T.D. Davis's Blog: Lights... Camera - Authors!, page 3

Austin and Atheists

Attention book lovers! The 18th annual Texas Book Festival will be held in Austin this weekend, and the non-fiction line-up is stellar. As usual, nationally best-selling authors will share program tents with Texas-centric historians and journalists, and the mix makes for a great show. For more information, click on http://www.texasbookfestival.org. For the schedule of authors talks that will be broadcast live, go to: http://www.booktv.org/Program/15078/T...
http://www.booktv.org/Program/15079/T...

While waiting for the fun to begin, check out the long awaited conversation between Richard Dawkins and "On Faith" blogger Sally Quinn.
http://c-spanvideo.org/program/Dawk

Remembering JFK

As an end to the idiocy on Capitol Hill draws near, media attention will soon turn from politics to history. The country is a little more than a month away from the fiftieth anniversary of an assassination that arguably shaped the remainder of the 20th century.

Political scientist Larry Sabato and presidential historian Craig Shirley came in today to discuss the "The Kennedy Half-Century," a book that spends almost as much time on the presidents that followed Kennedy as it does on the man himself. The hour-long discussion centered mostly around what isn't known about the assassination and the flaws of the Warren Commission, but the book itself is worth the read for its theories on how JFK's image and/or policies affected his successors' administrations. A link will follow the 11/23 airing, but for now, enjoy some of the authors' earlier work.
http://c-spanvideo.org/program/Pendul
http://c-spanvideo.org/program/LiveC

Also, for those who may have missed the airing of Rep. Luis Gutierrez interview on his memoir, enjoy:
http://c-spanvideo.org/program/LuisGu

The Hyperbolic Dr. Carson

Dr. Ben Carson made headlines today comparing the Affordable Care Act to slavery. 'Nuff said.

For those who may not know, the neurosurgeon turned political activist and speaker is the best-selling author of several books, aside from his inspirational memoir, "Gifted Hands." He gave us three hours a few months ago, taking calls from a general audience: http://c-spanvideo.org/program/BenCars. I also interviewed him at his home on his writing process. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJIf3D....

Comments on author or activist are encouraged.

Become a fan. Follow me on twitter @tddavis_HB.

Alive and Kicking

"Immigration reform is not dead!" So said Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) when interviewed on his memoir, "Still Standing: My Journey from the Barrio to Capitol Hill," released this week. It took two hours to tape a program with a final running time of forty-five minutes, because the congressman had to leave for a procedural vote on the floor of the House that was called earlier than expected. We were fortunate that the stars aligned to enable him and the program's host, Univision radio's Alfonso Aguilar, to return to the studio. The resulting interview was as impassioned as its subject, a U.S. Representative that needs a much better reason than an interview to miss a vote. Too bad other lawmakers won't leave the lights and cameras long enough to do something productive for their constituents. But I digress.

According to Rep. Gutierrez, proponents of immigration reform from both parties are meeting regularly, without fanfare, and without being dubbed a "Gang" of any kind or number. They are discussing actual, comprehensive solutions to a policy albatross that's weighed down many elected federal officials for ten to twenty years, depending upon who you talk to. That tidbit of news was a highlight of both an interview and an afternoon in the nation's otherwise-gridlocked capital. Times to catch the Gutierrez interview this weekend can be found at www.booktv.org.

The First and the Last

I'm not big on the word "hero." It gets thrown around far too casually for my taste, especially in Washington. But yesterday, I produced a live interview with the last living speaker from the March on Washington in 1963, the first chairman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, a member of the first group of Freedom Riders, the most prominent victim of Bloody Sunday on Selma, Alabama's Pettus Bridge... and the list goes on. That man, fourteen term U.S. Congressman John Lewis (D-GA), deserves to be called a hero. Enough said.
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Jo...

"Going to Hell"

"This country is going to hell," said the former Pakistani Ambassador to the U.S. yesterday as he took a seat in the green room and waited to be interviewed on his latest release. Husain Haqqani made the declaration without malice. He was simply stating the facts as he saw them less than an hour after he heard gunshots fired by Capitol police at a mentally impaired woman.

We now know that this woman had apparently attempted to drive through a barricade at the White House and then struck an officer with her car after a made-for-Hollywood car chase down Pennsylvania Avenue. But at the time, just two weeks after the Navy Yard shooting in the same city and a few days after bikers and an SUV driver engaged in a highway hit, run and brawl, the Ambassador's assertion seemed to have merit.

The same can be said of many arguments the former diplomat makes about the nature of the relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan in his book "Magnificent Delusions." It was an interview well worth waiting for the shelter-in-place order to be lifted so our host could join us. A link to the video will be here on November 11th, after the book is released. http://www.amazon.com/Magnificent-Del...

Never a dull day in the nation's capital. But boredom would be a relief every once in a while.

Sneezes and Shutdowns

It comes as no surprise that the show taped yesterday with Professor Dawkins was an hour well spent, completely irrespective of one's views of faith. He made his case against a singular higher power as unequivocally as his readers have come to expect, despite the persistent but gentle prodding of agnostic-turned-believer Sally Quinn. Though our interview with him will air after he's back in England, his presence in multiple media outlets is pervasive this week (although Dennis Prager is apparently not on his schedule, much to the talk radio host's frustration. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/arti...)

The famed biologist's book tour includes commenting on his own memoir for print outlets in between appearances with the electronic breed. Dawkins has an article on Salon.com today about a particular excerpt of his book that's receiving a fair amount of press: the sneeze that never was that could have changed the 20th century. http://www.salon.com/2013/09/29/richa.... He discusses this at some length in the Quinn interview as well, but as that video is not yet available as a link, here's a quick chat with Dawkins on his memoir from this year's Book Expo America http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/AnApp

As the science-versus-religion debate rages this week, the sideshow that is the federal government looms large in the foreground just a few blocks away. House Speaker John Boehner has now put his finger pointing in print in an effort to shift public opinion on the shutdown, it would seem. http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion.... And DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) is certain to have a lot to say about the partisan standoff when making the media rounds later this month for her book "For the Next Generation: A Wake-Up Call to Solving Our Nation's Problems" (release date, 10/15).

This time next fall, the October releases are sure to contain one or two books on the first government shutdown of the 21st century. The only question, of course, is the ending - and how soon it'll be written.

God, Science and a Sense of Humor

Yet another article on the controversial atheist Richard Dawkins, who is currently on book tour selling his memoir, "An Appetite for Wonder." This one asks if one so abrasive in his disbelief is able to convert anyone to his way of thinking. http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/...

Tomorrow, I meet the man himself when he comes in to discuss his life and debate religion with the Washington Post's Sally Quinn. Check back in three weeks for a link to the show. Though there are many rumors about what it's like to work with Mr. Dawkins, what I'm most curious to discover is how he compares to his compatriot, A.C. Grayling, who made his case for atheism with charm and humor in an interview last spring.
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/GodAr

Francis Spufford was also gracious enough to sit before the cameras with us in London this past spring. His new book "Unapologetic: Why, Despite Everything, Christianity Can Still Make Surprising Emotional Sense" will be released in the U.S. on October 15th. Spufford provided a critique of Dr. Grayling's arguments on atheism that amounted to a pointed commentary on the man himself. It was an unexpected and entertaining dividend of the afternoon.
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Spuf

And so with Mr. Dawkins work returns again, however briefly, to the subject of God or the lack thereof and faith's role in the personal and public domains. Given what's happening in government these day, there's an argument to be made for man needing all the help he can get.

Cancer and Criminals

It was an interesting week of interviews! Stanford University Anthropology professor Lochlann Jain talked about her personal experiences with cancer and her research on the economic impact of the disease on the culture. The book is called "Malignant." It turns out cancer makes money - not such a big surprise. That may not bode well for efforts to find a cure. As one who's also written on the personal impact of a cancer death, I was gratified that choosing Jain's book for the spotlight proved to be a good choice.

Later in the week, lawyers from the Prisoner Advocacy Clinic at Georgetown Law, Abbe Smith and Vida Johnson, came by to talk about a compilation of essays from defense attorneys on the question they're asked most often - also the title of the book: "How Can You Represent Those People?" The most common answer, by the way, is that most "criminals" are poor people committing misdemeanors; so it's pretty easy to come to their defense. More than 85 percent of charged crimes in the U.S. are misdemeanors, but you'd never know it by watching the news! (As a former news producer, I have to say that those reporting the news don't have a whole lot of control over the stories they're assigned; so don't shoot the messenger.)

Despite the potential for depresssion in discussing cancer and criminals, this was one of my better weeks in the world of book promotion: the topics were important, the people were unpretentious, and I learned a few things I hadn't known before. Sometimes the names are big and the books are old topics under new titles. But not this last week of September in 2013. On to October!