really want to look behind the scenes at backstory what you will behind are first-rate scholars, joey thompson, monica blair who always sits right up front is our current researcher and is a ph.d. candidate at the university of virginia department of history. joey, monica and several other outstanding scholars have done the research that really powers the intellectual connections in backstory, if there are any. and joyce chaplin who i met at the johns hopkins university when we were both in graduate school together. i prided myself on being the first person to the library every morning, there was only one person who was there always before me and that was joyce chaplin. do you remember that, joyce? >> you're going to tell everything about -- >> no, that's it. i stopped right there. joyce is the james duncan phillips professor of early american history at harvard university. her most recent works include "roundabout the earth: circumnavigating magellan to orbit." and with allison bashford the new world of thomas robert mouthace rereading the principle of population. joyce has been kind enough t