oral history collection. >>> cynthia kelly, what is the voices of the manhattan project? >> the voices of the manhattan project is a website that contains 300 oral histories, and we hope someday will be the central repository of the memories of the manhattan project veterans. >> well, tell us about the manhattan project itself. what was it and what does that name mean? >> the manhattan project was the effort in world war ii by the united states and its allies, primarily great britain and canada, to build an atomic bomb. the name manhattan is just as you think. it's after that island. now it's part of new york city. but the project was run by the army corps of engineers. while they toyed with a name that would be something like "special materials project," they thought such a name would arouse suspicion, because it was sort of clumsy. they named the project after the place where the projects headquarters were. its headquarters were at 270 broadway in lower manhattan, hence it was called the manhattan engineering district. and we call it, for short, the manhattan project. >

oral history collection. >>> cynthia kelly, what is the voices of the manhattan project? >> the voices of the manhattan project is a website that contains 300 oral histories, and we hope someday will be the central repository of the memories of the manhattan project veterans. >> well, tell us about the manhattan project itself. what was it and what does that name mean? >> the manhattan project was the effort in world war ii by the united states and its allies, primarily great britain and canada, to build an atomic bomb. the name manhattan is just as you think. it's after that island. now it's part of new york city. but the project was run by the army corps of engineers. while they toyed with a name that would be something like "special materials project," they thought such a name would arouse suspicion, because it was sort of clumsy. they named the project after the place where the projects headquarters were. its headquarters were at 270 broadway in lower manhattan, hence it was called the manhattan engineering district. and we call it, for short, the manhattan project. >

eastern, an interview with atomic heritage foundation director cynthia kelly. then benjamin burteson recalls the atmosphere of secrecy around the project and his own work in creating the ig anything switches. american history tv each night this week on c-span3. >>> a signature feature of booktv is our all-day comage of book fairs and vest falls avoss the country. beginning this weekend, we're live from the 15th annual book festival from our neigh's capital. we're in new york for the brooklyn book festival. in early october, the southern festival of books in nashville. the weekend after that, we are live for the austin texas book festival and near the end of the month, we'll be covering two book festivals on the same weekend. it's the wisconsin book festival in madison and back on the east coast, the boston book festival. we'll be in portland, oregon, for word stock. at the end of november, we're live for the 18th year in a row from florida for the miami book fair international. that's a few of the book fairs and festivals this fall on c-span2's book tv. >>> now

kouming up at 8:00 p.m., interview with cynthia kelly. then at 8:15, ben man bedderson recalls secrecy and his work designing the bomb's ignition switches. plus other oral histories on the project and all of that tonight on american history tv on c-span 3. >>> actor and screen writer matt dylan talked about his trip to mayan maran the community living there. they have been stateless despite living for generation in mayan bar, formerly called burma. most lack food and health care, separated from the rest of society. the speech took place at the national press club. >> thank you. i want to thank you. that was a lovely introduction. and i want to thank kasia and everybody here at the national press club for hosting michel and myself. the rohingya of myanmar are currently the largest stateless ethnic group in the world. estimated somewhere over 100 million -- i'm sorry, 1 million people. get those numbers right. 1 million people. at least 1 million people. and having served on the board of refugees international for the last seven years, i've

. >>> coming up at 8:00 p.m., an interview with atomic heritage founder cynthia kelly. then at 8:15 benjamin bederson recalls the era of secrecy and his own work developing the bomb's switching. all of that is tonight on american history tv on c-span3. >>> next radio talk show hosts and xeexecutives talk about the future of radio and the changing landscape of political talk shows. talkers magazine hosted the event. part of the 25th anniversary conference. >> this is a great panel and this is the big picture. this is going to go in all different wild ways. we'll do it like a tv show, real fast, no long answers, short sound bite. a man who knows how to do sound bites, we'll start with you real quick. let me first say alan combs, holland cook, one of the smartest men i've ever met. talk about the introduction. >> you should get out more. >> he's a consultant. karen hunter. i once did a radio show as her co-host on wwrl in new york, and she taught me how to rap on the air. it was fun. chris olivero, talk about smart. he worked his way up from being an intern to one of the m

. >> cynthia kelly with the atomic heritage foundation, thank you for joining us on american history tv. >> thank you very much. >>> okay. why don't you tell us something about your background, where you were born, education? >> my parents are russian-jewish immigrants who came to america just before world war i and one just after world war i. they met at a night school. very romantic setting. they met at night school. they lived on the lower east side. they were very poor. my father worked as a restaurant worker all of his life. i grew up mainly in the bronx and partly in brighton beach in brooklyn. and i would say one of the great things about new york is the fact that it had city college, and city college was, just as with many other people, was a defining event in my life because it gave me a completely free education in exactly the subject that i wanted, which was physics. so that's basically my early background. we were raised -- not insignificant. my parents were leftists as were most everybody i knew in the bronx. we lived in sort of almost a communist neighborhood. i was bro

coming up, cynthia kelly, and then at 8:15, ben men bedderson recalled secrecy and his own work designing the bomb's ignition switches. and other oral histories on the manhattan project and all of that tonight on american history tv on c-span 3. >>> tonight c-span special look back at the debate over the iran nuclear deal with a senate banking committee hearing with wendy sherman who was one of the lead u.s. negotiators. then senate flor statements with republican conference vice chairman roy blunt opposing the agreement. and bill nelson explaining his support. here is some of tonight's program. >> this agreement of war, that the choice? simple yes or no? >> i don't think this is a simple yes or no. >> so if you can't give me a simple yes or no, it is either this agreement or war, and since i don't have the unlimited time. so if you had not struck agreement with iran would we be at war with iran? >> i believe that the chances that we would be down the road to war would go up exponentially. >> and you are saying compared to other witnesses who have served on the administration in it the pa

eastern, an interview with cynthia kelly. and the atmosphere of secrecy around the project. each night this week on c-span3. >>> the c-span cities tour working with our cable affiliates and visiting cities across the country. this week we're learning more about the literary life of grand junk, colorado. the mining of a certain mineral had a long term importance in this part of colorado. >> all over the colorado plateau and especially here in mason county, outside of grand junction, we're surrounded with morrison rock. we find a lot of dinosaur bones. but the other things that we find in the morrison is a mineral, a rock called karen hit. karen tithe contains three different elements. it contains radium. it also contains va nad yum which is used to strengthen steel. during the buildup to world war ii and during world war i irk itself, wit was of extreme value. and also uranium. and uranium, as we know, is one of the best sources for atomic powe e power. >> he fought the battle to reserve water for western colorado by making sure that we got our fair share. how did he do that?