please welcome moderator colin mcmahon of the chicago tribune. and kim barker, author of "the taliban shuffle". [applause] >> thank you. good afternoon. >> can you hear us? >> is that a yes or a no. excellent. >> i have a louder voice. i was curious. >> we are here today to talk about "the taliban shuffle". and kim barker's strange days in afghanistan and pakistan and she was a foreign correspondent for "the chicago tribune" for six years she was in the region. she worked with me as a correspondent and for me for a brief stretch. >> you were the first foreign editor i worked for. i hated him. >> it was a mutual dislike. so we are here to talk about this. it is a great time to be talking about pakistan and afghanistan. a lot of tension on it but let's talk about the book and then your impression of what is going on now. first question is probably what you have been thinking about. you were a foreign correspondent working mean string journalism. how is this different from that and how would you characterize this? as a memoir, what is a journalistic