who was joseph priestley? did he invent air and what it was his connection to joanna the thomas jefferson? >> guest: i stumbled across this book, this project -- i thought our was in the middle of getting ready to write "where good ideas come from: the natural history of innovation" and esteban the story of joseph priestley and got obsessed with a man ended up asking my publisher to write me -- let me read another book before a 18. joseph priestley was an incredible figure of the 18th-century. one of the great eccentric visionary minds of that period do not enough people know about. he is most famous for isolating oxygen for the first time. he didn't actually do it for the first time. what he did instead of calling an oxygen he called it ballistic air which was not a catchy title. that kind of is his main claim to fame that he did nothing this. the most important one was he was the first to realize, this was his breakthrough, he was the first to realize plants were creating air. the reason we have a breathable

it is electric and energizing. >> guest: let's talk about this in a context of joseph priestley. the things that he talked about in his works was the electric language and dealings of the sublime that one gets when you think about forward march of history and of progress. that was a big thing for him. you can imagine this is literally the work of god. society is growing more advanced, human beings are having more compassion. see that progress marching along a something that was much bigger as an individual, having a feeling of being moved along by something and participating in that movement, it is a deep and profound part of the human condition. one of the great experiences, intellectual and emotional experiences that you can have is human. i absolutely do believe that. there is an element of faith to that. it is probably not the word that i would use, but that element of wanting to something larger than yourself that is taking you to a better place of some kind it is a sentiment that i think we need to have more of in society and institutions that encourage that kind of feeling

we are thrilled that you have priestley stepped in for harris, who unfortunately, could not be with us the two family emergency. she also has experience working with programs involving dialog development and debate corp. and conflict revolution -- resolution. she serves as a female muslim ambassador to public-school and interfaith initiatives to highlight the commonalities of the fates. this will be followed by a question and answer session. i am looking for to all that you have to contribute today and for all the we have to hear an share today. last but not least, we are so thrilled to have susan hayward from usip, who will serve as today's moderator of the panel. she is a program officer at the religious center for peacemaking. she also coordinates an initiative exploring the intersection of women, religion, conflict, and he's building, and partnership with the berkeley center at georgetown university. she works on the ground with of religious activists and is involved in peace building in burma, iraq, and shrill lockout. so with that, we are eager to hear from our distinguished pane