tavis: good evening. from los angeles, i am tavis smiley. tonight conversation with olympic medalist and author bonnie st. john. despite losing a leg at age 5, she was the first african american to meddle in an international competition. she has a new book called "how great women lead." also david talbot is here. his book looks at the culture wars of our times. we are glad you have joined us. bonnie st. john and david talbot coming up right now. >> every community has a martin luther king boulevard. it's the cornerstone we all know. it's not just a street or boulevard, but a place where walmart stands together with your community to make every day better. >> and by contributions to your

pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. tavis: despite having her leg amputated at age 5, she became the first african-american to win an olympic medal. from there she went on to become a successful public speaker. she has written a new book, "how great women lead: a mother- daughter adventure into the lives of women shaping the world para " it is a great concept for her mother and a daughter to write a book.

how old is she? >> she is 17. we started my freshman year in high school. tavis: what was that working with your daughter? >> it is the perfect storm between teenage hormones and menopause. it was a great learning experience. tavis: how did the process work? you and your daughter would contact these persons? this is a high profile list of people who give of time to you. >> we sent out an e-mail to everyone on my list asking them who we should have as role models. we got all of these responses. one of her first commons was was mom, ifments we just do high-profile women a lot of people will fill this book is not about them.

she helped me to castanet broader. we have a high-school student, we have the head of an orchestra, a fighter pilot. we wanted to show that women are bleeding everywhere. tavis: the timing could not be more propitious given ann romney and what a woman should do. what qualifies for being a great leader. what about the timing? >> my daughter would say about her friends, she is not doing anything. and i would say that is not ok. she learned that kathy had had a career and made the choice to stay at home. she saw that she was doing so many things in the community and making a difference. at the end of a she said i would like to be like her. she had a greater understanding of what it meant to be a great leader. tavis: what is the question to

how great women lead? >> a lot of people ask that. are they different than men? they lead in many ways. it is important. there is an archetype of leadership with the orchestra conductor. for her to break into the field, she is the only woman who is the head of an orchestra. she had to fight her way, i get a financial sponsor. she is breaking the mold for what that looks like. not only does it allow more women, it has been -- allowed a greater range of men. by opening the doors and having more diversity and tapping into richard talent, she got an orchestra -- richer talent, she got an orchestra that was turned

around. other orchestras are looking added a -- at it. tavis: i take your point that to giving opportunities to women open up the doors for a broader array of men. >> women have to lead differently. we are not allowed to stand up and act like men. we get punished for that. we get called names when we do that. how do we leave it? how do we have authority without being perceived as witchy. there are a lot of stories of women in -- reinventing that. some have to move the way she'd lose the baton. with hillary clinton, we saw where she went through with the presidential election. that paved the way for a wider

understanding of what leadership is. they do it in many ways. creative ways. ways and nobody has thought of yet. we are innovative. tavis: you mentioned hillary clinton. you worked in the clinton white house. you talk to condoleezza rice and hillary clinton for this. i wonder whether or not the fact today are in two different parties challenges the way they beat. condoleezza rice was tutored by white men her entire life. her tutors have been white males. even the party she is in. hillary clinton is in a party that is much more diverse. her husband -- husband is built by the gross -- beloved by

negroes. i wonder whether or not politically republican women and democratic women have to lead in different ways. >> certainly. both of those women had prayer groups while they were in leadership. if you think about condoleezza rice having an african a woman -- african-american per group, there were republicans. if there had to be that confidentiality. hillary clinton had the same problem. she ended up with some conservative women in her group. it was interesting that was something that cut across both areas, their spiritual support needed as women leaders. tavis: what was your take away from the women you spoke with in corporate america? i raise that because the first person to take the fall for the

j.p. morgan to block all was the highest -- debacle was the highest-ranking woman in the company. i guess somebody has to be the fall guy. it is interesting that given how few women there are, the first one to fall happens to be a high ranking woman. what was your take? >> one of the things that came up was delegating in having to be good at delegating. women tend to be more protectionist. we remember more details and we feel things more strongly. learning to let go in order to lead was an important lesson for a variety people. condoleezza rice was candid about learning to let go in order to lead. some of the messages in the book were strictly female, what

is it that is different about this book that you're not going to find in a male leadership book. sometimes learning to be less empathetic. i do not think you hear that, being less sensitive to the people around you. there is a fighter pilot who was pregnant during the course of our time getting to know her. she fell down a flight of stairs and was in labor 54 days. being able to cover what this stuff about women and what they need to learn and how do they grow. one man said he was going to buy the book because he wanted to be able to talk to the women on his team better. there were complaining he talks about football and baseball. he wanted to learn what is that like to be in a woman's world. what are the metaphors that matter? tavis: since i mentioned the woman at j.p. morgan and chase,

you also and spoke to cheryl sandberg, the ceo of facebook. -- coo of facebook. what did you learn about that issue of balance? how do they balance leading in the world and at home? >> it came up a lot. one thing we heard a lot was nearing the right man to matters. some women overcame not wearing the right man. the president of liberia was married to an abusive man. by and large, most of the women, susan rice, the founder of teach for america, she said i could not be doing without this man. cheryl sandburg and talks about that. that is good to hear that men are important. tavis: you have heard this joke a thousand times about how bill clinton went back to iraq and he

drives a mustang. he has had a 4 years. they pulled into a gas station and see a guy that bill went to high school. he is old and has lost his hair. his teeth are falling out. bill says to hillary, look what would have happened if you married that i. she said he would have been the president of the united states. >> it is also true in the reverse. it works both ways. tavis: what are you most grateful for with regard to your daughter and this process? >> a number of things. she was impacted by the conversation she had with condoleezza rice, a pass in four languages and cultures. she wants to study linguistics and anthropology.

it positions her to be a world leader and changes the way she thinks of herself. she started a model u.n. club and is looking at world issues. what she was so impact and by the poverty. we came out of a restaurant and kids started fighting over who was going to get the dog the bag. it was so tough that she did not want to walk away. that is the reason we committed to partner with opportunity international, a woman who is featured in the book. we partnered to raise awareness and money for helping women leaders around the world. i know you have a leadership camp that you do and you teach you do not walk away from a problem. darcy decided we can do this. there is more information on our website, which they can get from your web said. tavis: i started bragging about the metdals, your olympic

success. is there a particular takeaway you come back to about what this challenge has meant to your own personal and professional leadership? >> having a leg amputated? been disabled, african-american, i look at life through all those filters. people with disabilities are in their own several -- civil rights movement. being able to look at different struggles and how we can overcome them and bring people along. leadership makes the difference. where we end up together. tavis: "how great women lead: a mother-daughter adventure into the lives of women shaping the world." written by bonnie st. john and her daughter studying for her college entrance exams. saree could not make a show tonight. studying is more important than

being on a tv show. i am sure you will be invited on pbs time and time again. good to see you. up next, david talbot. stay with us. tavis: david talbot is the best- selling author about a book about the kennedys. his latest is "seasons of the which." that is a heck of a title. >> and it is a heck of a city. >> we're talking about san francisco. the book is about the social issues of today, the culture wars, and tying them into with hal and where and all of these cultural wars got started. why san francisco was the

epicenter? >> i think san francisco exploded in the 1960's. this is where if you were young and felt like an outcast, for whatever reason you went to san francisco. it was liberated territory. there is a shelter for runaway teens. it was illegal in those days for a teenager to be on the run. it was named after huckleberry. that is where jim and huck would have gone if they had been alive at that time. there was freedom, sexual freedom, there was music. black music, white music, the jefferson airplane. it was a great time to be alive. everything was possible. i think that is why the cultural revolution began in san francisco. tavis: one way to look at this is to thank sanford cisco for

pushing progress in helping the -- san francisco for pushing progress and helping the pace. another way it is the cause of all of the hell this country is an adoring right now. >> i think this is as relevant as president obama's decision on a game marriage. these are the values that have been derided by scope -- derided and scorned by fox news. it is about the right to choose. it is about women's rights, gay's rights, and it did take a city that was willing to take those risks and to push the envelope and to go through all of the conflict that san francisco went through. san francisco of values were not born with flowers in their hair. they were bloody conflicts. it was a conservative city when

the culture war began. tavis: before i forget, i am getting older. >> you and me both. tavis: you say it was a bloody conflict. tell me more about the process. >> first of all, the city was irish-catholic, italian- catholic. an old boys' network. they put the drawbridge up when the kids started to flood into san francisco. kids were arrested and hassle. even on the ashbery clinic, you have thousands of kids on the streets. like the occupied movement today. many of them were sick. they needed care. the only place they were going to do that, was a free clinic with $500 from a young doctor named doctor david smith. he began treating these kids.

these were some of the institutions as a result of san francisco values, free medical care, free music in the parks. this notion that there are certain basic rights that should be free started bubbling up in san francisco. tavis: given how conservative it was, what made it such a fertile ground for this kind of social advance? there are a lot of places in the country, why san francisco? >> it had its wild and crazy frontier routes. it goes back to the gold rush days. people trying to make it rich. it was the kind of city where the prostitutes when they came into the opera house, the gentleman stood up and applauded. it was a wild and crazy town. that spirit continued into the

next century. but there was this old order that resisted it. there was a brutal conflict and the book goes into this, the political assassinations. supervisor harvey milk, the champion of gay-rights. the biggest mass suicide in history, jim jones. which i call more of a massacre. the people's temple. one calamity after the next as the dream of the 1960's starts to fall apart. the triumph of san francisco is that it gets through the dark days and ultimately wins. tavis: you also talk about sports and its relevance. i will come back to that because i do not want to lose sight of -- you suggested, talking about a rights, that just because

obama express is a personal opinion, it prevailed. i think because one guy, even if he is the president, says he is for the marriage, i do not think that has prevailed. >> you are right. when president kennedy spoke about civil rights in his presidency, he backed it up. i think that is what the president needs to do to make sure it does become a rite that every american enjoys. but it is a huge step. there is a connection between his decision and san francisco. let's not forget gavin newsome who endorsed the rights for gays to marry in city hall. he instructed city hall to begin issuing licenses back then. the democratic party went nuts. barney frank chastised him for

that. he is also be commended for that. tavis: if the president ends up losing because of this, your word prevailed will be transformed into what? >> i still think you have to do the right thing. what he has done is caused a national conversation that is the central for this country to grapple with. to me, i have been pushing iraq for a long time. take a stand. when the president does that, i feel like he has to be supported. tavis: back to the forty- niners, you cannot talk about san francisco without talking about the forty-niners even though they had a good season. >> don't remind me. tavis: you talk about that in the text. and one of the iconic figures is

the wash -- bill walsh. >> here is a guy who had not been given a break by the nfl. he was a genius. no nfl owner would trust him with the team until finally he was given the forty-niners out of desperation because the team had been so bad. here is a man who brings in harry edwards. he was a great instructor, a sociology instructor, who had risked a lot by backing that athletes in mexico city in 1968 who protested with the raised fists. he was a controversial figure but bill walsh brings him into do with race relations. he hired an openly gay trainer. no nfl team to this day has done that. he was ahead of his time.

and that he married his eccentricities. there were some has-beens, washed of veterans, a young quarterback, joe montana. people felt he was not physically reagan -- ready for the nfl and yet he leads them to a super bowl victory and starts to heal the wounds in the city. the city that had been through so much, assassinations and jonestown, patty hearst. one trauma after the next. that victory parade, and i was there, they came around the bend in downtown san francisco. bill wallace thought no one was going to be on the streets. suddenly there was an explosion of humanity. blacks, whites, asians, people of all class's. hanging from windows and lampposts. he began to cry because he saw what this team had done.

tavis: the city of love. there are a number of cities that have laid claim to that title. when you say in reference to san francisco it is a city of love, what you mean? >> the summer of love, 1967. san francisco saw itself as opposition to the war and prevailing values of the country of the time. it was where no one was left outside your golden gate, as the song goes. that is the true spirit of st. francis of assisi. it was only, not until the 1980's when the city had to deal with aids that you see the spirit of st. francis in full of fact. the city, just as reagan is rejecting aids. he is not even speaking the name. the city realized we have to take care of our own.

the federal government is not. the city came together to do that. >> i think it is fair to call this a love letter. >> a bloody valentine. tavis: "seasons of the witch: enchantment and deliverance in the city of love." david talbot, good to have you on. that is our show for tonight. you can download our new app in the itunes store. thank you for watching. as always, keep the faith. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next time for a conversation with producer and director garry marshall. that is next time. we will see you then. >> every community has a martin luther king boulevard. it's the cornerstone we all know. it's not just a street or

boulevard, but a place where walmart stands together with your community to make every day better. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> be more. >> be more. pbs. pbs.