richard dawkins who's written a best seller. dr. dawkins why did you choose to write an autobiography at this point? >> [inaudible] my mother is 96 and is a very useful resources to talk to and tapped her memory and has been a wonderful experience actually in effect interviewing her to write the book. it seemed like the right time to do it. this is in fact just the first half up to the age of 55 which marks a sort of natural watershed in my life and didn't make sense to divide it into book this is the first one taking you through the childhood school days, the university and after riding the selfish gene after the age of 35. >> why was the selfish gene and national to the connatural halfway point for you? >> it changed my life. before that i was an ordinary research scientist white coat and after the selfish gene i went on teaching and doing some research but i became i suppose more of a public figure in writing books for large audiences. who were john and jean dawkins? >> they were my parents -- well my mother is still alive. my fa

gather with richard dawkins in front of the washington monument. >> when we thought these ideas were dangerous in the 17th and 18th century and these are clip jobs on voltaire and marc twain and robert ingersoll. it's prophetic. hitchens in particular, other than to say he was an utterly dishonest person i can't understand how he didn't know that and why he didn't feel responsible for providing it in his work. >> i knew then why can. >> you probably drank scotch with them, right? pie did. >> he could drink more of it than i did but he was a washington correspondent for harbor magazine, a brilliant polemicist. he was very good about making the argument where the money was, so as you say, that retreading of the discovery that "god is not great" which is old news, but it's sold. talk about -- no, you had a wonderful passage in the book where you talked about metaphor and you talk about your parents, and you say that parents don't do metaphor. now explain that and explain why human beings do metaphor, so that the human being is the only creature that can say what it's like to be a parent

the commercial success of these works led by richard dawkins, christopher hitchens "god is not great" rosenberg the atheist guide to reality and of course bill maher's lethal dose the movie religious is a phenomenon in the book world trade in any case it is clear that the story these writers have to tell this one from a powerful part of our culture once told an emphatically so. more recently a separate series of extraordinarily successful books lectures and articles have appeared concerning the advancement of scientific knowledge about the human brain, howard or somehow it possesses capacities that until now we have called consciousness and creativity. i will be focusing on three science writers, science journalist jonah lehrer and neuroscientist tony adovasio and sebastian soon. these writers are typical representatives of the field that their work is just a sliver of the total output. between the neuroscientist and their allies among the literature explaining the brain's wiring is fast and technically intimidating. unlike those scientists and critics at war with religion it is much

dawkins why did you choose to write an autobiography at this point? >> i am getting on a bit and it felt like a good moment to do so. my mother is 96 and is a very useful resource to tap her memories and this being a wonderful experience in effect interviewing her to write the book. it seemed like the right time to do it. this is in fact the first half up to the age of 35 up to where i wrote the selfish genius. a watershed in my life i suppose then it didn't make sense to divided into two books. this is the first one taking it through childhood, school days, university early work as a scientist and after writing this selfish genius at the age of 35. >> why was the selfish gene a natural halfway halfway point for you in a sense? >> the selfish gene gene changed my life and before that i was the ordinary scientist. and then after the selfish gene and i stayed on the faculty at oxford and went on teaching and went on doing some research but i became i suppose more of a public figure writing books for large audiences. >> who were john and jean dawkins? >>

we are actually not that we're. >> there have been a whole genre of books on the is and, richard dawkins, christopher hitchens, two of the guests that we have done in the season in london and justin webb of the bbc described american religious thought in many ways is a stone age believe and then. why is it that europe has gone this way especially when there are so many historical churches and so much history of the church. >> i have about 50 answer to that. let me give you two of them one of them as sociological but the united states religion is voluntary, it's part of the people organize themselves you do arrive somewhere and go to the church and expect to support your own church when you've got one. you write a check to pay the minister's salary. in europe the historic churches have been a part of the infrastructure society and like the dreams and the electric light that is somebody else's responsibility to provide. once the big cultural changes, once the church had been kind of wrong footed about and people fell in out of the habit of going, they also lost any sense that they might ha

the author is doctor richard dawkins. he has written a number of books that are bestsellers.doctor, why did you choose to write an autobiography at this point? >> it seemed like a good moment to do so. my mother. >> up to the age of 25, it is part of the natural watershed in my life. so we didn't make sense of this with the two books. this is the first one. it takes us through childhood,. >> that was such a great thing. and it is so interesting. >> who are john were john and jean dawkins. >> they were my parents. and they -- my father was a biologist. his career began with schooling that was rather the same time as mine. he did research, i did research. >> and then she had this for a while and i was brought up along that time. my mother was an art student. they have a shared love of wild things brought up in an atmosphere with the love of nature. >> my parents had spent part of this time in religion. again, things that had happened. but in some ways changed it. >> when did you lose that connection? >> i suppose finally at the age of about 16. when i was at school. but i have

richard dawkins is the author. it will be in bookstores in september of 2013. this is booktv on c-span2. >> malcolm gladwell what's your new book about? >> it's called "david and goliath" underdogs, misfits and the art of battling giants and it's about underdogs. i got really interested in telling the stories of people who seem weak and powerless and yet go on to accomplish great things. and that was a puzzle of how they managed to do that i thought was worthy of a book ,-com,-com ma and so this is my latest. >> back in 09 you 09 you wrote a piece for "the new yorker." david versus goliath and i will let you tell the story but is that when your interest started? >> yeah although i would say nothing in that article that i wrote for "the new yorker" made its way into the book but it is what got me thinking about it. it was an article i wrote about a guy starting with the guy who is an indian immigrant living in silicon valley and starts to coach his daughter's basketball team. they're all 12, 13 and they are all the daughters of silicon valley and they can't pass

want to go into the whole story but i was ambushed and i hope he watches the program, by richard dawkins, the atheist of our times and he came as a reporter for channel four. and i was very happy with the conversation that we had then i was in a movie that he produced called enemies of science and reason. if you want to check it out, go to youtube but there are a million people that watched that. the reason he ridiculed me is i felt a shift in consciousness causing a shift in biology which is an important statement. it's different in the dream state and its different now than i would be when you were sleeping and it's different when you are anxious and angry. it's different when you feel peace, love, joy. there is a tradition of states of consciousness with which i do not have time to go into right now. new nettie consciousness. so what they do, the shift your consciousness and when you shift your consciousness there is a lot of good research coming up. one of the things i used to wonder why the way what is healing and why do certain people in fact why do we say that it's only good for p

richard dawkins is the author. in bookstores september. >> wednesday night book tv in prime-time features a look at personal reflections. at 8:00 p.m. in interview of enron become a life of former presidential candidate under new book the romney family table, sharing held good recipes in favor traditions. former secretary of state on his book issues on my mind, strategies for the future. 9:15 p.m., author alice walker discusses the question in the road. 10:00 p.m. former defense secretary donald rumsfeld talks about in business, politics, wars, and life. book tv in prime-time here on c-span2. >> wednesday night american history tv in prime-time, the 150th anniversary of the battle of gettysburg. 8:00 p.m. the tour of the gettysburg battle monuments. a conversation on pickets charge. later, perspectives on the american revolution would u.s. naval war college professor. >> you're watching c-span2 with politics and public affairs weekdays featuring live coverage of the u.s. senate. on week nights watched the public po

the tv in prime time continues tonight about scientists beginning with richard dawkins discussing the experiences that led him to be an expert on a manner. at 9:15 p.m., the autistic brain. thinking across the spectrum. highlighting struggles with autism and the science behind the disorder. finally at 1020 eastern p.m., growing up with a mathematicians daughter. and a number of ceos and other corporate leaders are featured on c-span if they testified at congressional hearings and spoke another public affairs at events and we will show you some of the remarks on topics from the economy to immigration to tax policy and among them microsoft general counsel brad smith. >> we are increasingly grappling with an economic challenge and we are not able to fill all of the jobs that we are creatin this helps to tell the story. at a time when unemployment hovers at just below 10% from the mathematical occupations fall to 3.2% and in many cases and subcategories, it has fallen below 2%. unfortunately, the situation is likely to get worse rather than better. the bureau of labor statistics has estim

booktv and primetime continues tonight with memoirs by scientists beginning with richard dawkins discussingiences that led him to be a scientist and an appetite for wonder. then we have doctor carl hart and the journey of self-discovery. and i'm 15:00 p.m., the autistic brain, thinking across the spectrum, which highlights the author struggles with autism and the science behind the disorder. and at 10:20 p.m. eastern, grown-up with a famous mathematician father in the martians daughter. booktv begins at 8:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span2. over the past few months we have featured a number of ceos and corporate leaders on c-span as they testified at congressional hearings and spoke another public affairs events. tonight we will show you some of their remarks on topics ranging from the economy to immigration and tax policy, among them, american express ceo will be featured. >> i'd like to see a few key things. number one, i think the consumer has really demonstrated incredible resilience in a very challenging economic environment. the question is always how long will it last. but the consumers