i'm joined by dr james lowe and dr alone as a sociologist historian and author a graduate of carleton college who received his doctorate doctorate in sociology from harvard university he taught race relations for twenty years at the university of vermont and has been an expert witness in more than fifty civil rights and voting rights and employment legal cases among dr loans many awards and honors is the first annual speed back award from the american sociological association for sociological research applied to the field of intergroup relations are too low and is currently the distinguished lecturer for the organization of american historians a visiting professor of sociology at catholic university visiting professor of african-american studies at the university of illinois. he's the author of numerous books including the american book award winning best seller two lies my teachers told me everything your american history textbook got wrong dr low and joins me now in the studio welcome sir nice to be here for a nice having you with us what stimulated you early on to study sociology. i think

host: tom shoop is editor in chief of "government executive" magazine and got his degree from carleton college in northfield, arizona, just south of the twin cities. portland, oregon. chris on the democrats' line. caller: good morning, you guys. i heard some negative comments about conferences. i just wanted to point out that conferences are important. they allow people to momentarily focus on the issue at hand -- team building, whatever. i just wanted to make the point that conferences are important and we cannot turn our back on them. we do need conferences. thank you. guest: i think a lot of people would acknowledge that is the case, and i think much of the criticism is not directed at the fact that there was a conference held -- although i think some people think that government agencies just should not be doing it at all. pittand the ig is calling it did -- and the ig is calling attention to the fact of the amounts spent on it is more the issue than there was a conference at all. caller: this is almost a clarion call for smaller government. basically smaller government, smaller problems,

political science, the wellstones moved to minnesota where paul had a successful teaching career at carleton college sheila, meanwhile, worked two jobs. she was a full-time mother and a part-time library aide. a happy life in minnesota would have been enough for most people, but not for paul and sheila. their compassion knew no limits. they wanted to make the world a better place for others, and they set out to do just that. paul ran for public office. he and sheila worked as a team during paul's senate campaign, as they did in all aspects of their lives. paul's opponent outspent him by a large margin, but what paul and sheila lacked in resources, they made up for in grass roots support. a tireless work ethic and a nonparalleled commitment to the people of minnesota, also quite a bit of charm. improbable as it must have been seemed at the outset, paul won and was elected to the united states senate in 1990. the wellstones went to washington, the city where they first fell in love. at the time sheila wasn't really a public figure, at least she didn't view herself as such. in fact, sheila was a bit sh

political science, the wellstones moved to minnesota where paul had a successful teaching career at carleton college. sheila, meanwhile, worked two jobs. she was a full-time mother and a part-time library aide. a happy life in minnesota would have been enough for most people, but not for paul and sheila. their compassion knew no limits. they wanted to make the world a better place for others, and they set out to do just that. paul ran for public office. he and sheila worked as a team during paul's senate campaign, as they did in all aspects of their lives. paul's opponent outspent him by a large margin, but what paul and sheila lacked in resources, they made up for in grass roots support. a tireless work ethic and a nonparalleled commitment to the people of minnesota, also quite a bit of charm. improbable as it must have been seemed at the outset, paul won and was elected to the united states senate in 1990. the wellstones went to washington, the city where they first fell in love. at the time sheila wasn't really a public figure, at least she didn't view herself as such. in fact, sheila was a bit s

political science, the wellstones moved to minnesota where paul had a successful teaching career at carleton college. sheila, meanwhile, worked two jobs. she was a full-time mother and a part-time library aide. a happy life in minnesota would have been enough for most people, but not for paul and sheila. their compassion knew no limits. they wanted to make the world a better place for others, and they set out to do just that. paul ran for public office. he and sheila worked as a team during paul's senate campaign, as they did in all aspects of their lives. paul's opponent outspent him by a large margin, but what paul and sheila lacked in resources, they made up for in grass roots support. a tireless work ethic and a nonparalleled commitment to the people of minnesota, also quite a bit of charm. improbable as it must have been seemed at the outset, paul won and was elected to the united states senate in 1990. the wellstones went to washington, the city where they first fell in love. at the time sheila wasn't really a public figure, at least she didn't view herself as such. in fact, sheila was a bit s