. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every question and every answer, nationwide insurance is proud to join tavis in working to improve financial literacy ned remove obstacles to ment oermp e conversation at a time. nationwide is on your side. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television] tavis: steven naifeh and gregory white smith are pulitzer prize- winning authors. their latest is easily one of the most talked-about books of the year. a new biography of a vincent van gogh. it is titled "van gogh: the life." good to have you here. >> thank you very much. tavis: let me start by asking what it is about a vincent van gogh that makes it worth giving 10 years of your life to do. we all make decisions and choices every single day. maybe you did not know it was going to be a decade when you started. why was it worth that? >> we did not know exactly what we were getting into. i think it was a realization that he was a unique cultural fig

. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every question and every answer, nationwide insurance is proud to join tavis in working to improve financial literacy and remove obstacles to economic e a time. nationwide is on your side. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television] tavis: robert borosage is the founder and president for america's future who served as an adviser to the campaign of jesse jackson. he is also a contributor to politico.com. he joins us from washington. good to have you on this program. i am going to go to the piece you wrote on october 24 and put a line up on the screen. "taxing the working poor is an ineffective and distraction from the challenge is facing. our problem is not that working people get too much, it is that income inequalities have reached extremes, destructive to our economy and democracy." i want to come to that as a starting place because there are a number of words that i hate. i want to start wit

. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every question and every answer, nationwide insurance is proud to join tavis in working to improve financial literacy empowerment one conversation at because a time. nationwide is on your side. >> and by contributions to your you. thank you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television] tavis: juan gonzalez is here. "news for all the people," which he co-authors the book. you all right? >> fine. tavis: there is a lot of research to pull all of this data together. what made you think that there was worth, value, necessity in doing all of this about race and the american media? why does it matter? >> i think many americans are satisfied with what they are getting from the system, but it is especially among people of color, asian americans feeling almost assaulted on a daily basis by the kind of news and coverage that is especially in the mainstream commercial media. they are still denigrated. they feel marginalized. they feel that their struggle in america is not properly re

. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every question and every answer, nationwide insurance is proud to join tavis in working to improve financial literacy and remove obstacles toio me n ti. t ate corsveion at a time. nationwide is on your side. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television] tavis: marsha coleman-adebayo was an analyst at the e. p. weight -- epa when she discovered a case to the attention of her superiors. she was told to shut up and denied a promotion. she did not back down. her efforts led to the passage of the notes here act which protect whistle-blowers. the new book is called "no fear: a whistleblower's triumph over corruption and retaliation at the epa." she joins us tonight from washington. good to have you on this program. >> it is a pleasure to be with you. tavis: your conviction, your commitment, i appreciate that on behalf of all americans. let me start by asking who contacted you from south africa and what

. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every question and every answer, nationwide insurance is proud to join tavis in working to improve financial literacy and remove obstacles to economic empowerment one conversation at a time. nationwide is on your side. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. kcet public television] [captioning made possible by kcet public television] tavis: amy waldman is out with her first-ever novel, and it is called tavis," a book that is receiving rave reviews. amy, good to have you on the program. it is all up or down from here. >> let's say up. tavis: i say that because there is so much talk about your first novel. what do you say about that? >> i think it is a lot to do with my talents, but it is also that there is a lot of interest in this topic. tavis: i will get to the book in just a second, but i want to ask you why it is, given how raw emotions are after 9/11, relative to a monument, relative to how we teach muslims, being able to have a house of

. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every question and every answer, nationwide insurance is proud to join tavis in working to improve financial omod cbsvetato and remove obstacles to economic empowerment one conversation at a time. nationwide is on your side. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television] tavis: susan herman is the present of the aclu. after serving two decades on the board of directors, she teaches law at brooklyn law school. her new text is called "taking liberties: the war on terror and the erosion of american democracy." good to have you on this program. i want to jump right in. this book is released and the timing could not be more propitious. we are almost commemorating this is the 10th anniversary of the patriot act. it has now been extended until 2015. let me ask what your assessment is of the patriot act now. >> a lot of people -- what a lot of people do not know is that it is a whole grab bag. my original

. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every question and every answer, nationwide insurance is proud to join tavis in working eracmprove finitciyal l red ve obstacles to economic empowerment one conversation at a time. nationwide is on your side. and by contributions to your pbs station by viewers like you. thank you. re >> howard dean was a candidate himself for the presidency in 2000 for joining us tonight from burlington, vermont. always good to have you on this program. so much to talk about. is the failure of this super committee a good thing or bad thing? >> given where it was headed it is a good thing. it would have been nice if they made reasonable compromises but reasonable this is not in the great swing vocabulary. it is probably a good thing. you will see a lot of scoring in congress and i hope that -- the president makes good on his promise. tavis: loder bad for the president? >> it underlines the fact that the president is trying to get stuff done and congress is trying to stop him from doing it. mitch m

with every question and every answer, nationwide insurance is to improve financial literacy a time. >> and by contributions to your you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television] tavis: david cronenberg is an award winning director and writer whose previous films include "a history of violence" and "eastern promises." he has a new movie called "a dangerous method" and here is a scene from it. >> i do not think you understand the depth of the opposition to our work. there's the old -- the whole medical establishment, of course. but that is nothing when our guided -- our ideas began to trickle through to the public. the frantic, the denials, the encoder and rage. >> might that be because of your insistence on they explicitly sexual material. >> all i am pointing out is what >> doing period piece work is a different kind of animal. >> i have done. pieces before with naked lunch and a spider and butterfly. but those were fictional pieces. these are very iconic people, avoid -- sigmund freud. there is a love triangle. it is interesting because you have tons of material. this was

. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every question and every answer, nationwide insurance is proud to join tavis in working to improve financial literacy and remove obstacles to economic empowerment one conversation at a time. nationwide is on your side. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television] tavis: for more tonight on the looming deadline on the congressional daedaluses super committee and the impact on the 2010 presidential race, we are being joined from washington by a widely read columnist for "the washington post," ms. recent book is "tears of a clown. dana, good to have you back. >> good to be here, tavis. tavis: i said from the very beginning that i could not see how a committee evenly split between democrats and republicans could do what a larger senate body could do. please tell me that i was wrong about that and that we will get the problem solved in the next few days. >> i really wish i could tell you that, but i

. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every question and every answer, nationwide insurance is proud to join tavis in working to improve financial literacy and remove obstacles to one nvnversation at a time. nationwide is on your side. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television] tavis: i am pleased to have john lithgow on this program. his threat -- his standout career includes emmy awards and two oscar awards and two tonys. he is out with a terrific new memoir, called a "drama," about acting. have you been busy? >> i have been busy telling people about this book. i have never done boat tours before. tavis: what do you think of it? kfar >> it is hard work. by have come here to rest. tavis: i will make this easy for you. drama.e why the title, a traum it is a memoir. >> it is in the more about the first half of my life and all of the influences inside and outside of theaters, on stage and off stage in my life that basically turn mad

. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every qnaan is e proud to join taanoninde insurvn proud to join tavis in working move obstacles to economict ecoc empowerment one conversation at a time. nationwide is on your side. >> and by contributions from viewers like you. thank you. tavis: ariel dorfman is an acclaimed novelist and human activist who served in chile before 1973. he is the chairman of latin american studies at duke and author of "feeding on dreams: confessions of an unrepentant exile." is great to have you on the program. >> thank you. i love the program. >> i will do my best to call you ever go. >> i asked that, and i ask everyone to call me ariel, so why shouldn't you? tavis: i have asked ariel to start by reading a passage from this text, which i think will set us on a beautiful direction for a fascinating conversation with a fascinating man, so would you do me the honors of reading what i asked you to read? >> i have danced on the streets of santiago on november 4, 1970 when allende became president and

. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley, with every question and every answer, nationwide is proud to join fi improveve a ancial literacynd obstacles to financial empower. one at a time. >> and from contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television] tavis: always pleased to have yo-yo ma on this program. the 16-time grammy winner is one of this year's recipients of the kennedy center honors, fitting that a 70-year-old yo-yo ma actually performed for john f. kennedy some years ago. his latest project features a group of talented artists and a unique blend of musical genres. first, yo-yo ma, an honor, have you on this program. >> i can tell you it's such an honor to be on your show. tavis: i was giddy when i saw the list come out of the kennedy center honors, i was, like, yo-yo ma. you're so young. you got to be one of the younger ones to get the honor. >> i'm trapped in the body of a 96-year-old. tavis: we had sonny rawlins here a couple of weeks ago. i feel blessed to have two of you in the matter of weeks.

. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley, with every question and every answer, nationwide is proud to join mprovero working to improve financial literacy and remove obstacles to economic empowerment one at a time. >> and to contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. tavis: michael lewis is a perennial best-selling author whose previous books include ""moneyball," "blind side" and "the big short." the satellite called boomerang. let me start with the news of days ago, miracle and sarkozy of germany and france respectively have said by the end of the month they're going to put forth a plan on do something vis-a-vis the debt crisis in europe. your thoughts about that? >> i'm a little skeptical because the governments have been trying to put out this fire for a long time and what they do is make these announcements to calm down the financial markets so there aren't runs on countries and runs on banks but they don't have a specific plan and any plan they put together is going to involve essentially german people paying for the debts of people on the periph

. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. nationwide insurance is proud to join tavis in working to financial lac financial literacy and remove obstacles one conversation at a time. nationwide is on your side. >> by contributions to yourbs p station from viewers like you. thank you. tavis: we have an oscar-winning actor for his role in "inglorious basterds" and see him in the new film "carnage" which is based on the very successful play "gods of "carnage" and stars kate winslet and jodey foster. and now here are some scenes from "carnage." >> i'm thinking we might have had a knee-jerk reaction. >> i'm not sure we see the big picture. >> sure, we do. >> let him taste it. >> very good. >> excuse me. >> yeah. >> undesirable side effects. looks like you are drunk. >> you know what they were arguing about? >> wouldn't let him be a part of the game. >> no. i'm thrilled to hear it. >> yeah. >> zachary is not a maniac. >> yes, he is. he is a maniac. tavis: you have that and academy award winners, this had better be good. [laughter] t

with every question and every answer, nationwide insurance is proud to join tavis in working to improve financial literacy and remove obstacles to economic empowerment one conversation at a time. nationwide is on your side. >> brought to you by the aarp foundation. >> and by contributions by viewers like you. thank you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television] tavis: more evidence even today about how the turmoil in europe is affecting the worldwide economy as situations in italy and greece continued to spark a global fears. the news about china is a bit more positive as inflation fears start your receipt. this is the backdrop for a timely new text from neil ferguson. his latest is called civilization, the west and the rest. could have you back on this program. let me start with some news before we get to the text. anything that we should be celebrating out of this summit? >> that was a real washout. the europeans went into that hoping to get help from china and other emerging nations. they were slapped down good and hard. without some outside help, they seem incapable of so

insurance supports tavis smiley with every question and every answer, nationwide insurance is proud to join tavis in working to improve financial litacery em rove obstacles to economic empowerment one conversation at a time. nationwide is on your side. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- em

. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every question and every answer, nationwide insurance is proud to join tavis in working to improve financial literacy and remove obstacles to econom ow empowerment one conversation at a time. nationwide is on your side. >> and by contributions by viewers like you. thank you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television] [bell tolling]e to stay for a w, she said. >> she's not telling the truth. s on that staircase, the german and the cambridge lad.

. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. we're proud to joinis tnav i promoting financial literacy and promote economic empowerment one conversation at a time. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television] tavis: lawrence lessing is a director of education at harvard, his new text is called "republic lost: how money corrupts congress and a plan to stop it." thank you for being here, professor. >> great to be here. tavis: to say that congress is corrupted is one thing, but to suggest that the republic is lost, those are two different things. >> that's right. tavis: why suggest the republic is lost? >> we have to understand what they meant by a republic. when the framers give us our -- gave us our republic, they thought it was a representative democracy and defined that to be a democracy dependent upon the people alone. what we've allowed to happen is we've allowed congress to develop a different dependency. they spend 30% of their time raisin

. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every question and every answer, nationwide insurance is proud to join tavis in working to improve financial literacy and remove obstacles to economic empowerment one conversation at a time. nationwide is on your side. >> and by contribution to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. tavis: pleased to welcome mickey rourke back to this program following his oscar nominated role in "the wrestler." the actor continues his run in films like "iron man 2" and "immortals" opens this weekend and a scene from "immortals." >> does he know of my rage? does he know that i only live to see his blood at the end of my sword? does he know he butchered my mother? >> he's he's seen your face. he knows. tavis: we stop that scene just before it got cronk. and about to be popping on at that scene in just a second which leads me to start this conversation by asking when are you going to stop playing these physical roles? you're not getting they younger, dude. >> i'm no spring chicken. tavi

life insurer aviva and nationwide insurance are among those making this city of 200,000 among the largest insurance centers in the world. david maxwell has seen the growth over the past decade as president of drake university in des moines. >> des moines is a wonderful combination of a mid-sized city that still behaves like a small town in all the best senses of the word. >> tom: iowa's financial services industry has grown almost 90% in the past decade. it's the second largest contributor to the state's economy after manufacturing; agriculture is fifth. there's a lot of optimism here for the local economy, thanks to financial services like annuities and insurance. the unemployment rate in des moines is 6.5%. if this trend continues, one enviable challenge some state officials are talking about is having enough people to work. >> really, we're going to have to grow our population to take care of some of the demands that we see in the pipeline. >> tom: debi durham's job is to attract new businesses to the state and get existing companies to hire. >> the jobs are not as numerous, i mean, th

. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every question and every answer, nationwide insurance is proud to join tavis in working to improve financial literacy and remove obstacles to conversation at a nt.ne conversation at a time. nationwide is on your de.sa >> brought to you by the aarp and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. it thank you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television] tavis: mark bowden is an award winning author. his newest book is called "worm: the first digital war." good to have you back on the program. the first digital world war, is a question of if or when? >> it is a case study of one of the most serious cyber threats launched in the last few years and trying to curb the worm required a global effort. they had to get the cooperation of every top-level country domain in the world to contain this thing. what that suggests is a global struggle. the book is an opportunity to take a look at what i think it's a fascinating process. "worm" tells the story of a little pie

. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every question and every answer, nationwide insurance is proud to join tavis in working to improve financial literacy and remove obstacles to economic empowerment one conversa aoti a e. sanationwide is on your side. >> and by viewers like you. if thank you. kcet public television] tavis: pleased to welcome martin sheen and emilio west of as to the program. the way, a movie written and directed by emilio, here are some scenes from "the way." >> are they going to change your life? >> something like that. ♪ >> i am so sorry, i had no idea. >> those are smart, confident, stubborn. >> a lot like you. tavis: take me back when you started writing the project and you know you are writing this specifically for your father. what is that process like? >> i wanted to write something that explored who he is as a man and as an actor. he would throw all of us kids in the back of a country squire station wagon and we would drive across the country, landing in some location. for every badlands'

. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every question and every answer, nationwide insurance is proud to join tavis in working to improve financial literacy and remove obstacles to economic empowerment one conversation at a time. nationwide is on your side. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television] tavis: alfredo quinones- hinojosa is a renowned neurosurgeon and director of the pituitary tumor center at johns hopkins. his remarkable path from mexico to the united states is the subject of a new memoir, "becoming dr. q: my journey from migrant farm worker to brain surgeon." an honor to have you on this program. i just want to touch this hand. >> i am honored to be here with you. tavis: it is my delight. let me jump into it. i was thinking that if herman cain had his way, you would have been electrocuted, trying to halt the fence from mexico to the united states. let us deal with this now. what is your sense of the immigration debate

. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every question and every answer, nationwide insurance is proud to join tavis in working to improve financial literacy and remove obstacles to economic empowerment one co. . >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning made possible by kcet public tavis: pleased to welcome jimmy cliff to the program. he has been an influential force in the music business nearly 50 years. next year marks his 40th anniversary of the seminal album and companion movie, "the harder they come." next week, he has a new six-song bp called "sacred fire." it is an honor to have you on the program. >> thank you. tavis: i love the title of that, "sacred fire." >> "sacred fire" are the secrets that i have kept secret over the years, things i have yet to do, things i have yet to accomplish as an artist. on another level, it is the secrets of my conneion as an earthman. and connecting my secret fire from my solar plexus to the earth. these are secrets that have been k