>> hinojosa: coming up on one on one: national public radio host diane rehm talks about growing up arab-american, her battle with spasmodic dysphonia, and the importance of finding her voice. >> i think there are those who say, "you go, girl. you hang in there and you keep doing it because you represent what all of us are." >> hinojosa: diane rehm, it is such an honor to have you on our show. >> and a real pleasure for me to be here. >> hinojosa: you have a way of conducting your interviews that is just so intimate, so special. people probably hear you on national public radio, on your talk show, across the country. and you've written a couple of books now, several books, three books. >> three books. >> hinojosa: finding my voice, which i just love as a title, is your story of kind of how you ended up where you are now. >> it's a story of how i began as the child of immigrants who believed that young children should be seen and not heard, who should never ask, "why?" so the fact that i am doing these daily interviews, maria, asking anybody and everybody... >> hinojosa: anything? >> anything, and

i am sitting in for diane rehm.oined by alan huffman, the offer -- author of "sultana," actually, i should give the full title, which is "sultana: surviving the civil war, prison, and the worst maritime disaster in american history." this is not just the story of all of the lives that were lost, but this is also the story of the people on the boat before during, and after. alan: that's right, the most interesting thing that hit me about this was that these guys were on their way home when this disaster had occurred. it had already been through the mill and had fought through the war and had seen friends and compatriots going down around them, and managing to survive that and then being imprisoned in a squalid prison camp were people died of disease and injury and starvation, thousands died of starvation in these prisons, and these guys survived that. then they are loaded on these trains, and there were three train reqs are along the way and they were finally released. her men killed in the train reqs. it just goes o