>> the death bomb which lays out his plan to make the government more fiscally responsible. peggy nunan's the time of our lives is a collection of her columns and comes in eighth. finishing off the list of is randy barnet's examination of the constitution and how it applies to politics today. and restereration a book by gorgeous will on democracy. booktv has covered many of these books over the years. you can watch them on our

website, booktv.org. [inaudible conversation] >> okay. once more if i can have your attention. can everybody hear me in the back? if you are in the back and anybody is standing we have the monitors on tonight. there is monitor in the cafe and by one of the registers next to you. if anyone wants to get a slightly better view you can go to the cafe or monitor out there. welcome to book passage. i am dana kelly. pleasure to have you and pleasure to have mary roach back. shooe has been here for a many number of tight ldz and it is

always a pleasure to have her back. tonight is "grunt". it is about what the military has to go through. we are not going to mars tonight. we are going to the frontli lin and there are things i didn't know about and you will find out about what the military has to go through in various ways. i will mention one which i don't know if mary will talk about. part of the things we learn is how diarreha can be a threat to the nation's security. mary wfs brilliance is beautifully written and disturbing funny as previous brooks "grunt" examines the research behind war. it is a triumph of reflection and research. mary roach is auththe author of packing for mars, life in the

void, bonk, the curious coupling of science and sex. spook, science tackles the afterlife and stiff the curious lives of humans. and her writing has appeared in every magazine you can possibly imagine. she is going to be in corversation tonight with jeff green wall who is the hear of five best-selling books including shopping for buddha, how star trek conquered planet earth and jeff is on our factory -- factory? yeah, jeff works in our factory. and besides that he is also on the faculty of our travel writers conference. if there are any budding writers in the audience you can find out more about our conferences. there is one in july and august and jeff will be on the faculty of that and you can find out all of the information about that

before you leave or in our news letter. would you please welcome mary roach and jeff greenwall. [applause] >> hi. >> hi. >> i am a little -- a few octave lower and more psaltery due to case of laryngitis, well it isn't laryngitis as much because you can hear me. we have tea here so it should be good. >> let's get into it. thank you, everybody, for coming. thank you, dana, for the great introduction. i will start with this question. your work sprouts from unusual seeds. what gave birth the "grunt"? >> guest: actually, it was a

seed. it was a chilly pepper. i was reporting a piece on the world's hottest chilly pepper in india. and someone said you know the indian military weaponized this chilly pepper and i thought i need to report on that. i went over to this science lab that the indian army maintains to talk to them about the chili pepper which never deployed. it kind of bombed. so the chili pepper grenade was never deployed. but they were working on a leech repellent when i was there. i don't know. a leech repellent?

so that was kind of where the idea came from. i thought military science sondz sounds more esoteric. >> so all of your books are wonderfully. they are scientifically enlightening and funny. and kind of breezy. did you worry about bringing the breezyness to the world of soldiers which are sacred in the united states? they are heroes and sacrifice a lot. how did you feel about bringing your humor to that subject? >> guest: a lot of trepidation about that. a lot of concern. you know, i have to be me. i got to be me. it has to be a mary roach book so it had to be funny, it has to have levity.

on the other hand, this is war and people are injured and where i didn't want to be disrespectful or make light of things so i tended to make fun of myself as the clueless outsider i was. i have a chapter on how to design a vehicle for -- basically auto motive safety for people who drive on bombs. how do you create a vehicle that will keep the passengers safe if a bomb comes up from underneath. so they were showing me around this large, armored vehicle and were talking about how it had to be stripped down. you could not keep adding armor because it would be too heavy were the brake and engine. it was stripped down. and i said it is great you have cup holders. the guy said mary, those are rifle holders.

and that made me laugh over and over because i haven't spent any time in the military. i don't have family. my father was very old, he was 65 when i was born. he enlisted in world war one. he was born irn england but lived here and atened basic training and got a hernia and that was that. >> so in terms of your being this person who blenders into situations without knowing much about them you have covered several subjects. packing for mars was similar in that you worked in the nasea and space program. was it harder to get access to the military or the space program? >> guest: you would think the military but in fact it wasn't as difficult as nasa.

the military was very straightforward. it is is this project classified? then no. if it wasn't classified people were helpful and willing to kind of, you know, help me. the difficulty was when the people were saying no, nobody felt they had the authority to say yes. you had like 15 people. they were ping-ponging back and forth and took a year and a half to get on a submarine. yeah, a year and a half. and again, it was just trying to find the way on there. in that case, partly because i only wanted to be on for a few days not the month they are out there. i do like to immerse myself in reporting but it has limits. >> the good news you can get on but the bad news is you are on for 12 months.

the buty in the books is details. in the chapter about military uniforms you mentioned the united states buttons specification guide is 22 pages long. i was amazed to read that the army requires that its clothing designers have a fashion design degree. isn't that an oxymoron? >> guest: you would think so. i was surprised as well. the woman i was talking in the design lab at manic labs which is where they design accessories of being a soldiers. clothes and things you sleep in and whatever. they had a design lab for the uniforms. this woman had a degree and a background in swim wear and i said that makes no sense and she said if you think about it does.

a bathing suit is for a special athletic activity, in a specialized environment, it is water so it has to give, it has to react over water in a certain way so in fact she felt her background in swimsuit design was in fact a fairly appropriate one. and the other woman worked for percilla in bostons which is wedding gowns. and she said a wedding gown is layers of fabric -- >> one thing we learn from your book is something you think would be a great danger to soldiers like sharks say if they go overboard are no problem but things like dirya is a problem.

why is that such a grave problem for soldiers? >> guest: let me tell you. hist historically, diarrhea -- the father of medicine had a great quote and he said dysentery has been more fatal to soldiers than powder and shots. the mexican-american war was an example. seven soldiers died from dysentery and disease versus one killed in combat. what would happen is you would have field camps and you got the tent where you are preparing food, no refrigeration, and you have flies attracted by if any bodies were around. so the flies are landing in the materials and buzzing over to the beans which are sitting

there and the flies land on the crab and have these things on their feet and incoculate the food and the whole camp gets dysentery or yellow ferve or typhoid ever or whatever the pat pathogen is. now because there is good hygiene on bases. they have air conditioning so you never have to open a window so there is no flies anymore. it is a problem if you are in special operations and going out in a small unit in say a small village in yemen or somalia. those people are eating what the locals eat and their water is often not safe and the rates of

diarrhea is high. if you are taking down bin laden and you get gastritis that is a problem. >> do they have any wonder meditations we don't know about? >> in special operations, instead of going out to yemen, somalia, and north africa andient with with a dirrhea searcher who was testing a one-dose regimen where you would be back on your feet in a matter of hours rather than days. that is what they were testing. so -- >> top secret. >> guest: no, actually it will be coming soon to a drugstore near you. >> one thing that was interesting is you take for

granted mexico is the poster child for travelers. but how mexico won that honor is kind of an interesting story. >> guest: yeah, if you go to pubmed and put in diarrhea and guatarahara you will get so many hits. the god father of research, this man has done more for counteracting diarrhea than any man on the planet. but he setup a a lab there using tourist and students as his study subjects and published a lot of papers out there. >> do you thing the reason he never won a nobel prize is

because the committee is embarrassed to call him up? >> i think he would win in igma bell. >> you dressed up as a newbe journalist. you were with a group where you had it play a role in a recreation of a war scene? what was the role you plays? >> >> guest: strategic operations a big movie studio that is now used to train for the marine core. the films made there were action films and war films so they are good at violence, gore, loud noises and explosions so it is perfect for setting up simulations. they have actors come in. it is hyperrealistic is the world they used. they trade marked the word.

hyperrealistic. these guys in training are coming in they are immersed in this scenario that is very intense. you have got pyrotechics and it looks like rifle firing is happening. there are actors, some amptees who have a latex sleeve on the stump and a backpack with stage blood that is pumped at an accurate rate and there is a remote control for the bleeding. if the navvy man is putting the turn quit on it stops the bleeding. it is an intense scenario. in order to get close enough so i could see what was going on i requested a role.

and they were like i don't know what to do with you. and i suggested i just play a journalist that gets in the way. and i was type cast. so that is what i did. >> how did these doctors do in that situation? did they keep their calm? reason to feel confidant about their abilities in the field? >> it was a big difference from the first round of simulations versus the last. there is a tremendous difference. the first one was there would be a guy who would go pickup a stretcher -- and you have to coordinate picking up a stretcher. the other guy on the other end doesn't know the patient falls off so and this one guy baker did that twice. another time he stood the wrong and was backing up. and meanwhile the instructors, baker, and using a lot of words

i cannot use on c-span2. >> was it fun? did you get into the spirit? >> guest: your adrenaline gets going and the startle response from the gunfire even though it isn't real. and the fight or flight response and the boost of adrenaline -- it is great if you need to fight or run away. but if you need to cut an emergency airway or decompress if somebody's lung collapsed. they need to practice in scenario where they are flooded with adrenaline. their hands would be shaking. i wasn't so much afraid for my life but it isn't a relaxing afternoon. >> you became a method actor at that moment.

one thing i love about your books is you meet all of these scientists you would never here of otherwise. what is are the qualities that attract you in a scientist when you do these books? >> guest: i don't know how they are going to be until i meet them. often i have only exchanged e-mails which is a testament to scientists which is they are interesting. george peck worked for walter read the department of military and he was the magnet and sugar fly guy and not what i expected. a sensitive, philosophical form and loved all forms including the maggots. maggots are -- i should explain. maggots in a wound perform this

amazing function. they eat the dead tissue which encourages the growth of the new tissue and fight infection in that way. in world war ii, they would come in with horrible wounds and take the maggots out and the wounds were doing great. so they were looking into using magg maggots at walter read for the ied injuries. two weeks ago at a talk jeff said totally -- he goes when you talk about soldiers who have been hurt by iud's -- sorry. >> it is all right. >> anyway, yeah, when an ied

goes off because it is buried plosive blast all of this debris and sand goes deeply in the wound and causes a lot of problems with infection so george peck was looking at bringing maggots in the armory of the surgeon and trying to get people okay with that. so he said, you know, he had me over to dinner and he said i will raise a clutch of maggots for you especially for you and when you arrive they will be the same age as the maggots we introduce into wounds. i got there and we had dinner and where was finishing by wine and george peck which away and came back with what looked like a cut glass bowl with chocolate pudding but it was raw liver happily feeding in there which is what they do. they love to eat. he put a couple of

toilet paper.le of how do soldiers wipe their butts? >> guest: i am glad you asked that question. what they do is this is a

one-serving packet from combat rations. i had stickers may that say "grunt". anybody who buys one gets "grunt" toilet paper. i have about 2,000 of these and can't get rid of them. >> we will do the q&a. >> if you buy a book you can take advantage and i will have them at the table. >> before we get into the q&a i want to make a statement from my own reading which can be directed at mary which is that i had to jot this down but a lot of people talk about what you do and the gift you have being

funny in these situations but very few people talk about how hard it is to be such a great writer and i want to say a word about the writing in "grunt". it is really beautiful. it is your best-written book and i want to add the final paragraph in the book literally moved me to tears. >> guest: thanks, jeff. >> we will take questions and mary will answer it. >> sir, and please stand up and wait for the blue microphone to come above you. >> are we ready? what is your next book? >> guest: excellent question. i wish i knew. i don't know. i am always open to suggestions so if you get your books signed and have something you think is roach-able let me know.

i am open to ideas. we have to get carlton. >> you will be next. carlton? >> hang on. we have the get the blue mic. >> what was the oddest thing you found that you wrote about in the book? >> guest: oh, gosh, what is the oddest thing. i have one. i learned that maggots breathe through their butt. that is pretty weird. among their many, many lovely features the maggot because they go head down and immerse them self in what they are seating kind of like people at buffet tables. thank you for asking that, carlton. >> yes, wait for the blue microphone to can down.

>> my question is i read several of your books and they take a lot of research which some takes time to do the research. not like you can to it one day and -- >> guest: amen! >> do you write your books one at a time in >> one at a time, yeah, because really each book is 50 little books. i have a new topic for every chapter and i am always starting from zero and don't know anything about it. i have 15 chapters going at once. i would love to if i could. buone burner at a time is on in milife. >> any questions from back in the room? i see a hand in a sweatshirt or something. >> mary, i want to say thank you that book is fantastic.

i have been listening to it on audible and find myself listening to it before bed leading to strange dreams. i am wondering if there was something so disgusting you could not put in the book? >> guest: not something that was too disgusting. there is always a few places where my editor just crosses it out and goes no. and sometimes it is too gross. or times i am trying to be funny in a place it is not appropriate. she did some of that. but there was -- actually there were a couple descriptions, you know, when i was in the operating room with the surgeons who were showing me images there were a couple things she felt were a little too graphic. so, yeah, there were a couple. but never anything i had the

good sense to take out. >> the other sections about the general surgeries were disturbing. >> thank you. sir? >> mary, would you say your greatest shortcoming as an esteemed and highly successful science writer is that you work too hard or are you just a little too smart? >> guest: that is the best question ever. let's see, work too hard? too smart? oh, well, yeah, definitely work too hard. i work too hard. get a life, mary. >> how are we doing for questions? yeah? one more? >> yeah.

>> i ask what is your educational or experitential background that gave you such a skill in science writing? >> i have a ba in psychology. that is what i have. my skill is in making an utter pest othe people i am interviewing and tweeting them like unpaid tutor for hours at a time. that is my skill and expertise. i don't have a background in hard science. i used to say i don't have a background in science and psychologist were like wait, psychology is a science. >> you were in the communication department before this. >> at the san francisco zoology

society. >> what is your favorite animals? >> monkeys. chimps. i am a sucker for a chimp. >> we have one last question before getting on to the signing part of the evening? yes, you with the green sweater. >> guest: you! >> i have used cipro. so the military is not aware or doesn't know -- >> write them a letter. >> guest: yeah, cipro. this is faster than cipro. cipro is hard core. i think a lot of people carry that but this could be even better and faster and stronger.

six million dollar drug. >> if there are no more questions we will get on to the signing part of the evening. i want to thank you all for coming and ladies and gentlemen, mary roach. [applause] >> thank you mary and jeff. give us a second to redo the stage. come up and if you want to purchase books they are at the register behind you. thanks, everybody. take some toilet paper! [inaudible conversation]