>> i can't see. >> the synagogue that i go to is currently evaluating whether or not they should become egalitarian. right now right now they have a compromise solution where some people want to sit separately some people want to sit together. it occurs to me that if i'm really unhappy with whatever decision they reach i can find myself and the egalitarian synagogue and go to it wherever it happens to be. i can't imagine, i just visited israel in november. i can't imagine how it must be living in a a society where women are still

battling for these kind of rights. it just it just confounds me that this kind of stuff is still going on. >> well, i just want to comment, comment we live in a society where we have our supreme court telling women telling corporations that they are individuals and can deny women's rights to contraceptive access. it's not just unfortunately i'm sorry to say in israel. >> corporations are people. >> that's what the hobby lobby decision was about. that's a very scary thing. there will be several cases coming up. and i don't want to conclude without saying that we are concerned. is is this the entire israeli society? no, of course not. there are signs of something happening that we did not see 20, 30, 40 years ago. part of it is because of the

growing influence and numbers. it's a pure demographic issue. both by the way in in the ultra-orthodox and the muslim community because it's in both. it's fundamentalist religious command is not just jews who can't marry in a civil ceremony, christians and muslims can't. again they have to marry according to there own courts and their own religious courts. it's a much bigger issue and it is a flaw even though there was the intent clearly stated which is why began. we can be proud of it. it. it is still the only democracy in the middle east

women can drive and women can walk down the street without being fully covered. i want to be careful that we put it in perspective. something we care deeply about and will continue to fight around but it's not all negative and it's not pervasive. it wouldn't even know that this was an issue. but there are signs that are very concerning to those of us who celebrate democracy and want to celebrate israel as a jewish to aquatic state i want to thank you all for coming. appreciated. thank you for having us and for sponsoring us. thank you. [applause] >> thank you both for this wide reaching and illuminating conversation. on a commercial note their books available in the lobby and i'm sure she'll be happy to sign them. thank you for coming. [applause] [inaudible conversations]

>> you're watching book tv on c-span2 the top nonfiction books and authors every weekend book tv, television for serious readers. >> next on book tv we want to introduce you to send key whose most recent book is called the tale of the dueling neurosurgeons. you are the dueling neurosurgeons? >> they are ambroise and undress. undress. they were neurosurgeons in the 15 hundreds in europe command we usually don't think about neurosurgery going on that far back. they were doing important

work especially on the king of france this big macho king who ended up getting is based -- his face, and adjusting accident. they brought the brought the best neurosurgeons in europe and the try to save him. it was a landmark case with a learned a lot of different things about how the brain work. and that is kind of the premise of the book using these famous case studies famous studies famous injuries especially to teach us about what every part of the brain does. >> what did we do we learn in the 15th century? >> they diagnosed him with something which was controversial at the time called a concussion. nowadays we all know about them but it's kind of interesting because we're still learning a lot of these same lessons about concussions, needing to take time off. you see football players run right back out on the field after a concussion when they shouldn't be and you can learn a lot about where these things come from when you read about these

historical cases. >> where did you find the story? >> am trying to think back now. you know you just start reading about neuroscience. it's a story -based field more than any other scientific field because you're dealing with language, language, memory the way people interact, emotions, things like that. they just pop up. >> you've written a couple of other books including the disappearing spoon. >> basically are trying to capture the fun of the book the spirit of the book. disappearing spoon was a romp through the periodic table. funny, weird story about every single element on the table. in the disappearing spoon related to one of the elements on the table. >> are you a scientist by training? >> i studied physics in college. i kind of did the opposite their.

i'm of never been a practicing scientists. a been writing about it for ten years now. >> the dueling neurosurgeons from the 15th century through today. what have we learned, more more importantly what have we learned? >> we done a good job figuring out what specific parts of the brain do in isolation. you get injured in one part and start lying incessantly or can't recognize her children anymore. we are very good about what individual parts of the brain do. what we're trying trying to figure out now is how different parts work together and connections between them, things like that. if we want we want to take some next steps and get a high-level things like our consciousness works, how memory works on a deep level we need to be able to connect those. that's where the field is moving out.

>> the tale of the dueling neurosurgeons is the book. this is book tv on c-span2. >> and now afterwords with david axelrod, author of believer. he served as senior strategist for barack obama's presidential campaign and as the former senior adviser to president obama. he discusses his life and career in politics with former speechwriter for president george w. bush. ..