announcer: tonight, q&a with .ichael kinsley then queen elizabeth ii gives the annual address at the state opening of parliament. michael kinsley. he talks about living with parkinson's disease and his new book, "old age: a beginners guide." brian: michael kinsley in your new book, "old age: a beginners why do you start your book by saying, this is not about parkinson's disease? michael: because i did not want people to think this was another sad saga of someone suffering.

-- i did not want it to be autobiographical. , whoted to tell the story wanted to be able to generalize from it, about what is it like to facethe fact, not having an illness, necessarily. but, the fact that you were going to die one way or another. brian: when did you know yeah, ?hat year yo michael: 1993. brian: what was your reaction? it was in distress. days.very upset for a few

since then, i have accommodated to wait. it is not the worst thing in the world. brian: whose idea was it to do this book? by the way, it is only $18. michael: it is only $9.99 on amazon. a piece in the new yorker that is partly from this book and everybody said, you ought to do a book. think, inalist you have a story, i ought to tell it. for quite a pile. ultimately, i gave in. brian: what is the story about the swimming pool? michael: i was living in los angeles in an apartment complex that had this swimming pool and

, andd this when very early there was this old man swimming at the same time, like 5:00. i used to be a judge. first he says, i am 90 years old, as if that was in itself praiseworthy. i played along and said, that's wonderful. you should be very proud. then he says, i used to be a judge. i thought, why is he telling me this? i started to get resentful. so what if he is 90?

then, as his reaction slowly --ame more and more puzzling convinced that he that being aelieve .udge was a wonderful thing ?rian: you wrote about it ye michael: i thought the whole thing was very touching. seemed to me that he was losing it, you know? but he did not think so. i don't know. it just struck me as touching. brian: you wrote about it, and? wrote that heon

always thought you should be kind to your neighbors, or something like that. brian: he had died soon after? michael: he must've died about two weeks after this incident. felt bad, but not all that bad. brian: michael kinsley, go over the details. your hometown? michael: detroit. collegeou went to where? michael: harvard, economics. then i went to oxford and study more economics, although not very hard. then i came back to washington and got a job at the new republic. oh, then i went to law school and i never used that.

then i came to work at the new republic, and i was doing that for almost 20 years. then i went out to seattle and worked for microsoft, creating slate. brian: what is it? the first online magazine. although, that is considered an old-fashioned term. microsoft.d by microsoft sold to the washington post, then the washington post to jeff bezos, the owner of amazon. they did not sell the new republic -- i mean, slate. slate is now owned by graham

holdings, the family holdings of the graham family. brian: in 1984 -- your parkinson's came in what year? michael: 1993. [begin video clip] >> how would you categorize the new republic? almost since its founding the premier political journal of the last -- and it has been on different parts over the course of his life. it was very pro-soviet in the 1930's appeared in the 1960's it was connected with the new frontier, kennedy. then it became very anti-war. it is now regarded as left of center but not far [end video clip]. brian: does that make you left

of center? michael: i consider myself left of center. , but notral left extreme left. a lot of people deny that a lot of people accuse me of being a right-winger in disguise. ?rian: why yo michael: i was skeptical of the couldhat edward snowden have the right to publish anything he wanted. seemed to me that the government at some point has to have the last word. and that was a very unpopular position. been a dead hawk.

hawk.t debt has to be paid off. that is going to be very difficult. not terribly original, but i think it is true. is,official left position where is this inflation you have been talking about? it doesn't exist. that also has not contributed to my popularity. how much have you thought about death? michael: i do not obsess over it . i haven't thought about it that much, except to write a book. brian: when you first got parkinson's, did you star think about it at that point?

certainly thought, this is not good news, which it wasn't. think that i would be on c-span 23 years later. i have been very lucky in that sense. i have, apparently, a slow-moving case and they say you can extrapolate with parkinson's. multiple like sclerosis or other urological you havewhere recurrent crises which moved the disease along. parkinson's, you can just extrapolate on a straight line and however much worse you are getting, he weren't going to keep on getting that much worse, and i seem to be moving slowly. brian: i would you explain the way you go about your daily life

today compared to 23 years ago? michael: i do not have a full-time job. although, i do have a job and i still write. i write a monthly column for vanity fair. i hope nobody from vanity fair is watching. it is a lot easier than writing a weekly column. didn: over the years, you how many years of crossfire on cnn? oh, about 300 -- it was six or seven. i had had enough. i am glad i did it, but 6.5 years was enough. brian: why? michael: the people who accuse crossfire of being a shouting

match, originating what dominates talk radio and television, i think are being ridiculous. i do not think that is true. was educationire for people. i do not think we needed to be apologetic, but after six years, it got a little tiresome. ,rian: a couple of years ago somebody you know pretty well was here doing q&a. this is only about 20 seconds. i want you to explain how this fits into your life. [begin video clip] every morning at breakfast, goingnversations we had through the papers as we did for so many years is just a great delight.

he helps maybe smarter everyday. [end video clip] michael: who was that woman? [laughter] that is my wife. she was on the committee that hired me at microsoft. over 20 years ago. brian: i might as well ask, what is the best thing about being married to her? michael: oh, gosh. where to start? i better not answer them. everything about being married to patty is wonderful. brian: you have been married since 2002. what role as she played as the parkinson's has progressed? michael: she is good and making sure i gave and take my pills. and do my exercises in that stuff.

it is very nice to toe someone nice to complain the way things are getting better. brian: if you have had a bad day, what happens? michael: -- brian: what is the difference between a normal day and a bad day? michael: only there may be something i cannot do. although, there are very few of those. i have stopped driving at paddies insistence. s insistence. that is the hardest thing to accommodate. talk about that as it relates to other people as they have to stop. what is the impact you have found it has on people? especially men more than women, although i think both genders -- it is not just

an inconvenience. there is a sense of freedom about having a car and being able to go wherever you want to go. that is hard to give up. brian: you talk about losing your edge. you were buried more about that than anything. what does that mean? michael: this is what a new meteorologist told me after i was diagnosed. i suddenly, two or three weeks after, it occurred to me, i wonder if this is going to affect my brain? of course, parkinson's is a brain disease so that was a nonsensical question, but i really meant, obviously, was thinking -- is it going to affect my thinking? that is how i earn a living. the near rolla just n

--eurologist what was going to happen? he was tried to jump me it wasn't a big deal. edge,d, you may lose your as if that was nothing. my edge isht, gee, how i earn a living. his why have my friends, maybe my wife. she might not enjoy reading the papers so much at breakfast. brian: what is your edge? do you still have it? michael: other people have to judge whether i have my edge. i think i have lost very little of it, if any. but, most people lose a little something. about half of people with parkinson's over the years lose

a lot of something. i don't know. i can't tell. just about as sharp and edge as always. 2007, you were sitting with another person that was well known, and i'm going to run it in a second. you quote a woman in the book that has multiple sclerosis saying, we all pray for somebody famous to get our disease. why did you use that quote? michael: i thought it was very think, ourut, i crazy system of approving drugs and other medical procedures. theought that illustrated point rather well, that it is a competition between different

approval, tofda get invented in the first place. watch.let's [begin video clip] >> we have both taken our pills, there is any shaking going on, in my be parkinson's. it also might be the fact that the capital hotel has no water. [laughter] >> it was very cold. we have good chemistry, it brings it to a whole new level. [end video clip] michael: that was obviously michael j fox. he has had parkinson's -- he was diagnosed when he turned 30. he really had a bad luck there.

he has been a hero of parkinson's. he is the founder of the michael j fox foundation which last week the main parkinson's foundation from before he was diagnosed -- i don't have the details, i just read a press release. basically, the michael j fox foundation has taken over the field. , and: you used humor there introduction is written by michael lewis, who said he got his first job from you. he also says you have a great sense of humor. i must say, it is funny. i thought you were going to say, i don't know where michael lewis got that idea. [laughter] brian: how much of a risk is a to use humor?

michael: in my experience, people are ready to be offended by anything. , although many people have parkinson's much more severely than me, i still feel like i have a license to make a joke i might not otherwise make because i've got the disease that i am making fun of. brian: you have always had a sense of humor, though. has it ever got you in trouble? michael: yes. fe thing you are responsible for? gaffe is when a politician tells the truth.

when gary hart was one president, 1984. brian: anybody offended by that? michael: not that they have ever said. gary are probably was not too pleased. brian: does it still all today? michael: somebody wrote in huffington post last week saying, it is no longer true that a gaffe is when a politician tells the truth. he had a theory i could not follow that maybe 20 years ago, i could. brian: you have a habit in your ariannaof quoting huffington. is that something you have developed on purpose? writing one of my first columns for vanity fair. i put in this obviously fake quote from her, just for the

heck of a. editor of vanity fair loved it and said, i want one in there every month. so, every month, i somehow stick a phony quote from arianna huffington. brian: calling somebody darling. did she react? not spoken toe her or seen her for a couple of years. i hope she knows that it is all in fun. i'm a great admirer of hers. i think huffington post solved several problems that online content was facing. you've got to hand it to her. hand't know if he knew the or $305 million, but she needs

-- brian: she sold it. we are going to get into the deep brain surgery. tell us when you decided to do this? it is a washington story. have friends who were very they were all officials of the carter administration. kept trying to force on me about this operation, which his friend was doing, very experimental at that point.

i did not pay any attention. finally, he persuaded me to read it. i got to knownd each other that way, because i had not been very nice to him in office. brian: he was chief of staff to carter? michael: yeah. operation would be put essentially the same thing as -- brian: a pacemaker? michael: a heart pacemaker, these are called sometimes for brain pacemakers. a sand shots of electricity into whatever part of the brain they think will help. hourseration lasted nine but they put into of these brain

pacemakers. brian: where? michael: i can show you. i won't. there's one here, one here. that is where the batteries are. neck and a endr up in your brain. the curb the effects of parkinson's. cure.not supposedly, they push the disease back by about five years. let's watch your doctor explain some of this. where is he located? michael: he was at the cleveland clinic. last i heard, he was at ohio

state medical school. [begin video clip] >> it is basically a brain pacemaker. it is a tiny wire that gets implanted into the brain, with four contacts which send electrical signals took on the anxiety in the brain. this has a microchip inside, a battery that sends electrical signals up to your head to these wires and thereby improves theological chaos in the brain. [end video clip] brian: you had this done in what year? 2006? once in operation was over? michael: it was amazing. when you come out of the

the symptoms of parkinson's are gone. as he said, it is as if you do not have it. that is peculiar because they have not turned it on yet. so, it is like you never had it. and is because the process of installing the pacemaker rubs against -- i'm sure this is an amateur way to put it -- it rubs against your brain in has the same effect as if they turn it on. over the next few weeks, the symptoms returned to her they were before. then you go back in a flip the switch and immediately, like within a few seconds, you start to see the benefits, dramatically.

over the years, how often do they change batteries? michael: i have had been changed twice. brian: they have to open you up? michael: it's a simple operation which takes 45 minutes. it is getting it into the brain that is the tough part. simply putting pacemakers in is very easy. before, ai told you family that has been here for over 25 years, our leading father worked for nbc and had parkinson's, had the surgery. mark in his brother in one of

our folks had cameras in there during the operation. they made a documentary out of it. no longer alive, but he did not die of parkinson's, he died of cancer. let's watch this. "old age: a beginners guide[beg] [drumming] >> testing, testing. i am anxious to get on with it. strumming] >> these are the tips of the electrodes, entering through two holes. >> easy for you to say. [laughter] >> you may feel a lot of pressure, ok? i look into your eyes and i

am filled with confidence. this will be for the rest of the day, right? try to be stylish about it, please. [end video clip] brian: quite a sense of humor. what is it like? odd becauseis very the worst thing is the screw board.ad to the you cannot really move it. of selfuires a lot calming. i recognize all those little tests when they make you take the tiny circular thing and put it in a different thing. brian: you write a lot about the testing part? how much have you had? reason tohere is no

test, really, except for the decided to use myself as a guinea pig. i took a cognitive test. what we saw was a test for the physical effects of parkinson's in a test i took were for the cognitive effects. brian: what kind of testing they give you? it lasted about five hours. mean, i think- i the physical side of parkinson's, they have a very aear standard, in a have rating system. it is all very clear.

have,tent to which they what level you are at in terms of the symptoms. the cognitive symptoms, every test is different. use the same tests, and i have done about four of five times. they are different each time. brian: we have more video from that particular operation. let's see if you remember this part. [begin video clip] this is the part where you are going to hear a lot of loud noise. it is not going to hurt you, but it will make your teeth chatter, ok? this is as far under as i am

going to get? right? ok, ready. [drilling noises] >> i feel fine, i never felt a thing. yep. [end video clip] michael: first of all, i don't remember it very clearly. right,ond of all, he is

there are dime sized holes. i do not realize that until before the operation. i was expecting something like this. a dime is big, you know? it doesn't really matter. --an: he recommended that what was your reaction after having this? michael: the operation? absolutely. , they discouraged you from taking it. they said, except as a last resort. i insisted that i wanted it anyway. and they gave it to me. it much sooner in the course of the disease, because they figure, why shouldn't you have some more good years?

brian: and how long did it take you to recover, get up, walk around? michael: i was walking around the next day. to completely recover took close to one year, because you have to go in to adjust the electrodes. electric-whatevers, because they have different effects. if they give you too much juice, you are all over the line again. if they don't give you enough, you're not getting the effect. i went back there every three months for one year. in the adjusted it. brian: you said this is not a book about parkinson's. i want to get to some of the other things that you talk

about. who should read this? everybody! brian: who, really? aimedl: it is ostensibly boomers who are just reaching the point where they are going to be getting parkinson's and other things in larger numbers. parkinson's is the disease of old people in most people who get it are old, in their 70's or 80's or later. brian: how would you characterize a boomer? michael: you don't have to characterize them. a boomer is somebody born between 1946, when all the soldiers came home from world war ii and could get to work the

guess, and 1964, which i was just chosen arbitrarily. a boomer is somebody who was born in that framework. brian: how would you characterize their attitude? michael: i tried to make the are known forers and deserve to be known for maybe excessive competitiveness. brian: is that true? i mean, have you felt competitive in your life? michael: yes, i think so. i am not competitive for fancy sports cars and stuff like that, which boomers are associated with. but i am competitive. brian: the longest word in the -- i'm having a hard

rtaphilosophic? michael: that might be a typo. brian: what were you getting at with larry ellison? michael: larry ellison and a few want to stay alive for ever and i say, it would be more efficient if all they want to do lifetime to get in on what bill gates spends his money on, curing malaria and yougs like that, because were going to spend more person

-- save more person-years that way. in yourhat do you say book about what is important in life? michael: well, i go through the list. is, you don't have to be a saint, you just have to be a reasonable person. you start off with wanting consumer goods, the fancy car, the nice house, and then you start to think about that and you think, what is that going to get you really? cognition. counts is you've got to retain your marbles if you are going to enjoy this stuff. think, well, what really, really counts is

reputation, because you are going to be dead longer anywhere -- longer than you were alive. your afterlife reputation is going to be more important in the long run than cognition. . am missing one brian: i have video of a man he talked about in the book, a columnist based at the washington post. video, whyhow the did you use joseph as an example? joseph, when ie came to washington in the late 1970's, he was in his mid-70's -- he was a big deal. he was the guy you aspired to be.

, a well-known journalist today, wrote a piece about an, about how he ofresented the monarchy .ashington journalists and yet, you can walk through the washington post newsroom today and ask people, who is joseph kraft? and it would have no idea. brian: let's look at what joseph kraft looked like. [begin video clip] , as would like to ask you you look ahead in the next four years, what sacrifices are you going to call on the american people to make? what price will you ask them today to realize your objectives? if you felt that it was appropriate to answer that question in your comments as to

what price they would be appropriate for the american people to pay for a carter administration, i think that would be proper. [end video clip] brian: he was only 62 when he died. why was he such a big deal? michael: beats me. was very good at articulating -- well, that sounds mean -- conventional wisdom. journalists at any given time who have the reputation. and he was one of them back then. friedman ortom that level,hat ilk, so, because there are

more outlets, more reputation you have to spread around. brian: in your book, we were talking earlier about still marbles, you write that the rules of competitive cognition are simple, the winners are whoever dies with more of their marbles. when he 102 years old was accidentally shot by a neighbor and except for his habit of breaking into nearby homes and stealing booze, he was still sharp as a tack." michael: that is sort of what you want. you want to be thought of as sharp as a tack. you are a couple things you have to explain away. brian: you say death before dementia is your rallying cry. then you give this statistic that there are 79 million boomers, 28 million are expected

to develop alzheimer's or some form of dementia? michael: i got that from the alzheimer's association for some reputable source. it is true, as far as i can tell, unless a cure comes along or something like a cure. brian: two people who have parkinson's usually get alzheimer's, to? michael: no. they are two different diseases. parkinson'swith have a much higher chance of getting parkinson's dementia. brian: robert mcnamara. your story. former secretary of defense -- michael: he is only in the book because i ran into him on an

and robert mcnamara was the secretary of defense under he, in my view, was responsible for the vietnam war. found myself sitting next to him on an airplane and i asked where he was going. he was going to denver to meet his girlfriend. he must have been in his 80's. and they were going to go cross-country skiing from aspen to vail or something. and he obviously had led quite a he did thisfe after damage, in my view, in their view of many who know a lot more than he. brian: he lived to be 93. michael: 93 -- that's even

better. brian: did you talk to him? michael: not about anything important. . guess i was a little afraid but, he had led this really nice life. if everyone can live until 93 in be cross-country skiing with , orr girlfriend at that age boyfriend, that would be pretty nice. and so, i use him as an example of what most boomers will not get. brian: the last chapter was kind of surprising because it is the only place in your book that it is really political. is name of the last chapter "the least we can do."

why did you decide to do it? what is it about? michael: it is a pet peeve of mine that whenever people start to think in these general terms what theyrations and mean, you are always bumping up ,gainst the greatest generation tom brokaw's term for the world war ii generation. is, what can boomers do that will equal that? the answer many people come up with is a national service -- they where you don't don't need you in the army but you can be put to work teaching or something. i think that is a horrible idea. but people think it is a great boomers,it was about

so i just put the chapter in there. brian: how do you think we can get out of this $19 trillion debt? how can boomers impact that? michael: i think boomers can put up with a tax increase. mean,not very romantic, i we could afford to make a of paying our taxes, wiping out the debt, and then spending the money that needs to be spent on the infrastructure, on schools. i mean, what's happening in schools is terrible. most people agree, the most people are not prepared to say " i personally will fork out $x

billion dollars, but i prepared hurts more until thit to solve these problems. " brian: you say infrastructure risks automatically classify you as a bore? michael: well, i've done it. brian: you consider yourself a bore? michael: infrastructure is pretty boring, but whenever i go to new york, you get out at penn station and it is shocking how seedy it is. to thisrs coming country, then might be the first thing they see. i think that is terrible. you talk about stines law

. anything they can't go on, want it and americans piling up of cannot go on.mes michael: i think that is true. brian: do you find anybody who believes that a can or can't go on? michael: most people on the left .hink that it can go on i took a lot of heat about a year ago for arguing in a couple of pieces that it can't. not had to pay the cost to itself are, i am completely wrong, but i think in the long run, and a take no joy in seeing so, i am right. brian: what is buck raking? michael: it is a term invented

the now-head of slate. it is journalists taking money for giving speeches, innocence. brian: and you decided to do some backbreaking after you got alzheimer's -- i'm sorry, parkinson's? michael: i had always refused to .o it not because i think it is so terrible -- i think it is fine. mark is a tradition of twain did it. it is one of the ways journalists and writers can support themselves. icky and so i did not want to get involved and i did not need the money. but then i got parkinson's and i thought, maybe i do need the money. so for a year or so, i did it.

brian: do you still doing? michael: no. i don't get asked anymore because people know i have parkinson's and they think i am sitting in a wheelchair somewhere. but, i turned down the few offers that i get. brian: and you walked in here normally today. michael: i just have this squinting thing going on at the moment. brian: is the new? michael: three or four years. brian: is there any way to deal with that? i didn'tprobably, but realize that having a chronic disease would be so time-consuming. that is one of the big surprises , you know? you have to take all of your pills at a certain time and you and to see this specialist take up boxing and -- it is time-consuming.

brian: would you get the idea of doing boxing? michael: i have only been doing it for about a month, but i got the idea from watching 60 minutes. the guy, aarried to very good novelist who has parkinson's. aaron shuffling along, and then you see him boxing quite loosely. i thought, wow. the next day i was walking down the street and i see somebody banner up a better -- that says, urban boxing, grand opening and i thought, that must be a sign. brian: how is it working? michael: my wife thinks it is working very well.

that is all i need. brian: how long do you box? really boxu don't because that would be terrifying. brian: you just hit the bag? michael: at this place, there is mitt there who wears these . designed to be hit he is good enough that he is not going to be injured. and then i wear regular mitts and pretend i can know what i'm doing. brian: you told a story in your book about the fact that you were offered the editorship of the new yorker magazine, in the of when the owner found a you have parkinson's. explain that story. it well, yes.

tina brown had quit and they were looking for a new editor. , they up to new york offered me the job. brian: what year was this? michael: this is 1996 or 1997. said, i have to check back with microsoft, because i promised them i would. brian: you were at microsoft? michael: yes, i had started slate. dinner. a very warm family. back -- i said i will talk to in the morning, but when i come back to my hotel, he called and said, i don't think this is going to work in which

relate. over the years, i have thought about this a lot, and i don't think -- and i believe him -- i told him i have parkinson's and he said it didn't matter and i believed him. believe that he wouldn't have offered it to me if he had known from the very beginning. brian: why did he withdraw? michael: i think it is because ,e really wanted david remnick a guy who is in a very good job with. i put on a pretty good show for him. for the moment, he was swayed with any decided he wanted to stick with his first love. brian: you are how old? michael: 65. brian: how long do you expect to live? michael: supposedly parkinson's --sn't affect your lifestyle

lifespan, no. they say in the obituaries that after a long illness or of the side effects of parkinson's or something. well, i hopeive -- a normalized and. which according to the statistics i think would be 15 more years. brian: one last question. what do you notice the most of people's reactions to the difficulty that you have with this disease? ,ichael: it is their sympathy really, which i am grateful for, although i could live without a lot of the time. nice. are basically very brian: the book is called "old

age: a beginners guide." .orward by michael lewis our guest hosted michael kinsley . -- our guest has been michael kinsley. it is about facing the end of life. thank you so much for being with us. brian.: thank you, announcer: four transcripts or comments, visit us at q&a.org. programs are also available as podcasts.

thisncer: if you enjoyed interview with michael kinsley, here are some of the programs you might like. aier on his -- bret b book. dr. john garrett talks about his life in medicine. and the president of john hopkins research on the role of medicine in public policy. you can search our video library at c-span. see q&a.r chance to ♪ journal"'s "washington

live every day. monday morning, with the house holding hearings to potentially impeach the irs commissioner, we will speak with the attorney presenting the conservative groups targeted by the irs. levin on his efforts to eliminate abuse in a tax system. also, a senior fellow with the peterson interstate will talk about the recent release by the u.s. treasury department of the list of the top country that holds u.s. debt including saudi arabia. be sure to watch c-span's washington journal beginning lied; eastern on monday morning. join the discussion. congratulations to the class of 2016. today is your day of celebration and you have heard it. voices crying for peace and light because your choices will make all of the difference to you and all of .