ah. [ laughs ] tavis: good eveng from los angele i'm tavis smiley tonight my cversation with acclaimed filmmaker k burns. all this week bns is unveiling his latt project, sweeping 12-hour cumentary devoted to america's tional parks. it focus on the ideas and individuals that created somof america's greatest nationa treasures. a concept burnsalls america's best ideas. we're glad you have joined us.

ke bur coming up right now. >> there are so many thingthat wal-mart is looking forwarto doing, like helping peopleive better but mtly we're looking forward to helpi build stronger commuties and relationships cause with your lp, the best is y to come. >> natnwide insurance proudly supports tavis smiy. tavis and nationwi insurance workinto improve financial literacy and the economic empowerment at comes with it ♪ nationwide is on your side ♪ ♪ >> and by contritions to your pbstation from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning made possie by kcet public levision] tavis: over the course of his care, ken burns has

established himself as one of th great story tellers in a of film htory. hiwide range of sjectsave includedverything from the civil war to beball to jazz and e of my forite films "unforgivae blackness." althis week, you can catch him with his latest offing called "the nationaparks: america's best idea". >> they are a treasured use of ture. 84 million acres of t most stunning landscapes anyone has ever seen. including a mountain so maive it creates itswn weather. whose peak res more than 20,000eet above sea level. thhighest point on the continent. tavis: kenurns joins us tonighfrom new york. ken, nice to havyou back on th program. >> tha you so much, tavis. eat to be with you. tavis: let me start by sayg congratulation i got a chance to e some of

th and it is absolutely phenenal. once ain, you have done it, my friend. congratulaons. >> it is not a tvel log. it is not a ture fm though there is great stuff of nature. it is about ids and individuals. it is about stories. i think that is what mes it different om other things out the national parks. it is not even a rommendation tohat lodge or inn to stay at. tavis: you are one of the great storellers. i said aricans and folkround thworld are goi to preciate seeing the kind of stories that you bng to life. let me start wh the obvious, thbeginning at least for me, which is this tie. "the nional parks: america's best idea." i know there is going to be some convertion kicking upust around tt subtitle. america's best ide mr. burns? >>e kick it up in our film the first few minutes. we steal thisrom a writer who said it is t bestdea we have

everad and mediately someone comes on a says not best ea. the best idecomes from thomas jefferson, all men are creat equal. that's of course rig. ce you set a country in moti with those idealat least ahead ofou because we know mr. jefferson meant all ite men of property ree ofebt wn he wrote tha he didn't see the hypocrisy whe he wrote those wor, he owned 100 human ings but if you ts in motion a country dedicated to that you wod be hard-pressedo find a better ea or at least an expression. we le to think that the national parks are the expression of the declation of independce applied to the landsca because for thfirst time in human history land was set aside n for kings or nobleen or the rich but for erybody. and for al time. it is an utterly democratic impulse and comes out of opportunities, frh opportunities here on this at least appartly virgin continent that we ve inherited. this garden of eden that thos

jefferson thght it would take hundds of generations to fill up. very quily four o five, we ha filled it up and we're not only in danger of sing those placesut losing the animals that occupy those places. somebody who gs against repatience interesof progress. it is nonow have look at every river and think dam and is t enough to look at every beautiful stand trees and think board and look at canyon and say what mirals can be tracted from . what kd of residue of this garden of eden could we have? thoriginal impulse to have national parks is some ways spiritl. it is easi to worship god in caedrals in nature than those madey the hand of man, which was the eupean tradition that we were trying to cape the ecific gravity of. tavis: i can hear somebody sang here goes ken burns again.

he wantso spin this conversation aut conservation. he wantso spin conversation about the environment. next he'll be talking about global warming and the tre. he wantso spin the convertion. it is t about spirituasm. it is about consertion. you ought to jt come out and sait. >> well, you know what? part of its. this iulse to save it comes out of spiritualism. but then it moves to consvation in theld teddy roosevelt rsion. moves to priotism. when we id "my country tis of thee." we're not talking abo trade statistics or the shadows cast byofty metpolitan skyscrapers. we're talking out this land at we have saved in this national parks, later it becomes econic. these ples are the permanent pipeline when the resources at we may have extracted haveong disappeared and then me rently and that is not our province bause we're histor it has elved io complex

ecological eironmental issues. we want to tell you sties. we wt to introduce you to 50 or so human beings. most of whom you never hea of. of course you have heard of teddy roosevelt d might have heard of john muir, the eat wilderss prophet and john d. rockefeller jr.ho reversed his father's energie and devoted himself to philanthropy of which the nation parks were great beneciaries. this is story that is black and brown and red and llow and female a unknown as much as it is a story owell known white ys. tavis: lete throw o person at you. telle about shelton johnson. >> weet shelton johnson when we were leadingp to this film. hes a park ranger stationed at yosemite. he is an african-amerin. he is the onlyfrican-american ranger in the sierra nevad

he interpretthe little known story of the african-america buffalo soiers and the celeated cavalry men. the parks prottors in sequoia anyosemite national parks, two of the earliest naonal parks. it is alreadan interesting little kwn phenomenon but if you go back d remember that of cose more african-americans are lynched in the fst decades of the 20th century than at any other time of our history you wod begin to underand what a kind of challenging and ieresting story itherefore becomes. if the people that are telli you how the beha in a national park and mosof these cavalry men are, how shalle say, overseei, are white, it makes as sheldon jnson said, for a ry interesting day. he n only brings alive the story of the buffalo soldier which is wonrful. but of course like shell by foot in "the civil war" and like

wynton marsas in "jazznd stanley cuch in "jack johnson". he hits it out of the park that is the eat glory of ameran history. as lg as you pigeon hole people. segrege them into their areas. you're notoing anybody any favors. soheldon johnson knows how the -- to talk about the buffalo soldiers but more important he kns how to talk abt the national parks and as we know there are t many communities in our couny that do not feel an ownershiin these parks. its quite often inner cy african-ericans. sheldon comes fro inner city detroi or hispanic americans and i can now go to those neighborhoods and thanks to a grant, our educatnal outreach hasent me there to ny, many cities and i think show these kids anthese schools anthese folks, in these communities, aces that heroes that look and sound like them. nationalarks that are as

portant as anybody else. that is the great bottom-up democratic sto, that the bier arc of the national parks entail. tavis: there are a number of great markshe california and l.a. where i live and worevery day. work outside. i get my workout at a park called kenny hawn. work out two or three days a week. work outdoors. i my workout on at a park called kenny hawn. they tend not to be white but oftentimes hisnic and african-erican. i did my informalesearch praring for my conversation with you. you don't have to spend a whole lot of money to get i wheryou're next to god. where there is nature and kids can runround. rangers are going torotect you and you know your kids are not gog to getarmed.

explain that to ith regard th this series that you have done. >> you kw, you have said it better than anyone could i was just in yomite. went tbridal veil falls and there was a 3, 4ear-old hispanical. she didn't know where sh was. she was just ring up to the spray of this place. i was brought toears. she is probably from the ctral valley. it is cheap now. the natial parks thrived during o great depression. nobecause they got the first shovel-ready smulus dollars of franklin roosevelt's w deal. in t form of the c.t.c. that set up 1,000 camps, employing 300,000 young me sending money ck to millions of americans. weouldn't get a trailer to katrina victims in thr months. let's remember a federal government that actuly worked even in e depths of the depression its about an individual experience.

when we go to a national par and you felt thi too, you are cler to something bigger than yourself. this is the paradox anthat don't -- as you perceive, as you know, as you smit yourself, you perceive yrself, your insignicance that makes u bigger. just ashe egotist among us is diminished in that regard. that's what the parks dot a visceral lev and as for everody and when you perceive your co-ownership ofhese parks, man, you and i owthe grandest canyon onarth. w lucky are we? tavis: yetour conversation not withstanding when we thi of the parks we have not ought of them as being owned bys including people of lor. we tend to think of them as e preserd subsidiary of white america. >> that s been the case for most of it. at the very beginning the parks the fit people to come were the very ch from the east they traveled by rail. the railroads were the first

promoterof the park. it cost a lot of moneyor that cross-cotry ticket and then hotels in there. what happened is theutomobile came ang and it got decratized. the depressi came alon and franklin rooseltesegregated a lo of those jim cr facilities in the national parks and then go suddenly erode a changes as u know we have been waiting long time for. but i tnk what happens is those peopleho are aware of tt powerful sense ofo- oership, thait doesn't maer whether you're a billionaire or wheth you're changingeds at the hotel just outside the pk, you o that park. you're co-owner. all you to do is make sure somebody is taking ce of it. we could use some more money. at is to say we need people who are arguing agnst those extracve and inquisitive interests and y let's keep up the maintenance. but man, it's os. wh you look around at the rim of the grand cann for geysers or historical site, we have

had that presencof mind as a great country evolve this idea justike thomas jefferson's all men created equ just meant all white men of propert we now mean all people color and women d we protect our ildren and the elderly and t handicapped and wdebate e unborn. so, too, t national parks set aside obvious natural sceny and it evolved to mplex archaeogical sites that recorded t ancient history of t native americans before us. many got into historicites like battlefields,abitats, the evglades. nothing ectacular about a swamp. turns out to be one of theost diverse enronments on eart then we sad slave cabins and central high school in littl rock, arkansas. stila working inner city high school today. a unit the national park system.

manzanar where japane american citins were terned during the second wor war shamefully. we've saved martinuther king's boyhood me in atlanta. we have the atue of liberty and mount rushmore but we ve been a big enoh country to inle complex geographical history but also a compl cultural and htoric and now etographic past that says you know, we're a complicated country d by understandinall of that we so shanksvil, pennsylvaa, where united 1993 went down is the site of a national park city. so is oklahoma city, theite of the greate domestic terrorist events. its a great system. i'll argue on that great idea. tavi so you have. the timing could not have en more proficiou i want to know how much u paid barack obama to to two parks this summer with his ks? i bumped into him before he went. he said 're going to the

national par and i said i heard and we are so ve pleased and he had melia and sasha look at the films anthey are now coming juniorangers. existentlism. the purposfor a brief convsation between being and doing. the world so ma of us and particularly our chiren live in is neher. wenow about you know, nature deficit disorder. i lived in a subdivion growing up and would just pile out of e house at 8:00 a.m. come back for lunch ancome ba when the dinner call came. now everybody si in their room all day and te and do video mes and they can't stay out the facebook accnt. and we are starvedor that relationship, for mething bigger. i hope by the president ing as he did andy those girls geing involved as they did that, the rest of can be remied that all of those toys

ll be there when we get back but we wilmake lasting memories. my grandfath took my father and my father ok me and i have takemy three girls to the national parks. th's where we'llemember each other. not inhe moment of getting up going school and washing but in these special times th we had togetherout in nature whe we are reminded of our atomic insignicance and are in that gat way that the parks work made better. tavis: it istill case that we have a generion of kids, who, to be blunt about it, think that parks are boring, ken bur. >> it is true and so sad because on you get them t. a p stati st an african-american family intohe evergles. that is a place whe they didn't go. the family had wonderful time. they did sort of abs version of reality show and i met the mother and she saii can't wait

too back so i think that there is always ju that resistance to something new, particully when we've gotll of these distraion in front of us but i have never had somebody not be transformed by timout in the nation parks. it inot like ho hum. somebody once id that people o are bored by the view from the grand cany will be disappoied on the day of judgment. [laughter] tavis: i read quote from you somewhere. relative to this wonderful series whe you said that parks are goo plas for epiphies. what did you mean byhat? >> i think it goes bac to what we were talking abou u stand on the rimof the grand canyon. you look at the colorado river that has been carving rock. 1.7 billionears old. nearly half the age of the planet. if i'm lucky, if i'm fortunate, i getour score, 80ears.

i'm nothing in comparin to that. yein tt hew hue military mething has opened up and'm ab to participate in a relationship that hn muir oke so passionely about. i think every one of the 50 pele that we introduceou do ha a moment like that. there were a couplof people or anssociation that got tether and devoted theirives to saving it. at the hrt of it was that persal transformation. everyone we interviewedor the series over the last 10 years had thr own experiences. each one of us, most of us who worked on the series, i know had that momen where you just feel like you opened up. whater you want to callt. you n call it religion, science, art. whatever it wa somethg was transformed. my molecules were rearrged. i feel. i pinch myself.

i'm getting paid to stand up he. i got up at 3:00 a. and i carried this hvy equipment out to thi point and waitedor the suno come up at the nationa park where the first light hits the united stas of america every day or haii volcanoes where they are making new ld. that lava cos out and makes that island just a little bi bigger everyay. st in the natural aspect of the tional par, unbievable lega. tas: you lost onef your major funders a still you got this thingone. tell me abt how you didhis. >> general motors, wch had been funding us, we signed a

deal in 1999, we knew regardless to have financial crisis, 2009, th would be over anwe had already reaced them in this case with bank of america anwe have lots of oer funders, the national park foundion, the park foundati itself, corporation for publ broadcastg, the few aritable trusts, not easy bu over a 10-year piod we accumulatetheir support. yore right. it tak a lot of generalship to film at the tes of the arctic and nthern alaska and the dry tortugas off the florida keys d to those hawaii volcanoes and everywhere in tween. but what wwere looking for is not -- you can go shoo that. anybody can do that and get beautiful picturesn these places. they look exacy the way john muir saw them and the way e ancestors of the native american o is once called them home. then you hav to figure out how thtell a story. i thk most of the time, most of the effort, most of the love and energy that went intohis

was tryi to weave together like a russianovel. is not set ainst backdrop of catastropc war but of these beautiful pces, travis, they just knock your soc off, you know yostand there and you can't imagine that the nexplace was gog to be any better than the one before and allf a sudden, you see aew view and sometimes it is something scific like a rock or a glacier july or a piecof an -- annimal walks by. we saw grizzly bea. we're hathe experiences of our lifetimend still able to engage tse themes that we have been doing. e diversity in this film is not potically correct. it is natully occurring. tavis: i -- your passion. i can fe it here in l.a. 3,0 miles away frou in that studio in new rk. know viewer at home can feel your passion as we. i want to closby saying i've always believed is all you kw is what yore giving. now never know what people he receiving.

fuher more, you nev know who is receivingt. don't know if you heard abou this or saw thisut not long ago on this program had this guy nad prince. a guy you may have heard of. he was on this pgram for two nigh. he shared with us for thfirst time publiy about his ildhood. over tt two-nighteriod, i was blown away bthe fac that his entire narrative was built around "unforgivable blkness." i don't ow if you sawhis. i kepthinking this is prince talking abouken burns documentary. yourtuff just impacts people in smany myriad of ways that i just want to say thank you for doinghis piece in advce of it coming t. >> that is so nd, tavis. iumped into a g at t airport who wa headed to t nba. he now teaches middle school. heaid i probably could make more money if i ayed in the a but i feel so rich having made the decision at i made d i just looked forward to t me i would be able to thank you. hehanked me.

thought oh, my god, why are here at pbs where if not for a moment like that where somebody, whether its prince or a guy who is carrying all that ext load for theest of us teaching our middle schoolers about american history, whh you know, is f most kids, castor oil. this is great. this is why we get up in t morning d that's the kind of thing that i thi that the parks e speaking to. that you're speakingo, that i'm trying to in all of the different subjectshat we tackle. i ank you, brother, for that kind comment. tavis: "the nation parks: americs best idea." burns may beight about th. the good news is we'llll be able to judge for ourselves you'll bable to see it on pbs "the national rks: america's st idea," produced by the on and only ken burns. ngratulations again. nice to have you on again. >> thank you. tavis:hat's our show for the night. catch me othe weekend you can cess o radio pod

cast apbs.org. good night from l.a. thanksor wching and as always, keephe faith. >> it is the preservation of the scenery of the fores andhe wilderss game for the people as ahole. instead of leaving the iment thereof to be confined to the ve rich, it is noteworthin sential democracyne of the best bs of natur achievement ich our peopleave to their credit a our people should see to it that they are preserved for thr children andheir children's childreforever. with their majestic beauty a unmarred theodore rsevelt. >> for more informati on today's show, visit tav smiley on pbs.org. >>oin me next time for a

coersation with oscar winning filmmaker michael moore that next time. we'll see you then. >> there are so ny things wal-ma is looking toward to doing like helping peopllive better. but stly we're looking forward to helping build strger communities d relationships. because of your help, thbest is yet to co. nationwide insurance proudl supports tavis sley. tavis annationwide insurance, working to improveinancial literacy and the ecomic empowerment at comes with it ♪ nionwide is on your side ♪ ♪ and by contributionso your pbs station om viewers like you. thank yo

>> we are pbs.