vu: next, a "kqed newsroom" special... richards: my motto now is, "start before you're ready." whatever new opportunity comes your way, jump at it. vu: ...authors speaking about everything from sexism in silicon valley... chang: the women sort of feel like, "this is where powerful people are, but they're damned if they do and damned if they don't." vu: ...to the role of religion in today's turbulent political climate. aslan: evangelicalism and the republican party have been married as a single force, and this is the culmination of that marriage, and perhaps it's time for a divorce. vu: hello. i'm thuy vu. welcome to a special edition of "kqed newsroom." on this program, we're revisiting interviews from our archives with dynamic, provocative authors. we begin with the politics of health care. cecile richards has been the president andceo of planned parenthoo f. the organition offers low-cost reproductive health-care services

to millions of people across the country. making the nonprofit a frequent target of conservative lawmakers who have threatened to cut off federal funding. richards announced in january that 2018 will be her last at the helm of planned parenthood, and she has a book out, "make trouble." it chronicles her stysies of bucking the stem and fighting for change from an early age.s, cecile richa nice to . richards: great to be back. thank you. vu: well, in the introduction in your book, you write right off the top practically, "for the first time in my lifee yoi'm wondering whf the tmy own daughters will have far fewer rights than i've had." which rights are you talking abou and why do you feel that way? richards: well, i'm obviously conceriod under this administr and this congress at the effort to repeal wos,n's reproductive rig access to birth control. really basic, basic health-carrights is at risk, and that's, of course, the work we've been doing atod planned parent this entire year is to fight back, and we've been successful so far, and, of course, we've seen an outpouring of young women

mog lizing, energized, runnr office and doing all of the things i think we need to do. vu: the trump administration has done a number of things. it's rolled back contraception coverage. it's allowed states to defund planning parenthood. it's cut funds for teen-pregnancy prevention programs. what else is coming down the pipeline that has you ncerned? richards: one of the biggest concerns frankly that we have is the kd of judges that are being put up into the federal judiciary now, some of the most extreme judges, some of them not qualified. vu: and the biggest fight right now seems to beov the nomination of wendy vitter to louisiana district courts. planned parenthood has taken out ads against her nomination. what are your concerns about her, and what do you think her nomination means for other bench openings across the country? richards: well, the concern about wendy vitter is... and, yes, planned parenthood has beenos actively og her nomination because she has some of the most extreme views even on issues like birth control, trying to link birth control to violent death among women. she has not been rated qualified by the american bar association.

she has no experience in the federal judicial system that would make her qualified. it seems that her only qualifications is that she's on the far right of the republican party. vu: and she supports the views of an anti-abortion advocate who says that contraceptives cause cancer. rianards: and absolutely, then we saw the hearing, you know, her hearing before the senate. she wasn't even willing to say where she was on brown vs. board of education. i mean, this is the kind of fundamental... this is a fundamental issue in this country, and so we're just concerned that this administration is puttino very, very political nees in the federal bench that are going to be there for a lifetime. vu: i want to also talk about the stories that you recount in your book. vu: you've had quite a life. your mother, ann richards, was the governor of texas. richards: correct. vu: the fireand that she was. richards: yes. vu: your father, david, is a civilights attorney, and you write in your book vthat your dinner table was never really about eatingg it was for sor precinct, so what's your earliest memory of being politically active?ch

ds: well, i mean, that was the... i had an incredible childhood. i mean, my parents were into every movement that came through town -- the farmworkers, the women's movement. i think the most important mont for us, though, was when my mom got to run the first campaign ever of a woman who was running for the state hous sarah weddington who had argued the roe. vs. wade case, ot and as kids we allo be involved, and i saw firsthand both how hard it wasr men to run for office and how important it was and how exciting it was r men because she won the, and then, of course, mom went on to have her own political career. vu: and one of the most notable moments of your career, i mean, we all watched it nationally in 2015, was when congress investigated controversial videos odabout planned parent collection of aborted fetal tissue. no evidence of wrongdoing was found. richards: none. vu: was that one of the toughest challs during your tenure at planned parenthood?so richards: oh, tely. i mean, you know, fake videotapes that were used to try to damage the reputation of the organization,

we had five congressional committees investigatingplanned , more than investigated enron or the financial crisis, but we got through that, and i think one of the most important things about that hearing was it ended up being an opportunity to ucate millions of people in this country about the incredible hlth care that planned parenthood provides every single day to thousands of women in america. vu: and yet you're stepping down at a ti when many women would argue that planned parenthood needs someone with your experience at the helm. richards: well, i'm really proud of what we've done over the last 12 years to invest in a whole new genes all across the country, and, of course, i wouldn't be stping down if i felt like that we were at risk. we are actually stronger today than we've ever been our 100-year history. we have now more than 12 million supporters, which is twice the membership of the national rifle association. weking a difference in states all across the countryb and i'an avid supporter of planned parenthood for my entire life, but i think it's time for me to move aside and make space for someone new. vu: the 2016 presi mntial election, as ytioned,

has energized many women, younger women, former housewives who now are runninfor office for the first time. m they're becomie politically active whether it's through community volunteering or actually running for office, and you have had a long history in your life of being very politically active. i mean, you protested the vietnam war when you were just, u know, in the 7th grade... richards: right. vu: .for a long time union r after graduating from college, so what would be the ggest piece of advice that you have for women who are now becoming politically active richards:would be twethink just donf advice ai'tsofote mer sktoon t a just jump right in right now. i think so many women wait until they think they have the perfect résumér whet's to run for office or run an organization, but this is the moment. i've never seen women this active, really, literally shaking the foundation of this country in eossible way, and i think that if we support each other,om help that are running for office, we really can make an enormous impact not only in this november but two years from now as well.

vu: and yet, when the job came up for planned parenthood to head it, you almost didn't take it. ri: ards: that's right. y? richards: well, i mean, that's what i talk about in my book. you know, i thought, "wein, i've never done anythat big. it's so hard. it's...you know, i don't have the skills," and i think a lot of women hold back because they think they're not ready, and so my motto now is, .""start before you're rea you are, and, you know, don't overthink it. just whatever new opportunity comes your way, jump at it. vu: and those are good words to end on. cecile richards stepping down from planned parenthood, so nice to have you here, and congratulations on your new book. richards: thank you very muc thanks. vu: turning now to the culture of high tech, silicon valley is home to some of the world's most profitable and innovative companies who are vying to create gase-changing products anices, but according to bloomberg tv host emily chang, the valley is also a place where gender inequality and mistreatment of women run rampant. chang lays out h critique in her boo "brotopia: breaking up the boys' club of silicon valley."

nice to have you here. chang: thank you, thuy, for having me. it's greato be here. vu: well, how stark is the gender gap in the tech industry? chang: so just look at the numbers. i mean, women account for 25% of jobs across the computing industry, 7% of venture-capital investors. these are the people who decide what geek gets tbe the next facebook, and women-led companies get just 2% of ventureapital funding, they're just not g there money that they needted,ti to start these potentially world-changing businesses. ysvu: but it wasn't alhis way. i mean, in your book you talk about women o played a formative role in the computer industry, women like ada lovelace, women like grace hopper. tell us about them. chang: in the 1940s and 1950s -- this is what surprised me the most when i started doing my research -- women played vital roles in the computing industry. they were programmincompu, programming computers for nasa, and then in the '60s and '70s, as the industry was exploding, they were desperate for new talent,

and so a software company hired two psychologists to develop a personality test to identify good programmers, and what they decided is that good programmers, quote, "don't like people." vu: hmm. chang: well, if you look for people who don't like people, you'll hire far more men than women.ha that's the research tells us, and there's no research to support this idea that people who don't lihi people are better atjob than people who do or that men are better at this job than women, but it had perpetuated this idea of the antisocial, mostly white, male nerd stereotypest that perto this day. vu: and so that's why companies, you think,ep n hiring people who fit that stereotype? chang: so that test, for example, was used for decades by companies as big as ibm, and that stereotype came to sort of permeate not just the industry but computer labs and parents and families, and then it was repeated in popular culture. a lot of people told me, "well, this stereotype was created by tv and movies." in fact, it wasn't. the tech industry created that stereotype,

and it has perpetuated this idea, you know, that a very narrow group of people are good at this when, in fact, we need people ofll backgrounds making these products because billions and billions of people are using them, men and women. vu: and in your book, you also cite another example of power imbalance by talking abouthe sex parties that happen in silicon valley. what happens at these gatherings? chang: in silicon valley, work and personalar livevery intertwined, and a lot of business happens outside the office, baso whether it is at th or the hotel lobby or sometimes even in the hot tub. you know, i talk about an investor ato has hot-tub parties is house, and so there's a wide spectrum of social behavior that you see, and in many ways, these parties are a lot more about power th they are about sex, and it's a power dynamic that is completely lopsided. vu: i guess some people mayargue are coming to these parties to have a good time, and what is wrong with that?"t chang: i spoover three dozen people now

and several who have actually come forward to me since i wrote the book, men and women. you know, the men describe a situaon where they're challenging social mores and challenging traditional morality, where the women sort of feel like, "this is where powerful people are," but they're damned if they do and damned if they don't. if they do attend these parties, they're disrespected or discredited. they may never see they're locked out.,but if , they're shut out of these important social gatherings, and, you know, some of the women i spoke to actually had to... , fe that they had to leavelicoy in order to, you know, just do business on a level playing field, and they decided to continue their businesses in new york. vu: it is a bit ironic, though, as you're saying all this, that people who pride themselves on disrupting things, that kind of environment is not reay disruptive at all. some would argue it's very much the status quo, you know, with a lot of what has been happening in business. chang: it's a tale as old as time, and i do think part of the proem...

sexism exists everywhere, but part of the problem with the sexism in silicon valley is that riis is an industry thats itself on changing the world and being so progressive, and yet if you just look at the numbers, i mean, the s presentation of womenst so horrifying. yes. you know, there's sexism in hollywood. there's sexism in washington, but i would argue that in silicovalley, it matters more than anywhere because this is an industry that is changing our lives every day, controlling what we see, controlling what we read... vu: how we live, how we work, how we play. chang: ...how we get around, the games that our children are playing, you know, but i... you know, i'm an optimist even after spending two years writing this book.th i believ the people who are changing the world, who have solved all of these incredibly hard problems, they can change this too. if they can get us to mars and build self-dri ng cars and give us rides tat the push of a button, they can hire more women and y them fairly. vu: and it's funny that you just brought all that up about, you know, taking us to mars and outer space.

elon musk has been very critical of your book. chang: mm-hmm. vu: he has saithat... for example, one of the sex parties you mentioned, he has acknowledd he was there, but he said no lurid behavior happened when he was there. he thought it was a company party. he said that your account was salacious, misleading, and you should be ashamed. how do you respond to that criticism? chang: that particular party, i never said, "that party was a sex party," but that there was behavior at that party that was very disturbing and mirrors so of the behavior that we see in some of these other environments, and i spoke to men and women who were at that party who felt uncomfortable, who described drug use, who described cuddling in the middle of the floor and one woman in particular pr who felt that she wasured into sexual activity and who would not have been there if such powerful people had not been there.mm vu chang: and so i came into this as a journalist. i don't have an agenda. i couldn't make this stuff up, and i uncovered some things that i found very troubling.

vu: all right. well, the name of the book is "brotopia." author emily chang, thank you so much. chang: thank you for having me and shining a light on these issues. i appreciate it. vu: now to religion and politics. since taking office, president trump has enacted tough new immigration policies as well as travel bans aimed at restricting travel from predominantly muslim countries. in the fall of 2017, president trum retweeted three deflammatory anti-muslim os posted by a inr-right group in bri that incident sparked an internationalacklash. i talked with reza aslan, bestelling author, religious scholar and a professor at uc riverside, about the intersection of religion and politics in these turbulent times. "gaslan's latest book, : a human history," explores the evolution of the concept of god. i sat down with him in december of 2017. so nice to have you here. aslan: thank you. nice to be here. vu: so we'll get to your book in mbut first i wanted to ask you about those anti-muslim videos that president trump retweeted. you were born in iran. you are muslim.

what's your reaction to that? aslan: i wasn't surprised by it. this is a president who has made anti-muslim sentiment the core foundation not just of his candidacy but of his presidency. he has brought the worst elements of the islamophobia industry in the united states, including members of actually southern-povertylaw-cend hate groups intothe whf this is who he is, and i think we should stop pretending otherwise for a moment here, and i understand the confusion that often arises within the media when confronted with these seemingly racist acts and rhetoric that the president routinely involves himself wit and we try to figure out why. why would he do and say these kind of things? and maybe it's just because i think the simplest answer is he right answer, or mayng i've just been watchis too much, but the reason that he does things

that seem to support racism and white nationalism is because he has proven himself to be a racistd white nationalist. vu: and you've also not only written about president trump. s u've written about hipporters. in an op-ed in the la times, you liken trump's supporters to cult mbers. aslan: that's right. vu: can you explain that?la i've spent a lot of time around cult members. i've lived with cult members. i've studied cultsr mos, i've spent a lot of time around cult members. and i can say with a fair measure of confidence that the kind of rhetori that i hear from trump's inner-core supporters sounof very much like the kinhetoric that i hear from cult members. after all, president trump himselmade this very clear when he said that he could shoot somebody on 5th avenue after all, president trump himsand not lose these voters, and that's precisely what we are seeing now. now, this particularly exists himsand in a core elementters, of his followers among the white evangelical base, which still supports him pretty extraordinarily, but you have someone like frank amedia, one of his evangelical advisors, ying that trump is receiving downloads from god.

you have people like franklin graham, perhaps his greatest evangelical supporter, comparing him positively to prophets like abraham and moses and david. ay you have pat robertsong that trump's authority is the authority of god, and anyone who refuses to obey it is disobeying god. this is not normal political rhetoric. vu: well, so where is this intersection of religion and politics heading, then? because if you look at the 2016 election, there was a cnn poll, right, and that poll found that 61% of white catholics voted for president trump. it was even higher among white evangelical voters. igaslan: 81%. vu: 81%,. so how has that role of religion changed in politics over the years? aslan: let's be clear. 81% of white evangelicals voted for donald trump. 67% of evangelicals of color voted for hillary clinton. these are people who believe the same thing, who have the same theology but who have a different skin tone,

so again, we can't keep pretending that race isn't the primary fact in so many of these discussions that we are having here. this is an issue among white evangelicals, and i would say that that's a good thing w because whare seeing now is an enormous amount of backlash from white evangelical, many white evangelical leaders who feel as though this is a day of reckoning, , that for many, many yeaangelicalism and the republican party have been married as a single forces is the sort of c,mination of that marria and perhaps it's time for a divorce. vu: you have spoken out against the travel ban as well, the one that applies to eight countri, including iran, where you're from, but what would you say to those who feel, as president trump does, that this is the right thing to do, p some travel restrictions in place? aslan: these aren't "some" travel restrictions. they're blanket-travel restrictions. in the entire history of the united states,ng

not a american has ever been killed on u.s. soil by any foreign national from any one of the countrs that have been banned on trump's travel list. the u.s. military thinks it's a terrible idea. the intelligence community thinks it's a terrible idea. it's a joke to say that this is about preventing terrorism. this is, again, another example of what has become a demonstrable routine of racist actions by this white house. vu: all right. now to your book, "god: a human history," it's more a study of how god is conceptualized rather than a history of god. you say that most of us try to humanize god. what do u mean by that? aslan: well, it's this sort of natural impulse that we have that we project up god our own emotions, our own personalities, our own characteristics, even our motivations, even our own bodies. we cry looks and acts, feels and thinks like we do, and that's precisely why we have

so many great religious conflicts arnd the world because really what we are doing is implanting in our sense of the divine everything that's good and bad about us, and so what i am advocating for is to reverse that process,iz to dehumgod and try to think oergod less as a divinenality and more as an underlying reality, as sort of the spiritual force of the universe. think it would create a more deeper, more meaningful spirituaty, but i also think that it could lead to greater relations vu: and definitely much more about that in your book, and so if you're interested, definitely pick up a copy of "god: a human history." reza aslan, thank you so much for being here. aslan: my pleasure. vu: recently, we talked with iee former head of thea club, carl pope, about his new book titled, "climate of hope." he coauthored it with former new york city mayor michael bloomberg. in tvi book, pope lays out on for how individuals, businesses and local governments can battle climate change

even when state and .national governments won nice to have you here. po : great to be here againvu:, you say that it's time for a new type of conversation about climate change. what do you think is wrong with the way it's being discussed now, and how would you like to reframe the conversation? pope: well, we have talked about climate change as this enormous problem which requires phenomenal sacrifice, and the conversation is, "who is going to pay the bl?" that used to be true. it's not true anymore. right now, climate change is an enormous economic opportunity, and the questie is, "who is going to te lead?" that's a different kind of conversation. vu: and you also point out that a lot of it has talked about very long-term consequences, not something that people can relate to now. pope: that's exactly right, and if you look, for example, the conversation we're havingn people realize that many of the states which have done the most to reduce their carbon footprint are states like oklahoma and texas, which did it not because they had governorsc. they didn't, but because they had utility customers

who wanted cheaper power, oaand wind is cheaper than vu: and so there was a money-making incentive there? pope: and it was immediate. wholesale power rates in texas have been coming down significantly because we're retiring coal and replacing it with natural gas, wind and solar. vu: and, you know, much of the debate over climate change centers around doom-and-gloom scenarios, and you point oucain the book that thoseng tactics don't really work with people. why not? pope frankly, if you're tryi. if you're a rock-climbing coach, and you're trying to get somebody to do a pitch that is harder than something they've done before, you don't get them to do it by saying, "oh, my god. this is going to be hard. i'm not sure you can do this." no. you got to say to the person you're coaching, you say, i "hey, thlike something you've done before, and i know you can do it, and tcu're going to have to st you're going to have to work. you're going to have to be on." that's what we need to tell people about climate change.it you say, " minute. we got rid of a class of refrigeration chemicals

ozat were destroying the layer. now, we have a class of refrigeration chemicals that areestroying the climate, but we know how to replace them with better stuff. we replaced the first set. we can replace this set." so we need to make it familiar and comfortable for people. vu: you also write in the book that the major contributors to global warming are buildings, right? that is the electricity we use in our homes, our offices, also transportation and the stuff make -- steel, toys, furniture -- a and so the so many complex layers here, so what can i as an individual do? what are the top two things i can do to help fight climate change? pope: well, it depends on whoou are because everybody has a different set of institutional connections. everybody is in part of... people are part of families. they're part of communities. they vote for schooloards. they work for companies. they may teach students, and in all of those roles,u ve an opportunity to focus the conversation on,

"how can we simubeaneously make tomorroer and do better today?" and everybody has those opportunities. you just have to look arounto other people,here dn and how can i work with those other people to speed up the rate of progress tor rds better outcomes e climate, which are also going to be better outcomes for making us wealthier and healthier?" vu: we have this american lung association report that just came out this week that says, "out of the top 10 u.s. cities with the most ozone pollution, eight of them are in california, including los angeles, sacramento and fresno," avd at the same time wea federal government that s rolling back quite a fovision. pope: well, the trumadministration is making federal policies horrible. it turns out, that doesn't have to matter that much. for example, let's talk about air pollution in california. i've been working on this problem for 40 ars. for 40 years, california has been trying to clean up the internal-combustion engine,

and we've done really a remarkable job, and for most of those 40 years, washington was resistant. so most of the progress california made in cleaning up the car, which has now translated into national progress, was t de by california withshington. we now recognize we can't do the job with gas power. we need to electrifye'ehicles, and that's how going to solve california's pollution oblem, and california can take the lead and is t ting the lead on gettit done. even though donald trump wants to pretend t that electric cars aretter than internal-combustion cars, they are. vu: how is the administration's policies, viewpoints on climate change, for example, affecting the way that environmentalists are doing their work? pope: what really matters is, it affecting the way american electricity consumers behave? is it affecting the way american drivers behave? is it affecting the way american manufacturers behave? not so much. they all look at the trump administration and say, "eh, he's going to be there for a while

he's going to be gone. we're investing in the future." there was a survey done of all the public utilities when trump announced, "oh, i'm going to bring back coal," and only one company out of 42 said that it would change their investment strategy.d, when trump announced, "oh, i'm going to bring back coal," the rest swe're not investing for the next 3 years. we're investing for the next 20 years, and the next 20 years we'll be using solar." vu: local governments in california, new york city, for example, even colorado this week, are now taking the strategy of suing oil and gas companies over the of climate change. goodr bad strategy? pope: that's a good strategy, and that strategy has now been joined by a conservative-libertarian think tank in washington, so we' beginning to see peoplee and saying, "well, if the government is not going to hold the oil industry accountable, individual cizens can." vu: all right. carl pope, thank you. nice to have you here.pop. nice to be with you. as always, you can more of our coverage vu: and that will do it for us.in on kqed.org/newsroom. i'm thuy vu. thank you for joining us.

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robert: is the meeting off or on? i'm robert costa. inside the brinksmanship between president trump and north korea. plus, latest on the russia probe, tonight on "washington week." president trump: i believe this is a tremendous setback for north koreand indeed a setback for the world. robert: president trump calls off a face-to-face meeting with kim jong un. buay both sides they are ready for diplomacy. president trump: if and when kim jong un chooseso engage in constructive dialogue and actions, i am waiting. robert: north korea responds and say they will talk at any time. they call mr. trump's decision to back out of the june 12 summit extremely regrettable and insist they are ready to talk