--we're here with silicon valley c.e.o. her new book, "the watchman's rattle," and cassandra wilson is here. she's out with a new c.d., it is called "silver pony," it forties john legend. and coal train.

♪ [captioning made possible by kcet public television] >> rebecca is a former silicone valley c.e.o. she spent the last five years

retching her first text. it is called the watchman's rattle, thinking our way out of extinction. welcome. >> thank you for having me. >> this is one of the most fascinating books i had come across my desk for a long time. i wonder how to do justice to the book in a 12-minute conversation. i think the best way is to start with an exercise from the book that i think will properly contextualize what we could get done here in the next few minutes. let me read the quote. today the issues that threaten human existence are clear, a global recession, powerful pandemic viruses, terrorism, rising crime. depletion of the earth's resources and nuclear threats and education. it is true that we have never been in a better position to sir come vent a rhett pettive pattern of decline. this is a rattle in the dead of the night, a summons for help, a

plea to change the destruction of humans. given the smart people we have running things today and that can't navigate us out of this mess, why so much faith in the human brain? >> it is a good question. 151 years ago, charles darwin set the pace at which we could evolve new capabilities. although he may not have known it at the time, he also determined that civilizations could only progress as far as our evolutionry capabilities. so if that is the case, we will progress beyond the capabilities of our human brain. if that were the thing that was going on today, if it is the reason we're experiencing gridlock and washington d.c. and our own lifes, i don't know about you but in the recent mid

term election, i whacked into the voting booth and i had a heck of a time trying to understand all of the ballot measures. i felt guilty about the fact that i may cast a vote based on 30 second commercials. i noticed five of my neighbors all had the same lawn sign. i was tempted to cast my vote that way. if i'm that irrational, what kind of democracy do i expect to live in? if i'm going to act in a irrational way, we'll end up with irrational public policy. if we're hitting a cog knitive threshold that earlier civilizations hit, what could we do about it. that's the first third. the last third is to see if the mayans or the romans encountered some form of gridlock was based ct their problems compete -- exceeded the cog

knitive ability they developed. in fact i found that, i found that in the romans and the cam mir empire and the byzantine empire. when they reached the cog knitive threshold, two things occur. they become gridlock, unable to comprehend the situation and unable to solve their problems. then once they can't get access to fact, they begin shifting over to beliefs. they substitute their beliefs for facts. for example in the case of the mayans, as drought s got worse and worse, they completely abandoning building reservoirs and cisterns that they had been building for years and years and reverted completely to sacrifice to solve the drought problem. >> the question is, if we have the mental capacity to think our way out of this mess, why weren't we smart enough not to get caught up in the gridlock on the first side.

>> we didn't know the pattern. my book looks at battle of human chaps in a novel way based on biological science. we have gotten so far away from realizing that everyone of us is trapped in the same biological space suit. it doesn't matter if you throw the incumbents out. people with the same brain that you and i have are now moving into washington d.c., this is not a democratic or republican problem. >> i like to think we're smarter than some guys in washington. otherwise you just insulted me. >> well i don't want to do that. i i don't want to insult anybody but the fact is that -- it doesn't matter who is in washington d.c. relative to their cog knitive capabilities. things have become too complicated. they're too complex for the -- for the rate at which the brain has evolved to. when that happens you reach anem

pass. imagine being in the grocery store seeing 24 types of milk. on what factual basis do you buy milk? you buy what is based on emotions or what you had as a kid. now every one of those milks are a solution to the gulf oil spill or terrorism. in the gulf oil spill case, we weren't able to pick the best solution. all of the smart scientists phattered in washington d.c. and the first solution we picked was dropping a concrete box on the hole. 20 days hair, we found out that wasn't going to work. so then all of the smart people said that the next solution was to drill from the side, reheave the pressure in the oil and 20 days hair we found out that didn't work. fortunately for us the third solution static kill worked. imagine for a moment if that solution had been solution number 87.

>> i know you're not. i obviously had a chance to keep the book but if i'm a viewer watching you right now, i would say rebecca is a doomsayer. >> i'm not. i'm such an optimist, the first time in history since humans been on earth, we have the capability to look below the skull in the human brain. we're discovering in addition to solving problems using left and right brain that every now and again a small part of the human grain called the astg, about 3 00 milliseconds pf you have a break through lights up like a christmas tree. that's a process that neuroscientists are now calling insight. we have made so many discoveries about how to catch the brain up to complexity. for example, brain fitness tools. a lot of people don't know that we have taken 23,000 children out of jacksonville florida and given them 15 to 17 hours of brain fitness before they start school.

now we studied the kids for four years. >> brain fitness? >> video games designed to work the brain out before you accept new content. if you think about a marathon runner. he doesn't just put his tennis shoes on and run out and try to run a marathon. he's going to warm up eat a banana and peanut butter. he's got a ritual that he does before something difficult. in the same way brain fitness teaches the brain how to learn. it warms it up. when you give this to school children, these children in jacksonville florida, we have studied them for four years and they now have twice the academic achievement of children who had had no -- who had no brain fitness. you can't show me in education. i know education is a big top pick around this country. you cannot show me one thing that you can do that will achieve twice the academic fitness as brain fitness does.

yet, that is not even on the table relative to educational reform. >> what -- how much has to do with arrogance and elitism as much as a hack of brain fit? >> we're biological orgasms and come into the world with a jep et i think inheritance that our ancestors used to their survival. when food was scarce, those that hoarded best cheated, snuck food, those are the ones that survived. we're their descendants. with you think about it from a biological stan pinness you realize some of the attendance easies we havee about 80% of the tendancies we have because 80% of our d.n.a. is remarkably similar to our nearest an cesers the benobo monkey. but 0e% of us want to do what is in the way of modern progress.

cheating, hoarding, highing and taking over and fitting other groups that have different ideologies. that's inherited. we're a group species. you have a different ideology than me, as a group, we want to fight you and take you over. what do you think is going on with the democrats and the republicans? to me that's genetic inheritance. but 0% of our inheritance is our ability to look at these things rationally to september our biological origins and to say i know i have a urges to eat doughnuts and lay on the couch but urges to have -- to fight people that have different ideologies, we don't have to be that way, we can choose better. >> on that note, as i told you at the top, there's no way to do justice to this conversation. this book in a matter of minutes. i think you got a idea why wow want to pick up the book.

s can calledway the watchman eeth rattle qus. it is by rebecca who i have had on the program. up next, cassandra wilson. back to the program. the grammy wins jazz artist out with a new c.d. called silver pony. it was live at the recording if nurengs. also robby coal train. >> thank you for having me. tavis: pull up this cover again. you got to explain this cover. it is cute but -- you want to explain this? that's my first time. i was 4 1/2 years old and the

guy came to the neighborhood and would tick your picture. he they intended for my brother to take a picture on the pony. neither one wanted to do it. i begged her, please let me, i want to get on the pony because i love ponies. she said that's not something little girls ko. she sals said i you're too young and you'll be scared and all of these things. finally she acquiesced and let me take a picture. it was a big moment for me. tavis: 15 years later on the cover of the album. >> approximately. tavis: i'm glad you told the story, how does that weave its way these years later into an album cover? >> well, it is strange how things happen. it weaves its way because it is time. you know the photograph is always going to -- been a favorite of mine. every time i see it, it inspires me as i'm going through something different difficult, if there are obstacles.

i look at the photograph. it remind me of how i felt, very confident. assured, fearless. so this music is confident. it is fearless, it is improv vation with some of the greatest jazz musicians on the planet. >> i want to come back to some stuff here. tavis: you're a bold sister given what you covered. you were bold it make these choices. from a moment ago, about being confident, assured and fearless i think what was the order you put it in. has it always been the case during the career or are there moments thatent with out the window and that was the opposite? >> i think that's the part of the d.n.a. of a jazz mution mousse cision. you don't get had the music because you want to become a big star or you want to make a lot of money. you get into it because you are fearless and you want to experiment and explore. and that is part of being a jazz

musician. tavis: to the project itself. i joked about the stuff you chose to cover. you handled it, i won't call names but sometimes i sit on the set and i see people promote things they've covered. not long ago somebody was here. they're wonderful artists. i was like, you should have left that out. i wouldn't say it on the air. some things ought not to be touched. you were bold here, you got beatles on here. you got muddy waters on here. you got steve morris and stevie wonder on here. you going to tell about these choices and why you decided to touch that stuff. >> the first thing. this is my first time approaching stevie wonder because i do believe like you say, some folks -- you just can't mess with their music. stevie wonder is one of them. that's why it took me until -- however old i am to cover him music. his music is like the sound

track of my life growing up. i have all of his albums. i think he's an incredible genius and he has a stamp. that song the way it evolved in the stude joe. >> tavis: that is if it is magic. great song, nice tempo. you slow it down. it was already throw. -- show, you slowed it down. >> we took it to a dream space. it sits in the center of the whole project. it is almost as if it is a place we could go inside. it is a wonderful arrangement. the musicians are improvising. tavis: when you say it sits at the center of the project. i don't know if you mean that literally. tell me about it being the center of the pronl >> we're going in and out of different states of consciousness. the live musician and the studio

musician. that's the place inside of the whole project where -- where it is very e they will ral. i think it is meant to quiet the mind so that you could -- you know just enjoy the richness of the -- of the oral imans being painted. and that's why it is a great place for it to be. you know, it is almost like a respite, so you could relax and just meansed beatles earlier. paul mccartney. blackbird. >> that's a great song. it is my understanding that paul wrote this during the civil rights era. tavis: most folks downtown know. >> it is a very powerful piece. it sails a -- says a lot about how i feel about what we should be doing as a people right now. it is a brilliant song. lots of people have covered it. you know. but this is -- this is actually a treatment that i found maybe

about -- 10, 15 years ago that i use with another band and decided to bring it back and see what it would sound like with this one. tavis: you know i'm going to follow you this. that comment about what you think we ought to be doing as a people. is that millie socially, culturally. you going to unpack that? >> yeah. sure will. tavis: i'm waiting. the audience is listening. >> the song says, why don't you take your wings, why don't you take your wings and fly? there's so much that we have psychologically as a burden. we're carrying a lot of baggage as a people. and it is time for us to -- to -- to release that. and fly and to move on and be able to -- to build on what -- what you know, there's a brilliant path that has already been plade for it. all we to do is take the chance and go for it.

and i think there's so much that is holding us back psych hodgically, we have a lot of -- of emotional -- you know joy. she talks about -- the issues that we have, you know as a result of -- as a result of being enslaved. that -- that is something we need to come face-to-face with. acknowledge it. learn as much as we can about our history. study egypt. that's really important right now. we are so caught up in studying the bible. and we're so caught up in christianity, i think that's -- that's -- if i may say so, that's a large part of what is holding us back. tavis: okay. >> did i say that? tavis: let me reprieve that line since you went there, i'm going to follow you again. i'll follow you. i know exactly -- i don't want to be presumptuous, i think i know, becausely this discussion with myself and other friends of mine many times.

and i think i know exactly what you meant by that. so many of our people, say this quick. i'm a christian. i am in love with and i am a follower of the first century jew named jesus jesus. i grew up in a pentecostal church and i still believe that so many of us use our faith, we use the bible as a crutch and it doesn't allow us to -- to oftentimes think for ourselves, doesn't allow us to explore. we get stuck in this space although i believe in the living god. my personal opinion. we get stuck in the space. i think i hear what you're saying. question don't move beyond and learn and wrestle w-a explore more. is that you're saying? >> that's exactly right. we don't ask the good questions about the stories in the bible.

for one thing, this is something that i discovering recently, most -- moses is not -- there is no -- there was no moses. moses was actually an egypt's pharaoh as was solomon. all of the stories were rehashed. stories been taken out of egyptian history, rehashed and they're sold to us as stories about israel. this is not the truth. it is my opinion. all i'm sighing, is we need to do the research. you know, i -- i -- i have to say, i believe that jesus existed but i pleeven that -- we spend too much, we're too preoccupied with him. there's so much about our own culture that we -- we have yet to he were about -- about abby lincoln has a wonderful poe yes, ma'am. she said we're the african god.

we're the african gods. if young children are growing up and not learning about -- or seeing artwork that describes african spirituality, how do you expect them? >> i want to be cheer. you're for the suggesting. you and i both borne in mississippi, you in jackson and me in gulfport. we're from the south, and have those roots. you're not suggesting that a role of something bigger than us have played in us over the years. you're not casting aspersions on that? >> no. but this is a hidden part of the story that is also propelled us and helped us to -- to escape the bonds of slavery. there's another big picture in this that we don't know about and don't talk about. there's -- there's -- you know in terms of our spiritual system that is we brought to the united states, we don't even take a look at that.

we're taught that is evil. that anything that was invented by you know, or that was -- was practiced by -- by the -- the african -- west africans is evil. voodoo, that's the bad. you shouldn't mess with voodoo. why? tavis: we could spend hours debating this. my mamma is watching and wishes i would. my -- i only got so much time to take cassandra on. that said, i'm wondering how our rediscovery of this, what it is that you and so many others do so well. how our rediscovery of this, this art form bite bring us back into alignment and put us in greater harmony with those things that you think were missing. if jazz can't do that in some way i don't know what can. you tell me. >> that's a great question and

brilliant. thank you for asking it. there seems to be a rabid, intense -- movement to distance the blues from jazz. you & know as mississippiians this is a form that really comes from out of the delta. why -- why do we feel the need to separate these two forms? the blues not only informs jazz and helps to create jazz because new orleans is not an island, it is only 45 minutes from mississippi. right? so the blues feeds jazz and feeds rock and roll, it feeds country music. it feeds everything that we can think of that is american popular music. that's how we get the alignment is to not look at the separateness of the music but really look at how -- how this very important form that africans created has -- has now

gone all over the world. >> i always believed that the mark of a great conversation if i must say so, the mark of a great conversation is leaving you wanting more, for whatever reasons i suspect you want more of the conversation. i'm out of time. the good news is you could pick this up, bam, the new c.d. from cass sandra wilson, and the new stuff, the real good stuff. it is great stuff. you will not be disappointed and i never am whenever i pick up a c.d. that has your name on it. glad to have you here. that's the show for the night. thanks for tuning in. until next time, keep the faith. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. >> i'm tavis smiley join me next time for yolanda van sant.

and her new book's piece and broken pieces. all i know is he needs help with his reading. to everyone making a difference, you help us all live better. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every question and every answer, nationwide is proud to join tavis in working to improve financial hit raese and remove obstacles from economic empowerment. thank you. ♪