gretel ehrlich is best known for her nature and travel writing. she's authored 13 books, including three of poetry. it was the most powerful earthquake ever to hit japan. triggering a tsunami that reached over 130 feet, taking close to 16,000 lives and causing the meltdown of three nuclear reactors: a disaster of epic proportions. beginning in the 1960s, gretel ehrlich, began visiting japan regularly to study and write about its culture, religion-- she's a practicing buddhist-- and literature. soon after the tsunami, she returned for the first of three trips to document the physical and emotional aftermath. >> i felt a need to go and it's been a lifelong thing about japan that has called me. i wanted to hear the stories. >> brown: the result was the new book-- part reportage, part personal reflection-- titled, "facing the wave: a journey in the wake of the tsunami". she talked to us about it recently on kent island, maryland, where she spends the winter. >> we came to cove after cove of villages that just didn't exist anymore. you'd see parts of b

i would like to thank gretel ehrlich for her wonderful and inspiring presentation of her new book "facing the wave." thank you for joining us of the mechanics institute in san francisco. we look forward to seeing you again. [applause] >> here is where the story starts to get interesting. i am convinced but give the the basic just commas sent off to fort leavenworth a lot of people did not like the trade as they do not white officers who were to go fish or stood out too much and pretoria's was guilty on both. he was sent to fort leavenworth and a lot of people are thinking that's great. the fair hair boys sending out to pasture literally. but he realizes this is the intellectual center of the army. they form curriculum for the college, they organize the national training centers, the lessons from one affects the lessons of the other and affects the patterns of the next. and he said himself what powers he potentially had. holy cow. he talks like that like super, jeepers, holy cow they put insurgents in charge of change. he views as up as the insurgent. [laughter] knew well there is a profes

i would like to thank gretel ehrlich for her bouck "facing the wave". ayaan the director of defense and we look forward to seeing you very soon again. [applause] >> thank you. >>> david is the author of spin master of the media ignores the news and help re-elect barack obama. what was the news that was ignored? >> you have a great number of things, stories about the economy, stories of the foreign policy, etc.. what prompted me to write this though is the benghazi attack. it became clear that the political news media rather than focusing on a story of foreign policy failure and a president that promised the muslim world and was failing to produce eight it significantly destroyed al qaeda yet we see the terrorists acting up again. instead of that story will talk about the net from the gap and immediately he probably didn't handle the situation well with his press conference he called it the wrong time and said the wrong things but there was an actual real policy story about the guy that runs the entire foreign policy apparatus in the united states and th

well, if not, i'd like to thank gretel ehrlich for her wonderful and inspiring presentation for her new book, "facing the wave." and i thank you all for joining us here at the mechanics' institute here this san francisco. i'm laura shepherd, director of events, and we look forward to seeing you very soon again. >> thank you. [applause] >> and now, booktv. 48 hours of nonfiction authors and books every weekend on c-span2. this weekend we are live from the tucson festival of books in arizona. follow us on twitter and facebook for live updates and pictures throughout the weekend. watch our live coverage and more all weekend long on booktv. for a complete schedule, visit booktv.org: >> i want to move to the role of publishers in this new world. it used to be that publishers would take care of all distribution, they would take care of production, and they would provide the advance. and that, that series of services led them to take a very hefty can cut, a 95% cut. now, now you don't need production because you can put it out on the web, you don't need an advance because it doesn't cost that