>> we're going skiing next winter at mount hood. should we be worried? >> you might want to look at the observatory web site before you go. it's maybe maybe not a bad idea to check on things. [laughter] the thing about them is they do issue warning. mount st. helens was active for two finish. >> if you don't show up, i'll take that -- [laughter] >> right are. if i'm there, then you know it's safe to go. i keep a close eye on these volcanos now. two more questions. >> [inaudible] surprised to hear that it's -- [inaudible] even in 1980, but i would have assumed that it's other than national park -- [inaudible] all gone at this point. is that accurate? >> there are pockets of old growth forest around washington state. they're not easy to find, but they do exist. for instance, if you ever go to mount st. helens and hike down the green river, you'll come across the pocket of old growth

forest which did not fall in the eruption that the moores were camped in. so that was the forest that protected them. and they were actually instrumental in helping to set aside the mount st. helens national volcanic monument as a protected area. there's just little bits and pieces up there. it is amazing there's not more old growth forest, but i guess the trees are just so valuable that they were -- [inaudible] yeah. so one last question. >> okay. [inaudible] we've flown over it, and it is astonishing to fly over -- [inaudible] i mean, is it unprecedented? how disat this pointive is that area now with great biodiversity -- [inaudible] animals are coming back -- [inaudible] >> a question about how disat

this pointive this volcano is or how unusual. the fact of the matter is that it's unusual in the united states, certainly, but once volcanologists learn from mount st. helens that this kind of an eruption is actually fairly common. they see this all over the world. and you can go to other areas that look pretty similar to mount helens. furthermore, mount st. helens has done this in the past, and it's going to do it again in the future. it's just a matter of time until these volcanos erupt. that's a good note on which to end. thanks, everybody. [applause] >> thank you all so much for coming. get a book, get it signed, and if you could do us a favor and fold up your chairs. let's have another round of applause for steve. [applause] [inaudible conversations]

>> here's a look at some authors recently featured on booktv's "after words" with, our weekly author interview program. peter marks remembers the career of bob men mow they who turned the company around during the height of the financial crisis. aol cofounder steve case told us how emerging technologies are reshaping the internet. and sue klebold, mother of dylan klebold, discussed mental health and how she dealt with the tragedy of columbine. in the coming weeks on "after words," we discuss criminal justice reform and the there are's 19 years in prison. tamara drought will talk about network's new working -- america's new working class. also coming up, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell will look back on his life and career in politics.

and this weekend don watkins, fellow at the ayn rand institute, will argue that measures to alleviate income inequality actually end up hurting low income americans. >> the real insight of the enlightenment thinkers like the founders was each of us is equal and the fact that we have equal rights. and so the government's job is not to rule us, it's to be our servant, the servant, the protector of our rights. but what happens when it protects our rights equally? what happens when it protects your freedom the same that it protects mine? we're going to create different amounts of wealth because we have different abilities, we make different choices, we, you know, some of us want to go and become a teacher x. for us, that's what a successful life is whether we, you know, go up from where our parents were or down, that's what a successful life is. over people want to be hedge fund managers. other people want to start new companies. you're going to get inequality if we have equal freedom.

>> "after words" area air -- airs on booktv every saturday at 10 p.m. eastern and sunday at 9 p.m. eastern. watch all previous programs on booktv.org. >> it's quite interesting particularly for somebody who lives in the u.k. to reflect on how rome and the roman empire as it shaped the world. i think there's something which is very, very in your face about the romans and britain, you know? you go out and you see bits of rome till there. you go -- still there. you go round the country, and you see loads of towns in britain end in caster or chester, you know? bell rings, that means the romans was there because that's the roman word for camp. you can see that the social geography of britain is still

configured in a roman way. why is london in such a stupid place, actually, for a capital the the city? [laughter] why? because the bloody romans put it there because it was convenient for them. so you're kind of living in a world which still has its parameters formed by rome. but it gets more complicated than that, i think, in two ways really. one way is, of course -- and i'm talking about britain, but we could do the same about germany. of course, our identity is not only formed by that kind of sense of roman infrastructure, it's formed by our view of conflict between us and the romans. and i think one of the most interesting things about how rome works in the head of any western european is that we're always on the roman side and against them. are we actually thinking that we

are the inheritors of the romans, or are we inheritors of the rebels, the oppressed populace. there's no better place to to see that than just outside the house of parliament on the banks of the thames. there is a fantastic bronze statue of the leading british rebel, the warrior queen buddica, in her chariot with her daughters, flowing hair, you know, as we imagine. massacred thousands and thousands of roman soldiers about 20 years only after the conquest. and she's in all sorts of way a kind of proto-britain ya, but she's a rebel, she's a terrorist, she's the independence freak. on base of the statue, kind of

paradoxes about our relationship with rome comes out very clearly because what it says is a quotation from a slightly earlier or poem. the statue's late 19th, early 20th century. and it basically says don't worry, buddica, because she did come to a very sticky, nasty end. [laughter] don't worry you're your descends will rule more of the world than the romans ever did. [laughter] you turn the independence freedom fighter into the ancestor of british empire by an a appalling slight of hand, actually. [laughter] i'll shut up now, but i think for me, though, not infrastructure, though that's important because it's what first got me into romans, you know? it was all i could see around me. i think that where rome has

formed western identity, you know better than me, i think, in this country, is not so much in infrastructure, it's in the conversation that we still have with the romans about how politics and civic values work. and i think it's very interesting in the states because american audiences are much more receptive to this than british ones. british always tend to think about aqueducts -- [laughter] and american audiences think about the senate and the capitol and the idea of how you create community. and in many ways i think what we really are the heir of is roman debate. not, you know, we're not simple kind of -- dupes who were taken in by the romans, but what it is to be a citizen, what right a citizen has, what liberty is and

to what extent -- and this is where i start the book in a way -- to a what extent it's our problem as much as the romans, to what extent it's right or justifiable or necessary to suspend the liberty of the citizen in the interest of protecting the state and homeland security. >> you can watch this and other programs online apple tv.org. >> i'm pleased to introduce the author the fever of 1721. the epidemic that revolutionized medicine and american politics. stephen has a bachelors degree,