tavis: good evening. from los angeles, i am tavis smiley. tonight we begin with that conversation about the elections held in afghanistan over the last week and it's all record number of men and women turning out to vote, despite the risk of violence. we will talk with afghan expert gayle tzemach lemmon and then we will turn to a conversation with grammy nominated hip-hop artist christylez bacon about his new ourand will close conversation tonight with an amazing performance. coming up right now.

>> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> this week officials continue to count ballots from the record number of men and women in afghanistan who went to the polls to vote in an election that may result in the first him credit transfer of power in the country's history. warning me now to talk about what this election may mean for afghanistan is gayle tzemach lemmon, who has written

extensively about that country, including a new york times bestseller, "the dressmaker of khair khana. in, what doright you make of what happened, because it seems that people around the world are heralding the way these elections turned out. correction you have had an attack of good news coming out of afghanistan. people really braved all kinds of danger, physical danger for themselves and their families, to go to the ballot box. for all the people who said afghan share some any similar values, to watch people wait in line for four hours to vote on a rainy day was remarkable. tavis: really surprised? >> no, saturday they got to speak up for themselves. think about this. they had almost 60%, roughly 60% voter turnout. like 7 million voters. the last time we had 60% turnout was like the nixon years when gas was $.55 a gallon.

people does had this pent-up desire to speak for themselves and argue for something that was peaceful and stable. tavis: how do you think this moment is being viewed around the world? how do you think it will be interpreted? >> i think a lot of people who have long argued for international engagement in afghanistan feel vindicated, like this was just a down payment on what is possible coming out of cap -- out of afghanistan, if given half a chance. for those who say only the old normal has been doom and gloom coming out of afghanistan, we know it for suicide bombs and ied's, not for voting lines and young people going on facebook showing their fingers that they voted. i think people who want to choose a narrative will find good news and people who don't will find more of the same. tavis: >> and i'm talking to a woman who has written a book about women in afghanistan, let me start with a woman question.

talk to me about what the election meant for the involvement of, the advancement of women in afghanistan. we havethe years, gotten stories on this. you have seen the sophistication, the increasingly real awareness of women about how to vocalize, organize, mobilize for themselves. think about this. in 2001, when women left the house they had to worry about being chased through the street. in 2014 they could go out and maybe vote for a vice presidential female candidate. that is a stunning turn of event in four years. for us this is about our lives. they spoke up for themselves. tavis: what about elected officials? >> it's fascinating. you have more women than ever before running. 300 women ran for potential council, which is more women that ran for congress in 2012 in the united states. you had biased presidential candidates, and it wasn't even a big heal.

vice presidential candidates were drawing huge crowds because people really liked what they had to say. ruledountry that taliban not long ago, to think that women could fill a stadium and get women on their feet cheering, i think it is incredible. we take from this about the future of the taliban and? did they stay home? were they kept at home? how do you interpret fact that this election went off smoothly and we didn't hear about the taliban? >> a think it was a big victory for afghan security forces and the international forces who have trained them. there is no question that they were determined to wreak havoc, and they did. up to thes leading election. what it shows was that afghan security forces took very seriously their responsibility him and afghans decided were going to send a message to the , and it's going to be at the ballot box, not in a body bag. tavis: does this mean that they

are ready now to secure themselves so that we can come home? >> many people in the united states wish it did mean that, but if anything, just shows there is more work to be done. but there is more reason to do that work. afghan forces stood up and risk their own lives, but they did have people helping them behind the scenes, just in case. their trainers have been there and the question is what does that look like in 2014? as committed, how engaged the united states been? tavis: you had a conversation with general john allen, former commander of armed forces in afghanistan. i will let you share what he told you in his conversation with you. give me some sense of what he had to say as a former nato commander. and then give me some sense of where you think this is headed in terms of our remaining in the country.

conversation yesterday morning and he said the afghans did their part, now it's time for the u.s. to do its. we should be there because they have more than held up their share of the bargain, and now it's time for us to eliminate the one threat that he really saw, which is uncertainty. let's say we wouldn't want to do in the country, let's show our commitment to the country and make it clear that we aren't going anywhere in terms of international engagement. not in terms of tens of thousands of troops, but in terms of a small residual force that would be there to train, and also in terms of the wallet. but that's the opinion of one former u.s. commander in afghanistan. how will that play in washington and congress? are we going to stay there past 2014? i've stay tuned. you have this quiet battle going on. i had a conversation with

administration officials this week saying look, it's been hard to get afghanistan on the agenda. we have serious, iran, middle east peace, now we have ukraine. we want to argue for a sustained presence in afghanistan, but it has been very hard to make that case at a time when the u.s. is tired from 12 years of war, understandably so. my personal view is that we should stay. not in tens of thousands of numbers, but in a residual force and in an international partnership agreement that we have on paper. on paper there is a strategic partnership agreement the u.s. already signed with afghanistan that said we will be there supporting it rude 2024. i would guess 98% of america has no idea we even signed that. tavis: i want to build up to what we know about who has the best chance of succeeding hamid karzai. again, off again,

red light, green light relationship. he is an interesting character, to say the least. are we better off with a guy that we knew or the guy that we don't know who will be coming in? >> i think we will be better off for the peaceful transition of power. there are three real questions that are waiting to be decided and also will help determine what happens with the u.s.. how does the vote count go? is there a runoff, and what does it look like? tavis: it's going to be a while before we get the tally on who the actual winners are. is, is therepoint a peaceful transition of power for the first time in the country's history? of u.s. has been kind waiting. politically speaking, the u.s. has been dating afghanistan for a long time without actually committing to it. those three questions and their answers will help determine what our engagement looks like. tavis: will the u.s. always have a dog in the fight, whether they

say they have a not? >> there are people they might be slightly happier with, but i think they like all three of the major leading candidates. they served in government, the u.s. knows them well. i don't think there is a level of panic at all within washington about any of the three. tavis: i think most of us believe that a strong afghanistan is important for that region. although he our eyes are always on pakistan. give me some sense of what this impact stability in the region. it is a very tough neighborhood. when you talk to people who believe in staying the course in afghanistan, this is just a small glimmer of what afghanistan could be in terms of a democracy that is stable. two thirds of the country is under 25. seven out of 10 of them were 12 or under before -- when the

taliban left. if you think about that, it is a young country. more than 300 thousand facebook users in afghanistan. they are desperate to be connected. as that generation can be connected to the outside world, we are in much better shape. a stable and secure and prosperous afghanistan is in everybody's best interest. tavis: i was just reading an article the other day about the rebranding of images of former presidents, jimmy carter was just in washington for a play that just premiered about his work on the campaign. it's 50 years after the civil rights movement so lbj's getting a look over at what he did to pass the civil rights act. 's paintings are now on display. everybody is trying to rebrand their image.

what does the success of this abouton say in the future the george w. bush administration of the past? >> that is an excellent question . the ghost of iraq has hung over his legacy so much and it has also impacted afghanistan. people don't know the difference most of the time. a know we fought 12 years of for over there. athink if afghanistan ends up stable, peaceful, prosperous place, it's a good part of a rough neighborhood, maybe you can get some credit for the fact that afghanistan was not a mess in the end. we will see in the coming months what that looks like. george bush and dick cheney and condoleezza rice, we will see what history says in coming years.

in the immediate future we need to watch to see what happens in afghanistan once the numbers actually come in and we see who the firstader, as time a democratic transition has taken place. we will follow this. gayle tzemach lemmon is the author of "the dressmaker of khair khana," now out in paper would. fromg up, a performance grammy-winning hip-hop artist christylez bacon. stay with us. grammy nominated hip-hop artist christylez bacon got his start on the streets of his hometown, washington, dc, drumming on buckets because he couldn't perform a drum kit. he was commissioned by the smithsonian and the kennedy center for performing arts to create a concert for a 12 piece orchestra. and on hear his talents

our show the performance of a cut from that album. i love this track and i want you to hear it. , good to haveon you on this program. you are rocking that read jacket. everybody can't do that. >> i feel like the hardest thing is to come up with a pseudonym for yourself. how do you describe yourself or how you want to come to the world. my mentor at the time when i was in seventh grade was just joking in coming up with different names for me. he said i have this idea, it is stylez."is's bacon really is my last name. tavis: tell me about growing up in d.c. and having what we now know as a prodigious talent, but

trying to find a way and. the >> it a way in was always interesting because we didn't really have the tools to create the music, but we always found a way to make something out of nothing. in this case, if we couldn't afford the drum set, we had to become the drum set. tavis: give me a little more of that. >> you either become the drum set or you find some other things to make it work. in this case it was a bucket and a trashcan. really similar to the west african drum circle. of music that is indigenous to washington dc, go go. we would do that. it's like not having something but you create something. >> i was on be et for five years

every night and had a chance to hang out with chuck around, who go.the king of d.c. go did you ever get a chance to hang out with chuck brown? >> i got the opportunity to open music center at strathmore where i was the artist in residence. a really came about of that and started my career. had chuck brown doing that. i got a chance to meet him backstage and talk to him just for a bit. i grew up listening to his music . his music is the soundtrack of the string and -- of the spring and summer. tavis: how would you describe d.c. gogo who herded and did not know what they were listening to? >> like hip-hop, it's folk music.

funklike a cousin of music, but it's its own thing. it uses patterns that are arranged a little differently from latin american music. the music starts at the beginning of the concert and doesn't stop until the concert is over. we are getting people involved. tavis: the project is called hip-hop unplugged. you describe your work as progressive hip-hop. what do you mean by that? >> meeting i'm taking traditional elements of hip-hop, beat boxing and rhyming, and pushing outside of this original cultural context and bringing in different cultures, different genres of music and creating a safe space for people to come together and witness each other's humanity.

tavis: you say a safe space, that wasn't lost on me. when i hear you say safe space, art of what i connect that to is the humanity in your lyrical content, which is something we don't get enough of today in hip-hop writ large. how important has it been and how many opportunities have you turned down because the humanity was not at the epicenter of the lyrical content? >> some people would hit me up for collaboration and i'm like, that's not it right there. senior to feel uncomfortable or i don't want a kid or anybody in between, i want everybody to be able to come in and experience and no hip-hop as an art. you have to closely curate the things you are doing. thes: i mentioned earlier song you're going to perform at the end of our show tonight.

tell me about track number two, children, album, gangster. >> it came out of the experience of doing and album that got nominated for an in the in 2010 by collaborating with my girlfriend. they do bluegrass and traditional folk music. we mixed these two different styles together. hip-hop, folk music, and bluegrass. it got nominated as best new album for children. i have an educational component to what i do. i'm always a peaceful performer. some say hip-hop is supposed to exist inside this one limited, narrow space. i can't be in the schools and now here at the same time. it's about navigating both of those spaces. in a barn be noted by

one album. just traversing both experiences and how those have made me a better person. tavis: you could walk into any bar in the nations capital and you are known, you are beloved, your celebrated. you are like a star all over the nations capital. how does it feel to be so committed to the humanity in your lyrical content, and in some way want to be generous and charitable -- you are not as ill known, as appreciated as think you should be. i think that is coming for you because your stuff is undeniable. the audience will see that in just a second. how does it feel -- do you ever wonder how much farther along you would be if you weren't so p.g. in your stuff?

>> i never actually wondered that. i'm about doing this pacific work. my goal at the end of the day isn't just to get ahead. i'm not really chasing fame, i'm more like trying to unite people together and have our world looking like the star trek first season. that's a klingon, he's cool, though. i have an issue and i'm right there. it is what it is. people come along when they come along. tavis: you are ok with the pace of us catching up with you. makes everything within time, i say. tavis: i'm anxious to hear this in person. i want to hear him do this on our stage tonight. you will hear it as well in just a moment. the new project from christylez bacon. it is called hip-hop unplugged. in a moment he will perform track number one.

good to have you on this program. is coming nowon with it's the beatbox. i will say good night. thanks for watching. as always, keep the faith. here comes christylez bacon. ♪ it's the beatbox i can walk down the street and always have a drum with me for some strange reason not everybody could see it

it took a lot of practice and it started as a hobby now i got 20 different drums in my body it's the beatbox the human beatbox now i could make people grew because it sounds so smooth i can keep it going cause it's cool like that. the beatbox started in the 80's the sounds with the letters in the alphabet we can make it go fast or make it go slow were so versatile that we can make it do both

beatbox it's the beatbox the human beatbox now we all have a million drums and our test but you can run out of breath ♪ it's the beatbox it's the beatbox the human beatbox get a drum or something

fade it out like the old-school records ♪ [applause] >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next time for a conversation with david crosby about his first solo album in 20 years. that's next time. we will see you then.

>> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> be more. pbs.

% hello and welcome to this is us. i'm becca king reed. this week we're talking sports. you'll meet a world champion boxer, a hockey player and the jockey who holds the record for the most victories. we'll also take a peek into the world of fencing. on guard. % joining me now is mark wheeler of the fencing center of san jose. mark, i understand there are 2000 competitors here today. no idea fencing was so popular. >> since we've had such great success in the olympics, that's been a r