. . . . and everyone else for making this event possible. i'm so excited to be connecting with you guys in person again. i know you are all probably feeling exactly the same way. our most of you still online or hybrid? i'm very glad we are here making

this event happen. thank you to mckenzie, amy and our awesome team usa production team for making this space look so awesome. let's give everyone on the staff a round of applause for that. [applause] >> as you all know, we are here to celebrate the launch of my book, which has been such an incredible few weeks and many years in the making writing this book, going through the publication process and now on my book tour has been such an incredible last couple weeks, so we will talk about that tonight. you will get some cool behind the scenes insight into projects we have going on at a turning point usa and then i want to talk about why your voice on high schoolers and young people in our country honestly is the thing we desperately need the most when it comes to american culture and saving not just america but the free world in the next generations to come. then a q and ac you can ask anything under the sun whether

it's my book, the projects i do at a turning point or anything else you want to talk about. if you read my book or you've been following me, you might know about my story. a few years ago, i never would have thought that today in march of 2021 i would be sitting here talking to all of you at the turning point headquarters office working as a spokesperson for anything, let alone a political organization and being such an outspoken conservative. i actually went to college to become a doctor, and my dream was to become a trauma surgeon after college and medical school, so i specifically chose colorado state university in my home state of colorado, a big research institution with an amazing biomedical sciences program for college. i never thought that indoctrination and hatred for conservative ideas, christians and honestly objective truth would be such a huge part of my college experience, but low and

behold, that defined the four years of on my experience at colorado state and beyond doing what i get to do here professionally. i love the truth. do you feel the same way? that is the entire reason i decided to study science to begin with. i love running after this clear dichotomy between what is right and what is wrong. what we can prove and what we can't prove. what i know is objectively true, and what i know is a fabricated reality from someone who clearly doesn't understand how the universe works. i love that. in elementary school i loved that, with high school what you're learning with your biology and chemistry classes and the scientific method. i wanted to continue that in college, graduate school and beyond as a doctor. but even in my classes, like anatomy and physiology and organic chemistry -- by the way, if you have to take that in college, i pray for you now because that is the hardest class you will take and it tested my patience but it made me stronger in the end.

even in those classes, i was being told free speech shouldn't be part of our american society. we should be rewriting the amendment. i was being taught strong border security was racist in classes or anyone that voted for the former president was some sort of white supremacist nazi. and of course even the objective truth that was supposed to be driving my curriculum and those classes, things i expected and my multiple-choice exam or things we talked about in essays, the black and white, the right and wrong, even those were tainted by my professors political ideology. you will read a little bit about this in my book if you have a copy. but for example, in my physiology class we learned yes, there are two sets of chromosome, xx and x why only to be told a few months later in psychology that thing you learned about chromosomes, just forget about that. that's outdated as clients. we don't talk about that anymore. gender is actually a state of

being in your mind. or in the same class we would spend months learning about every tiny thing that has to happen in the womb for a baby to be conceived and make it through nine months of pregnancy when it's beautiful little fingerprints are formed almost immediately, and when it's heart starts beating and it can feel pain and it has a unique set of dna different from any other organic being on earth only to be told a few months later after the exam that a baby in the womb was actually a fetus that has its own specific name and a portion or as they called it, termination of a pregnancy, wasn't ending a unique human life or even a unique biological life, it was just a medical procedure. i was told in my cellular biology class that i had to choose against a test answer option saying that god created the universe. that was the wrong answer on my test. instead, i had to say that life

spontaneously erupted from a single cell billions of years ago just because. and it was this reality over and over again that proved to me even those subjects, even those classes that are supposed to be driven by objective truths, the things we can prove and the things we study over and over again in the peer review and go back and forth on, those things are even subject to the extreme indoctrination that's happening on our college campuses. i experienced all of that through my four years and now doing what i do traveling the country visiting high school and college campuses all over america. i'm learning that you guys are getting some of that in your high school experience. so i want you to raise your hand if you've ever been told in your classes by your teacher that gender is a social construct. how about that america was founded to be a white supremacist country?

how many of you have been called by your peers or teachers a nazi or white supremacist or trans- filmic or homophobic or anti-woman or any of the other crazy names people associate with conservatives today? that's not normal. it is today, but it didn't used to be. even when i was in high school -- and i graduated in 2015 -- we never talked about politics outside of ap and may be history. but my teachers never told me with their personal political beliefs were. we never debated whether the current president was a racist or if all conservatives were all of a sudden white supremacists. but this is becoming the norm of thanks to what's been happening on college campuses for decades in the united states and its trickling down to high school. and believe it or not, middle school and elementary school and kindergarten and preschool. have you heard about these new kids books like antiracist baby and a feminist baby?

your cousins and younger siblings and neighbors are being taught at age two and three that they as a baby should be confused about what their gender identity is, that it might be different from the gender they were born with. in california, next door, i should love california. it's beautiful but i can't. they have literally a bell in the state legislature right now that's being debated to become law that would make it illegal in any store in the state of california to separate sections for little boys and little girls for clothing, toys, books or anything else. all of this started at the heart of the nation's cultural war on the front lines as i like to say in this war that we are fighting on america's college campuses. i experienced a lot of this in the classroom but a lot of it that was the craziest happened outside of the classroom, tomac.

i was involved in my college community and going to a public school gave me opportunity to have leadership development, joining fun clubs and getting to know a lot of my peers. in my admissions jobs i was hired to become an admissions ambassador. i had a formal letter written in my file for disciplinary action after i dared to address a group of people as you guys. it turns out that is gender exclusive and i'm not being cognitive of the fact that people i don't identify as a man or a woman might feel excluded. and student government over and over and over again we debated the most progressive legislation possible saying for example the keystone pipeline is sending

that project was the right thing to do and all 30,000 students on the campus believed that. we paid tens of thousands to a lobbyist on behalf of student government to go to the state capital and lobby on behalf of every student on the campus for instituting free speech zones or repressing the most possibly leftist curriculum in every department possible on campus and it was through engaging in more leadership opportunities that i realized the goal of my university was not education at all. it's what they claim to the goal was on their website but in reality they were much more interested in operating a factory of little leftist soldiers that would graduate and take those crazy ideas with them beyond campus. one day in student government, i had enough of the extreme leftists, with passing yet another bill that set all 33,000 students were extreme leftists and i did something that would

forever be what i like to call my snapping point. it wasn't anything all that controversial and shouldn't have had the outcome that it did but i raised my hand and said i disagree. i don't think every student on the campus believed this leftism that we talked about. if i'm the only one that sinks to the contrary that we are not doing our job sitting here talking about politics, we are supposed to be creating student programming that benefits the student body and creates stronger students and adults that can thrive in the real world and you probably would have thought the sky was falling and the student government meeting into the from that moment forward, i experienced what it meant to be a conservative student warrior and activist surrounded by the extreme left as some of today's academic environments. instantly in front of everyone in a crowded room like this i

would've called a racist and white supremacist and nazi barbie i suppose because of my blonde hair, anti-woman, trans- phobic, homophobic, you name it. the session went on for hours. members were sitting in the crowd and said nothing and all of this diatribe of leftist comments, these labels the left loves to draw conservatives was to continue for hours but the second i raised my hand to defend myself, i was gaveled out by the person running the senate meeting saying i was too emotionally and was not keeping decorum. i was sitting in the student government office really avoiding any conversation whatsoever with all these people who were convinced that i was some radical crazy right wing supremacist and i was following through my social media only to find an ad popping up. pink and purple and sparkling and they had the faces of a few people i recognized.

i recognized tommy's name and it was advertising something called the young women's leadership summit were turning point usa. i had no idea what tp usa was and i had to google who this was when he got on stage to start the whole thing which is a great story that we love to tell now but something in my gut told me maybe this was the answer for how isolated and alone i was feeling in my community. so i went. i fell in love with what this organization was doing every day. finally someone got it as a young man in america i didn't need permission from the government or professors or everyone in the community to do whatever i wanted to do in life.

as an american, i had a right to my american dream and nothing could hold me back as long as i had my own passion and drive and determination to make that a reality. i went back to campus and started a turning point i was about to find out how bad it would be instantly i became known as that turning point girl on campus or that conservative girl and literally was the only person setting up a table in the heart of campus handing out socialism socks buttons for the meeting. i often was yelled out and screamed at with every profanity under the sun thank you for doing this for the first time i see another conservative in my

community, and i really thought that i was the only one. and that community continued to grow as the backlash continued to grow. with the first speaker coming to campus i was informed by the local police department that it had been ten years since the notable conservatives had been invited we hosted the non-communist activist paying for that with our student fees and former msnbc host who if you know anything about is an extreme leftist. they were so supportive of the event they knew we were standing for what was right on campus and they were excited to help us out but they had a tough job to do for the next few weeks because as the chapter president, i was given countless death threats, threats of violence, threats of rape even from individuals i worked with at the student government and i sat next to and

even professors and older people in my community. the day before the event, the one-bedroom apartment i was living and had its address online because i gave an interview to the local newspaper on behalf of the turning point chapter. so all of a sudden, nowhere was safe. campus wasn't safe, the student government office, even where i lived because i didn't do anything that conservative. i just wanted the progressive dialogue and debate, not what the left is advocating for, about ideological diversity. i wanted to talk about the differences of opinion to come together. you know what college is supposed to be about, challenging your viewpoint, exposing to new ways of thinking and maybe even just changing your mind. despite all of that insanity, it was absolutely worth it. it had 800 people come to speak. there was a lot of discussion

and debate. the national guard even had to come in we have snipers on top of the science building because the campus was so afraid of debate i didn't even recognize my community anymore. we held events on the plaza which is basically an open space in the middle of campus where if you change people's minds at a tabling event we brought dennis to campus for 1200 students across the state of colorado and wyoming as they came to hear a different perspective and point of view and by the time i was a senior i saw hundreds of people walking around the turning point campus with pins on their backpack and even their hats and

don't tread on me t-shirts on campus. when i was a freshman, no one would be caught dead doing any of that and it spoke to the power of one person willing to be the first person. it was never easy when i did any of these things and like a lot of you i got failing grades on assignments and had professors not want to be my mentor anymore and i lost a lot of friendships along the way. my reputation probably wasn't as stellar as how i intended it to be and a lot more people knew me as that turning point girl or conservative girl then isabel, scientist. sometimes people just need someone else to be the first person to raise their hand, to say something back to their teacher, the first person to post something on social media that everybody is thinking but nobody is willing to say. now it is the most valuable lesson i learned throughout my

time in my undergraduate institution at colorado state university. by the time i graduated i transitioned into a very different space in the conservative movement. i didn't go to medical school so my plans changed quite a bit after graduation but today i get to do the same things i was doing on campus especially for turning point and i get to do it with all of you. traveling the country and interacting with so many members of the generation, i've learned so much about what it means to be generation z. that's you and i. or 1997 or later in the united states. i'm 23 the first year of the generation and all of you that are currently in college or high school called your cell generation z. here we like to say that it's generation free. and i talked about this when i go on the news or the radio or speaking to older crowds.

when you hear melanie l what comes to mind? liberal, blue hair, frail, weak, spoiled, i like that one. millennial's are people that got down on the ground a few years ago and screamed at the sky thinking it was literally the death of the country because the candidate of choice didn't win. that's what we associate with young people in the united states and especially when i speak to people that are our parents and grandparents age they think blue hair crybaby like all of you just said but that isn't true. actually, the opposite is true.

this is an important statistic to share with people in your communities, tell your teachers, parents, friends. it's been proven to be by several national pulse and surveys to be the most conservative generation the country has seen since world war ii. that is a really big deal. think of that dramatic transformation between millennial's that i started going to college with, blue hair, scream at the sky liberals and people like you and i. we are proud of america. we are patriotic about the place we live and we loved free speech and opportunity to build your dream into a reality. and most importantly we are not afraid to say it and i know how scary it can be.

i do this professionally and for fun after graduation. i got the failing grades and walked a difficult road of being the only outspoken conservative in my community as the group continued to grow. i get it, it is scary. but remember what i said about being the first person, sometimes that is all you need to create a massive movement in your community when you go to college or college community or sorority or another club you are a part of when people our age or leftist, once they get to the real world after graduation, they are just going to get it. they will get a job, have a boss they have to answer to someone, have to pay their tax which is not fun and high schools are not going to teach you how to do

that. people assume young people will get beyond college and this crazy world of alternate reality and they will wake up and be conservative. and i think that has probably been true. for several decades in the united states we just watch the results of what happened when we embrace that apathy in 2020 and now 2021. the entire generation of people who were left alone by their older generation because it was assumed that they would be conservative when they graduated left their campuses and brought insanity with them.

look what happened last year. those ideas have permeated congress literally right now our u.s. senators are debating other they can vote in a federal election. i remember what it was like to be 16 and it's an emotional roller coaster so i don't know i would trust myself to trust the next president of the united states. people are arguing right now to get rid of the voter id requirement to vote. anybody can vote multiple times if they want to get away with that. the first amendment in the committees in the united states congress because hate speech as they define it shouldn't be free speech. these are the ideological leaders of the political left. they are open and the socialists. they want ideologies like what

we see in cuba, venezuela to thrive in the united states. they want the government to control your life. these ideas permeated. look what happened with coca-cola last week. can someone inform me how you can be less white because i have no idea what that looks like. if you tried to change, would that be racist? it seems to me that is just my own two cents on the issue. this is the ideology driving the corporations and there's a handful of corporations that drive all of the information you see. what side are they controlled by? the left. as we literally saw the most impactful and influential social group of our time and blm in our society to the ground last year,

literally setting churches on fire, rating businesses, destroying people's livelihoods because potentially all they had ever been taught all their college campuses is that the society had to burn to the ground to make way for something more progressive and equitable in the future for socialism. that's what happens when we abandon these ideas and a call to action to influence the people that are our age right now to have these conversations like when you raise your hand and tell your professor what you said is crazy or even your teacher in high school, when you fight back against these decisions in the administration to stand for the things you believe in. i get told young people will just grow up. you are too young to be talking about this professionally. you've got to get more life

experience. here's more information you should share with people when they tell you that. in 1776 what document was signed and written? declaration of independence. i want you to remember these numbers. your professor is probably telling you that and i think we have that assumption because they wear white rigs so they look old and the pictures and paintings and when james munro was 18-years-old, john marshall was 20-years-old, younger than me, aaron burr 20. alexander hamilton, 21. james madison was only 25 and thomas jefferson who wrote the whole thing was only

33-years-old in 1776. america has always depended on young patriots, young conservatives. now in 2021 it isn't that hard. i have taken a lot of classes and i would argue organic chemistry is a little more difficult. having been there as a science student and is now doing what i do professionally, i can tell you all of this that we do at a turning point usa boils down to one thing, tell the truth. in whatever way you possibly can to your community. maybe it is as easy as raising your hand and telling your professor know or your teacher

know and here is the fact behind it, here's the statistic i can back that up with. maybe it is in your living room making a video about something crazy that your principal says that week to give the courage to stand up and do something about it. maybe it was a chapter in your community. you may not think that these things one by one make a huge difference but when you multiply every single one of those by every one of you and every single campus every time you have these discussions with your family around the dinner table, that is the modern american evolution. that's how you become countercultural to the left because they are controlling every aspect of culture from

hollywood to congress and everything in between. it doesn't have to look all that difficult, but it does rely on every single one of you doing a little bit of soul searching and deciding your place and your call to action within the cultural war. i had no idea what that looked like for me. even when i started chapter on my college campus. i thought i was going to be a doctor all the way through my last semester but i learned that honestly it doesn't matter how you decide to make a difference in the conservative movement. all that matters is that you do decide to do something to make a difference in the conservative meant. a couple of years ago, i knew nothing about video production. i didn't know how one of these wireless microphones worked. i didn't know what it meant to be expose person for an organization or to go on tv several times a week to talk

about generations being generation free. i'm of the opinion now doing what i do each day having come from where you are sitting as a college student and campus activist, but what you do every day is a lot more impactful than what i do every day. .. >> next to them in class. i don't go home to them as my zig siblings or my parents at home every day. they're not my teachers teaching me the subjects that i learn every day in school. they don't necessarily get to know me personally. but all of the people in your community do know you. and when you take the time to respectfully and patiently and excitedly and passionately explain why free speech matters,

why america is the greatest country to ever exist in the history of the world, why capitalism is the answer to poverty instead of socialism, that's when everybody our age will wake up and get it. and i think we're already starting to see a lot of that in our generation right now, right? that's guy gen-z or is already g everything n-free, these events that we get to do and the conversations you have in your high school communities every day. but i want to remember and i want you guys to think about what happened last year. i don't know about you, but 2020 was the worst year ever, right? i think we can all agree on that. but if we embrace the apathy that every generation before us did, 2020 is going to look like kindergarten recess. i would rather have every single generation look like you and me, have pride in our communities, want to preserve this american experience and share it with the world for generations to come. is so whether that's making a little video with, raising your hand in class, writing a book, doing a show with turning point

usa -- by the way, there's some more great stuff coming, and that's a all i'm allowed to give you about the backdrop behind me right now here in the next couple of months -- it can be big or small. but the actions you and i get to take every single day will make every generation to come generation free. awesome. thank you guys okay. hi, i'm eric. i am a junior in high school. and i'm 17, and my question for you is, you know, when i think

about where i want to go, like, in the future as far as my career, i think about people like you or ben shapiro or charlie kirk, and, you know, you guys are the kind of people i look up to. what is one piece of information that you could give for somebody who is kind of trying to go down that career path? >> great question and just totally warms my heart. it is very humbling that you guys think think that of me bec, like i said, as i said, i was in your seat as a college student two years ago as a student having no idea what i was doing to get into this movement and how you get started building a following, having a show or providing these organizations. the best advice i can provide is just get started. honestly, a lot of this stuff you figure out as you go. it's trial and era, and you have to dare to fail a little bit. if you're willing to put your name out there and start

experimenting with what your unique brand will look like, i guarantee any single one of you could be sitting here a year from now or two years. you just keep putting yourself out there and most importantly ask for opportunities. i actually asked for jobs with some of these organizations that i've been really fortunate to work with that didn't exist. i wrote up business proposals, which they certainly did not teach me in organic chemistry, so i had to learn that on my own, and i used the connections that i learned from some of the groups i was a part of to take that next step and move beyond being a student activist to do this professionally. my story is like that. so many other people that i work with have similar situations to mine, and we're all really excited to reach our hand down and help the next generation achieve that. it doesn't have to be highly produced, it doesn't have to be in a really fancy studio, but if video production is where your heart is going, start making videos in your car -- not while driving, please -- but like graham allen does in his driveway or living room and

start to hone in on the subjects that you are more passionate about, and i guarantee you, you will have success in the future. >> hi. my name is daniel. first-year grad student at gcu. 23 years old just like you. >> yeah. >> yeah, in high school. how do you -- to reach out tow -- [inaudible] women being more liberal, how would you do a reachout towards a woman, and i say it for myself also for he to reach out to my fellow latinos that we're also seen by the left that we have to fall on liberal principles but in reality conservative principles are the ones that benefit women, and many latinos like myself, we are conservative without even knowing it. >> i love what you just said. sorry, white guys, this answer probably won't apply to you, but i promise you're not the evil people that the left wants to say you are. i think there's this assumption that because you fall into a certain group as a minority or as a certain identity, you have

to be a leftist. and that's because the left has been so good over the last few decades at dividing america in as many ways as possible. and you're starting to see that division continue to grow over and over and over again with every alphabet letter added to lgbtq +, right? as a trans woman of color who's disabled, you're actually more oppressed than everybody else in society. so the left is interested in identifying you as a group, as you're labeled, not as an individual. and no human being on earth wants to be identified with a group, they want to be their unique self even if they don't realize it at the time. is regardless of what group or individual identity or person that you're trying to reach out to whether it's a woman, latino, a black american or anybody else who has a specific identity -- white guys included, by the way -- you just explain to people that the left claims to

value individuality, they claim to let you have autonomy over your own life and do whatever you want to do. but in reality when you look at all of these policies and when you look at how they're specifically identifying you as a group, they're not interested in that at all. so i think the easiest way to reach people who are in grad school or college or high school as step number one is do you want to have autonomy over your own life. do you want to make your own decisions, or do you want somebody else -- whether that's your parents, the government or your boss -- telling you what you need to do every day? they're, of course, going to say, no, i want to make my own decisions, and that is a perfect catalyst to get that conversation started. >> hello. i'm -- [inaudible] >> yeah, i can hear you. >> hi. i'm jay, and my question is, like, whose stories are kind of getting -- >> it's okay, i can hear you. i'll repeat your question. >> stories are getting ridiculous where even the onion is publishing real news stories

because they're more ridiculous than anything they can come up with. you said that coca-cola thing, i had no idea that even happened until you just said it. i just want to know where do you get your news from and what news sources do you recommend? >> yes, i get this question all the time, in fact, i think this is my most frequently asked question every week on instagram or when i go speak to groups like you guys. the news is crazy. in case you hadn't noticed, the news isn't actually the news because the media is a lot more interested in driving your interests than reporting what's actually happening in current events. so when things are absolutely crazy and need to be reported are happening in real life, you hear crickets from the media. for example, all of these sexual harassment allegations against governor cuomo in new york. that's a great example that's happening right now before our eyes. we wanted to address that problem with my show, with turning point usa, freedom seas. so every single day for one minute we're giving you guys facts, information, data and

statistics about every subject under the sun. it's not my opinion, it's not what i think about xyz or turning point usa, it's literally just giving you a fact and the place you can go to learn more about that fact with the hope that you can take that information out into the world and use that add as your metaphorical ammo to win america's cultural war. i do all of the research and the writing of the scripts and everything for that, so i have a few places if you're looking for more in-depth information, first and foremost, avoid mainstream media always, at all costs. don't even type it in regardless of what side of the aisle. objective media does not in 2021, and that's very frustrating, but we're trying to fill that gap in the market for you guys. the library of congress, i know, lamest thing that you've ever heard in your life, but please bear with me because it's actually very helpful. has something called the congressional research service. there's this massive part of the federal government that most people don't even know exists,

and we employ people from literally every country around the world who are experts in the most minute subjects that have ever existed to write reports for our policy makers, for our members of congress, for people who work in executive departments and agencies in very easy to understand ways, so bullet points that are maybe only 10-15 pages long, and you can really get the gist of what a subject is completely in depth from those things. so check out crs, the congressional research service. and if you're looking for more of a conservative-leaning aspect but maybe that's not overtly political, the heritage foundation provides really great briefs that are 2-4 pages on any issue under the sun with other data, statistics and sources that you can jump to from there. so utilize those when you have to write papers or you're trying to prove somebody wrong on a opportunity suggest. you're not going to have any of the bias associated with those. but that's kind of hard to read, so be prepared. they're definitely academic and a little stuffy. >> hi. i'm drew. i'm an officer for the gcu

chapter. >> awesome. >> and my question is for, like, when you were writing your book, what was the most difficult aspect or kind of like one of the biggest obstacles you had to overcome when you were getting your book written or published? >> great question. raise your hand if you love writing? raise your with hand if you hate writing. yeah. most people who are young do not like writing. even as somebody who loves writing and loves reading, you would always find my nose in a book as a kid, it's really challenging to take the story of your life and what you experienced and put that the on paper in a book that you think people are actually going to want to read. first and foremost, literally anybody can write a book. i encourage you guys, go write books about things that you're passionate about and what your experiences have been in this movement. i self-published because it's very difficult for first-time authors to get connected with big publishing houses. and i used a company that helped me do that that many of my

friends have used too, but i own all the rights to my book. i have it on amazon, barnes & noble and all of that. any of you can make that happen, and i would be happy to help you with that process. but my best advice is don't do it chronologically, and don't do it all at once. if you are really passionate about something that day, one particular story or how you felt about one particular instance that happened to you or in the world, write about that for a few pages or ten pages or twenty page, then walk away. sever days, and then come back, and you can always rearrange things and piece things together, but your best writing is going to come in short blocks instead of all twups. again, happy to provide any of my own experience and some guidance in that process too. >> [inaudible] >> awesome. yea, i think that was our last question, but i'm going to stick around if you guys want. if you haven't purchased a copy of my book and you want to, we have a few copies. maybe not for everybody, but enough for some of you guys that we can sell, and i'm happy to

sign any of your books and take some pictures after the event too. thank you so, so much for coming. i'm so appreciative of all of you guys. let's give a round of applause to tpusa. become tv on c-span2. funding for booktv comes from these it's companies who support c-span2 as a public service. ♪ ♪ >> recently best selling author james patterson and retired army anger matt eversman discussed their collection of stories about veterans. here's james patterson on why they wrote the book. >> we had a mission, matt and i. and firstly, that if you have been through this, if you're a veteran, if you've been in the military, that you would say sergeant eversman and patterson got it right, they told our story. we identify with them. we've had trouble sometimes expressing the story ousts, but

there it is -- ourselves, but there it is. and if you're like a lot of people listening right now who think they know what the military's about or could care less, you will understand it for the first time in your life. i swear to god, you will. and you will, you will understand what it means to serve, and you will understand what it means to put your life on the line for somebody else. and the next time that anybody -- when you thank somebody for your service, you will know what you're thanking them for, which is huge. and it really -- i think it's hugely important. for me, this is the most important book i've ever done, by far, because you will understand at the end of this -- which is what you want to do with every new book you read -- you want to learn something new. you will learn what the military's all about from this book, i promise you. >> james patterson has appeared on booktv over ten times, and you can watch this and his to other book talks by visiting booktv.org and typing his name in the search box at the top of

the page. >> as part of our ongoing interview series with members of congress, booktv asked democratic congressman from massachusetts what are you reading. >> i am currently reading a book called abe. it's a cultural biography of abraham lincoln. and it charts the way that he navigated american society, culture and poll picks -- politics in the 30 turbulent years between his youth in the 1830s all the way to his ascendancy to the presidency and the civil war. >> [inaudible] >> i always read books on american history, but i'm also increasingly read about the life sciences and general purpose technology, energy storage, a.i., robotics. i'm trying to educate myself more on these technologies that i think can be transformational for our economy.

>> how do you -- [inaudible] >> i am a big user of kindle. i'm constantly browsing. and the other thing that i'll do is go into bookstores and walk around. i think there's an osmosis in a bookstore that it's hard to replicate online. >> do you -- [inaudible] >> i do. i recommend books to my colleagues. i also talk about books with members and friends and staff, and i think book shelves and browsing one another's reading materials is a great way to get to know people and to start conversations. >> [inaudible] to you throughout your lifetime. >> well, in second grade i think it was my teacher saw that i liked the read, and she recommended this series of books on characters of american history, everybody from george

to the wright brothers, and i just devoured those books. there's probably, like, 200 books in the series, is and i just read them 24/7. i thought it was so interesting. and it sparked my love of history and american government. more recently i red a book call -- i read a book called connected which i've always found to be really influential in how i think about politics that analyzed not just social media, but real life, in-person human networks and the way that people are influenced by one with another and influence one another. i've always thought that was -- [inaudible] how i think about political organizing. and then that, those are probably the two that come to mind. >> when and where do you read? >> so i read generally to relax, and i read as part of my job. one of the things about being in elected office and a member of congress is i'm constantly asked

to get up to speed very quickly on a whole range of issues. so i'm always looking for ways to take complicated subjects, get myself up to speed on them through reading, and then what i like to do is find somebody who i think is an expert on that summit and have a conversation with them to make sure i understood what i read, how to digest it by having a conversation with them in realtime. and another thing i do is i just read for pleasure, to relax at nighttime, try to unwind from the day and sort of put my mind as a blanken screen before going to bed -- blank screen. and is one other thing, i read to my son. i have an 11-month-old son, and we read a whole range of books that -- [laughter] he's starting to get more engaged in. >> watch this and other interviews with members of congress about the books they're reading at booktv.org. >> booktv in prime time starts now. first, pulitzer prize-winning

journalist john archibald looks at the role of white preachers in the south during the civil rights movement. and then former democratic senator carl levin of michigan reflects on his 36-year career in the u.s. senate. also this evening former white house press secretary and fox news host dana perino discusses her career and offers life lessons s. and science writer harriet washington talks about the history of the use and his use of of science and medicine in the united states. that all starts now. for more schedule information, visit booktv.org or consult your program guide. and now here's john archibald on southern preachers in the civil rights era. >> john archibald is a pulitzer prize-winning journalist and columnist for the birmingham news. his column focuses on alabama and birmingham politics. he's written for the free register, among others. when he received the prettier prize for commentary in 2018, his work was