put signs that say jeffrey ward, polio victim. that's the wrong word. we wanted to do is clearly communicate that he was someone going on.hat was that under -- firsthand understanding and help us way all d just in the of the roosevelts took what they and the bout life adversity they faced and overcome. a guide to what it was like for franklin roosevelt. >> once you understand the last you watch him, you realize as you have before, hat he's going through just to make a public appearance, make a speech. host: barbara up next, blair, nebraska on the line for independents. good morning. > >>. caller: we marked the calendar to watch this. purchase this. offer recall the guest: wonderful books. caller: of course. i kept asking him if we were oh, yes.him, is it -- thought teddy had adhd. if he were alive today, he would be on medicine. historians in the film brings it up. the first episode is as you just blair, it's really our table setting. it's the 19th century. e're introducing you to all three characters. eleanor and franklin in a minor it's the trajectory

next talk with documentary filmmaker ken burns and jeffrey ward about the roosevelts that began airing last night on pbs. here is just a part of that documentary. [video clip] >> they belonged to different parties. they overcame different obstacles. i had different temperaments and styles of leadership. it was the similarities and not the differences between the two that meant the most to history. both were children of privilege who came to see themselves as champions of the working man and earned the undying

jeffrey ward, writer, historian who has collaborated with ken since his civil war series. he has won seven emmy awards. donna lejae, reporter for usa today. a past president of the npc and vice-chair of the nbc speakers committees. skipping over your speaker for a moment. nick angilletta postalis, u.s. capital visitors center and speakers committee member who coorganized today's event with amy henderson. thank you, amy and thank you, nick. paula krueger, ceo of pbs and guest of the speaker. markham rick, washington bureau chief of bank rate, past npc president and chair of the club's broadcast committee. elaine king, professor of art history and theory and museum studies at can carnegie mellon and art critic for numerous publications. glen ellis, a documentary news and television producer. a round of applause for our head table. [applause] more than 30 years ken burns's documentaries have presented the stories of the american experience with drama and flair. his topics have ranged from the brooklyn bridge to baseball, from mark twain to jazz. from prohibition to the nation

. >> this morning, an award-winning filmmaker ken burns and author jeffrey ward discuss the public andte lives of theodore, franklin and eleanor roosevelt area -- roosevelt. lake talks about combating isis. examine the defense department budget that deals with counterterrorism operations. >> good morning, it is monday, september 15, 2014. the house are scheduled to be in session today. one of the few before congress adjourned ahead of the miller -- midterm elections. isisslamic militant group will continue to be a major topic. with military efforts expected to expand, we are asking our viewers whether congress should go further and hold a specific vote on whether to authorize the

jeffrey ward has been my collaborator who writes the third person narration all of his life. we are very, very proud of that and we believe that in the beginning was the word and that the word is not the enemy of images and that they can co-exist and so our films are very much written in the third person and read spectacularly after being written so spectacularly by jeff by peter coyote. but we did want to temper that voice of god which by itself sometimes is just a voice telling you what you know, which is like home work rather than a voice sharing with you a process of discovery which we would like. and so we have for the last 35 years tempered those -- that third person voice with a chorus of third person voices reading diaries and letters and journals. we've had theodore roosevelt a number of times and had various actors reading him and wanted very much to try one of the finest actors of our day in paul jamadi and i think you'll agree after last night and certainly in the next couple evenings he is just spectacular. his agent wrote today and said, good casting. [laughter]

i think that i've just -- we decided jeffrey ward, we went to our underwriters, bank of america, nationalnt for the humanities and said we need to tell this story. we're obligated to go back into what seems to many people just sort of preoccupied with the conventional wisdom about these folks and to dig a lot deeper. when you dig a lot deeper, you've got a drama like a russian novel with the three main characters and lots of subsidiary characters all sort of vying for supremacy. it's unequalled i think in american history signify it is really extraordinary what i particularly love having not seen it yet and looking forward to that, is the fact that eleanor is a main character. i wanted to play a clip. >> the two the roosevelts belonged to two branches after old new york family whose members sometimes viewed one another with suspicion. the living link between them was theodore roosevelt's best loved niece and franklin's wife eleanor. she had learned to face fear and master it long before her husband declared that the only thing americans had to fear was fear itself. her own character and e

so ken burns and jeffrey ward will be on the program.ake will join us with "the daily beast" senior national security correspondent. the guests will talk about an article titled the warren isis may be illegal. and todd harrison. talk about continuer that you arerism operations and the military budget. that's washington journal tomorrow. we hope you will join us. we hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend. see you right back here tomorrow.

jeffrey ward has been my collaborator who writes the third person narration all of his life. we are very, very proud of that and we believe that in the beginning was the word and that the word is not the enemy of images and that they can co-exist and so our films are very much written in the third person and read spectacularly after being written so spectacularly by jeff by peter coyote. but we did want to temper that voice of god which by itself sometimes is just a voice telling you what you know, which is like home work rather than a voice sharing with you a process of discovery which we would like. and so we have for the last 35 years tempered those -- that third person voice with a chorus of third person voices reading diaries and letters and journals. we've had theodore roosevelt a number of times and had various actors reading him and wanted very much to try one of the finest actors of our day in paul jamadi and i think you'll agree after last night and certainly in the next couple evenings he is just spectacular. his agent wrote today and said, good casting. [laughter]

person involved in this project has been my long-time collaborator, collaborator of 32 years, jeffrey ward, who is here, i'm also to say happily with his wife, diane. and we have just been making films together for an awfully long time beginning not, again myron, editing your text, with the civil war, but we began when he was an advisor on a film we made on the sell bat religious sect the shakers and our next film that came out five years before the civil war on the turbulent life of the southern demagogue hewey long. we have been making history together. and we have been talking together for almost all of 32 years about making a film or a film series on one or more of the roosevelts. jeff himself has written two extraordinarily great books on the roosevelts. on franklin's roosevelts -- trumpet takes him from his birth to his marriage to eleanor. and the second which is one of the greatest biographies i have ever read and please run to your note pads to jot this down. a first class temperment. it is a remarkable story. and it is a remarkable story about an extremely complicated human being

jeffrey p. walz ching huei wang weibin wang michael warchola stephen gordon ward timothy ray ward james a. waring brian g. warner derrick chistopher washington charles waters james thomas waters jr. patrick j. waters kenneth thomas watson michael henry waye todd christopher weaver walter edward weaver nathaniel webb dinah webster william michael weems joanne flora weil michael t. weinberg steven weinberg scott jeffery weingard steven george weinstein simon weiser david m. weiss david thomas weiss chin sun packwells vincent michael wells debra jacobs welsh timothy matthew welty christian hans rudolf wemmers ssu-hui wen john joseph wenckus oleh d. wengerchuk peter m. west whitfield west jr. meredith lynn whalen eugene michael whelan adam s. white edward james white iii james >> and my uncle emilio p. ortiz jr. i love you and i miss you. on behalf of our entire family and all your friends, we love you and we miss you and we'll never forget you. and to daniel lopez, we love you and we miss you too. >> and my godfather, kenneth. i wish you were here. i wish i had more memories of you. i wish ev

jeffrey p. walz ching huei wang weibin wang michael warchola stephen gordon ward timothy ray ward james a. waring brian g. warner derrick chistopher washington charles waters james thomas waters jr. patrick j. waters kenneth thomas watson michael henry waye todd christopher weaver walter edward weaver nathaniel webb dinah webster william michael weems joanne flora weil michael t. weinberg steven weinberg scott jeffery weingard steven george weinstein simon weiser david m. weiss david thomas weiss chin sun packwells vincent michael wells debra jacobs welsh timothy matthew welty christian hans rudolf wemmers ssu-hui wen john joseph wenckus oleh d. wengerchuk peter m. west whitfield west jr. meredith lynn whalen eugene michael whelan adam s. white edward james white iii james patrick white >> and my uncle emilio p. ortiz jr. i love you and i miss you. on behalf of our entire family and all your friends, we love you and we miss you and we'll never forget you. and to daniel lopez, we love you and we miss you too. >> and my godfather, kenneth. i wish you were here. i wish i had more memories of