jones' self-titled biography. and a behind the scenes look at "the duck dynasty" show. go to nytimes.com and click on arts for more on these bestsellers. ..

we wrap up tonight's prime-time programming and other:00 eastern with peter lance who talks about the relationship between the fbi and gangster gregory scarpa. join us for more for the booktv television schedule. >> up next author and surgeon benjamin carson. the presidential medal of freedom recipient would talks about his life from poverty to the top of the medical field, the current political landscape in the u.s. and the affordable care act. the former director of pediatric neurosurgery at johns hopkins he is the author of five books including "gifted hands: the ben carson story," "the big picture" and his 2012 release "america the beautiful: rediscovering what made this nation great". >> dr. benjamin carson, who is the bender twins. >> guest: conjoined twins joined the the back of the head from west germany that we separated

at johns hopkins in 1987. they were the first twins of that tight, very complex, to be separated and survive. >> host: and today? >> as far as they know they are still surviving but lost contact with them quite some time ago because sort of a sad story but the mother remarried few years later, the new husband did not take care of the men became wards of the state. >> host: how did you become involved in that surgery? >> guest: i became interested in conjoined twins out of the. , started reading a lot about the man was trying to figure out why the results were so dismal, 1987 -- we think of as ancient, those times, i concluded it was bleeding to death seemed to be the big problem and i was

talking to a friend, bruce wright, chief of cardia thoracic surgery at the time, he had a lot of experience with-sector arrest and he had done research and practice the technique in which basically you've cool the body temperature, the blood is let out, you can operate on a child for up to let our because you warm the blood of, and i was thinking during a critical time during the separation of we could go on hypothermic arrest that the vessels reconstructed and start things up again maybe they wouldn't lead to death, then i was saying wait a minute, why am i thinking about this? i will never see excess of those twin is the two month later here came this case to different medical centers wanting to know if anybody had a solution because, there was not willing

to accept the solution that had been proposed in europe which basically was for her to choose the one she wanted and the other one with the chopped off. she loved from both, she couldn't do that. so i started explaining this whole concept of using modern techniques we had for doing all kinds of facial surgery and everybody said that sounds like it might work and chief of anesthesia mark rogers, really enthusiastic and we started pulling together the team and talking about this and one of the great things about being at an institution like hopkins is you can draw on people from lots of specialties to autopsy in their field and sit down and talk and not only the physicians

but the nurses, the aids, everybody got involved, started pulling together teams and practicing and asking people how do you see this from your point of view getting everybody's opinion, even the engineers a sure we don't have a power failure, the head nurse and surgery, psychiatrists with me, had me lay it on them, closed my eyes and tell me what instruments do you need and i would go through and she would write everything down and put together a manual, the nurses created accordions leaves drapes to put over the bed and when the time came to pull the beds apart they would fall on their face to maintain the stability. that level of detail. i get an awful lot of credit as the neurosurgeon who was the first to separate twins like

that but i could not have done it with all the other people. it was a team effort. everybody's input was needed and i used the same principles throughout my surgical career, recognizing as the bottle says, multiple counselors to safety. >> you talk about the bender twins in your book, how many siamese twins and be separated, how much does it surgery take? >> i have personally involved with 5 sets and i have been involved as a consultant for a number of others in this country and elsewhere as well. they usually take a long period of time, anywhere from 12 to 18 hours to a few days.

i think we are learning, people are learning a lot more about these kinds of things and there are so many wonderful techniques coming up. i think within the next 20 years these kinds of separations will be possible with very good outcomes in general. the other thing that is helping is the use of virtual reality. one set of twins that i helped with in singapore, the team that worked with a work with before when i was in the united states, the second set of twins that i was involved with in south africa i had the infanta joe using the virtual work bench at johns hopkins which we can take the cats can, the mri, the angiogram, any radiological study, integrate them into a

three dimensional model, put on your 3d graph and there is sitting in front of you and i was able to study the anatomy but i couldn't take it with me to south africa but at least i had seen it like a cab driver in new york city, if you have been there for a while driving through u.s. least have some impression of which way to go and which way not to go and in fact there came a point during that surgery when it was almost impossible to decipher which vessels went to which win and i was able to think back on those 3-dimensional images and figure out what was going where which i don't think that would have been able to do otherwise and it turns out that was the first case of complex joined type 1 vertical twins in which both

ended of neurologically intact. >> guest: you talk about being able to see in 3d. >> guest: people see in two dimensions lose someone who sees things in 3 dimensions is able to keep relationships in their minds. for instance i am looking at you, looking at a camera behind you, bookcase, all these various other things. 5 to close my eyes and spin around, economists 3-dimensional think iraq and imagine exactly where you are, where the camera is, where those books are, where the telephone is, and that is important when you are operating in a substance like the brain which doesn't have a lot of visual landmarks so you see one thing here, one thing here, and you have to utilize those things to tell you where everything else is, and patients come up, it is an important feature for

neurosurgeons. >> host: 1959, two things happened. talk about your father, what you told your mother you wanted to be when you grow up. >> guest: my parents got divorced one of his 18, that was devastating. like all little boys you just so thrilled when your dad comes home. i remember about the time -- run out to the alley, looking at the alley to see he was coming and go running up to him and your dad just about always is sort of your hero and he would let us drive, sit in his lap and steers the wheel. it was cool and i loved playing with the things on his hands, they were big and half that thug

and was cool. when it came time to getpopped thug and was cool. when it came time to get divorced i couldn't understand. she never bad not tim more told us the reasons the world enough to understand but he was a bigamist. he had another family. when he married her she was 13 and he was 28. that is difficult because he had the responsibility of trying to raise two younger sons on her own, in this city of detroit, later inner-city boston and back to detroit after she got her footing and that was very difficult. she only had a third grade

education. she worked very hard at cleaning people's houses, leaning at 5:00 in the morning, usually not getting back before midnight going from job to job job. for some reason she had the same for welfare in the sense that she was very observant and noticed that no one she ever saw go on it came off of it and she didn't like the idea of being dependent her whole life so she figured she would work as long and as hard as she needed to and somehow god would take care of her. i was an awful students, but i loved the concept of medicine. any time there was a story on television or radio about medicine i loved hearing about the story. interestingly enough the big

medical breakthroughs seemed to come out of johns hopkins. i even internalized as a little kid the one day i wanted to work at johns hopkins. i told my mother wanted to be a doctor. gee think i could be a doctor? she would always say you can be anything you want to be. you can be the best at anything you want to be because you are a smart boy. it took a lot for her to say that because i wasn't manifesting the characteristics of a smart boy. i was a terrible student. people call me jimmy. everybody else thought i was to the except for my mother. who was always telling me you are smart, you can do it, you can do it better than anybody else can. >> host: where did you go to medical school? >> guest: the university of

michigan. >> host: undergrad? >> guest: i went to yale. sort of interesting how all of that occurred but i was at southwestern high school in deflate, turns out i did extremely well on the s 80s and i had very good grades, i had become the city executive officer r.o.t.c. but i only had enough money to apply to one college so i decided to apply to the college that won the grand championship in college, my favorite tv program, yale won so i said ok, i will apply to yale and fortunately they accepted me with a scholarship but when i went to medical school at the university of michigan, i was thinking that is pretty tough. you are good. but i did horribly on the first

set of comprehensive exams, really bad. you seem like an intelligent young man, a lot of things you can do. i was not cut out to be a doctor. needless to say i was devastated. he said we can get you into another discipline. it has only been six weeks and you will not have wasted a whole year which seemed like a kind thing but i was devastated. i went back to my apartment and frayed and said lord, help me. i have always wanted to be a doctor. doesn't look good for me, help me. and i just started thinking about my whole academic career and said what kind of courses heavy struggled in, what courses to be done very well in and i realize i struggled in courses where i listened to a lot of boring lectures and did very

well in courses where i did a lot of reading. i was listening to for six to eight hours of boring lectures, not getting anything out of them, wasting that time. i couldn't afford to waste six to eight hours a day in medical school so i made an executive decision to skip the boring lectures and spent that time reading and the rest of medical school was the snap after that and some years later when i went back to the commission -- convince -- commencement speech looking for that counselor to tell me he wasn't cut out to be a counselor because so many people are so negative and there are ways looking for reasons to explain why you can't do something rather than helping you figure out why you can and that is one of the reasons i spent so much time trying to encourage young people, encourage them to read and excel academically and encourage them to use their talents to help other people, those are the

things that make for a great nation. >> host: your 2000 book "the big picture" you talk about skipping to 80% of your lectures in medical school. >> guest: absolutely. i don't want anybody listening to say benjamin carson said i should skip my lectures. i am not saying that. i am saying everybody learns differently. some people lectures are incredibly useful. some people it is repetition, some people it is discourse and conversation. it really depends. i always say to young people learn how you learn. >> host: dr. benjamin carson is our guest on booktv's "in-depth" program, he is the author of five books. in 1990 he wrote "gifted hands: the ben carson story," "think big: unleashing your potential for excellence" came out in 1996, "the big picture" in 2000,

"take the risk: learning to identify, choose and live with acceptable risk" came out in 2008 and his newest book "america the beautiful: rediscovering what made this nation great" was in 2011. benjamin carson, how do you get from "gifted hands: the ben carson story" to "america the beautiful: rediscovering what made this nation great" where you begin that book by asking the philosophical policy question, whether or not we are still following the vision of the founding fathers? >> very good question. i never intended to be an author. after the bender twin operation, a lot of people wanted me to talk about the operation and then they started wanting to hear about my background and people were just flabbergasted and it was kind of interesting how it all worked out, everybody gets their 15 minutes of fame.

my first fifteen minutes had to do with removing half a brain and my second fifteen minutes, a year later had to do with intrauterine surgery, operating babies in their mother's womb and i said to my wife if there is the third fifteen minutes power loss will probably change. the media isn't stupid and they will say isn't that the same guy? they will want to look into my background. i you kidding me? where did this guy come from? we all change and that is what happened and a lot of publishers started coming to me saying you should write a book. i don't want to write a book. after the tenth publisher i said i should write a book so i wrote "gifted hands: the ben carson story" and the initial publishers said this is a great autobiography. it will probably sell 14 or 15,000 copies which is really great for an autobiography and

sold well over a million. and then what about your philosophy, they wanted to know, how did all this happen? my philosophy is to think big. they mean something special so i wrote that book and i resisted any urges, any appeals to write another book for a few years, but then i started looking around and i was noticing that people seem to get caught up in little stuff and they miss the big stuff and they are just squabbling and using all their energy in the wrong places and i said i need to write another book, that was the impetus behind "the big picture" and a few years later i said there is something different going on in america. you go to the storage you buy a piece of electronic equipment

that may be costs $169 and they want to sell you this warranty the costs and other $150 for three years and you've got to have this and i am saying does that make any sense? if you put aside all the money you are paying on these warranties just put that in a separate account you can replace any thing you ever buy but we have become so risk averse that we easily fall prey to anyone who says this might happen, this might happen. i am aware of instances where they try to sell you call so-called we and insurance in certain parts of florida for $25,000 a year. think about it. if you take that $25,000 and put it into an account, in two years, that is $250,000. that will take care of any wind

insurance. you have $250,000, pretty sure the insurance companies don't like me saying this but that is the reality. you fray on people's fears and sometimes people lead their lives based on fear rather than based on courage so that is why i decided to write that book. and then the latest book, "america the beautiful: rediscovering what made this nation great," i should say the first four book for all written with professional courage, the latest book "america the beautiful: rediscovering what made this nation great" was written with my wife and the first one that never made it to no. one in the new york times best-seller lists and it is still on the new york times best-seller list. i was becoming increasingly concerned as a granddaughter now and another grandchild on the way and i have three sons, started worrying about their

future and looking at how america seemed to be changing from a can do society to what can you do for me society. and hearing a lot of people saying very negative things about america, looking at how some of the history is revised and i said let me write a book about america which has been the very good nation to me and give people real perspective on why this nation came into being and instead of rewriting history let me put in a loss of quotes from people who were involved so you can actually determine for yourself what they were saying and what they meant and it was quite an endeavor, but obviously if you look at the comments of people who have read it, it has

struck a chord. i am working on another book right now holds one nation basically the theme of which is the help america we are not each other's enemies. we have allowed ourselves to the ponce, to be manipulated by the media to be at each other's throats all the time rather than working together to solve problems. there are those who enhance themselves and enhance their positions by creating friction and creating their own little power base and we the american people have got to be able to see through that because a wise man once said house divided against itself cannot stand and we need the kind of leadership that brings people together and helps create a vision. the book of proverbs chapter 29

verse 18, without a vision the people perish. >> host: demand example what you mean by being upons? >> guest: perfect example. there are a group of people who have come along and said people who sit there and tell you you have to have the id are racist and trying to keep you from voting, stirring up people and getting them excited about something that is a non-issue anywhere else in the world. i travel a lot throughout the world and ask in every country have do you prevent voter fraud and they all have some form of national identification. it is not even an issue and to allow yourself to be whipped into a frenzy by people coming along saying that is a racist thing, that is so totally absurd.

i want people to really stop and think these things through rather than just allowing people to whip them up into a frenzy. the >> host: in "america the beautiful: rediscovering what made this nation great" you right capitalism is a system that works extremely well for someone who is highly motivated and highly energetic but it is not a great system for someone who is not interested in working hard or for someone who feels no need to contribute to the economic well-being of their community. >> guest: exactly. that is largely self explanatory. in a capitalistic system you work, you earn, you benefit. in a socialist system you work if you want, don't work if you don't want, everyone will take care of you. one kind of system is certainly very good for people who are energized and ready to work and

recognize those initially were the kind of people who were drawn to america because in england and other parts of europe and other parts of the world people would frequently worked extremely hard just for the government, they saw an opportunity where they could come here and use the same energy but it would accrue on to them and their families so you had that kind of motivated individual coming over here and they did work extraordinarily hard and they created a lot of products and then, you're doing a lot of stuff, i should get some of that. i protected you and everything and you started the basis of the tea party movement. at that time, people saying look, this is our stuff, we worked for this, we are the ones that did all the work, you don't

get it. that is okay. at the same time, i am very quick to add that those very same people who were motivated like that who came here, who created wealth for themselves also were very generous to the people around them. they created all kinds of things that benefited other people including factories and textile mills, charitable foundations, institutions of higher education, taking care of people who could not take care of themselves, hospitals, injuries, we have always done that and we have a duty to do that. that is our responsibility. some people say am i my brother's keeper? that is what cain said about able. i say yes, you are your brother's people. if your brother is unable to take care of himself than you do

have a responsibility to do that. we are human beings and which should have humanitarian qualities and we always have in this country and it is a complete falsification for people to come along and say we haven't done that. we are the most generous nation the world has ever known. >> host: in your book think big which is an acronym for talent, honest, insight, a life, knowledge, books, in depth knowledge and god, have you gone in trouble for the g in big: unleashing your potential for excellence"? >> guest: certainly. a group of lawyers came to us and said you can't put those up in a public-school because of the gee stands for god. and they said that is a violation of the first amendment, there can be no government support of religious expression. i said excuse me, the first amendment says that can be

innocent no government suppression of religious expression. i suggest we resolve it at the level of the supreme court which seems bold and reckless but it wasn't because i knew the next week i was going to the supreme court to receive the jefferson award and figured i would ask while i was there and i did at justice sandra day o'connor had no idea what the first amendment said, they had no idea what separation of church and state was. of course that was not a violation and what has happened is people have somehow distorted the meaning of our constitution and its amendment. there was never any intention that you could not have god in your life. there was never anything that says you can't talk about god in public. this is absolute absurdity but what has happened is the secular

progressive movement has be this drum so loudly that many people even in the legislature think that it is true, that you are not supposed to do that, somehow that violates something and it does not. i am a deep believer in separation of church and state. i understand why it was done, because in the old world in the name of the church there were a lot of state atrocities committed, no question about that, then there were circumstances when the state tried to control the church. there is no room for that in america, but there also is no room for intolerance of people's religious beliefs. >> host: 202 is the area code if you with apprentice vague, 585388 zero, 5853881 if you live in the mountain or pacific time zones, you can also if you can't get through on the phone line

send dr. carson the tweet@booktv is our handle, send an e-mail to booktv.org or send a comment on to our facebook page, facebook.com/booktv, right up there at the top in the comments section underneath the notice for dr. carson. i want to start with this e-mail from pamela bland who is a doctor in the washington area. my name is dr. pamela brand, a pediatric anesthesiologist at walter reed national military center in bethesda. my question is do you think you have become more jaded or more inspired over the past two decades? the reason i am asking this is you have become over the years a lot more vocal on your stands on issues. >> guest: i don't think i am either of those things. i am more concerned about what

is going on and recognize that there is no purpose in curing the organism and then putting it back into a sick environment. sometimes people think physicians should stick to madison. i don't generally hear people say that about lawyers for some reason. they think physicians should stick to medicine and i am quick to point out five physicians signed the declaration of independence and were involved in the bill of rights, the u.s. constitution. there is no reason we cannot think outside the operating room or the clinic. in doing so and looking at what is going on i have become extraordinarily concerned and i think all citizens should be concerned and our system of representation was a very good system the way it was put

together. there was supposed to be representatives, doctors, businessmen, farmers, teachers, drugstore voters, what have you, why? because you want all the interests to be represented. as we have become more homogenous in the sense of having representatives from one group or another as opposed to everybody, we get the representation, we also get a lot of representation of special interests, way more than we should and it has completely distorted the system of values in this country. i am almost to the point of saying we ought to consider a constitutional convention, talk about what is going on because it has been so drastically

distorted and there have been so many things that have changed. look for instance that federal court judge appointments for lifetime. when we put that in place people lived on average 47 years. that has changed pretty dramatically. should we look at that? should we look at things that have been affected by drastic changes in our society and adjust accordingly? there is some wisdom in doing that. >> host: tom from tampa, fla. ask what is your political future? >> guest: my political future is to continue to raise these issues, to continue to talk, i have been flabbergasted as i travel around the country. i retired july 1st, haven't had much retirement because i'm a different state every day but the enormous crowds, the great

enthusiasm of people who resonate whiff common sense. a lot of them tell me that if they thought they were the only ones who thought that way and they are happy to hear somebody else thinks that way. here is the interesting thing. the secular progressive movement is largely in sync with saul wednesday, if you read his book rules for radicals, good to talk about. number one rule, you get the majority to believe that their opinion is the minority opinion and yours is the majority opinion and did you corrupt media in the process you will be far ahead in the game and you can intimidate them into silence. what i would like to do is pull the veil off of that and get people to be courageous again and be willing to stand up for what they believe in.

and not allow the fabric of america to be changed without a discussion. if we can have a good, open discussion and not all the subterfuge and the majority of people who are well informed about the ideal say we don't want a country by the people, we want countries by the government and that is what the majority of people decide i willing to live with that. what i don't want is all the devious stuff going on where we change the country without a discussion. >> host: lawrence drek, dentist in new york city. much has been said regarding your political thoughts i have not heard much in the media regarding your decision to leave a still less logical career behind which just mentioned. unfortunately he writes i have seen too many of my colleagues at the peak of bear korea's leave medicine as well fighting the impending changes that the affordable care act will invoke?

>> my decision to leave medicine was in place before the affordable care act came into being and i stated years longer than i intended. someone told me neurosurgeons die early. i didn't believe it. i wrote down the names of the ten neurosurgeons, and it was 61. maybe i should think about doing something else but i became increasingly concerned about what was going on in the world and i knew i could not devote adequate time to it in an extremely busy narrow surgical practice. we have brought into the narrow surgical department at johns hopkins said incredibly talented

pediatric neurosurgeons so i didn't feel i had to go away and feel guilty about it and it was the perfect time. >> host: was february of 2013, you were on a national stage and we want to show the audience some video that and what was going on. >> what about our taxation system, so complex, there is no one who can come why and if i wanted to get for you i could get you on a tax issue, that doesn't make any sense. what we need to do is come up with something that simple. and the fairest and individual in the universe, god, has given us a system called time. we don't have to do it 10% but he didn't say if your crops fail

don't give me any time, he didn't say give me triple time so there must be something inherently fair about proportionality. make $10 billion and put in $1 billion, makes and billion dollars you put in $1 billion, get rid of the loophole. [applause] >> some people say that is not fair because it doesn't hurt the guy who made $10 billion as much -- where does it say you have to hurt the guy? he put $1 billion in the pot. we don't need to to hurt him. it is that kind of thinking that has resulted in 602 banks in the cayman islands. that money needs to be bank here, building our infrastructure and creating jobs. we are smart enough to figure out how to do that. >> host: dr. carson, where were you? >> i was in the zone at that

time. people say the president was just a few feet away from you. i wasn't really thinking about who was there. i was thinking about what i deeply believed and of benefit to the nation. taxation system as complex as ours and the precursor to the totalitarian society. if i don't like you and you are a really good guy and i can't find anything i can get you on a tax issue. i can do that. i don't like the system. we don't need to have something that is fair and simple. some people consider it fair to take from the rich and redistributed to the poor. on the surface that sounds pretty good. robin hood, great.

the problem with that is where do you read -- the fine rich or poor? and there's not a love variation in the definition. and the fighting system is so fair. you make very little. and the reason that it does seem fair is we have all these loopholes, and the ability of you have a lot of money to buy expensive tax lawyers and do all these manipulations and get out of paying taxes, that is unreasonable so you have to get rid of those loopholes and make it fair and it is extremely predictable, you don't have people trying to escape it, you don't have money offshore, you have the bank working where it should be working and i don't think we would have nearly the problem that we have if we would do that.

the other thing you have to remember, the example i use is the guy who put $1 billion in, even though one guy put in $1 billion more they have the same ones. you take a system of the other hand where half the people don't pay federal income taxes but they get to have a say in what the other half pace, give me a break. and in the process of doing that i think we will not have any limitation in the number of jobs that are created in the opportunities that are provided. as someone who grew up in the lowest rungs of society, to where they are now. the system still does although it is getting more difficult and i want to make sure it remains

easy for people who are willing to work extremely hard and do the right things to be successful in our society. >> host: what was the political reaction to your speech with the president sitting there? >> a lot of people were shocked. to me, that is alarming that we in america, the land of freedom would be shocked that someone would say something in the fresen is of the president that the president might not agree with. that tells you how far a stray we have gone. we should not be shocked about that but obviously the video went viral, virtually can't find anybody who hasn't seen it but that is okay and there was criticism from the secular progressive regions and the more traditional and conservative

reasons there was great praise. the wall street journal came out the next day benjamin carson for president. that was a little tongue in cheek but the fact of the matter is the response, the letters, the e-mails, the books, you barely get in the door and the thing that affected me the most were the letters i got from elderly americans, a lot that said dr. elderly american, i fought in world war ii, i was just waiting to die because i had given up on america until i heard you speak hands i got a lot of responses like that. therefore, i will continue to speak out because i want people to understand the nation that we

live in and i don't want them to be manipulated. >> host: in corpus christi, texas, you are on booktv with dr. randall one. >> caller: was an honor to address you this morning. what i wanted to comment on was regarding your earlier comments, of your counselor's tried to redirect in the medical field. i understand where you are coming from because when i was attending power jarvis told the same chain and my daughter was told the same thing by her high school counselor when my daughter mentioned she wanted to attend the university of texas and her counselors said you would be lucky if you can get into your most public or mobile community college offended her also and now she is in her junior year at the university of

texas and completed 15 hours successfully. my question is what can you tell the councilors out there that are listening, and what can you do, what can you tell them to change their way of thinking and addressing students and i hope we get to see you at the texas book fair hopefully later this year. it is an honor. >> host: what do you do for a living? >> i am a physical education coach. >> guest: i do want to say community colleges served a very important purpose in our society. they are great but as far as counselors, particularly counselors are concerned,

anybody with a normal human brain has enormous potential. the need to be looking at how do we cultivate that potential? that helps us in the long run and never try to dumb someone down or lead them into a place where they are not utilizing the tremendous potential that god has provided for us. a law when it will help you when you retire because you are going to have someone in the next generation whose very productive, allowing you to lead a much better retirement so let's try to push people aboard rather is an downward. >> host: please go ahead with your question or comment. >> caller: thank you for being here. do you believe that anything that happens since 1900 has helped the human race as far as

voting, fair wages, anything? >> host: what is your answer to that question? david? >> caller: yes. >> host: turn down your tv, what is your answer to the question you just ask? >> caller: i am flabbergasted that benjamin carson is able to sit here and the night that progressives have not had a hand in helping the human cause throughout history. we all want to succeed. i think that benjamin carson is slightly not leave when he sits around and talks about people

doing their best and knocking themselves out. >> it >> guest: i don't recall saying anything was not important or helpful. what you may be alluding to is the fact that i talk about the agendas certain secular progressives have, people who want to take god out of our society, they got lead principles out of our society and substitute their own principles. those people are perfectly welcome to be here as far as i am concerned but what i don't white kids when they try to thrust their opinions on to everybody else and keep other people from being able to express themselves and express their opinion. in terms of being able to help with women's suffrage, civil-rights, all those things, everybody has had 9 role in that. one of the things i don't particularly appreciate is when individuals come along and try

to castigate something i am saying by distorting it. >> host: with "america the beautiful: rediscovering what made this nation great," with your speech at the national prayer breakfast is this the first time you faced criticism? such as david? >> guest: not by a long shot. i am out there and i don't hide my opinion. i have been involved in medical -- when i first started advocating decompression which is the type of operation -- the first international conference in 1986, many of the world geneticists said your surgeons are the ones who cause these people to die and even at hopkins there were people against me doing this that now

it is something that is very well accepted and there was controversy around hysterectomies, controversies politically about my stands, my pro-life stands and things of that nature. i have faced that before and will continue to face and i don't have a problem facing it and i expect to face it and one thing i tell young people all the time is if everybody loves you and they love everything you do and everything you say you are probably not doing anything, probably not saying anything. >> host: next call from robert in mississippi. >> caller: how are you doing? nice talking with you today. in 1997-1998 i was in middle schools in mississippi and dr. carson came to speak to students at the school and i wanted to

know, was he making a national tour to come to different states in different schools because we also had to read his book and right research ports in middle school and i wanted to know was the plan on making those? >> host: what did you make of dr. carson's visit? >> this is the reason i am calling. one of the things that stood out to me in his boat was he had a name for a management problem and in my calendar that is one of the things with young people on the rise. and rising murders and found a way to challenge energy in directing and elsewhere and i wanted to know, that stuck out to me and i wrote on the topic but it was 97-98 so i don't remember but i want to know

could he bring that back to the united states and young people? >> host: tell the temper story as well. >> guest: i will. thank you so much. i have been traveling around the country giving talks for more than 20 years and getting involved in various community activities and charitable organizations which is one of the reasons, quite frankly, that the vast majority of people who know me a few months ago when certain progressives were trying to paint me as a homophobic knew that was a bunch of crap. it is very good when you have a lifetime to point out who you are as opposed to a short period of time or someone tries to castigate you.

having said that, extraordinarily selfish young person as an adolescent. and the more likely someone is to infringe on those so someone infringing on my right and i go after people with baseball bats, i would get in fights, once i even tried to stab another youngster with a knife. the scene is will be printed in the movie gifted hands which cuba good in junior plays my part. after that incident i locked myself in the bathroom and i started trying to contemplate my life and realized trying to kill somebody over nothing, seriously the range, i freight and picked

up the bible in the bathroom and had all these firsts about fool's, does that sound like me and a lot about a anger, no point getting angry and in trouble, get right back into. proverbs 16-32, miti is the man who control his temper and conference city and verse after verse, chapter after chapter seemed written for me and while i remained in the bathroom for three hours i came to an understanding that it was not a sign of strength to punch somebody or kick down a board. was a sign of weakness. it meant you could be controlled by other people and by the environment and i didn't want to be controlled but i came to understand it was my selfishness because somebody was in my space, taking my things, doing something to me. it is always about be. if you cannot step outside the center of the circle and let it be about somebody else, maybe that will change things and i

started trying that that day. never had an angry outburst since that time. >> host: in "america the beautiful: rediscovering what made this nation great" you right as a bible believing christian you might imagine i would not be a proponent of the gay marriage. i believe god loves homosexuals as much as he loves everyone but if we can read the fine marriage between two men two women or any other based on social pressures as opposed to between man and woman, we will continue to read the fine is in a way as though we wish which is a slippery slope with disastrous ending. >> correct and i stand by that and that is marriage has been, always should be between a man and woman and if you begin to read define it and i was asked that question and that gays could do that and other categories the point being there

is no group now or in the future that should get the chance to redefine it because if they do what keeps somebody else from coming along 20 years from now or 50 years from now, we want to redefine it? what right do you have to say no, that doesn't make any sense. the easier thing to do is leave traditional definitions alone but make whatever accommodations you need to make for other people and what i have always said is any two adults of any sexual orientation should have the right to engage in a legal ceremony if they want, create legal documents which give them visitation rights, property rights, whatever rights they would like to have that can be crafted in to the legal agreement, leaves marriage alone. you don't have to mess with marriage to do that.

and that is what is really fair. if we take one group and say you can change it for all of us how is that fair? what i'm talking about is treating everybody the same. >> host: joe is in north dakota, you are on booktv. the lead with your question or comment. >> caller: i am honored to have the chance to talk to you. >> guest: north dakota? that is the only of the 50 states i have not visited. >> caller: you should come up here. i am a farmer, 75 years old and the reason i really enjoy your talks. i have seen you entered you that morning and i am glad we have people like you with the backbone the stands up and talks truth, you are pro-life and against gay marriage and all these things and i want to tell you a little about my history.

we lost our dad when i was 10 years old, one brother was 9 months old, my mother was 34, we had three girls in between and we started out in the fire, my idea, i am not complaining, talking about working yourself on the latter. .. out of montana, nebraska, texas, and all over the country, and the attitudes i hear from older people are exactly like yours. we know what the real rules are. pertaining to the gun laws, they want to take the guns away. you know and i know and anybody with a common mind knows guns do not kill people. it's the people that kill people. >> host: jo we got a lot of information there let's hear from dr. carson. thanks for calling in. >> guest: well, certainly appreciate your hard work, and i'm sure that your hard work has resulted in a lot of opportunities for other people,

and that is one of the things that i have emphasized in these books, how we all have a role to play, how we work together and how, if we as americans care about each other, we're going to have the kind of society that truly is fair. >> host: you are watching booktv's monthlily in depth program. this month, surgeon and author, dr. ben carson. first book, "gifted hands: the ben carson exterior." think big in 1996. the big picture in 2000. take the risk, learning to identify, choose, and live with acceptable risk. in 2008. and his most recent, america the beautiful. rediscovering what made the nation grate. you mentioned earlier you're working on a new book. >> guest: yes. a new book that tentatively will be entitle "one nation." and again i want to make sure

that the people understand that we're not each other's enemies. we have to throw away this whole ideology that it has to be my way. i'm the only one who is right. as i said, in the national prayer breakfast, the recent an eagle can fly high and straight it has two wings, a left wing and a right wing and when they work together the eagle can fly extremely well and if weighted down one way or the other, you have problems. so, people only the left and people on the right, we need to understand that we live here together, and in terms of the big issues, for the most part we agree. i'm reminded of the movie "independence day" with will smith the earth was suffering this alien invasion. all of a sudden the arabs and israelis were working together. the americans and russians were working together. we need to start emphasizing those things we have in common

and then deal with the issues as they come along. i liken it to a ship that -- a passenger ship about do toe go over niagra falls and everybody is going to be killed and you get the crew and the passengers, sitting there looking over the edge and saying, look at those barn kells down there we ought to get those barn kells off the ship. and everybody dead. >> that begs a question, can we learn from the mistakes of the past and not good the way of other pinnacle nations like rome, et cetera? >> guest: and certainly no one else has ever learned. so, i couldn't argue vigorously against someone who says we can't learn from it and we must tear ourselves apart and good over the cliff. but i don't think it's true. i think there's something very

different about this country than any of the other countries that have come along. first of all we're the child of every other nation. we're a mosaic of the world. so we should have the interests of all the other pieces of the world at heart. because they really are our parents. secondly, this is a country that was founded on godly principle. and i think that makes a big difference in terms of how you look at the world, how you treat people, how you treat other nations, and we need, rather than be ashamed of that, be proud of that. every coin in your pocket, every bill in your wallet, says, "in god we trust." bud do we act like this? can't talk about god. come on. that's schizophrenia. people come along and say, gee, i wonder if i should say merry christmas.

somebody might by offended. give me a break. this is america. freedom of speech, freedom of expression, it's a salutation of the season. it's not something, i hate you and therefore i'm going to say this to irritate you. come on, we have to stop letting people manipulate us and whip us into a frenzy. it was not an issue 50 years ago. we just have to be a little more mature and let's deal with the real problems and not the artificial ones. >> host: next call from bob in livingston, montana. hi, bob. >> caller: i get so emotional listening to this guy. i just love the way he talks. my question is, have you studied the federal reserve? to me, this is the situation that is bringing down america. i've been in the money business all my life and i'm the age of

joe in north dakota and you can visit us first before them. but the federal reserve has got control of the irs, they're controlling everything, they -- the money is flooding all over the world. every nation now, they got have a central bank and it's killing us because it's not based on supply and demand. it's just printing paper. thank you. >> guest: yes, i have studied that, interestingly enough. a lot of people are really amazed all the stuff i stud yesterday and read about. i'm just a curious person. when we kind of decoupled the dollar from gold, during the fdr years, a lot of possibilities began to arise in terms of ways that currencies could be manipulated. the way that money could be printed. and evaluated.

right now, the name of the united states is the only thing that is really behind the currency. and it does provide opportunities for manipulation. i think it's something that all of our legislators need to be aware of. need to understand. they need to understand its history. and we need to understand the implications going into the future, and we need to be looking at ways that we can solidify the value of our currency and not devaluate it by continuing to print money. >> dr. ben carson, john wingate from minneapolis e-mails us we live in a hyper partisan era. if you juan for president as a republican, what changes in approach and message would you take to correct what you see as the party's errors of the past. >> guest: first of all i think both parties have plenty of errors. i could talk about that for

hours and hours. i'm not going to do that. gist want to boil it down to one big issue. and both parties again have been guilty of this. this country was designed as a place for, of, and by the people. now we are rapidly moving toward what the founders feared, and that is a country that is for, of, and by the government. and as the government increases, it infringes upon the rights of the people. that is a natural consequence. and we are kind of allowing it to happen and kind of sticking our heads in the sand or, in in some cases, not even noticing what is going on, and what i want to do is go back and look at the constitution. i want us all to pay attention to the constitution, because it is ingenious document.

it was -- the way it was put together, it almost looked like things would not work out for our nation. there was so much discord in the small starts and large states. everybody had different opinions how things should be done and who had what rights and before the thing broke apart, benjamin franklin, stood up before the whole assembly in 1787 and said, gentlemen, stop. he said, during the revolutionary war, every other word out of your mouth was, god save us, and he did. and now you don't even want to talk to him help said, let us get on our knees and let us ask god for wisdom, and they knelt down and prayed, and they got up and put together a 16 and one third page document known as the constitution of the united states. greatly admired document. that if we adhere to, we wouldn't be having nearly the

problems we have today. so, if i were ever in that position, that document would once again become very important to us. >> host: 2008 book "take the risk" you write: in talking to people like george lucas and ag galston i've come to the conclusion that the single most important determinant of the level of success a person achieveeses how he or she deals with the risks that career presents. >> guest: yes. well, there are people that i admire a lot. george lucas was -- his family was in the retail business, and that is where his father intended for him to go. but his heart was in film. and he was really kind of living hand to mouth. it was not a very pleasant situation for him.

and finally he got a break. somebody said i want you to direct this for me. i'll pay you $100,000. he said, i want to do my own thing. and he got his big break with american graffiti and then some other things and he continued to do his own thing, his own way. he stuck to his guns, and created an amazing empire, and entertainment for millions millf people throughout the world. ag gaston, a black man in birmingham, alabama in the '30s, '40s, and '50s, became a multimillionaire. and you say how does that happen in racism in i asked him. i had lunch with him. a great honor. i said, mr. gaston, how did you do that? and he said, it was simple. i opened my eyes. i looked around. i said, what do people need? and whatever it was, that's what

i did. and he said at that time, a lot of the people were very concerned about what kind of funeral they would have, and a $600 funeral was considered like really top of the line. so he started a funeral insurance business. he said, to elderly people, give me a quarter a week and i'll give you a $600 tune. a if you die tomorrow, if you gave me a quarter today, you get a $600 funeral. everybody was giving him quarters. he had so many quarters he didn't know what to do with them. he started a bank and life insurance company and it just went on and on. i've always felt that was just the coolest philosophy. you look around you, what do people need? you look at the great inventions that have occurred, that have improved our lives are it was because somebody had the same attitude and they did that. and that's what entrepreneurship, what america is all about. we need to encourage that

opposite again, and all of our policies should be directed at encouraging that. not at finding ways to take from this one and redistribute to this one. that's just not where we are or where we should be as a nation. >> host: edward, models stow, california, good afternoon. >> caller: good afternoon. thank you for taking my call. dr. carson, it's an honor to talk to you. my question is, i am an engineer, at the time when my wife became ill because of a heart problem, and she actually had a heart attack, she did not fit that bill, if you will, and it was due to hereditary. the issue that we ran into was that i had to give up my job in order to take care of my family. we ended up paying cobra, which was about $702 a month at the time. this is early 2000. and when i tried looking at other insurance companies, no

one would touch her with a ten foot pole because of the preexisting condition. and we were living in san diego, i was -- if we needed to move someplace else in order to have better insurance, the cheapest was in arizona and that was $1,700 a month. we're middle income, good salary and all that -- >> host: edward, what would you like the doctor to respond to? >> well, the cost of insurance from the standpoint of insurance companies, the medicines and things like that, it will bankrupt middle america. >> guest: no question about it. we have rapidly escalating costs of medical care and that was the impetus behind obamacare, that we could bring the price down. obviously that has not worked. the price has gone up. but it doesn't mean that we shouldn't have been looking at this issue.

one of the major pillars of the american healthcare system are insurance companies that make money by denying people care. that's fundamentally wrong. that's a conflict of interest. so, i don't have any problem with insurance companies making a profit, but i think it should be -- they should be nonprofit organizations. i don't think the idea of profiting on someone's health care in that manner, when you don't have anything to do with their health care, really, is fair. into we need to address that. but i think rather than some people being gleeful as obamacare is falling apart, we should all be sad it does not appear to be the thing that is working, but let's not say, see, i told you so, or, now, this is the only way we can go and just

got to keep jamming it through. no. let's stop and be reasonable. let's say, have we learn some things from trying item policemen this? absolutely. are there things we have known before? absolutely. can we work together? can we look at some models that have worked? and can we aapply those? can we use our collective intellect to actually solve the problem rather than making it into a political football? i talked at the national prayer break fast a system would work well. health savings account. ...

the amount of money that we give them for medicaid that gets divvied up and put into their hsa would give them credit in the at over the course of time.m and in some places in the world, you can actually transfer moneyo like let's say a husband needs a heart transplant, and it's going to cost 80,000, and he has 75,000 in his account. his wife can give the other 5,000 or his son or daughter, or his mother or father. less than a quarter of what ours is. and if you go and you talk to them, you'll find they're very happy. they can also with their health savings account buy catastrophic health insurance, buy bridge insurance. we would be able to do the same thing. we need to be able to look at these kinds of things. i think if we stop making it a

partisan issue and actually say let's fix this for the american people, we can do this. we absolutely can. >> host: dr. carson, in your book "america the beautiful," and the chapter "is health care a right," you write this: today to a large extent insurance companies call the shots on what they want to pay, to whom and when. consequently, even busy doctors operate with a slim profit margin and find it more difficult to offer care for the poor. i speak from personal experience because over the last many years i've had to cut my staff significantly due to low insurance company reimbursements. >> guest: yes. interestingly enough, you know, when i first started practicing medicine and, you know, it would come to my attention that there was a kid somewhere who had some horrible tumor or some cranial facial problem, you know, from this country or someplace else in the world and, you know, i'd

look at the case and i'd say we can help this person. and i'd say letsi just override the cost.ñrñi >> the budgets started tightening, as the insurance companies began to be able to pay only what they wanted to pay, the profit margin shrunk to the point where the hospital would go out of business if they continued to operate in that way, and i totally understand that and don't blame them at all. but we need to recognize that, you know, most people who go into medicine are very generous people, you know? years ago, you know, most practitioners, you know, 5, 10, 15% of their populace were

indigent people who couldn't care.ho couldn't pay.to d they took care of them anyway. life more tolerable for u them. and easy to practice medicine. >> host: andrew in celine, michigan, thanks for holding. you're on the air with dr. ben carson. >> caller: have you ever faced discrimination from within the black community for being successful, and if so, how have you dealt with that? and go blue. i'll listen off the phone. [laughter] >> guest: okay. well, certainly there have been people in the black community particularly in the media who have been critical of me, you know? they say -- i remember one guy saying he's an uncle tom. well, i don't get into that slime pit, but i did just mention to him i wonder if you know what that term actually

means? because uncle tom's cabin, by harriet beecher stowe, uncle tom was a sort of a go along to get along character, sort of doing the song and dance. he was not challenging anybody. and that's exactly the opposite of what i'm doing. so i recommended to him that he go back and actually read the story before he starts accusing people of things, and he doesn't know what he's talking about. but that's usually about as negative as i will get on people. >> host: from "the big picture," you write: many black people harbor racist feelings towards whites while most black racism i have witnessed is what i would term reactionary, an angry response to the discrimination they have experienced themselves. it is no less hideous and no less destructive than any other variation of this plague on our society. >> guest: absolutely. you know, racism, regardless of where it comes from, is evil. and, you know, we like to just

sort of pick one group and say that they're the racists. but i think anybody who looks at me and says, oh, he's a black man, so this is what he should be thinking, this is what he should be saying, i think they're racist. you know? whether they're conservative or whether they're liberal. i think they're a racist. you know, i'm an individual. and, you know, i was giving an interview on npr once, and the interviewer said, dr. carson, i notice you don't speak about race very often. why is that in and i said it's because i'm a neurosurgeon. and and she looked at me quizzically thinking, what the heck does that have to do with it? i said, when i take someone to the operating room and i peel that scalp and open the dura, i'm operating on the thing that makes that person who they are. the cover doesn't make them who they are. it really doesn't have a whole lot to do with what they are. and only those people who are

very superficial let the cover define the person. those people who are deep look at the content of the character, as martin luther king said. >> host: dr. carson, eighth grade, who was mr. mann? >> guest: mr. mann was the band teacher. and i tell the story of how, you know, i had turned things around. when i was in the fifth grade, i was a dummy. when i was in the seventh grade, i got to the top of the class, still in the top of the class in eighth. same kids that i'd been with in fifth grade, they had seen the transition, they were very impressed, and they accepted it. there was a special award that was given to the student who had the highest academic performance, and, you know, i was the only black student in the eighth grade. and you would take your report card around to the teachers, and they would put your grade on it.

and band was the last class. and i had all as. and i was going to be a cinch to be the top student. and mr. mann gave me a c even though i was a terrific student. i mean, he clearly just wanted to keep me from getting the top award. well, much to his consternation, it turned out that band was not counted. [laughter] so i still got the top award. and interestingly, and, of course, this scene is depicted in the movie also, when i was presented with the top award, there was one of the teachers who got up and chastised the other students. i mean, how could all of these white students allow a black student to be number one? now, recognize this was, you know, a long time ago, 50 years plus ago. and, you know, people were ignorant. you know? and there were a lot of people who just didn't even think that

a black person could possibly intellectually be the equal of a white person. and i don't say that that was necessarily because they were evil. i'm saying that that was the culture they were brought up in. that's what they knew, that's what they thought. and i then took it upon myself as my own issue to educate people. and i was always shocking people because, you know, they would mention something, and, you know, this 15-year-old come along and wax eloquently on the subject, and they'd be saying what is going on? i enjoyed shocking people like that. but the fact of the matter is, you know, discriminatory practices are based on ignorance. that's all it is. and that's why it's important to educate people. and as people become educated, the more educated they are the less superficial they are. >> host: and in "gifted hands" you also talk about being a

resident at johns hopkins and being mistaken for an orderly. >> guest: yes. when i first came back in 1977, you know, black doctors were extraordinarily rare, and there had certainly never been one on the neurosurgery service. so when i would go in the wards and have scrubs on, invariably one of the nurses would mistake me for an orderly. say, i'm sorry, mr. smith isn't ready to be taken to the operating room. and i'd say, well, gee, i'm sorry he's not ready, i'm dr. carson. and they'd turn about 18 shades of red, and i'd say, you don't need to be embarrassed, it's okay. it's fine. i'd be very nice to them, and i would have a friend for life because they very much appreciated my attitude on that. but the reason my attitude was that way is because, you know, i looked at the big picture. i said from the perspective of this nurse, the only black man to ever come on this ward with scrubs on was an orderly. so why would she think something different? now, if they do it a second

time, i might have a few words, choice words for them. [laughter] >> host: did you ever have patients refuse your service? >> guest: yes. again, when i first came to hopkins, there were patients who did not want their care by a black physician. and the chairman of our department, donald long -- who has a quaker background -- would always tell them the same thing: dr. carson is a prize resident, we chose him from among many, and if you're going to be in the this hospital, he's going to be involved in your care. and if you don't like that, the door is right over there. he was very consistent with that message. and it turned out not to be a big problem because he was consistent with that message. >> host: mo'nique in houston, thanks for holding. you're on booktv on c-span2 with dr. ben carson.

>> caller: yes, hi, dr. carson. >> guest: hi. >> caller: it's an honor to talk with you today. >> guest: my pleasure. >> caller: i have a question. i have spinal atrophy. i'm 40 years old, and i also have an older sister with the same disease. and i was wondering if you know if there's been any advances in the, in the scientific research in finding a cure for spinal muscular atrophy or any other type of muscular dystrophy. >> guest: okay. well, that would be a question that would be better directed to a neurologist who specializes in those areas. there is significant research going on in terms of how to use electronic apparatuses to stimulate and to -- and utilizing those along with brain waves to help activate limbs that are not atroughic or

contracted. and, therefore, it's very important to try to keep your limbs in very good shape because that kind of technology is advancing. will we at some point be able to control the way that stem cells work and be able to reinvigorate, you know, portions of the nervous and muscular system, i suspect the answer to that is, yes. so, but i would definitely defer to a neurologist who is an expert in that area. >> host: dr. carson, are you teaching at all? do you have any connection with hopkins still? >> guest: yes. i'm an emeritus professor and, yes, i still am on the schedule of teaching. you know, i have warm feelings towards johns hopkins. you know, some people say, well, you must hate hopkins because of the commencement situation. i don't. the decision to withdraw as the commencement speaker was my own decision. no one asked me to do it.

but, you know, i thought that the graduation really should be about the students and not about me, and it would have been a circus. so why put anybody through that? and i got so many e-mails from my colleagues and staff, approaching a thousand, of support, how much they appreciated what i've done, how much they enjoy working with me. most of them probably would not be public about it because, you know, there are people who are fearful. some of the students, some of the medical students sent me mails saying that they were fearful to show outward support because they felt they might be penalized. i don't think the administration would do that, i really don't. but the fact that people actually have that fear is concerning to me and something that we probably should concentrate on. >> host: for people who don't know, what is the commencement situation? >> guest: well, you know, i was asked to give the commencement address at the johns hopkins

school of medicine this year and also the school of education. and because of the situation with gay marriage and my definition as that between a man and a woman, some of the media that doesn't particularly like my stances tried to say that i was comparing gay marriage to bestiality, which i was, of course, not. but they knew that if they could paint me that way, it would demonize me. and, you know, that took root with a few students, and they created, you know, some turmoil and protest. anybody, again, as i say, who knows me knows that there's not a homophobic bone in my body, you know? but what i do care about is freedom and justice for everybody, and i do have principles and standards which i hold. and they, i will readily admit

derived from my belief in god. and, you know, i'm not apologetic about that. but at the same time, i do make it clear that what i try to exercise is real tolerance. so even though, you know, i'm not an advocate of gay marriage, i have no objection whatsoever to gay people or other people or anybody, quite frankly, doesn't want to be engaged in a traditional marriage, but they do want to have a close association, they do want to have many of the benefits associated with marriage. i don't have a problem with that. and, you know, sometimes people just cannot get their head around the fact that unless you totally agree with the way that i want it, then you're this or that. and, you know, the example that i frequently use is i say, you know, a lot of the people who

advocate gay marriage are like a new group of mathematicians who come along and say two plus two is five. and the traditional mathematicians say, no, it's four, it's always been four. and the new ones say, no, it's five. we insist it's five. so the old ones say, okay, for you it can be five, we're keeping it as four. and the new ones say, no, it has to be five for you too. and, you know, this kind of intolerance, i think, is something that we need to get rid of. and we need to treat everybody equally. >> host: well, recently tanya davis who is the producer of this program, visited dr. carson at his house in suburban baltimore to learn how he write ands where he writes, and here's a little bit of that.

>> guest: most people don't really understand, you know, how it works with books. a lot of people write books, and then they spend the next two years trying to get somebody to publish their books. i've never really experienced that. so when people come to me and say how do you get a book published, i say, look -- [laughter] i'm the wrong person to ask. but, you know, i finally felt that really i had something to say. i don't write books just for the purpose of writing books. the first three -- four books, actually, i did with a co-writer. and basically i would sometimes dictate into a tape recorder and then send them the tapes, and then they would, you know, transcribe things. this last book i did myself with my wife. you know, she did a lot of the

research and, you know, helped with the editing. and, of course, she's quick to point out it's the first one that hit number one on "the new york times" bestseller list. [laughter] but actually i enjoy very much working with my wife. so, certainly, i'll be doing that from now on. fortunately, it does tend to come pretty easily. it's very much like speaking. when i give a speech, you know, i don't have a written text. i just go up there, and, you know, i survey the situation, i ascertain what kind of audience we have, and, you know, i'll have a few points that i want to make sure that i make which i might have written on a card, but i just start speaking. basically, i same way, you know? i'll have a chapter title, and i'll write down some bullet points about what i want to say,

and i'll order them. i just start dictating. and so it's very much, you know, what's on my heart. you know, i always pray and i ask god to guide me in my writing, to give me wisdom in terms of what points need to be brought out. and i think he does a pretty good job of that.

>> host: dr. ben carson, who is lucina rustin? >> guest: that happens to be my wife of 38 years. [laughter] most people know her as candy. and, you know, we met at yale. we actually were recruiting for yale in detroit. it was a way that we could get to come home for thanksgiving, because neither one of us had enough money to do that, and they would pay for a trip back home. and while we were recruiting, we came to recognize that we really

did like each other quite a bit. and interestingly enough, when we were on our way back to school, we were in a rental car, and we had to get it back the next morning, and we were driving from ann arbor, michigan, to new haven, connecticut. and we were just going to drive all night. and, you know, she fell asleep and i fell asleep at the wheel going 90 miles an hour on interstate 80 in youngstown, ohio. and i was awakened by the vibration as the car was going off the road heading for a ravine. and, you know, i just grabbed the wheel, spun be it, and the car actually started spinning like a top. and they say your life passes before your eyes before you die. i vividly remember it. it was like a movie, just rapidly going true. and i said, i'm going to die. there are and the car stopped in the lane next to the shoulder, and just in time to pull off before an 18-wheeler came

barreling through. and, of course, candy was awake by that time, and, you know, we started talking, and we said you know what? the lord spared our lives for a reason. and he's got something special for us to do, and that was the night we started going together. >> host: 202 is the area code if you'd like to dial in and participate in our conversation with author and neurosurgeon dr. ben carson. 585-3880 for those of you in the east and central time zones, 585-3881 if you live in the mountain and pacific time zones. @booktv is our twitter handle, also make a comment on our facebook page, facebook.com/booktv or an e-mail, booktv@c-span.org. dr. carson is the author of five books beginning in 1990 his autobiography, "gifted hands: the ben carson story" came out.

"think big: unleashing your potential for excellence" came out in 1996. "the big picture" came out in 2000. "take the risk: learning to identify, choose and live with acceptable risk" came out in 2008. and "america the beautiful: rediscovering what made this nation great" came out in 2011. mike in albuquerque, new mexico, you have been very patient. please go ahead with your question or comment for dr. carson. >> caller: hey, dr. carson. i was advised by a va hospital chaplain not to talk about my sexual orientation with doctors and nurses at the va because a lot of the employees at the va are very conservative, and i would not receive the same level of care. because of homophobia. do you think home phone ya's a real thing -- homophobia's a real thing in the medical profession and in society?

>> guest: well, i think certainly it has been in the past. i think as people have gotten to know people who are gay and in the many cases didn't know that they were gay at first and recognize that they're regular people, you know, i have worked with, hired, dealt with gay people for years, and, you know, there's absolutely no reason, i tell anybody, to be homophobic. at the same time, i would also say to those in the gay community don't assume that someone is homophobic just because they believe in traditional marriage. i think that is a real stretch and probably not a fair assessment. >> host: next call is tom in chapel hill, north carolina. tom, you're on booktv on c-span2. >> caller: thank you. dr. carson, would you please explain to your audience why you

repeatedly use the term of secular progressive? my wife and i are progressives, but our religion informs every political and social belief and thing we do. so why do you constantly use that term? thanks very much. >> guest: all right. well, first of all, if you are, in fact, a believer in god, then you're not a secular progressive. you may be a progressive, but you're not a secular progressive. and secular progressives, i use that term, they're people who tend not to believe in god and whose social views are informed by their nonbelief and their substitution of their own code of ethics. >> host: wayne, bakersfield,

california, good afternoon. >> caller: good afternoon. thanks for taking my call, dr. carson. you had mentioned earlier about -- you had mentioned earlier about the fact that if you ran for or became president, you would get back to the basics with the u.s. constitution, and i was wondering how we got away from all of that in the first place. is it something we did by not being more involved with our government? or is our government kind of in reality taking on a life of its own and really not paying attention to what the constitution really means and stands for? thanks for my call. >> guest: okay. well, i think both of those things are true. we have not been vigilant, and you have to recognize that freedom is not something that's thrust upon you. it's something that you have to seek. and something that you have to maintain. the natural order of things that

government withs grow. they expand -- governments grow. they expand. they take on a life of their own. you know, the founders of this country warped us severely -- warned us severely against that, and they tried to put in place a constitution that would restrain the growth of government. but we actually have allowed people in all three branches of our government to ignore the constitution, and they see no consequences for doing that. we, the people, are the ultimate authority. they work for us. but if we neglect our responsibilities, then they can do anything they want to do. we need to wake up. we need to know what the voting records are of our representatives, and particularly, you know, people in the executive branch of government. we need to hold them

responsible. if we don't do it, they will simply take liberties. the other thing that's interesting is one of the real pillars of a strong democratic society and a free society is a free press. and a free press that is free of bias, that will report things fairly on either side. this seems to be something that is being lost in our society. and if the press takes sides, doesn't really investigate what one side is doing, but totally castigates the other side, what it does is it empowers the side that they're taking to begin to disregard a lot of the portions of the constitution and to take on their own mantra of

authority. and that, in the long run, is detrimental to all of us. and it's my hope and prayer that the press in our nation will come to its senses soon and recognize that if the whole nation goes off the cliff, they're going off too. and i know a lot of those guys, and they're pretty smart. and i think they will actually come to that realization. the question will be, will it be in time? >> host: an e-mail to you, dr. carson: are any of your sons also doctors? >> guest: i have three sons. my oldest son, murray, is an engineer. specializes in nanotechnology. my middle son, benjamin jr., lives in the financial world. he's vice president of a financial firm. does a lot of investment banking. and he's networked everywhere. and my youngest son, royce, is

an accountant. and i have one granddaughter who's the cutest little thing that you could ever imagine. she was born on leap year -- on leap day last year. and the way i understand that it works is they have a birthday every year until they're 30, and then it's once every fourth year after that. [laughter] >> host: where was ben carson jr. born? >> guest: ben carson jr., or bj as we call him, was born at home. it was not intended that way. but, you know, my wife had been in a marathon that day, but. >> she only walked. other people were running. but she also took some -- [inaudible] my mother had known some greens. unbeknown to us at that time, it has an ingredient in it that mid

wives used to use to induce labor. [laughter] so about two in the morning, you know, my wife awakened me and said the baby's coming. and i said it doesn't work that way. i said, see, what happens is you start having contractions ten minutes apart and then five and then two minutes, and then we call the hospital -- she said i understand all that, but the baby's coming. [laughter] i looked, and the baby was crowning, so we had to deliver the baby at home. and he's been in a hurry ever since then. >> host: randall's in seminole, florida. hi, randall. >> caller: hi, i how you doing? it's an honor to speak with you, dr. carson. >> guest: thank you. >> caller: thank you for all the young lives you've save inside the operating room as well as the other ones you continue to save with all your inspiration to others. i had the pleasure and honor of meeting you at least 15 years ago in florida on a black-on-black crime seminar, and i remember almost everything you said on that day. i remember you talking about

touring a tennis shoe factory, i believe it was in vietnam, and how you had dissected the tennis shoes because one was priced at a very high rate, and the others were priced much cheaper, and they were identical on the inside. and i was quite impressed with that. >> host: randall, why were you at a black-on-black crime seminar? >> guest: i was a community police officer in a predominant african-american community at the time, and i went there for training. that was probably one of the greatest and most honorable positions i ever held in law enforcement was to be actually part of the community as opposed to just going and enforcing laws. we started quite a few programs helping out the youth, cleaning up the neighborhood, taking what their concerns were and trying to solve them as best we could. >> guest: wonderful. >> host: randall, how close are you to sanford, florida? >> caller: that's quite a distance. do you know where tennessee is,

st. petersburg? >> host: yep. >> guest: i'm one city in next to st. petersburg. >> host: so i take it you're white? >> caller: i am. >> host: what's your take on the zimmerman/trayvon martin case? >> caller: quite honestly, i think it was kind of sad the way that mr. zimmerman was treated. he did what we ask of almost all of our citizens whether they're black, white or of any race, is to take your head out of the sand and pay attention to what's going on in your community. i think he saw something that looked suspicious to him, i think he did what he thought was right, and it's just unfortunate, the outcome. i think that had some of the other citizens in that community gotten involved that were looking out their windows seeing what was happening, or had they just stepped outside and simply yelled the police are on the way, i believe that mr. zimmerman would not have been beaten, and i think trayvon would still be alive.

>> host: dr. carson, you recently wrote an op-ed in the washington times about this case. >> guest: yeah. you know, my point about that op-ed was that, you know, some people are calling boycotting florida because of the outcome of the zimmerman trial. they were not satisfied with the verdict. and that, in fact, the use of boycotts should not be taken lightly, and i talked a little bit about the history of boycotts with the montgomery bus boycott and how effective it can be. not to throw that term around loosely. but i also talked about the fact that, you know, people in neighborhood watch -- and we should be learning everything we can from this situation. and neighborhood watches can be really quite useful when they're used in conjunction with the police and when they are well trained by the police. i think in the case, in the trayvon martin/zimmerman case

there probably was more training that could have been done. because what happens and what i've known as a youngster growing up in the ghetto is that when somebody starts following you at nighttime, you know, that's usually a serious situation, and you go into fight or flight mode. and then, you know, they're right upon you, and, you know, you make that choice. and what most policemen will tell people in a neighborhood watch is that you don't actually approach an individual, you yell out to them. and say who you are and then ask them who they are and what they're doing there. from a distance. and most of the time the answer will be quite satisfactory, but if it isn't, then, of course, you call the police. and that, perhaps, if we can make sure that neighborhood watch people know that throughout the nation, we can avoid this kind of situation

from occurring again. so let's always learn from a situation. if either mr. zimmerman or mr. martin had sort of backed down or perhaps had, you know, less of a confrontational stance, i don't think we would have been looking at this tragedy. having said -- and the other point that i made is that, you know, knowing that this case was going to be highly scrutinized and very controversial, i think it would have been wise for the legal counsels on both sides to perhaps try to create a little more diversity in the jury. this is not to say that the jury came up with the wrong verdict at all. but you have to be concerned about optics and about the feelings of people throughout your community. all of these things are important, and there's a way to do it which i think works better for everybody. >> host: in several of your

books, dr. carson, you talk about -- or you mention jesse jackson, reverend jackson. do you have a relationship with him? >> guest: well, certainly i've met him, and i think a lot of the things that he stood for years ago when he was working with dr. king were extremely admirable things. and i think he has certainly made a contribution. >> host: april 1968, you were in high school the day martin luther king was shot. what happened? >> guest: well, you know, that day is still so vivid in my memory. students, the black students were just incredibly angry. and many of them were going around in groups looking for any white person they could find and just beating the tar out of them. and, you know, i was very

concerned, and i happened to be the lab assistant, biology lab assistant. i had a key to the lab, so, you know, i was getting white students into the lab and locking the lab so that they could hide until the whole thing was over. you know, i was very disappointed and angry, too, that dr. king had been killed. you know? as a teenager, i followed what was going on with the civil rights movement with great interest. but in no way was i at a point where i was ready to blame all white people for that. and i think that just maybe demonstrated the christianity part of me. you know, i recognize that christ died for everybody. god loves us all. and, you know, to try to lump people into categories based on

superficial qualities is really the height of irresponsibility. >> host: yolanda is calling from here in the suburbs, upper marlboro, maryland. hi, yolanda. >> caller: thank you for listening, dr. carson. >> guest: absolutely. >> caller: i greatly admire your courage in speaking out for nothing more except about speaking about what is important to an individual. and i agree with you about not being a respecter of persons when it comes to one's conscience. so i believe all persons believe to be respected for tear honesty whether -- for their honesty whether they agree with me or not. so my question is it's not necessary for me to know what your future plans are, but what is your next step in protecting people's rights, and how can i support you? >> guest: all right, well, thank you. right now, you know, i'm writing books, i'm doing an incredible amount of public speaking,

probably too much. you know, i'm working with our scholarship program. we're in all 50 states now. basically, we try to take children from all backgrounds who achieve at the highest academic levels and also demonstrate humanitarian qualities. they have to have both compounds. we don't want people who are just smart and don't care about somebody else. and we put them on the same kind of pedestal as we do the all-state basketball players and the all-state wrestlers. i don't have anything against sports and entertainment, don't get me wrong. but what will maintain the position of our country? the ability to shoot a 25-foot jump shot or the ability to solve a quadratic equation? so we've got to prioritize, and that's the purpose of that. and we also put in reading rooms all over the country, and we particularly target title i schools where a lot of kids come from homes with no books, they go to a school with no library. they're not going to learn to love reading. those are the ones who frequently drop out. we can't afford that.

you know, this is the information age, the technological age. we cannot afford to lose any of our students. so we've got to figure out ways to really work with them and put the dollars where they really count and make a huge difference. so doing that and continue with some academic pursuits, and, you know, i'm doing a fair amount of appearances on television. but, you know, largely what i'm trying to do is help to change the dynamics in our country and get away from all of this hatred and spite and help people to recognize that we're not each other's enemies and that if we learn how to work together, there's amazing things that we can accomplish. >> host: have you been approached to run for office? [laughter] >> guest: many times. a lot of people feel that that's in my future. my personal opinion is that, you know, i can do a lot of good

outside of the political arena. politically, i'm an independent. i have a lot of friends that are republicans, i have a lot of friends that are democrats. to me, the r or the d doesn't matter. i really would like to de-emphasize that and really start talking about the problems that we have. >> host: well, tony hall from south lake tahoe, california, e-mails in: i am a teacher in a court-mandated high school inside a juvenile hall. i know that you had a tough childhood. what words or advice would you have for my students? >> guest: very good question. and thank you. thank you for your service. working with those young people. and the police officer who called before, thank you. you know, i -- teachers and police officers are some of my favorite people along with nurses, and they do great service and frequently are not

recognized. now -- and, by the way, as long as i'm being nice to everybody -- [laughter] happy birthday, mr. president. it's president clinton -- president obama's birthday today. he's 52. those students, here's what i would say. the average person today lives to be about 80 years old in this country. the first 20-25 years you spend either preparing yourself or not preparing yourself. if you prepare yourself, you have 60 years to reap the benefits. and if you don't prepare yourself, you have 60 years to suffer the consequence. now is the time when you are making that decision. you are the only one who gets to do it. you .. >> host: laura tweets in: a friend of hers' daughter got a

ben carson scholarship, and it was great, really special. what is a ben carson scholarship? >> guest: well, first of all, congratulations to that young lady, because it is very hard to win. [laughter] you've got to be really smart. but it's what i was talking about, you know? our fellowship program, we're in all 50 states. and we acknowledge, it's really more of a recognition program for students and we acknowledge, more of a recognition program for students starting in the fourth grade, they have to have a 3.75 grade point average to be considered. most of them have 4.0 or better. and they have to have sustained demonstrations that they care about other people, can't just be six weeks before the application is do and they get

money put into where they see each year, they got the money entrance. and out there with the sports trophies they get a special metal to where and go to a banquet. we frequently have adults will models that these banquets, incredibly impressive individuals that everybody would know, people they should try to emulate and now we are in the process of trying to network people across the nation so that they actually know each other and can you imagine the effect in ten years when there are 100,000 incredibly smart young people who care about other people and i networked together. i want us to get the country

moving the right way before us and i think we have the possibility of doing that. >> host: columbia, md. e-mails to you why did america select obama twice? is it good for the country or not? >> guest: that is obviously a very philosophical question. >> host: you discuss "america the beautiful: rediscovering what made this nation great". >> guest: i will say in 2008 the things the president was saying were very attractive to anyone, get rid of all this partisanship, have the transparency, get rid of special-interest groups. that guy sounds really really good. obviously none of those things happened but you can certainly

understand why the first election took place. the second election was a matter of people thinking he didn't do that great a job but i am not sure like this other guy either, half a dozen one way, six the other way, i don't think they really felt things would change that much either way. couple that with an extraordinary campaign, campaign staff, campaign mechanism, extremely articulate and compelling speaker, and also have to recognize a lot of people in america today just have not informed themselves to

the degree that they should. the founders of our nation said the kind of america we are looking for and to create is based on a well-informed and well educated -- if the populists ever becomes less than that, the nature of the nation will change because people will decide to what they believe based on what pundits say and based on what a candidate says instead of on what they do and this is the problem on both sides. i am not saying one side is any better than the other side but what i am saying is we the people have to be responsible. we have to know what we are doing. look for the name that looks

familiar, don't just look for the d and the are, make sure you know what you are doing. a lot of people want me to run for the senate in maryland against senator ben cardin who i know. can you imagine how confusing that would have been for voters, ben carson, ben cardin? i can't tell you how many people say hi, dr. cotton. we just have to be more with the game than that. >> host: "gifted hands: the ben carson story" came out in 1990, "think big: unleashing your potential for excellence" came out in 1996, the "the big picture" in 2000,

risk: learning to identify, choose and live with acceptable risk" in 2008, "america the beautiful: rediscovering what made this nation great," and a new one on the way, one nation. when will we see that? >> early in 2014. >> what is your publisher? >> guest: the religious branch of harpercollins, publisher for the new book will be pen when. i just thought that there was an opportunity to reach a different audience. >> host: george in miami, please go ahead with your question or comment for benjamin carson. >> caller: a pleasure to listen to you. i was a young man growing up in brooklyn when martin luther king was killed, and i remember quite vivid lead at the young man, the italian boy and was chased home

by a gang of black youths and rushed next door and through a garbage can through the window and next thing i knew, came out with shotguns flying in the air, everybody scattered, these guys left, that was it. but getting back to florida, i am in miami now, you were talking about trayvon martin. i personally think he got away with murder. my father is black, my mother is white, and i don't know of either one of the more or less than the other so i don't think you could call the police and tell you not to follow someone and you follow them anyway and shoot them in the heart and claim self-defense. anyway, dr. carson, like i said, i moved to miami in 1987 and

came down with spinal meningitis and the same year i came to miami, i had brain surgery, i was in the hospital for three months. >> host: we are a little tight on time. was would you like the doctor to respond to? >> caller: it was about the cranial -- i wanted to ask him my mother is 82 years old and has alzheimer's. does that have any increase or decrease my chances? >> host: we got a lot of information there. >> guest: there is a hereditary predisposition, and progress is

being made and my mother too, i sympathize and hope there is not a huge hereditary component, but you have to recognize there are good things and bad things to be taken out of that. at the last turn of the century, live in 47-49 years old and now we're looking at 80 so alzheimer's could potentially have been an issue back then but most people never got to that age so in a way it is sort of a badge of progress but at the same time a lot of scientists are working very hard. having spent my whole career in medicine i am acquainted with people who are beyond belief smart and are coming up with all kinds of things every day so to me i am very encouraged.

>> host: rob in washington, good afternoon. >> hello. i wanted to thank you for the information you have provided people throughout the united states and the world's. i believe one of the greatest presidents we had was ronald reagan and one of the reasons was because he inspires but also had a very pragmatic way of looking at things and i think that you have many of those qualities and i would like you to -- encourage you to think about the presidency of the united states. the only other person i see with the same balance is marco rubio and i think he is another great leader and i will take your comments off the air. >> guest: thank you very much. if i had a nickel for everybody who said i should run for president i could sign that for

my campaign. as i have also said, until i fulfil got grabs me by the cholera won't do that but i will be continuing to speak out, continuing to be supportive of anyone regardless of their party who opposed the principles of freedom, prosperity in this country and has value systems consistent with our founding. >> host: a little bit more of benjamin carson's writing, this is from "the big picture," we have to learn what matters most is not how we view ourselves as a democrat or republican, rich or poor, black or white, tall or short, success or failure this, what truly matters most in this world is to we are in relation to the one who created it. you are a seventh-day adventist which is what?

>> guest: protestant denomination, most people don't know much about them, they say you guys don't except blood-changes, and that is jehovah's witnesses. anything they heard strange about somebody, that is you guys, that is not us. seventh-day adventists are people who believe in the entire bible, without just -- doesn't really count. including the fourth commandment which talks about the sabbath. we don't believe the sabbath was changed. some people do believe constantine had the authority to change the sabbath from saturday to sunday. looking to the bible we have not found evidence anybody except god gets to make that declaration. and then like other protestants and other regards we believe

jesus christ died for everybody and loves everybody and god is the ultimate authority and we should live a life consistent with the principles he put forth. >> host: services are on saturday. >> guest: services are on saturday also like many, services for me are everybody--every day. >> host: several similar tweets and e-mails, this one is from that guy. as a native of detroit here, what do you think about the city's decline in bankruptcy and do you see any hope? >> i definitely see hope. obviously i am torn about what is going on in my home city. no matter what happens -- i was able to get in detroit what i needed to play on the world stage and those things still

exist in detroit, sometimes more difficult to find but detroit is a great example of what happens when you have a complex society and you don't control it with the right kind of leadership. a lot of people say the unions destroyed detroit, did the unions player role in it? what did unions do? in the old days there were terrible working conditions, people were not receiving the appropriate wages, things like that, and unions were desperately needed and i applaud what they did. as those kinds of roads became less important, a lot of unions just began to focus on what is good for their members, not necessarily looking at what is good for the society at large.

they continued to ask and receive and to take without regard to the fact that they were strangling the goose that laid the golden egg. it is not their fault because upper management and a lot of the big three automobile industries are culpable because these guys are not stupid, they are smart, they are able to project into the future and they knew that the concessions they were making would come back to roost one day, they would have their golden parachute and would be long gone so they bear some responsibility here too and again that is why it is so important that people work together, don't sit around and led one group demonize the other group. usually there is culpability all-around but if we learned to discuss these things we learn to look at things both short-term and long-term and learn to explain that to people and that

is the missing part. we don't explain things to people so they don't know what is going on and some people to their credit will do research and find out stuff and are very informed and intelligent and for a lot of people, a lot more interested in dancing with the stars. we need to make sure we distills things so they can understand them appropriately. >> host: how many speaking agents do you have a year? >> guest: running over a hundred. >> host: you enjoy them? >> guest: i very much enjoy them. i love being out with people, my wife goes with me to all of them and i have been overwhelmed by how many wonderful people are out there in blue states, red

states, everywhere, all types of groups and if we can just get people to stop being enemies i think my life would have been very successful. >> host: does luciano ruston enjoy going with you and enjoy interaction of the publicity? >> yes. lot of people tell me she is my best to. she is very outgoing, absolutely wonderful person. i fave god every day for. >> host: musician. >> guest: she is a musician. when we first met, psychology major, music major and premed. >> host: at yale. >> guest: at yale and she met -- what madison go thankfully and just a terrific musician, gets involved in all kinds of musical things. all the kids grew up musically, one was a cellist and won an

oboist and one of violinist and shea had a string quartets. obama times this string quartet would come along and filet -- play. >> host: dr. carson reports he used to do 450 brain surgery is the year back when he was practicing. do you miss surgery at all? >> guest: i miss what surgery could accomplish. it might come as a surprise to many people but i don't really like surgery. i don't like the sight of blood. but i love what can be accomplished. some people say you are a surgeon. would you rather have a surgeon who likes the site of blood? in terms of missing medicine, i do miss medicine particularly the way it used to be.

away it was becoming when i left i don't miss. i am hopeful that we can come up with the system, harkening back to my earlier comments, that really works for everybody. we pay twice as much per-capita for health care in this country then the next closest nation, and what a mess we have. it is not because we haven't allocated enough money, not because we don't care, it is because we have a very ineffective and inefficient system and i think we can fix it and we can do it together. it does not have to be a partisan thing. one obamacare was being brought up by talked to a high administration officials. everyone would know the name of 5 mentioned it. and i said there are some good things about this program that i think pretty much everybody

could agree with. why not put those things out there as the first stage and let's incorporate them into what we do and this will be bipartisan and continue to work together to build this into something that really works because if you push it through with just one party in a very partisan way, you are going to alienate the other party and never get any cooperation from them and i said you are probably going to lose the house, you may lose the senate and you are going to create nothing but chaos and animosity. this person said you are probably right. but this is washington and this is politics. when you have attitudes like that, how in the world are we ever going to get our problems fixed? everything is political.

we can do better than this. i am positive. >> host: what part of the affordable care act do you support? >> guest: pree absolutely no reason people with preexisting conditions should not be cared for appropriately. that is very good, like time limits, to tell somebody your life is only worth so much, after that good bye, that was ridiculous. we needed to get rid of that. i am not superenthusiastic about leaving kids on their parents's built until they are 26. i think we need to be doing everything we can to get them off of it. at the same time, i am sympathetic to the terrible job market that is out there and at the same time i feel that the

job market doesn't need to be nearly that terrible if we did some logical things. we have the highest corporate tax rates in the world and we sit here and complain that companies are doing business offshore and that demonstrates a fundamental lack of understanding of capitalism. businesses form to make money. businesses are not formed to support the government and some people don't seem to understand that. so let's understand that and do what every other nation has done, bring their corporate tax rates down. even our neighbor to the north, canada, cut substantially, and would happen? things that are going up. we are smarter than that. we talk about it and you talk to the republicans and they say it is too high, democrats say is too high but do we do anything? no. by the same token, we need to bring individual taxes and

businesses for small business down to a level where people feel they are working for themselves and not the government. that what caused the initial revolution. is there anything to learn from that? i think there probably is. tampering with everybody, getting into everybody's business, this is a problem. the fact that the irs is targeting people, targeting organizations, we should be completely outraged but we have gotten so used to stuff, that is terrible, okay, what is on tv, it is unbelievable and that is why it continues. we are not doing anything about it. >> host: cindy in missouri, rhode in michigan, as a pro-life neurosurgeon what is your opinion of embryonic stem cell research and stem cell research in general? >> stems cell research is very

important and i think it will have tremendous ramifications as we learn how to use it. it was a little bit overpromised quite frankly. the interesting thing is in the scientific community we are finding that it is actually easier to control adult stem cells, cells that were mature, differentiated back to a potential stage where they could be redirected as opposed to embryonic stem cells which tend to be much wilder and difficult to control, frequently deviate to tumors and things of that nature. as we learn to use of dolls themselves by think the controversy about in your attic -- embryonic cell -- stem cell usual significantly decrease and the usefulness of that kind of research will benefit all of us. >> host: if you can't get through to dr. benjamin carson in any other form you could try

our facebook page, facebook.com/booktv, right of there at the top, or ask a question for dr. carson. the coda in newport news, va. you are on booktv. >> caller: i would like to say to you thank you. your first book came out by accident and i read it from my father and i talked to groups of young people all the time and i wanted to say thank you to you because oftentimes i always mention something from one of your books or tell stories about you because i want them to know ainge to understand we have many more americans that made a contribution to various sciences and professions and i hold you

in the highest regard because just reading that one book when i was 12 made a complete difference in my life so i have to say thank you to you for all your contributions, what you have done in the past, your struggle in getting to johns hopkins and what you are doing today. >> host: what is your background and what do you do today? >> i work for the department of services, social services. i told two master's degrees, one in criminal justice and the other in instructional design. i tried to do community work to help people understand there are more martin luther kings out here, there are dr. benjamin carsons and you too can be a replica or an original and i would push more toward the original but dr. benjamin

carson, if your son's never tell you, you are my hero. >> host: thank you. i appreciate that. something you said reminded the when you talk about dr. king and so many other people of all races who sacrifice their time, their money, in many cases their lives so that i could have the opportunity. i remember as a youngster looking at television, seeing those dogs sicced on children, those fire hoses. the fact that so many americans said that is not who we are and they put their foot down and they stopped it. i am very grateful for those people who did that.

>> host: who is curtis carson? >> my brother. my older brother. he is an engineer, works for parter aviation. i became the brain surgeon, he became a rocket scientist. in away, that is wonderful because it shows it wasn't a fluke. it was a mother who didn't have much going for her except she refused to be a victim and she said i can go to the library, you can go to the library, we can learn anything we want to do, we can take advantage of this program and this program and we are not just going to sit around and say for me and if we ever came up with an excuse she always came out with a cohen saying you by the captain of your ship. when things go awry don't blame others, you got yourself to blame. growing up with that philosophy

was extremely helpful because if people will not accept your excuses pretty soon you stop looking for excuses and start looking for solutions. my brother was a role model for me. when we were in high school he was a captain, in the rotc he was company commander, have all these ribbons and that inspired me to get into the rotc and work hard and fortunately i became the city executive officer, had a chance to meet general westmoreland and go to congressional medal of honor, offered full scholarship to west point and always had deep affection for the military as a result of that we always have a lot of military friends. some of the most spectacular people i have known, people try to denigrate the military, the smartest people i know are in the military and that is why i wish -- >> host: why did president bush

gave you the presidential medal of freedom? >> guest: we probably have to ask him that question but i did get to know him, have a lot of conversations and i have not talked to him about a lot of issues. i believe that he is a lot smarter than people gave him credit for. he reads 90 minutes every night before he goes to sleep, has an enormous knowledge of history, he said something to me that i thought was really funny. he said a lot of my detractors think i am stupid, but this is my second term in the white house and they are still out there. >> host: from your book "the big picture" you tell the story of colleen daniel from cincinnati. who is that? >> guest: colleen daniel is the

president of a hospital in abu dhabi or one of those areas over there. she was a vice president of johns hopkins, and she was abandoned as a child, abuse, ended up in a foster home, actually escaped at age 15, up living in ohio in a basement working as an accountant for book the and she would actually hire people to play her parents when she had to have parents in any kind of an affair and extremely smart, very industrious, went on to college, got a master's degree, rapidly rose through the ranks at hopkins and now is president of

a large hospital. >> host: why put her story in "the big picture"? >> guest: to demonstrate largely that it is not where you come from. but when you have the right kind of drive the amazing things you can accomplish. >> host: new freedom, pa. you have been on the line and patient, you are on with dr. benjamin carson. >> caller: you are welcome. neurosurgeon and prof. failed health and education, what are your frustrations? >> guest: there was a little distortion. >> host: repeat your question. >> caller: neurosurgeon and professor, in these two fields, what are your frustrations? >> host: as an educator, what

are your frustrations? >> guest: i tend not to concentrate on the frustrations but i do have a philosophy that any time something is not successful, any time you fail you need to analyze it and ask yourself is there something to be learned from this? if you do that each time, your failures and frustrations will certainly diminished. in the field of neurosurgery and teaching, one of the things they is frustrating to me is sort of a change in attitude that i am seeing where it is not so much this is my patient as this is my shift and this is my job. i would like to see us return more to a really good

relationship between the patient and a practitioner and that is one of the reasons i am pushing for the health savings accounts because 80% of encounters between the patient and the physician can be handled without the need for a third party to intervene and suck out money, by the way. that relationship then develops. you are not going to allow your doctor to order five cat scans when you only need one and he is not going to order five when he only needs one. you will be working much local folks -- much more closely together and this is my patient, this is my doctor type of relationship is only beneficial to everybody. >> host: chapter 10 of "america the beautiful: rediscovering what made this nation great," is healthcare right, how do you answer that question? >> guest: i don't think it is a

right based on a constitution but i can't is a duty, we have a duty to provide basic health care to everybody. we have the ability to do it and we certainly have put enough financing in place to do it and we need to do it but it gets to a bigger question and that is what is our duty as a society. one of the reason churches, tax deductible, because churches do things or they are supposed to. they are not supposed to be social clubs. they are supposed to be out there helping those in need in the community and one of the wonderful things about that is a relationship, i get back to that word, develops between the church and those people and their community that are being helped and those people feel much more of an obligation to do

something with the aid they are getting as opposed to getting the check in the mailbox every two weeks in which case you are just kind of like in many cases okay, this is fine, i can deal with this and this is not what we want, we don't want complacency. we want everybody to be contriving and driving to move forward. this is a particular area of concern for me and the african-american community or the black community because we see poverty increasing, we see 73% of babies being born out of wedlock, those babies are four times more likely to grow up in poverty. their mothers are much less likely to finish their education, we have tremendous crime, things going on, economic deterioration, completely unnecessary. we need to be talking about this in the black community. those who are leaders in the black community, this is a

serious problem and teach people economics, learn to turn over dollars in your own community before they go out. that is how you create wealth and as well is being created you need to reach back and pull the next guy out and help him along the way. you do that you don't need help from anybody else. >> host: in "america the beautiful: rediscovering what made this nation great" when it comes to health care you write contrary to bother believe one reason many physicians refuse to see indigent patients is not that they cannot pay but because of the poor treatment they receive from such patients. >> host: yes. because of our lottery like system of medical malpractice, we are one of the few places in the world that has this problem with malpractice and a lot of patients recognize physicians or hospitals are concerned about it

and believe them. i am going to sue if this doesn't happen. i have seen that so many times and it is so disgusting and what it really says to us is we need some toward reform. it is a big problem, costs a lot of money, defensive medicine. creates an atmosphere i don't think is conducive to good care. what is it that is going on in this country that is not going on in every other country that makes this a big problem? there's one thing we have that they don't have called the trial lawyers association and they make a lot of money out of it. my neurosurgery nine of ten malpractice cases are without merit, but some of those lawyers, some are very ethical. i know some malpractice lawyers who won't take a case like that but a lot of them just want a

case and they know that the hospital, the insurance company, the doctor, they don't want to be tied up in court for months going through this silliness and if they can find the right number, settlement which happens to the vast majority of cases they get their cut, they look for the next case. and there is no consequence. you might become a millionaire. that doesn't make any sense. we have to fix that. why was that not in the health care reform bill? i tell you why, because the president is in bed with the trial lawyers association and they don't want it in there. i was in a public forum and howard dean, i don't agree with what much he has to say but he was asked a question, why is it not in the health care bill, and he said it is simple. the trial lawyers association gives us a lot of money and they

don't want it in there, boom. >> host: do doctors have a role in the cost of our health care? our doctors paid too much? >> guest: our doctors paid too much? i don't think they're paid too much. recognize in college when everybody was partying, doctors are grinding because they get the grades to get through medical school and when they get to medical school, goodbye, family, and i love you, don't take the fact that you never hear from me that i don't love you. they are grinding away. the first two years of medical school the amount of material you have to learn is likened to learning eight foreign languages simultaneously, enormous task and then you become an intern or president where you put everybody else's agenda on the front burner in yours on the

back burner and become an attending, you miss your son's birthday party at your anniversary, and everything because emergencies don't look at your schedule. and also look at the length of time, the training you go through. people who go into law or business by the time you get done they are well into their careers making money and you are skating along not making a lot of money. i think a lot of people have a misperception of how much money doctors actually make. even neurosurgeons who are at the top of the scale in philadelphia, the malpractice premium for a neurosurgeon, if you never had a lawsuit, $300,000 a year. this has to come out of your earnings, you pay lots of overhead and things, by the time you get to paying all that, believe me, you are not making an exorbitant amount of money so

i don't think they make too much money. >> host: what you bring to a company whose board you serve on such as kellogg's? >> guest: different perspective particularly about health, health care but a lot of social issues as well. interestingly enough, people in science and people in medicine frequently do not get involved in things outside their fields and that is to the detriment because we are trained to make decisions based on facts, based on evidence, not on the motion, not on ideology, not on philosophy. i think that is something that is extremely useful in any discipline and i encourage many people in the fields of medicine

and science to get more involved in your community and what is going on. >> host: reading has purpose, posts on our facebook page, i love the mention of african american businessman who was able to become a millionaire in birmingham, alabama in the 30s, probably to see if he wrote an autobiography, he did and it was just republish to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the civil-rights events of 1963. i ordered a copy while watching the interview and rachel asked the question what happened to your father? if he was absent did that or does that play a role in the kind of father or husband you are today? >> host: the book greene power, great story. i recommend it for anybody of any race. it is quite inspirational. my father died many years ago. >> host: did you ever see him after it that day in 1959? >> last time i saw him was the day i was married, came to the

wedding. i never harbored any ill will toward him even though i know he wasn't my mother's favorite person, he was the biggest to wouldn't take child support either but after awhile she stopped pursuing it, i will deal with it myself. he was largely a victim of his upbringing. the interesting thing is when they moved from tennessee to detroit, my mother was able to take his salary working in a factory, put aside significant portions of it and they were able to acquire a large amount of real-estate in before late and unfortunately kind of got into drugs and gambled it all away, but had to listen to my mother, they would have been

very rich people. >> host: brad in st. augustine, fla. you are on with dr. benjamin carson. >> caller: good afternoon, pleasure to speak with you. i would like to ask you a two part question, the first being what is your opinion of the radio broadcaster rush limbaugh and secondly do you feel he has a positive or negative impact upon society? thank you. >> guest: i think rush limbaugh serves a useful purpose in our society because he breaks things down. he looks at things, he analyzes it. some of this analysis i might not agree with but a lot of them i do agree with because a lot of people have tried to demonize him people look at what he says in light of the demonization as opposed to the merits of what it

is, rush limbaugh on one side and some of the people we see on an as nbc on the other side we need to stop taking these people and say you are bad, you are good, forget that stuff, listen to what they has to say. analyze the merits of what they had to say rather than always focusing on the individual. >> host: next call from peter in vancouver, washington? >> caller: hello, thank you, booktv, and i was wondering the think it is necessary for a third party, i would like to think of the we the people party and you have a nickel, i am pleased except it says something else, besides in god we trust.

i will take your comments. >> guest: the third party issue i would not like to see that occur because even though on the surface it seems like a very good idea, it can result in a perpetuation of what they are rose to dissipate by splitting the vote. what i would rather see happen is the third party, for instance the tea party to analyze the democratic party, analyze the republican party, and see which one more closely fits their values and try to work within that party to make changes. i realize they chose the republican party as more of a party that was for governance by

the people and i realize they created some real havoc in the republican party because the traditional republican party has been a pro-government party. if there can't be some accommodation perhaps there is a third party. i know a lot of people who are democrats. i just spent a weekend with an ardent democrat whose philosophy -- they are traditionally democrat. we need to get rid of these labels and talk about solutions and people need to start voting across party lines because the philosophy the individual holds is much more important than the party to which they belong. the party loyalty stuff, let me tell you, is crap.

it is a way to control you. don't allow people to manipulate you into a party. make sure you line with the principles, not with the party. >> guest: >> host: steven says this in by e-mail. what prevents you from running for president 2016 and why do you avoid the question? >> guest: i don't avoid the question and nothing prevents me from doing it except i don't feel a need to do that. i don't feel a calling to do it. will things change? i don't know. if there were no candidates could get any enthusiasm, there was a large outcry, i would have to pay attention to that. i don't see that happening. i see my role as more someone who can provide background for people to make good decisions.

>> host: of human is left with our "in-depth" guess dr. benjamin carson, author of five book with one on the way. kristy in reno, high. >> caller: thank you so much, god bless you, benjamin carson. i have been learning about you for quite some time. my mom felt like your mom was a hero for some of the things she was able to do. my question is about your 3d thinking views, i understand little bit about this. however you said that in mid school, two dimensional thinking was easier. i was surprised by that and i hope you will explain. >> guest: what i mean is seeing everything on the same plane. when that happens it is much easier, much more difficult for you to keep relationships in

mind. people who have to deal with a loss of spatial relationships are people who tend to exo in three dimensional types thinking. is not a denigration of anybody, it is simply to say some people have certain talents or gifts and they need to recognize what those are and use them appropriately. i tell young people to sit back and assess what your gifts are, talk to people who have no new your whole life, see what they think your gifts are and in terms of the career, choose something that fits your gifts and talents and you will do much better. >> host: dean post on our facebook page, with a greater percentage of our population becoming dependent to some degree on the federal government it seemed the majority of the people in our nation are yielding to and ever increasing pull towards a socialist type of government.

can the people of this great nation be awakened to what is happening? can they foster the strength? >> guest: i believe they can be awakened. it goes back to sometimes there's alu to explain to people the consequences of their actions, along term consequences. they can see the short term but frequently they cannot see the long-term. those of us who feel that capitalism works, that our judeo-christian moral system works, we need to be much more effective in the way we explain these things, we need to be kind and compassionate. when we talk about spending cuts, of we need to be putting a lot more emphasis on how we grow the economy, how we make opportunities for people, than how we cut their benefits

because of course they will be concerned when you do that. there are ways this can be done. i invite people from both parties, republicans and democrats as well as independents like myself to work together to solve these problems. we are not doing ourselves any good when we put ourselves into little quarters and for a hand grenades at each other rather than focus on fixing the problem. >> host: gary is in victoria, texas and you are on booktv on c-span2 with benjamin carson. >> caller: i am a surgeon and a great ticket would be you and charles krauthammer. how do you feel about we all sort of preface respect and honor and i would kind of like a big game for the insurance companies and hospitals and everybody else to demonize us and patients are biased before they come and csn assumed we would be doing something wrong and can't wait for that to happen. i must say in my 25 years i

never turned away at patient, plastic surgeon, you will never see an american adults -- you go to italy, mexico, spain, you don't get repaired within children, nobody does free care if we decide over there to do it. backed by my question, we as physicians should deal with being demonized pretty much in everything we do and being physicians. >> host: how long have you been a plastic surgeon? >> 25 years like hearsay earlier and a plastic surgeon -- general surgeon residency and microsurgery scholarship and everybody thinks i make too much money. >> host: what is your malpractice? >> caller: i have been in practice 25 years and had zero lawsuit some my malpractice is $80,000 a year. >> guest: first of all, an example of the kind of person i was talking about, most physicians absolutely wonderful, above board, out there to help

people, being demonized so to speak by a system. part of the problem is physicians tend to be relatively meek and mild. they don't really speak up for themselves and insurance companies discovered that some years ago, you could do anything to these guys and they won't say anything. imagine if somebody came to the lawyers and said i know you are charging one hundred dollars and i am giving you $5. you think dray would settle for that? doctors, whatever. doctors need to begin to speak up more and they need to be forceful like we were in the early parts of this nation when five physicians signed the declaration of independence. we were more involved than every aspect of society and the more involved we are, the more our points of view will be realized,

the more people will recognize the contributions that we make, the less effective those who try to demonize us will be. >> host: in "gifted hands: the ben carson story," you write successful people don't have fewer problems, they have determined that nothing will stop them from going forward. >> guest: exactly. everybody has problems in life and whether you succeed or fail is a matter of how you relate to them. if you see the obstacle as a containing since it becomes your excuse for failure and if you see it as a hurdle each one strengthens you for the next. it is a matter of shoelace. how do you decide to see things? how do you decide to yourself? >> host: david in bismarck, north dakota, the only state benjamin carson has not visited. >> caller: good morning. i have a question and an invitation. question is i know you are a

christian and are was wondering if there's a certain point in time in your life you became a believer? >> guest: i grew up sort of in the church and believing but the time when it became very real to meet is the day i tried to stab another youngster and the belt buckle that he had on, the knife blade struck and it broke. that three hours i spent in the bathroom thinking about my life, contemplating, prayers, reading the bible, god became very real to me that day and has been extremely real to me ever since that time. i am not highly religious person but i do have a very deep and abiding relationship with god. >> host: your follow-up? >> guest: mentioned earlier this morning you had never been to north dakota, we have a lot

going on here, the strongest economy in the nation, $3 billion in black and 2% unemployment. as a citizen of north dakota would like to extend an invitation to you. >> guest: when the right invitation comes along for the right event i will be fair. >> host: we only have a minute left, kelvin from orlando, go ahead. >> caller: good afternoon, benjamin carson. i am a veteran, i have a question for you. i understand in iran and egypt was a confrontation going on 30 years and i understand they have -- towards israel -- where do you see that going to? >> guest: there has been animosity in the middle east since the days of jacob and the stock and i'm sure you know the story of how things evolve but

actually even started before that with his male and isaac having the same father, abraham. there never has been pieced. will there be peace? i don't know. we attempt to create situations where there's peace? absolutely. .. israeli our friends? absolutely. they have been always. many of the entities in the middle east countries have been our friends at some we have to be willing to extend the olive branch. we have to be fair and loyal. we are to try to do what is right. by the same token, i don't think we necessarily have to have our nose in everything, and, you know, i may be one of the few people, for instance, who doesn't agree with us being in afghanistan. you know, afghanistan is not one solitary nation.