and told us in an interview for the film, is the immensity and intimacy of time. on the one hand, we experience the immensity of time, the creation itself, the universe unfolding before us. yet it is also, time shared with the people we visit these places with. we remember when our parents took us for the first time and we as parents passing it on to our children -- and to amend transmission from generation to generation of the love of place, the love of nation that the national parks are meant to stand for. walking quietly and all struck within a grove of huge sequoias trees that have borne silent witness to this immense passage of time, standing next to the rim of an immense chasm, gazing in wonder at the nighttime rest of tens of thousands of birds in a place dismissed once as a dismal swamp, walking in a

cathedral still more impressive than any made by man, stepping gingerly around geysers and film roles and boiling in spitting mud pots in god's laboratory, watching clouds clear of that crown of our most massive mountain on the continent, we have come to want to know more about that in to the transmission. our film series and book is our attempt at an answer. for nearly seven years, we made trip after trip from our home in new hampshire out into the national parks, looking, scouting, filming, interviewing, asking, delving into the origins and mythology, recovering their long neglected stories and archives, searching for some sign or guidepost that would illuminate our way, getting to know the remarkable people who continue to protect this fragile inheritance. in the course of our work, we were awakened daily by the life changing power these save and sacred places exert. stumbling among the ruins of

mesa verde in colorado, we breathed the dry air of a civilization that vanished hundreds of years ago, yet in the eerie, silent ruins, a warren of now deserted rooms and passageways of the once flourishing culture, we came to know the fragility of our own existence. in the crisp air of the pines and maples, the thunder of the surf, we found an unusual, sustaining tranquillity and reveled in the contradiction that must of the place had been saved by the son of the richest and some said most hated man in america. in northwestern montana, and later on in the near seattle, we hiked up to living that now threaten and disappearing glaciers. while still marveling at the floral collegium, the riot and jumble of brightly colored wild flowers, joyously blooming on the alpine slopes. it was hard to weave these protected places, and at the

grief that fell over as was palpable and long-lasting. in hawaii, the hellish landscape of volcanoes provided us with a glance back into the moment of creation itself. while the colorful windswept canyons of southern utah were mesmerizing, sometimes forbidding museums of patient erosion. down in the grandest canyon on earth in northern arizona, we prayed the rapids of a still insistent and dangerous colorado river and wondered again at the leaders of history, grand geological history, that river has revealed to travelers over the eons. back on its south wind, we felt the atomic insignificance of our own lives, a sense of one's smallness in the larger scheme of things that the canyons edge continue it promotes. we felt better in that knowledge. like privileged visitors to

some sacred shrine, alaska took us in and commit as moments with mountains and fjords and tundra, brown bear, elk, moose, whale, steel, puffins and we will never forget. we saw lots of wolves to. in northwestern wyoming, found a second, among the wildlife and wild eruptions of the many stunning otherworldly thermal features. we fell silent and overlook that afforded the view of the inspirational multi-you canyon of the yellowstone and had the sense there that the forces which had created europe were still operating to split the brittle, sometimes call a sounding ground were walking on. a cosmic laboratory of startling beauty and majesty. we come back to this place again and again, and every season and every time of day and night. we of struggle and strained to catch a view of the primeval and reconnect ourselves to the natural world that was our home

as dayton duncan likes to say, at the beginning of our dynasts memories of a species. but one glorious moment, a magnificent bison walked out of a cut of steam and to our shot, a refugee of@@@@@@@ @ ,,@ @ @ @ they saw fit. where our european ancestors required a formalized, dogmatic devotion in cathedrals made by men, we americans would more easily find god or science or art, as that is a way, in

capital and nature. on the western slopes of those same seeress, where the indians once made their home, was a valley of incomparable transcendent beauty that the white men who first discovered called yosemite. it is the first great national park in history and it contains towering waterfalls and then during cataracts, polished granite rocks of unusual and unique architecture, majestic trees of almost super natural size, dense forests and alpine meadows, bald eagles and hermit thrush is, dear, and black bear. but an inventory of its treasures does not come close to describing its power. in yosemite, the whole is always greater than the sum of its parts. we as film makers and writers, photographers and editors have struggled these many years to comprehend the nearly cosmic calculus that continually recommends that special belly to us.

the final accounting will not come, of course. our arithmetic will fail. the glories of yosemite and all the national parks will be impossible to articulate with any precision by us mere mortals. interestingly, these mortals have been in many ways, big and small, the glue that holds the story of the national parks together. it was people, after all who failed to find words to express the emotions they felt in these places, but nonetheless moved fearlessly into that unknowing. it was people who, in fits and starts, and up against powerful and relentless opposition, first tried to set aside these parks. it was people who saw the danger to wildlife and scenery and rescued a threatened species from extinction. it was people who drew up the laws and fought the bureaucratic fight to create an agency charged with overseeing these spectacular parks. it was and still is people who have dedicated their lives to

the ongoing park of protecting, expanding, and restoring the best idea we ever had. they include an energetic and idealistic young and president, a man with a nearly unquenchable thirst for knowledge of the natural world who would do more for parks and conservation and any other politician of his day, by emphasizing the central democracy of the heart of a park impulse. by insisting these locations be saved for all jordan and our children's children. some -- for our children, and our children's children. we're not building this country for the day, it is to last through the ages, he said. it includes a young boy from kansas to -- who after reading in the newspaper about an exquisitely out west would dedicate the next 31 years of his life to saving one of the most beautiful spots in the country. they include restless housewife from lincoln, neb., who with her photographer husband, which tore the national parks each summer in their car, creating 11 scrap book and journal of startling

poignancy and artistry filled with timeless memories the childless comfort -- childless couple adopted. it includes a hispanic biologist would do more than anyone else to turn the attention toward the preservation of wild west -- of wildlife in the correct stewardship of the many animals that called the parks are home. it includes to retire was an enterprising brothers who made photographing and filling the grandest canyon on earth their life's work. they brought back some of the finest pictures of that reason -- of that region and made a living taking photographs of the equally awestruck tourists who rode mules down into the canyon. house ink -- it includes a fisherman's guy, the son of a slave, living off smoky in miami who refuse to sell his land to developers to spoil his beloved paradise and unhappily turned his island over to the people of the united states. -- and happily turn his people

-- turned the island over to the people of the united states. over the course of our film, you'll meet several dozen other people, most of them and sunk or unfamiliar, who found in the parks, salvation of one kind or another. included a talented but troubled alcoholic that fell in love with the woods of north carolina and eastern tennessee, rehabilitated himself in the isolation of nature and sacrifice everything to see the region transformed into a park. he was aided in turn by an equally dedicated japanese immigrant who would come with his camera, help ensure the preservation of the wilderness that was so close to and so threatened by the major population centers of the east. they include a family of colorado cowboys, quakers, who turned themselves in to archaeologists and helped save the dwindling and often vandalize relics of ancient american cultures. and minnesota's boy that stepped off the train in alaska and delays -- near the nation's

highest peak in became of the fierce as protectors of the predators nearly everyone else wanted eradicated. they include the millionaire businessman with seemingly limitless enthusiasm for the expansion of park land in america, would spearhead the creation of the national park service and then benefit from its common and peaceful resources as perhaps no one else had. his nemesis that would be first to take over during his bosses mysterious absences and would help an invalid, paraplegic president expand the very notion of what a national park could be. they include an iconoclastic crusader from florida, a woman with her own unique relationship to the swamp at her doorstep who helped lead the fight to save that swamp from a relentless tide of development and commercial exploitation. they also include a scottish born in wanderer who walked clear across california and into the our nietzsche magical valley in the middle of the high

sierras and utterly transformed. finding in natures exquisite lessons, an alternative to the harsh religious discipline of his father and to articulate his new creed of nature in writing so transcendent that millions of americans are still beguiled and inspirited by the rapture flowing from his work. for john muir, yosemite indeed, any wild place revealed a design and intelligence more permanent, more valuable than anything made by man. men would be wise to submit to that natural world. he was certain also that a genuine and authentic relationship with nature would help forge a special kinship between all lovers of the mountains. this can ship in turn requires each of us to work to become better people. for this new human evolution to take place, he insisted we had

to, all less, got into nature. but by going out, he said we were really going in. this is a journey. the journey of self discovery that we can all make as we embrace our co-ownership of these national parks, these spectacular crown jewels. this is still, john muir wrote, this is still the morning of creation. thank you pretension. [applause] -- thank you for your attention. [applause] >> and thank you very much for your words today, mr. burns. a reminder to the audience, if you have any questions, bring up here. we have a good amount of time and we thank you for the time you're spending answering our questions today. having watched the first installment last night, the thing was very striking was how

these national parks are a matter of great pride in the region -- in the region once they are established. the battle to establish the park is very different from what actually ends up being there. could you talk about what seems to be the central conflict in the process of creation and a feeling one gets after the battles fought? >> all i can say is the state to and then fasten your seatbelts. it makes the creation of yosemite and yellowstone look rather easy in comparison to some of the other parks. it is human nature, particularly american nature, to develop. this is where we got manifest destiny from. americans look at a stream and bank dam. they look at timber and think board seat. they'd look at a canyon and wonder what mineral wealth can be extracted. the amount of energy to rearrange that equation to make the river flow backwards is a tough one. beginning tonight, our second

episode, that will become even more pronounced because the most of the parks are created by the designation of federal lands to be set aside, they never the last run up against those extractive and inquisitive interests that are usually a part of our country. they make for very interesting battles that are, as you suggest, nearly always resolved in favor of the parks. ithe many, many year battle to create the most self evident park, the grand canyon, that spends a couple of our episodes, if you're going to set aside a park and have established a few of them, the grand canyon would be the next one you had, but it took decades to convince americans, because of the local resistance in arizona, it is now called the grand canyon state and it's on their license plate. they enjoy it. that struggle has been

replicated throughout the story of the national parks. there is initial local resistance, then a grudging acquiescence, then a realization that this has so burnished the image of that place and has been such a spectacular june to economic development. it's such a source of not just local and national pride. the parks get embraced after the dust of what is often a very contentious battle. >> you say a lot in installed on one of the contracts of niagara falls and a development that took place there. -- there are a lot of people that say don't let this place become the next niagara falls. do you see places in america that you could see as a niagara- ization of the area? why don't we have the time to talk about that. -- >> i don't think we have

enough time to talk about that. parks are born of a strange set of circumstances, not the least of which is a mid-19th century in theory or the complex. europeans are continually belittling s. we don't have the palaces, we don't have the formal parks. we don't have the cathedral europe does. we have taken the only obvious east coast natural wonder, niagara falls, and turned it into this huckster's paradise for people on both sides of the pols can expect to be swindled by the people they're trying to make an extra buck. this has become part of our national, natural shame. in many ways, the parks are born out of a sense of let's not create another national park. is there a way to set aside these places? the original impulses of the conservation one that we normally attributed in our history. that will come later. but it is the spiritual one -- a

sense of possibility in these places that we have inherited a garden of eden that thomas jefferson thought would take hundreds of generations to fill up, but we had done so in less than five. we ran a very palpable danger of running out of these places, nothing to be able to reflect and say this is ours, this is what makes us so special. when we sing "my country to is of the close " we're not talking about metropolitan skyscraper for trade statistics. we are talking about this that is a danger that could be gone. the bison, the most powerful symbol of our country could be extinct. it would be a stuffed animal in a museum similar to a woolly mammoth had we not set aside yellowstone national park. then strengthen it be poor laws existed that protected the animals within them and committed a handful of bison, remaining by some, to flourish

and come back. without the national parks, we would be talking about an animal like the dodo bird or the passenger pigeon -- gone. >> what would be your pick for the next national park? >> documentary filmmakers and aunt -- and address koreans don't presume to make policy. particularly in front of the undersecretary of the interior and the acting director of the park service. however -- [laughter] our main task right now is restoration. we have a backlog of millions of dollars in maintenance that will bring a human physical structure of our national parks back up to snuff. this is not a partisan issue. these parks are beloved by republicans, democrats, an independent all across the country. we have unanimity on all that. we did get to work. as we approach the centennial of the existence of the national park service in 2016, we have an

opportunity now to spend the next seven years working tirelessly to make sure we can do those restored of efforts within the parks. there are existing monuments that do not yet enjoy the full that do not yet enjoy the full protection of the national park ,daá'2e@@ @ @ @

dinosaur is in the upper corner of colorado and eastern utah and is a spectacularly beautiful place. if that was made into a park and was the grand scared -- and was a grand staircase as content, utah would have bragging rights to a great string of national parks. he would go from dinosaur tooth arches and canyon lands, capital reeves, and grand staircase, and rice, and sign on, and would be hard put in alaska and california to come up with a more spectacular array of parks. but you were just listening to one humble citizen. [laughter] >> and a system that has shown a certain sense of place. the place your and now as washington d.c., home to a lot of exotic animals of its own. what would your message be -- being in washington d.c., would you like your -- what impact would like to have on these animals to help determine the fate of the national park system? >> that's a good question.

i think that dayton duncan and i felt that as we work for 10 years that our main job was to tell a good story. that is our obligation. we would hope that once people had spent some time looking at the stories that we have taken a decade to put together and intertwine the 50 or 60 characters you meet set against a backdrop of what we think of them spectacular places on earth, that might galvanize you, understanding not only the rich heritage we have, this sense of co ownership, but also the powerful emotions, personal become powerful emotions, generated by individuals and families as the clout in these parks that people will do just that. -- as people go out in these parks. as people go out, they will create problems for the park service of how to deal with the influx and there's always the worry of love in the parks to death. we have a chapter in the last episode called love to death. these are good problems for a

democracy to have. the worst problem would be a lack of constituency. they want to add that damn, cut down the streets, mind that canyon. there -- our fervent wish is to make sure more families would go out and we can convince those populations, often african american, often hispanic americans, that do not feel that ownership of the national parks. the history is on their side. there are heroes, as i said before, that look and sound like them. they're welcome. they own the parks as much as anyone. that is the simple, democratic equation here. it does not matter whether you came on the mayflower or ride yesterday. whether you are a billionaire or your mother is a maid. these parks are yours. you stand in them equal to everyone else. the film attempts to celebrate that and it's the images of this

complex history and we would hope it just could be a galvanic moment for the parks, just as the civil war series was for some of the battlefield parks. after that series aired in 1990. >> what is your reaction to efforts to allow firearms into national parks? >> once again, i speak only as a public citizen. i personally think it is foolish. one of the interesting stories we tell in this film and others is the way in which sometimes, in our contemporary argument over guns, we forget the real purpose of the second amendment. in this film, particularly, the african american buffalo soldiers, the celebrated calvary men, who were, as most people do not know, the first park protectors at yosemite and sequoia national parks, at one time checked the guns of the people coming in and the wildlife made a comeback. one imagines therefore, by extension, all species are

threatened in a national parks. all species of all kinds, but a presence of firearms trade there is nothing to be gained a place in which hunting is not permitted by allowing them in there. it has become just a part of grandstanding contemporary politics that has no place in the national parks. again, i speak as a citizen. >> several questions have to deal with art and craft of filmmaking. one question came up a couple of times is you are defining historical and cultural icons through some of your work and a lot of people are experiencing this work and having a defined for them by film by ken burns. what sort of responsibility do you have as a filmmaker when you are putting forth images that can have a powerful impact on people? >> i think we try very hard to be aware of that. more importantly, we're trying to be true to our own craft and our own sense of storytelling.

the more important question is that we have been defined by these places. it is not so much that we are defining them. we have been defined by these places, the brooklyn bridge, the institution of jazz and baseball, the civil war, some extraordinary human beings, the national parks. we as american citizens, practicing this act of citizenship, we think with our craft of writing and film making, though not so much to set in stone some sort of standard for these icons, but encourage the questioning. that question of who are we is never answered. it is only deepened for personally. we hope is passed on to the people who see the films. there is no sense on our part that we have made the first or last word on these things, but merely as citizens unable to contribute our own enthusiasm in the best sense of that word for the aspect of american history that we find valuable.

each generation rediscovers and reexamines that part of the past it find useful. i think all of the times, because of the blessings at work with public television and pbs that we have been able to make films that celebrates stuff we have been drawn to. it has not been based on what a client wants to do. it has not been based on what ever the historical fashion of the moment is. it has not been based on what is just fashionable or controversy all. we have been able to explore important aspects of american history without any sense they were the definitive portraits, but a way of engaging a national conversation that permits us all to further deepen our understanding because we spend in our media culture, no insult implied, a great deal of time on the surface of things. what history permits is a triangulation and perspective that adds depth and meaning and profundity, not just to past events, but the present moment, that we would all be well, journalists and citizens alike,

to heat. -- to heed. >> could you talk a little bit about the film makers to have influence your work on commentary and narrative, and, given you have a platform as a documentary filmmaker, who are some lesser known documentary filmmakers who we might want to check out? >> that's a good question treed i originally wanted to be a filmmaker of the feature, hollywood kind, when i decided at age 13 or 14 that's what i want to do. many of my heroes are this feature filmmakers. this is not apples and oranges. the same laws, the same politics apply to stories told in a documentary fashion based on fact and is told in a fiction circumstance. the laws of good storytelling apply. honey, how was your day, does not begin i backed the car slowly down the driveway, avoiding the garbage can at the

coroner and proceeded to the stop sign, put on my bleaker, and turn right. you never say that unless you have a car accident at that moment. the essence of story telling applies, the laws apply to documentary as well as features. a lot of my heroes are the familiar heroes of our feature films around the globe. charlie chaplin, buster keaton, alfred hitchcock, martin scorsese, a character saba, louis burrell, -- akira kuroswaw and luis bunel. errol morris, who produces an explicit, stylized movies. he is one of my heroes. we noticed the way in which the whole landscape in the -- the

documentary landscape in the last 20 years has been changed and transformed. the rest of our environment -- i invite you to come up to the studios in new hampshire to see lots of young, talented filmmakers who are trying to make a go of it. >> what time of year is that invitation? >> i am away on the road an awful lot, so i hope to be able to introduce you personally, but you'll just have to take pot luck if i'm not there. >> share with our audience both on c-span and here at the national press club, was the most painful scene in this documentary that you had to leave on the cutting room floor and why did you let it go? [laughter] >> i have ice water running through my veins. there is no scene on the cutting room floor that for me i agonize about. the question though, that you have asked, should have been directed at dayton duncan.

[laughter] he just assured me the question did not come from him. what happens, invariably, is that the cutting room floor is not filled with bad scenes, but in fact wonderful scenes. if we could pick them up and show them to you, you'd think we'd lost our minds. why isn't that in the final film? but for some strange alchemy, some strange reason, it just did not fit. you remember the movie "amadeus" -- too many notes. we end up with the process of having to pull something out that looks great, but somehow destabilizes the film a half an hour down the line. it often takes a great deal of courage, not just on this film makers park, but certainly on the writer's part, to accept with graciousness and magnum at that -- magnanimity, the many amputations of his work that take place. fortunately for us, alfred not has published a wonderful book

that -- alford knopf has permitted us the chance to expand the scenes that may have ended up on the cutting room floor that the film medium requires us to pare down. they did to be extended on the printed page and include many stories we were not able to include in the series itself. our friendship remains intact. >> here is another question from the audience. another film maker who has a film out right now is michael more. could you contrast your work with his? [laughter] >> i cannot imagine to film makers that are more different. i tried to keep myself out of the film. it is important that every one of his films have him in there. he is a physical presence in every single film and that is so important to his work. he is involved in direct and

obvious political advocacy. i have, and i films reflect a certain wide range of views, not just political, but otherwise, that we try to keep hidden or buried. we want a story to tell it. having said that, it takes a great deal of effort and energy to make a film. those people who actually finish a film are to be commended, as much as our critical established would like to judge with the harshest language of the work that is done, it is incredibly difficult to make a film, and last time i checked, and it's so appropriately are here, the first amendment it is governed -- has governed our ability. of people ask me this question on the road as if somewhere there should be a check on someone like michael more where's their opinion on their sleeves and then i say, this runs counter to the first amendment.

we are so grateful we have michael more and everyone else screaming and yelling and whispering and singing all the various opinions that we have. >> in your film, in our approach to representing the native american perspective and the folks working and living their lives in these parks millennium before they were established, what is the challenge of captioning -- capturing the diversity of the native american experiences, given that were so many different cultures. >> that is an excellent question trade it's so it -- that's an excellent question. it so easy to jump from the geographical this corruption and i put the word discovered next to yosemite with reason. we tend to leap over that, because of this dark, dark past we have in which this garden of eden that we inherited it was actually taken, from, in the

case of the continental united states, 300 other peoples. many of them with separate and distinct languages, as different from english as polish. @@@@@@+@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ indian tribes in each place, we have a dear friend of ours who

was an indian from north dakota who grew up on the reservation who is now, in the greatest of all ironies, the superintendent of mutt -- of mount rushmore national memorial. interpreting not just the recent history of the carving into the sacred black hills, sacred for so many different native peoples, the bust of four american presidents, but also met to launder and complicated native american history of that place and the more complicated intersected -- intersection of the white appropriation of the black hills from the native peoples. that is part of the glory of our national parks services. we have been able -- we have been willing to expand the idea from saving natural scenery, archeologists -- archeological sites, natural habitat, sites that show political and military history, to the symbols of our country like the statue of

liberty, the lincoln memorial and not rushmore. but also places like a slave cabins, people may be comfortable life of a slave owner possible. we saved central high school, still a central -- still a working high-school in arkansas. so was the place for japanese american citizens were shamelessly and turned during the second war. sites of the massacre of native peoples by american cavalrymen -- shrinks will pa., heroic actions of the people on united flight 93. here -- oklahoma city, 168 shares commemorate the men, women, children commemorate the senseless act of domestic terrorism. our national parks have come not just to represent a geological past, but our complex, ethnographic, cultural, political, military saying. we have to apply ourselves. i know no other country on earth

that takes a more difficult aspects of the past and puts them up in the same light that we would put the statue of liberty in and says that a great country can be even greater by acknowledging the reality of its complicated past. >> during your talk today, you have frequently spoke of the spiritual dimension of the parks. how did working on this project affect you spiritually? >> that's true. the initial impulse was often spiritual or religious. certainly when people went into yosemite, the first white people, they were struck always by the sense of possibilities. following an amazonian sense you could find got more easily in nature than works created by men. -- an amber sony and cents -- and emersonian since you define more easily in nature than works

greeted by men. that we are delivered, with ourselves or with our families, with moments that are transformative. the greatest surprise for dayton duncan, me, and this project was every single one of those 50 or 60 people we focus on, historical figures, had a moment in their lives for the parks transformed them utterly. college religious or spiritual, whatever you want to call. the people we interviewed to help us understand that story told us about these people, but then felt compelled to tell us their own personal stories, why they became a historian, was their most satisfying moment. a former interior secretary brought us to tears describing a moment in the dollhouse, part of the canyon lands natural park. the party was able to help create. you realize people -- a park he was able to help create. you realize people are talking about the present world. john muir said everything is happening now. everything in our civilized

environment convinces us that it was before and later. it is what we want and we haven't gotten yet. the great thing about the parks is the open us up. inevitably, in our own ways, together and with our families, have had experiences we will treasure for the rest for lives. it is our sincerest wish that our fellow citizens would have the opportunity to experience the glories of nature. nature is never wrong. civilization quite often is wrong. there is nothing untrue about nature. nature never gets it wrong. the series, without pointing eras or neon signs at that is an attempt to celebrate that truce -- that truth, and the moment of being that is eternal. each one of the parks, at different times for different people, and for a moment for different people, at different places for different people, can perform that open-heart surgery and expose us, in a vulnerable

way, that make us feel connected to everyone else. which is of course what we all hope for. we all want to be loved and belong. i can think of places that are more about love and longing and the national parks. -- love and belongings and the national parks. before we ask the final question, there are some important matters to take care of. first, a reminder feature speakers -- on october 5th, the chairman of the commission on children and disasters and the administrator of the federal emergency management agency will review a report to president barack obama and congress that proposes new strategies to meet the needs of children affected by disasters. on october 8th, we'll have john potter, the postmaster general of the united states postal service. on november 13th, the president of chic fil-a will talk about

our company. last, i would like to present our guests with another addition to its burgeoning collection of national press club mugs. [applause] so the final question today, when you were a child, you did not dream of historical documentary filmmaking. you from doing big feature films. you have been doing this documentary thing for 20 years now, why don't you stretch yourself? why not have ken burns did a film with ninjas in a or a couple of cops making a lawless town turned straight? i'm just wondering, if ken burns were to do the hollywood feature film, what film would he be doing? >> i went to hamburg -- hampshire college in amherst massachusetts and my teachers were social documentary still photographers. they reminded me quite correctly that there is much more trauma in what is and what was.

then anything the human imagination can dream up. we're working on an update of our 1994 series, "baseball." it will deal with all these spectacular action my beloved boston red sox, winning the world series, but steroids and strikes and money and all of those issues. we are working on a history of prohibition. we have just begun at thing that, a three part, six hour series that will be out in early 2011. it is filled with cops -- [laughter] i don't know if i can help you on the ninjas. we're also working on a long series of the roosevelts -- theodore, franklin, and eleanor. we're headed out to the panhandles of oklahoma and texas to record the memories of the last witnesses to the dust bowl, that horrific, man-made, ecological catastrophe, superimposed on the greatest

economic catastrophe in the history of the world. before they pass from the scene. i'm working on a short modern history of the story of the central park jogger case were five black and hispanic boys were convicted and later had their convicted -- convictions vacated for a rape many people think they did not commit. a celebrated, red, headline- filled story in april of 1989. god willing, and funding willing, keep watching pbs, we will be able to do those things. but, no ninjas. [laughter] >> regardless, thank you for coming today. [applause] i would also like to think the national press club's staff members for organizing today's lunch and thank you to the library for its research. for more information about the press club, please go to our web site --

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