stephen kotkin is professor of history and international affairs at princeton university and maria murillo is a professor of science at columbia and is also serving as director for the institute of latin american studies. without further ado i will hand it over to tim to talk about his book before. >> thanks a lot. it's really a pleasure to be here and i want to thank you in the palace for taking time out of your busy schedules particularly during a pandemic. i really appreciate your effort and hearing what you have to say about the book. the simplest way to describe "weak strongman" the limits of power in putin's russia is that it's explainable. translate what i think is the best academic research over the last decade for a general audience on a host of interesting questions. spuyten really popular? do you elections matter? the's propaganda ineffective cliques why are relations with the left so fraught. the book should have something for you whether you identify as a russian or is someone who has russian experience. there's no shortage of books on russia so why should you read this one? t

she was reporter and did a lot of report little but at the height of the stunt reporter craze i'll kotkinit in 1896 she was at the world basically hiring stunt reporters and assigning stunt reporters and framing what that page was going to look like. as she talks about sort of coming in as like aknee neo fight to the world and all committed when he starts there and looking at the legends of like bly and nell nelson and she interacted with them very much but more like they were these figures passing in the halls but -- famous figures passing in the hall buzz the world did hire quite a number of women and there's a wonderful picture of jordan and all of these other female reporters at the world and one of them is like holding a kitten and they're like sitting aside a messy desk and you get the idea there was quite a bit of camaraderie among them. >> that's a good question. was wondering that myself, too. were there any stories that didn't make the cut? >> oh, gosh, that's good question. i've been so deep in the final draft of this book for so long. well, there's one reporter named ada pater

they invited 22 teams to resume play in a bubble at disney world, restricted single site low cal, kotkin off from the outside world, like some sort of dystopia science fiction novel. everything in the bubble was monitored and regulated. socialization, food, medical care, and of course, access. ben golliver was one of only handful of reporters invited to live within the odd little biosphear and his book talks about life, sports and everything else that went on inside the bubble. joinings his is gary brewer, brewer is known and respect ford his nuanced opinions opinions os knack for writing about people and exploring the human. he has received numerous national awards and is nominated for the pulitzer prize. it's an honor to host. the everyone please welcome ben golliver and jerry brewer. >> thank you so much, mayor ashman. ben, i've read this entire thing. i've made notes. i'm really excited for you. first of all, congratulations and then just secondly i have million questions about the project, and maybe i can ask ten of them or so at a time that we have, but i just wanted to let people

this is what johan kotkin of walnut creek saw as he looked out his window.sing into the air. the nearby castle crest senior care facility engulfed in flames. all five of the elderly residents made it out, thanks in part to some teenagers passing by and saw someone carry her out. and i went in and helped another lady out. they've all been taken to other facilities. reached by phone, the owner said. she's been dealing with the families and officials all day. meanwhile investigators with contra costa county fire have been working to identify a cause they now believe the fire started outside. it's been determined the fire started in the backyard on it's likely that it was started by carelessly discarded smoking materials, then spread ripping through the senior care home. and sending embers flying through the air, which caused three additional small fires. we throw into the mix warm weather and windy conditions. we have a formula that is right for disaster. authorities say there were oxygen tanks inside the care home, which could account for the explosion. they'r