of thing, and so it's, you know, you see the academy begin to be involved. this is especially -- at this time, this is also a very american kind of phenomena i should note on the side, but i want to mention the international dimensions of the internship explosion in a little bit. ..

and examines the ways that maps are used today. this is about 40 minutes. [applause] thank you. that's very kind. thanks for coming i have been here many times i've never seen parts of it. it's exciting to me. i got to go through the bathroom and it was like through a garage and two doors. anyway, i am ken jennings. i think what we will do is talk a little bit about the book and

then i don't know how this is going to go but i want to do an impromptu geography quiz. pretty fun when we turn this into a game show. i don't know what c-span is going to think of that but we are going to do a little geography and see how it goes and then some q&a and sign some books and hopefully it will not be as long as it sounds because when i go to book signings and like it when the author errors on the side of getting me home in time. [laughter] is there any other joke i can't finish? [laughter] i will just note that you guys can knock them down. the book is called "maphead." im "maphead." it sounds like a 12 step thing. like my name is ken jennings, i am a map head but it's a troup i'm a fan of maps and all its forms. anybody here eight "maphead"? you want to share my where? my name is, your name is, with

initials and i am a maphead to read the book was sort of blown out of experience i had a couple years ago going through my parents' garage which is a huge, huge pile of books. i know everybody's parents to garages are huge piles of boxes but my parents look like the lost ark. it's huge. my mom said they found one more box of mine, so, you know, i was going through the pile trying to find it and i opened it up and pulling stuff up and was like a time capsule of high school. it was like comic books and mid states. some people won't know what that is but mixed tapes and the bottom there is one thing left. it's a big world atlas and there was a big moment for me. i was like my gosh i hadn't seen that for a while. it was like finding a beloved stuffed animal because this thing had been a very meaningful for me. i saved up my allowance when i

was seven or eight to buy this and even at that time i was already a total amount of our i could look for hours. i would read that this is for pleasure and a way no more other kid would be reading clifford the big red all i would be paging through the atlas and it was just this amazing moment of connection to see this again after so much time and i realized i had spent many years since then sort of in the closet as it were a form of as a "maphead" because you realize very quickly as you get older that they like geography a lot. let me put it that and you realize socially it is often a liability and not an asset and it's sort of the love they dare not speak its name. they don't talk about the map but as i started writing the book people ask me what i was working on and i

unapologetically say maps and people who like maps, like the would justify any kind of event like they would be like what coming and it was amazing how many people were like i love maps are you getting kidding and others were aware of the social cost of being a bit of a card file. [laughter] but i remember in college having a roommate coming into our apartment at the beginning of the semester having a new roommate named sheldon and he had up on the walls of the place this paper with national geographic and i had spent my childhood looking at national geographic and should have been over the moon at this and instead i was likely we're never going to see a single girl in here for one thing. it became like the second least

desirable. very exciting for me. but i wasn't really true to my math routes is what i'm trying to get across. it was a pleasure because i did get to meet with a lot of different people who read the story is geographically for lack of a better word hobby. library inslee got to name out and the division of the library of congress which was very cold. it's like three football fields of cabinets, 9,000 cabinets full of maps and i realized i could open them seeing them at random during is the map of a plantation of virginia. george washington and madrid. [laughter] it was an amazing treasure trove. amount with people using the gps revolution. the satellite to find where hidden in the woods especially the northwest creation in portland and maintain the website and fremont now they

moved. who else to get to hang out with? the national geographic kids by the way who are more national geographic than any other state represent which are amazing like middle school and when i did a little with them at was a girl in redmon who won a couple years ago and just for fun again for a list of geography questions some of which i got right and some of which i hadn't got right, and she smoked meat. she got one wrong and i had gotten half of them wrong. kids are amazing. and i started to see as i hung out with people like this into maps of fantasy world and people obsessed with the interstate system from the systematic traveler like people that like to go to every something on earth, starbucks, high point, people who have a lifelong checklist of places they must step one toe in and head back to the airport so the thing these people have in common zero

occurred to me today are modern-day explorers born in the world that for better or worse already exports. let's face it maps are not as fun as they used to be when they were big white spaces. we've been everywhere now. they might be less what they are the places that sock, you know, there's a reason they are getting blamed on the map, and we talk about mapping and now we are mapping stars and the human genome but these are people that mr. time he could map something that would surround you like territory, a place that you could explore commesso the reason did the exploration by making old places new. they hide jeal casual tupperware and parks and they draw maps of new fantastic places and they, you know, lose themselves on the concrete to antique maps they are collectors.

these are sort of the equivalent of the modern-day explorers and it's fascinating to spend a little time with them. i'm going to read a short segment again. this is a part of the reading. i'm not going to speed read or anything but a little brief section from chapter 4. this is the part i'm hanging out at the library of congress with a library in and it is about a place name on the maps, which has always sort of hold a special appeal for me as long as i love maps i've been an enthusiastic student of place names. maps that aren't bothered with textbook error what could be more than of those grade school maps in the region of on the fuel oil derricks or ears of corn drawn on the industry or agriculture these are these that make kids hate geography. through the infusion that bring them up to life there may be poetry and the coast line but there's personality and australia or mexico or zantia to

the great cartographer agree with me in the atlas and labeled his imaginary in place names like land of paris and the river no one had actually been to these places but it was either that or the entire mass. to this day i feel warmth when i see the map labels like british honduras. i've never been to these countries of course but my childhood is the smell of the school cafeteria or the piano line from an air supply song. i plan my vacation around places like [inaudible] [laughter] st. mary's church in their rapid world as a great trivia fans should know and get my picture taken during the trip to thailand and the sign at a bangkok to the 163 letter name.

they don't have to belong to be memorable. he can be visiting with the village's name by benny hill, scratchy bottom-up [inaudible] full of the roadside history, she's quick new jersey, virginia, dandong texas. most of these came by their names honestly and a war who's made their skin crawl. she's quick is the indian word meaning of privilege. dandong's texas is located in bell county but sometimes they seem a little too good to be true because they are take that dillinger i'm not going to say the name it was plain old until the 60's when the enterprising could come up with a longer name in the tourist revenue perhaps the town needed a foul. [laughter] so the spiritual ancestor of all of those by renaming themselves

by celebrities and sometimes the former hot springs mexico is still called true love consequences after the game show fortune is named the former pennsylvania would probably be called. more often than not the headlines went back to the halfway. joe from montana is just plain montana again. they always rub me the wrong way on the side of mount rushmore so in 2005 when kentucky turned on the chance of $100,000 by changing its name to poker share dhaka, the bible belt presidents seemed in continent of the gambling but it can be too rich source for every we are taking big checks in high school computer lab there is a but whole row in york shire and they live on the road and told the

daily mail the was a big draw for him when he moved there he couldn't believe the previous owners were moving out because they didn't like the name but the novelty wore off to the delivery drivers, bus loads of tourists coming for pictures while mooning the street sign the street was named for the communal reindeer but but it reflected the 300-pound and they changed its name to archer's way. it's hard for americans to understand the putrid some that can get, but in place names and a young country and a confession to everything else revolving around us. so we can afford to let slide to the gulf of mexico isn't called the gulf of america all the liquid into the library of congress math library and that is the issue of one frequent complaint to the board on geographic names. if america announced purchase changing her name to canada we would be okay with it. we would go on with our lives but elsewhere in the wiltz is

national identity. the important western atlas as i saw always has the word sea of japan blacked out on the map and the east see utter below. the of pingree about the republic of macedonia because historically macedonia was a region of ancient greece that the entrance in 2008 the rhetoric has come out of surprise after the 2004 edition of the national geographic atlas of the world added to the persian gulf is smaller panthera bickel label reading every be involved. the iranians in the analyst bonkers. there are always an arab government the society has afforded an undeniable reality in tehran. all national geographic publications journalists were banned from iran with the internet users from the persian global community and geographic thousands of e-mails with hundreds of angry and was on reduced the atlas and even defrays the arabian gulf, so the top result of the phrase is now the mock error reading the are

looking for does not exist. [laughter] the persian gulf. national geographic issued the correction attention is still running high over the issue and they created the national persian gulf to sabrue the nomenclature cancel the 2010 islamic solidarity and objected to the phrase persian gulf and is even threatened to ban the airline that doesn't use the right man on the display board. the american equivalent to this kind of pride is the way we use place names to convert inside or outside status in the community well into the manhattan for the avenue of the americans. the official renaming is an obstacle new yorkers still say six governor or pronounced like the city in texas. in my neck of the woods the name comes to washington's largest state and the retirement back on the arid and then as a lot to pronounced the names the way they are spelled or worse

california transplant. [laughter] i could tell you the real pronunciation but then under the washington state law i would have to kill you. the pronunciation naturally i sort of gave it away by doing about flout. you have to imagine that being read. one thing that struck me in the book is that although the head line you see that geography are sort of scary about how college students can't find canada on the map or can't find the pacific ocean or can't find their but with both hands. [laughter] the headlines exist as a signed deep down part of the culture believes the knowledge is important. it's an important part of our cultural literacy. there is this untapped amount of goodwill towards geography and i like to think there are signs that we are living maybe in some new golden age for maps. that may be in the age of global earth and real time getting a weather will show you where your friends are in real time and the

amazing mapping innovation after maps have been about the same for the century this would create some new golden age where they suddenly miraculously appear to be as exciting and sexy to the average person for whatever reason always appear to me today that is why open the way. that is the hope should we do a little geography quiz. what do you guys think? here is my plan. i have here in my bag a copy of "maphead" and a ken jennings bubblehead. [laughter] extremely rare for the utter lack of demand for them. [laughter] you know how people say they're not existing girlfriend is from canada? this is made in canada as a promotional item for the tv trivia game and no longer buy have a garage for full.

i think for any man who answers the question i would ask my wife what kind of candy we should get for the geography quiz and she's like nerds. [laughter] that's very sweet. thank you. i think my plan and so far as i have 1i have done trivia books and they've gone well. if you know the answer shout about. if you are quick ehud york. this is not the part of the event to sleep. that's when i was talking about rural kentucky. this is the time you've got to be alert. wasn't it harder after we do a short number of these we will see if the room and me together can do the most gifted geographically people have been during the preliminary is and we will get a few finalists appear to do a final round. how about that? for example i would read a question like this and i

wouldn't necessarily be harder might be something like new york state is [inaudible] right here in the front row you don't have to answer in the form of a question. [laughter] you are already skidding jeopardy to be here tonight. [laughter] i'm sorry. it's the age of tivo, nobody is missing it. did we tell the story about alex showing up for a signing somewhere at barnes and noble in manhattan or around this time in this outrage like why are you here? who is hosting jeopardy? [laughter] everything is under control. [laughter] what country's longest river? i heard it over here again first. right here. your neighbor ratchet you out. which canadian province is a wild rose country? it was over here somewhere, wasn't it?

thanks for the cooperation. until 1995, what was the english name of india's most populous city? >> [inaudible] [laughter] i heard bombay. it's actually bombay. the current mumbai -- does anybody know the current adopter. i heard it here somewhere. thank you for not getting hit in the head. in what country -- you can yell without -- bobby, biak, bali? right here, right? front row. very nice. what national park? i heard it over here somewhere? british airways.

aaa north from anywhere in texas >> it was your first. it's going very well. what is the tallest volcano? anyone want to try? over here. right here. but i didn't miss that. to correct answers. that's impressive. so you know the judges are keeping an eye on you. what country is the most important seaport as basra? it was over here someplace first. here you go, sir. nice to see you. thanks for coming out. those are sort of tough. that's where a separate the maphead from dimond maphead to read what is the former yugoslavia and now a member of the e.u.? right here. >> very nice.

where are ellsworth land, polar land? i heard it somewhere. way in the back. [laughter] one row. hopefully c-span did not catch that. what city [inaudible] >> right here. front row. very nice. that was my dad. the was a terrible throw. that wasn't an error. cleveland ohio is on what side of the great lakes? somebody here was quick. you again, sir. you don't want to be sitting up in front here. i feel your pain. but canadian territory has the name our land? over here somewhere first. there's a rally in every year. somebody over here first. two things of nerds. the cardinals connect the

mediterranean with what other -- black sea, somewhere over here. you think the people in front of you are getting too many? is it like the speed of sound or something? the four large islands of japan which is the furthest north? over here somewhere. call them in, ladies and gentlemen. we are in jeopardy co-conspirators. also, seattle's best jeopardy [inaudible] tom, how are you doing? thanks for coming. [applause] i don't know any questions yet. [laughter] if we were playing for money instead of nerds. [laughter] name any one of the lesser antilles abc islands.

i don't know who had it first a better throw than last time and i almost killed the person behind you. what island to the romans called hibernia? i heard it here first. who was it? the guy next to tom. >> i will take credit for it. >> you fight over it. the walls largest desert is not the sahara. and not to cut, somebody says. technically speaking that guy is going to be eating birds all night. [laughter] the definition between desert, scientifically nothing but amount of precipitation and it's too cold. there's not a lot of precipitation would densely populated island is south of the peninsula? i heard it back their somewhere. [laughter] there is a reactor or something like that. will you toss that back to hong kong, please.

[laughter] starting to get a pretty cents. what countries visited attraction is the city of petra? i heard jordan. there we go. he's one of my friends i found out after writing the book was a bit of a map nerd. thanks for coming to read until two months ago what was the largest country by area in africa? that might have been tom, i think. last question. pretty tough. but pacific countries largest island is the team lead to speak to somebody said fiji. in the back. there we go. go deep. [laughter] i think our finalists have probably got to be right here at least, probably right there, sir. maybe it right here. so the of multiple ones come out. i think a skeptic to people like

you. there were many so why don't you come on up. let's hear it for the panelists. [applause] i guess the microphone to some folks to tell me your name starting on the end. chris. where are you from? now living in the area? you didn't come all the we just for this? next to chris? >> friend from redmon. >> chris from california. you drove all the way up for this? >> [inaudible] [laughter] >> i'm sure that you are very excited about the book coming out. i thought you might. [laughter] the guy from mountain view answers questions like he's seen the answers. he password through and might have it on his smart phone right now. i'm going to read the question when you see the answers to your name sort of like established and then give the answer.

okay? we will keep score and to ten questions here. here's the first question to the early explorers also called the river by the name -- yes? >> the i'm sorry river. [laughter] the answer is actually nebraska. the nebraska river. very nice. when i see very nice. one point here for frank. the country's largest cities are concepcion -- >> chile. >> that's right. i don't think there is more than one concepcion say your name before we see the answer. question three. what u.s. state has a capital city with a three word naim? >> [inaudible] >> frank. there we go those are the right

answer. yes. do you feel like you're still in this against frank? you don't buy a chance work for microsoft, do you? [laughter] use although i was trying to do there, right? it didn't work. [laughter] what name is shared by the tallest mountain in the cyprus? and greece? >> [inaudible] >> correct. chris on the board. [laughter] which was one of the 13 original states not to touch the atlantic? >> [inaudible] >> very good. you wore on the board. 1-3-1. which african country officially administered the enclave of cabinda? >> larocco. >> you only get one answer.

>> it's angola. it's just north of angola. question seven island is the northernmost extent of what mountain? chris is a first. the mountain range. sorry. keep your answers to yourselves. [laughter] 1-4 trinkle one. questions seven. there is no correct answer to kavanagh. sorry. you can. guinea to answer every remaining question correct. this is tough. i could not have answered the thank you looked it up on the way. what is the country of subornation -- southern asia?

you were next i think. >> [inaudible] >> that is correct. you are still in it. kidron answers yourself. what is known as the quartet? >> the gulf of california. >> correct. 3-for-1. it comes down to this. how many world nations have the word denney in their name? >> that is not correct. we is not correct. it is four. [applause] very impressive. >> i will give you the rest of the nerds but there's only one left. we will do one more question.

in what u.s. state is the zazi river? mississippi. i heard it here first. i tried to help you. let's give you guys a big hand. [applause] very impressive. very impressive. does anybody have any questions i did not get to? what are the four guineas? i think they are all the hard ones. any questions that are not about countries with guineas in the name? >> [inaudible] >> i mentioned in the jacket copy of the labrador retriever who couldn't be with us tonight but will be more stable with age. the same thing that is sad in your grandpa's is all some with

our dog. [laughter] >> [inaudible] >> about my education? i sort of screw off in school and i'm still a huge success. [laughter] know, that's not what he wanted here, right? i moved overseas when i was seven or eight might have got a job and in all from ann curry yet, so i went to the international school and a leader attended the university of washington and in utah and i have a degree in english and computer science. i was a very happy english major who decided it would be nice to pay the bills from time to time i guess. the joke i heard is what is the difference between a large pizza and an english major? the pizza can feed a family of four. [laughter] the computer science was working in the program when i got the call to be on jeopardy and they say there is no second act but thanks to jeopardy i do have a

second act and i may writer with an english degree and it's going great. >> you actually know the answer to the last question were were you just tigard of being on jeopardy? >> i get asked that all the time and it's like the worst conspiracy theory ever. have you ever quit a job where you are getting like 60,000 an hour or something? [laughter] a lot of people have told me that was an easy question if you were going to tell me that after you can save some time. i've heard it. [laughter] but they're always easy if you know and never easy if you don't i guess. i think no matter what i say you knew that. i promise i didn't. i did not throw in jeopardy. i promise. to much respect for mr. alex i promise. [laughter] >> any other questions?

>> [inaudible] >> i do live in the area actually. i am local. >> [inaudible] >> am i allowed to go back to jeopardy? it's sort of a one per customer. you get one and i sort of got the nice chance anyway. i got to go back last year when they had the evil supercomputer. i guess it is possible at some point mcdougal will teach them how to play different. [laughter] and bennati will be back. there was a hand up over here. >> any recommendations? >> that is going to be the second reading. he may be the first one to ever mentioned fiction on c-span. [laughter] >> i'm going to make to offend some people here.

to use matt request, google maps? what is the choice? are you asking me if i bing? i have bumper stickers asking if i bing. google will be offended if i do not bing or use bing as a verb. the technologies are great and -- >> what tips you have for retaining the most knowledge possible? from a knowledgeable team member when people ask me how do you know about stuff i feel i don't have a good answer, i don't have a system or a tiny in a book of mine with my picture on it. i think most jeopardy people would say that they got on the show not with any kind of system or weekend of cramming but from a lifetime of being a curious person, very aware of the world around them and interested in everything.

not like most people where we are into the stuff that we are into, but the other stuff just goes one year and up the other. literally somehow the for the secret is makes them interested in something so i don't know the way to quantify that. but if you can become one of those people that is interested in everything, you always have something to connected to. whenever you hear you will want to know it and you will have things in your head to tashi on two. it won't go through the cracks. we have time for just a couple more questions. yes, right here. >> i understand in the geography of this predominantly boys as opposed to the spelling bee which is predominantly girls. in the observation -- >> talking about the possibility of a gender gap if you have ever heard any stand-up comedian you know this has been the war of the sexes for decades the idea that women can't read math and men can't ask for directions.

the national geographic peace is more concerned than say some crappy stand up. they've commissioned research why there's a big gap in the finals. the year i went there there were two girls and 50 boys. this isn't ideal for them market wise. they would like to think that geography can appeal to anyone and the year i went it was like the time of alaska and wyoming were the two girls and they commissioned research on the sand with the fund is that they were hoping to find some sort of explanation like the questions are biased, the girls get more nervous they found there is a small but measurable that for whatever reason the geography not between the girls and the police and they are not sure why that is. it doesn't necessarily mean that they are wired differently all the latest is a possibility that chemistry might be different. a good academic research shall we treat our girls and boys differently from birth even as little babies because the boys around more in the locations

more of a very young age and for what troubled we explore more. it's possible that we are sending our kids the boys will be interest in exploring places and looking at maps and the girls will not so they are working on outreach to get girls more interest in the geography in general and that's the state of the research right now. in the back. >> i could be wrong nowadays geography just doesn't have the same set of views [inaudible] what can be done i think you said 20% of college students in the u.s. didn't know where canada was. [laughter] things like that happen all the time sure. he's asking about geography education and if that's taken a

hit in recent years. is it like a thousand degrees in here? [laughter] the answer is yes for a couple of reasons. the main reason especially with the level of primary and secondary education is that in the 70's the social studies haven't with lots of different social sciences whittled grade school kids get some of the work stuff to they could have an apology and economics, they could have, you know, six and whatever other social sciences there are. and so there's the final tradition of teaching geography from an ad in the front of the classroom that we associate with the school mom because they've replaced by social studies. the u.s. is now for madrid the only country in the developed world where a kid can go from preschool to graduate with a master's and never cracked a geography textbook. obviously there have been good things to come out of this and there's also been some costs when we stack up against other

countries in the geographic literacy we are next to last among the nations of the national geographic. thank you very much. [laughter] >> know developed nations to greece with the are all sort of surprisingly bad when you look at say how many of the people in even someplace between the cat can't find the pacific ocean on the map is it high year than would like but the u.s. is much worse off than most say japan or the european countries in the developed world. so, it's a problem and i think that things like gps might make it worse. we don't even know the name of any more we have a little talking box that tells us where to turn and on occasion we see hilarious people turning into rivers or on to railroad tracks. we just believe the box. we always believed the box. we have time for just a couple more questions. we will take one more question, he says. it is better be better than all the other questions put together. right here.

you're confident. >> other than going through the library of congress, are you able to go through any of the other ancient maps and other countries? >> did i go through ancient maps? i did. i was at a london map fair which is very cool. it's the leading place to buy and sell antique maps and the cool thing is to hold the society which is close to tourists most of the year but it's where all of the great exporters of the age came back and show their stuff. the expedition and robert scott's expedition and stanley and livingstone, the was very cool and beautiful maps obviously and another favorite place of mine did have a map gallery in the vatican in rome i don't know if you've been through the vatican but it is a beautiful map of the every region of italy lining the wall and the pope would wait for the

audience for the pope to wait to see him and the idea is they would be intimidated by the extent of your fleet realm so i am a sucker for old maps. new mabus or beautiful but just to look at some in the 1600's and be reminded of how many people sacrificed or probably lost their lives so this could be drawn more accurately or whatever it is a very powerful thing to me. thank you all for coming out tonight. i'm going to sign books as long as there are books to be signed. i appreciate you coming and i think you for putting this together thank you so much. [applause] >> for more information, visit the author's website, ken-jennings.com.

>> would be fair to say that there has been some level of more acceptance? when you look at recent scandals, and correct me if my thesis is wrong but it's the ones that are attached not just with personal lives or sex scandals but then there is some other wrongdoing that eventually takes people out of office? politicians can survive sex scandals. >> david vendor who frequented the senator from louisiana the last election in a landslide victory, so it is possible right now because america has gotten more and more use to the sex scandals involving their politicians. ultimately we argue that is a good thing because it will enable us to stop eventually talking and obsessing about the sex lives of the presidents of

politicians and focus on what really matters. >> what makes it so bad and not just new orleans and washington, d.c. but that when you have somebody that is that hypocritical and getting caught up in a sexual buscapade that makes it even worse. >> instead of talking about conceptualism before we go to the phone calls all pretty busy for you've what is your favorite story in the book? >> my favorite story as i wasn't expecting it turned out to be the eleanor roosevelt and franklin roosevelt -- >> it is complicated. he had his girlfriend living in the bedroom next to him and she had her girlfriend living next to her in the white house together. the american public obviously didn't know any of this, but