mary lasker among many other things directed her philanthropic energies.e was an unusual one in four times, and knowledge for newer, a person who then direct it an enormous amount of philanthropic energy toward solving, as she put it, transform in the geography american health, landscape of american health. if there was one central characters spinning through the story, it would be mary lasker. mary lasker then very quickly i found sydney farber who reads the book. a scientific collaborator. and if mary lasker gave political legitimacy, sydney harbor provided legitimacy for the war and cancer. but the book that begins with sydney farber. sydney said six was a so-called doctor of the dead because primarily pathologists in the 1950s would perform autopsies. he was a pathology who specialized in children pathology and typically bodies of children who had died in the hospital would be whittled down into his basement laboratory. the laboratory was no bigger than about 12 feet, kind of a frozen cube at the bottom of one of the buildings. so that's where we are i

for mary lasker, i found sidney farber, who actually begins the book.she was mary lasker's friend, scientific collaborator and give political legitimacy to the war and provided the scientific legitimacy for the word cancer. so the book then begins with sidney farber. sidney farber when we began in 1940s, he was so-called dog directed that the case primarily they would perform autopsies. he was a pathology who specialized in children pathology and typically bodies of children who died in the hospital would be wheeled down into his basement laboratory. the laboratory was no bigger than about 12 feet prison in cuba at the bottom of one of the buildings. so that's where we are in 1948. firebird became interested in trying to find a mechanism or an understanding of the disease, which was extremely peaceful, swiftly lethal form of cancer and that was child acute leukemia and that's where our story begins. >> host: now joining us live is the author of "the emperor of all maladies." you can see the paperback edition has come out. pulitzer prize winner for 2011.