i was sure that they were frustrated and that they have the president they want. the republicans have unified control of congress and yet they seem unable to get anything done at all. and the one the one guy who is getting something done for trump his attorney general is tracking down. looks like he's about to be fired or driven out by his own president.

[indiscernible] thank you for coming out tonight hopefully you're providing refuge from the heat but also some intellectual simulation in the form this excellent book the long-haul. i read the book with completely wrapped fascination. there is so much in here. it's not barely out of high school. tell the story of how you got into this business. a series of missteps actually. but here we are.

there was a moving company right down the street where i grow from we all went to the same church. in my name is murphy and we have this little irish thing going on. if you were 17 years old and you wanted to work for callahan brothers and then you are allowed to do that and it was essentially closed. that is what i did. summers between college. i worked as a local mover. i really liked the work and i liked working with machines and trucks it's a new and really exciting thing to do. that's how i started. with apologies and you're not that big you are very strong and

effective. how did you end up becoming a bed bug are. has a live animal holler is a chicken choker. as you can see most of these names are pejorative. so it is that. how as a the movers that are the big burly guys that can come in and move the that with one hand. that was part of my baptism into becoming a mover because i was a smallest kid in my class in ninth grade. i was his little insecure little guy.

i had known it for years because of your connection. i wasn't sure if eyes can be able to do that kind of work. it is about leverage. it's probably about proving yourself. and yet you managed to earned the trust of the guys. so big guys don't really do that while as movers. big people like that aren't really built to be moving around furniture and the heat. so the best mover is like 5-foot two with a napoleon complex so they won't let anyone outwork them. i was right there. i was perfect for me. i wrote a book about anxiety. you and i had have a little bit

of that. on e-mail about it. i made some notes here. i had have some experiences that could take me through the rockies. that was quite stressful in and of itself. i sent some statistics here. but you drive pretty regularly across the rockies. 73,000-pound trailer. through rain and slush. i think it would probably cause me to pass out. and then i would honestly just die. maybe i won't. it suggests kind of a devil may care attitude.

it has claimed more lives than you feel comfortable thinking about. i am one air hose away from it. i have the foggiest idea. it's not devil may care so much as there is an unequivocal execution required to be a trucker into be a mover. when you hire the movers to bring the grand piano up to the third floor the guys that show up we have to do that. we can't say while this is a hard job. if i need to cross i 70 from denver to the west coast and got to do that.

i'm terrified half the time and amounts. this guy looks like he's probably terrified. or if he smart he is. he talked about all the calculations are making and how far away the next offramp for the runaway trucks and what your speed is and what the weather is i want to transition out to talk about one of the things that was most interesting is you have a sustained cultural in the apology of the world. there is a spurt kill your phenomenon by where you are

probably at the top and the earnings pinnacle of the long-haul. you're also at the pinnacle of technical skills given what you'd had to do not just with the off truck stuff but backing and the threat of life and death driving through the rockies in a rainstorm. the personal liability as your backing into a driveway in afton colorado. there is this inverse status hierarchy where the bed bunkers have the highest level of skills but they are looked down upon all the other longform truckers. your last to get served at the truck stop how does it feel.

i'm not sure this can be universal approbation. we routinely put trucks and were trucks aren't supposed to go. we are to bring the big truck in there. although i don't really buy into the sort of trucker meth i do buy into the fact that i'm a very skillful driver. it's a lot of fun. then there's the whole second part of this where it is we don't go from terminal to terminal and stay around on the interstates. we go into communities and towns and go off the road. we go to where the moves are going.

he gives an entirely different perspective of the kind of america that i see in the can of america i have cultural anthropology. someone else may call it opinionated or judgmental. the america that you see what is the nature of the content you absolutely don't subscribe to the myth. you talk about how it means you don't wear a cowboy hat what is the myth and why is it that the long-haul truckers look down on you. send it is money. that's for sure. if you are hauling for a freight hauling freight hauling company that you might see on the highway these guys are making

$30,000 per year may be. a long-haul mover at the top of the game here. all i do now. i just move corporate executives and we do what we call high-end corporate relocation. i make ten times what they make. that is a friction point. and that to take another skill set i have to be able to deal with these families and navigate a transition to a new home. that takes a certain skill set. you described as three-dimensional tetris. i loaded right -- right up to the roof right away. to the other guys who don't and who are jealous and envious of the income you're able to make when it they do it also.

you are combining diplomacy and human relations dealing with these affluent and many times who are out or see you as someone they can impose and get their cost to freight my imposing liability on you. my question is is that why other long-haul freight truckers are there. they'll have a skill set to deal with that the aspen colorado ceo is moving his his dynasty. i'm not sure that that is part

of it. you can get treated pretty disrespectfully. you get paid better for it. they don't want to do that kind of work. loading and unloading the truck. you guys had to load your own trucks and unload and i said yes we do. i'll had to drive $200,000 a year and i don't go from new jersey to san jose once a week for weeks a month doing 3,000 miles a week. that's hard work. it's different work. and i certainly don't want to denigrate the work for any other truckers do. our work is different. as it is different has paid

better. we just can't walk into a moving company and say i want to be a mover. there is a whole lotta guys that just you highlight -- high-end corporate relocation. almost 50% of all interstate moving is done in june, july and august. the business is cyclical seasonal they're so annoyed at the office in connecticut. we changed some names and situations in the book. he is a real person. i will drive through september and october.

why is that high season because of families. they wait until the kids get to school which is june than they can transition in the new home and then they put the kid in the new school in september. everybody who has a choice is moving into summer. we have a little bit of a digression about books for instance. you have seen over time through the devaluation of books. what are some conclusions that they had drawn about. obviously they are members of a certain class. you're very good on the social anthropology in revealing what these things mean.

especially where i am i do a lot of work in colorado. in seattle i read some statistics that there are about 35% bigger than they were a generation ago. they're all finished for extra space. they go out onto the kitchen. everything is open plan now. with the big island. books are gone. any household i would do have a 1500 book cartons. now you may have two or one. we love boca gardens. gardens. and then we get to see it. it's also very interesting.

we pay attention to those kind of things. i knew this at some level reading your book. you seem very like an upstanding citizen. but when you are being moved they are looking at everything that you have and judging you. introducing conclusions about your life. what are the weirdest things let's put it this way. if i'm coming into your house. in your neck in a do anything. then we always come in there. and there's like three boxes. it's a full-scale life inspection. everything daughter the basement everything you thought you have either gotten rid of her forgot about we are to see that we might draw certain conclusions

about that. perhaps occasionally some judgment is an intimate and merciless exposure to your life i don't really ask for that and it really get any voyeuristic pleasure from that. you have some practical advice in there about what to put in your laundry drawer. how things are changing in american households. very often that we have a gun safe under the bed and we have the erotica stuff in the nightstand drawer if i have to go in and pack this kind of stuff i would just assume you put the gun safe in the nightstand. the rest of america. that's where these things belong.

you actually do suggest some things to put in the laundry drawer and people like you looking out. depending on my labor requirements and so forth i might be required to pick up some spot labor here and there. and now not always what we require. we wanted take the expired oxycontin and the medicine can -- cabinet and if you can leave your laundry and stuff in the nightstand drawer i recommend you sell to with loaded mouse traps. that was garrett and impress at the movers. it's always a good idea. get some respect right off the bat. you talk in the book about so many different specific jobs that you have. what are the most challenging once you've had either from the technical point of view or technically challenging and

challenging in terms of diplomacy and there's one i'm forgetting the details now. where the truck got stuck little ways down. it was a steep grade to talk about that story. this was one of my first jobs. i was told by the customer that i needed to get that trailer down into his driveway i didn't really think i could do it. i got my drivers license a couple days after my 21st birthday. that says a lot about the moving industry in general. i was bringing all of the wisdom of a 21-year-old to this job. they will take anybody who is willing to do the work. consequently they took me.

i ended up getting my truck stuck down there. this was in richmond asked really. i have to hire a tow truck operator. we have a cutdown 12 trees to get me out so that was my inexperience and i got into a bad place. you are high school student when you started doing this. my first day. i did not drop a piano through the ceiling. i did drop peanut down a piano down a set of stairs that's in the book.

how did you get these guys to respect you. the first day i worked. i did 70 thanks. i felt through the sheet rock. i did not realize it. i didn't know it was in between. i broke a whole bunch of mears by yanking a door. the final thing at the end of that day. and go collapse some curtains into the dumpster. he told me to park his car in the corner on this really hot day those were the three things on my first day. i told him that we have all gone

to the same church. i was going to tender my resignation. and he gave the card back to me and told me i have to be at work the next morning. i start getting a started getting a little bit better after that. most beginners fall through the roof and overheat the car. it's par for the course. the crew was very interested to see what was can happen the next day. i was reading some of your reviews and you have a very favorable overall one. in the time it was terrific. one of the things they expressed as a disappointment and i related to this. she said you just mention very elliptically and passing at one point you got fed up and you

left been bugging for 20 years and then you say a series of bad decisions in other circumstances lead you back in. if you feel comfortable talking about that why did you leave what did you do and that 20 years what brought you back and he regret it. she was a little disappointing. it is a crime i have always wanted to commit my whole life. i was very gratified i had had two sins as a driver. i have the first and when i was 21. that was about ten years and it was with north american van lines. then i have another one.

to have my own business. it actually worked out that way. i got married, i moved to mention -- massachusetts. i took the money have saved from driving all of those ears and bought a textile import business and i was importing those really nice fisherman sweaters from ireland. did that for a long time. i did not miss the road. the second sent was after my wife and i separated and i moved out to colorado sort of starting all over again. and i didn't have any clue about how to start all over again at age of 49.

so i did what a lot of drivers do because i still have my cdl. i always had my commercial driver's license. what i did and what a lot of drivers do is when that it gets a little bit too hot in the kitchen you just get another job with another trucking company. how to keep them from falling to sleep between going crazy with your own thoughts what are you thinking about. i think about anything. if you're driving on a the straightaway.

what is going through your head. i like driving through the i 80 were nothing's happening. what makes a lot of people bored is just fine for me. i read a lot when i'm not driving at night and then during the day i have an audiobook habit that probably needs a 12 step program. when you get to where you going and you get ten minutes left in the book and then the need to stay in the driveway. i do that. it's not that boring. pretty good drivers and pretty generous.

just do that. you don't need to make a sandwich or discipline the kids in the back seat. or work on the relationship with the people in the passenger seat. you can tell by the body language. i can see everything. and way up high what is the most amazing thing you've seen. i saw a guy reading a book. it must've been a really good book. was he driving straight. do you ever sign up and get lonely.

if you're by yourself. to get lobe and lonely and how to combat that. stop -- i start early. i'm not a morning person by any means. usually my day starts about 4:00. how do you do to do that is not a morning person. or maybe are just a you're just a really late night person. i will have breakfast and do my pretrip expection. my day is done by 3:00 in the afternoon. there is that the hard part right there. i'm parked in some truckstop and i've got ten hours before i can

start all over again. end in the restaurants are pretty much gone and truck stops now. seeking anything to eat. they used to be a lot of guys would talk on the cb. with a generator of air conditioning and heat. .. the

duvet. i just turn on the air conditioning and take a 12 minute nap. no problem. >> police don't bother you? they know it is a truck driver? how come you don't subscribe to the myth, you have freedom, on the open highway, sometimes heading west toward the frontier, nothing to tie you down except the job, what is it, the myth that a lot of your compatriots is spouse that alienates you? >> i do subscribe to the myth. that is part of it. whenever i cross the mississippi, st. louis, driving

east, eastern washington through the vineyards and seeing the cascades, pretty amazing. i subscribe to part of the myth. what i don't really buy is here is judgment or cultural anthropology depending on your point of view. it is a low-paid low status job. therefore, i have seen this in other places. when you are low-paid and low status, you make it more livable and that is what truck drivers do. that is what urban rappers do. that is what southern rebels do, that is why. >> magazine editors do it too. one more question before we can open up to questions from the audience, a number of responses

to it. people -- it deep in the drawers you have to pack it. is there a gap, mostly the business you are in looking at fairly affluent corporate people. what is the most glaring thing between how they present themselves to the world to anyone who wouldn't know because they don't know what is in the lingerie drawer or the gun safe, the reality of how their lives are organized, and this is the opportunity to say something

profound. >> a small option. >> let me circumlocution it here. with these types of people, not quite sure they understand how much the stuff they have drives them crazy. and having multiple resonances drive them crazy. and continuing this cycle of purchase and storage, if it does work for some people i am not making a blanket thing. not sure who the master and slave is when it comes to acquisition. i try not to bring judgment, what i do do is remember in my own life, all of the movers

remember that and most of my guys, the moving industry is like the landscaping industry, non-english-speaking subculture here and movers, the first name basis with the payday loan guy, they don't want this. if they don't know it, movers are buddhists. >> they learned from being movers. they understand the transitory nature of objects. they don't get attached to that. >> let's open up to questioning the audience. >> you have a tame trucker. anything you ever wanted to know. >> obviously more literate trucker than the average trucker in the sense there is class.

and status issues. do you feel you belong to the fraternity of truckers or are you truly a lone wolf looking at all this not only people you are moving but driving along, something apart from you. >> i am one of the guys, no way to avoid it. the moving work is a total meritocracy, you do the work or you don't do the work, no one cares what color you are or language you speak if you can lift your end of the piano, you are there. i could do that. the other part, if it is 4:00 in the morning and freezing out, i have a road flare and falling underneath the trailer to unfreeze the brakes.

i am in there. this isn't a game. >> right here. >> can you hear me? i have a couple questions. talk about your movers, they are not riding with you. how much do you have to know about auto mechanics? you get trained for that. i gather you don't hang around with other truckers so you don't exchange all of the interesting sort of guy talk i think of it as in cafés and stuff like that. i am sure you are not spending an evening in the bar. those are my questions. >> i have a little black book with the names of professional on call movers available on a moment's notice anywhere. i have regular crews, a company i work for, 7 terminals around the country, then crews from there. only occasionally will i get

stuck where i won't know somebody. i don't hang around with regular truckers because there's not a lot of hanging around being done anymore with restaurants being gone and trucks being more comfortable, it is more solitary than it used to be but i will have a burger and a beer. mechanics, not much. i am a bedbug, not a motorhead. i can change the oil, i could unfreeze the brakes in the morning with a flair. i am not particularly adept at that. a class a diesel engine, looking at 1 million miles -- >> what are the 3 most harrowing moments you have had as a trucker in terms of dealing with

pissed off people being moved or literally on the road where you have a weather incident or jackknife? >> hills, hills and hills. on the road, if you see a truck coming down a big hill -- >> should we get out of the way? >> definitely get out of the way. if he is on your tail, on a hill, you really want to get out of his way because it might mean there is something wrong, or he is a predator with an 80,000 pounds weapon and in either case do you want to take that on. >> go up one of those -- >> run away truckers? never have and hope i don't. that means break failure. >> thanks for an interesting presentation.

i enjoyed all of the different observations made about your job. i enjoyed it a lot even though it wasn't what i expected. i was not aware of the discussion diminished distinction between the bedbug and the hierarchy at that level. and the freight driver, not highly paid a relatively low. wondering if you are able to give me some impression how that life has changed for the others at your level, maybe change between the first chapter, your first stint as a driver or in general over time, a pretty long perspective from when you are 20

years old now. i assume it has gotten tougher in many respects but maybe not what do you think? >> the trucks are a lot more comfortable. that has made a big difference for a lot of drivers. the money is probably the same or slightly less than it was in the 1980s and purchasing power, we are always hearing about a shortage of truck drivers which i have heard since 1980 but the number he -- money never goes up. i don't know. there is huge turnover in the freight hauling part of the business, those big companies i mentioned earlier, 85%, 95% annual turnover. >> wife that? >> because i think they think they are going to make a lot of money and then find out they are not. it is not that they never learn, the ones who go in and leave don't come back but there is a huge -- what is the word?

trickle down from people who are getting downsized in other businesses who look to trucking as the next possibility. and another change which is a nice one is a lot of husband and wife teams, that is really nice. wherever there are women, will men behave better and in a truck stop that is a welcome change. >> really interesting. maybe not the best job in the world for the average trucker but it hasn't gotten worse is what you are saying. >> i don't think it has gotten worse. we don't have much time left. driverless trucks are here sooner than we think. >> the next question, what is up with driverless trucks and what will that do to you and your industry? >> has anyone seen that youtube video with auto, the anheuser-busch truck that was fully automatic and drove across hoover dam, the driver in the back seat was reading a

magazine? that is what is coming. >> you can be in the back reading a magazine or is that the transition phase to you are not in the back reading a magazine, you're out of work. >> the whole idea is to get the human driver out of the supply chain eventually. >> will bedbug or be the last to go? you can't automate the packing. >> until of a perfect the matter energy transporter in star wars or star trek we have to carry that stuff out of the house. >> are they working on that? >> have you noticed in the last 30 years a vast difference in the volume of movers? you talk today as if it was in the middle of 50 and in the

middle of 50, the change in technology and so many families working at home, we were not given a choice, you wanted a better job you went. to the point you could see it in certain neighborhoods, in the summertime every other house was for sale for obvious reasons, but not now. you live in certain communities, you rarely know of anybody, i imagine the volume is reflected in your business. >> it is different. there is slightly less. 40 million americans every year, that number doesn't seem to change. to million of those will hire interstate van lines to do that work but you don't see ibm used to stand for i've been moved,

remember? that corporate moving thing has dissipated but that is being replaced by telecommuting electronic service workers and computer people who have the opportunity to live wherever they want. moving across the bering land bridge, i wonder who that mover was. >> i these things working anymore? identify with your career, i was a furniture mover as my first job, i got my class a license when i was 18. i am older than you, they changed the. what i noticed, i went in and out of trucking along the way and got a phd and came back to

trucking when i retired and what i found was in 1989 i was paid the same amount of money in 2011 so truckers -- >> the same amount? inflation? >> $15 an hour both times. it used to be trucking was competitive with the phd. but then now, you are poor, truckers are now poor and not even middle-class. they used to make $70,000 a year. >> so did phds. >> that is true. that is an issue depending on the phd you have. do you have comments?

it is a poverty profession, not middle-class even if you work all the time. >> so where the men when i first started when i was 16, guys who worked for a local moving company were middle-class manual laborers, own a home in a town they lived in, they could have a regular sort of middle-class life. what do you call it? poverty profession. we are getting more and more poverty professions all the time and this is another one until it gets completely eliminated by computers and then we will have what do you call it when you don't have a profession and you are poor? >> unemployment. >> i agree with you completely. >> i want to thank you for talking about your career. two questions for you. number one, did you write this book on the road?

and number 2, do you like what you do? do you like doing this? doesn't feel like a job to you? of course it feels like a job to you, but do you like doing being in this line of work? >> good question. i didn't write it on the road. i had an audio cassette recorder, it was really big when i started and they got smaller and i was always making tapes, either driving or at the end of the day or sometimes surreptitiously recording conversations and those began to accumulate. about six years ago i decided to have those transcribed and that form the basis of the book. to the second question, there is a lot of about the work that i love doing and what i really love is working with families and helping them transition to a new home if they want to be

open-minded enough to let us help them do that rather than be suspicious or hostile. we are on their side. >> i recommend this book as a practical thing to read if you are planning to move because it will tell you all the things you should or should not do if you want someone like finn murphy to move you. you want to say and do the right things and treat them with proper respect and you will get a better result. >> best way to move is to get rid of everything and pack a suitcase. >> he says this repeatedly in the book. >> the high end corporate moving do you work primarily with business offices or the people being moved or both? >> depends how high end it is.

i move the hollywood guy, he was a new york guy in law and order, law and order got canceled so had to move to beverly hills. with him it was just his personal assistant. i never met him or his family. that happened sometimes. >> i have a niece and her husband who are being relocated from columbus, ohio to the boston area so i will send her your book. >> good, thank you. >> one question i want to ask you related to the book. something never resolved in my mind. the fellow that came to you and said nobody likes me. remember him? never heard you try to give him advice, never really crystallized. the idea wasn't finished. how did he work out? did he stay? did he leave? what happened? >> you are right about

everything. that scene in the book didn't resolve itself because there wasn't any resolution. the point i was trying to make with that particular guy who was lacking in any social lubrication skills was trucking attracts these kinds of guys. they are out there, people who can't fit in anywhere else. there is a subset of those guys, and certainly not all of them but he was an example, an archetype of that. he still works for the company. he is fine and is still scaring people. >> that is what he said, he scared everybody. >> big giant truck driver missing his two front teeth walking into somebody's house on connecticut avenue to move them somewhere else. >> a useful guide to have on your team from time to time. >> absolutely. next?

>> i am one of the people with a license to drive a truck and a phd. so my question is can you hear me? can you hear me? the question, a professional question, i am a professor. right downhill, in a snowstorm, how do you stop it? >> you can slow it down. >> you want to be properly feared. the introduction to my book goes into exact detail how you do that so i'm usually 50 or 13, in fifth gear which gives me a range from 23 to 28 miles an hour and then a thing called a

jake break, did you have a jake break when you were driving? same thing. the exhaust break keeps it down and the rpms keep it down but you have to hit the break and that is where it gets scary, when you hit the break. >> you talk about how the engine itself is the break. >> thank you. next? >> i don't know if you covered this in the book but -- >> mike down a little bit. >> i don't know if you touched on this in the book, but i have a personal experience that i would like to share with you. about movers. >> here we go. >> when i moved i had been to

some orientation, there were a lot of movers there. i picked one. anyway, they came to my house. i was alone, you can see i am a senior citizen. they were doing what they were doing. they told me that the next day, i should wait a while and come in, have a surprise. i sure did. what happened was i told them i was having some closet work done and they should come a little later and they disregarded what i told them, said they have a schedule. i don't see that. when i got into that apartment,

all of my clothes were lying on the couch because there was no car, closing in. and there were a bunch of boxes stashed in a bedroom. the women who were there apologized to me. they said they were sorry, they apologized. anyway, when she came to see me i told her i wasn't going to pay, it was $4000, because of what i had seen. she said she was going to sue me and they did deliver. i told the story to my son-in-law who happens to be a very smart businessman.

he couldn't stand it when he heard what they did to me. he hired a lawyer to represent me. i had a few notes in a book, showed it to the lawyer, he said he didn't know what he could do because i had signed a contract. the upshot was he discussed this with the mover's attorney, came back and told me the best he could do was, i could just pay her the $4000, she wasn't going to charge me for her lawyer and whatnot, i had to sign an agreement i would never tell emily's list or some -- >> angie's list. >> that i would never tell them about what happened.

what i found after i was unpacking, they left behind a lot of stuff, it was garden stuff, they left stuff behind, stuff was stolen, personal items of mine and i guess i want to tell anybody, take pictures. maybe if i had pictures of this mess it wouldn't have happened. have you heard things like this? >> what is your response to all this? >> moving horror stories happen every day. i am always very chastened when i hear about them. i try not to do anything really bad. sometimes accidents will happen. the fact that you are moving something increasing your risk profile but there is a criminal element out there in the industries that makes the rest of us look bad. >> i guess i wanted just to warn

everybody. take pictures. >> last question? >> the first came about by this bright young man about where you wrote the book but the second one is why you wrote the book, was it an intention of an autobiography of your life or biographical approach to the people and experience of the experience, why did you write this book? >> first thing i thought a reasonably literate treatment of the american trucker experience was overdue. i have been looking for it myself but i haven't found anything like that. it is a sort of mythic, iconic piece of americana that should be covered. those are two reasons. one of them, a nice collection of opinions i needed to discharge and the last one is i

think it is a serious a book, something to say about the importance of how and why people get attached to certain things and i wanted to say. >> you come away with an appreciation for detachment from object and positions and let that all go. do you want to tell the story about the polygamist? >> a polygamist, one man's polygamist is another man's regular guy. where this gentleman came from which was bangladesh, they don't call themselves polygamists there, just call them neighbors. i don't know. this man was trained as a doctor in bangladesh and moved to the united states and couldn't practice as a doctor so he worked to driving a taxi and worked for another 5 years to

get his american m.d. so he was ten years living in the bronx and his dream was to move out west where the wide open spaces are. one of those cities with 20 million people or something. so he moved to this corner of arizona where the s people are like in modern family. he was going to bring his wives over from bangladesh and figured he would be totally invisible in the middle of this community and could be a doctor as well and was the most genial, charming guy, one of the friendliest people i ever moved in my whole life but he was following his cultural imperatives. >> thank you for this talk. a little easter egg treasure hunt for any of you who are

fans, hunter s thompson very cleverly sort of put in little allusions and references to fear and loathing in las vegas and others as well. and add a layer of pleasure to the book so thank you. >> thank you, politics and prose and brad graham and everybody, thank you so much. >> booktv is on twitter and facebook and we want to hear from you, tweet us, twitter.com/booktv or post a comment on our facebook page, facebook.com/booktv.