we have made progress. the economy is stronger and the financial system sounder. >> rose: the nomination of janet yellen follows a tense public selection process. believe that the president backed former treasurer lawrence summers for the post but summers withdrew his name from consideration last month in face of opposition from members of his own party in the senate. yellen would be the first woman to lead the u.s. central bank in it's 100 year history. joining us in a few minutes from washington, david leonhardt he's wash bureau chief from the "new york times," david wessel is the economic editor of "wall street journal." mark zandi joins us from moody's analytic and here in new york, roger altman chairman of evercore partners and served as deputy of the treasury under president clinton. i'm pleased to have all of them here to talk about the selection of janet yellen and what it means for fed policy. welcome. mark i begin with you. tell me about what she might be

like and how she might be different from ben bernanke. >> well i think she'll be fantastic. i think key to the fed gracefully exiting out of its quantitating policy and normalizing interest rates, the ability to communicate clearly to the marketplace. and that's what she's been working on at the fed. she's been working really hard on communication strategy and key to communication is building consensus. you need to have the consensus view around the committee. and i don't think there's anyone better than her at doing that so i think she's going to be very good fed chairman and transition very nicely away from the bernanke fed. so i think we're in good hands. i think we'll be in georgia shape. >> rose: transition away means what? >> well, it should be a seamless transition so that it's not disruptive to the financial markets, particularly in a very uncertain time given what's going on with fiscal policy and what's going on with washington. we need to have a seamless

transition between chairman bernanke and the new fed chairman yellen. i think they're all basically cut from the same cloth. they've been working together for so long i think they're on the same page so this should be a very seamless transition. again that's vital in the context of all the uncertainty that we're trying to grapple with. >> rose: roger, what do we know about her views on the economy and what we ought to do. >> her nomination of course which is historic, first woman ever to sit as chair of the federal reserve and i think we should celebrate that. >> rose: indeed. >> gives us a chance to step back and look at her record which is really remarkable in terms of how qualified she is. i doubt anyone has come into this position, charlie, who is more qualified by virtue of her existing service within the fed. twice by the way, not just currently. her stint is cea chair under president clinton. she's extra ordinarily qualified. markets of course welcome today. there's an element of expectation that the current level of quantitative easing may

continue a bit longer partly for some reasons of the weak data and partly because some people think she's slightly more dubish than chairman bernanke. we should keep in mind his term expires at the end of january for the next four months approximately he remains chairman of federal reserve board. and there may be some pretty important decisions to taper or not to taper, for example, over the next four months before she becomes the new chairman. >> rose: senator cork among those said originally she may be too dubish for him but i assume her confirmation will be easy. >> i think so. it may not be immediate because of all the other mild noise in washington but i don't think there's any issues with her confirmation. i think mark moot it -- put it sell it should be a seamless transition. she's vice chair of the board today. she's sitting one seat over in the committee room as far as the federal open market committee is concerned and the board of the

federal reserve. the interesting question is whether she'll take any different position, i don't know, on regulation and the pressure that the federal reserve has been putting on banks to shrink and whether the federal reserve's been tough on banks will she be the same as bernanke, will she be any different we don't know but that's an important question as her term begins. but in general, i think it's a strong appointment and as i said financial markets today welcomed it. there are other thing going on in addition to this today in markets, but it was a positive response. >> rose: it was said during the conversation about larry summers and janet yellen that janet yellen as defined by the "wall street journal" had the most accurate predictions of any of the people under consideration and a lot of other people. what do you make of that, mark. >> that's exactly right. i helped with putting some of that data together for the journal and went through the calculations quite carefully. it was very clear that she was far and away the most accurate member in terms of her forecast

on unemployment, on inflation and just reminds where her policy is headed. i think she did quite well leading up to the recession and housing collapse. she was very very skeptical about what's going on in the housing market much more so than other members. obviously the president said she doesn't had a crystal ball, i wish she had but if anyone's got something that comes close it feels like she's got a pretty good grip on the dynamics of the economy. and that's what we need for someone who is managing federal reserve. >> rose: i'm glad david wessel joined us. david, what do you make of this appointment. >> well, i think it's finally we have an appoint. it's a relief we don't have to write more stories when this is going to happen. i think we have an extraordinarily experienced person running the federal reserve. no one in my memory nominated for this job has spent nearly as much time thinking and practicing monetary policies as janet yellen. and i think she's getting a

really tough job. that ben bernanke wrote the first half of the textbook about modern monetary policy how you build your balance sheet metal over $3 trillion to fight recession and subsequent slow recovery. she's going to know how to find in the second half of the textbook how do you safely exit from that policy. >> rose: how long do you think it will take her to exit from that policy. >> i think that depends a lot on the economy. we know at the september meetig some people were already started exiting and she and ben bernanke were not. if you look at what happened since then, the chaos in washington, the fiscal grid lock the showdown over the debt ceiling looks like that was a pretty wise decision. i don't think she'll rush to the exit. i wouldn't be surprised if she'll be the one who gets to make the first move. and i suspect it will be very well telegraphed and explained because one thing they've learned at the federal reserve as hard as they try they have not explained themselves very well. >> rose: david, what would you add to this selection of janet yellen which we all

expected after larry summers withdrew. >> well we talk board of director this before charlie. the fed has made the same miss fake again and again over the last three years. too opt beenistic, too worried about inflation and not worried enough about unemployment. janet yellen is or worried about unemployment and she was more right. she wasn't more right about everything but she was more right about this. you would expect she would continue to push in that direction. what's going to be tricky is that the fed is changing and because of this regular rotation of regional bank presidents she's going to have a group of fellow voters who are less sympathetic with her than bernanke has had over the last year or two and that's going to be tricky. >> rose: tricky means. >> tricky means she's more likely to have defense. and one of the first things that a fed chairman would want to do early now in her term is really build some consensus and build some rerapport among the fed

voters. if she has to decide about building rapport or hurting the economy that's a hard choice and she would choose some defense. potentially look at someone who is not a consensus builder rather than move too soon but we'll have to find out. bernanke was overly affected by the fear of the defense and one of the reasons the fed has been too optimistic. if he was deciding policy by himself i think it would have been a little bit better over the last few years than it was. >> rose: good point. >> it's interesting that these dissents are relatively a new. we never saw any of those under alan greenspan and bernanke was very passive or laid back, whatever, in terms of accepting often dissenting statements in public by members of the federal overall market committee and regional bank presidents. it will be interesting to see if that habit continues under chairwoman yellen or whether it doesn't.

it's not a long standing tradition within the federal reserve. >> rose: david leonhardt one point. my understanding and you know a lot more about this than i do. my understanding was that ben bernanke was very very sensitive toward the unemployed and wanted to see a policy and argued for policy that reduced the unemployment rate. >> he was and he was on that end of the debate at the fed along with janet yellen. but two things. one, even though he was very sensitive to that, he still was optimistic. he was looking at the glass half full. and two i think he was really worried about the politic of the fed and i think we had with the very rest of right flank, people who affected his policy and he didn't venture of a left flank a dubish or unemployment phalange. january he wasn't giving speeches about the fed too concern about the inflation but you have the hawks giving

speeches that they weren't concerned enough. i think that affected bernanke and one of the reasons why the fed has been behind. >> rose: here's what janet yellen said in a recredible speech. it's entirely perfect to taking center stage and determining the committee's policy stance. >> yes. i mean look janet yellen is not a spur dub. she's worried about inflation. she's shown that over the course of her career. she's close to bernanke. the differences here are ones certainly of degree and if anything they would get oversphaitd on a day like today. >> rose: david did i hear you, either of the davids. >> i think david leonhardt is right that ben bernanke tried very hard and was very patient at trying to forge a consensus. there actually is a left flank at the fed, eric rosengrin in boston and charlie evans in chicago is pretty outspoken that the fed hasn't done enough.

same way in minneapolis. one thing to remember is she will have a different cast. there are now with ben bernanke's departure two vague steaz -- vacancies and perhaps more. the president will get another two shots to put people who might be allies of herses on the board in washington and at least one of the presidents in cleveland is stepping down so she'll have a different group of people to work with. as david implied she'll be more of an aggressive leader, a little more message discipline in the federal than in the cacaphony. >> when they were making this decision there wasn't much of one. >> in defense of chairman bernanke he had to create policy out of whole cloth. quantitative easing was borne out of the bernanke fed. this zero interest rate policy borne out of the bernanke fed.

when you make those kinds of policy changes they're very dram dramatic and they create a lot love conflict and dissention. given that uncertainty it was appropriate for him to be somewhat cautious in implementing those things and not being as of aggressive as he might otherwise have been. now we have some time under our belt and we have a better understanding how these policies work i guess that does allow chairman yellen to be full throatd and make sure we're off and running before she begins to tighten monetary policy. >> rose: wall street and other markets will react how. >> well today the market reacted favorably. the stock market moderately, not hugely. bond market pretty stable. and i think to some degree, and i talked to a couple of market participants before coming over here, to some degree people in the market think she's going to be slightly more dubbish,

quantitative might continue longer on her watch had bernanke continued indefinitely. we'll see if that's true or not, i'm not sure it's true but that's a feeling in the market today and the market likes that. there's a degree of addiction to quantitative easing which has its own problems but the market likes that. and second of all just as david wessel said, resolving the uncertainty. finally we get the know -- nomination in a sense she'll be readily confirmed. there's a group of republicans going to the whitehouse to talk about resolving the set limit and that's pushing the markets up today. >> rose: where are we on the issue of the debt ceiling with the president meeting with some republicans and some democrats at the white house. where are we and is there any change after the president's press conference and after the conversations that have taken place about, you know, who goes first. >> you're going to have to say which david you want.

>> rose: go ahead david wessel. i only refer to david leonhardt because we had recently talked about it. go ahead. >> i'm glad to know that roger says a small ray of hope. i'm sure david leonhardt would agree with me that the closer you are to this thing the uglier it looks. >> i do. >> so something will have to happen in the next ten days or so. but it's not happening yet. the politicians are spending an awful lot of time talking to the press and to columnists and not talking to each other. they don't seem to have found a negotiating strategy that will get them to yes. i think it's better that they're talking at the whitehouse and i do think the republican leadership does not want to drive us over the debt default cliffs, does not want to take this to the point of default. but it looks to me like they're going to take it almost as far to the edge of the cliff as they can hoping that will give them more leverage with the president. >> i agree with david. there's not a lot of reason for optimism at this point.

however, i think you can start to see the outlines of the deal that way that you couldn't a few days ago. now that the republicans are not talking as much about repealing obamacare which obama just cannot do. and they're instead talking about long term deficit reduction. you could imagine a deal that includes reopening the government probably, dealing with the debt ceiling certainly in the short term maybe even in the longer term and then you set up some kind of deficit commission that doesn't even need to succeed. the problem with the deficit commission succeeding is the only way you get a grand bargain is a combination of spending cuts and revenue increases. if republicans say we will not agree to any revenue increases then you can't have a long term deficit deal either but maybe you can have a commission that can investigate it and that will be enough of an out that the republicans will be willing to raise the debt ceiling. >> charlie, it seems to me that we're not going to get a deal until financial markets really start to sell off. i mean, i don't know that they're going to really feel the pressure unless they see stock prices falling on a daily basis

and bond yield starting to rise. so i think that's a precondition for it. the thing that makes me most nurse -- nervous is the stock market isn't nervous enough we need to see more from the market and people. >> rose: why is that. >> it's too far off from market deadlines. it's more to october 17 and november 1st it may be all the way to november 1st by standards of the market that's a ways off. i don't think mark, you have to worry. if we actually get to the true edge of default, in other words people in the market think we might really miss an interest payment or a principal payment. the market will put tremendous pressure on washington. >> rose: thank you very much. >> , david, david, mark, and roger. >> thank you very much. >> it's to serve american people and too many americans still can't find a job and worry how

they'll pay their bills and provide for their families. the federal reserve can help if it does its job effectively. >> rose: we continue now from berkley california with christina romer she's the former head of the council of economic advisors and it ought to be said she knows janet yellen well. a fellow academic, what else do you think will serve janet yellen importantly in this important position? >> well you know, i mean there's so much that's important about her. i think one of the things that goes with being an academic is a flexibility of mind. what's always impressed me about janet is she doesn't just stick to one idea, she's always saying am i missing something, is there some other idea that might be right here, is there more research we need to do. and i think in these kind of times when monetary policy is much more complicated and changing so rapidly, that kind of flexibility and watching the data and watching the new

research as it comes through, i think will serve her incredibly well. it's important to be a teacher. we know now that the fed chair plays an incredible role in communication, and there's so much, i think distrust of the fed among the american people that to have fed chair who can go out there and talk to them and are frank and approachable way i think could be very very beneficial. and that's something that comes from being one of the best teachers here on the berkley campus. >> rose: okay. i'm going to ask you some questions everybody asked and we asked them again of different people because they come at these answers from different perspectives. how is she different from ben bernanke? in terms of her economic philosophy, her use of monetary policy, and her use of the sort of tools that ben bernanke has been using. >> so i think there's certainly

a lot of continuity with chairman bernanke so i think had he do share a pretty similar world view and i think a similar concern about both inflation and unemployment. i think she might be somewhat bolder. so many people will say the first word out of their mouth on janet is she's so nice. she's also tough and i would expect her to make forceful arguments and to be pushing for perhaps some different policies as she thinks she sees fit. but i think comment newity new- continuity is the order of the day. she's an architect of a lot of the policies the fed has been following so far so i expect a lot of those same policies to continue. >> rose: what do you think her analysis of what the economy needs today is? >> well i think it's in many ways kind of obvious in the sense that if you look at the

numbers, what's true is inflation is coming in below what the fed thinks is a normal healthy level and unemployment is certainly well above what we think is a normal sustainable level. so for both the thing the fed's supposed to care about, say you should be doing more to help the economy, not you should be dialing back the help that monetary policy is providing. i would think that is the perspective that she's had and i think she will continue to bring. i'm sure like the rest of the fomc or the policy-making committee she's going to be looking at the government shut down. and all of the up ro that's causing in financial markets and consumer confidence. that's something elf the fed will need to be trying to countered act. >> rose: our economy is doing a lot better than other economies around the world and has potential, but nevertheless, our gdp growth rates are lower than many people had hoped for. and there's some prediction out from the imf suggesting not as

much as people had hoped for. the question is, what policies might she articulate and push for to create growth in the economy? >> well, the big picture is she'll be pushing for policies that are appropriate for the situation that we face. >> rose: which are. >> which is certainly continued high unemployment and inflation that is very well controlled. there's a lot of talk you know janet yellen's a dove and the truth is inflation is off these days. low inflation were good. i have no doubt if inflation were a problem janet would be out there fighting very strongly. i think she rightly has said in the world we're in today unemployment is the bigger problem. you know, i can imagine doing just something very concrete and this is not based on any inside information but the fed, you know, is trying to communicate to markets we're going to keep

interest rates low for a long time. they could strengthen that guidance. they could say we're going to keep them low, not until just unemployment comes down below six and-a-half percent but maybe six percent or even lower than that. that would be a concrete way the fed could move towards giving more clarity and reassuring markets that they're going to be supporting growth for quite a while. >> rose: christina romer thank you for joining us, it's always good to see you. >> it's always good to talk with you. >> rose: we'll be right back. stay with us. ♪ >> rose: sting is here. he is a singer and songwriter and some say music legend. he and his band achieved start up in the 1980's. he continues with a prolific

solo career has a song in the most four decades and had sold more than 4 million albums. it is titled the last ship and the record is set in sting's home of england and settle a basis of a musical. the last ship will make its world premier in chicago in 2014, june 2014. it will then go on to broadway. i'm pleased to have sting back at this table or certainly back in this room. welcome. >> good day. >> rose: good to see you. >> thank you. >> rose: eight years. what was going on? >> you know, i make my living as a songwriter but i went through one of those fallow periods where the songs simply weren't coming, the inspiration wasn't coming, the juice wasn't flowing, the juju had gone, i don't know. i have always said if you have nothing to say just shut up i think is always a good point. but i was starting to worry a

little bit. and then i decided that i was getting in the way, that it was a certain amount of naval gazing that goes on, kind of inward looking constantly. and i was just sick of me. it was all me, me, me. so i wonder if there was something to do with my background, if i could write a dramatic piece based on where i come from. i come from quite an extraordinary town in england. the bottom of my street, we lived in the shadow of the shipyard where we built the biggest ships in the world. and my earliest memories of looking at the end of the street and seeing this mountain of steel blotting out the sky and the sun for most of the, and then they'd launch a ship. that was kind of apocalyptic event for a young child to witness, very frightening. one of the songs i call it the noise at the even of the world. i watched thousands of men go to

work. my father was aship right and my father built turbines for ships. i wondered if that my destiny. i didn't want it to be. the shipyard was a frightening place. i thought i would write for other voices, other viewpoints from my own, other characters, the songs flowed very very quickly. this came thick and fast. i think i described them as coming like kind of a projectile. and so i was very happy that that had happened, and had maybe 35 songs that came in that period. >> rose: is that the way it felt before you went into that fallow period, things would just sort of come like a projectile. >> sometimes you go through periods where songs can come very fast. i'm used to these periods. sometimes you have to be on input before you can be on output. so it's a normal thing. you can't just produce songs all the time. >> rose: how does this fit

into the idea of which many artists have said whether they were in music or whether in literature or whether in painting, that what you have to do if you were an artist is go to work every day. you can't wait for a muse to come and inspire you. >> i wasn't idle. >> rose: you were a tour. >> i was on tour. i also made albums and immersed myself in the compositions of other composer. >> rose: you did the loop. >> i did a loop tower and recorded some classical music. i was learning the whole time and i was ingesting the musical theory, harmony if you'd like. i wasn't sitting idle. but the songs weren't coming but i think all of that work i did paid dividends but i did eventually start work. >> rose: did you have confidence it would come back. >> no, you never have confidence. you always imagine that this is the last song you are ever going to write. i think that's a very good place to be, it keeps you humble and keeps you learning.

>> rose: when did you know it was a musical play? when did you know this is more than simply a collection of songs inspired by my childhood? >> well, you know, it isn't music until it's had its first opening night. one doesn't know. >> rose: so chicago will tell you. >> chicago will tell me a lot. it meals like a musical. there are people getting very excited by the workshops we do and the performances we've done. but you know, it's a long shot. it's a musical long shot. >> rose: you've chosen good collaborators. >> i've chosen the best. i have amazing collaborators. i said why this. and they said well this is special. most musical programs are properties that people already know. this is something original and new. so it's a long shot. >> rose: you sat down with this guitar. >> i wrote most of it on this little guitar. i sat in the corner of the room and doodled for a while. >> rose: what comes first?

>> in this case the lyrics came first a lot of stories. >> rose: you remember those stories. >> there were people i knew who i wanted to write b there were people i made up that were both and once i started on the journey, the guitar was just there, my friend. we had these conversations together. >> rose: how many young sinners were there in wellson. >> how long singers are there in my town? >> rose: did you grow up with a lot of young kids that were so inspired by music? >> i suppose we were all, my generation were inspired by the beatles who came from a similar town, liverpool is a similar working class town in the north of england. the beatles conquered the world with their songs so they gave whole generation of people ten years younger permission to try the same thing. it worked out for some of us. i'm happy to say and grateful that i was one of those people. >> rose: but when you were there as a young man growing up there as a kid growing up there, did people come and say you

should be singing because you've got, you know, perfect pitch, you've got a great voice, you know, you've got beauty. >> there were no real cludes -- clues as to how you would get out of town. my father would have been happy for me to get a job. when i did become a music he wasn't quite sure it was a real job even to his last days. he may be right. >> rose: i don't know if television's a real job either. he said what is it you do, you go talk on television that's not a job. >> yes. >> rose: but you were inspired by the beatles, inspired by the fact you had talent and there was a story of the queen mother rolling up in a rolls royce. >> they would invite everybody

and they got very excited when the queen or the queen mother would come. i remember standing there with my mother with my little british flag and the car was rolling slowly in a stately fashion and she picked me up. she waved at me. >> rose: eye contact. >> it was definitely eye contact, i promise you. and i felt that being kind of infected with an idea and the idea was that i didn't want to be on the street. i didn't want to end up on the shipyard. i wanted to be in hat car. >> rose: in that rolls royce. >> yes, exactly. >> rose: so what was it, music was the road out. >> you know, i was left the guitar at the edge of seven by an uncle to immigrated to canada and it had four strings. i recognized it as my friend and potential route of escape. i didn't speak for years i just sat and played this guitar. >> rose: developed your skills naturally. >> you know, i always thought music was an obsessive compulsive disorder. it has a very positive effect

but do you play scales -- >> rose: it's brain connected too probably. >> it's brain connected, it made me smarter actually, the guitar made me smarter. >> rose: so how did you get out? >> well, i started at school. i got a scholarship to a grammar school in england and it taught me latin and french. a little bit of philosophy. and i was kind of strange for my community because i wear a school uniform. and the other kids i went to school with all left school at 15 and i went on to college and whatever. so i kind of became separated from them. and i've done a lot of work to escape and it's funny how at a certain point in your life you realize you want to go back at least in your imagination to try and figure out who you are. >> rose: but there's something about you, with all the success of the police, you wanted to go solo and you've always had a sense of looking beyond it seems to me where you are. >> you know, i think being -- >> rose: unease. >> being in a rock group is like

being in a teenage gang. you don't really want to be in a teenage gang in your 50's or your 60's. >> rose: have you talked to jagger about this. >> it's not for me, i don't want to be in a teenage band, i wanted, for me i want everyone's role in my life to be very very clear. just makes life easy. >> rose: how did you talk mantella and josh logan into joining you. did they see the possibilities of them. >> i drew up a list of the top people and joe mantella and josh were up there. i didn't think in a million years they would ever entertain the idea and they both volunteer. logan was at the top of his game. he said why have you done this he said my father was a shipyard worker. this story i need to tell. i understand the dynamic between fathers and sons it's a perennial struggle, i need to

tell this story. joe said look i saw your first workshop and i have no idea where it's going and it's unfor me to be so intrigued by a story. normally i'm looking at the beverly hills cops the musical i know where it's going. the last ship, wow this is something new. >> rose: how do you collaborate with them? >> it's interesting. because i don't collaborate very much. my songs are sacrosanct. you can't be in the play you're not telling the story quickly enough. >> rose: it's a very different form. >> so it's painful and novel for me but also i realize i'm in very very safe hands here. i'm very happy about that. we have arguments and there are debates but the show is morphing all the time, characters are

morphing. i'm doing something at the moment not as a revenge or graveyard but an alternative universe where these songs may or may not end up. >> rose: that's the album. >> that's the album idea. >> rose: and the story obviously it's about the shipyard, it's about the town, it's about the last ship, it's about what happens to a place. >> well it's rooted in social history and what's happened that economics trumped community. i thought perhaps the man could build a yard sp for themselves. this is the idea of the priest who sees the effect on the community, the negative effect and he wants to help. go and build a ship, build it for yourselves and sail away. >> rose: that's great. >> it's a homerric idea. it's just a gesture, a statement.

>> rose: that's the idea that drives the story. >> that's the idea that drives the story. >> rose: who are your characters. >> i have the love story is a man called giddeon who left the town 14 years ago under a cloud. he ran away at sea. he comes back to deal with his father's death. >> rose: is that you? >> is that me? parts of me. >> rose: you have the choice of the name. >> the name is pretty close to my home. that was unconscious i promise you. there's a girl called meg who he left 14 years ago and she's the real reason he comes back whether he admits it or not. he has to deal with that, he has to deal with the estrangement from the community and help the man basically get the ship out of the river and out to sea which he does unwillingly but then he joins in. so there's all kinds of little strands and the struggle between him and his father. >> rose: i can see the ship in a broadway stage already. >> it would be hard to really,

the scale of these ships was etty amazing. we'll see. i would like it done with acting rather than mechanical. >> rose: you can do it. >> in the public theatre we do it with film, with projection which is very effective but i'm not sure how we're going to do it. i just don't want it to be usually expensive production, i really don't. i want it to be able to be performed one day in school with a guitar in a classroom. that for me would be an ideal. >> rose: and when they hear it, what is the story you wanted them to hear about that ship. >> i want them to be moved by something. beyond their experience. and yet i think the universal themes within that would be recognized almost everywhere. in the mid west and places like detroit. >> rose: what are the themes. >> the themes what happens to a community when you take away the

reasons for being there in the first place. these men built things. they built palpable things with their hands and can look at. we don't anymore. >> rose: so having nothing to do with their own skills or lack of, having nothing to do with how hard they worked, everything is lost. >> you become alienated, you know. a sense of self, who we are as men and women. >> rose: does this reflect the political philosophy as well. >> i think you have to have economics bulb they need to be balanced by community. without a community to buy what you're producing, it's not a balance so we need community to look after community but we also need economic, it's a balance. >> rose: is there any religion in this. >> there's bags of religion. i was brought up in the irish catholic community. and, yes, there are. priest is more of the liberation than the right wing. >> rose: exactly. god would want you workers to rise up.

is that the idea? >> yes. he's very much to the left wing of the church as i remember it in the 50's and 60's. >> rose: are you still a practicing catholic. >> no, no i'm not. i'm a devout musician. >> rose: that's your religion. >> that's my spiritual path. >> rose: what is it like, the connection that lives within you. >> music for me is a mystery. it's a constant journey to understanding and you never get to the end of harmony. it's what i use and will continue to use. >> rose: we do a story about the brain and one of the things that fascinates me is the connection between the music and the brain, a whole interesting thing. the imagery what you can see within the brain as sound and sight effective. >> i took part in a scientific

and they use more of their brain to process music than people do which is interesting. in fact i can't have a conversation when there's any kind of music playing. it's a curse. if there's music in a restaurant, i can't have a conversation, i have to process the music first. >> rose: really. >> really. i prefer silence. i don't believe music. >> rose: so if you're in a restaurant ... do you really. >> yes. at least to a level that is not too obtusive. >> rose: do you understand why some of us who are not musicians and others are. >> no, no i don't. i mean i'm grateful i'm a musician. >> rose: do you understand, was music in the house? your mother listened to broadway

tunes, didn't she. >> my mother had all rogers and hammer stein and my fair lady and west side story so i played those records to death and i learned a lot of harmony from listening to richard rodgers. i steal from the best. >> rose: all artists steal in a sense because you're soaking up what's around you and it inspires you and therefore you give voice to whether it's through painting or through literature. you're giving voice to what you're hearing so you're stealing from what you're hearing. >> interpreters. originality is very rare commodity. >> rose: this is what you told me in -- >> oh no. >> rose: this is you. so what are you writing now? >> what am i writing? i embarked on a project that both excites me and terrifies me. i'm trying to write a musical

play with a playwright called bryan yorkie who just won the pulitzer for a play called next to normal. >> rose: right. >> and it's based upon an album i did many years ago about my home town new castle in the north of england, the death of my father and the death of the industry which is ship building. and it's a mood piece and i'm trying to make it into a book and a play. and it's terrifying. i wake up in the middle of the night in cold sweat thinking what am i doing, how am i going to do this at the same time and very galvanized by it. >> rose: that was at the beginning of the process. >> i knew what i was embarking o it wasment going to be easy at all. >> rose: do you feel now i've got it, somehow some way, we've got it. >> i think we're on the journey to getting it. >> rose: are you up to speed. >> we're certainly up to speed.

i mean par for the course of producing a musical is usually five to ten years. we've got this far very very quickly. it may be good may be bad, i don't know. i'm just very cautious, very cautious. >> rose: have you always been that way? >> no. >> rose: no. i didn't think so. i mean the impression i've had of you always the is a certain confidence in your own exploration. >> i'm confident about that but i also am interested in the medium. this medium is very hard. >> rose: musical theatre. >> musical theatre is very difficult. i don't expect to walk in and have all the answers, i don't. i'm humble. >> rose: how is it different now than it was the last time we spoke in terms of the collaboration, in terms of the fact that it is now being performed? >> every time you get to a hurdle and you bring more and more people into your confidence into your sense that you're doing something right, you feel better and better and better. and every day we put this in you

front of an audience and they applaud the and they cheer and they tell me what they think. i feel vindicated and i feel we're on the right track. but it's a journey, and you know we still have a ways to go. >> rose: is perfection at the end of the journey or is it just a point. >> you never get perfection. >> rose: suppose i could take this, suppose that i knew you and you came to me and you said you know a lot of people. here is something about my growing up, it is about memory, it is about religion, it is about the economy, it is about what happens to a place when it loses its economic vitality. what happens to the lies, you know. and here it is. could i go take this music and take it to someone and they could simply take it and say it's easy. we might tell a story you've got the music we know your story, we can see, feel and hear it, you know. all we have to do now is figure

out how to stage it. could they do that with just this? is this the work of a musical theatre right here. >> that's the material that's being coffered. >> >> rose: this is the core of it. >> it has a heart. >> rose: exactly. this is the beating heart of this thing. >> it needs to have arms and legs. >> rose: yes but this is the great leap forward. >> without the heart there's nothing. >> rose: yes, exactly. but then isn't that at least half the journey to have the heart? >> there would be no point in carrying on with the journey if there was no heart beating. >> rose: this is the great, this is obviously without this there's nothing clearly. >> absolutely. >> rose: it just seems to me to listen to you and see the passion you have and to hear the songs to know what they're about, you know. you really, that takes you a long way. >> absolutely. you know my daughter came the other day to our performance of

these songs and she said dad i understand more about you now than i've ever understood. and i cried. that's what she said. >> rose: she could understand more. did she a lab rate. >> she didn't need to elaborate. she said she understood me and who i am. i was very grateful for that. >> rose: we had a thing happen today on a morning program and it was about frank gary the great architect doing a thing called a note to my younger self at which his age now 84 with enormous success and he grew out of being from an artist to architecture writing about it and he just in the story he talked about his parents. and he sent me a note this afternoon saying how moved he was. it's the sense of as an adult being reconnected to the

beginning, and seeing his parents, that kind of thing. >> i think you know sometimes are you stuck in the past. i would say no, but the more you version the past the more nuanced and interesting a landscape it becomes and then you see hidden logic, you see reasons that you didn't see before. it's a fascinating landscape. and it's who i am now. the decisions i make now as an adult, are very much formative in those first few years who you are why i think why i believe what i believe what i say. >> rose: did you have to go back and walk the streets. >> my street is no longer there. my street was knocked down at the same time as the shipyard and they found a roman army camp underneath. where i lived is now an archaeological dig. >> rose: wow. and in your own evolion where

you put this. >> this is just the latest in my evolution. i'm a work in progress and always will be. >> rose: thank you. great to see you. >> thank you. >> rose: this is musical theatre coming to chicago. and i guess june 2014. and then in the fall, clearly coming to broadway, the last show, sting. here now a wonderful opportunity to have sting perform the last ship here in this stood joe. ♪ it's all there and the dark

just carries out ♪ tell me where are you going lord and why in such a haste ♪ don't hinder me woman, i've no time to waste. they're launching a boat tomorrow at noon. and i have to be there before day break ♪ oh, i cannot be missing, the lads will expect me. why else would the good lord himself resurrect me for nothing will stop me ♪ i have to prevail through the teeth of this tempest in the mouth of a gale.

may the angels protect me if all else should fail when the last ship sails. oh the roar of the chains and the cracking of timbers. the noise at the end of the world in your ears ♪ as a mountain of steel makes its way to the sea. and the last ship sails. ♪ it's a strange kind of beauty, it's cold and austere. and whatever it was that you've done to be here. it's the sum of your homes your december payers and your fears. when the last ship sails. ♪ well the first to arrive saw

these signs in the east like that strange moving finger at baltazar's feast. where they asked the advice of some wandering priest and the sad ghosts of men whom they'd thought long deceased. and whatever got said, they'd be counted at least when the last ship sails. oh the roar of the chains and the cracking of timbers. the noise at the end of the world in your ears. as a mountain of steel makes its way to the sea and the last ship sales ♪ and whatever you'd promised whatever you've done and whatever the station in life you've become. in the name of the father, in the name of the son. and whatever the weave of this

life that you've spun. on the earth or in heaven or under the sun ♪ when the last ship sails. oh, the roar of the chains and the cracking of the timber. the noise at the end of the world in your ears. as the mountain of steel makes its way to the sea, and the last ship sails. captioning sponsored by rose communications captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

>> margaret: hi, i'm margaret richard. body electric is next. >> ♪ i sing the body electric, i celebrate the me yet to come. ♪ >> margaret: let's celebrate our continued commitment to health, fitness, and vitality. please join me for a workout to one of my favorite shows from the past. whether you're new to our family or one of the friends, i extend

a warm welcome. hey, fitness becomes you! ♪ i toast to my own reunion, when i become one with the ♪ sun. >> announcer: welcome to body electric. today, we'll be working on the abdominals, the outer thighs, and inner thighs. we'll also be doing some push-ups and working the biceps. for today's workout, you'll need a mat and some weights. and now, from beautiful seaside, florida, here's your host margaret richard. >> margaret: hi, friends, and welcome to body electric. i'm here with the body electric players, they are jane and kenya, and have i seen you before? i certainly hope so. so come on and join us. we're going to warm it up. and we're going to start with a little homage to the sun. here we go. and reach. and press. and reach.

and let's open the chest. open the back. try not to arch the back. kind of tuck under. exaggerate the movement. a few more. side to side. the rib cage is moving side and side. get ready. we're going to reach to the side. and reach. reach. other side. let's exaggerate the moves a

little. other side. up. make it long. and down. okay, now we're going to hold it, and press the hips back. make sure that your center is over the center. our theme this year is going to be "form over function." that's what counts is that you do it right. hold in your abdomen. other side... and stretch. press the hip back so you get a good stretch in the back of the leg. okay, turn to the side. come on. we're going to reach up... up and back. and up... and back. let's make it faster, so it's one... and two.

let's take it to the other side. up and back. let's speed it up. up... back for two. really press into it. you warmed up yet, jane? we know kenya's warmed up, because she's a hot chick. ( laughter ) sorry. side to side. okay, it's going to be just a wonderful experience, particularly if you're with us, so please join us.