for help with any issue really recommend you look up the rockwell leadership training program it is great. i did the yearlong program. a group of 20 berry experience in diverse people. the head of the largest gay rights group, the head of moveon.org, it economic justice issues, and one of the things we're supposed to

do is to talk about our purpose. we're given each other permission to give feedback and retract about our purpose. and me being a total material speak i set my purpose is to bring about a paradigm shift in our relationship to materials and went into this thing of cardis -- carbon sequestration and parts her million and when i was done was confident having said this for 20 years, the head of move on raised his hand will be forever grateful and he said i have no idea what you just said. [laughter] and there was a symbol if you agreed and though whole entire room did it and they said i rated very high on, but since. we are very sure that you know, what you said that we

could not understand one word of it. [laughter] and eli said i did even know what a material is. i said it is what you are holding, is sitting on and he said actually i am sitting in a chair. i was stunned. i say is that what your brain does? they said yes face and what does yours do? it is wood or mahogany or malaysia or indonesia it looks like in has the design for the environment and they said you need to get out a little bit more. [laughter] and they gave me some important feedback that changed our i communicate as an activist. because i am assuming you are all activist and want to make up plays better as well they said i was using way too much jargon and when i

use words that they did not know they try to find a place in their brain four that were then i was on to the next thing but i think a part of me thought that i was dumbing down or being patronizing but i realize that there is so much environmental and economic information out there by some experts and there is so much jargon it serves to exclude people from participating in a conversation. they said i was starting of conversation 20 years into a. we haven't been going to factories or dumps for 20 years. it reminded me of the famous statement of talk to people where they are at not at over you are at. where my center of gravity and talk from my heart. that i was full of parts per

million and statistics but there was no story or human s and in some level i was making a mistake milan and environmentalist make that we think the truth will set us free but opponents said us three we would be free because we have the truth and reno the science. and the science of the damage of the endocrine disorders and what we are really missing is organizing and communication that will set us free. talking hard about the goals of my communication is some subconscious of me giving this talk my goal was to impress them a wanted them to think i was smart and i knew all of this information. but unless you are applying for a tenure track academic job that is not the right approach as much better to

make a connection you don't have to tell somebody everything you have thought of with your choice but to make a connection you can go and longer term. it was a fascinating experience because over the year that the four times the group met in each side we were invited to practice communicating about our work and it was incredible. we don't give each other authentic feedback and people that we cannot sell correct without the back to rethink anybody told me is that i talk too fast. nobody told me i am unintelligible or inspiring. no wonder people have not been listening all of these years. so we practice talking about it on the final time because they kept saying make it more interesting the third

time they said we give up you will never learn to talk about these issues in a way of regular people want to talk to you. i get to the award for most improved. [laughter] first said there is extraction, production and ran through the story of stuff off of the top of my head. i was kind of joking and a day loved it and they said keep working on this proposal they invited me to speak at another conference and over the next two years i gave that talk live dozens of times. it was an incredible experience because absent that rockwood feedback i never would have stood there and told jokes and i was getting through to people in a way i never could have when i was being made scientific want it was a

useful experience for by finally gave the talks so many times i thought will throw up if i a give this talk again. so i decided to make a film. every time somebody would raise their hand and say do have a film on this? i said the no -- no but i will let you know, . i had a friend who may actually be here fell to make giving the talk live we took it to free range studios another berkeley jump. fabulous story curlers there were so planning at first is a milan to make the movie about how materials move to the economy. [laughter] they said that is not about the economy that is a lot more so they can up with a bunch of ideas for the we were funding proposals we thought success would be

50,000 people we would be happy. we got that in four hours. we put that up on the internet for free. we were lucky i wrote to those people and second i have some money so they pigeon like crazy so we do not need to recruit money switched to put on the internet for free so we told people to run with it. it has been on national television, half a dozen times, as translated into other languages, a curriculum based, puppet theater in pakistan and songs and that was amazing december 2007 may have now topped eight william people in 220 countries and territories. [applause] it has been amazing we can go on google analytics there is a docked everywhere somebody has seen it.

it is aware except for a couple of countries in the center of africa is truly amazing. the response has added to my hope and optimism the film took the temperature of the public and we found out there are millions of people. it is not just berkeley it is lots and lots of people want to see our society on a different path. they're captive to a growing disease of the past the country is going in and fled with the mails from people who said i knew that i just did not know how to say it but i knew a piece of a work on worker safety or forest but i did not understood how it fits into the whole system we get amazingly diverse be back. my favorite day is when i got an e-mail from a fourth

grader in minnesota and she said the film was totally awesome then 6 inches of flashing smile the faces and then one from the economics professor who is using it and his post economics graduate class is an says there is it encloses the notion into a bowl. we rely on getting the word out of their incredible network of friends and allies and activist groups and the media has been fascinating in terms of the diversity. rockwell said all was not bringing on trade points of poor people who were not already in the conversation. but it worked. resubmit was profiled in a radical filipino and tidy capitalist journal and and martha stewart in the same month. [laughter] so while i am enormously

encourage, there is one piece of the response that does worry me. igo all-around the country and showing the film of stuff and as you know, it lays out a pretty broad and pretty systemic problem. not like a little problem i am pointing to. i cannot tell you how often in public events and churches all over somebody raises their hand and says what can buy by different made to solve this problem? or people ask what can i do? i like to see what they are thinking and i say what can you think of doing corrects i push and push and they stay stuck in this consumer part of our cells. rican ride a bike or recycle or stop using bottled water i can do this as an individual or consumer. i definitely think we should

do those things and that is great but that does not of the category of making systemic change that is like the securities as you grow up to become a responsible adult but they don't take the place of political action. we have come to see that there are different parts and as a consumer parts and a citizen part, the consumer part is spoken to and validated and nurtured from day one and anybody in here knows from day one it is why our kids and grown-ups can recognize different sodas and corporate logos and but you are our city council members are? the consumer part is over developed but this is some park has atrophied. the community part the idea and instead of saying what can i buy differently why

not say what can we collectively do to solve the problem at its root? that is what it will take when people say what can i buy differently? i say this solutions that we need are not for sale at the store even at wholefoods. of there and our community is in not civil cited society by a pink gauging that activism so people really ask me i don't care what they do reduce something too really engage that activist muscle 46% of people in the united states do not know their next-door neighbors names. invite them over for dinner i told my daughter a statistic that most people in united states have people over three nights before the entire year. she said the main three nights that they don't.

[laughter] but that is how we need to shift the balance of power but also because it is more fun. i have been doing a bunch of reading about the emerging science of happiness and it turns out the things that make us most happy across cultures, at age groups come income brackets is not the new flat screen television it is the quality of our social relationships. around a shared goal and they have a sense of meaning beyond yourself. those are the top three and every study people have looked at once the basic needs are met to and after point* wars stuff does not make us happy and undermines our happiness because we're working i am shopping and spending so much time preparing and upgrading and untangling that we take that

time away from engaging in the civil society. i see that is great because how lucky we are that the one thing that we most need to being gauged civil society is also the thing that makes us most happy. in negative they will be more fun as we engage in to the community. that is the one thing that worries me the most and that is what i want to ask us in berkeley that if we cannot really gauge here in berkeley then how can we possibly call on people elsewhere to do that? we have long tradition of citizen activism that we live on our reputation i think it is time to get back involved with local planning and democratic and governance states so we can turn berkeley around. [applause]

one final thought that i will take questions and answers. people ask me do i think we will change your be able to change? where we are no global use a 1.5 planets worth of resources. was giving a talk and they're debating anything over one is a problem. the network says reusing 1.5 planets a fourth of resources they mark the day each year when we have used that worth years of biological issues last year was september 25 and each year it goes earlier and earlier and that is not a good trajectory. and people ask me what are we going to change? we're definitely going to use. you cannot use 1.5 indefinitely but the question is not s but have? will be changed by design or

will we change by default? the right it will be hard work and things will look a lot different for our children and grandchildren but if we change by design and proactive and invest in solutions and intentional and intelligent and compassionate it will be a lot better than if we dig in our heels and say the american way of life is not negotiable as a recent president has said repeatedly. we will change because we're butting up against the ecological movements but if we change by default it will be violent and a lot worse. yes it is up to us that who decides to will change by design or default. give this book to libraries, schools, the number one call is to be a gay -- regains the citizen muscle to get the country

back on track. thank you so much. [applause] >> are there any middle schools are high schools taking this on as subject matter or curriculum? >> yes. it is amazing. when i was making the film in has the word you suck and they said it take that out because the schools will not show that. it is an incredible hit spread all over the role we have had hundreds and hundreds of teachers write to us asking for more information and we are partnering with a fabulous group and seattle called facing the future if there's any educators' in the crowd it is an organization that makes educational curriculum of types of sustainable and justice issues we're working with them to make a

curriculum but they can show the film and use the book and with a whole range of interactive exercises explore the issues. it is being used in some many schools that it got the attention of glenn beck and fox news. "the new york times" reporter who was right thing about what teachers are using for educational stuff on environmental and a lot of them said we're not having a lot of options so we use "the story of stuff" and they said you were you? it was on the front page of "the new york times" so within days it was on fox news just attacking us for saying we're terrorizing children and turning them into socialist and undermining the very idea is of asking them to be $0.7 instead of shoppers but the

highlight is when glad that have the sustainment board were he slapped magnets and he said do you know, what "the story of stuff" is about? social justice. [laughter] that is right. a lot of schools. >> you have nailed my evacuees feel i have to think about this because my self-absorbed wall is the corporate people and i have to find out your secret and how to convey that's because to me that is that community of where we work we spend all of our time there and how we work and who we empower with the work and one point* of it the first woman to win the nobel prize in economics and based on common pool resources and discovered when come the-- committees have access

to resources over time they are better to make environmental decisions which. >> addressing that tragedy and very. >> because there are design parameters that are democratic mechanisms of debating to make sure free riders are not over harvesting and community mechanisms of self governance. >> liv anybody has an issue of what you are passionate not getting 8 million dues as a practice taking and giving answers to any audience and give feedback-- a feedback otherwise your friends will say what is great. you really need to know what is great. i went and gave that talks who live to a lot of different organizations i purposely went to diverse ones and tell me what worked

and what didn't. for the book i send messengers to our viewers and said what do really want to hear? solicit feedback. >> what do you thinking of a dichotomy of people wanting to invest in their own communities and ran redo connect with other people we want to focus on what is in front of us usually and that will live in a globalized economy they are very invisible what is your experience in thinking how you get people to focus on things that are far away from people better in their immediate environment? >> i want people to get started with what excites them. for me it is garbage. [laughter] i think if you don't love it it will be a chore so rather than figure out the most tj place find what turns people on. for some people it is

working on a community garden or international trade of lined what is fun. as research involving and exercising the citizen muscle, mike competency is it will be more fun and once yocan get on that they will do more and more. there is not system like that the utility the global system pretty darn fast. but encourage people to start with whenever part turns them on because it will be so much more fun. of our huge pervasive problem there are some new places to start. we don't have to do something boring. start with whatever they want to do. come on and. >> many of us were pleased to see you on "the colbert report" last week. [applause] when you first came out the

first thing is that you were very well groomed. >> you want to know where my hair was done? [laughter] using a teachable movement with the makeup crew? >> to know how many people i told about the make up this week? the make of they put on you before tv is absolutely horrible so i told every single one of them about the database which i will tell all of you about. skin deep is a database that was since tens of thousands of products sunscreen and toothpaste and everything and list what toxic chemicals are in it and that is great when you're in the individual consumer part to make a healthy household but the thing to do is to contact the campaign for safe products because we will never win or make the

planet safe and healthy by going individual by individual and explaining why they should always make the right choice. there is not enough time. it will never work. if you're interested in a campaign for safe cosmetics please talk to stacy. [applause] safe cosmetics' stock soared sometimes people think toxic chemicals is a price of progress or a compromise process and that is just not true. look at your up. europe has taken a whole range of toxic chemicals out of their cosmetics point* at the company's year said they cannot do it. do they think we don't have internet and cannot find out? one campaign is have a why not here campaign? if you can get the toxins out of our lipstick been

europe why not here? if you can get the carcinogens out then why not here? i educate every make a part is but it is not to educate everybody but to get those toxic chemicals out of our products to get out of our body. [applause] >> you and i spoke this morning on the radio. my background includes working in the white house and the white house science office. including ralph nader when i was young. you are a beautiful person. i am sure everybody in this room agrees. [applause] with or without makeup. [laughter] but significantly i know the trends and the trend for this planet and our national society are in a serious adverse jeopardy. i most applaud your order

and the approach you take to make the difference which all of us of conscience and inform us do. but there are so many fellow americans who want to remain oblivious to the reality. berkeley could establish itself and i drove up here from santa cruz to be here because i thought it was worth the gasoline. that is the ethical choice and we have ethical households races and as a community. are like to be berkeley and santa cruz to say we need and we are superior and live more ethical than and shouldn't that be the attacked to castigate the glenn beck approach in addition to have the political reforms that will allow that? my background in washington deals with regulatory agencies.

the corruption of the fda and epa under bush/cheney and it still continues. the fact that our congress, both parties have sold out to corporate interests. both parties. we have to have a significant change to lead us reflect on reality and do we still want to have a country that is for the people and by the people instead of wall street? do you think we should be the more vigorous and perhaps more disruptive as well as say i am more ethical than my neighbor because compare my footprint to rush them bought for example, precocious that be done against focusing on reality? >> i am all for getting the corporation's out of politics and also about being vigorous and disruptive totally.

i am not for the ethical superiority. i believe the problems that we face in terms of how we live right now are structural rather than individuals. it is not individuals that are choosing to put into a grin receptors of baby bottles it was dow chemical it was an individual's decided to rip up the l.a. tracks and force people to drive individual cars. some people in making individual companies the heads of doubt and exxon but our individual choices are not. the structure right now is set up to facilitate us acting in less environmental a spread of 312 focus on our individual behavior and superiority was to get better and better. it is exhausting, and a drag and for so many people

making the right environmental choice is harder and more expensive and takes longer. i don't think we should blame those who should make those choices on the entire system is pushing them toward making those choices practice it is not they're fault. [applause] so rather than blame them let's change the structure so doing the right thing becomes the new default option you have to go out of your way and spend more money to mood to the wrong thing than the mainstream option is living as if we have one planet monda ith the sustainability and justice and the kind of decisions going into that now are not yours and mine san the neighbors it is the heads of the big companies that make electronics

designs to last eight months before you have to check them. [applaue >> because i talk about garbage nonstop for 20 years. when nobody listens for 20 years to get very good at what you have to say. >> that don't know why most of the questions and comments are coming from men? [laughter] having said that, one of the obvious inference is is the solution to many of the problems is not only how to change the production of things and stuff and make them less toxic and race all but to diminish the quantity of stuff that is being produced. in a word in which we do need to create more jobs these outcomes in should be

more stuff but that will be needed in parts of the world and a committees that are way below with a standard of leavitt -- living. and so where thoughts on how to deal with this problem depending on your viewpoint in spite of population growth third despite population growth and at the same time we have over consumption in a sense that is pushing not only that consumers here but every where? and those who don't have much it will be very difficult or is that in your next looked? >> there will never be another book. [laughter]

>> it is very easy for us to say the answer is to consume less than it is important that for a lot of people of the answer is to consume more half of the world's population lives on less than the scoff coffee. 2.5. 1 billion people on the people on the plan are chronically hungry. for a huge number of people the answer is to consume more just to me to a level of basic human decency. that means the onus is on us even more to scale back because you disproportionately use resources we have 5% of the population but use 30% of the resources and as other countries increase their material base we have a choice of saying too bad for you because we're wider and

we have guns and we were here first and it is like apartheid which is a gross or we are willing to extra scale back or extra power down to regain balance in our life health and spiritually and make room at the table. it is really important. the answer is not less for everybody but definitely more. that is right we are also using too much stuff but three main problems is we used to much, much too toxic stuff and not sharing it 12. but a good thing is there is easy solutions to all of that we can do things differently there is no reason we have to have this enormously wasteful toxic base we can do things differently lot of people have last if we scale back production what happens to all of those workers?

right now in the united states we are the most overworked society in the world we work longer hours than any other industrialized country except maybe south to really average worker works 300 hours more than the average western european worker. 46% of people did not take off one week vacation. we are overworked and exhausted and we have 10% unemployment. just sheer the workload have a little more the sure and shell out but the number one obstacle? health care. because health insurance is tied to full-time employment. and there is a steady a couple years ago two-thirds of the people would be happy to work less and earn less and consume less but they can't because they will lose

health care. sell in "the story of stuff" i list big-ticket items we can change like saving the forests and getting rid of pvc but the bigger ticket changes and that is that we need to choose time overstuffed part of there's a bunch of structural optical -- obstacles and that is linking health care with full-time insurance. health care might not be on the radar screen of environmentalists but if you want to cover level of consumption we need to stop linking health care with full-time employment. [applause] >> there is something you brought up that i would really, really compel people to hear again that is working collaborative 1/8 -- collaborative the. we know we are one planet, let's live that way

and take that into ourselves and understand there is no separation of any of us. we are all in this together. by working collaborative the i don't just mean community gardens and working in your little community. there are so many people that want to make it change and understand it needs to be made and how to rework collaborative with our neighbor when we are so dispersed blacks basically the internet and the media we use the tools we have. there is so much against corporations we could completely change them and make them representitive of the people. corporations are accountable to the people that are their members. we don't have to keep it as it is part of a

corporation's have a pretty interesting structure. if the people would recognize that they have the power to craft their world, a craft our world because there is no separation provide just want to emphasize the more we build alliances, a big or little but really start thinking about how we can work together in our homes and neighborhoods cities combinations, to its current world because it has to happen right now. it cannot wait until tomorrow to do it. >> take out your cellphones and look at your cellphone. take them out and look at them. begin to develop the muscle of thinking about where this came from the kids in the congo to mind the cold the workers in the pvc factory in my 10 gotten cancer or

that it is loaded with heavy metals and and a grant receptors if you did not buy it in europe because they have different legislation and while you have it text stuff to the number 88769 you'll be automatically signed up on the list to find out when we have new films we have a story coming out next week about bottled water and updates about new films corporations, credit cards, subsidies and other gatherings and defense and all of the "the story of stuff" project is doing so text the word stuff to the number 88769 and then you can enjoy our mailing list and stay in touch. thank you very much. [applause]

>> host: we are here at the conservative political action conference talking to jerry doyle. >> guest: the title of the book is "have you seen my

country lately?" and if you have i think a lot of people would like to go back there. when i was writing it was hard to keep up with everything as fast as it was changing. we hear about change but after a certain point* people say the slowdown. the book and a lot of on talk radio is we are like the speed bumps just get government to slowdown i don't care if it is republicans or democrats. but just low down and let us know what you are doing and the unintended consequences. >> host: do the right to for your radio audience or a different audience? >> it is the book audience and what we do we're in the business of information and we have the luxury of spending our day to go through the trivia and the

tidbits in most people don't. they're stuck on a freeway. so we have an opportunity to take all of misinformation and compress it into a book or a three hour radio show or what you do in that c-span and our job is to give it to them. here is what i saw. what do you think? when i was writing the book it was a catharsis of you look at this mosh pit of political insanity and do say where is the middle? that is just a way for people to take a look at what we do every day may be in at 240 pages to get an idea of what is going on. >> host: you are an actor as well so how did you get from acting to political influence and a radio show? >> guest: a the babylon five tv show the director who is a huge

science-fiction fan contacted me through another radio host to put my series back on the air and talking about talk radio price of love it and i listen all the time. he said day you ever think about it i said no. then he gave me a fill in a slot on a saturday night and he said three hours you can talk to america and i said okay. i will do this and i got to the studio, a two hours ahead of time. i am just waiting and i did my first 12 minutes and i looked at the clock in front of me and i had two hours 40 minutes left and i had to say everything i ever wanted to say and i started to panic and he backed me off and said okay. you just did five days of radio you might want to slowdown and expand.

i was done and i was back in bed in the fetal position first but the cold from a litter. hold me. i loved it. when i was an actor you have to have a therapist so i used to talk to a stranger about my problems and pay them every hour know i get paid every hour to talk to strangers about my problems and if you can be that voice to the audience and the validation of what they want to say but don't have the opportunity, people like my show because i and the equal opportunity offender zeroth if you do something right or wrong i will talk about it. people have a place that there is somebody watching out for me. and it is interesting to kind of watch the media be ted it is because it is very

much with an agenda you pretty much know what they will talk about what they will say but on my program i try to give them an opportunity to have an exchange of ideas and you can make it today that is cool. or i will be here tomorrow. just to give people a little bit of insight not necessary to what is happening but why it is happening and the ramifications. >> host: the obstacles that you met when you first target in radio was anything similar when you started to write the book? >> as with any publisher like simon & schuster, they have their relationships and certain things they don't want said and and radio there are certain things they don't want said and tv there are certain things they don't want said so you

have to find your way around it and you would in a way that is not obvious. but they pretty much just gave me the option to write whatever i wanted to write about. i have a whole new respect for writers for the people came on the show with their book i say that is cool but it is hard. because when i talk when i say last hour that was wrong but when it is on the page it is there for all time. i have three or 400 and notes and a chronicle where i took everything from steel cannot dispute my facts purdue candace pmi conclusions but they are what they are. >> host: do want to write another one? >> guest: no. no. not right now. not really. [laughter]

it is an interesting process. i tweaked my radio show based on the book. slow it down and what was the block all about what is the show all about? before becoming it is about trying to push the rock up the hill a little more. i am not here to tear down or prop up. i am not a cheerleader unfortunately we see a lot of. success? you just dropped the football in the end zone. we need more coaches people smacks you upside-down head and say that is not good but we just lost the game and 80 logically we have cheerleaders not challenging their own and that is for the best exchange of ideas takes place when people say really? you believe that? why? when i hear about the

financial cements with the obama i say do let's have a meeting right now. we'll tell you exactly what you need to do. stop spending. summit over. the we will get all these people and six republicans and six democrats they get together and the cameras are on and we will solve the deficit problem. stop spending. it is simple. people say yes. because they have had to do it. we have had to deal leverage people got crazy with real-estate, highboys wanted a quad or the recreational vehicle or a boat. so what we have done in the last year is reduce our spending by about 20% people say i had to do it, why don't they? when i look at the government one point* $9 trillion increase of the

deficit then i hear everybody say we do this for our children and children's children. no procure bankrupting the next generation. we have a responsibility to make a campground and nicer than how we found it. what we're doing right now that obama doubles the national debt the bush of the same thing. i listen to these guys that talked about obama but you did exactly the same thing under the guise of compassionate conservatism which use redundant. when you throw compassionate conservatism it is like we spend a lot of money. the whole thing about helping out religion and government and advancing the agenda of. i don't want to protect the government from religion religion from government

because whoever writes the checks makes the agenda. people say just get back to common-sense like the stuff we have to do every day and hopefully i capture some of that on the radio show and hopefully i got it in the book. >> host: thank you much for your time. we appreciate it. >> host: r. dwayne betts is the author of a question of freedom. tell us about your story. >> guest: the shorter version is when i was 16 i thought a-share was locked up if i was guilty spent eight and a half years in prison and the book is about how that prepared me to be a future husband and father and a set myself up for the life that i've lived now. >> host: what changed for you in the present?

>> guest: a lot of stuff exchange but i spent my years in prison with my formative years so i had to work harder than i had to work harder to accomplish my goals of i have any shot. before prison i thought i could make certain mistakes that i should have known would affect -- affect maybe i did not realize they would follow me forever. >> host: how did you get to a point* where you carjacked somebody at 16? >> guest: that is the hardest question people ask me been a lot of ways it is the easiest to answer. think of all of the city's of lack of resources but i never thought anybody who had achieved the things i wanted to achieve. not to say that is reason to carjack somebody but when you look for reasons and

things you could do to change the lives of others i felt i was exposed to more i may have been neighbors to make better decisions. it boils down 21 day i have a gun in my hand. it was an opportunity. that no child has only looked at the committee's we see unfortunately a lot of kids in our schools are at that level of violence and cannot navigate in the way that leaves them outside of the jailed. >> host: when did you start writing your book? >> guest: again, i started writing at the moment i got locked up because i analyze what it meant to be black with and in prison. before i could drive or college-age. my process began a journey to writing the book but the book contract and