now, we kick off the weekend with steve olsen he recalls the eruption of mount st. helens in 1980. [inaudible] >> everybody -- [inaudible] on a real beautiful day that we can manage it. thank you so much for coming. before we get started a few housekeeping rules you can take the time right now to silence your cell phones. while you have it out -- enis it[inaudible] you can sign up for the great events going on with steve olsen. he's going to talk about his book and i'm excited for him to do that. in his book, steve has history and science behind eruption of mount st. helens with account of what happened to those people who lived it and those who died. as i said steve has particular connections. one of the big stories as events director i'm sarah by the way. i don't know if i introduced myself. as events director is bringing to our local connections you can see that tonight. so please join me in welcoming steve olsen to kramerbooks. >> i've 9/11 given a talk here before, but i really can hardly begin to tell you how delighted i am to finally be doing this. when my wife and i were ne

tonight, steve olsen recalls the eru erup eruption of saint mary's. and then at 10, jillian thomas on the impact title 70 the 1964 civil rights act had on working women. and we wrap up with a report on how the welfare system has failed the poor. that happens tonight on c-span2, booktv. >> how did you get started in speech writing? >> guest: that is an amazing story. where -- i was a high school debater and debated in college and doubled my major into communication studies and never thought of speech writing but just taught speech. at the university of virginia i was asked to give a guest lecture at the university of north carolina chapel hill. i went down and gave my lecture at 10 o'clock in the morning. president ford was speaking on the campus at noon and we all decided to go over and hear him because how often do you get to hear a president live. the president gave a speech that wasn't very good. disorganized, ram disable -- rambling and my colleagues joked with me how can you be a republican and support someone who can not speak. so i mailed a cri