Of three books plus a Childrens Book and a novel. His first book came out in 2010 called the other wes moore 1 name, 2 fates and his book the work searching for a life that matters came out in 2015 and his most recent book is about baltimore during the arrest and death of freddie gray which came out 5 days ago. In your book the work searching for a life that matters you wrote the military saved your life. What do you mean by that . Guest the military plays an incredibly Important Role in my life where the most important times in my life happens when i was wearing a tshirt and jeans. I was first introduced to the military system when i was 13 years old. I was sent to military school with a mandatory year in military school. I got some issues and challenges and ever since i was 8 years old, the first time i felt handcuff to my wrist was when i was 11 years old. I was intentionally hurting people that love to me. So i could impress people who could care less about me. One day she came up to me and said im going to send you to military school. I thought she was kidding or exaggerating but then realized she wasnt, a mandatory year of military school. I hated every minute of it and i remember the first days, i also dont notice the longer i stayed i began to understand what they were trying to teach and what is was my mom was trying to teach and the fact we live in an interconnected environment, what everybody was doing mattered to how my unit as a whole was doing. Basketball scholarship and things i decided the thing i wanted to do, i wanted to lead soldiers and i made decisions that i want to go into the army. The decision to go into the army was a continuation of the fact that i had this level of service, but there was also this idea that i felt a debt of gratitude like it was the introduction of that at a crucial time in my life that helped make a lot of difference. Host what was your role in the 80 second airborne . I was a paratrooper with the 80 second airborne division, and director of Information Operation at the 80 second airborne. That is a long way of saying everything in terms of information, psychological operations in our entire area of operations which is regional command in afghanistan where afghanistan is on the border. I was director of information for that. At the time, my last assignment we had 1700 paratroopers under our commands that we were responsible for. It was an amazing and i inspiring host wes moore, how have you changed after that first year in military school as a what, 12yearold . Guest 13 years old. The big thing that changed for me was the introduction of leadership. What that means, what it meant and the role it played in my life. Military school gave me a chance, remake of identity was important, a chance to rethink my role in society and the bigger things that happen, there was this very intentional introduction of leadership that matters so they are like they need discipline, they will do pushups and wake up early and then you will wake up early but things are not always true but that is not what made the experience useful for me. What made the experience useful was the introduction of leadership and the idea they are going to introduce you to leadership early in a deliberate way, you go through initial basic training or whatever it is but relatively early and relatively small, not because that is where your is but they will put you in charge of the hallway and say you are in charge of this hallway, if it is clean, and what they noted, you will be soldiers under your command and move up and move up. The way they tried to teach leadership and are not only useful and important, giving me a taste about that. I knew going in that it was important, whether it was in the case of cadets or soldiers or the work we do now, being able to be part of the process who can shape the direction of organizations and execute on things that became important to my development but the framework, the introduction of its necessity in my life was something. Host how did you become a Rhodes Scholar . Guest the truth is i think about that experience quite a bit. First time i had a conversation about roads scholarship was when i was interning with mayor baldwin who at the time was the last day of my internship was by my office and in that picture, pointing towards a picture on the wall, was not the type of guy that had camera people following him around but on that day on the final day of my internship, he said have you thought about your scholarship and extracurricular i hadnt even thought about it and the picture that he took is pointing to the wall, the thing hes pointing at is where he was and that was the moment he told me about the full scholarship and people i should talk to about it and i talked to certain people, certain people helped with my essays and my lifes journey in 1000 words, i love that story. Right there in my office is a picture and im clear that that picture would not have happened if that picture didnt happen. It was an experience i will never forgot one way, our plane flew off two weeks after 9 11 where the nation and the world changed immeasurably at the same time i was having this experience shaped very much so especially that i got one, a chance to Study International relation where i was only one of a few americans, a chance to Study International relations from china or nigeria or argentina. Getting a chance to understand and see how all these dynamics take place, remarkable people, it was a special experience. And many others who were helpful and realize it could be real. What about the Cecil Rhodes Foundation in the overview board . I spent time in south africa and also africanamerican and i know our history. One of the last questions i ask, the chairman of the board said listen, you have been to south africa, you are africanamerican. How can you expect the money knowing the history and knowing the lives that were lost . And i thought about it and i paused and i said i know a few things for sure. Creating this scholarship, he did not have me in mind for this scholarship and he is turning in his grave repeatedly knowing i am here. The other thing, that does show me what progress looks like, the fact that something that was not at all intended, that i had an opportunity not only to stand here and utilize but have a real obligation. The other things that i do know is my ancestors built and were able to build in a way that created a pathway for me, who were able to sacrifice and dream of a world they didnt see but to dream and fight for one that hopefully i would see and for me to have the ability to be there in that seat, to have an opportunity to take the privilege of that seat and go out and fight the worlds fight, i felt it would be disrespectful to them not to. Understanding when you are looking at the history of the roads, not just south africa but the entire Southern African region and the damage to the people there for his own benefit to the point that at that time was the wealthiest man in the world, it is not lost on me. It is also not lost, the obligation i have been to use the benefits that were fought long and hard, to use that knowledge to make sure we can create a more just, more fair world. Host where did you grow up . Guest i spent part of my childhood in maryland, i called two places home, one in baltimore. In dc area, and new york i spent a lot of my childhood, my dad was a radio personality and he was complaining about his throat and bothered him to the point as he went to the hospital, had an uneven beard and a lot of assumptions were made about i dad. My mom coming into the hospital to join him after questions like is your husband prone to exaggeration . They gave instructions to go home and rest and if it got worse, come back. Five hours after that he died. That is when we were living in maryland, my mother had a difficult time with the transition. My grandfather was a minister in the south bronx, they figure out a way to make it and we ended up moving up there. That is where i spend six, seven years going to military school in pennsylvania. There was a lot of movement but i had a remarkable i was blessed to say what they had they tried to provide for us, something i always felt. Host from your first book the other wes moore 1 name, 2 fates my father was dead 5 hours after having been released from the hospital with simple instructions to get some sleep. The same hospital was preparing to send his body to the morgan. My father entered the hospital seeking help, his clothes were disheveled, his name unfamiliar, his address not in an affluent area. My hospital looked at scams, consulted him with ridiculous questions and told him to fend for himself. Why do you think those assumptions were made . Guest it is one of the heartbreaking things that i think about a lot going through where we are now. At what point in your life did you know or understand the impact to the world, it was at its earliest points. When i think about many systems, our Healthcare System is whether thinking about Environmental Justice, it is impossible to talk about these things. Understanding the role it placed, it is not lost on me and will never be lost. Had those factors been mentioned before, the benefit of the doubt was given, for the same type of results in these are the things i know is not just anecdotal that continues to reinforce that, the most predictable indicators for life outcomes. Across education and mortality, so the things that made that real in my case in the case of my father, thinking about my family history, it is inescapable to inescapable to not understand and embrace. Who is the other wes moore . Guest a young man i heard about the same time i was getting ready to head off. The baltimore sun, my hometown paper had an article about this local kid who received this Rhodes Scholarship. They were writing about my background, my childhood, the fact that just ten years ago, ten years later i was getting ready for a full scholarship, what that journey was like in that period but at the same time they were writing about an armed jewelry store, a botched robbery where four guys turned out to be jewish and when the first two guys had guns, they got everybody on the ground and the next two guys when they walked from the store pulled it out and one guy with a gun left the guy with the gun and the ones with guns were on the ground and the other guys Walking Around smashing jewelry, taking out watches and rings. They got 400, 000 that day. When yield its go and ran outside. One of the people in the store that day was a Police Officer who was a Security Guard and he was a 13 year veteran of the police force, recipient of Police Officer of the year and the father of five in the reason he was working that day is it was his day off of the police force and took a second job for extra money. When they left the store he got up off the ground, he drew his weapon and went away. Then he ran outside, there were cars that didnt sell cover but he didnt realize one of the vehicles he was next to was one of the ones that was ripped and a window rolled down and he was shot and killed and there ended up being a 12 day national medley for those guys. They were captured and tried. His name was also wes moore. The more i learned about this crime, the more i learned about this tragedy, often times i knew there were questions i wanted to ask. I decided to write him a note and here is what i heard about you. I knew about what he was going to say. That one letter was fascinating to me. Everything he was alluding to and not one letter, dozens of letters turned to dozens of visits. I have known wes moore for 7 years, he is in your 20 of his life. Him and his older brother and two others. That is who he was. That initial letter turned into something. How thin the line is, the chilling truth, the tragedies, how thin the decisionmaking is, small decisions we make, the we fall into, the decisions that are made for us. The decisions we make, we cannot castigate but dont dig into peoples source, the things that make our stories rich and make them real and how to understand the neighborhoods we are growing up in and far too many of our children, we are screaming to them about what we want from them and expect from them and i remember he once said to me, we were talking about baltimore and the fact that we were living off of each other the last time and i asked him are we product of our environment, she said to me i think we are products of our expectations and as soon as he said that to me i thought to myself he is absolutely right. We are not products of our environments the product a expectations. A real shame you looked up to your expectations, i said the real shame is we both did because in many ways that is exactly how we have structured a society. People are continually leave living up to their expectations of the questions us becomes what expectations do we have . Host you quote the other wes moore 1 name, 2 fates talking about your book the other wes moore 1 name, 2 fates, from everything you told me, what you did when we were younger, both of us have Second Chances in the context where you make the decision, dont change, Second Chances dont mean much. Guest interesting to see, but they appreciate and understand and able to share his every one of us see Second Chances. I tell people all the time, my days now are two steps forward and one step back. That is now. The idea of needing a Second Chances is a very humanistic vision, what we are not structured to do as a society is have any form of parity or equal apportionment for what that means is. We still know and you can look at data that enforces it, every single measure, the educational system, we have massive disparities for race and class what these chances are allocated and what we need Second Chances for. The fact that we have People Living in poverty, how does poverty show itself, the answer is in every way, the air people are drinking, the water they are drinking, the concentrated level of poverty and injustice that exists, the idea behind Second Chances is something that is misleading. That experience in getting ready to know wes moore and my connection to wes moore and long after the book, why are you so in touch with him and my answer is i know why he is there but the thing i do know is worse decisions dont separate us from a certain command and i also know that if we are not willing to learn about these Second Chances how they are apportioned, are we giving people an opportunity . That is crucial about how we think about the world and our place. Host what do you think about telling this story . Guest wes moore is one of the first people i went to when i started. I have a friend, terry williams, a remarkable writer, she puts out a lot of things but she would always ask about wes moore. I knew wes moore for years before the idea, always asked thank you for the update. And digging deeply into that. And then i wanted to talk about it and i went to see him and asked i have been approached to write a story, and immediately he said i think you should do it. He said two things. I wasted every opportunity i ever had. If you can do something to help people understand the consequences of the decision, what these decisions are being made in, you should do it and that became the entire fire and focus, i wanted people to understand not just the consequences of the decisions people are making but also the context of the decisions people are making. I remember after the book was published my editor, great news, we received word that kristof wanted to do an oped on the other wes moore 1 name, 2 fates, fantastic writer, progressive and a brilliant guy, a great examination of race and class in our society, they say great news. A person wants to write an oped and a former speechwriter for president bush, writer for the washington post, brilliant guy, a conservative and he writes this oped where i really enjoyed the other wes moore 1 name, 2 fates. And individual choice. Two people like him for different reasons. They are both right. And societal responsibility, and individual choice and individuals dont account for choices, you cannot talk about individual choice and individual choices being made in societal societal context does influence the choices people are making and all of those things really help tie in house that story was not just illuminating to me but humbling, the way it is translated across communities, across wealth lines, these things we are asking for, where we are asking ourselves every single day, with other peoples lives. How much pain do we tolerate in our neighbors. As long as it doesnt impact us too much and that doubles the bargain, eating away at all of these whether we realized it or not. Host thanks for joining us on booktv for our monthly in Depth Program where one author discusses his or her body of work. This month is author, veteran, Rhodes Scholar, former investment banker wes moore. His book the other wes moore 1 name, 2 fates came out in 2010, his book the work searching for a life that matters came out in 2015. His most recent book we havent discussed yet is 5 days the fiery reckoning of an American City. He has also written discovering wes moore my story, a young adult take on the other wes moore. A novel called this way home came out in 2016. Here is how you can participate in our conversation with wes moore. You can call 202 is the area code, 7488200 in the east and central time zone, 2027488201 in the mountain and pacific time zone. You can also text a question or comment to wes moore this way, 2027488903, so we dont send texts to anybody but ourselves, 2027488903 and social media sites where you can participate, twitter, facebook, instagram. Just remember booktv is our handle and you can go to those sites. One way of contacting us, booktv cspan. Org via email and we will take those calls and questions in a few minutes. Wes moore, what is the visitation process like . From prison in maryland . It has changed due to covid19. I am not sure about that, pretty restrictive, in jessup where they are pretty locked in for 23 hours. It is a pretty onerous process. It is not a heavy encouragement for outside communication, looking at a situation where the facilities are nowhere near the majority of people actually live. It is not an easy process and once you do it is a pretty