and republican national committee. joe also served in the george w. bush administration at the u.s. department of health and human services center for faith-based and community initiatives. since high school, kristan has been an advocate for the unborn, and i hope you'll tell us a little bit about that. in 2005 she graduated summa cum laude from bethany college in west virginia, where she majored in political science with hopes of becoming a full-time pro-life activists. and she did. she lives with her husband, jonathan, and her two sons, four and three. you know, the battle for the lives of untold children is an emotional and. for most of us. for many people. on both sides of the issue. for me, the last couple of months i have really enjoyed

looking at the sonogram pictures of these two precious little babies. i'm about to become a grandmother this summer of twins. those babies are human beings. they are so beautiful. they already so distinctive. they are just about five months and then move around and they pushed each other. it brings it home. it really brings it home when they're in your own family, your own babies, babies, about to be born. over recent years i've seen more and more people, both young and not so young, shifting over to the side of respect for unborn life. and i believe that kristan hawkins has been a critical part of the swing of the pendulum. please join me now in welcoming kristan hawkins. [applause] >> that's so exciting, twins. i remember when i got my first

ultrasound of my some. i think the ultrasound machine was messing up and they were like, icq. they have twins and your family? no. i was in a panic. i can't imagine having to twins on earth. running around the house but it would be kind of crazy. today i want to talk to you about the pro-life generation and then going to why we wrote the book and introduce you to some of the people who are featured in the book. 41 years ago, seven men, not too far from their, the supreme court ruled in favor of a 27 year-old runs of the unknown lawyer who actually had an abortion in college named sid. they ruled in her favor in the roe v. wade case. along with its companion, they both legalized abortion and all nine months of pregnancy in our country for whatever reason. most people in america actually go after it because, in all nine months. most people in america do not

realize that debate abortion is legal in all nine months. you know, today i'm a 27 euros and i was reading about sarah and her fight to get roe v. wade up to sprinkle the iphone is very interesting. i'm the same age as she was but all of us who were sitting in this room today, if we are born after jim the 22nd, 1973, all of us are survivors of those two decisions. each and every one of us could have been aborted for $350. with our mothers were pregnant with us they told our moms that were nothing but a blob of tissue, that we didn't matter. today, sadly, planned parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider in the country, they tell us the same exact thing. but the undeniable fact is that this generation is a pro-life

generation. every poll that's been taken in recent years shows that this is the first youth generation since then down of roe v. wade that action polls pro-life. this is counterintuitive to what many of us are told them what many adults think. they think, oh, the millennials, the youth generation are always going to be liberal in every single issue. it's not merely grew up, get a job and pay that first paycheck and have kids they will start to become more conservative on these issues. that's not actually the case with abortion. there was a poll done last year that showed that this generation is actually more pro-life than our parents generation. i was reading a study not too long ago by two professors at georgetown university, and it was interesting. they are pro-abortion, so they are in favor of legalized abortion and they were talking about this mysterious case of the disappearing pro-choice generation. because they showed the

attitudes of this generation and attitudes of the generation coming up behind us, those in high school and middle school, are the most pro-life youth generation ever. and that these generations will trend throughout the whole life pro-life. and they don't know where they're going to find the pro-choice. ms. weddington, when she was in washington and the supreme court legalized abortion, they got it wrong. they take abortion as a women's rights issue, and attempting to fix what they saw as an equality in the workplace and in society. what they ended up doing was setting up the ultimate act of discrimination. the ultimate act of discrimination. where you can decide to take the life of a person simply because how old they are and where they live. they pitted the rights of the mother versus the rights of her child.

so why is this generation for life? how did we write this book but pro-life generation, how we're going to -- some of us, feeling kind of old, a 27 year old, some of us were born during the big hair bands of the '80s, some of us are born during the grunge rock bands of the '90s but we've seen a abortion develop different to our life. because we've seen of the ultrasounds of our brothers and sisters. ultrasound has always been available for us. there's never been any, oh, it's just a blob of tissue, right? we all have gone to google one time atop -- typed in the word abortion. many of us have seen the bloody pictures of those who have been killed from abortion. and we all know someone who had an abortion. almost one and two women will have at least one abortion in their lifetime. we all know someone who's had an

abortion. we all know it has made her life in a better. so this is how we come to this pro-life generation. now, was anybody out to march of life issue in washington with six and 50,000 other people? did you all see the overwhelming majority of those who were here at the march of life, under 25? if you look at the media coverage from the day, the new times, fox news, cnn, even msnbc had young people holding i am the pro-life generation signed. i couldn't help but wonder when we're marching up constitution a right for started to snow, white men seeking men, what cecile richards, what was planned parenthood thinking as they saw this entire generation march up constitution avenue? what they were saying was their support for their cause slip

away. and actually they already seen it. when anti-dean, a former president of pro life america, this organization that push for legalization of abortion but she resigned last may. when she resigned, she decided that there was a lack of pro-abortion young leaders. and that she had to step aside to allow it in person to fill her shoes and start thinking. there was a poll that she cited in her resignation about the lack of intensity, the intensity gap between pro-life young people and pro-abortion young people. there was an interesting press release right before the march 2 life. it chosen longer use the words pro-choice. they are striking the words out of their vocabulary. instead they're opting for a

word, decision. two weeks ago a politico article talked about the new president and how the new president, nancy keenan's successor, who said after 41 years of using the were choice and not to go back and redefined because the term has changed. changed? after 41 years. now it is changing? this is evidence to what we are talking about. this is evidenced to why this generation will abolish abortion. because they know their market research and the polls that abortion is a toxic term for them. that is why when planned parenthood goes isa limit schools to teach sex education they never talk about the word abortion. it's a toxic work for them. so where do we start? what do we tell this generation of young people? we talk about abortion, fighting

this greatest human caused. what do we tell people? start telling our story. start telling your story. because abortion has affected each and every one of us. there are men and women who you don't know, who you may know who are hurting from abortion. we need to step out of the world of hypotheticals and gotcha questions, and to real-life situations. last year when i started writing the book, i did a lot of writing and airports. so there are a couple of grammar problems. chalk it up to lack of sleep that i was in the airport and i was trying to think, how can we show people eat, how to show people what this thinks about abortion? icann shall polls all day long. i can sure how many groups are on college campuses but on

college campuses. i issue you a number of pro-life groups versus the number of pro-abortion groups. i can say that stuff and it's boring because their numbers. but how do we show people that this is a generation that can and legal abortion? we do it through stories. so when we started editing the sensible, i picked out 12 students. students. we were into going into each of them is comfort different walk of life. each of them has a different way to come to the way they feel about abortion. what was interesting, of all the students, this one from that kept coming to mind was the word courageous. i never thought i would write a sad book. it's a pretty interesting because some of these books, they will pull you down and then they will let you back up with the source but it's interesting because these are real-life stories. when as writing the book i was thinking, we put it together. i was editing and i was either how we're going to feel about this book.

because guess what? most of the people in both had an abortion before them it. all of the people in the book are sinners. and these are real-life messy situations. i think sometimes when i talk to older folks, they get very upset when the talk about this is what this generation is going through. or 80% of our peers are having sex before marriage. of course, we're going to unplanned pregnancy. of course, one into are going up in std. so we start all the books in the first chapter is about rebecca. rebecca i met a few years ago. she was speaking for the first time ever at a legislative rally in the state of west virginia. i was enthralled by her story. i wanted to know. rebekah was repaired she went off to college in missouri, was raped repeatedly by someone who she viewed as a friend. most people don't realize that majority of rapes are performed

or committed by people who you think are your friend. so she didn't understand what was happening. and it was really interesting. she never had sex before. this was her first sexual experience. she was raped. she became pregnant a few months after. she relies and she said, i've got to do something. so, she was a christian so she knew that abortion was wrong. people always told her abortion is wrong. but she thought abortion is my only way out of this. my parents are going to kill me. i'm going to have to drop out of school. i'm going to have to become a single mom. so she talked to the rapist and he was getting money for the abortion. he punched her in the stomach a few times. he was disappointed it didn't work. she was on her way, and a gourmet came up and said what's

happening? she sat down and listened to rebekah. herger concerned and she said you don't actually have to have the abortion. do know that? and at that moment rebekah decided not to have the abortion, to continue carrying her child but it was interesting because her story is the first of 12, in every store in the book were able to was considering abortion am a the turning point was when one person told her she didn't have to have that abortion. so rebekah chose life. she became a single mother. she didn't have to drop out of college. she did regional in its fiscal messaging and had a working class and take care for baby. but she talks about her story and her life with her son and should never, she never looked back and she doesn't regret the decision should me. another story we talk about is from a survivor. so i said we are survivors of abortion because we all could have been aborted. there are some people who came closer to being aborted than a

new. sometimes we'll hear from friends or someone will say my mom almost aborted my friend. she was on the table or she may be appointed. melissa is interesting. she's in the book. she had about, as about is terrible childhood as you can imagine going up with a father who is physically and emotionally abusive. many times when you hear folks say we should have abortion, because it's better to be dead than to be abused, she had a terrible, terrible childhood. she repeatedly heard her father said she should have been aborted like her three other siblings because she was a girl like them. she watched at a very young age her father punched her mother and beat her to the point of miscarriage for her other siblings. should remember is being trapped in a hall closet for hours at a time. her dad would lock her in. but she also remembers when she went to high school, she went to a catholic high school.

so windy that he speaker talk about abortion. she always had heard about abortion because her dad said he wished she would've been aborted but she didn't know what it meant. at that point she started a pro-life group in high school, despite her dad physical threats and abuse to get her to stop. she went to college, was involved in a pro-life group. actually had a priest. out of her pro-life group because she was to activism oriented. that's another story in the next book. today, she works at the nation's, i don't know how they go about saying this, the most watched google network in the news, nukes either and she wants to give it all up and work for us because she wants to go and help other young young people who face the same thing she did and help them take a stand for it. melissa, and her chapter, she talks about one of the fun of the driving forces behind are

getting involved in speaking out about her story in high school and college is because she could see how the violence of abortion only spread more violence. another story in the book, we do have some in. we love men in the pro-life movement. even though have an office full of women, we have one man. the next story we have is steve. steve grogan a very secular home. went to this rock concert, his and taken into going to which was a christian concert. became a christian, and said oh, yeah, abortion is wrong. i'm a christian. pro-life group came to campus, and hosted a graphic images on campus. steve said sure, why not? i'm a christian. he lets the script, show images of aborted children coming in, genocide victims, and then he was illegally recalled as student body president of his

university for allowing pro-life on. it was a pretty it is, steve goes through death threats he received on campus. they ended up having to recall elections because he won the first one. then they called to do another recall election. he often talks with a little help and also when he started working for us. today he leads his own pro-life ministry in california, helping fund raise for pregnancy research centers to help women and men facing unwanted pregnancies. there's another story in the book, julia. julia, she is, she is not like me. she is miss sensitive and ms. quiet. i am this boisterous. julia went to high school and she talks about in the book how she loves this one teacher and one day in class the teacher is talking about feminism and how abortion was a great thing. julia just said, what?

i always knew -- she said i was new abortion was wrong. i couldn't believe my favorite teacher was telling abortion was right. so she got involved in high school. she started our students for life group at a college in arkansas. she interned with this one summer. she talks about how she goes out and stand in front of the abortion facility every day. she has created her own brochure. she puts her personal cell phone number in the brochure and she talks to women going into the center. that's pretty cool. we have some amazing pictures in her office of julia holding babies that she is personally saved in front of an abortion facility. i don't know how many of your coming to this with preconceptions about the pro-life movement. she's not a crusty old white man who was shouting at women. she is a very small, soft-spoken, beautiful young girl who is there praying and offering help and offering a way

out. she drives the grocery abortion facilities to the crisis center, meets with them whenever she can. but julie is interesting because the abortion that would she was doing but he took one of the brochures and he started sending her death threats to her house. the abortionist handwrote death threats to julia for the work she was doing. she talks about this but some very scary situations, abortion facilities, they are not located in the best part of town. so she talks about some scary situations she's had to face being a young woman out in front of the abortion facilities in the middle of a city. but she says she never stopped trusting what god had planned for her life. she knows that this is the work she's been called to do and she will continue doing it. there's another story in the book i'm megan. meghan contacted us right after we started about seven years

ago. so we had a get started, how to start a pro-life group in school. she was trying for the second time to start a pro-life. so i went out to california. we met, to train with meghan, did all ago she needed. that first day on campus she had a cable in place. we say go and sign that people who are pro-life to join your group on campus and make a difference. jessica walked up to make an exit, i wish i'd been your last semester. i just had my second abortion but i didn't want to. sunday concert talking to jessica about her situation, came to find out that jessica had been pregnant with her second child. she didn't want to do it. she asked her parents. she asked her friend. she asked whether her boyfriend is but they also have the the abortion. she thought it would to someone interchurch. she thought it would to someone after church and they said go

ahead and have the abortion, so she did. so meghan became instant friends with jessica despite meghan growing up in a white upper-middle-class roman catholic family. jessica was from oakland, african-american, low income fell. i think jessica was the first in a family to graduate from college. so these are gross that normally, they would mean the same sorority together. they wouldn't the same yet ended cafeteria. especially a large states collective. they became friends. meghan was there and jessica texter a few months later said she was pregnant for a third time. and that she didn't want to do it but she new abortion was the only way she's going to be able to continue her education. so meghan drove of the to jessica's house, convinced her you can be a mom, and you can be a student to you don't have to

drop out of school. we will help you through thick i will be with you every step of the way. during the pregnancy and after. meghan was there as a birth coach and got mom when the baby was born but it's a really interesting story because so often the pro-life movement, if anyone has ever worked as a -- at a pregnancy resource center, when people come to the pregnancy resource center they have broken relationships. there's something that has led them to the point in the life where they've come to strangers for help. what's interesting about jessica, talking about seeking real social justice, what does that mean? it means you are repairing broken relationships. it means finding out what is someone actually, what do they need? what we found is amazing because what we're finding is it's often

just one person. it's often just one person saying you don't have to have the abortion. it's often one person saying i'm here and i will walk you through this. with jessica, it was fastened, today just does not college a ce graduate, she has a full-time job. she's out of the cycle. she is out of the cycle and she didn't have to drop out of school. should someone there to help her. so these are a couple of the stories we have in the book. i think this is so important to deny talk to young people i say tell your story. because i can be on a campus all day long, which i love to do, i can be debating abortion but i can talk about the philosophy. i can talk about human rights. but will will always happen to come down to something that's not true, that's not true, that's not true. even if i pull out a textbook and say right do we know that life begins at conception. you just admitted. i can see right here it is a life. all they want, people argument.

i don't know why, i am always right. but what is missing is when you tell somebody your story, or you tell somebody a story of someone you know, they have to listen to you. they have to consider what you're saying. a lot of us who are post-1973 children, we're grown up in something called -- everything is relative. there's no actual right or wrong. all religions are equally valuable. you hear this of all the time. it's no wonder why people don't understand that there's absolute, absolute write an absolute wrong in this country. and abortion is always an absolute wrong. it's never just, never a human rights issue. so today i am just asking you, pick up the book. you can get a free chapter online, read about this story for free. read the story, start learning the stories. start talking about abortion. don't be afraid to talk about.

you can be a courageous abortion abolitionist. you won't be as crazy as i am but you can still do that simply by talking about the issue. i am unapologetically antiabortion. i am against abortion. it is a human rights violation. we know this generation is pro-life. we know that. we know americans today, more than ever before, denounce abortion. don't be afraid to talk about. don't be afraid to listen to people's stories. questions? [applause] >> good story, good story. if you would raise your hand, give your name and your affiliation. and we have emily riley, an intern, and emily jones, an intern from georgia tech.

i will let you call on people. >> questions? >> that was a great speech. so looking at the younger generation, d.c. a growing in my in other words, and other demographics? a lot of times i see there's a you lot of young white women but i'm wondering if is getting out to african-americans, hispanics, asian? >> this poll is across the board, across racial lines. it's really fascinating, especially in african-american community, abortion disproportionally place at the african-americans make up about 13% of the u.s. population, yet 36% of all abortions are performed in african-american when the majority of abortion facilities are located in urban african-american or hispanic neighborhoods, or next to a college campus. so we know this is where the target. you're right. what's interesting in terms of,

it harder for us as a pro-life movement to get african-american and hispanic women to come and speak out about abortion. we know abortion is a bad thing because no one talks about abortion. no one talks about abortion. no one says, i'll be right there later this afternoon. i just hav had to stop and get n abortion first. no one wears a t-shirt that says i had an abortion t-shirt campaign. it's a huge disaster because no one talks about abortion. everybody understands it's a tragic thing and it's a bad thing. but even more so i think any african-american community, if you pull african-americans alone without any other race, they will pull pro-life but it is even less popular in the african-american community than the white community. any other questions? this will be a hard one. this is from becky. >> kristan, tell us about your own journey into this pro-life

missionary work that you do. >> sure. that was an easy one, thank you. no. i am a dork. my plan was to become an aeronautical engineer. i had just returned back from space can. i won a scholarship to space can. yes, you can do the. and they need a summer internship project and a woman am a church that i work at this woman said, we like to come in and turned? i was 15 and i said sure. i was kind of pro-life. i mean, there's always exceptions. kind of the majority of america, reacted. will have pro-life but i don't know how details people not have an abortion. so i started working at this research and and it was amazing because they were so excited because i was 15. i was the average age of their client coming in. i was shoved into a room for two weeks so i learned everything you can about abortion, stds, i learned the birds and bees very quickly. my mom and i still have never had that talk. it's amazing.

so that's really where the passion for the pro-life movement was coming in, watching these women get a lot of times when it talk about seeking social justice, women coming in the same time every month. and so that's what got started. i went back to my high school and was, like, i have to do something. i started a pro-life group them as the. super controversial. i was always stressed that because i was the only person world who started a pro-life group in high school. my pro-life regarding interest in politics. that's when bill o'reilly, i'm dating myself but i was just getting started fox news so i started watching about politics. i'm going to go to college and be a polished image, going to be alert and going to overturn roe v. wade. i went to college and as a poly side made you. aas a freshman i start a pro-lie group on campus which was not without controversy again. that's i got involved.

i was asked to intern for president bush's reelection campaign and is offered a job at it was just that initial step of going into the pregnancy research and, volunteering my time, learning about the issues, counting the women and then also add in the activism component and the education component. because this is the target age range. high school and college are the ones who are being targeted for abortion. there is a reason why sony planned parenthood are five miles from a college campus. this is where they are targeting. so i felt that was so important. that's i really got started. >> 's what about overturning roe v. wade? >> in the pro-life movement, and we talk about this, there's different strategies of overturning roe v. wade. i think people disagree.

i think first it has to change with that are hard. we have to force politicians to want to stand up for our issue. that's really we need to be focusing on. politicians, people in washington, they're going to start listing when they know their constituents are against abortion but that's what i talk about being courageous, speaking a. that's extreme important we did a lobby day a couple months ago and assessing because we had a purple t-shirts, the same color of -- we went into all of these blue dog democrats offices. we got into this office that normally wouldn't allow was. i believe it starts with changing our hearts. was fastening, something we're trying to focus group right now is this is a pro-life generation. we understand abortion is bad. we don't like abortion.

we know the truth but when you ask if they should be overturned, would lose that issue. the reason is we can't envision a world without abortion. people get all freaked out when you say, we want to get rid of abortion. going back to 1950? astley not. you can survive. america can survive without legal abortion. but we have to first start envisioning it. you have to start talking about. i talk about what to do after abortion is made legal. the supreme court case is the first step in have 50 simultaneous state battles. i'm very much in favor of overturning roe v. wade, it's bad constitutional law to begin with, even pro-choice folks will agree with it. and give the decision back to the states because we will kick their butts in the states. that human life begins at

conception all that senator paula sponsor. the question is will that have any political weight or is that merit a statement? there's incremental legislation. what's been fascinating is that despite president obama's administration, despite having a merciless assault against the pro-life movement since 2008, we are winning in the state. we passed the most states pro-life legislation ever since president obama has been elected president. there's a certain states where there are no abortion facilities now. over there's one -- mississippi, there is one. that needs to be shut down immediately. it's a supply and demand issue. we can take away the domain. that's what we do. we can also take away the supply. any other questions? >> on the radar this morning i heard about the cases -- a few

cases going on right now in philadelphia. [inaudible] it's a black doctor any poverty area in philadelphia and he was performing these late-term abortions committee killed these children after they were born. >> and that's a practice are present as agreed with. president obama four times voted against a bill. what happened into the process, planned parenthood of went on to tell me this is how they would kill my child to deliver the baby early so normally the baby would be taken to the nick you, and what to do is kill the baby moments after it is born. president obama second it's like on record, just because it's kicking and moving doesn't mean it's alive. hello? but it's something the mainstream media to start paying attention to but this is what we at pro-life are highlighting. even if you're pro-choice

friend, how i feel about abortion, this is a case finished the talk to the. this is perfectly legal in some death. he's in trouble for doing late-term abortions but you should see the pictures that they have of how dirty this abortion facility was. hair salons on more regulated than abortion facilities. there's no state inspection. there's surgery going in, going on every single day but they don't feel like you want to inspect a. that's what's happening in maryland. it's awful. he was bragging about this big is so big you could walk to the bus stop. and they killed it. he had baby feet in charge and solution is keeping in his office. he had dead babies in his freezer. this is not like made-up stuff. this is an actual court case happening today. thanks for bringing that up. >> one or two more.

>> kristan, one of the arguments that you often hear is that when abortion is once again made illegal, that what you individual drive these innocent women, girls, women, back alleys where they will be butchered. what is your team response to the? a lot of people who actually agree with you say ouch, i don't want to drive women to that's. >> there's a couple things with it. one, the doctor who founded naral in the late 1950s, national associate she for the repeal of abortion laws, he was an abortionist. he admitted in his second book, he passed away two years ago, that he completely made up the number of women who are dying from illegal abortions. he made it the number 10,000. that's still a number planned

parenthood uses today. he made up that number. it's interesting, there's an article by a planned parenthood a vice president who came out and said that the number of illegal abortion deaths was diverted reduced because of penicillin in the 1950s and 1940s. so she had, i forget her name but she has said the number of illegal abortion deaths were about 500 a year. so that's just like getting facts straight. let's get our numbers straight first it would talk about not 10,000, we're talking 500. the other thing we need to understand is when abortion is made illegal, the people who are doing abortions there, when abortion was made legal in 1973, what happened? there wasn't like overnight abortion training school. the people who are doing abortions just advertised they get abortions. they were doctors who did abortions. there were doctors in the o.b. practice it just didn't tell

people. so this is something we need to be talking about of what would happen, what would happen is the abortionist who were doing abortions now we just go under the radar and planned parenthood, they have had talks about this. their plans for what they will do when abortion is made legal and how they will go under radar. this is why they're pushing medical abortion, i.e. the pill. like the ru-486 because they know they have a public relations nightmare with the word abortion. they need to get rid of those ugly abortion facilities. so what they want to do is everyone have their abortions go to cvs and pick up your bill and you can abort your baby in the privacy of your home. so there's a couple of things to talk about what people are saying abortion but the other thing to keep in mind is, you know what? i've used this before in debates and we talked, bank robbers kill a lot of people every year. they do. do we legalize the bank robberies? no.

we don't legalize bank robberies. so that's something else you want to talk about. get your facts straight first. the numbers are actually talking the. the illegal abortions was to be performed by doctors. just because something, you can't legalize something because you are afraid, we are killing 1.2 million children every year. that's the other thing you have to think about. >> how many chapters do you have in campus to speak of seven and if i didn't mainly college campus. last week we launched our high school at home initiative. we now have over 40 in medical schools. something that the politicians were longtime have not focused on. because every medical school has a pro-choice group on the campus because they're trying to think there's a lot of articles. a lot of these guys are doing abortions, were doing it in a

60. you don't go to medical school, gets $300,000 in debt to go kill babies. it's not high on aspiration chart. they can't find enough people to do abortions so we are focusing a lot on medical schools now. >> [inaudible] >> if you go to students for life of america, we have different activism guides and step-by-step guides for all the different types of campus, free activism kids. we give outcome with free postcards people can put out on campus to start a discussion. most often issues need to get the discussion started. we win when abortion is talked about it. the final truth is on our side. we just need to get talked about. all that stuff is a website it is completely free for young people. >> what an excellent discussion. you are doing such a great job. [applause] >> we have a couple little gifts for you here. then we'll talk outside informally during lunch.

we have our limited edition claire booth luce coffee mug. believe me, it is limited. with her famous thing, what is the? and every busy mother -- >> thank you. >> and from the heritage foundation the brand-new book about -- it's titled leading the way. a one liter to another lead. we think is much which are doing. we invite you all to join for lunch just across the lobby. thanks so much for joining us. we will be back next month. [applause] >> we would like to hear from you. tweet us or feedback, twitter.com/booktv.

>> up next on booktv, alec foege talk about the contributions made to our society a modern-day ben franklin's and thomas edison's. this is about an hour and 15 minutes. >> i hope i can live up to the introduction first i want to say it's a real privilege to give a talk on my book at the westport library because the westport library has been a real innovator in terms of a green, tinkering as an agriculture. so it was a coincidence that brought us together, but it's worked out really great and i thank them for helping make this all happen. as bill mentioned, in his introduction, my book is a lot,

it's partially about what's going on in tinkering right now. in the contemporary world but also touches on history, but more specifically it talks about what the ideas behind being a taint your car, and what is the mindset of a tanker. so we should start by talking about, well, what is it tinker as i decide -- as i define in the book. and how does a tinkerer differ from a and vendor or a hacker, a lot of the other types of innovators that we know in american society? typically, the term has negative connotations. you think of sort of the old crockpot puttering around in the basement not really knowing what they were making, it just sort of having fun with old spare parts. but, in fact, that's kind of the heart of what in my mind tinkering is about because a true tinkerer is a dilettante but in