the government as dysfunctional as it may seem today at the same time look at hurricane katrina. wwe have spent billions of dollars and merged all these agencies together to protect the country into the department of homeland security is incapable of saving lives on u.s. soil and hundreds of thousands of people died in hurricane katrina and so does security agents in airports is a lot of unhappiness. if there was a department of homelandepartment ofhomeland sef americans be clamoring for something like it.

but i think people have reacted to the differently. >> booktv is on twitter and facebook. we want to hear from you okay. if i could have your attention can everybody hear me in theat back box also if you are in the backend anybody is standing we

have the monitor is on tonight. if anybody wants to get a better view you can go to the café where the monitor. pleasure to have you all here. she's been here for any number of titles and it's always a pleasure to have her back. tonight is about what the military has to go through. you will finyou'll find out whae military has to go through and i will just mention one. m part of the things we wrote in the book is how diarrhea can be a threat to national security. agreed. [laughter] a quick blurb from the globe,bo

the latest bit of brilliance as the research appeared a as the d antheyread and disturbingly as e previous books it examines the science behind war as well as the researchers leading the charge on the development. the prose is a triad of research and reflection. marry as many of you know is the author of packing for mars, the curious coupling, spook, science tackles the afterlife and the curious lives of human cadaversa and her writing has appeared in every magazine that you could possibly imagine. she's going to be in conversation tonight with our own jeff greenwald. the author of five best-selling books including scratching the t surface and his latest he's also

-- [laughter]so he's also on the faculty so you can find out more about the conference is into you can find out all the information before you leave tonight for in our newsletter so without further ado please welcome mary roach and jeff greenwald.. [applause] [inaudible] >> i am a few octaves lower with a case of not really laryngitis anymore because you can hear me

now. thanks everybody for coming in for that great introduction. i'm going to start with this question. is your work always sprouts so what gave birth to ground? >> i was reporting a piece in india and someone told me the military weaponize this chili pepper and i thought i need to report on that so i went to the science lab and talked to them about the chili pepper theyth never deployed because the man

said it was prone to mildew. so it kind of bombed so the exploding chili pepper grenade never was deployed but there were other interesting thingsr going on in. they were working on a retail and while i was gone.so that was kind of where that idea came from that sounds much more a esoteric than you might thinkl >> all bookstore books are wonderful and the scientific and really funny. did you feel any worry about bringing this to the soldiers

were kind of sacred to us and sacrificed a lot. how did you feel about bringing humor to the subject? >> a lot of trepidation and concern. i have to be me. it had to be funny and have some levity but like you said people were injured in many ways and i didn't want to be disrespectful or make light of things in an inappropriate way so i tended to make fun of myself as the clueless outsider. i have a chapter on basically how to design a vehicle,ve automotive safety for people who drive on bombs how do you create a vehicle to keep passengers k

safe so they are showing me around this large armored vehicle talking about how it had to be struck down because you couldn't just keep adding moret armor because it would be too heavy. i said it's great that you still have cup holders. he said that those are rightful holders. [laughter] that happened over and over. my father was 65 when i was born and enlisted in world war i and made it as far as basic training when he got a hernia ended up with it for the military career. >> so in terms of this person who goes into the subjects not

knowing much about them the last one that was similar was packing for mars where you worked in the space program. was it harder to get access to the military or the space program? >> you would think the military but it wasn't as difficult as nasa. they are very straightforward as this project classified, but if it wasn't, people were very helpful and willing to help me. it wasn't that anyone was saying no but nobody thought they had the authority to say yes. i can't say yes i think you have to ask these people, so it was going back and forth and it took a year and a half to get on a 17.

and again it was just trying to find a way on their partly because i only wanted to be on for a few days, not months they are out there. >> the good news is you can get on with the ba to the bad news l beyond for 12 months. so the beauty of your books are in the details and there are some that are unforgettable. one for me is the chapter about military uniforms you mentioned the built-in specifications guide is 22 pages long and i was amazed to read that the armymy requires the clothing designers have a fashion design degree. isn't that kind of an oxymoron? >> you would think so. i was surprised as well. the woman i was talking to

basically the accessories of being a soldier, the things you carry, the things you sleep in,s whatever. they have had the design lab fo uniforms and this woman had a fashion degree and her background was a swimwear designer. i thought that makes no sense but she said if you think about it it does because a bathing suit is for a specialized activity, and a specialized spel environment so it has to do with wategivewith water in a certaino she felt her background and swimsuit design was appropriate. the other woman had worked for boston wedding gowns. again she said it is wearingngwn specialty fabric.

like body armor which in certain marriages you might need. >> one thing we learned that would be a great danger to soldiers like sharks if they go overboard were no problem at all but some things you don't think about it like diarrhea is a gigantic problem. why is this such a grave problem for soldiers? >> left me tell you. [laughter] historically there's a great quote from a doctor the father of modern medicine, i don't know. he said this in three has been more fatal than powder or shot. the mexican-american war as an example. several soldiers died from dysentery and there was one killed in combat.

he would have these field camps and the tent where you are preparing food with no refrigeration and you have these latrines and flies. they are landing on the latrine material than going to the food. they land with these pathogens on their feet and inoculate the food deficit for two hours into the whole camp gets dysentery, yellow fever, typhoid fever, whatever so it was a tremendous problem. now it's not because ther theres good hygiene on the bases andan there's air-conditioning so the whole dining facility can be sealed. there is no flies anymore so that's not a problem but it is if you are like special obligations comin going out on l

unit, a small village in somalia or yemen those people are eating what the locals eat and the water often is not safe. so it is twice the rate with those folks and you could imagine if you were going to take down osama bin laden, whatever your assignment was and you have a gastrointestinal emergency, that is a problem. >> host: are there any drugs they are testing? >> i went all the way to djibouti for this chapter. it'that's just the kind of gal am. [laughter] a lot of special operations going out to yemen, somalia, north africa and a researcher

testing a quick one dose regimen you'you feedback on your would t in a matter of hours rather than days so that's one thing they are testing. >> top secret. >> one thing interesting in the book you take for granted that mexico was like the poster child but how they won that honor. >> if you go onto the date database of the medical journals and put them diarrhea and guadalajara you'll get 35 articles. it like it is synonymous.he because the godfather of research, honestly he has done r

more for counteracting than any man on the planet. but anyway, he set up where people were getting sick and set up a lab at the university using students as his study subjects and published a lot of papers. >> even bee for reason he hasn'n a nobel prize is because they are embarrassed to call him up? [inaudible] [laughter] you dressed up for one point s. role as a journalist and one of the situations and you were wit a group called strategic operations where you have to play a role in the theatrical recreation of a scene. what was the role that they played? >> strategic obligations is a big movie studio in southern california that is now used for training combat medics who do

the medicine for the marine corps and the films used to be action so they are good at loud noises and explosions so it's perfect for setting up. it's hyperrealistic is the word so they are coming in and they are immersed in this scenario. it looks like rifle fires happening and there are actors who have latex in a backpack and

a remote control for the bleeding. if they are putting a tourniquet on properly the bleeding will slow and if it isn't put on properly the increase and the actor gets very quiet and meanwhile the instructors are screaming. it is very intense so to get close enough to see what is going on, i requested a roll and they were like i don't know what to do with you so i suggested just a journalist who gets in the way. [laughter] so that's what i did.e doctor >> how do they do in that situation, do they keep their calm, are they confident in their abilities and if you? >> there's a difference between the first and the last. f

the first one there would be a guy that would go up to pick up a stretcher and you have to coordinate it. , the patient falls off. ononce i did that twice. meanwhile the instructors yelling a lot of words i can't use on c-span2. >> was it fun or were you kind of terrified in the spirit of the scene? >> your adrenaline gets going from the startled response of the gun fire even though it's not real and that's part of what is important because the flight or fight response. it's great if you need to fight or run away but if you need to apply a tourniquet or do amp compression somebody's lungs had collapsed that isn't helpful so

you need to practice the skills in the first scenario when you are flooded with adrenaline. it wasn't so much i was afraid for my life but it's not a relaxing afternoon. >> one thing i love about your books as you get to meet all these scientists you never otherwise hear a command obscured from the research. what are the qualities that attract you when you do these pics? >> i don't know if. often we'd only exchanged e-mails with. they tend to be interesting people. i had no idea what george would be like. he worked for walter reed.

he was the fruit fly and navigate maggot guy have loved nature and all of its forms. i should explain in a once they perforengland theyperform this f they eat the dead tissue that encourages the growth of new t tissue to fight infection. it's typically done surgically but soldiers would come in with these portable wounds and then they were not infected so he was looking to use this for some of these iud injuries. [laughter]

>> a few weeks ago jeff said talk of soldiers that have been hurt by iud injuries. [laughter] sorry i'm sorry. anyway, yes, when it goes off because it is very explosive and blasts all this debris and sandt and dirt into the wounded and there's a lot of infections sayd he was looking at bringing maggot and get people okay with that.. he had me over to dinner and said i will leave some for you and when you drive it will be the same age as those that we introduce into the wounds.

so i was finish my dinner and he came back with what looked like a glass bowl of chocolate bowl i pudding but it was actually welg over with maggots happily feeding. they love to eat. he put a couple of them on my anger tip and outside of the context of the rollover and all context when you take them out they are cute like the size of a cupcake sprinkles. [laughter] he said these little creatures can do with no surgeon can do. he had a tremendous respect and passion for these little creatures. i love someone like george back.

i didn't know that is what i was getting when i showed up. >> have you heard from him since the book cannot? >> just to thank me for the buck. >> they are some of the most memorable characters in the bo book. among the strangest programs that you report on is the army's attempt to create a truly noxious stink bomb but it wasn't really a bomb. what is it. >> the world war ii one or the more recent one? >> the recent one.'s a non >> it is a horrible smell used to clear a room. if i had one here in my bag -- [laughter] now, i did have one called

stench soup which in context this is the one everyone feared. i have a sample and my idea if i were not here tonight i had an idea that i should open the play samplea playsamples at the repun national convention. [applause] what's open and hold our noses >> it would be redundant. [laughter] >> it's interesting because at the center is a woman named pam works with bad smells and i thought that's easy you get smells from a latrine or

something. >> this particular one she traveled the world with her bag, basic odors like the bathroom,he feet. she had people rate them pleasant, unpleasant, did you find it frightening, edible. it was hard to find a snow ball around the world somebody would find it universally portable. 3% of caucasians find the smell of vomit wearable. [laughter] so the one that was hated all over the world was the u.s. government standard bathroom

over and this was a world war ii protecting the trade deodorizers they had to have a compound that smelled like large open air of day 300 men so that was the starting point feeds to have to have an effective now older you have to have one that is not familiar because if you can't place it it might be dangerous so now it's scary. here's the diabolical part. it has the top note and when you approach a new snow you tend tob be tentative so you take the top and that encourages you to.

>> if you are writing a w description how would you describe? >> a fruity pops up with a robust latrine sent. >> the product was called stench soup. disgus said you've are not easily disgusted but were there any moments during the writing m of the book when you wished even for the moment you were writing about the wine country map or something? >> no, really not. the closest would be pam bolton sent a bunch of these vitals to

me and those were gag worthy. it takes a lot to make me. >> where did you open them? >> out on the deck. we are not opening them indoors. >> i hope that your husband wasp not grilling at the time. what was the most fun you had working on this book? >> have you ever seen the film just don't? >> i love that film and i had been fascinated with the opportunity to go onboard odyssey. it took a long time to set it up but it was interesting and fascinating. i would say that was the most fun for me. >> how long were you on the submarine?

>> four days. >> there are parts that are classified. i was in the end listed crew lounge at one point and therege was a computer printer labels seek to printer. i kept hanging out hoping something would come in on the secret printer. [laughter] some of it is powered by a nuclear reactor because the idea is to stay down a long time and not to be seen or heard because it is a strategic defense justwa being osuchas being un- trackaba

long time. having a nuclear reactor means having to never say you're sorry. [laughter] i was only down for five days. i went with a group of commanding officers during and exam, went out and came back when they were coming back so that worked out well. >> did you have a deluxe accommodation? >> the closest thing to a deluxe accommodation are the people whose beds are a mattress pan, basically it is a bunk on the floor and some of them set up in between a nuclear missile silose it's kind of like the stacks in the university library.not mu

there's not much going on. it's armageddon or nothing. very quiet spigot spinet of howm military operates. if you are the chief of the armed forces and could suggest one change in the military, what would you tell the president,

what would you say that you would like to see changed? >> the loveliest idea that i came across that was suggested in a brainstorming session at wright patterson air force base in the '90s was a session for the nonlethal weapons and there was a guy who who had an idea that if you have a compound created wings -- feelings of brotherly love and everyone would go why are we here. that's how i interpreted it. there would be something that you would be worried about the.

it's one of those you spray it in a meeting and cable guy you -- they were looking in each other'other's eyes and we had tt line and they said let's just pray this over at the west bankg

>> it's going out in a mine clearing vehicle looking for the ied's and then because they expose the same risks they havee to have an ability to empathize and that was an interesting approach. the chaplain who doesn't carry a weapon. i was going to go out with them but the coalition group wasn'tth just the united states. because it is during the

drawdown they were onlyyso now supporting daily journalists don't initially i had the idea i wanted to give infantry corps battalion because it fascinated me. if they are doing some humanitarian work. to be doing emergency trauma care in a vibrating helicopter there people are firing, that is abut asan end and samaria, logiy challenging and white ford f. challenging. >> i'm going to ask one more question before we get to the q-and-a part of the evening.

when you see these soldiers in the field you rarely see them carrying full support of the paper.>> i'm g >> what they do is this is a woman serving toilet paper for a combat ration. i had stickers made that say grande which i thought was ary lovely. anybody that buys the book will givget some grub toilet paper. i have about 2,000 of these and i can't get rid of them all.ri [laughter]

[inaudible] >> if you buy a book you can take as many. >> i want to make a statement from my own reading of the book i had to jot this down s so i would say it correctly but a lot of people talk about what you d and the gift you have for beating funny and different situations that people talk about how hard it is to be a great writer and i want to say a word about the writing. it's really beautiful and it's a well-written book and i want to point out the final paragraph of the book in my opinion is the most unlikely antiwar book ever written moved me to tears so thank you for that. we will take questions.

>> please stand up and wait for the boom microphone. >> what is your next book? >> excellent question. i wish i knew that i am always open for suggestions so if you have something let me know because i am open to ideas. we have to get the boom microphone. >> what is the oldest thing you found that you wrote about in your book? >> i've got one. i learned that maggot breve through there but.

thethey could head down and imma themselves in what they are eating kind of like some people at the buffet tables, they completely immerse their head. thank you for asking that. [laughter] >> my question isn't as funny as that. i've read several of your books candidates take a lot of research and time to do this research it's not like you could just do it in one day. do you write your books simultaneously or one at a time. >> one at a time. each one is 15 little books. i have a new topic for every chapter and i'm always starting from zero because i don't know anything about it.

i have 15 chapters going at once both one at a time. >> i see a hand in a sweatshirt or something. >> the book is fantastic. i've been listening to it on audible and i find it and listening during meal times and sleeping. [laughter] is there anything so disgustinge you could put it in the book? >> no. there's always a few places my editor just crosses it out and o says no.

sometimes it's too gross and other times i'm trying to be funny in a place that isn't appropriate. there were a couple of prescriptions when i was in the operating room but the surgeons were showing the images there were a couple things she felt a little too graphic but never anything i had the good sense to take out. >> you had the sections about the surgery that were disturbing. >> would you say that your greatest shortcoming as a science writer is that you work too hard or you are too smart?

>> definitely work too hard. get a life, mary. >> how we doing for questions. >> one more. here. >> what is your educational background that led you to have such a skill in science writing? >> a ba in psychology. [laughter] my skill is making a pest of

myself for people interviewing me. i don't have a background in hard science. sometimes psychologists would say wait a minute. >> you did some interesting jobs though. he worked in communications where? >> the san francisco zoo. >> what is your favorite animal? >> monkeys and chimps. >> one more question before we get on to the signing of part of the evening. even the green sweater. >> when we were speaking of diarrhea -- [laughter]

i have used a drug come is the military not aware or they don't know? >> this is faster, it is a pretty hard-core. they are aware and that's what a lot of people carry to get faster, stronger, better. the $6 million round. >> we will get onto the signing part of the evening. thank you all for coming. ladies and gentlemen, mary roach. [applause] >> give us a second to redo the stage and if you want to purchase books they are behind the register.