country. he went on to justify the study of history beginning with the fact it is a pleasure for us to date. he wrote the american past is a record of stirring achievement in the face of stubborn difficulty. it's a record filled with figures larger than life of high drama and hard decisions, without our tragedy, incident both poignant and picturesque and with excitement and hope involved in the conquest of the wilderness and the settlement for the true historian in the true student of history, history is an end in itself. it fulfills a deep human need for understanding, satisfaction provides requires no further justification. when i began my aunt kingship at williamsburg, wasn't sure what path my crew would take. i only knew i found the study of history deeply satisfying to what a career and has been so far. thank you. [applause]

>> we've got a migrate here for questions. >> i'm happy to answer questions. >> i will start off. too, i don't know if you remember me. i wouldn't be surprised if he didn't. we only met once, but in september i take over as chairman -- >> rate. >> i only mention not set you in the audience recognize why has the sort of following leading question. in chapter 15, you start out by saying that as you started your new job at the national aerospace museum that the exhibit they are often fail to excite you. and then in your epilogue, you talk about never having been

much interested in human space exploration. however, you continue to say you visit the kennedy space center, again a personal transformation. i was curious if you'd like to comment now that you've been there for a while, the nature and extent of that transformation. >> thank you for the question. i should say i explain in the beginning the air and space was never one of my favorite museums in washington or anywhere. the reason for that is as i felt it was a limited topic generally and there weren't a lot of people's stories are focused on technology and i like people stories. i can say since i've been there over nine years we worked hard to have people stories than we are. we had a lot of people stories and are working to make the exhibits more engaging than they ever were in the past and i would like to say that as a

result of museum educators like myself being involved in the process. but also been in the place such as kennedy space center worse though much as faces we have happened is inspiring. for me i am definitely impacted by been in a place where history happened. it makes it come to life for me. does that help? okay. >> richard smith from jefferson city missouri. one month here in washington. from 2009, 2000 until this year i was in jefferson city. >> did you happen to see the exhibition? >> we saw the exhibition i contributed a bed for the trail with her. i worked at the library for the blind and physically handicapped. we did not thought of lewis and clark and about what the traveling exhibit. i don't know if you're part of that. it was a tactile braille and not

the lewis and clark to win around here just i'd mention not. >> eggs. >> now i'm with the national library for the blind that goes hand in hand. >> i love to talk about lewis and clark. get me started on lewis and clark. it did him to the smithsonian. i don't know if anyone saw that in 2004. it was the last stop. >> it was leonardo da vinci exhibit that i thought was wonderful. it was strange to me that it was then the air and space come even though he did deviation. >> i don't think i was involved in that aspect. we tried to do the mx acted. we do try to offer supplies to visitors that they are not expecting when they come to air

and space. >> in the american history museum in a new way to educate kids. when you think about that? >> is a great learning space, yeah. i'm a little jealous to be honest. any other questions? >> yeah, i had to. unlike you i was never into space and then i went to the entire hobby and it blew me away. i am kind of curious like what do you guys see as the relationship between the two in the exhibition philosophy behind the two places? >> that's a great question. that was built to be open storage so it's not an exhibition space. so meaning it doesn't have the amount of interpretation and stories that the mall has so it's a very different environment when you go there. so that is a challenge as the museum educator.

and some people frankly that comair want more interpretation. but the labels are pretty minimal on the whole. so they are very different place is in very different not evinces actually. it's more of a regional museum in some ways. >> both locations provide some of that context and i encourage when you go -- >> said the story has come out much more. >> i have a lewis and clark question for you since you want one. some years ago i was camping on the banks of the river in montana and reading journals and decided just sitting there that i was on a lewis and clark campsite based on the account.

i thought i was or not. it prompts me to ask how well documented by the individual campsites throughout the journey? would one go and stand in the places of all those campsites with confidence? >> i am not sure they are all bear anymore. but you know, the park service maintained the lewis and clark heritage trails. they call that the trail. so you can roughly travel the whole trail, which i have not done. but i am sure there are some places where you can stand where the campsites were for sure. along the trail. >> hi, tim. as a self-described history geek, and wondered if on your history bucket list. is there a place or object or person you would really like to visit? >> that's a good question.

i value are going to ask me what is not in my writing. for while other side more hill in teddy roosevelt, but i did manage to get there. if you haven't been there, fascinating place. hard to get to on the side of new york city. i don't know. i have to think about that. but i will answer the way i wanted to and there with what is coming up next input a plug-in or a book i'm writing about the first flight around the world. it happened in 1924. we have the plane in our collection at air and space. it is one of before this started out with army air service from seattle that i will name for u.s. cities. one really does story and it's an adventure story to the nth degree and it became a race because five other countries were racing to be first and we have a journal from one of the

air men that went on the trip. we have more than 400 photographs and archives of the trip of which 100 or more are in the book. i just decided it is a story that kids need to read. so one of the planes crashed into a mountain in alaska. one of them went down in the north sea. all survived in america came out the winner. so that is coming out next spring and that is a project i have done with air and space. verse flight around the world. not very exciting typo title. or should be more exciting, but i don't always have control. >> the right brothers pavilion at the air and space museum is an absolutely splendid presentation of the story. can you talk to us about the part you played a not? >> i wasn't there and fortunately. that happened before i started

there. but i will say that it was supposed to be a temporary exhibit because it was for the centennial flight and was so popular. >> in 1903, the wright brothers invented the airplane. in 1990 in college park they invented taught the army to fly as the oldest continuously operating airfield in the world is right up on university avenue in college park. we had to go there to learn not. can you talk to me about the relationship between that bcm in the air and space museum? >> they are an affiliate of the smithsonian. i don't know. i think we have various items on loan to ban and our staff does speak with their staff every now and then.

my colleague for air and space is here. >> okay, we have time for one more question. >> the smithsonian has a national museum around the country and not every state i think they're trying to get some in every state. a new cm can apply to be a smithsonian affiliates and that allows them to borrow items to an exchange of staff sometimes. it's an interesting -- it is a good program that gives the smithsonian into the rest of the nation, which is the reason for the program. [inaudible] >> on occasion, yeah. yes, on occasion.

there are some i can't think of right now, but we got something great recently from one of them. if you go online the first smithsonian individuals you can see all types. >> okay, thank you. >> thank you. [applause] >> okay, don't hold up the chairs because we have another event to 6:00. but if you line up to my left, tim grove will stand up here and sign copies of his book. thanks for coming. [inaudible conversations] >> author suki kim, where are you from?

>> i'm from south korea. originally i was born a race they are and i came to america when i was 13. >> host: why did you come to the state? >> guest: do now, as all immigrants do, there's a lot of turbulence and i ended up in queens originally come in new york a word of english. >> what do you do for their day-to-day? >> iamb a journalist so i publish novels, literary novel was how i became writing. i am coming out with a book actually. i've been a journalist since the first time i went into north korea in 2002 and that's when if first to mention north korea and that is what i have been covering more or less. >> that is why we invited you and tv to preview your book coming out in the fall of 2014.

"without you, there is no us: my time with the sons of north korea's elite". how did you get a job in north korea? how did that come about? >> it took a long time. you know, first of all what i wanted by joining the pro-north korean and then i went to someone's birth day celebration. >> what was the process like of getting in? >> i am south to rhiannon and i am american, but having a south korean background, the korea as you know it's technically still at war. but there are just groups. an organizational place. the first time i went in, it was fascinating because i got to see, you know, i didn't go in

there as a tourist. i won and there is a youth delegate, posing as a youth delegate there to honor the great leader. and then i ended up writing a long feature after that. i also want to cover the filemon neck in 2008. i went in for harper's magazine. so i went in as a journalist. i've been looking for a chance to really see north korea. i have covered the factors which you can cover from china or south korea. that is one part of the story because these are the people who laughed. but what about the people still living there. finally, i found about this being set up by christian missionaries in the pyongyang. i actually got this job in 2011, which has been to be the last

six months of kim jong-il's life. >> you got a job doing what? >> teaching english. >> how controlled with your life on a daily basis? >> my god, you know, it is the most controlled state. the recent u.n. report says i guess the brevity of the violation is unparalleled to any state in a contemporary world. from the minute you go win, you will be followed every second. you give up your followed in passport and all that. >> you have to give up your phone? >> they don't want anything to connect you to anyone. and then they will be with you all the time. you are not going to leave. you can think of it as a tour anywhere. even the package tour you can go

off. do you just basically go from site to site to site. this is why it was impossible to cover north korea in any other meaningful way that would reveal to people. so we are always getting soundbites about what is going on there is probably why it is north korea in some sense. >> sorry, go ahead. >> 20 for seven under watch. there was reporting on me. they were living in the same building as fast, even in the room. >> tg person that was bugged? >> yeah, it is so hyper controlled that you are just never left alone, even when you are on your own. which is an odd way to be. it's hard to imagine when you are sitting here at the jacob

javits center in new york. >> who are your teaching? >> i was teaching in 2011. 2011 was an extremely important year in north korean history because it was also the 100th year. the ages 19 and 20 and they were transferred to the school. >> suddenly? >> some of them are at a bare, but my students i just got back and i got there in july of 2011. these are the most crème de la crème.

obviously the they were building up and needs young man were selected to almost the storm is coming because the regime is going to change. by the end of the year, december 17, 2011, kim jong-il died. it happened in north korea and the rest of the world. in $2011 the last of the career. >> did you know it was going to be your last day? >> yes, i couldn't believe it. when i was told. because i was bear, when i was told by a colleague that he died, it was christmas time.

in that country you only have the great leader. >> were your lesson plans controlled? >> yes. >> you were given scripts? >> not scripps, the certain guidelines. you have to get permission for everything. so, you know, i really trusted in order to get to know them. it doesn't sound -- i really actually loved them. i fell in love with all of them that i've really wanted to teach them. but there is always this feeling if i had told them, they don't really know about the world a lot of them and i do because i'm

from the outside. and they are never allowed out of anywhere. they were never allowed out of the compound any time ever. so there is no communication with the outside world. so i was always trying in a way to deal with glimpses of the outside world, but it worried me because i thought if they learned more on what would happen to them? >> what was the goal of the christian missionaries and adding up the school? >> what is the goal of missionaries anywhere? is only one goal. so i think they have their own purposes, which is now my it has a positive and negative i guess. but they were very determined

for part of the missionary purpose. i am not a missionary clearly. and get to know my kids. i think of them as my kids. >> suki kim, would ask you questions about the u.s.? were they allowed to? >> they weren't allowed to. you know what i found there is first of all i was sported south korea. the malaise of my side have been separated into north korea. so really the division of korea has always had in my family. it's not even interest -- my mother's brother was lost during the war. the same thing happened to my father. when we think about north korea,

there's a million families. so i think for us this heartbreak. north korea and i think i wanted to tell that story. it is they think why it's been investigated by count, but also in some sense i wanted to relay a sense of what it means that 70 million people and they have the families for 5000 years than they are separated forever. the war ended in 1953 and here we are in 2014. i never saw each other again. i think that one i wanted to relate to my kids, i wanted some sort of non-or understanding for some way of connecting i think. >> were you allowed to wear

western clothing? >> not allowed in north korea. i don't know, but generally it is a symbol of america. but it was a very sort of conservative environment. also it was a compound. none of us were allowed out. tonight you never got to see the countryside? >> it was organized. the teachers are mobilized. they were always at a certain time with all of us you go out as a group and come back as a group. that's the way you see the rest of the country. it is what happens in the prison. this was the compound i was living in.

in the daily life that we are living i played basketball with them. i talked to them about their growth. but then i just think if you are locked in a place with somebody, you have an understanding and i think this real bond have been. so they would ask questions, but very hesitantly. it was very stressful and draining because i don't want to get them in trouble. even the conversation. >> did you get the sense that any of the students wanted to leave? >> leave the country?

>> i got to spend some that were questioned a little. the reason the experience was so unique was the system of the great leaders. a one track minded system. they wake up at 6:30 and they know english, but their entire day is about the great leader. so if they want to leave comments kind of like a fundamental religion. even as in that place where you're constantly reporting on each other, that means the consequence -- even if i thought that auctioning -- the

functioning, there is always this exile. >> now that you've written this live book, can you go back? >> absolutely not. absolutely not. in some way i think that i have -- all my understanding, heartbreak of the division, personal stories and this dutiful, beautiful and young man who are trapped. my ultimate goal with the book is to humanize north korea in some way because i think when you look at human suffering, when you hear it were the were hundred thousand people so worried, we don't think of them as you and me.

the portrait of days is a political sign. and think of them as this innocent, fun 19-year-old for the great leader in the world they live in. but more and more you followed love, my hope is that leaders would begin to really care about the coverage and all of the comic relief of the great leader, which i think is really, really to focus on not because it's not that funny really, north korea. it is the most violent and sad, tragic, horrific place. >> suki kim, where did you get the title "without you, there is no us: my time with the sons of north korea's elite"? >> my students, my kid always

saying to times a day, to the cafeteria. they are marching, like soldiers. one of the songs stay with thing is without you, there is no us. without you there is no motherland. ..

>> host: today i'm talking with william burrows about his enjoyable book suborder. i guess i would characterize it as the story of how astronomers planetary scientist space engineers might some day save the world