host: we are back on the year interview with author hedrick smith. he is the author of "who stole the american dream? " we talk with our readers about their story is for 2013. what is yours? guest: i'm interested in the story which of the biggest impact over time. i think probably the snowden leak story and the nsa will do that. you are to see washington in total turmoil, what to do about the nsa program. that has had a huge impact on washington and will play out in 2014. there are lots of others. gay-rights moved way forward this year. nine more states legalized same- sex marriage. supreme court knocked down the federal defense of marriage act. the syrian chemical weapons ban, nobody ever thought we would be able to ban chemical weapons in syria and stop that. that is amazing. the nuclear agreement with iran, temporary, lots of problems, but still a breakthrough. people have been working on it for a decade. that is a big story. government shutdown, of course were are interested in that because we are in washington are not really a very big story wit

then author hedrick smith gives his take on the most important news stories of 2013. later, the anniversary of akron posted a discussion on the national parties and the changing u.s. electorate. >> everything is new. the cloud is new, facebook is new and twitter is new. there is new programming languages. there is the play phase in the learn phase and the resting phase afterwards. them at the same time. today, wemove so fast have to stay up-to-date. >> new year's day on c-span. as before on pm eastern and throughout the afternoon, ceo's and others on the future of robotics. tv.on book helped shape texas. , sharing memories of the civil rights era. news president ben sherwood and david barrett talk about the future of television news. topics include new technology, investigative journalism, and copyright rules. in novembers held on the campus of the university of north carolina in chapel hill. [applause] >> thank you. it has been a delightful day. i got here from new york last evening and got up bright and early and we visited with the class and met some students creat