i read stacey abrams new book the weekend came out and i was fascinated by it because of all the intersection between the plot and the supreme court. i just love these things. i read all the michael connelly books, and i read a lot about mr. writers. i read a whole ton of women mystery writers, you know, karin slaughter. >> she is amazing. >> and my psychological favorite, sarah -- >> great choices. >> janet because he make the latter i still laugh out loud at all that jersey culture stuff. it just tries me around the band laughed at. i just read these things and i thought mr. patterson has been more successful than anybody and he can give me interested in any character. it's not easy to write gripping fast-paced thriller as to make sure you got enough real people in it that you invested in them. well before the end of the book. that's what we tried to do. >> we did a session last night and the child was the moderator and we're both fans of his any such a gentleman in such a nice man. he said he liked the president is missing but he of trim "the president's daughter" is so much better and he

i read stacey abrams' new book the week it came out and i was fascinated because the intersection between the plot and the court. i love these things. i read all the lead trials books, all the michael connelly books. i read a lot of other mystery writers, a whole ton of women mystery writers. karen slaughter. abby: she's amazing. pres. clinton: and my psychological favorite -- abby: great choices. pres. clinton: janet evanovich's books because i always laugh out loud about that culture stuff. so i read these things and i thought, esther patterson has been more successful than anybody and he could get -- mr. patterson has been more successful than anybody and he could get me interested in any character. it is hard to write a fast-paced thriller and have enough people that you are invested in. that's what we tried to do. james: we did a session last night and lee child was the moderator. he is such a gentleman and a nice man, and he said for him, the president -- "the president's daughter" is so much better, and he liked the first book a lot. that was very nice for us to hear from him. abby

every week we host events on the zoom account featuring lin-manuel miranda, stacey abrams, and rendon fleming and nick stone. check out the event schedule at harvard.com/events, and while you are there you can sign up for our email newsletter. this evening's discussion will conclude with some time for your questions. if you have a question for our speakers at any time during the talk tonight, click on the q&a button on your screen. we will get through as many as time allows. this event will have closed captioning available, depending on the version of zoom you are using, you may need to enable captions yourself by clicking on the closed caption button on your screen. in the chat, i will be posting a link to purchase copies of "how the word is passed" on the harvard.com as well as a link to donate in support of this series of our store. your purchases and contributions make events like tonight's possible and help ensure the future of a landmark, independent bookstore in harvard square. thank you all so much for showing up and tuning in, both in support of our authors and also of the tr

so i was always fascinated by yeah, but i i read stacey abrams new book the week it came out and i was fascinated by it because of all the intersection between the plot and the supreme court. so i just love these things and i i read all the late child's books. i read all the robert christ books. i lead all the michael connelly books. and i read a lot of other mystery writers. i lead a whole ton of women mystery writers. of you know karen slaughter she's amazing. and and my psychological favorites are foresky. oh, yeah, great choices janet evanovich's books because they make me laugh. i still laugh out loud at all that jersey culture stuff. it just drives me. around the bend laughing. so i just read these things. and i thought this paterson has been more successful than anybody and he can get me interested in any character. yeah, which is not easy to write a gripping fast-faced thriller. yeah and still make sure you got enough real people in it that you're invested in them. well before the end of the book, so that's what we try to do. we did a session last night. actually lee child was

. >> and when stacey abrams is president then we will all have our lessons brought up to date, pretty much right away. >> and so we are now this historic moment, and we have a black woman and asian descent occupying the highest office of the land, and so what are you saying? >> we are trying to have people exploring questions that says that does not relate to me, but it does. the challenge is one that people to understand that there is still so much more to learn. still so much more to understand through our history, and that by understanding that, it will challenge us, but that will push us in a direction where as the vice president has said that she doesn't want to be the last. so the key is to make sure that we are telling the stories that allow us to open the doors. >> so we are in the business, him and i, of storytelling, and aim just reminded just now of the statement that i love by the novelist richard powers who said that best arguments in the world won't change a single person's mind. the only thing that can do that is a good story. if you think about it, arguments are about

. >> and when stacey abrams is president, and then we'll all have our lessons brought right up today, pretty much right away. >> so we are now in this historic moment, we have the first woman of color, we have a black woman of south asian descent, occupying one of the highest office in the land. i'm asking to follow up on your statement or secretary, because i'm curious how we get there, what's incumbent upon all of us, within calm but among our institutions to make sure that those stories are included moving forward? >> i think it's important to make sure that we're helping the public understand that all we're trying to do is understand who we are as americans. it's all we're simply trying to do so that even as we explore questions that people may say, that doesn't relate to me, it does. and i think the challenge is one that people understand but there's still so much more to learn. there's them so much more to understand where history and that by understanding that, that will challenge us but that'll put us in the direction where, as the vice president has said, that she doesn't wan

abrams have suddenly flipped flop to get on the right side of the polling. so on the basicmen mechanics of how elections should be best run, when you take the constitution discussion out of the overcharged political atmosphere of the day, americans tend to agree on what it takes to run good elections. we have seen that one doesn't need fraud to shake confidence in an election. does anyone remember bush v gore? in 2000, florida's election system was held up before world as a sad joke. incompetence, election breakdowns, untrustworthy ballots and machines, and haphazard and inconsistent rules. americans' confidence was shaken. in 2000, the left was screaming its lack of confidence in our elections. again in 2016. again in 2018. highly regarded pollster scat rasmussen wrote an article this year in which he recorded that while 32% of americans lack confidence that america swore in the correct person as president following the election of 2020, 26% held the same view after the election of 2016. and there is not much overlap between those two groups. here in the u.