ladies and gentlemen we will begin with midge decter. >> can you hear me? i never live at peace with this technology. it is difficult for me to tell you adequately just how delighted i am to be here on this occasion, especially here in new haven, where i have not been since sometime in the winter of 1970 on a few days visit. from the sights and sounds i will tell you has never quite lets me. vacation i'm seeking of took place what was either the first or second year, i can't remember anything and i certainly can't remember that. [laughter] the first or second year that young women had first been accepted as undergraduates in this school. and as you may not made not now break into imagine, because things have progressed so happily, the interest in the presence of these new female students on this campus was, it is no exaggeration to say, both deep and wide. i have been invited by yale to spend some time here as a visiting journalist, which meant in my case that i was then working as an editor on a certain national monthly magazine which had recently, with no

>> guest: midge decter. my mother wrote a book in 1976 called "liberal parents, radical children", the dedication to which was "to my children, man the lifeboats." my father, who is a writer named norman podhoretz, who has published many books and is the editor of commentary magazine, wrote a book in 1967 called "making it", which is dedicated to me and my sisters. the dedication says, "to whom this is in many ways is a letter." so my dedication says, "this book is in no way a letter to you." todd lindbergh, who is my closest friend, is the editorial page editor of the washington times and the person who most had to suffer -- besides me -- through the gestation of this book, which, as any first-time writer can tell you, is a nightmarish experience for the writer and probably an even worse nightmare for the friend of the writer. c-span: is this your first book? >> guest: it is my first book, yes. c-span: what do your parents think of it? >> guest: they like it, so they tell me. they seem to like it very much.

we'll begin with mitch decter -- midge decter. >> can you hear me? i never live in peace with these, this technology. it's difficult for me to tell you adequately just how delighted i am to be here on this occasion. especially here in new haven, where i have not been since sometime in the winter of 1970, on a few days' visit. whose sights and sounds i will confess to you have never quite left me. the occasion i'm speaking of took place during what was either the first or second year -- i can't remember anything, and i certainly can't remember that -- that young men were first accepted as undergraduates in this school, and as you may not by now begin to imagine, because things have progressed happily, the interest in the presence of these knew female students on the campus was, it is no exaggeration to say, both deep and wide. i'd been invited by yale to spend some time here as a visiting journalist, which meant in my case, that i was then working as an editor on a certain national monthly magazine, which had recently, with no more than a mild degree