hello, everyone and welcome to our new show "amanpour and company" and here is what is coming up. as hurricane florence bears down on the east coast, the climate crisis is near the point of no return. california governor jerry brown is leading to save our environment. then, for years, steve jobs denies he was her father, i speak with lisa brennan-jobs. also tonight, who does deserve credit for america's booming economy? ten years after the financial

crash, i talk with paul krugman. and our alicia menendez talks with michael arceneaux. >> announcer: additional support

provided by: and welcome to the program everyone. i am christiane amanpour in new york. hurricane florence is shaping up to be a catastrophic storm made even more so because of extra warm waters off the atlantic ocean. as millions flee for higher ground, the trump administration epa chose this moment to give them the green light to release methane into the atmosphere. we are still in alliance since president trump pulled out of the alliance accord. jerry brown pledging to make his state carbon free by 245.

today his global climate action summit begins in san francisco and brings together prominent americans as well as chinese officials. he joined me earlier this week to warn that the global environment alliance has to do better before we all reach the point of no return. governor brown welcome from sacramento. >> thank you very much. great to talk with you. >> so you are really fighting fast and hard for this issue, now the global action summit is upon us what specifically do you hope to achieve with it? >> we hope to accomplish is inviting people who are now coming and increase their commitments mayors, governors, corporate executives, universities and some national leaders, for example, we have the paris representative from china, the person who led the

chinese delegation at paris, he will be here. we have thousands of people who are coming to manifest and increase their commitments. try to stir the enthusiasm and the commitment, the energy because we have stalled. the paris agreement has stalled. most countries of the world are not doing what they need to including the united states and in fact even california which is leading the world still has a very long way to go. >> i am hearing you say it is stalled and even after president trump pulled the united states out last year of the paris climate accord, you and others were saying hang on a second, the united states is still going through it. we are still leading the way. but now you are saying it is stalling in other countries as well.

why is that? is it because they got a pss from the united states? >> no. you have an economy that is based on oil, gas, and coal. the essence of modernity is fossil fuel. so trying to get off that doesn't happen with the bill or the snap of one's fingers. this takes a growing understanding, a scientific research and development and clean energy and different patterns of land use. california is doing a lot. this week we are doing even more with our 100% commitment with renewable electricity. emissions are going up in germany, china, india and all over the world. this is a real threat. unlike war, we don't see the enemy. the enemy is catching up with us but obscure enough and global

enough that any individual company is slow to react. that is why the sub national jurisdiction, states, cities and regions are stepping up to the plate at this global summit in san francisco. but we need a thousand steps from this day forward and continuously over the next several decades to get to 0 carbon emissions. if we don't, we are going to have deaths and mass migration. we are facing big, big changes and dangers. fortunately they are not here, but unfortunately we can't grasp it in our imagination to make the concrete political moves and decisions that will forestall this horror that is coming down our way. >> why is it that we can't make it grasp people's imagination.

you in california, you have been swept and ravaged by the most terrible wildfires not just this year but previous years. in the meantime president trump seems to blame you and california's environment laws as he said in the tweet for these california wildfires. being magnified and so much worse by the bad environmental. being diverted into the pacific ocean. so what is that all about? blaming and you the state laws. >> well, to quote donald trump, fake news. fake facts. climate change is upon us. the forest fires in california are now just not during the

summer, they start early in the year and last all the way to christmas. yes, we have to manage our forest a lot better, and no, we have plenty of water to fight fires we have to reduce carbon emissions and donald trump has his head in the sand, he wants to destroy vehicle emission standards that california and other states are trying to implement. trying to bring back coal and not making the investments in electric batteries. all of this rhetoric about china, i'm afraid america will wake up to find out that most cars in the world are made by china because america went down a rathole of oil and oil and

coal did ependency >> you said it is people's imagination or political will that has to get them to engage. how do you react to these figures. today 42% of republicans know that quote scientists believe that this is occurring and that is falling. whereas in the 80s -- so the politics have got muddies as we know and the deniers are given a huge amount of equal space in the environment to the point that president trump has appointed a climate change skeptic as advisors on emergency technology. comparing the paris science agreement of showing towards hitler during the world war ii. how do you fight that reality from the top? >> well, first of all, that

borders on criminal behavior. because it's wrong, it is false. to call it lies is not exaggerating at all. we have this republican party that by some set of circumstances has adopted climate denial as one of their pilars and using that issue and have financers, rich people, billionaires willing to finance that. you can't deny scientific truth forever. the science is getting clear. the research getting more obvious. but it is an up hill battle and that is why we have this summit. the world is asleep. we are sleep walking on this matter on the dangers of climate change and i am going to do

whatever i can here in california and beyond to change that circumstance. >> let's go back to the year 2000 and president clinton and show how various presidents have tried to tie this to the economic factor. and listen to this mash up of sound bites we have brought up. >> it seems to me that these last seven years should finally have put to rest the idea that you can have a strong economy and a cleaner safer more balanced environment and i hope we will never have that debate again. >> today, the world has officially crossed the threshold for the paris agreement to take effect. >> as of today, the united states will cease all implementation of the nonbinding paris accord. >> obama did this so i am going to undo it. >> he was elected by the people of pittsburgh not paris.

>> this is not a game. it is humanity. and whether it makes it to the 21st century. >> that was you ending a series of sound bites on this issue. seems to be a political game tied to economy and to donors it seems. >> well, look, politics and electoral societies have votes. and money is tied into power and the power is the status quo and to deal with climate change, we need to change the status quo. the point here is that mankind has created incredible powerful technologies, they made our lives better in so many ways. but now threatening our continued existence. one is climate change, the continued production of nuclear weapons is another. so many, many dangers that are up ahead that come from many

achievements that are quite good and we have to watch out when goods become a bad. and that is what has happened to fossil fuel. yes we need it. in california we have 32 million vehicles. they travel almost 350 billion miles a year mostly on fossil fuel. we have to change that and do everything we can. but it is lifting up a big stone up a tall mountain. >> finally governor, can i turn to personal political issues. you have been in this game for a long, long time. elected official. you are 80 and not running for another term. you have done it all. i want to read something from a 1976 "people" profile for you. your father said when jerry took up golf he played 36 holes every

day. once he gathered $75 worth of pennies and looked if the dates were valuable. you never seem to give up. >> well in some ways that is a flattering description i hope that i can live up to that. ever since i went into the jessu wit seminary, what is fundamental. ecology is the study of physical fundamentals and that work in making sure we don't destroy our environment, our human home has that almost religious feel to it and aspect that it must call

from us all our energy, our imagination and our commitment. and that's really the way i see this issue. >> governor jerry brown, thank you so much and good luck with this important summit. >> well, thank you. >> for some reason, california produces more than its share of charismatic complex figures. jerry brown fits that bill and so does steve jobs. lisa brennan-jobs paints what it was like to grow up. a man who happens to be a great giant for the rest of us. she joins me in new york and told me writing this book went a long way in resolving this relationship. this is a cute title, "small

fry." it conjures something little, something sweet. a little bit of a footsteps of a giant. what are you trying to say with this book. >> a story of a girl growing up in silicon valley against the backdrop of a complicated family. starts when i am really young and goes to when i go away to college and i guess the title is kind of a term of endearment and also kind of means insignificant. >> interesting. clearly those are the two currents -- >> right. >> that seem to be in your life. let's start from the beginning. why did your father not want to claim you from the beginning or

admit publicly. >> i don't know. that doesn't mean i know all the answers. i examine the complications and shed light on them and explore them from the child's perspective and the adult perspective. but i don't necessarily know the answers. he was really young. it was an accident. and i was not planned on. and i guess he was, you know, i am the last person to talk about his business life, but he was really young and starting this rocket ship career and i don't imagine i fit into that so well. >> in all your questions akman nation of your life, where did you get in your life that he accepted you and claimed you. >> i think it is a complicated

story than that. it flickered in and out of being the reality. there is a scene in the book that i talk about when we were in hawaii and he sort of pulls me on to his lap and says hey, you know, we have got the same toes. we've got the same eyebrows. look, we have the same fingernails. and i didn't know what was happening at the time particularly, but looking back he was saying oh, we're related and i was eight or nine i think. and i think that was part of the reason to write the book to go back and look at these moments. when i was a girl, but with the perspective of a woman and spend time with my young parents but also understand what was happening in moments that i wouldn't have known what was happening. >> obviously this was at a time when he was launches his rocket ship career which involved

pieces of hardware, the mac, the laptop, and you talk about the story of the lisa computer. tell me about that. >> so there was a computer that happened, that was named the lisa, i think it was supposed to be an acronym and it was after i was born. i think my father started working on it. and later, i was trying to find out, my father had said it was named after me, but whenever i would ask him he said it wasn't. and i kept on trying to ask him because if he had named a computer after me when he wasn't around would mean that he cared about me. and i kept on asking him and he said no. and i don't know if it was because the computer was a commercial failure or he didn't want me to ride on his coat tails. but he said no for many years and it was an interesting point

of intersection. it was the digital world intersecting with the emotional one in the uncanny way. >> and it does reflect your terms of endearment. trying to find the connection and also alienation through much of your life. you have said he may not have wanted me to ride on his coat tails. there are examples in the book of him kind of being a bit mean to you and saying things you are not going to get anything. as a child might ask a child for anything, you say that at one point also he cut off your tuition. what was he trying to do and how did you absorb that? this is steve jobs a multibillionaire massive successful pioneer revoluti

revolutionary. >> when i was growing up, in his moments of pushing me away i think what you are asking me about they were painful for me, of course this moment when i was so young and he said you can have nothing. i think there was a quality of not wanting me to ride on his coat tail that was part of his value system. >> to stiffen your spine? >> hard to meet the middle ground. and i am not implying his not paying the tuition or saying you are not going to get anything in that moment to a nine-year-old may have been harsh. and it was very hurtful but not necessarily easy to get that pendulum right. >> so just to fast forward, you

did reunite with him and did get part of the inheritance. so let me ask you what it took to establish a relationship with him and go to live with him at a certain point and his new family, how did you reconcile? >> he put a lot of effort in getting to know me. he would come and we would go for these long skates which i write about in the book. and sometimes he would fall or trip on the pavement. we would sometimes have long awkward silences but a time when we got to know each other, he said you got to smell the roses and i would say okay, and we would smell the roses together. but the catalyst for moving in together, that my mom and i were getting in big arguments at the time. >> what was it like when you moved in with him and again his new family. and it seems that your book has

put some noses out of joints so i read from your stepmother steve's widow and her children and his sister. lisa is part of our family so it was with sadness when we read her book which differs from our memory. the portrayal of steve is not the husband and father we knew. steve loved lisa. it was a comfort to steve to have lisa home with all of us during the last days of his life. all grateful for the years we spent together as a family. does that hurt, have you become estranged from the rest of the family now? >> i was thinking about this and i realized i had been written about since 3-years old. so i do know that it is a strange feeling and sometimes it doesn't feel so good when someone else takes a part of your life and a slice -- but

when i felt that i wanted to write this book, i thought a lot about it and i believe that people have a right to tell their own story and this is very much my own story. there is a famous guy in it who is my father. but this is about my complicated family and growing up. and it's 400 pages of whispering in libraries and dangly earrings and the difficulties of adolescence. >> you poignantly open the book by talking about the last months of his life and you would go to visit him and you say i started to steal about three months before he died. you started to steal bits and bobs from his room, from his home from the steve jobs environment. what were you doing? >> they were not particularly

nice things. used lip gloss and old pillow cases, chipped bowls and even though i was doing it, i thought it was weird. >> and of course the lip gloss wasn't his? >> no. he didn't wear lip gloss. i don't want to pop psychologyize myself. >> but you open the book like that. so it was profound for you. >> it was furious to take these little old things. i felt if i took this lip gloss and carried it back to new york to my apartment somehow it would complete my life. and at the end of the book, we go back to the scene, my mother, i called her and i wanted her to say you can keep everything. and she says you have to return everything. >> so again, every sentence,

everything you are saying to me now is all about trying to establish that connection and trying to feel less alienated. >> yes. >> how did it end for you? did you have a verbal resolution on his death bed. >> we had an unexpected and meaningful hollywood ending. it is too strange where he was apologizing for not having spent more time and for how difficult it was and saying this phrase that i thought was so odd, i owe you one. i owe you one. what does that mean? and i knew i would have to take it with show carry it with me and bring it back to my life. >> he has dominated our lives with his intentions hooking us on to these incredibly beautiful pieces of technology that really, life you can't imagine

without it and he has done his share of commencement addresses and tried to inspire and galvanize other people. i want to play a little bit from the famous commencement he gave from stanford university in 2005. >> your work is going to fill a large part of your life. the only way to do great work is to love what you do. if you haven't found it yet, keep looking and don't settle. as with all matters of the heart, you will know when you find it. and like any great relationship it just gets better and better as the years move on. keep looking. don't settle. >> how does it feel to see this man, your father to give so much to younger generations. >> hearing you say that sounds magnificent.

i am so proud of that. and i think that in the book, it's more complicated because i had to share him and i talk about at his memorial people coming up to me and saying he felt like a father to me. and i am so glad that he felt a father to you, sometimes he felt like a father to me. >> i want to end coming back to the lisa computer. even though he said for you, it wasn't for you. you are on a trip in france written beautifully in the book and you got a resolution to that. tell us. tell the audience. >> we went to go have lunch with someone and he wouldn't say who it was. and we went to see bono. and we went to lunch with him and at some point they were talking about the beginnings of things, the beginning of the

band and the beginning of apple. and bono looked over to my father, and he says that lisa computer, that was named after you wasn't it. and i paused bracing myself with the answer. and my father paused and said, yes, it was. and i thought oh my gosh, oh, right, of course it was. it made sense. why did it take a famous person for another person to reveal his secret. >> have you fully accepted your dad? >> that is a good way to say that. i think it is a wonderful way to examine our relationship and live with it again. i wonder if it is for him or if it is for myself that i felt

ashamed of certain things and certain ways that i couldn't connect with him and going back over and doing the book i found some sort of joyful resolution. >> that's wonderful. lisa brennan-jobs thank you very much. the author of "small fry." complicated story indeed. moving now, ten years after 2008 global financial meltdown, paul krugman joins. and while the economy does seem to have finally gotten his groove back, the political backlash is still very much being felt. welcome to the program. >> hi there. >> ten years from the crash and you see the economy is going gang busters.

how do you assess the health of the economy right now? >> well, we are back to full employment. close enough. jobs are available. the jobs don't pay very well. wages have gone nowhere. family incomes have just now regained where they were before the crisis. so that is ten years and that is a ten-year lost decade in terms of family income. and we are far below where everyone expected us to be. so the shadow, so yeah, things are okay compared to two years ago, but the shadow of that crisis over the u.s. economy and the lives of americans and everyone around the world was very long and we still haven't escaped from it. >> you talk about the unemployment and the gdp and the stock market seems to be going up. and wages and others seem not to

be going that way. what about president trump's promise and that is manufacturing jobs. >> that is not significantly coming back and it is not going to. even if we completely eliminated our trade deficit, only a small part of the long-term decline and manufacturing and the share of the economy would be reversed. we don't do a lot of manufacturing because we are so good at it. farming in the united states is a tremendously industry. what do we do now? i saw the ten fastest growing pages in the united states and nurse. manufacturing is nostalgia. there are lots of ways to have a good economy.

doesn't have to be steelworkers. >> i want to two back to 20008. there was a urgent cabinet meeting and she turned to the treasury secretary and this is what she told me about that moment. >> at that meeting, the secretary of treasury explained it a meltdown of our financial institutions that was so devastating and so i said to the chairman of the fed, mr. chairman, what do you have to say about what the secretary presented to which he said if we don't act immediately, we will not have an economy by monday. this was thursday night. an economy by monday, no commercial paper. so it was essential that we work together to stop what was happening in terms of this melt

tow down. >> it is really dramatic. and let's not forget she ram through this. it also she admits that that sort of rescue in 2010 led to a lot of the pain amongst people and cost them the 2010 midterm elections. >> well, yeah. it was necessary to rescue the financial system i think. >> i said 2010, but that was in 2007 and 2008. >> it was not clear that it was necessary to rescue the bankers. and the way it was structured was one that did not, certainly we didn't prosecute any and there were people who could have been prosecuted. and we didn't make sure that the upside of the rescue was going to go to taxpayers. this was an argument.

you couldn't worry too much about finesse because things were on the edge. but more could have been done. i was among the people who were arguing. there was a lunch at the white house where some were arguing to take at least one big bank into receivership almost as a symbol and we lost that argument. there were a lot of other things going on and it seems to me on the whole, the financial rescue was should have been done better but that was the part we did relatively well. it was the follow up, you know, because the financial markets had stabilized by the summer of 2009. what some of us call the oh god we are all going to die period lasted only six months. but then high unemployment, and the weak economy went for years and years. and that is where the economy

fell todown. >> the employment went up and economy started growing under the obama administration. which now leads to the political argument who deserves credit for the current economy. this is what chairman of the white house economic advisal said this week. >> if you look at the collected body of evidence, the notion of what we are seeing right now is just a continuation of recent trends is not super defensible. i know we are at a political time and passions are high. and one of the things we have to do is think about what historians will think looking back. and they will 100% accept the fact that there was an inflection with donald trump and a whole bunch of data items

headed north. >> who is to gain credit for this economy now? >> first, look at any chart. and try to forget that there was an election. and you would never see it. there is no sign that anything, it is just a straight line that begins in 2009 and continues straight on. so no sign of the election of donald trump in there. and then the, so there is no inflection point. and i don't know, i mean, i can't imagine what he, well, i can see why he wants to say that but not at all what anyone else is saying. >> can you explain to me, why, given the strength of the economy, the president by and large isn't using it as a midterm campaign -- the fact of

the strong competent and the president's ratings. >> one is that the political scientists tell us that midterm elections are not driven by the economy. probably the best year of the bush economy was 2006 which was also the year of the democrat, the house and the senate. other things dominated as they tend to in midterm election. the other thing is the benefits, the gdp number looks fine. wages are down. and people are not feeling it. people are not saying this is great. they have say sense correctly that the tax cut was for, you know, was for a few rich people and corporations and fnot for them >> you have become a popular and

prominent political columnist and economic columnist but also political and social affairs. and you had one amazing conversation with steven colbert and it said that you weren't always politically obsessive, but obsessive about the difference between stupid and smart. and what has changed. >> no, i mean what happened. look, u.s. politics have changed. a lot of the world has changed. but the fact of the matter is one of our two great political parties is all about selling -- by exploiting, also by saying things that aren't true. not saying that all democrats are honest as the day is long, but there is, the complete dishonesty, sorry, i don't want to be partisan but you have to be. everything that one party has

said about fundamental economic policy for the past 15 years has not been true. and you have to say that. >> and you do loudly. paul krugman, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> even though he is a world renowned economist he reaches outside his specialty and applies into the political gaping divide. michael arceneaux grew up recognizing his faith. alicia menendez reports. she is a great addition to the program. welcome again. we are going to talk to the author who we played an expert this week. >> the title of this book says it all.

"i can't date jesus, love, family sex, i put my faith in beyoncé." >> thank you for joining me. in reality, you have great respect for faith. >> i do. a lot of the book is about forging your identity to live a complete full life. and if you grow up in a catholic church, you might grow up with resentment. and if you are a queer person who is isolated you carry a lot of con tempt. and a lot of it is justified. i love my mom dearly. and we were having a conversation and she knows that you are born gay but shouldn't

act on it. and i was like girl, i can't date jesus what do you want me to do. i let go of the anger towards my dad and towards my mom and i let it go during religious. you are either going to follow down that path or forge your own and figure it out. and i chose to figure it out. >> you were a devout catholic. >> yes, i was raised and i was indoctrinated well. i think religion is important and it has a lot of value and it doesn't fit if my life anymore. >> so you have a pivotal life experience at the age of six. an uncle who dies of aids and in many ways your family's reaction to that gives you a window on

how they feel about difference. >> right. 1990. and you know, people play doctor. and i played and i played more so with little boys during that time. i didn't have the language, but i knew i was more attracted to boys than girls. and while i was understanding that, my uncle died of aids and as i am writing the book, how i went to the funeral and in the aftermath, my father had a visceral reaction. and my mom didn't necessarily confirm his sexuality. this is like 1990. so the reactions to aids were a testament to the time. and when you are 6-years old and you know you like boys and you hear a slur, that is all i remember. and became my point of reference. >> did you hope that you would

change. >> literally used to pray it away. thankfully my parents didn't pick up on it that much. when you grow up that you can either die or go to hell, and this time, you only see pedro zamora, he dies of aids, and in living color, the sketch on men on film. and those are my point of references what it means to be gay. >> you come out to some of your friends and five years between when you start coming out and when you finally tell your mom. how did you break it down for her? >> being gay for me in my home. my dad could become very

volatile, i love my father dearly, but at the time i was afraid of him. beyond being gay, even if i had a girlfriend, it would have taken me a lot and let my parents inside of that. i saw a companionship as a detriment. my friends had become my chosen family, i came out to my brothers and sisters later. and finally at 25 i came out because around the time two young black boys reported to have committed suicide because they were bullied at school for being gay. the article was everywhere for that day, the subsequent day which was a big thing. at the time i didn't want to write about myself and keep that part to myself and criticize other people.

i felt at that point this is bigger than me and even at the time i was only 25 but i had a platform, if i could use it for the greater good, i might as well use it. and i had to tell my mom. i love my mom, she didn't have the kindest reaction. her religion has kept her alive. her interpretation of religion particularly catholicism makes me not want to live. i don't find it to be a safe space for me. >> so what i am hearing is with your parents, you're living in a space that is neither acceptance nor rejection and i wonder what it is like to live in that space with the people you love most. >> and that's the thing. so often i think the narratives about people coming out. you are either welcome with open

arms and your mom is twerking with you at a pride parade or she sends you to a camp. what about the middle. the way i write about my parents is that i wanted to make peace with how i grew up and why they feel the way they feel about my sexuality. sometimes you have to create your own closure. i would love to have a conversation with my mom, and i think it is going to happen. this is how it made us feel when we were in his house. you have to meet people where they are, and i don't think, i don't mean this to be insulting, but i don't think -- they don't have the language to have the kind of conversation they have. i don't think they are willing to have it. i have taken qualities from my

parents that i like, my mother's sense, her humor and candor and my dad, his great energy and he knows how to charm people. i take things from my parents that i want to apply to my life. >> do you feel like you created that closure for yourself? >> i created as much closure as i can in this situation. and if in a few years i get a call and they are like i finally read it, this is how i feel, that would be great. i don't think that is going to happen. what can happen, as you know, i can call my dad to see how you are doing and to call, i love you and he says it back. that is already better than the relationship with his dad. i can talk to my mom maybe not

about everything, but it is what it is. she loves me as best as she can. and in her heart of hearts. i think that is a lot better than a lot of people i know. they don't even get that. >> your book is sharp, it is funny, it is probing, the writing is excellent. but the real miracle is that you got it published. >> yes, yes it is. >> what was the feedback you were getting when you were trying to sell this. >> this idea that you are black and you are gay, so you are ultra niche. it is largely in terms of pa pathology. i don't pretend to come from the nicest backgrounds but i don't write about it in this way that i am trying to invite pity. particularly my kind is consumed. >> my kind being?

>> gay, black, country. again, one person told me flatly, white people don't care about black people and black people were homophobic. i reject those notions. a lot of gay queer men reached out to me. but i have gotten e-mails from all kinds of backgrounds. >> but you realize now what your success means. for you to end up on the "new york times" best seller list is a great personal achievement. >> i am very grateful that i made the list. i want more money the next time. and i wanted to prove that i could be myself and sell books because so often black people, people who are not white, you are told to dilute some of your culture in order to appeal to other people because they think

it would scare people off. i wrote a country black book with the references i like. and if you don't know it, you will look it up. if i don't know something, i use my goiogles and it is fine. they thought i couldn't go further than prior pick of the month. >> does the story you tell about yourself match the story that other people tell about you? >> i am grateful for anyone helping me spread the word about the book. but at the same time i do question things. did you really read the book. and one person tried to describe me as poor. i didn't say i was poor. it is like you already trying to put me as that poor downtrodden gay book in the south.

catholic. and i have seen some of that already and i have had to, and sometime in real time shift that, like slow down. this is not what i meant. but no, i think i told my story exactly the way i wanted to tell it. i think for the most part, people in the press have led with what i said. >> and the reality is more complex. one of the things you talk about openly is the reality of student debt. the reality that makes for the choices that we make. how you get to spend your book advance. >> yeah. i'll be honest because of my prior student loans and the way they set up, i haven't gotten a chance to enjoy the moment or taken the moment as everyone is saying. i have a book to promote but also have these writings. at the same time i carry the big wagon on my back and it is not

changed over night because now a few more people know who i am. i want to expand on that and speak to what a lot of millennials are going to. the narrative is that we eat avocado toast and we ruin the economy. and we are the fault of everything. most of us were told in order to attain social mobility we need to xyz. oh this debt, it will pay off because you will get this that and the other. >> we are also in our 30s now. people hear millennials and think we are children. >> yeah, i am 34 now. i know now that i am going to be okay. but the reality is that it shouldn't have taken this long. that debt is so much. it alters how you see your life goes. i should have been an escort in

college, i mention in the book. >> is there someone watching particularly young person of color, who the way they are and the way they have been taught to be are in conflict. what do you want them to know. >> if you are an other, you are going to be told your entire life to conform. the thing about conformity particularly in you are a black person or a queer person or any other, if someone has an innate prejudice about you, there is nothing you can do to alter that. it doesn't matter how you speak, dress, it don't matter how you write, how you perform. none of that matters. if they have this ignorance and contempt for you. you might as well be yourself and be the best you, you can be and focus on the work and let that work carry you through. it might take longer, it might

be harder. it will feel more rewarding. i wrote the book i wanted to write. not the book people wanted from me. be yourself and be the best you can be. if someone is dumb, they are going to be dumb. you can't control that. >> thank you so much for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> focus on the work and be the best you can be. those are inspiring words. that is it for our program. thanks for watching amanpour and company.

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>> announcer: this is nightly business report. with bill griffeth and sue herera. in the path, the winds pick up on the carolina coast. as local businesses close up shop and hope the disruptions won't last long. how big is too big? the ftc holds hearings to figure that out and eventually decide whether big tech needs oversight. giving back, the world's richest man makes the biggest charitable ever at $2 billion. those stories and more ton on nightly business report for thursday, september 13th. and we do bid you good evening, everybody. and welcome. it was a recipe for gains on wall street today. first, trade tensions conti