they would soften the focus on the boogeyman of the first two trials -- brian tate. >> our conclusiontapes of mr. tate, that he wasn't the deranged person that they tried to portray him as being. >> the way he was speaking to law enforcement that afternoon would not seem like the person that would have walked into a trailer home at 5:00 in the morning and murdered his neighbor. >> reporter: the defense attorneys made a tactical decision. since recordings of tate didn't make him look like a dangerous killer, they would not show tapes of him to the jury. and they'd roll the dice, hoping the prosecutors wouldn't either. >> the caldwells and techels had been put through the wringer for more than two years, their once close relationship had frayed. and now the third trial was pushing everyone to the brink. it was an impossible situation, but somehow todd caldwell and doug techel managed to find a moment of grace. >> i went over to him and i just said, "doug, i want you to know that i think you're a great guy. i think you're a good person." >> reporter: did you really? >> "no matter how thi

. >> hello, i'm brian tate and i am pleased to welcome you to to the 2020 brooklyn book festival. we are here today with authors paola giordano, mark honigsbaum and sonia shah. i'm gonna read very brief bios. mark honigsbaum is a medical historian, journalist, author of five books including "the pandemic century" 100 years of panic, hysteria, and who works. and "the fever trail" in search for the cure for malaria. his current elector at city university london. paola giordano is a physicist and author of four internationally best-selling novels including "the solitude of prime numbers, which are sold over a million copies worldwide. his essay "how contagion works" published in italy at the beginning of the coronavirus emergency as the mathematics of contagion was shared more than 4 million times and help shift public opinion in the early stages of the pandemic. sonia shah is prize-winning author of " pandemic" tracking contagions from cholera, ebola and beyond. a finalist for the los angeles times book prize and new york public library award for act dumb excellence in journalism. s