Admire and he is here this morning to talk about his new book and a new biography of mohammed ali. I understand this is his only third stop. For he speaks ive been asked to mention a few things. First, the book possible,a of course, is pretty but if you would like to contribute to the cause you can do that at the headquarters for the book possible outside ort online and also i reminded after his remarks he will be heading over to the signing tent which is next to the tent out on the main plaza so you can have him sign your bookrn over there. Jonathans regard is one of the top writers of narrative nonfiction which is my favorite style. Its a fantastic author and bestselling book including two that i have read on lou gehrig and Jackie Robinson. Jonathan is written for the New York Times, theac new yorker, esquire in the Washington Post today he is a contributing writer for the wall street journal. His biography of commonality is the most anticipated book of the fall is you have checked out the reviews its probably the most highly rated book of the fall term as well. There is always a national connection. I dont know if you mentioned these points but i wanted to say that commonalities widow is a vanderbilt graduate and if you ever had a chance to meet at temple, the legendary coach of the [inaudible], he always told the story about after 1960 olympics, summer olympics, where caches clay was with Wilma Rudolph and after those in the mix caches clayit would come don to nashville in his peak convertible cadillac looking for wilma so jonathan, not sure if you drove down from chicago and a pink cadillac or flu but were excited to have you here and thank you for coming. [applause] thank you very much. Im proud to be here. Commonalities to say he was introduced like that he would say thank you for that introduction you are not as dumb as you look. I dont do that and i wouldnt do that there is a lot that mohammed ali could get away with that i couldnt. We dont really have that much in common, as you might notice from looking at me although we both have unbelievably fast job you want to see it . Want to see it again . Thats an ali joke. It is important as a biographer to recognize that you do not have that much in common with your subject usually and the job ofsu a biographer is to understd that subject as best you can, often from a distance. That means really paid attention to the facts and doing research. I did 600 interviews and with 40200 interviews and i interviewed many of them over and over and i counted the number of times he was punched and i worked statisticians to do that and work beach scientists to look at how the patches affected the speech rate and i delved as deeply as i could. My job is to help you understand a persons life and how that lifeta was shaped to understand how that light shaped us as a country and as a people and with all the one of the most interesting and important men of the 20 century, i would argue, it was a huge responsibility that i felt and the other really important piece that biographer has to keep in mind is empathy. You have to try to empathize with your subjects. It does mean you always celebrate him or excuse him in the job is not to glorify or not to pick him up to begin with but not to knock them down either but to always have empathy for your subjects. Id like to talk about the process and what ive learned along the way and the challengec that i face. Dick gregory, social activist and comedian who does best way said to me when i interviewed him he said there is no point in book white boy, as he said to me, no point in writing this book if youre not can be able to explain to me and asked me to your readers how a black kid growing up in jim crow louisville felt like he could be special. What made you thank you could go around calling itself the greatest of all time. When america said he was inferior andte a secondclass citizen and the loss, not just the people around him but the losses of two. You will have to make me and help your readers understand what made this kid think he could be different. That like a great challenge for me asth i began this quest of fr and half years getting to know ali and try to meet ali and i began this one was still alive and id like to take you on the journey. One of the first things i did was those who invest some of the older folks and in the beginning of the process of balance of reading all material and interview people might not be around much longer i began with ali second wife who happen to come to chicago a lot and she was known as belinda, 17 years old when she married ali and she now goes by [inaudible] ali and she came from chicago a lot and she appeared the sniper movie premiere and she grew up in chicago and now lives in florida and i showed up at this movie premiere and i said im writing mohammed alis biography and i like to you. She looked at me like who are you andnd gave you permission to write his biography. The answer of course was nobody but i like the to talk to me anyway. Again, there is a sense of response ability that biographer feels. Im taking his life in my hands he didnt answer to. But im going for it anyway and i explained to her that i just wanted to do this right and give them the kind of biography he deserves. Not another lovefest or not another book that makes much the same but something that shows how importantes and how importat he was. You were married with him from the vietnam protest through all the joe frazier rights and i need you to tell me what its like too be married to this man. She said okay, how much will you pay me . I get that a lot in the boxing world. This is alis brother and i called them up a few times and he wouldnt answer or talk to me and i said one question. One question for you. Not talking to hellish payment. Just tell me the name of your dogs name. He said 1000. Y said i will not tell you without english give me a thousands dollars. I said i dont pay for interviews but im very persistent so you can ask your wife. In boxing they say youre fighting above your weight when youre just like my wife is an impressive woman and the fact that you got with me tell you how persistent i am and that is what they would say. As i set out on this quest to understand his life and this is a home where ali grew up and he told me that ali used to stand in the cracks houses there on the right and challenge him to throw rocks at him and see if he could hit them. Not much room to dodge and i measured it. 72 inches between 7 the two hous and i wanted to write the view of alis window the next house over. 72 inches away. Stand in the crack and have challenges brother to the rocks at him. Some people would say that for the reasons he became quick at avoiding punches they also learned his wife that he was dyslexic. He was never able to read wellin school and thats one of the reasons why he became a class clown. I also learned that his father was abusive, alcoholic, running around with a lot of women and ali came from difficult circumstances. He is not poor and this was a fairly middleclass neighborhood compared to most boxers who came out of poverty but this was the block where he grew up with School Teachers and undertakers in all African American of course but nevertheless he saw an opportunity around him and he saw his biggest opportunity to escape from this and find a way out when he was 12 years old and how many people know the story of ali stolen bicycle . Most people have heard that ali had his bicycle stolen and this happens to be one of those great legends that are not true. So often when i dive into these things [inaudible] did not put his arm around Jackie Robinson in 1947. He was writing a 50 with, big deal, and it starts to rain any ducks into an auditorium to escape the rain comes out as bicycles. He goes looking for a Police Officer and he finds one in the basement of a gym tells him that his bike is stolen and hell beat up to get in the Police Officer says do you fight . Alis cash is clear this time and he says no, im tough and Police Officer said why dont you come learned about. He falls in love with it and he transfixed by the sites in the gym not just the heavy bags in this beanbag split Something Else important and there were black kids and white kids fighting in the ring together in their pockets punching white kids and you did not do that w n america in the 1950s and if you did it you got in trouble and you could be arrested for far less than that and ali saw this and began to rewire his brain in a crazy way and said what else can i do and what else can we get away with began taking boxing very seriously. Theres another myth and have you heardri about holly used to race the bus to school but one of the things i learned from robert caro, the great lgb biographer and what was it like to be in the room with your subject and you ask it over and over again so i would ask alis classmates what was it like to be on the bus when ali was racing and i asked it over and over three or four people it was a making sense to me like i couldnt quite picture it in one of the guys is something about me was his friend said it was a city bus and the pretenses tried to get to school and it hit me, i called owen and you said it was a city bus. Doesnt a city bus stop a lot and i almost every block said yeah, so ali was racing the bus ticket stopping right . And he said yeah, plus we got off at chestnut in transferred and he would wait with us for the next bus. So was he really racing the bus i asked. He said no, he was just trying to entertain us and try to remind us all that he was a big shot boxer wanted to be famous. He didnt want to be faster than the bus. This is one of those key moments provider for when you start to say okay, i get this guy now. He wants to box was great but he also does attention and now im trying to get to know ali a little bit. This is the gym where he trained and where he found joe martin in the basement and he not only would train there for when he got done he go to another gym and joe martin was white Police Officer and he is not arresting black people but helping black kids and something new, rewiring the brain what hes been taught growing up he also finds a black trainer and when you done training with joe martin he works hard and goes and trains with fred stoner and another gym and by 1960 by the time hes a senior in High School Use the olympic lightweight champion. He comes back to Central High School and hes a hero. Hes the toast of the town. He is feeling almost every class in part because hes dyslexic in part because you got boxing all the time they decide to pass them in the said someday this kid will be famous and i dont want to be remembered as the principal flunked the champ and he discovered that he loves teattention. In the olympics in 1960 which was described beautifully and date of david merritts book ali becomes the mayor of the lipid filtered everyone from every country wants their picture taken with this guy because he is a charm, charisma and he realizes that being outspoken and being loud mouth and his first nickname was the louisville lip that is good for his career and getting more attention and bigger fightss and making more money and less money, too. He talked all the time about how many catalogs he would own and how the different shades of the rainbow and this attitude standing up and making himself known and make himself heard is helping him get bigger fights and by 1964 he gets his first shot at the heavyweight championship against the sky, sonny lifted, the biggest, baddest, meanest man on earth and heavyweight champion was knocked out his last opponent in a matter of seconds and ali is perhaps more unpopular than a sonny lifted, he is a criminal record and his autobiography is the champ the no one wanted. He is a very unpopular man and ali is more unpopular because of my kid is so unsportsmanlike and bragging about himself is seenms as repulsive to most white americans. People are rooting for sonny and thats a new one for him. Its seen as this is the end of alis career and theres no way he could beat lifton. But ali is something that lifton is not prepared for mss incredible speed. Perhaps learn from dodging those rocks but also something that is given as a gift to him. Hes so fast that he boxes like heavyweights for the box. Heavyweight is to keep your hands up was hit hard this was a duck the pages but ali is so good you move out of the way and these punches glanced off or missing altogether. Opponents get so frustrated tham they cant get near him and thats exactly what happens to lifton. You see them during these giant punches and looking. Early knockout and ali is gone for the punch is gone through the air and then theres that left jab almost as fast as mine is in the face and lifton is getting tired and mad in the matter he gets the harder the swings and the more he misses and by the 25th or sixth round you can see it, lifton is gone. He has no chance. He doesnt get off the stool at the end of this example he gives up the heavy chairmanship without being knocked down or be knocked out because to attorney is too much. What happens after words mark ali announces that he is no longer is a champion and king of the world but he says i told you on the greatest and by the way, im now a member of the nation of islam. Not a question. Christianity was a religion forced upon me and my people in slavery in the name cassius clay might as well be a brand steered onto my flesh and i dont have to do that anymore. He makes us unbelievably important announcement that changes the world and changes the way people not only see black athletes but for people all over he says i dont have to do what you tell me to do. I dont have just say what you tell me to say and to be what you want me to be. Im three. In 1964 those are fighting words. He was unpopular before for being on sports like he is way more unpopular now and soon after he announces he isar changing his name from cassius clay to mohammed ali a name given to him by the founder of the nation of islam, and in almost every picture of ali in the 60s was and his brother is in the picture and hes always hanging around his big brother. Thats Elijah Mohammed in the middle. Th ali joined this group that is considered by the American Government a threat to democracy and this is radical group and this isis not orthodox islam bua group that leaves black people in america are never going to be treated equally and theres theres no point in discussing integration and they can only force the wayth out to build thr own businesses to improve their lives and their health and eventually start their own country and america will be forced to give a segment of the United States to the nation of islam for black people to start their own country. Ali grew up hearing something similar for his father who also was not a big fan of immigratin and thought black people were never going to be treated equally. Ali will never be rich or anything because of the color of your skin. Get used to it. Ali believed what his father said. Appeared to get used to it. He believed because he was different and because he was a boxer and he had this platformis that america had to listen to what he said that he could fight that and joining the nation of islam gave him a platform to do that. Dick gregory also pointed out that i never thought of is that when other black leaders in this country spoke when Elijah Mohammed or malcolm x, taking their word for filtered by the white media. The New York Times decided which quotes to use. Cbs news decided which clip to use but when mohammed ali stood in thehe center of the ring and said i am the greatest and i talk to a lot and a lot told me that i was going to win this fight and i will praise to Elijah Mohammed the whole world heard that and no one could edit him and that gave him a special platform that helps explain why he thought he could fight when a lot of other black athletes were forced to accept the deal does make the deal being you did your job, perform your sport kept her mouth shut. Something that black athletes are beautiful today. Ali did not thinkod he had to accept that and he paid for it. He refused to fight in vietnam and was convicted of draft evasion and first he said i did not want to go. Its interesting to watch him evolve on this. Lv we think of him now as being this objector and pessimist but first he said, take my tax dollars and go by all the bomber jets intake you want because im making money and i dont want to go. Then he said his work is not fair to black people. Black people are dying in disproportionate numbers are not even treated as equals in our own country so i should we fight for country that jesus like secondclass citizens. Then he said against my religion so he evolved as many people who are opposed to the vietnam war were but he paid a huge price for it, convicted, sentenced to five years in prison, banned from boxing. Half years and loses millions of dollars in endorsements invite revenue and finally after threem and half years out of the ring gets his chance to come back and this is in any way the key moment in alis career as an athlete. He comes back against joe frazier, fighter of the century, the only time to heavyweights squared off in the ring and by now its 1971 interviews on the number changed and most americans feel like the war was a mistake and we see that ali paid for his convictions he suffered and he was willing to take that he was willing to sacrifice for his belief whether you agree with him or not and had respect that. Then gets put on his rear end by joe frazier in the 14th round, a vicious left hook and he was up in the second half and he said later he was unconscious on the way down in the ground will come up. He bounces right back up any positions that fight if he loses it has got to start fighting his way back to ad rematch fraser d was shot at heavyweight championship and this is when i thank you start to see americanh became to show some respect because his toughness is now not in question and it used to be that he was thought to be so quick and pretty and talkative that he couldnt really fight that he wasnt a true champ but now people begin to admire his tenacity is nothing else and it still may not agree with his political opinion and is the 70s and the civil right movement is without the street and into the court and ali is becoming a popular figure. Hes on Johnny Carson all the time is of years this guy who said he ate white people in that white people were the blueeyed devils and he is still saying stuff like that but is also joking around with Joh