now, it's my pleasure to introduce catherine smith. catherine smith is a journalist in history writer with a long-time interest in fdr and his times. she is the biographer of marguerite alice lahand who was fdr's private secretary counselor confidant from 1921 to 1941 and who served as his de facto white house chief of staff. in addition to her book the gatekeeper katherine co-authors a missile hand mystery series with kelly durham she also impersonates the hand for tell all talks about life with the roosevelts and is given more than 100 presentations at venues including the fdr library. a little white house in warm springs, georgia and the national world war two museum her most recent book is baptists in bootleggers a prohibition expedition through the south with cocktail recipes. she considers the repeal of the 18th amendment to be one of the greatest achievements of the early, new deal. catherine lives in anderson, south carolina with her husband leo please join me in welcoming catherine smith. well, i was telling patrick if i had a

catherine smith is a journalist in history writer

so i want to thank all of you coming out and thank catherine and jamie jamie. i'm evan smith. i'm the ceo, the texas tribune. and i want to welcome to the 2022 texas book festival. and this with honored gary dada, whose fourth book, the persuaders at the frontlines of the fight for hearts and democracy was published last month and is new york times best seller, give my a hand. yes, absolutely absolutely. this books, which were all well-reviewed are winners take all the american and india calling. he is a former foreign correspondent and columnist for the new york times. he's written for new yorker, the atlantic and and he's taught narrative journalism at new york university. he's a native of ohio and a graduate of the university of michigan. honored it's great to have you back, austin. thank you so much. thank you so much for having me. thank you all for being here. thank you. in a tense in a tent. okay. so you've written a book with the premise that i think could not be more important or more timely. we have stopped as a country and as communities, we've stopped talking to pe