and with that i would like to welcome lawrence wright. i should say i am a longtime fan of larry in his work. and also a fan of this book. let me just her up by saying it is a strange and obviously to begin with this remote feature. in keeping with this book how else do you begin talking to a book about pandemics. it's really weird. people asked me about it and i say it is really strange. it's not anything i have ever participated in. i did feel like we were going to face a big pandemic one day. the fact that it's today is a total coincidence. early this year when did you begin to talk to the publisher and say i've done a little research about the situation that we are headed for when did you realize you were to be publishing in the middle of a pandemic. the chinese made their announcement on new year's eve if you remember. i remember sars stars and how it have began in china and they had hit it the information for some time. it is a miracle a public health that they were able to stop the contagion within 100 days. here is another one thi

we have a lot of other programs coming up, tomorrow we have lawrence wright come monday we have a conversationis and a bunch more. check out our website for more information. thank you tia, thank you barbara, stay well and stay well read.>> booktv continues now on c-span2, television for serious readers. >>. >> good evening, thank you for

we have a lot of other programs coming up, tomorrow we have lawrence wright come monday we have a conversation with camilla harris and a bunch more. check out our website for more information. thank you tia, thank you barbara, stay well and stay well read.>> booktv continues now on c-span2, television for serious readers. >>. >> good evening, thank you for joining us my name is gavin and the director of programs exhibitions and partnerships for the national historic society. i would like to extend a special welcome to anyone who might be attending a virtual program for the first time. considering the size of our virtual crowd in the geographic diversity of the people who signed up, i'm sure there are some people who are in for the first time. if you're not familiar with nhs we are the oldest historical society in america. founded in 1791 and have been an independent nonprofit institution dedicated to collecting, preserving, publishing and sharing our nation and states history the past 229 years. in these days of social distancing we are taking to hosting virtual events we have online events fo

i would like to welcome lawrence wright staff writer for the new yorker.