presidents from george washington to james monroe frequented its landmark gadsby tavern. colin woodard, thanks for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> warner: you write in this book that the map of the united states that we hold in our heads and the regions that we refer to, to describe our differences -- north, east, or midwest-- are really, you say, not only meaningless but really misleading. how so? >> it's because the regions we usually use, we think of those regions, they all follow state boundaries and the state boundaries, in understanding the real cultural fissures and fractures in our country, are almost irrelevant. the fractures don't facility state boundaries. origins of these cultures go way back to the early colonial period and spread out without regard to the boundaries. if you want to understand the real power that regionalism has over our politics or or history you have to have a new map because the current one is insufficient to understand it and be a base for us to analyze. >> warner: so you're saying the countries-- our colonial era, which this r

we have a virginia and a maryland and different places and monroe after president james monroe, so we do have a rich history and one lie -- liberia woman put it in a nice context, liberia, america's stepchild. yeah. >> i'm always interested when there is the kind of stories that has been so long lasting, was so long lasting in liberia of the conditions that may have made that possible. would you speak to that, please? >> well, when the slaves came to liberia, the indigenous people like any other place where you have indigenous people, and it's ironically i'm speaking about it here in california with your own history, where welcoming of the free slaves. they give them their land. they make them comfortable, and something that is typical of abused people is they don't know how to show gratitude. the only life they knew was the life of abuse, so what happened to them on the plantation was what they had against the indigenous people when they got very powerful, so we have segregated schools. we had -- erveg -- everything that people had for 100-plus years, indigenous people were the slave

trumpeting sex across the atlantic, so is marlon brando, so is montgomery clift, so is james dean and so is marilyn monroe. and somewhere it seems a little beat behind the band a bunch of actors at pinewood are trying to meet it somewhere in the middle being ve thrilled. i know no one was more thrilled than olivier to arrive at thooet roe airport without a standstill because marilyn had rived and one of the tsions in the middle of the film is that that is both exciting and also they don't want to talk to me. so... so you get something basic to do with the clash of a certain... >> rose: there's some understanding of what superstardom means, doesn't it? >> he had a hint of it himself but he was going through a source of... in his own writings he seems on the candid about it. he was going through a mid-life crisis and he looked to marilyn to rescue him and in a strange way she might well have done. but not on this movie. and th results and tension is what in the end became just so irresistible to play in addition to what michelle was saying about the treasure trove of material that as an acto makes you nervo

monroe. >> i've always liked moments in time or the creative process. "finding neverland" was about how did peter pan get written. and jamesver do like bios, from cradle to the grave. so i read this book, called "the prince and the showgirl." and then in 2002, the author wrote about a missing week, which is -- which when he was 23 and marilyn was 30, he said he spent a romantic week with marilyn monroe and i found that concept irresistible. and it's fun and entertaining. but through the snapshot, you really learn a lot about her. >> well, she was on her honeymoon with arthur miller when this weekend happened with this other man. >> yes. she had a fight with arthur mill e which you see in the movie. she's there at the house, and he writes in his notebook how difficult it is to be with her. and she wants to be a good wife. but he leaves in a bad way and he does something terrible to her, and, you know, she becomes vulnerable to this charming young man. >> so this secret week he saved for so many years and now we find this -- what kind of side of her? what do we learn about her that's -- unexpected? >> i think that you learn

monroe, but what new do we find out? >> i've always liked moments in time or the creative process. "finding neverland" was about how did peter pan get written. and jamesike bios, from cradle to the grave. so i read this book, called "the prince and the showgirl." and then in 2002, the author wrote about a missing week, which is -- which when he was 23 and marilyn was 30, he said he spent a romantic week with marilyn monroe and i found that concept irresistible. and it's fun and entertaining. but through the snapshot, you really learn a lot about her. >> well, she was on her honeymoon with arthur miller when this weekend happened with this other man. >> yes. she had a fight with arthur miller, which you see in the movie. she's there at the house, and he writes in his notebook how difficult it is to be with her. and she wants to be a good wife. but he leaves in a bad way and he does something terrible to her, and, you know, she becomes vulnerable to this charming young man. >> so this secret week he saved for so many years and now we find this -- what kind of side of her? what do we learn about her that's unexpected? >> i think that you learn that norma