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 fe like, "this is where powerful people are, but they're damned if they do and damned if they don't."ro vu: ...to th of religion in today's turbulent political climate. aslan: evangelicalism and the republican party have been married as a single force, and thand perhaps it's tion offor a divorce.,im vu: hello. i'm thuy vu. welcome to a special edition of "kqed newsroom." on this prograwe're res from our archives with dynamic, provocative authors. we begin with the politics of health care. r cecihards has been the president and ceo of planned parenthood for more than a decade.

the organization offers low-cost reproductive health-care services to millions of peoe across the country one of those services is abortion, making the nonprofit a frequent target of conservative lawmakers who have threatened to cut off federal funding. richards announced in january that 2018 will and she has a book helm of "make trouble."ood,ut it chronicles her stories of bucking the system and fighting for change from an early age. cecile richards, nice to have you here. chards: great to be. vu: well, in the introduction in your book, you write right off the top practically, "for the first time in my life, i'm wondering whether my own daughters will have far fewer rights than i've had."h whghts are you talking about, and why do you feel that way?: richar well, i'm od under this administration and this congress at the effort to repeal women's reproductive rights, access to birth control.al basic, basic health-care rights is at risk, and that's, of course, the work we've been doing at planned parenthood 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 mobilizing, energized, running for office and doing all of the things i think need to do. vu: the trump administration has done a number of things. it's rcoled back contraceptiorage. it's allowed states to defund planning parenthood. c it funds for teen-pregnancy prevention programs.do what else is comin the pipeline that has you concerned? richards: one of the biggest concerns frankly that we have is the kind of judges that are being put up into the federal judiciary now, some of the most extreme judges, some of them n qualified. vu: and the biggest fight right now seems to be over the nomination of wendy vitter to louisiana district courts. planned parenthood has taken out ads against her nomination. what are your concerou about her, and what dohink her nomination means for other bench openings across the country? richards: well, the concern about wendy vitter is... and, yes, planned parenthood has been actively opposing her nomination because she has some of the most extreme viewssu even on like birth control, trying to link birth control to violent death among women.

she habynot been rated qualifie. she haedno experience in theal judicial system that would make her qualified. it seems that her only qualifications is that she's on the far rigy. of the republican pa vu: and she supports the views of an anti-abortion advocate who says that contraceptives cause cancer. richards: and absolutely, and then we saw the hearing, foyou know, her hearing the senate. she wasn't even willing to say where she wasf on brown vs. boarducation.g the senate. i mean, this is the kind of fundamental... is this is a fundamentae in this country, and so we're just concerned that this administration is putting very, very political nominees 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 immyour book. richards: mm vu: you've had quite a life. your mother, ann richards, was the governor of texas.ch ds: correct. vu: the firebrand that she was. richards: yes. vu: your father, david, is a civil-rights attorney, and you write in your book that your dinner table was never really about eating. it was for sorting precincts lists,

so what's your earliest memory of bei politically active? richards: 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 movei nt. ink the most important moment for us, though, was when my mom got to run the first campaign everas of a woman whounning for the state house, sarah weddington who had argued the roe. vs. wadcase, and as kids we all got to be involved, and i saw fi wthand both how hard for women to run for office and how importan iit was and how excitiwas because she won that race, and then, of course, mom went on to have her own political career. vu: and one of the most notable memoments of your career, , we all watched it nationally in 2015, was when congress investigated controversial videos about planned parenthood's collectional of aborted fissue. no evidence of wrongdoing was found. richards: fne. vu: was that one the toughest challenges during your tenure at planned parenthood? richards: oh, absolutely. i mean, you know, fake videotapes that were used to try to damage

the reputation of the organization, we had five congressional committees investigating planned parenthood, more than investigated enron or the financial crisis, but we got through that,ank one of the most important things about that hearinged was it ep being an opportunity to educate millions of people in this country was it ep being about the incredible health care that planned parenthood provides every single day to thousands of women in america.u' vu: and yet stepping down at a time when many women would argue that planned parenthood needs someone with your eerience 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 generation of leaders all across the country, and, of course, i wouldn't be stepping down if i felsklike that we were at we are actually stronger today than we've ever been in our 100-year history. we have now more than 12 million supporters, which is twice the membership of the natial rifle association. we're making a difference in states all across the country, and i'll be an avid supporter of plann parenthood for my entire life, but i think a's time for me to mode

and make space for someone new. vu: the 2016 presidential election, as you mentioned,ny has energized omen, younger women, former housewives who now are running for office for the first time. they're becoming more politically activewh her it's through community volunteering or actually running for office, and you have hadli long history in you of being very politically active. i mean, you protested the vietnam war when you were just, you know, in the 7th grade... richards: right. vu: ...and you were a union organizer for a lo time after graduating from college, so what would be the biggest piece of adviceou thatave for women who are now becoming politically active? richards: well, i think just don't wait for soone to ask you to do it. just jump right in right now. i think so many women wait until they think they have the perfect résumé whether it's to run for office or run an organization, but this is the moment. i've never seen women this active, really, or literally shakingon, the foundation of this country in every possible way, and i think that if we support each other, help women that are running for offi, we really can make an enormous impactem

not only in this nr but two years from now as well. vu: and yet, when the job came up for planned parenood to head it, you almost didn't take it. richards: that's right. vu: why? richards: well, i mean, that's what i talk about in my book. you know, i thought, "well, i've never done anything that big.'s it's so hard. .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 ready."yo are, and, you know, don't overthink it. just whatever urw opportunity comes ay, 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 much. thanks. vu: rning now to the culture y is home to some of the world's most profitable and innovative companies who are vying to create game-changing products and services, but according to bloomberg tv host emily chang, the valley is also a play where gender inequal and mistreatment of women run rampant.

chang lays out her critique in her book, "brotopia: breaking up the boys' club of silicon valley." nice to have you here. chang: thank you, thuy, for having me. it's great to be here. vu: well, how stark is the gender gap in the tech industry? chang: so just look athe numbers. i mean, women account for 25% of jobs acrosshe computing industry, 7% of venture-capital investors. these are the people who decide what geek gets to be the next facebook, and women-led companiesget% of venture-capital funding, so not only are they underrepresented, they're just not getting the money that they need to start these potentially world-changing businesses. vu: but it wasn't always this way. i mean, ut your book you talk aomen who played a formative role in the computer industry, women like ada lovelace, women like grace hopper.. who pltell us about thchang: in- in the computer industry, this is what surprised me the most when i started doing my research -- women played vital roles in the comting industry. they were programming computers for the military, programmind computers for nasa, en in the '60s and '70s,

as the industry was exploding, they were desperate for new talent, and so a software companhirs to develop a personality test to identify good programmers, and what they decided is that gooprogrammers, quote, "don't like people." vu: hmm. chang: well, if yn' look for people who like people, you'll hire far more men than women. that's what the research tells us, and there's no research to support this idea that people who don't like people are better at this job and there's no research to sthan people who do or that men are better at this job than women, but ita ad perpetuated this i the antisocial, mostly white, male nerd stereotype that persists to this day. vu: and so that's why companies, you think, keep on hiring people who fit th stereotype? chang: so that test, for example,es was used for decby companie, keep on hiring people who fit th stereotype? and that stereotype cambut computer labseate y and parents d families, and then it was repeated in popular culture. a lot of people told me, "welle this sype was created by tv and movies."

in fact, it wasn't.tr the tech indcreated that stereotype, and it has perpetuated this idea, you know, that a vere narrow group of people od at this when, in fact, we need people of all backgrounds making these products because pellions and billions ole are using them, men and women. vu: and in your book, you also cite another example i of powalance by talking about the sex parties that happen in silicon valley. what happens at tse gatherings? chang: in silicon valley, work and personal lives are very intertwined, and a lot of business happens outside the office, so whether it is at the bar or the hotel lobby or sometimes even in the hot tub. u know, i talk about an investor who has hot-tub parties at his house, w and so there'se spectrum of social behavior that you see, anin many ways, these parties are a lot more about power than they are about sex, and it's a power dynamic that is completely lopsided. vu: i guess some people may argue, "well, these women are coming to these parties to have a good time,

and what is wrong with that?" chang: i spoke to over three dozen people now and several who have actually come forward to me since i wrote the book, men and women.kn yo, the men describe a situation where they're challengg social mores and challenging traditional morality, where the wome sort of feel like, "this is where powerful people are," but they're damnedthf they do and damned i don't. if they do attend these parties, they're disrescted or discredited. they may never see an investment, but if they don't attend, th're locked out. they're shut out of these important social gatherings, and, you know, some of the women i spoke to actually had to... felt that they had to leave silicon valley in order to, you know, jula do business on a levelng field, and they decided to continue their businesses in new york. vu: it is a bit ironic, though, as you're sayingll this, that people who pride themselves on disrupting things, that kind of environment is not really 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 problem...xi sexisms everywhere, but part of the problem with thsexism in silicon valley is that this is an industry that prides itself on changing the world and being so progressive, and yet if you,ust look at the numbe i mean, the representation of women isyes.t so horrifying. you know, odere's sexism in holly there's sexism in washington, but i would argue that in silicon valley, it matteca more than anywhere e this is an industry veat is changing our lis 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 you know, but i... you know, i'm an optimist ye even after spending tws writing this book. i believe that the people who are changing the world, who have solved all of these incredibly hard problems, they can change this t. if they can get us to mars and build self-driving cars and give us rides at theush of a button, vu: and it's funny that you just brought all that up about,

you know, taking use. to mac elon musk has been very critical of your book. chang: mm-hmm. vu: he has said that... for example, one of the sex parties you mentioned, he has acknowledged he was there, but he said no lurid behavior happened when he was there.ed, 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,"t t party was a sex party," but that there was behavior at that party that was very disturbing and mirrors some of the behavior sethat we see in some of tother, 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 who felt that she was pressured into sexual activityo and uld not have been there if such powerful people had not been the. vu: mm. 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 uncoverendsome things that i fery troubling. vu: all right. well, the name of the book is "brotopia." author emily chang, thank you so much. chang: dthank you for having me shinin. i appreciate it. povu: now to religion antics. since taking office, president trump has enactedh tow immigration policies as well as travel bans aimed at restricting travel from predominantly muslim countries. in the fall of 2017, president trump retweeted three inflammatory anti-muslim videos posted by a far-right group in britain.en that incidt sparked an international backlash. talked with reza aslan, best-selling author, religious scholar and a professor at uc riverside, about the intersection of religion and po in these turbulent times. aslan's latest book, "god: a human history," explores the evolution of the concept of god. i sat down with him in decembeof 2017. so nice to have you here. aslan: thank you. nice to be here. vu: so we'll get to your book in a moment, but first i wanted to ask yom about those anti-musdeos

that president trump retweetedr you werein iran. you are muslim. what's your reaction to that? aslan: i wasn't surprised by it. thde is a president who has ant the core foundation not just of his candidacy but of his presidency.th he has broughtworst es of the islamophobia industry in the united states,in inclmembers of actually southern-poverty- law-center-designated hate groups into the white house itself. this is who he is, and i think we should stopwi pretending oth for a moment here, and i understand the confusion that oftia arises within the m when confronted with these serhingly racist acts anoric that the president routinely involves himself with, and we try to figure out why.d why would and say these kind of things? and maybe it's just because i think the simplest answer is the right answer,

or maybe i've just been watching this too much, but the reason that he does things that seem to support racism and white nationalism h is becauhas proven himself to be a racist and a white nationalist. vu: and you've also not only written about president trump. you've written about his supporters. in an op-ed in the la times, you liken trump's supporters to cult members. aslan: that's right. vu: can you explain that? aslan: i've spent a lot of time arnd cult members. i've lived with cult members. i've studied cults for most of my life, and i can say with a fair measure of confidence i've studied cults for most of my life, that the kind of rhetoric that i hear from trump's inner-core supporters sounds very much like the kind of rhetoric that i hear from cult members. after all, president trump himself made this very cleart when he said t could shoot somebody on 5th avenue and not lose these voters, and that's precisely what we are seeing now. now, this particularly ests in a core element of his followers among the white evangelical base, which still supports him pretty extraordinaly, but you have someone like frank amedia,

one of his evangelical advisors, saying that trump is receivindownloads from god. you have people like franklin graham, perhaps his greatest evangelical supporter, comparing him positively to prophets like abraham and moses and david. you have pat robertson saying that trump's authority is the authority of god, and anyone wdi refuses to obey it ibeying god. vu: well, so where is this pintersection of religion and politics heading, then?if becausou look at the 2016 election, there was a cnn poll, right, and that poll found th61% s voted for president trump. it was even higher among white angelical voters. aslan: 81%. vu: 81%, right. so how has that role of religion changed in polits 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

enbut who have a diffskin tone, so again, we can't keep pretendingac that isn't the primary factor 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 because what we are seeing now is an enormous amount of backlash from white evangelicals themselves, many white evangelical leaders who feel as though this is a day of reckoning, that for many, many years, evangelicalism and the republican party have been married as a single force and this in many ways is the sort of culmination of that marriage,pe anaps it's time for a divorce.n vu: you have spot againsttion the travel ban as well, the one that applies to eight countries, including iran, where you're from, but what would you say to those who feel, as president trump does,is that thi the right thi, to put some travel restrictions in place? aslan: these aren't "some" travel restrictions. they're blanket-trav restrictions.

in the entire history of the united states, not a single american has ever been kied on u.s. soil by any foreign national from any one of the countries 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 terrism. this a demonstrable routinemple of racist actionse by this white house. "god: a human history,"to , it's more a study of how god is conceptualizedhi rather than ory of god. you say that most of us try to humanize god. what do you mean by that? aslan: well, it's this sort of natural impulseat e have that we project upon god our own emotions, our own personalities, our own characteristics,ev our motivations, even our own bodies. we create a god that basical looks and acts,

feels and thinks like we do, we create a god that basical and that's precisely why we have so many great religious conflicts around the world becausreally what we are doing is implanting in our sense of the divine evd ything that's good and out us, and so what i am advocating for is to reverse that process, to dehumanize god and try to think of god less as a divine personality and more as an underlying reality, as sort of the spiritual less aforce of the universe. i think it would create a mo deeper, more meaningful spirituality, t i also think that it could lead to greater relations and less conflict between religions. vu: and definitely much more about that in your book, definitely pick up a copy and of "god: a human history." reza aslan, thank you so much for being here. aslan: my pleasure. vu: recently, we talked with the former head of the sierra club, carl pope, aboumahis new book titled, "c of hope." he coauthored it with former new york city mayor michael bloomberg. in the book, pope lays out a vision for how individuals,

busieven when state andvernments national governments won't. nice to have you here. pope: great to be here again. vu: well, in your book, you say that it's time for a new type of conversation about climate change. rowhat do you think is with the way it's being discussed now, and how would you like to reframe the conversation? pope: well, at have talked about clchange as this enormous problem which requires phenomenal sacrifice, and the conversation is, "who is going to pay the bill?" that used to be true. it's not true anymore. right now, climate change is an enormous economic opportunity, and the question is, "who is going to take the lead?" that's a different kind of conversation. vu: and you alsoitoint out that a lot o 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 having, people don't realize that many of the stes which have done the most to reduce their carbon footprin ates like oklahoma and texas, whh did it not because they had governors who cared about climate change.

ththey didn't, but because s who wanted cheaper power, and wind is cheaper than coal. vu: and so there was a money-making incentive there? pope: was immediate. wholesale power rates in texas have been coming down significantly beduse we're retiring coal r, wind and solar.ou vu: and,now, much of the debate over climate change centers around doom-and-gloom scenarios, and you point out in the book that those scaring tactics dot really work with peopl why not? pope: frankly, if you're trying to get somebody... if you're a rock-climbing coach, anmeyou're trying to get dy 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. thiss going to be hard. i'm not sure you can do this." no. you got to say to the person you're cching, you say, "hey, this is like something you've done before, and i know you can do it, and you're going to have to stretch. you're going to have to work. you're going to have to be on." that's what bo need to tell people climate change. you say, "wait a minute.

we got rid of a class of refrigeration chemicals that were destroying the ozone layer. now, we have a class of refrigeration chemicals that are destroying the climate, but we know how to replace them with tter stuff. we replaced the first set. we can replace this set." so e need to make it familiand com. vu: you also write in the book that the major contributors to global warming are buildings, right? that is the electricitwe u, our offices, also transportation and the stuff we make -- steel, toys, furniture -- and so there are so many complex layers here, so what can i as an individual do? what are the top two things i can dot to help fiimate change? pope: well, it depends on who you are to helbecause everybody has a different set ofs.nstitutional connecti everybody is in part of... people are part of families. s.they're part of communit they vote for school boards. they work for companies. they may tf ch students, and in allose roles, you have an opportunity to focus the conversation on,

"how can we simultaneously make tomorrow better and do better today?" and everybody hathose o. you just have to look around you and say, "where do i have connection to other people, and how can i work with those other people to speed up the rate of progress towards better outcomes for the climate, which are also going to be better outcomes for making us wealthier and healthier?" vu: we have this american lu association report that just came out this week that says, "out of the hep 10 u.s. cities withost ozone pollution, eight of them are in california, including los angeles, sacramento and fresno," and at the same time we have a federal government that is rolling back quite a few provisions of the clean air act. pope: well, the trump administration is mfederal policies horrible. it turns out, that doesn't have to matter that much. oufor example, let's talk air pollution in california. i've been working on this problem for 40 years.

for 40 years, california has been trying to clean up the inrnal-combustion engine, and we've done really a remarkable job,r and st of those 40 years, washington was resistant. so most of the progress california madele ining up the car, which has now translated into national progress, was made by california without washington. we now recognize we caowt do the job with gas. we need to electrify vehicles, and that's how we're going to solve california's pollution problem, and california can take the lead and is taking the lead on getting that done. en though donald trump wants to pretend that electric cars aren't better than internal-combustion cars, they are. vu: how is the administration's policies, viewpoinr on climate change, ample, affecting the way that environmentalists are doing their work pope: what really matters is, is it affecting the way american veelectricity consumers be is it affecting the way american drivers behave? is it affecting the wa b american manufactureave? not so much.

they all look at the trump administration and say, "eh, hing to be there for a while. he's going to be gone. we're investing in the future." there was a ubrvey done of all thec utilities when trump announced, "oh, i'm going to bring back coal," and only one company out of 42 said that it would change thr investment strategy. the rest said, "we're not investing for the xt 3 years. we're investing for the next 20 years, weand the next 20 years l be using solar." vu: local governments in california, new york city, for example, even colorado this week, are now takingilhe strategy of suingnd gas companies over the costs of climate change. good or bad strategy? pope: that's a good strategy, and that strategy has now been jned by a conservative-libertarian think tank in washington, so we're beginning to see people coming in from the other side and saying, "well, if the government is not going to hold the oil industry accountable, individual citizens can." vu: all right. carl pope, thank you. nice to have you here. pope: great. nice to be with you. vu: and that will do it for us. as always, you can find more of our coverage on kqed.org/newsroom. v

i'm th thank you for joining us. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

robert:a divided countd elects a di congress. i'm robert costa. welcome to "washington week." the history making class of freshmen lawmakers in the house upends the balance of hou -- power in washington. will there be bipartisanship or political war? >> a democratic congress will work for solutions that bring us together because we've all had enough of division. robert: as democrats vow to also be a check on president trump, house republicans prepare to be in the minority for the first time in eight years. >> we will work with anybody across thatisle if they are there to work to move america forward. robert: and the president issues a warning to democratic investigators. president trump: they can play that game but we can play it better. robert: we discuss the new era

of divided government next.