tavis: good evening, from los angeles, i am tavis smiley, we have first bill james, the man known for his baseball abstract has turned to the attention of the subject of crime, in the new book called "popular crime." and we have deejay and social activists moby is here, with his new release. thank you for joining us now. >> all i know is he is james and he needs extra help with his reading. >> i am james. >> yes. >> for everyone making a difference, you make us all look

better. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley and work to remove obstacles of economic empowerment, one piece at a time. >> and from contributions from your pbs station, from viewers like you. thank you. tavis: bill james is a noted baseball writer that started his baseball abstract in 1987, and he's working for the red sox that has turned to a different text, "popular crime," for a celebration, and he joins us from kansas city, an honor.

>> thank you. tavis: when you say celebration, what do you mean. >> we pick up stories and make popular entertainment out them. television is full of it. full of fictional and real violence that has turned into entertainment. it's an interesting phenomena and i tried to put it in perspective. and to try to think through a few questions that this sometimes unseemingly business raises. tavis: as a society why are we fascinated by it, by celebrating in the first place. >> because crime stories reveal an aspect of our personality has and keep it hidden. we don't like to talk about our hatreds and secrets.

but crime stories drag those things to the surface, a consequently they fascinate people. tavis: years ago, bill, i stopped using the phrase, i could never do that, i would never do that. is there something to that? >> absolutely, any of us are capable of doing things we are not proud of. anyone can become a drug addict. if you let yourself do it. and once you do, you do anything to get the drugs. tavis: this book is a nice size text, and let me ask how do we need to rethink how we think about crime? >> the serious people, intelligent people, pbs watchers tend to dismiss the whole phenomena as unattractive.

it is, it's a tabloid business that has more unsightly aspects as mike tyson, it has a lot of ugly sides to it. but there are serious questions being raised there. the business of popularizing crime is how we expose the faults in our justice system. how we expose police misconduct. it shapes how we think about a lot of different issues. has over a long time. famous crime stories almost always lead to the passing of new laws. and there is a great many intersections between this unseemly tabloid phenomena and and we never get to that because serious people don't like to talk about that

unattractive stuff. tavis: let's talk about that serious, unattractive stuff. and starting with as a society, why we're so fascinating with missing white girls? >> we are making a little progress on that, i think. because on some level we are racist. you hate to say it's true. but there is an element of racism that has always played a role in making those cases more famous than other cases. tavis: why white girls as opposed to anyone else? >> men feel challenged when a woman disappears. because again primitive and sexist and inappropriate, but men feel challenged when a woman

is in danger. so those stories draw a different visceral reaction, which the man was out in the world doing men stuff and something happened to him. tavis: on the cover of this book, i am looking at now, there are a number of names of individuals and cases that have become famous over the years. and i am almost nervous to ask this, but i want to pull a few names off the cover of the book to get your take. let me start with the obvious, the o.j. simpson matter. >> yeah, i tried not to write about the o.j.simpson case too much, so much is said about it. however the case is very useful to illustrate other points. the case is a common reference point, because everyone knows the i ins and outs of it, more

than any other case. in itself there are not that many questions that remain unanswered. tavis: let me ask one that remains unconsideranswered and these crimes lead to new laws, did anything good happen out of the o.j. simpson case? >> if anything good happened, it didn't offset the evil, i don't think. we did have an occasion to ask ourselves a lot of serious issues. is a person that is successful and well off and a sports superstar, is he still a victim of racism? where does his anger come from? also we learned from that case

putting cameras in a courtroom is still dangerous, we learned that in a previous case that that no one knows they are there. but the people on stage do. and that's another lesson we took from that. tavis: speaking of cases that have gone over and over and anything to learn from james and vis-a-vis and others? >> i have read about two crime books and there are two about the kennedy assassination i recommend. one is jerald cosmer's case closed that reviews the theories that float around.

another book by menninger that explains the theories of a baltimore man, donahue. that book is not easy to read if there is a flaw in his thesis, i don't see it. i recommend it. tavis: one case you make that our fascination with these popular crimes is not new or not american. >> that's right there are crime stories back to the romans, and the bible is full of crime stories. and joseph sold by his brothers into slavery is a crime story. the bible is full of them. tavis: do these high-profile

cases cause us to be fearful by crime or see ourselves removed from these cases? >> that's one of the most serious issues. there a good argument that the exageration of these isolated cases cause us to be paranoid and more concerned about crime than we otherwise would be. and perhaps sometimes that's a negative thing. certainly it is a negative thing. on the other hand if you suggest that a person of a serious crime that he take it to seriously, they look at you like crazy. that's a tough issue that we are doing more harm than good by paying close attention to a few cases that don't intersect with our lives. tavis: i found this book fascinating and there is such debate and conversation in this

country ongoing about how to fix our system of jurisprudence or lack thereof and you have a point system? >> that's a suggestion to keep score, my favorite line is that a trial is like a basketball game and no one keeps score. that won't fix the judicial system but perhaps a small contribution to the discussion. tavis: his name, bill james, the book is called "popular crime," i have not done justice to it, you want to get it and read. bill, thank you for being on the program. >> thank you. tavis: up next musician and deejay, moby, stay with us. tavis: please welcome moby back

to this program, the popular deejay is out with a new album called "destroyed." and the long time activist posted a video about tax breaks. first from "destroyed," here is from the video, for today. ♪ i tried a thousand times, when the silver shines so hard. ♪ i tried to poison my life, always dreaming on the edge of the night. ♪ she always looked back and continued to take me in some more. ♪

tavis: moby, why is it important for you to be involved, i say this lovingly in every aspect of your craft. the writing, the producing, the instrumentation and the videos, you are involved in every aspect, why? >> when you say that it sounds narcistic. tavis: i said that lovingly, and prince did the same. >> i found it easier to do it myself and playing in bands and waiting for musicians to show up, and they rarely did. and if i teach myself i am not dependent on other people. tavis: that's what you gain by one-man show, do you lose anything?

>> you lose the ability to interact with normal human beings. it's what i like to refer to ted k krazynsky, the unibomber, and i miss out on the gregarious ways that we work. tavis: is there a certain purity to that process, when you get a chance to stay in here? >> i think so, either purity or delusion, i don't do any of these items well, but i like to do all of them.

by the time the record has finished, i have completely lost perspective. like this album, i think it's a good album, but it may be the worse ever made. i have no idea and could take years to figure out. tavis: what is that barometer, if that two-year period hits, good or bad based on what? >> usually my own perspective, and feedback from other people. and not the press, i have learned that i never read my own reviews. because a good review makes me feel ego centric, and a bad review makes me want to jump off a building. so i don't read them and just personal feedback from friends and people i encounter. and if enough people tell me they like something i have done, and then i may believe i have done something good. tavis: you made a reference to

going crazy in a hotel room. the last time you did that was in spain, and the end result is this project. so you are in spain, the story goes, and you have a bunch of sleepless nights and you write this in a hotel room? >> well, there are two types of hotel craziness. there is tommy lee hotel craziness, which i am sure is a lot of fun. and then my style that is just me and in a hotel room at 4 o'clock in the morning, with ins insomnia and look at a city that is empty, and feeling like you are the only person left on the planet. that the rapture happened and everyone was taken but me. tavis: hence the name of

"destroyed? >> well, the cover is me standing in an airport hallway, and looking at this longhaul -- long hallway, and with a sign, unattended luggage is destroyed. and i felt destroyed. like when you get so tired and haven't eaten, at some point it becomes comforting, this catatonic state. tavis: how would you describe this project? >> i have no perspective on my work, when i put out the album "play," in my mind it was a hip-hop record. i don't think anyone else who heard it thought that.

this album is basically a sound track for empty cities at 3 o'clock in the morning. i just moved to l. a., and the album sounds good at the 10 at 3 o'clock in the morning and going too fast. as you drive through downtown. tavis: next tuesday at 10 o'clock in the morning, the freeway will be full of people listening to the cd. >> here's hoping. tavis: i assume after all of these years doing it this way, you are comfortable now. you make jokes and they are funny, but i assume you are comfortable with the process at this point? >> i have played music since 10 years old and in the mid-80's i was a hip-hop deejay in new york, i was deejaying at mars in

new york. and all the rappers hung out big daddy and i kept a microphone at the turn table. they would come down and get drunk and free style to impress their date. i wish i had recorded it. everyone free styling and drinking champagne and it was great. and then i started making my own records and with electronic music i can do it myself. tavis: what is the take away, or how do you incorporate all you have been exposed to with the kind of music we get today. how does classical impact you and hip-hop? >> my goal as a musician is simple, it's to try to make music that i love, and in the

process make something that someone else may like. i no allegiance to any one genre, i like all genres because they all affect me emotional. i may borrow from everything to make that. tavis: what prompted the move to l.a.? >> i even got a driver's license. tavis: wow, you learned to dry. >> yeah, terrifying. tavis: i get it now, why you are on the freeway at 2 o'clock in the morning. what prompted the move? >> a bunch of things, i was born in new york and grew up in new york. it has changed a lot, and so expensive with wall street and most writers have had to leave

new york. i found my neighborhood that was odd people and now hedge fund people. and l. a. has still that wei weirdness and it's so big that it never gets genderified. i like the weirdness and that the there are so many artives here and the smug satisfaction i get on january 15 when it's 72 degrees outside and i check the weather in new york and it's 11 degrees and sleeting. that's worth moving here. tavis: your experiences impact your surround sound. have you realized how los

angeles will affect that? >> that's such a good question, there are so many different places in los angeles, i live near beechwood canyon and can be surrounded by coyotes, or grimy hollywood, or the country. or maybe a combination of the two, maybe a speed record with hip-hop beats, i have no idea. tavis: my friend jim wallace that helped kick this off. but recently there was a multiweek fast on the part of the christians and others about this budget debate in washington. and they wanted to bring attention to how immorale in their view of this process. and i said i don't get how every

debate in washington begins and ends with punishing the poor. and you had things to say about that, say about the debate and the fasting. >> jim wallace is a hero of mine, he's a great aspiring christian. and he asked me to get involved in this protest. and i liked the simplicity of it. the idea of fasting to express moral outrage. i am not in favor of higher taxes but i am not in favor of cutting taxes for corporations and millionaires and expecting the veterans and elderly and students and women's health to bear the brunt of it. as a society, that's a skewed approach to the distribution of wealth. to cut veterans benefits and give tax cuts to millionaires. i was outraged and got involved

in the fast. my confession i only fasted one day. our friend jim wallace, fasted a long time. god bless him, and after a while, i said, i miss spaghetti. tavis: does this kind of social justice have a place in your music or keep it separate? >> i wish it had more of a place in music, people that have written amazing politically inspired immoral justice, i am not good at writing about those issues, i have tried. it's better if i write emotional music and talk about issues on the sides. i am the worse songwriter when i try to write protest songs. tavis: the new project from moby

is called "destroyed" we are excited to have him in los angeles, sorry, new york, we claimed another one. congratulations on the new project, "destroy" from moby. and thank you l. a. for watching, as always, keep the faith. ♪ >> for information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. >> hi, next time we have james stewart plus a performance from steve earle, that's next time. see you then. >> all i know his name is james, and he needs extra help with his

reading. >> i am james. >> yes. >> to everyone making a difference, you help us all look better. >> nationwide insurance supports "tavis smiley," we are proud to help remove economic obstacles one at a time. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television]