so, always colonel roosevelt at the end. and it's just a wonderful opportunity for the national firearms museum to be the temporary custodians of these national treasures, literally from our nation's attic in fact, a number of firearms and that his six children enjoyed using. his elder son, theodore jr., who earned the medal of honor utah beach. second serve kermit, major in the british expedition forces during world war i and the united states in world war i and world war ii. tied at fort richardson in 1943. so number three, archie roosevelt, was given 100% disability from wounds received twice. the only soldier in american history to have earned 100 percent disability in both world war i and world war ii and of course,, the youngest and the first to past, young lieutenant quentin roosevelt, a fighter pilot shot down by the germans over friends in 1918. the firearms that they used both in the service for recreation around sagamore hill as well as are the facts that we can reach back, touch, that is one of my favorite storie

to colonel roosevelt to the end. it is just a wonderful opportunity for the national firearms museum to be the temporary custodians of the national treasures literally from the nation's attic. in fact a number of firearms that his six children enjoyed using, elder son theodore jr. earned the metal of honor at utah beach. and the second son during world war i and the united states and world war i and world war ii died at fort richardson alaska in 1943. son number three archie roosevelt was given 100% disability from wounds received twice. at the only soldier in american history to have earned 100% disability in world war i and world war ii and of course the youngest in the first to pass, young lieutenant quentin roosevelt shot down over france in 1918. the firearms that they used both in the service for recreation around sagamore hill as well as the safari in africa are still wonderful examples and artifacts that we could look at and become in touch with the past. perhaps one of my favorite stories is of the wincheste

and when one of the porters was gathering theodore roosevelt's baggage, he said at the hill, we sure will miss you mr. president. and he stopped him right there and so everybody would hear, he said, no, howard taft is your president, and i am now colonel roosevelt. that is the way he stayed for the rest of his life preferring to be remembered as the colonel commanding the united states first regimen the roughriders and so colonel roosevelt to the end. it is a wonderful opportunity for the national firearms museum to be the temporary custodian of these national treasures literally from the nation's attic. a number of the firearms that his six children enjoyed using. eldest son theodore jr. earned the medal of honor at utah beach. second son kermit a major in the british expeditionary forces in world war i and in the united states world war i and ii died in fort richardson, alaska, in 1943 and archie roosevelt was given 100% disabilities from wounds received twice. only soldier in american history to earn 100% disabilities in both world war i and ii and the youngest and the first to pa

i'm harold holzer, director of the roosevelt house, and on behalf of our college president welcome to the second of three new deal book discussions that we're hosting in june. as a head toward what we assume and we hope will be the end of 15 months of lockdown and the renewal in one form or another of some form of public programming in person in the fall. you have been a terrifically patient, loyal to these programs, and we appreciate you following them, as tempting as it is become to go outside in this beautiful weather, come back to restaurants, et cetera. but these programs are so great. we're happy you are not missing them. this afternoon with focusing on scott borchert new study "republic of detours: how the new deal paid broke writers to rediscover america." a story that includes writers -- [inaudible] all of whom found encouragement, security on the payroll of the new deal federal writers project. i'm going to skip the expansive kind of introduction i customers devote to programs that are this compelling, because as you may have read today we have lost a giant of the roosevelt

he breaks with franklin roosevelt in 1936 over roosevelt's new deal policies to restimulate the american economy, to get the country back on its feet after the depression. hearst breaks with roosevelt, supports a republican named alf landen, the governor of kansas for the presidency, and this was on ugly break. hearst's newspapers in effect call roosevelt an agent of moskow because of his policies, because of his new deal. roosevelt's supporters punish hearst for his hypostacy, and one way they did this was to revive furnish the war, to dust off this old time antecdote, and invoke it as a way to damage hearst and his reputation, to sully his reputation. and it appears in a number of books and articles at that time in the mid-1930s. it appears notably in this truculent, polemic -- this biography of hearst, thin but hostile to hearst. and this is one of the places where furnish the war is resurrected, revived and brought back into the public domain. what sealed this antecdote, what firmly planted it into the popular consciousness was a 1941 motion picture loosely based on the times and lif

and then theodore roosevelt. those of the big four. after that you get presidents in flux with the reputations going up or down. dwight d eisenhower it's really interesting which is why is another talk about in eisenhower memorial on the mall. eisenhower has two terms has one at third period he got us out of the korean war avoided another war. the only time he used government truth going into little rock on civil rights endeavor he created nassau the st. lawrence seaway the interstate highway was a very moral, not a lot of corruption. i could go on. can see the rise of someone like dwight d eisenhower who not that many moons ago was ranked pretty much in the middle they thought he didn't do much as president now the archives open we can see he was a hands on president not a hands-off one. the rise of eisenhower i found particularly interesting. he is now one of the american great. >> he went from the top five forced to run at the top ten. the sixth place is truman. ninth, reagan, tenth spot is barack obama. presi

eleanor roosevelt. in fact a large part of the story is about the relationship between the two. a complicated relationship, a relationship that involved all sorts of things besides and in addition to love. one that was fascinating, but one that again i don't think you could make this up. and this gets to the heart of the difference. between novels and nonfiction. here i will throw in the category of movies. feature movies. you know movies that are not documentaries. and that is precisely this. that the whole idea of a novel is to pull the world together in a way that makes sense. in a way that has a particular story arc. that has a form. novels are not just any old thing written down on the page novels have characters and they typically have protagonists. they have conflict. there is usually an ascending arc of the conflict and the drama, and here is the critical thing novels like most movies have a resolution of the conflict. at the end of the book, the end of the two hours of the movie you know how it

and then theodore roosevelt. those of the big four. after that you get presidents in flux with the reputations going up or down. dwight d eisenhower it's really interesting which is why is another talk about in eisenhower memorial on the mall. eisenhower has two terms has one at third period he got us out of the korean war avoided another war. the only time he used government truth going into little rock on civil rights endeavor he created nassau the st. lawrence seaway the interstate highway was a very moral, not a lot of corruption. i could go on. can see the rise of someone like dwight d eisenhower who not that many moons ago was ranked pretty much in the middle they thought he didn't do much as president now the archives open we can see he was a hands on president not a hands-off one. the rise of eisenhower i found particularly interesting. he is now one of the american great. >> he went from the top five forced to run at the top ten. the sixth place is truman. ninth, reagan, tenth spot is barack obama. presi

we know everything about roosevelt's mother. we know about them but marable washington, no. >> host: please go ahead with your question or comment. >> caller: hi mr. surely. i appreciate you being on today and your insight. i'd like to ask a question on a more personal level for president reagan. he appreciated his staff and when a staffer would have a significant event in their life such as maybe the birth of a child it was personalized by the staffer in i appreciate it. >> guest: reagan had a mixed how do i say it, debatable relationship with his staff. some staff viewed him as differently and some viewed them as intellectually curious but on the issue of earth have babies and things like that he was deeply involved. he would write them a letter and bringey them into the office foa photograph. theree was a zone of privacy and on thepe other hand he sent a letter to a man and would write tender letters to people giving them donations and one famous story when he was governor he used to compile newsclips every morning and get a

what do u think teddy roosevelt would make of the current state of competition in this country? >> teddy roosevelt was a maverick, and what i loved about him was he, you know, came from money, he respected capitalism, but he realized when things were out of sync, and he rode that antitrust horse right into the white house. and i think what he would see today would horrify him, because all the work he did to get us through that gilded age, as well as psident wilson and many others and senator sherman, everything they did toet us through that, it's come back again. and you just got to go to the basics to understand -- teddy roosevelt was not against capitalism. he was a republican president. senator sherman was a republican senator. there's always been this belief in economic liberty. that's why our earliest settlers came from england -- for religious freedom, for political freedom, and for economic freedom. they didn't want to buy their tea from a monopoly tea company. and so when you belie in that, you see today's world reflected in that lens of history, and you see we cannot le

cancarcerate it here in crystal city, texas president roosevelt wanted prisoners of war so during the war sweden mean a neutral country censorship grissom here to long island, new york there. they got 5,000 japanese some japanese latinos and some japanese that wanted to go back to japan from too late camp. or so-called troublemakers so they got 5,000 of them boarded the ship gritsome grits home ship went around africa to india. there. they met a red cross ship with 5,000 americans that were stranded in japan and the exchange prisoners of war there. back from her fourth wartime journey of mercy the swedish exchange ship grips home arrives in new york harbor aboard our 663 americans home from nazi internment and prison camps. in the camps, they're trying to make it as normal as possible. so when someone passed away they trying to give them a respectful funeral service, but sometimes they could not get first flowers. so sometimes these flowers were made of paper so they had origami flowers, so they're trying to make abnormal situation as normal as possible. for example right here. they c

eleanor roosevelt. i mean, just the fact that it's a very short list of women who played a large role in american public life on whom i can hang a tale of four or five decades of american history. women have had, of course, their roles in private life, but it's in the nature of private life that it usually doesn't survive in historical record. why did people start saving the letters of eleanor roosevelt? because she was important. do your correspondents save your letters that you write to them? then do they deposit them in the local historical society? well, maybe. and if they do, you will become, and i use my words advisedly here. you will become literally immortal. you'll become immortal in letters, because future historians will find those letters and they'll say, ahh, so that's what life was like at the beginning of the 21st century. but anyway, so i wanted to write about women. after all, women have been half the population and women have been a very large part of what happened even if it was hard

we know everything about roosevelt's mother, we know about them.ut maribel washington we don't respect steven pennsylvania please go to your question or comment for greg shirley. >> hello mr. shirley. i appreciate being on today and your insights. i would like to ask a question on the more personal level for president reagan. it is my understanding he appreciated his staff. when a staffer would have a significant event inn their life such as a marriage or maybe birthrs of a child he would personally something to the staffer, i appreciate you answering that. >> sure thank you. [inaudible] a debatable relationship with thest staff. some staff he was different other work curiouser personallyal involved. but in the issue of marriages and births ofas babies and things like that he was deeply involved. would write them a little letter, he would bring them into the oval office for a photograph. they where there was a zone of privacy or inte him and reagan people cannot penetrate. on the other hand this was a man who would write very tender letters to peop

president roosevelt wanted prisoners of war. so, during the war, sweden being a neutral country sent the ship to here to long island new york. and there they got 5000 japanese. some japanese latinos and some japanese that wanted to go back to japan from the camp. or so-called troublemakers. so, they got the ship -- from africa to india name to the gripsholm. they exchanged prisoners of war there. >> back from her fourth wartime journey, this swedish exchange hit ship gripsholm arrives in new york harbor. aboard 163 americans born from -- prison camps. >> in the camps, they try to make it as normal as possible, so, when someone who passed away, they try to give him a respectful funeral service. but sometimes they could not get fresh flowers, sometimes, flowers were made from paper. so, they had origami flowers. so, they tried to make abnormal situations as normal as possible. for example, right here, they chose the high school prom queen. she did not have a beautiful crowned, but at least they went through the procedure of electi

in 1945, roosevelt's funeral, roosevelt wouldn't support dealing with russia but you are right saying between 1941 -- 44, he couldn't have a relationship with him. the most fascinating documents in the archives, in may he was so bitter about it but the chiefs of staff prepared for liberating, i think 44 divisions of the american armies and the remains of was. of course the idea is ridiculous but the prime minister's. for operation unthinkable to drive it but of course when the americans were asked about this they said under no circumstances the british people would never haveve supported churchill going to war with the russians when they had been told the russians were the right liberator's. >> do think roosevelt in january 1945 during the conference three months prior to hishs death fractured his ability to negotiate. >> no caps auto roosevelt was a sick man but i'm afraid some historians believed they were very different than. if we wantede free eastern euroe we would have had to get there for the russians. there were absolutely determined because they were going to get it, the rewa

we know everything about roosevelt's mother, we know about them.ut maribel washington we don't respect steven pennsylvania please go to your question or comment for greg shirley. >> hello mr. shirley. i appreciate being on today and your insights. i would like to ask a question on the more personal level for president reagan. it is my understanding he appreciated his staff. when a staffer would have a significant event inn their life such as a marriage or maybe birthrs of a child he would personally something to the staffer, i appreciate you answering that. >> sure thank you. [inaudible] a debatable relationship with thest staff. some staff he was different other work curiouser personallyal involved. but in the issue of marriages and births ofas babies and things like that he was deeply involved. would write them a little letter, he would bring them into the oval office for a photograph. they where there was a zone of privacy or inte him and reagan people cannot penetrate. on the other hand this was a man who would write very tender letters to peop

eleanor roosevelt also bought in a stream expensive set.ancy is bought with private money -- eleanor roosevelt also bought an extremely expensive set with taxpayer money. nancy bought hers with private money. eleanor roosevelt had to have a huge press compass about it. this would create -- conference about it. this tells them that they have $3 million of unreported gifts here. susan: at the end of 1981, the first year in the white house, she had the lowest approval rating of any modern first lady. what did she do to turn that around? karen: one thing isn't she comes to the realization that if her husband is going to succeed, she is going to have to succeed as well. she does this in small but very meaningful ways. in washington, there is this annual press dinner. anybody who is anybody is there, ambassadors, supreme court justices, congressman. she is sitting there and they are making fun of her in a show they do on stage and she disappears. people either head table say she must be really mad that they are singing a song that is a parody of

and the other universe the bullet misfired, roosevelt went on to lead us in world war ii and the nazise defeated. so there are two universes split by one bullet which in turn is a quantum event based on the laws of chemistry and adams on —- atoms. people go crazy thinking about this but we still don't really understand that. we have two ways of looking at the quantum theory even as a cosmic observer as god or the infinite number of parallel universes. take your pick. [laughter] in other words, get used to it the theory works but the philosophy behind the theory will blow your mind away to alternate points of view, your head explodes thinking about it. >> amazing. explain why it's so difficult to conceive of the seven dimensions beyond the four or three dimensions plus time issi there a way that it could be described to a layman like myself? >> the simple answer is no. we live in a three-dimensional world and we can conceive of animals charging at us inr] three dimensions that's why we understand three-dimensional tigers and t lions. but evolution did not give us the ability on —- abili

president roosevelt wanted prisoners of war. so, during the war, sweden, being a neutral country, sent a ship here to long island, new york. there they got 5,000 japanese, some japanese latinos and some japanese that wanted to go back to japan from tule lake camp or so-called troublemakers, so they got 5,000 of them boarded the ship. the ship went around africa to india. there they met a red cross ship with 5,000 americans that were stranded in japan and they exchanged prisoners of war there. >> back from her fourth wartime journey of mercy, the swedish exchange ship arrives in new york harbor, aboard are 663 americans home from nazi internment and prison camps. >> in the camps they try to make it as normal as possible. so, when someone passed away, they trying to give them a respectful funeral service. but sometimes they could not get fresh flowers. so, sometime these flowers were made of paper, so they had origami flowers, so they tried to have normal situation as normal as possible. for example, right here, they chose the hig

but at times, johnson has made speeches where he said, call me, roosevelt. even if you know president roosevelt, new deal, big spend a big span of a big sped and, and as evidence that he does believe a big spending as a way of driving the economy. the sooner is a self described fiscal conservatory. so there is potentially huge tension over johnson's ambitions by his so called leveling up program and of a kind of big spending items versus this fiscal conservative in the treasury, who pulse suggest is incredibly popular. and how that works itself out, i think will be one of the big themes this autumn and beyond. now it might go more smoothly because far, shelton is both the big spender, but he doesn't like tax rises quite likes, tax cuts, and he's described as 0. and so on. so he's not absolutely rooted in one spot. but if he decides he is roosevelt like i want to emerge from the pandemic as a big spend, that he will face resistance folks from the treasury culture of sound money and from richey soon. and that could be really titanic set of tensions, of public

then governor roosevelt decided to veto the legislation. when governor roosevelt vetoed the legislation, the nra really ramped up its efforts, they started putting advertisements for recruitment, that were specifically then targeted at finance laws. that's the genesis of where the nra really becomes. but the nra for many decades after that, let me caution and say, in the 1930s, the attorney general of the united states knew who the nra was in fighting firearm legislation. they became very well aware of what the nra was doing. the general american public, however, wasn't. so the nra was able to continue to do this for decades. it's not until jfk gets assassinated the american public gets a wake-up call and introduced to the nra that we have come to know today as one that fights firearm laws. >> how did a marine become a historian for the u.s. air force? >> well, the marine corp was stationed overseas, was actually what we called a marine security guard, protected embassies, from there, i got the international affairs bug, and then went to ge

, james roosevelt jr.s. >> thank you all for being with us. i'm such a history nerd, i don't know what to do with myself right now. jim, let's start with you. what do you hope to achieve? >> good morning. it's great to be with you, joe, and it's nice seeing mike barnacle again. what we hope to achieve is to remind the american people and, indeed, everybody in the biden administration of the key holes of the new deal and how they parallel to what needs to be done for the american people today, and that's creating jobs, that's using those jobs to build infrastructure, and that's assuring that people won't starve and will have a roof over their heads, that strengthening social security. >> scott, let me ask you the same question. obviously you come from a very progressive line of democrats. tell me what your hope is for the biden administration. >> i would say our most fundamental goal is to transform how people think about government. biden has talked about a paradigm change in how government relates to peop

but then governor roosevelt decided to veto the legislation when governor roosevelt vetoed the legislation, the nra really ramped up its efforts and started putting advertisements for recruitment that were expressly targeted at then fighting firearms laws. they start putting in the margins of the american riflemen, ten objectives and those objectives -- the first three relate to fighting firearms legislation. i think that's the genesis of where the nra really becomes -- but the nra for many decades -- let me caution and say in the 1930s the attorney general of the united states knew who the nra was in fighting firearms legislation. the general american public, however, wasn't. so the nra was able to continue to do this for decades. it's not until j.f.k. gets assassinated that the american public gets introduced to the nra that we've come to know today that fights firearms laws. >> how did a marine become a senior for the u.s. air force? >> well, went to the marine corps, it was stationed overseas. it was a marine security guard, protected embassies in paris and shanghai. from there i got t

so in one universe roosevelt died in the nazis one of the other universe the bullet misfires and rooseveltlead us in world war ii and the nazis were defeated. that you universe split by one bullet which in turn is a quantum event based on chemistry and adams. on —- atoms so physicists go crazy thinking about this but we still don't really understand it. we have two ways of looking at i the quantum theory even as the quanta excerpt birth on —- observer but take your pick get use to it. the theory works. but the philosophy behind the theory will blow your mind away. to alternate points of view. >> amazing so can you explain to us why it is so difficult to conceive of those dimensions and what we are accustomed to are the three dimensions plus time? is there a way it can be described to a layman like myself? >> the simple answer is no we can move in length and width and height and conceive of animals charging at us in three dimensions. that's why we understand three-dimensional tigers and lions that evolution did not give us the ability to visualize a five dimensional tiger. they do not harm

clinton roosevelt, son of teddy roosevelt, of course. he wrote about how he was -- this is a quote. i'm quite anxious to see combat. so, he joins, he goes over to be a pilot. and he does a very typical fighter pilot thing, which is that he knows that he has bad eyesight, he can't see anything. so, he is not going to pass the exam, they're not gonna let him fly. so, it is a fighter pilot to, he sneaks into the doctor's office ahead of time, memorizes the eye chart, goes in, recites it perfectly, aces the test, he can't see anything. but he gets in a dogfight fairly early, and so excited by it, he loves this adrenaline, this feeling of being in combat in his aircraft. he writes back to his mother and he says, quote you get so excited that you forget everything, except getting the other fellow trying to dodge tracers when they are streaking past you. it is exciting letter that he writes. and it's only a few months after he writes that letter in 1918 that he is shot down, killed, at age 20. now aggressiveness took the form also of competition, of course. the kill count was the measure o

herself's newspapers in effect called roosevelt an agent of moscow. because of his policies. because of his new deal. roosevelt's supporters punish hurst. and one way they did this was to revive furnish the war. the dust off this old time anecdote that had first appeared in creelman's book in 1901 and invoke it as a way to damage hurst and his reputation. to sully his reputation. and it appears in a number of books, articles at that time in the mid 1930s. it appears notably in this truculent biography of hurst called "imperial hurst." thin, but hostile to hurst. this is one of the places where furnish the war is resurrected, revived and brought back into the public domain. what sealed this anecdote, but firmly planted it into the popular consciousness was a 1941 motion picture loosely based on the life and times of william randolf hearst. that film, any guesses? this anecdote was sealed by a movie. that film, any guesses? citizen kane. >> that movie "citizen kane" which starred and was directed by a 26-year-old prodigy named orson wells, who played the hearst like character,

for a number of years, throughout the roosevelt presidency. once truman gets into office in 1945, truman almost immediately reaches out to hoover, he's got this huge humanitarian crisis on his hands, the problem of feeding not just germany, austria, france, italy, a number of countries throughout europe, and so almost immediately, truman reaches out to hoover k hoover picks up right where he left off. hoover makes an inspection of austria and germany, and said all right, here's how much food we have on hand and starts to set up food kitchens again, he goes to argentina one of four major food importing country, united states, australia and argentina i believe are the four major exporting countries. he goes to all of those countries trying to free up more food to be able to send throughout the world. india is starving at this time as well. so it's all about how much food do you need and how much food can you free up, argentina and australia and canada? so he gets tons of food in that way. and he also reconstitutes the idea of conservation. he st

>> guest: there's no doubt at all that roosevelt was a very sick man at the time of yalta.'m afraid some historians who believe the west could have handled yalta very w differently and much more tougher. i don't agree. i think the truth is the russians got to eastern europe first. if we wanted a free eastern europe and we wanted a free hungary, free poland, we would've had to get there before the russians. the russians after suffering, 27 million dead, were absolutely determined that there were going to get the booty, get the rewards which meant the empire of eastern europe. i don't agree with the historians who believe roosevelt and churchill would take a tougher line that yalta that things could of been different. the red army t were already deep in eastern europe, starting with absolute determine to what russia had suffered. i'm not persuaded even if roosevelt had been the van he was two or three years earlier that the outcome would've been significantly different. >> host: a reminder to our the uk if you can't get through on the phone lines and you can download any numb

it was theater reservoir chet roosevelt not franklin, theodore roosevelt who introduced the access to healthcare over 100 years before barack obama he ran on that. he sent out to put it into law and was advised by a lot of people, don't go there. let's save that for later. but nancy pelosi because of the input she was getting from caucus members she advised him yes you've got to go there. she knew she was on solid ground because members of the congressional black caucus were sitting there every day. healthcare as i said on the floor of the house has eight civil rights act of the 21st century. we were outlawing discrimination based on that. people were discriminated against once they got sick. and we saw that as being something we needed to tackle. we think we lost. i would agree. we lost the house because of passing the affordable care act. however we ran on it eight years later. whatever the time was and one. >> exactly. because people finally decide what barack obama envisioned, he saw what they had. they did not know and we did not do a good job of telling exactly what they had. we

. >> well, i can tell you for a fact that first lady edith roosevelt, the wife of theodore roosevelt, had -- you said irises and peonies? yeah, she definitely had those growing in what was the progenitor of the rose garden. it was a colonial style garden during her time period in the white house. >> i want to get to the rose garden, but first -- well, i'll start with this. the rose garden i have been in and out of a thousand times. >> lucky you. [laughter] >> lucky me. over the course of 40 years and seven presidents beginning with president gerald ford. and the rose garden was always a formal office space. it was an official event space. it wasn't just for the dogs. every once many a while you could tell the presidents' dogs had been there. but it was a beautiful setting, outdoor setting that was used con instantly even -- constantly, even in somewhat cold, somewhat rainy weather. jacqueline kennedy redid the rose garden. was that a dramatic departure point from generations before, or was it a process of evolution? >> definitely a process of evolution and if kind of a dramatic -- and

franklin roosevelt's sudden death on april 12, 1945. so with that i think i will turn it over to my colleague, tim. >> thank you, sam. here we have dwight d. eisenhower, 34th president of the united states and like hair yeah truman, very much a product of the american heartland. would have subscribed to a lot of the same values and embodied the same virtues. the men grew up within about 170, 180 miles of each other, had a lot of similar experiences. in fact, there was even a bit of overlap, eisenhower's oldest brother arthur at one time lived in the same boarding house as harry truman around 1900, i believe. even though the men did share a lot in common and there was a lot of mutual respect, there was not always a lot of mutual like for each other. we will discuss that in a little bit. which is kind of ironic, again, given so many similarities between the two men. next slide, please. we will go to ike's childhood and it always strikes me how similar this picture is to the picture of harry truman's grade school class, looks like it's abo

roosevelt was assassinated in one universe so we lost world war ii. the germans on one and cut up the united states because they won world war ii and because assassin's bullet killed roosevelt. but you see a bullet is a quantum events. a bullet, the flaring of gunpowder depends on adams. adams that could cause a misfire is sometimes guns misfire. so it other words in one universe died in the other universe misfired roosevelt went on to lead us in world war ii the nasis were defeated there split by one bullet which is a quantum event based on history what is a way around this? physicists go crazy thinking about this. the great physicist, said that we still do not really understand it. we have two ways of looking at the quantum theory. either there is a cosmic observer, i.e. god, or this infinite number of parallel universes take your pick. [laughter] in other words get used to it. the theory works. but the philosophy behind to alternate points of view your head explodes thinking about it. >> that is amazing. so, can you explain to us why it is so diffi