soul to keep." when my father was in the military and he was in germany during world war ii, and he liberated dachau and he had the staff photographer take pictures of the holocaust victims. he made scrapbooks out of them which are at the holocaust museum. he brought them home. i looked at the photographs and i thought there cannot be a god. how could a god let this happen? that's when i stopped believing in god. i did not know the word "atheist," but i just knew not believe in god. i learned the word "atheist" when i was 13-years-old. i told my father and he went completely crazy. even on his deathbed, i was with him when he died, and one of the last things he said was, "please do not continue to be an atheist."

i could never explain to him. he was there and he saw what happened at dachau, but he cannot understand why i cannot believe in a god. when i took over "on faith," when i started "on faith," i had absolutely no particular faith or beliefs. i was an angry atheist. i was mad at god. even though i did not believe in god. i was really mad that this person, this thing, this idea that people worshipped, could create so much suffering on earth. and by the way, as of today, i have still yet to hear anyone who is religious explain to me in a way that makes sense why there is suffering on earth, if there is a god, an all-powerful, all-knowing, all loving god.

how could there possibly be suffering? that has always been a problem for me. jon meacham, who is a great friend of mine, a religion scholar, and i had a great debates about this. about the time i started the website, we were having lunch and he said "you are not really an atheist." i said, "yes, i am." at the end of three hours, he said, "i will tell you why. because you are not a negative person. being an atheist is a negative person -- you do not believe in something. it is not a positive thing." he said, "you know nothing about religion.

the people on this planet believe in something, in god. their lives are completely informed by what they believe. a lot of really intelligent people i know are believists as well. i cannot dismiss that. it became clear what was going on in politics, national politics, but also foreign policy, so much was about religion. i wrote an e-mail to our editor then and said, "we really need to cover this."

i was looking at it as a journalist. "we are just not covering the story. it is a great story." he was not interested. i went to don gray, who was then the editor of the "washington post," and i went to lunch with him, and i said, "we are not covering religion," and he said that i should do it. i said,"i do not know anything about religion." he said, "nobody is perfect." i called up john meacham, he was the editor of "newsweek," and i asked if he would do it with me. i had no street cred. we had a bunch of people agree to be analysts. and then i began to study religion. i took a trip of around the world about six or eight months after i started the column, and called it, "the great faith." we went to 13 countries.

and studied every possible religion you can all imagine. totally exhausting. but i was absolutely riveted by what i learned. i realized i did not know anything. that was the first thing i realized which was helpful. now eight years later, i really know that i do not know anything about religion. the more i learn, the more i realize i have not even begun to understand. but -- i decided then that i was no longer an atheist after i studied religion because i thought meacham is right, i understand what people are after. but i also -- i saw things in religion that were really good. i had always, my position as an atheist which was, religion is the cause of all evil. and obviously, that is true on some level.

we look at isis today and we see it is the cause of a lot of evil in other religions, too. i also began to separate out institutional religion from spirituality or belief. that was the really important time for me. i am not alone. about 25% of the population would call themselves spiritual or not religious. "spnr's," or what i call spnr's. sam harris wrote a book "spirituality without religion." that there is something there.

there is a dutch movement called somethingist, which describes my religious beliefs better than anything else. they believe there is something there but they do not know what it is. i am a somethingist. i believe there is something there. and i can call it god, if i want to, or whatever. but i believe there is something bigger than we are. we were created by something. and i do not have a personal relationship with god. and i do not really believe jesus christ was the son of god.

so, i do not really pray but i meditate. >> let me show something you were involved in on cnn. what is a labyrinth? >> it is not a maze. it is a round, flat surface that looks like a maze. when you walk the path of the labyrinth which are the supposedly the circuits, the paths of the brain, it leads you into a circle and that is where you meditate. when you walk in the labyrinth, you think of something and you concentrate on something, an issue that is bothering you, worries you, where you need

clarity. that is what i find i get from the labyrinth. think of a problem or issue or question as an you walk around until you get to the center. at the center, you concentrate some more on whatever it is that you want to resolve, whatever problem it is. i had the most extraordinary experience that i have ever had in my entire life. they were life changing experiences. what it was, is it was moments of clarity. i walk the labyrinth every

single day i am here. i am really religious all about it. >> has anybody said to you or either behind your back that sally has lost it? they see the spiritualism and say it is not really religion and what is she doing. it used to be a hard-bitten style section writer in town. what is your reaction? >> the person most surprised was my husband. >> you say in the column he is religious? >> he is, he believes in god. he doesn't go to church. he is not a practicing -- but in scary moments he prays. when we thought that our son, quinn was dying. i tried to pray at the children's hospital, the chapel. and i just went in there and nothing happened. nothing happened. i got no nothing. >> something happens on the labyrinth? >> it is interesting.

and sometimes it is transcendent. you are supposed to follow, the circuits over the brain. there is something that happens when i walked the labyrinth. they have them in hospitals now, outside of churches. there is something very peaceful and very soothing and quieting. i never walked the labyrinth and i do not come away with some sense of clarity or understanding about what it is that i am going through. it does not always solve the problem, but i always feel that if there is something guiding me. >> catch us up. you wrote for "the washington post" style section for how many years? >> this year, 46 years. >> i mean at the stretch when you are doing hard reporting? >> i went back after my son went

to boarding school, he was very learning disabled. i stayed home even though i was writing for the paper. i guess it has been about 10 years since i was actually on a staff writing. i still write for the paper what i am not on the staff. >> what happened when you decided to tell the story about religion? what happened when you wanted to leave this other reporting and go to religion? >> i had sort of done it, brian. i had been there, done that. written all of the profiles. i was doing the same kind of thing all of the time. i got off on a tangent about terrorism after 9/11 and i did a lot of homeland security stuff and that was fascinating to me.

it was clear i wanted to move in another direction. i just did not want to do what i was doing. i did not want to cover politics anymore. i was interested, but i did not want to write. >> here is a clip of the dalai lama, just recently on the floor of the senate giving the prayer and walking around. let's just watch and you connected this. >> this is my favorite prayer. [indiscernible] remain. as long as faith remains and as long as sentient human beings remain. [indiscernible] and help the misery of the world.

thank you. >> harry reid brought him down to the floor. he walks around. what role does it really play and how much of it is show how much is real? >> i think a lot of it is show. the dalai lama, i have met him several times. he is a very gentle, sweet man. i think he would be happier somewhere meditating in a cave. i worry sometimes he is exploited having to do this

fight for tibet. there is no more tibet. that is over. he sits out and talks to people and his difficult to understand. most people do not understand what he is saying. his message is wonderful, love and peace. i still feel he is being used and people not only use him but he used for their own benefit. i'm not particularly moved by that.

and i also have a problem with -- you know, i care very deeply about the separation of church and state. i have a problem with words like "god" being used in the pledge of allegiance and when you are swearing in someone in the military or whatever. i do not think it has a place in our country now because of religious freedom. there are so many people who are not religious. it a seems we are no longer a christian nation. it seems to me we are not necessarily a religious nation. a lot of people are very religious. there are a lot of people, again, the same ratio between those who are religious and not, about 25% of people who called them "nones," if you ask what is your faith, they say "none." they are spiritual. most people who say they are nones are people who believe in god or something. believe there is some higher power. only about 3% or 4% are hard-core atheists. >> why do politicians end their speeches with "god bless

america"? >> they have to. the majority of people in the country believe in god or say they do. that has become kind of -- it has become a way, a code word of saying i am a good person. i have some very close friends who are atheists and they are some of the most decent human beings i have known in my life. we have seen this from an awful lot of people who believe in god and do terrible things. believing in god has nothing to do with the goodness or integrity or decency or values. you do not have to believe in god into how morals or values.

in this country, we think we do. politicians are smart enough to know they have to say that. it means nothing. most of them, i believe, do not even think about it and a lot of them are not religious. you cannot run for office in this country without saying you are religion. you probably ought to be a christian, too. i think that -- well, we have a black president and will have a woman president, a jewish president, we will have a muslim president and a gay president before we have an atheist president. i think it is too scary for some people to contemplate. although i think the religious "four horsemen," -- christopher hitchens and richard dockins and

sam harris have for done a lot to dispel the myths of the evil atheist. they have made it acceptable for people to say they do not believe in a god. joe lieberman was jewish. i think joe is an orthodox jew. he was a practicing -- he is part of the abrahamic faith and people respected his religiosity or religious faith, nature. it was not necessarily a detriment for him because he was religious and talked about how important his religion was. >> how often do you write? >> i try to write once a week. sometimes twice a week. i write for my website "on faith," and that will run in the washington post. occasionally, i will do something that is not about religion, but strikes me. >> and -- it is on the website and if people want to read you, how do they find you? >> they google on faith.

faithstreet.com/onfaith >> i have a piece here that you wrote in 1974. what i want you to do is to compare this town with what it was then and what it is now. and this is a piece you did on somebody named steve martindale. >> yes. >> been dead for years. when you did a piece on him he was 30 years old and he died 16 years later of aids. who was he? it was a huge piece. it had a real impact on the city and what were you trying to do? >> steve martindale was a really sweet guy. what i was trying to do was show how you make it in washington, how you make it socially. steve was this rocket. he came here out of college. by the time he was 30, he was

having parties with the most elite, most famous, most powerful people in washington. how did it happen? he was very personable and friendly. i liked him. what i wanted to show was how it works and what steve did was, he became friends and he was everywhere. he started inviting people. he would go out and make friends and cultivate people. he would flatter people. i am still never sure who paid for the parties. he was able to put on the events. i think one of the things i said was his trick was to call up alice roosevelt longworth, teddy roosevelt's daughter, and say he was having a party for henry kissinger and call henry kissinger and say i am having a party for alice roosevelt and they would show up. everybody knew if steve and invited them to parties,

everybody would be there. he became the host with the most. it was a fascinating phenomenon to see how the power elite could be had so easily in washington. you ask how it has changed. honestly, i do not think that part of it has changed in terms of how you succeed. but i think that just having parties in general has become so much more difficult because there is this sort of rancor in washington. in those days, republicans and democrats actually spoke to each other. they were friends. a lot of that was because people lived here. most people on of the hill lived in washington. they would go home and come back. face each other at dinner and

their children went to school together and they want to church and the synagogue together. there was a real sense of community. i once wrote that the airplane was the demise of friendship on capitol hill because once their travel became so much easier, people started traveling. now, most families live outside of washington. the members of congress will fly in on monday and spent monday, tuesday, and wednesday nights on their sofas and fly home on thursday. >> almost everybody you wrote with exception -- exception of henry kissinger and your husband are dead. i want to show you what you did about 20 years ago, this man is dead now, but he was mentioned in your piece a lot.

he had a lot of visibility. let's take a look. >> what about when you were doing that? >> no power at all. they think they do, but they do not. if you act as a transmission for facts and have an impact, you can have an impact as a transmission does. the idea that anyone in the united states is foolish enough to think the way they do because some columnist thinks that way in the morning paper is an idea that only a columnist could believe. >> when you did it on your book, you had an invitation. explain the character and he wrote a column in the post. what has changed? >> first of all, joe actually

believed he had a lot of power. and he did not believe he was just a transmission and he used his power and columnist still do have power. people are afraid of them. because they do have an impact and they do have an impact on what people believe especially if they are good and well respected. if you are somebody like david ignatius, you have a lot of power. people actually change the way they behave and act and is their views because of what david writes. many of my friends are columnists have the same impact. joe knew perfectly well that, he was being uh -- >> we see this a lot when

somebody says exactly the opposite of what they say. >> he was a contrarian. he likes to shock people and take the other side. i do not think that part has changed. he was very powerful. and also his proximity to the "washington post" and and friendship with the grahams. >> what do you think about the post of being sold? >> i think don had no choice but to sell because it was losing money and he sold it to save it. it was a courageous thing to do. >> what does it do for the town that is owned by jeff bezos? >> it was very hard for people at the paper when don sold it.

everybody was in shock. we saw it coming because we knew the numbers and it was better to sell it as an fold it which is the direction it was going. jeff bezos bought the paper and catherine, don's niece, was publisher until a month ago and she is now stepping down. there are no more grahams. a new publisher was hired who was a former reaganite. he is not a wide-eyed ideologue. i do not think he is going to impose himself on the newsgathering operation at all. i do not think he will. i think he was a good choice because people were nervous about bezos living in seattle

and not being here and once the grahams left, we need is someone who had been in washington. ryan has been here for 20 years and has a real respect for the newspaper and the role. i think he will be a great ambassador to washington. >> you felt the power of the town when you wrote these pieces. do you still feel the power when you write the religion column and it is only on the web, mostly? >> well, it is so different now. i was in television for a while. i was the first network anchorwoman when i did at the cbs morning news. >> be careful, we have a clip to show you. >> it is not my best moment. [laughter]

at any rate, that thing i loved was ratings was everything. i lasted for six months and went back to "the post." well, what has changed with the web is that is the case. ratings are everything and traffic is everything. the most beautiful word in the english language and now is going viral. you want your story to be out of there and for people to read them. that puts a lot of pressure on reporters and journalists. it skews the way you look at what you write and how you write it. what people might want to read in the newspaper if you are writing a solid story that you know is a responsible news story that should be in the paper, but you also know it will not get a lot of traffic, you may not be as enthusiastic as writing about paris hilton. >> which of your stories has gotten the biggest response? >> i did a column about suffering and how no one gets a pass and we all suffer.

that seemed to resonate. people really responded to that in a way i was stunned. people stopped me on the street. their eyes welled up with tears telling me their stories. it was interesting because i was talking to my editor and talking to him about my feelings about suffering. he said you have to write that. at first, i got -- you would be happy to know the productive aging award from the center for jewish -- center for something

-- i cannot remember the name of the organization. it is a very good organization. and so i gave a speech to them and they honored me at this dinner. i gave a speech. it was my speech and i cut it back and made it into a column. >> how much of the suffering of your husband's dementia have you written about?

>> i have not written about it at all. he was diagnosed a while ago. it became obvious that he had a serious problem about two years ago. i began to tell people. i am writing a memoir for harper. i will write about it a lot in that. >> how has that impacted you? does he know you? >> he does know who i am. yes. we actually called hospice care this week. i thought this is going to be not so hard. ben will gradually lose his memory and you ask me to repeat things and it will just be -- it has been the most horrible experience i have ever had. up until recently and -- he is still at home. i have him sleeping in the bed with me and i will until the end. a certain peace has come over me, a feeling of serenity, because what i thought was going to be horrible, the caretaking part, has became something almost sacred. that is not -- that is not drivel. i did not expect that. i expected i would have nervous breakdowns. i did not think we have ever been as loving with the each other as we are now. we spent a lot of time together.

we hold hands. he knows me. he loves having to be there. -- he loves having me there. it is just extremely rewarding to be able to be there for him now to try to make him happy and give as much love until he dies. >> 93 years old? >> 93 in august. >> here is a clip when you and ben were here in 1993. >> where did you two meet and when did you get married? >> we met at "the washington

post." sally came looking for a job. she went first as a -- to be a secretary to phil, who was editor of the editorial page. i told him that he would get in trouble if he hired her, and later on i hired her. >> so he didn't. >> i hired sally to write for the style section. we became friends after she left "the post." she called me mr. bradlee the day she left to go to cbs. we hooked up that year, 1973. >> 20 years ago this june. >> and about how many years? >> 41 years we have been together.

we will celebrate our 36th wedding anniversary. >> what were the best moments of your professional careers? >> for ben, watergate, nothing can compare. it was a very stressful time. we got together in the middle of watergate. i left the paper because i was in love with ben. i knew there was no way i could get involved with him when he was going through this. he was being watched and the nixon people had people following him around.

and woodward and bernstein. it would destroy his credibility. and so, i quit. i took the job at cbs which i did not want to do. i did not want to move to new york. i had a boyfriend in new york. someone i cared about very much. but by that time i was in love with ben. i realized i had no choice. i did quit. after i quit and moved to new york, i told him i was in love with him. we ended up together. he immediately left his wife. they had been estranged for several years. it was ok. but it was too much at stake for us to be together while he was going through watergate and still married. >> given the fact you had such a strong reaction on your column on suffering, what would you tell people about dementia that might help them deal with it? >> sandra day o'connor's

husband, john, had it and she ended up putting him in a nursing home in arizona. everybody has his or her own way of dealing with this. sandra was a great friend of my parents. about a year ago, i saw her at a reception and i said i want to just ask you about this. we went off and she put her hands on my shoulder and her eyes sort of teared up and she said, "i want you to know it is really horrible. it is really, really horrible. there is nothing good about it." i think, what i think people need to be realistic about what it is, the first thing you do is hide it. that is what everybody did. i said he is just forgetting his

keys and glasses. it was not until he was speaking in front of a group and he was doing a conversation with john meacham and he had a blackout the day before and i said to him that morning do you think you want to do it? he said, no, i am fine. he got on the stage with meacham and he could not answer questions. he did not know when he went to war or when he was at "the post." i was there just dying. i had a knot in my stomach. at one point he looked panicked. >> did you know he was having trouble with memory then? >> oh, yeah. until that moment he had been ok. that blackout took the cognitive -- took its toll on him cognitively.

it was after that, you could see he was in a decline. i started telling people. i could not hide it anymore. once you say the a-word, everybody's attitude changes toward you. i have to say that our friends have been absolutely extraordinary. people continue to invite us to dinner and come to our house to dinner. i have tried to keep ben as engaged as possible. the more he is engaged, the slower it goes. he has been part of a men's group that is fantastic. 12 guys with alzheimer's or dementia. he had to stop last week. they asked him not to come back. that has been fabulous. we have had people over to

dinner two or three nights a week. even though he cannot participate, he loves being around people. that is all finished. in the last six weeks, he has had such a decline that he cannot participate at all anymore. i had a birthday party for him in august and he was able to come downstairs and blow out the candles. friends, my son lives in the house next door so he comes over. i moved my office downstairs so i could be close to him. there has been a constant stirring of people coming and visiting. he goes to the office once a week to have lunch. i had a running tab at the madison so they could take him over and they will talk about the good old days. people have been incredible. they have been wonderful to ben and me.

i think that has really kept him going. all of the activity. and i also think for people who are with -- to try to keep active. a lot of people sort of shut down their whole lives. somebody said to me, somebody close to nancy reagan said she shut her life down and just took care of ronnie. i am not doing that. i work full time. i go out with friends for dinner at night. i have to keep my life going. i tried to get as much sleep as i can even though it is difficult because ben is up a lot at night. getting enough sleep is essential and eating well and exercising. it is like putting a mask on your face on the airplane before you put it on someone else. you have to be healthy.

if i get tired, i get weepy. i think people need to keep on with their lives and have people come over and sit and have a cup of coffee. just come over and get a couple of people and have a drink or something. just do not shut your life down. and that is the problem that so many people have. it is really hard. nobody should ever believe it is not easy. >> is he aware of what is going on? >> he knows -- i tease him and say in my next life i will be ben bradlee. not just for this, but for other

reasons, too. he has never been depressed a day in his life. i have been with him over 40 years and i have never seen him depressed. he is very happy. he is taking care of. he has people fluttering around him every minute. he is so well taken care off. he is a happy and loves to be false over. he is very aware of being taken care of and fussed over. he appreciates that. he sleeps now about 20 hours a day and does not sleep much. -- eat much. he is totally content. >> on a lighter note, i told you we had to this video of you, your first day at cbs. >> oh, no. [laughter] you are not going to do that to me.

>> as you say, you have to stay engaged. it is not long. it is only a minute. what year was it? >> 1973. >> you lasted six months. you had never done television. you were on with hughes rudd. he is no longer with us. >> he was fabulous. he was a really bad boy. >> here is a minute. >> from the cbs newsroom, this is the cbs morning news. with hughes rudd and sally quinn. >> we should begin with saying a little bit about what we are. a lot of people do not consider a common sight. if nothing else saying back to you and that sort of thing. sally quinn is not the commonplace site. she is a former washington post reporter and we are glad to have her. >> the first day i come on tv i start off with a sore throat and fever. back to you.

>> as long as it does not make you delirious. we have a lot of people who are delirious and they usually run for politics. >> six months. >> i was delirious. i was so sick. it was stress. i could hardly stand up. >> what was television like? >> i hated it. i love sitting here and talking to you, that's fun. but first of all, the show was from 7:00 in of the morning. they wanted us to get up at 1:30 and be in the studio so we could write the show, which was ridiculous. they wanted a "post" writer to write the show. hughes was a brilliant writer. we would sit in there and they would bring lunch in.

it was chinese food. >> why was hughes rudd a bad boy? >> he was very mischievous and iconoclastic. both of us, we had this cult following. we were both so outrageous on tv and when he said things and that nobody had ever said before on live tv. the cbs suits were crazed because they cannot believe what was going on. it was like the jon stewart show. that's what it was like. there were little touches of "saturday night live." if we had done that show at night, it would of been a huge hit. [laughter] it was not what people wanted to watch. our biggest fan was andy warhol.

andy got up and watched religiously. he loved the show. he was waiting for one of us to say something outrageous. it was so not conventional. getting up in the morning and i could not write. that is what i love doing writing pieces for "the washington post." at that time i was in love with ben. and we were already together and nobody knew it. we were meeting quietly. he was flying up to new york and meeting me. and i was exhausted all of the time. i would see ben on the weekends. my biological -- not my biological clock, that was a freudian slip. my circadian rhythm was off. i was not having any fun. i loved hughes and being with

him was wonderful but i was getting criticized for what i was doing. reading the news was not what i wanted to do. it was not fun. >> i saw a video of you taking a tour of your home. you are fairly public in these columns about your life. why do you want to share all of this with people and how does that impact your life? >> people ask me that a lot. i am not a private person. >> what to do think when politicians say they are private people will? >> it makes me laugh. i have many people i will consider private who would showing at the idea of any type of public and. it is a way of connecting. it is a way of connecting to people with people because i am sharing what i am going through and people respond to that and i like that. people say me too, i know what you mean. people feel helped or reassured by it.

it is generally not boasting when i write about myself or what is going on. it is about what is happening in my family. >> what about the fallout about the wedding? is that complicated things to explain. >> it is complicated. ben's granddaughter was getting married. at that point, there was sort of a separation in the family of some of us, some of his children, some of them.

some of his children and i were not getting along and ben was not getting along with them either. we decided not to go to the wedding because we felt it would be too awkward. at that point, ben had dementia and that was part of the problem. >> that was not made public? >> nobody knew. he did not want to go. and so, we regretted. >> let me explain. ben's son by his first marriage who was married to martha radek had a daughter and it was her wedding. >> we adored her. >> we adored her. greta. we absolutely adored her. she was like my child. i loved her. because of the situation, it would of been too painful and complicated and ben did not want to go. it got out with my son, quinn, was getting married, his fiancee was pregnant so we had to move up the wedding date. the only date we could get at the national cathedral was in this one day in three months

that was available, the church and the minister. we chose the date and had the wedding invitations made up. and i called up the members of my family and the other members of ben's family and they said fine. we began to send out the invitations and we found out it was the same date as ben's granddaughter. there was a rash of stories about how this was upsetting to everyone. >> you wrote about it? >> we went to saint martin and my son and daughter-in-law were there and there were some really horrible things written on the internet about them. they had nothing to do with any of this. it was just one of these awful mistakes.

they were getting criticized. quinn is very learning disabled and people were calling him a retard and awful stuff and they were distraught and asked me to do something. she was pregnant and was having a miscarriage at the time. i was distraught. i called my editors and said how can i combat this terrible publicity? i am so unhappy about what they are writing about the kids. they said why don't you try to write something and i did. i wrote this piece and it was accepted by everybody's paper including the managing editor who said terrific and they ran it. and then there was this reaction

to it. i came back and [laughter] it was a very difficult time for me and ben, who was extremely agitated because he did not understand and was very confused about what was happening. i showed him the piece but his judgment was not great. >> let's show a clip of your son, quinn. >> everybody has a different way of learning. whether you have learning disabilities or not. learning difference is a more

subtle, and "disabled" is a pretty harsh word. >> another point of language is you do not call other kids normal, you call them typical and you are not typical. >> i have never really understood the word "normal" because i have been confused by it my whole life. after having being educated about definitions and the word, i realized in theory there is no such thing as normality. >> 32 years old? >> yes. >> did quinn get divorced? >> he is in the process of getting divorced. >> tell about the piece. >> he wrote about the divorce and -- >> he did? >> you were upset at a reporter. >> he wrote a piece that quinn's

wife had posted some pictures of her, some sexy pictures not anything pornographic and put on her facebook page and how he saw them through a friend's facebook page and wrote about it. it made it sound sleazy. i e-mailed him and said i am so disappointed in you, and that was it. it was not a big deal. >> the memoir comes out when? >> my due date is a year from this week. that means i have to write it, brian. >> you are in the middle of the difficult piece with your husband. on the column, what are some of the columns you want to topple that you have not written yet? >> i am writing to or three pieces now and one is about the pledge of allegiance and get

"under god" taken out and i agree. it was slapped on it there in the 1950's and it had never been there. i am doing an interview with busboys and poets, with the man who wrote "zealot," about jesus. i interviewed him yesterday about what isis is and they consider themselves muslims. if you ask most muslims, they will tell you these people do not represent islam but in fact, what the koran says, a way to cherry pick it to make it a peaceful religion or violent religion the same as christianity or judaism or any other religion. i am working on it that and i will be doing a piece on sam

harris, who has a book out now called "waking up spirituality without religion." i will do an interview with karen armstrong about her new book. >> one more time, people want to read your column and they go where? >> they google on faith. >> and your whole life is on the google. >> i have never googled myself. [laughter] >> try it. sally quinn, we are out of time. thank you very much. >> for free transcripts or to give us your comments, visit us at q-and-a.org. "q&a" programs are also available as c-span podcasts. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

>> next, your calls and comments "washington journal." >> tonight, on "the communicators" big data and security. a tool.ata is it can be used well or poorly. there can be great new insights in certain areas, some that are top of mind our health care and other kinds of research in

reaching underserved populations and providing new insights. i think some of our more difficult problems that we face as society. you can take pieces of previously assembled information and assemble them into a profile that may give sensitive insights to you as a consumer. the question is, you have benefits and risks. what do you do then? on "theht at 8:00 p.m. communicators." at seven: 45 a.m., thomas sanderson discusses the isis strategy. at 8:30 a.m. salaam host: in morning.

today marks 36 days until the midterm election with control of congress at stake. days until the 2016 presidential election. votersose countdowns on minds, we are asking viewers this morning, how does you choose your political party? was it based on a specific issue, did your parent or spouse play a role, or was it some other decision? democrats, (2)