i began to realize i didn't get it. that was the beginning. then i began bombing him with questions about apples and fruit. there was one moment that did change things in my perception, which is we were walking one day, i worked the fields and packing house routine, 5:00 a.m. routine. we were walking at dawn with the pickers who were all working, my brother was walking ahead of me. i saw all the shades of green, i was able to get my own ego out of the way. i thought he is amazing. this brother of mine is amazing. he has built up something astonishing here. it was almost like he was no longer invisible to me. i could begin to see him. then when i watched him walking ahead of me, i realized he has the same gape i do. we are probably so much more alike than we ever allowed ourselves to think. that was a beginning moment for me. >> one of the narratives that runs through this book, particularly as he becomes more sick in the last part of it, you are the relentless, you are going to be okay, there is going to be hope, if i make enough contacts, i'l

then i began to realize, it doesn't matter. part of the great challenge of writing in a personal way is saying this is my story. it is just what is right for me. that was interesting. i was very lucky in that, the brenners are a family of letter writers. everyone had a typewriter in the era before computers and bang away at typewriters in the middle of the night as children and my father and mother, long, long letters. anita brenner turned out to be the same kind of obsessive letter-writer pack right. all of her letters were in the university of texas, the great archives of the world. i was able to go on a traumatic day and see she had neatly kept hundreds of letters that my father and family wrote to each other in the 20s. i saw patterns, the anger that had gone on 60 years before i was on the planet that became stamped on us. it became our dna. >> anything that helped you get insight as to why so much of your brother's anger and passion into what you regarded as coo coo politics? >> that is an interesting question. it is hard.

gothic style on a stick type of architecture and it's strictly imposing is a beautiful day and i realized that i was in a different part of the world and it was intimidating and quite stimulating took me about a year to kind of come to grips with the differences and finally i summarise it for myself as following in the united states when i when i worked on wall street for anything we're working on there's basically a process you went through and that process was twenty six steps and you go a b. c. d. and you're just overcome every step of the process and you achieve the result you're looking for what i realized in russia is that that approach didn't work and it would confuse the heck out of me because i said well wait a second that we've got to get organized we all have the same goal how do we achieve that goal and what i realize that actually if you took a american approach to doing business in russia you could not be successful because the rules of the game were information certainly in the ninety's and so there was no be there was an a and there the end result and to get the result you

and you're just overcome every step of the process and it's the result of what i realized in russia is that that approach didn't work and it would confuse the heck out of me because i said well wait a second we've got to get organized we all have the same goal how do we achieve that goal and what i realize that actually if you took a american approach to doing business in russia you could not be successful. because the rules of the game were information certainly in the ninety's and so there was no be there was an a and there was an end result and to get the result you had to kind of sort of move in a straight line you had to sort of expend enormous amount of energy just to keep people on a common track towards the ultimate goal and you know sort of managing chaos and pushing it and nudging it to the desired result so once i learned that i realize that in order to be successful here it's stubbornness is extremely important where all the products of our upbringings and i was you know a child in a large family with you know wonderful loving parents and. you know wonderful loving and ener

sort of managing chaos and pushing it and nudging it to the desired result so once i learn that i realize that in order to be successful here it's stubbornness is extremely important where all the products of our upbringings and i was you know a child in a large family with you know wonderful loving parents and. you know wonderful loving and energetic brothers one was two years older than me the other was four years older than me and for all of my childhood they were physically stronger than me and you know boys will be boys they will wrestle they will punch they will kick and if you get knocked down stand back up and you know maintain your composure and your integrity and things will work out well success has many fathers failure is an orphan and i feel that you know it's very hard for people. you know in this part of the world to accept that your and our mission is to you know continue to build out our existing projects in the south of moscow which is a globally relevant project in terms of size and then replicate to a smaller extent the same type of concept across the major markets in

i realized wow, they are going to publish it. and we talked about it as we would talk about a man script that would be accepted. i'm thinking, i can't believe they are going to accept this book. it was a crazy writing experience because of all the books i had written half the book. i had half the book to write before it was due in terms of a contract. we sign a contract and they put a due date on it that was the only book i felt i had to get in on time. since then i have not done it since. i tell everybody -- in my second book i thought you had to get the book right when they say you need. you should, i shouldn't say to you aspiring writers out there. i had a month and a half to write half of a book. you know in the first half took a year and a half. i was teaching simultaneous, i was writing on the weekends and trying to write as fast as i could but it was researching. i was trying to learn the culture and understand it enough so it would be part of the book. i began -- i rented a place in lake tahoe and sat there for the entire

control that pretty much sums it up she took a real defensive you know let me tell you she said i realize that we're labeled as the headache for the global economy but you know i think there are more headaches to really this was to you could also see it is kind of merkel versus the bond market she was really trying to reassure markets saying if you want to attack us just know that we are promising to solve this crisis of course this is a time where we've seen euro zone bond auctions be a daily news item did europe sell enough has italy seen those unsustainable yields of seven percent have they seen him spike is greece going to get a deal with its bondholders in order to avert the disaster of a disorderly default so these are this is all the subtext where this speech is coming from and then she gets up there to say you know fiscal solidarity integration is the solution we're promising that even if we don't promise more

a culture i realize that was a lot japanese. ugh i hadn't grownup in it and i was as american as apple pie in so many ways that i started to learn more about the culture and i thought, i'm more japanese than chinese in many ways. this book gave that to me. that was the greatest gift of the samurai's garden. that and the fact that somehow people kept reading it. it was the book i was worried about and i had sent it to my editor and she called. i'm telling you the gossip stuff now. i think in a way that's more interesting. i was very nervous because i didn't know how she would receive this book. she called and said to me, well, it's very different. [laughter] and then nobody said anything. i didn't say anything and she didn't i didn't know what to say different good or bad so just with quiet. she said, i think this about part of -- she talked to me about story lines. i realized wow, they are going to publish it. and we talked about it as we would talk about a man script that would be accepted. i'm thinking, i can't believe they are

. >> reporter: i came to this junction and i realized that somebody wanted to cross the street with a cigarettes. i could hear the snipers shooting. >> translator: there's the main road which we cannot cross because of the snipers. anyone crosses it, women, children, men, elderly, they will not be spared. yesterday, each by car we wouldn't cross it. now i'm stuck here. i can't cross over to go home so i have to sleep here. where i can sleep? we need to eat, sleep, we need to go out in the street. are we going to be imprisoned in our own home with no food and no electricity? >> reporter: these neighborhoods are dependent on how much they can smuggle inside the city. every time they're able to have a normal day where the bakery is running well, they will go there and buy as much as possible. >> translator: there's no water, the power is cut. we can't use the telephone. there's also a shortage of food. and to buy bread, you may have to stand in line for three hours. >>>> reporter: one of the r biggest problems right now is the winter. every night the temperatures are falling below freezi

so, you are in danger >> when everybody told me this was so dangerous, i realize this is why i have not heard about it because nobody goes. the more dangerous, the more important it came to me to finish this story. >> the country was devastated by 15 years of war that cost an estimated 5 million lives with resources become factors in the conflict. the airplane that took him to the mining area. saks full of the valuable minerals, but where to? a 33-day trek, he arrived at in a legal mind and managed to get inside. >> ok. this is how the groups are making money on the mining. they let the local population to the hard work and then impose taxes on everybody. >> the workers are effectively slaves to employers. they have to pay a levy to work, and earned a pittance while others make a fortune. the mine resembles a gigantic mound worker safety is not on the agenda of the mine owners. the tunnels often collects, varian miners alive. . >> we often think about what went on for a hundred years ago. it was terrible. today it is raw capitalism instead of imperialism, but it is the same outcome. in

on shots were being had from a long distance away and that's why i was on that balcony because i realized i wasn't in any danger by being there on that balcony looking over the city at. an alj meridia bridge just four hundred meters away from the hotel two american tanks a taken back a position since the. sergeant sean gibson scans with his binoculars the floors of the hotel. he focuses on the fifteenth floor always spot someone moving. brought to a reuters cameraman is filming from his rooms balcony the entrance of the u.s. army in baghdad. during that time i was receiving mortar rounds to try to make the bridge collapse so when i'm sitting down here and i got all these fires coming from all directions i don't think it could tell me is that somebody is looking for somebody else and then when i seen the individual standing up all about what a pair of binoculars. and they were talking and he was pointing. i did not immediately engage that individual i did not do that i called it up and told him what i've seen. and it took about ten minutes later for them to call back as a. firearm and that

i realized he was too far away from everything. this book was different than the first book because in the first book i had so many voices and this book everything had to be seen from steven's point of view. when i narrowed it down the story told itself much the process of a writer is elizabeth said, you cannot be afraid to make mistakes. that's the writing process. we are making a lot of mistakes i am constantly rewriting and looking at something and saying, i could say it with less words. i could look at something and say, she would kill me if i did this and i would change it. there are all the things. it's a constant process. no book falls on to the page and the words don't just fall on the page. they may fall on the page and you delete half and start over. you take the one line that works and write around it. that's basically a lot of the way i write. i want to read you some and i guess i should read a little and i want to open up for questions about this book or the other books or what i'm doing now or not doing now. basically,

i realized i hadn't talked to my police chief of what he had in mind as a new district attorney. 10 minutes into the conversation, i knew he was going to be appointed, i knew he was a lawyer, didn't know if he had passed the bar. i said to my chief of staff, is that a requirement of a d.a.? lo and behold, he tells me he did george, you were given just 12 hours to make a decision and he made another not rash decision, but a thoughtful decision, used his instinct, his skill, used his leadership capacity and assumed the role as district attorney of this city. and the last year once again, he has demonstrated his prowess, his leadership skills, his courage and through that effort and work, built on the extraordinary legacy of kamala harris and the victims unit and the work on truancy and building his own reputation, bringing community courts into the districts and into our neighborhoods, distinguished himself so much so that the voters overwhelmingly chose him as our new d.a. in san francisco. so, george, congratulations and i'm just honored to be up here and honored to be participating in this

and halfway up the stairs, the hair stood up on -- and i realized, no one was home. ched -- there's only two rooms upstairs in this little house. there was nothing out of place. there was nothing in the attic. there was nothing on the roof. and i heard, like an enormous crash right over my head. so -- and my husband is a sculptor. he has -- sells a lot of work in japan. and we had some collectors come and stay in that house. and they had taken the 22-hour flight and had dinner and fallen asleep in their soup. >> jimmy: and they died? >> no. [ laughter ] >> jimmy: oh, my god. they were crushed by a piano. [ laughter ] yeah. >> oh, no. no, no, no. this was another time. >> jimmy: oh. >> and -- we were all down at the main house. and don said, we're going to take you up to the guest house. they said, very nice. they went up. and they were so tired. they were so tired. but they're so polite. and it was about 9:30 at night. put them all in the house. and next morning, he went up to collect them at a reasonable hour, like 10:30 in the morning. and there they all were in the

and slowly i began to realize that i could be funny and that i coulus the opportunity to answer thesetions to tell little stories or little jokes, and explore th character who is basically deranged, but in a position of authority and he was intolo ior everybody he ever encountered. >> smith: well, it's a great developing of the sensibility that infuses these books and they're all very funny. joking aid gat ernehould go buy them, and if the world doesn't end, as we're out of time, we'll have to have you come back. >> hodgman: isn't it true that we're all out of time? >> smith: we're all out of time. laht ] it's kind of, it's spooky how it all dovetails, doesn't it? >> hodgman: yeah. >> smith: we'll do a whole show about the mustache if you come back next time, i promise. >> hodgman: well, you'll ha tcheck with the mustache's publicist about that. [ laughter ] >> smith: you'll slip me the number, i appreciate it. >> hodgman: yeah. >> smith: okay, john hodgman, thank you very much. >> hodgman: thank you so much. >> smith: good luck. >>unngorveea with evan smith is provided in part by hil

what i realized later was that i was just sort of protecting myself.d all day and all night. i would wake up, yawn, and light the joint. >> just do it all day long. >> all day long. in fact, even at one point i had a guy on staff whose job was to roll joints. >> all day long? >> all day long. all day long. >> joint roller. >> all day long. >> what a great job. >> and he got to get high, too. and then i would go to bed and put the joint out and fall asleep. it was all day long. >> and what does that do to you over time? >> well, it just basically puts this wall of fuzz around you. but i realized that, you know, i was trying to protect myself from something and i was keeping things out and then when i stopped, real life all of a sudden was so psychedelic and so -- i don't even know. it was weird for a long while because i hadn't felt that. >> are you pretty clean these days? >> oh, yeah, yeah. >> do you ever go recklessly partying? >> not really. not really. i have good fun. good fun. >> you're into french bordeaux. >> yes. >> that's my favorite stuff. >

i tried to position myself to get through but at that point* i realized it would not end well. >> if it was one thing to do differently? >> guest: there are many things. but i would be careful to follow every rule and to make sure that i did not think information that i had, that my clients deserved to have to make decisions, there are a lot of things that would do differently. i would probably try to squelch the attitude that i have to win no matter what. they are challenges. with the pain that i have been through that nobody knows. >> q predicted the reform the proposed could not be received people tell me they take on bridge that they can citi responsible for giving lobbyist a bad name now come up with recommendations how to change the system. does that surprise you? >> guest: of course, not. a number of lobbyist friends who are quietly told me the quiet about that. of the lobbying world they wanted to make it the unwanted to luby's merge the name where have they been the last 150 years? i don't know when they had a good reputation. and to go after the system so i haven't your may

-- of braided string sticking out of the floor everywhere and arrowheads and broken pottery and i realized when i came up against the stack of this trash pile i put my head against it and looked along it. i could see it was covered with hair. people in that room had been combing their hair for hundreds of years and it had been landing on the floor. and then new floors are built on top of that and new floors and i ran my hand across, just barely across, the front of this and i could feel the hair of people who had been there and i was there with a navajo guy that i know who just was creeped out by this. because there's a certain heavy taboo in navaho culture about death and he said after we left this cliff dwelling, he said, i need a ceremony. too much death. you can't touch that much death, he said. but i'm from a different culture where we roll around in death, where we fill museums with death. this skull is from about a 5-year-old. and i found it because i thought it was a goerd. i saw the back side of it and it still had scalp on it and i thought, oh, a whole goerd. i reached down and p

i said do you realize they are dead already? >> i'm alive and shouldn't i pull in a little more? [laughter] to go off, thank you for coming. >> my pleasure. i just this month read your book dreaming water. and i was -- i'm very glad to have read it. i'm wondering 2 things. there seems to be more of an advocacy voice in terms of the discrimination of being you know an asian american. and secondly, warner's disease. i'm wondering how you got into writing about that? and the characters were wonderful. >> okay. your first question, first. you know to be totally honest, when i sat down to write dreaming water i thought this is the book that -- i had finished language of threads and written 4 books that took place in asia. because language of threads was a hate this word, the seekial to women of the silk i felt i came full circle and my asia period might have been done i wanted to write a book that was contemporary and set in california. i knew i wanted to write a mother daughter story line. that's what i began with. it was the first time i said, this character not necessarily has to b

girl: when i became, like, 16 years old, i realized, you know, there was something different about me. my friends were going out at night, and i didn't like going out at night at all. there was just something that was holding me back. second girl: when i'm walking down the hallway at school here, i'm always running into people by accident. i bump right into them. woman: i tri t to find out as much as i could about what it is and what it could possibly mean. man: when it's dark at night, my parents wouldn't permit me to go out. second man: i don't feel i have problem being deaf because i have an established communication system using sign language. third girl: well, i have been able to listen and speak, and to me, that's the greatest thing in the world. narrator: these individuals have a genetic disorder called usher syndrome. each was born with hearing loss, often complete deafness, and all have retinitis pigmentosa, a condition that causes slow, progressive loss of vision. the typical case, ok, is one, a son or a daughter, originally diagnosed as having a hearing loss and then eventu

time and then when conditions are right i get a kind of signal that it's time for a change so when i realized that i had to change something i turned to politics back in april when i just joined the right cause project although i knew there would be a release on the log in a square in the south of iraq where it would that's why i went into politics what do you mean you knew nobody i got the signal this happens to me is reasonable see i foresaw the rises and i sold my acids in advance you said this time it was the same thing is it. i don't know i guess it's a bit more tricky it's a combination of knowledge experience being aware of the current situation in the country and the worldwide and intuition world added together all these things enable you to make the right move. and the interview with me here in full than just over just over fifteen minutes now here on out say. russia says that one sided resolutions on foreign intervention will not solve syria foreign minister sergei lavrov once all sides in the conflict to engage in talks with no preconditions his message comes on the back of the ara