Shelf Life

Tag: Government

  • C-SPAN’s Book TV is again partnering with the Library of Congress to bring the 2023 National Book Festival to a national television audience, live and on-site.

    C-SPAN’s Book TV is again partnering with the Library of Congress to bring the 2023 National Book Festival to a national television audience, live and on-site.


    As an original supporter of the National Book Festival, C-SPAN’s Book TV is contributing the following for this year’s event – held on Saturday, August 12, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center:

    • live coverage of author interviews and panel discussions.
    • lengthy live call-in interviews with nonfiction authors on location from the grand lobby.
    • 20,000 totes promoting both the Library of Congress and C-SPAN’s Book TV available to Festivalgoers.
    • public access to its video coverage via C-SPAN’s online archives at C-SPAN.org.



    C-SPAN’s Book TV has been providing live, in-depth, uninterrupted coverage of the National Book Festival – and partnering with the Library of Coverage on promotion – since the event began on September 8, 2001.

    Book TV’s LIVE coverage has taken C-SPAN’s audience to the Festival’s various venues – U.S. Capitol grounds (2001), a vast tent city on the National Mall (2002-2013), an expo-style event in the Washington Convention Center (2014-2019), a virtual event during the pandemic (2020-2021), and back to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center (2022).

    Book TV’s extensive coverage of nonfiction authors appearing at the National Book Festival kicks off the network’s coverage of book fairs held throughout the country in the fall. And the celebration of C-SPAN’s 25 years of Book TV will launch from this year’s festival.



    About Book TV:
    Book TV – Sundays on C-SPAN2 – is the only television service dedicated to nonfiction books. Book TV features programming on a rich variety of topics, such as history, biography, politics, current events, the media and more. Watch author interviews, book readings and coverage of the nation’s largest book fairs. Every Sunday on C-SPAN2 starting 8 am ET or online anytime at booktv.org. Use that website as well to connect with Book TV via social media and the email newsletter.

    About C-SPAN:
    C-SPAN, the public affairs network providing Americans with unfiltered access to congressional proceedings, was created in 1979 as a public service by the cable television industry and is now funded through fees paid by cable and satellite companies that provide C-SPAN programming. C-SPAN connects with millions of Americans through its three commercial-free TV networks, C-SPAN Radio, C-SPAN Podcasts, the C-SPAN Now app, C-SPAN.org and various social media platforms.

    The network’s video-rich website contains over 270,000 hours of searchable and shareable content. Engage with C-SPAN on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, and stay connected through weekly and daily newsletters. 


     
    Full 2023 National Book Festival Book TV
    Coverage Schedule, Saturday Aug. 12

    9amET Interview Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden

    9:30am Authors Panel: Accidental Spies
    Authors: John Lisle “The Dirty Tricks Department”;
    Janet Wallach “Flirting with Danger”
    Moderator: CBS’s Jeff Pegues

    10:30am Interview Author R.K. Russell, “The Yards Between Us”

    10:45am Authors Panel: Environmental Awakening vs. Climate Change
    Authors: Douglas Brinkley “Silent Spring Revolution”;
    David Lipsky “The Parrot and the Igloo”
    Moderator: Jenn White of NPR

    11:45 Interview: Charles “Cully” Stimson, senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation
    “Rogue Prosecutors: How Radical Soros Lawyers Are Destroying America’s Communities.”

    12pm Author Talk: Sports and Culture
    Author: R.K. Russell, “Yards Between Us”
    Moderator: LZ Granderson of the LA Times

    12:45pm Interview, David Rubenstein

    1pm Author Panel: Escaping Genocide and Human Trafficking
    Authors: Tahir Hamut Izgil, “Waiting to Be Arrested at Night”;
    Saket Soni, “The Great Escape”
    Moderator: Washington Post’s Jason Rezaian

    2:20pm Interview Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden

    3:15pm Interview with Chasten Buttigieg, “I Have Something to Tell You”

    3:30pm Author Panel – Behind the Scenes with Black Writers
    Authors Camille Dungy and Tiphanie Yanique
    Moderator: Author Jericho Brown

    4:30pm Joan Biskupic, “Nine Black Robes”

    4:45pm Author Panel – Dig In: What Food Says About Us
    Authors Cheuk Kwan and Anya von Bremzen
    Moderator: Wash. Post Food Writer Daniela Galarza

    For more information c-span.org/booktv

  • Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us

    Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us

                  Does the current state of the world seem overwhelming? Do our leaders often seem to be all about themselves and not about us? Is it easier to turn on a sitcom rerun than to sit through the news because we feel so helpless to change what’s going on?

                You’re not alone. Brian Klaas, a columnist for the Washington Post Assistant Professor of Global Politics at University College London, and author of the new book “Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us” (Scribner 2021; $28), has taken on the task of interviewing more than 500 world leaders from the best to the worst– to answer questions like the following. Does power corrupt or is it that corrupt people are drawn to power? What personality types are drawn to power? Why are so many dictators sociopaths and narcissists? And why do even good people, once in a position of power, become authoritarian?

                Here is a brutal fact that will make you reach for remote and flip to an episode of “Green Acres” where the biggest problem of the day is whether Arnold the Talking Pig can take that trip to Hawaii he won.

                Democracies are dying with more and more countries sliding towards authoritarian rule says Klaas who writes that there are no countervailing forces.

                Indeed, Klaas who created and hosts the award-winning Power Corrupts podcast, says “There’s nothing that rewards being a sober moderate who believes in democracy and tries to govern by consensus.”

                Describing democracy as being like a sandcastle, one that can be easily wiped out by a big wave or successive small hits, Klaas gives Turkey as an example.

                “Initial coverage of Erdogan’s 2002 election was positive, showing him to be someone was a populist who would shake things up, go up against the elite and status quo, and bring democracy to Turkey,” says Klaas who looked back through New York Times archives to highlight how that country has changed for the worse. “For 19 years now, he’s chipped away at democracy instead.”

                Though the book’s subject matter might seem dull, it’s not. Klaas is a strong writer with a sense of humor and he is very capable of delivering telling anecdotes that reflect the changes a democracy can encounter and how quickly that can happen in a compelling way.

                “If you lose the battle for democracy, you don’t get to battle for taxes, infrastructure, healthcare, or any of the policies that change lives,” says Klaas, who earned a MPhil in Politics from the University of Oxford (New College) and an MPhil in Comparative Government from the University of Oxford (St. Anthony’s). “In the places that I’ve studied where democracy has died, it’s still dead pretty much everywhere.”

                How to fix it?

                Klaas suggests becoming active. Call your congressperson or senator, run for local office, become politically active, and in general, participate in making changes to bring about change.

                “That’s the type of activity that ultimately can transform the political system at the national level,” he says.

                But there’s no time to delay.     

                “If we don’t fix it in the next two to four years,” he says, “it probably won’t get fixed.”

    Follow Brian Klaas’s podcast Power Corrupts.