>> we started the banned boo club in february of 2020, to a has grown into something large and more fruitful than we ever imagined the velshi banned book club wa created in response to the targeting and removal of s many important books fro libraries and school curriculums across the country according to p.e.n. america, the nonprofit organization tha champions the freedom to rea and write in the united states from july 2020, one to jun 2022 there were 2532 instances of individual books being banned. that is a shocking number. what the figure does not mak clear, the types of books that are being banned as we begin to compile our own list of banned literature to feature for you with authors from margaret atwood t jonathan - a clear pattern emerged. it became apparent that th most frequently targeted books should at least one of the sam

three topics sexuality or gender, sexua identity, race, and bodily autonomy including sexual an physical violence. removing books that deal wit these three are real topic sent a clear message to reader that those groups matter less, those experiences should b explored, less they certainl should not be discussed in costumes parents have stood at -- they have made his books entirely out of conference and these so-called activist typically do not read th books. in their entirety. instead require on list of hundreds of titles - from conservative lawmakers, guests, or organized conservative pressure groups these plants are not actin alone, or -- many would have you concerne parents. preserving in the, since gettinga backwards, robbin

their children, and disservice picking up a copy of the books speak, could help a woma recovering from sexual assault on her voice reading her martin could help -- bird of racism feel a little less alone -- what erased could help a student with their own sexua identity feel understood and even loved looks like these can sav lives. understanding the literature discussing those topics of rac and -- it is crucial for each and every one of us, for the station for our ability to nurture critical thinking an ultimately as you will hea from margaret, what democrac itself these are stories that educate nurture, and comfort at the start of the velshi banned book club, our thesis was -- never okay today, that these are stil holds, but after speaking with so many authors, and reading s many of these targeted books the velshi banned book club ha become more than just

platform to highlight instance of censorship, it is a form of resistance reading as resistance. we are going to keep opening these books, and we are goin to keep discussing them. this is the very first year an meeting of the velshi banned book club. so let's get started as we started this project, on bestseller emerged on almost every single banned book clu from ohio to florida, all boys are not blue by georgia an johnson. it wasn't easy an obviou choice for our first feature it is a features of essays wit a coming of age story that follows johnson from childhood to young adulthood, as the grapple with their identity an agency as a black nonbinar person all boys aren't blue touches o critical issues includin institutionalized an racialized violence, sexual, abuse and gender identity, exactly the themes that we hav seen and again and again and again. one of the most interestin things about featuring all boy aren't blue is the reaction we got from you, our book clu

members. many cisgendered and white velshi viewer's protest with emotional responses afte finishing their copy, provin just how worthwhile this kin of emotional and hones storytelling truly is. i started our conversation b asking why their book has been challenged so many times here's what they had to say. >> it is very simple, my boo tells the truth. my book tells the truth, and i tells the truth about the core experience, and it tells the truth about the black or experience so a lot of a people were upse because my book if the actua truth against the stories that many of us historically see as young adults do you think it i the truth. so i pushed back against the notions for the forefathers an the founders of this nation,

and i give the actual trut about what the real experience is like to grow up black and queer in america and we know that one thing about the united states of america is that telling th truth about the situation that we are in has always been threat to the truth that has been indoctrinated in us and so, my book tells the truth, and a lot of people are no happy about that >> what do you say to argument that it is about the sex there are two detailed sex scenes involving - including a scene involvin rape you write about sexual trauma, sexual awakening, in fact on of our viewers wrote in part saying, i would not want a child to read this chapter before they had been introduce to the way normal sex, that is their length, which almost act happened and the health risk related to all kinds of sex. i would want kids to know that the health risks of any kind o contact, expense exponentially

when people are in contact wit more people. if you are goes on to argue, i favor of banning all boy aren't blue for elementary school students, but not for older students what do you make of that >> what i make of that is, well, thank you, because on amazon barnes and noble, and ever other major website, the boo is for 14 to 18 year olds. so thank you for confirmin exactly what we have bee saying from the very beginning it is interesting that the ter child is being used, this book is not for children. it is not a children's book it is not a middle grade book i is a young adult book for kids aged 14 to 13. and, when you also look at the website, it also says greats ten through 12 so this book is geared towards young adults who are actuall experiencing those types o things because i dealt with a sexua assault by the age of 12, to

say, i don't want my child t read about, this it is like yes, but if your child is already 16, and i was 12 when i dealt with this your child could alread be dealing with this issue right? then to pretend that our teens are not -- even if they are not having sex, they are talking about it. this book is literally just resource guide to give them th information, tools, an knowledge they need should the enter that particular space, because our school systems are trying to deny them that information. but denying them tha information does not mean they are not still dealing with the actual thing happening so that is all my book i about. >> we have time now for one bi thank you to the author of all boris earned blue for joinin us, back in february still ahead at the ear and meaning of the velshi banned book club, we will dive into the pulitzer prize they tony morrison who their goal writin

changed the american literar landscape forever, and open th door for discussions about black identity and the black experience plus, some of our featured authors have advice for prince who want to ban books. these authors have uniqu insights, because they hav kids as well, and when we firs conceived the velshi banne book club, there were a handfu of titles that just kept comin up, everyone from produces o the, show to you at home wanted to hear from margaret atwood and everyone wanted to discuss the hat mainstay, so we did fo an entire half hour. you don't want to miss thi eerily prophetic conversatio along with never befor broadcast moments. we will be right back.

>> many meetings of the velshi banned book club have embodied the famous quote from iris author oscar wild, lif imitates art far more than art imitates life. but this never felt more tru that when the celebrate them prolific author, margare atwood, joined us to discuss her magnum opus, the handmaid' tale we spoke on sunday, may 1st,

2022 about the book that was written in canada in the mid 80s and the strangel contemporary story it tells. the handmaid's tale takes plac in the near future, where theocratic militar dictatorship known as gilead has overthrown the u.s government it reorganizes society with an extreme interpretation of th old testament, with women at the mission of men - bookends this are meeting with margaret ad - draft with a supreme court authorities decision on th dobbs versus women's healt organization, leak that this issue that would explicitl overturn roe v. wade, upending women's safety and bodil autonomy in that moment, that dystopian theocratic world margare atwood had created in her book felt suffocatingly close and all to feasible, prophetic even the handmaid's tale has become ubiquitous case nothing short of modern-day classic almost ever

american knows about, at least by name. it grapples with these becomin more and more relevant every single day, including th degradation of women's reproductive rights, the ris of autocratic regimes, the flagrant disregard for environmental issues, and it does so by utilizing it in a in perspective, non linear plots, as well as nuance characters my conversation with margare atwood went to the end of th show, and it was so good w kept going off the air we recorded deeper and mor wide-ranging interview exclusively for nbc's streamin platform, peacock. some of which i would like t share with you now here's what that would have to say when i asked her why she was more worried on that day i may then when she first wrot the handmaid's tale in the mid 1980 >> you know the answer to that it's because something that wa a nascent movement in the 80 has now become prett full-fledged and people have seen raising

religious slogans as a pathway to political power, and they have taken that's pathway an so many of them have succeeded but it is a sham version o christiana tv, in my opinion >> in fact, does anything to d with christiane 80 i wonder, donald trump, this sort of, he made it sound like he was wrapped in religiou conservatism even though his history doesn't suggest that but it was a pathway to power. in the handmaid's tale, were you predicting that religion itself or at least, pe versions of religion, woul become the imminent form o government, or was that al meant to be a pathway to power and religion was a convenien hook >> well, we were just talkin about the united states here we're not even talking about canada, it would be a lo harder and canada. we are not even talking abou

england, because they had th religious war in the 17t century. whatever else they might do, they are unlikely to do that but the united states never ha a religious war. they had a war, it wasn't religious war. if anything, the american civi war, the bible thumping wa stunned by the north they never had that out and ou religious or, but they'v watched the religious wars going on in europe, and that i why they wrote the constitutio in the way they did. they wanted freedom to worship so people would not murder one another in the name of havin one religion conquer ove another religion and i think the thing to ask about religion is not what religion they practice, but ho are you practicing it?

are you practicing it to har your people, or are yo practicing it as a form of support and consolation? there is a big difference. >> there was a passage - >> yeah. religion in the united states, there is enough of a populatio base willing to buy into one particular interpretation of it and unfortunately, in both states where you are seein that, it is incongruousl teamed up with a form of white supremacism, which has no basi in the bible and no basis in historical fact >> let me ask you about passage on page 174 that struc me given the amount of attentio we are giving to what happened on january six, 2021

the words from the book are, keep calm, they said o television everything is under control. that is when they suspended th constitution they said it would b temporary. there wasn't even and th rioting in the streets people stayed home at night, watching television, looking for some direction there wasn't even an enemy you could put your finger on that hit home, as you sit here on a news show in a world wher there are completely different views as to what happens durin and in tempted insurrection on january 6th. this idea that manu's was what your characters in the handmaid's tale dependent on t tell them the truth, because all they're good, reliable sources of information had bee cut off. >> yes well, i think that any respectable coup does it's seized communication channels. so, they head for that

television station and the radio station, as one of their very first acts. that's, of course, would hav happened the difference between january six and what happens in th handmaid's tale is what happen in the handmaid's tale was better organized >> yes >> same idea i think they came within a whisker of having martial la declare. we now fro - we now know from messages that have been revealed that that was in the minds of some of th insiders who were hoping for a coup i find all of that prett scary. >> at one of your other works, a few years before you published the handmaid's tale, you published something called second words, in which h writes, i began as a profoundl a political writer, but then i began to do what all novelis and so poets do, i began t

describe the world around to me you have not stopped writing i all of that time, far from it. you write a great deal tell me about the evolution of your politics. were they sort of baked when h wrote the handmaid's tale, and the world was unfolding as you predicted? or have your politics change in any way >> i don't have any bake politics [laughter] i didn't grow up in a family that had baked politics. they weren't very baked, and there were a lot of other ways in which they weren't ever baked, but they were scientists, and scientists like to look at evidence and they like to test evidence and they like to see whether the hypothesis they have bee presented with is true so, in one of those old pass and people, for who truth stil matters. >> once again, many thanks t

margaret atwood, author of numerous books including the award winning novel, the handmaid's tale. she has come back a couple o times on the velshi banned boo club still ahead of this year's yea and meeting of the velsh banned book club, work sufficient, bands or otherwise have the power to conquer your deepest fears, including thing you never once examined. even changes steadfast opinion had jody buckle, the bes selling contemporary author of 27 novels, including a book we featured on this program called 19 minutes. >> i think fiction is a really important tool a lot of people tune out to th news i can't tell you how man people i have talked to in the past week who said oh, i can't handle all the stuff about the shootings. i'm not watching the news this week fiction is supposed to be an escape, but if you write about topics like i choose to, wha you do is give readers investe in a story and in th characters, and by the tim that the last page is turned you force them to confront a

issue that maybe they didn't want to confront you have done it in a way that allows them to look at all sides of the situation so, you are going to look at the pros and mahkonce. or not going to ask them t believe something that maybe i believe, but you are going t ask them to reevaluate why their opinion is what it is. fiction is a sort of backdoo way, i, think to get people to really question their opinions lightweight for them, when the form them, and if they shoul be opening their minds and changing their points of view. the rent-a-car industry is the definition of boring. and the reason can be found in the name itself. rent - a - car. you don't want a friend. you want the friend. you don't want a job. you want the job. the is always over a. that's why we don't offer a car. we offer the car. ♪ sixt. rent the car. savannah: great having you.

hoda: incredible women! savannah: i wish they had those kinds of cool careers for women when we were growing up... carson: so in this flashback, we're all the same age? hoda: yeah! teacher: what does everyone want to be when they grow up? savannah: if i say two jobs do i get extra credit? teacher: no. girl 1: i want to make immersive video games. girl 2: i want to revolutionize 3d printing. girl 3: i want to analyze data from the cloud. al: i want to be a meteor! girl 2: you mean meteorologist? al: no... girl 2: that's great al. follow your dreams. carson: for the record, i was a baby in the 70s. ♪holiday music playing♪ [baby yawning] let's get you home for the holidays. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪

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it's nice to unwind after a long week of telling people how liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. showtime. whoo! i'm on fire tonight. (limu squawks) yes! limu, you're a natural. we're not counting that. only pay for what you need. ♪liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty.♪ >> this past spring, a sadly familiar scene unfolded. the nation watched in horror a 19 children and two teachers were mass murdered by a gunman while simply attending schoo in uvalde, texas in 2021 alone, nearly 3600 children died by gunfire i america, according t provisional statistics from th cdc, gun violence is now the leading cause of death for

children in america. this topic is raw because of those statistics, and uniquely emotional, because it feel unavoidable. how can this wound he'll win the scabs toward off again and again? how can you even begin t emotionally prepared you children to attend school in a environment like this? one what you could possibly do that is through books, and b reading them together. one such book is give eight bo a gun by todd shots are, one o the first young adult novels written in the aftermath of an infants columbine school shooting in 1999 books like give a boy a gun, written explicitly for adolescents, can help a youn reader explore feelings, fierce and thoughts around thi difficult topic. the book could be a resource, way to work through very rea emotions from the safety o your own home, i started the conversation with straw survey asking him why he has received so much pushback, even calls for banning his, book when it' a work that tackles such and unavoidable real life issue.

>> you, know it actually started before columbine it was in kentucky and i mississippi and in arkansas, there were three shootings in period of about six months i the 1997 and 199

there's so much i wanted to convey, but you can't have characters in a story just stating facts and factoids constantly it doesn't work. you need characters to b authentic and say what these characters really should say but i had all this information i was dying to get it out, so decided to add the factoids on the bottom of the pages of the

way of doing it withou interrupting the narrative >> let me ask you about what you think about, when introduced you, i read a quote from a teacher who said in m most introverted student responded to this. i got to imagine with a little bit of your goal, right? it's for everybody it's for those people who migh be slightly on the outside o on the fringes, in which the might recognize themselves o see some reason to participate in the discussion. tell me about your thinking on that front >> well, of course you want to try to reach the kids who are alienated, becaus this is a story about alienate kids i'll tell you somethin fascinating i never expected i have gotten emails and letters, not huge numbers of them but from the bullies. kids who wrote to me and said, i am a bully, i have pushe kids around, i never thought about how this affects tha kids i bubbly. i never thought about how it affects them emotionally, an

how badly it hurts them. >> thanks again to tod strasser, author of numerous young adult books, including give a boy are gone. we have more of this year an meeting with the velshi banned book club coming up, but again the loudest voices demanding that removal of books from library shelves and curricul are parents, organized and supported by highly supporte conservative activist groups but they are parents younger left closing off young minds will not make the next generation more intelligent or more model it is likely to do the opposite those on the velshi banned boo club have tilting themself, an i asked them about fello parents calling for their book to be banned >> honestly, i think people ar afraid i say this as a parent myself. i have a fourth grader and a kindergartner, and i understan the impulse and the instinct t wants to keep your childre safe and innocent. the difference between m

children and parents o children who can cry out against facebook is they hav to know the information in the book to stay safe. they might have to know this information. >> i am a parent, so i reall relate to those concerns i will tell them, no problem your child doesn't need to rea this book. but if they want to read it, get with them. if you have concerns >> not just books about sexual violence, but also lgbtq books books that feature protagonist that are not white, that are not christian, this whol constellation of books that ar under attack right now when we keep them away from ou children, we are withholding wisdom from our kids we are making life harder fo our children, and we are damaging our nation.

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formerly known as kanye west went on and antisemitic grants praising adolf hitler during a interview, hate speech aimed a jewish americans was on th rise according to the new york times, antisemitic post soared more than 61% in the weeks afte elon musk acquired twitter i late october that is just online hate speech there are a litany of examples of dangerous hate crimes takin place in real life the bestselling author, archie palacios novel, white bird which follows a young jewish girl in the zone libra parts o france and world war ii, contraband, including on

parents fighting that it was not true it's not true of course, because it is fiction, historical fiction, of, course what is marked and labeled a fiction. the most unsettling and go rushing part of this book ar on carefully true. -- nazis soldier says she members of the french resistance, an the person expect one anothe of not see collusion it is becoming clearer and clearer that learning an respecting the holocaust death toll is just not enough. facts, figures, and causalit make up just one part of the historical picture understanding that behind ever one of those states in you textbook is a human life tha was just as rich and texture and nuanced as your own, it' never been more necessary to read books like white bird tha recount the horrors of the holocaust and illustrate, in n uncertain terms, the evil that was ever present at the time when i spoke with rj palacio,

asked her how she was able t write about something so heavy and deeply upsetting for such a young group o readers. here is what she told me >> it's a delicate balance i know i was writing for middl schoolers. i was writing for third, fourth, fifth, sixth graders so, i didn't want, i mean, i take my responsibility as children's author very, very seriously. i don't want to betray tha trust that parents have in m ability to convey informatio that is difficult for youn people so, i chose a character, sarah bloom, a young girl who, as yo said before, is living a prett normal life in france, but little by little, she find that she is becoming a third within her own country she is becoming ostracized she is suddenly not allowed to do things he used to be able t be allowed to do, and my hope' readers can empathize with her and follow her journey fro

being on a list of things that are banned in her own countr to having to flee from nazis and her mother gets taken to a concentration camp this is all based on historica fiction. we - were french resistance, th whole thing is based in bu french resistance and soldiers that were either for or agains nazis in france. >> i want to talk about the en without giving anything away sara's story concludes, and we are back in modern-day america where the book starts. there is struck by a immigration story we covered extensively on velshi, the separation of children fro their parents of the border. she remarks quote, how can thi be happening, have we learne nothing? this almost feels like a cal to arms. tell me about this and its rol in the book, this idea that we are still toing things tha seem like they would have been

wrong in the past. >> it is a current events in this country that inspired m to turn to this subject matter at this point in time. i was very struck by the georg santa monica, that sort of epigraph of my book, which is, if we don't remember the past, we are condemned to relive it. i thought this might be an appropriate time to draw the parallels between what happene then and things that are happening now in our own country, in this day and age i thought this is truly why decided to turn my hand to thi subject matter at this moment. i thought it was a very, ver topical, unfortunately topical time it is a topical news event tha seems to be playing out again. concentration camps are not th beginning of the genocide, the are the end of a genocide. we start with the ostracizatio of people. we start with the polarization of people. us versus them that is the beginning steps of

the atrocities we end up with. so, i wanted to be able to sho in a book, in the story that was for children, how we can g from step a through step the and it's the silence of people that lets it happen. >> and our thanks to the autho and illustrator, whitesburg, r palacio. you are watching the year an meeting of the velshi banned book club. still ahead, we will dive into a groundbreaking work from the prolific author, tony morrison but first, i want to highlight one of our featured books, boy erased by gary conley. it's a memory that follows his time in a so-called conversion therapy center at the behest o his parents. it spoke about forgiveness family, religion, and how trul lifesaving literature can be especially for young adult discovering their own sexual identity >> i wrote a lot about this in the book i was very suicidal before eve

going into conversion therapy, and conversion therapy is like a crucible that builds on al of the horrible feelings you have as a good growing up in the south, and a lot of stereotypes that exist. i was there in the therapy session the last day before left, and they were asking m to sit across from an empt chair and imagine my fathe sitting there. they said, you need to show us you hate him, because obviously, the stereotype is a gay ma must take the swab, or right there freudian stuff i there. i said, i don't hate my father i don't feel that way. i feel sad we are disconnected they just kept saying, you are not telling the truth, and luckily i had read 1984 at thi point. i learned that words can mea they're opposite they can be used in a certai way to brainwash people. i said, this is not what lov is you are calling yourself lov inaction, but it's hate an action i stood up and left th auditory, and that's when my

mom came to get me, and remember thinking, this is not how you show compassion. i was taught compassion, and suddenly, it was taken awa from me. my parents made a mistake. they will be the first to admi that they also taught me compassion and love, and they provided fo me, and it was a wonderful lif until that happened. >> you paint them in a ver positive light in the book there is one seen with your da early into voyeuristic, whic struck me. it - when i was very young, seven o eight years old, i would wai for my scripture inspire nightmares and walk th hallways of my father's bedroo to stand at the edge of his be and wish him awake i thought he should have understood me without the need for words. that is on page 53 the desire to be seen an understood by once on parent is universal >> yeah. >> you can't - >> yeah. i think sometimes, toxic relationships can poison you d such a degree there is no wa to get back. luckily, my parents ar compassionate people

their religious experience i had, i am not anti religion, i am anti-fundamentalism, whic is any literal interpretatio of any text that is often base on one person's idea of how it should be read that is incredibly dangerous when you use that either for legislation or in the training of your kids, and i think that i never felt but bible was really about hatred. i felt it was about coasmpsion and love, and christ is perfect example of that. & gentle downy will soften your clothes without dyes or perfumes. the towel washed with downy is softer, and gentler on your skin. try downy free & gentle.

play a song! i couldn't possibly... once upon a time... a wishing star fell from the sky. that star... had one wish to grow on. play double time. ha, ha! i have to fine the wishing star. sniff him out. -all i can smell, is cats. oooh. good night. [ cheering ] you're still here? ok, one more number. puss in boots. only in theater, rated pg. >> we've we have noted in note in other meetings othe meetings of the of the boo club velshi banned book club there are that there are three ways a book can three ways somebody can enact change enac change or affect one's life. sometimes or affect -- one's life sometimes, it's the worst on the page sometimes, it's the theme of the text sometimes,

, -- but not for black authors an protecting this year it may never happe and all boys are blue to feature in our series. the very presence of these books on the english plu curriculum is not just revolutionary, it's a credit t marchand herself beloved tells the story of a formerly enslaved woman wh lives with the spirit of her youngest daughter. it's one of those books that i challenging to summarize it's nuanced, it's lyrical language, it's themes are as inherent to the story as are the bones of the plot. as tony morrison once said herself, it's not the fast food, it's a meal you should relish. there's no classic work of american literature that i captured both the attention an the ire of americans, that won't repeated calls for banning like beloved has the reality is if. the truth moors will write wil remain, even if every copy o

beloved is snatch from you library shelves. it is a hard read, but is necessary one. we have two friends of the show, princeton university's dr. edd -- junior, and dr. imani perry, t join us to discuss morrison' legacy and help us unpac beloved. they taught a college course o tony morrison together i begin by asking them why the both kept returning to beloved over the years here is what they told me. >> it tells you the story of how slavery became a nationa institution with the fugitiv slave act. she can be caught in ohio. it also tells a story of the post slavery period, tha interstitial period where th promise of citizenship becam still elusive. there are these human themes that are so important. what does it mean to try t make a life after so muc trauma and violence?

how this will not become completely defined by thei brutality? how does this not be the thing which society says you are sethe grapples with bein described as part animal by schoolteacher. the struggle of the novel is actually a struggle abou becoming an assist stainin oneself in the face of violence there is something about the book which is most historicall significant, politically significant, and also has on a sort of deep human quality tha everyone can connect to. >> i've heard from alan wells, one of our book club members who said about beloved and ton morrison, on my own sorrow pain, fear, anger, and dee conviction all of a sudden mad complete and total sense it was as if somebody wa telling me it is okay to fee the way i do and that there ar real reasons that i do toni morris and validated my own feelings in a way i have

yet to experience in any other way. her ability to layer so much truth, honesty, and feeling an so few words on each and every page simply astounded me i cannot thank her enough. writing this brings me t tears. as we discussed, sometimes i is the words, sometimes it i the author, sometimes it is th ideas. the words of toni morrison and her ability to write in this way which evokes and emotional response is key to why it is important. >> it is why writing goo novels is so important that helps us become bette human beings, helping us see the world in very differen ways toni morrison was a master craftsman in this regard something that is so interesting about beloved is that she is engaged in thi ongoing conversation with th sleeve narrative the slave narrative does not give you a sense of th interior life of the slave the voice had to be authorized by a white person writing th

preface. whatever follows his shoe. you get this look at thi narrative that is in the service of the anti slaver effort morrison decides to go into th depths of it she gives us a sense of what i happening on the inside of the person who has experienced a brutality of slavery that's really important. we get a sense of th complexity of the -- this is not necessarily just friction margaret garner, january 18th, 1856 - she leaves kentucky, crosses over, declaring herself, reall ends up at a friends house she tried to retrieve her. she decides to kill her child. she tries to kill her child. she is returned. morris intakes real life and makes it this epic >> a very difficult story to choose if you're going to choose thos experiences, margaret garner and the killing of a child is hard one to popularize

that's why it's tough. last week, we spoke about graphic novel about th holocaust. it's also tough. it's tough to read about these things what choice do we have i worry that people who say, i don't want my kid reading this book with his uncomfortable, it's tough, it makes them feel bad. >> the society is tough. living is tough. we are worried about unbelievable violence, particularly over in this last couple of weeks. this is not unusual even in ou own experience asked the question, well, what would have made a mother kil her child? how does someone become th next how does the community respond to it? something that morrison does which is so extraordinary is that she always looks from the margins and allow those on the margins to become witnesses. here's a horrific act. how did she get to be this way that's the question. that's a challenge to society. how does someone get to be tha way?

at the end, the freezes repeat that it is not a story to pass on how do we avoid passing this on? >> our thanks to our guest help me start this whole thing it was a conversation with ant who was part of the book club. thank you to both of them. a lot of us time to make new year's resolutions if your sister read more, we have you covered we are looking forward to many more - more important literar analysis, more thought-provoking conversation with authors, more resilienc against book banning in order to do that, we need your help. our velshi banned book clu members, tell us which you would like to discuss and why. we are all yours email in the show at my stor at velshi.com. you are all members. we do this for you

that does it for me. thank you for watching stay right where you are we will have more msnb covegera right after this. people couldn't see my potential. so i had to show them. i've run this place for 20 years, but i still need to prove that i'm more than what you see on paper. today i'm the ceo of my own company. it's the way my mind works. i have a very mechanical brain. why are we not rethinking this? i am more... i'm more than who i am on paper.

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dangerous cold temperature blanketing the eastern two thirds of the country. at least 20 people have died and winter storms -- you can see on this map from the national weather service you see it right there how the blast of arctic air are causin so - power outages are adding insul to injury. more than 1 million households are without electricity. many are unable to heat thei homes. blizzard conditions in the great lakes region have shut down the peace bridge, a major crossing between the u.s. an canada it has left hundreds of driver stranded in their cars the buffalo area bore the brun of it at this hour >> this was a very, very bad night in our community this might turn out to be th worst storm in our communities history,