You did it all with such grace, but also with that art of the tub, so do you want to talk about what that was life growing up in your stories with your family and how you ever decided to take this journey . Guest you said it was to interview me. Im so excited that you agreed to do this because it says a lot about our relationship and the warmth we share and i am so thrilled and as you know im going to get to your question seconds, but the fact is the warm relationships that have developed between the women senator and frankly a lot of the men means so much to me. You know im not running again and people say why, are you disgusted with the place, not at all. I just feel after 40 years there are people that are like you that can carry the banner. We have our colleague from new york who writes the forward and you interviewing me. I could not be more thrilled, but getting to the issue of how did i get tough, what was my life like when i was a child which in this memoir when i sat down to write this so long ago, took three years to pitted together. You have written a book and its a lot of effort. When i first thought about it i thought its going to meet my dad who has all the influence on who i am as a person because my dad was my idol. He was the youngest of nine brothers and sisters in the only one born in america. s family was born in russia. None of them even graduated from high school and there is my dad born in 1908, and after he marries my mom he goes to city college of new york at night, at night. Becomes a cpa and after i am born, in 1950, he goes to law school at night, gets his degree, so im thinking clearly it was my dad. But, when i sat down to think about the lessons, how are you tough, theyll come for my mother and in the beginning host she did not even graduate from high school. Guest she did not and it was always such a burden on her. She felt so sad about it. At one point she then try to get her ged. I dont know exactly what happened, but i will say my mother was so smart and the kind of smart she had was smart from the heart and soul and in the beginning of the book i laid out the rules of the art of tough, how can you do it and one of the things is always doing the right thing even when everything is going against you. You and i know what its like. We have had experiences in the trenches together whether its on Human Trafficking or toxic chemical reform that i took the leadership on, we know what its like for people to look at you and think why are you looking to these problems. If you know its right you better do the right thing and i also learned , never act out of anger. You can feel the anger, but dont act when you are angry. These are the things host you tell a port funny story about how you were once a little adriana playground and stabbed a bully with a lead pencil and then the next day you walk by his apartment and see a dark dark cloth in front of the house and you think you have killed him and it turns out to be the grandfather, but im sure that is what of those memories you dont forget. Guest its a memory i did not forget because what happened was alberta was kind of my nemesis and because im little, im still little, 5 feet three 5 feet period. Maybe with my high heels. Host thats what im thinking. Guest and so he was little, so i was the perfect target. He would insult me and chase me and thats what we used to do in those days and maybe they still do in school, i dont know, but one day i had just had it. No one was around and i took at my number two pencil as i say in my book and i stabbed him in the arm right where you get a vaccination and he is stunned and i am stunned at what i did , you know. So, you are exactly right in retelling the story, we thought we would just keep it our little secret, but then he does not come to school for the next three days and there is a crepe black cloth over his home, which i passed by everyday. It was on a vacant lot on the way home i lived in the innercity and i really did think i had killed him and so i took it to my mother, which i took everything to it i said mom, i think i killed robert. Of course she looks and says barbara which is what she called me when she was mad she said what did you do and she said i can believe youd ever do that. You cant do that and but i dont think you killed him. Let me call the principal and of course she finds out his grandpa died. I was so relieved i hugged him when he came back, but it taught me on amazing lesson and she said you never use violence. You have to persuade, diffuse and of course, never did after that use violence. I try to defuse a lot of situations and sometimes i won and sometimes host just as a young girl when you think about this at a time where girls did not organize a lot of things you when you were one of the favorite letters you are 10 years old and you are matters in the hospital with illness and you are not allowed to visit. Do you want to read the letter that you wrote . Guest yes. Host your first organizing effort right there. Guest i found this after my mother died in their little jewel box. I wrote to the doctor because the rules kids could not visit their parents, so its dear doc, i mrs. Leavys daughter and i would love to see my mother very much. I did not see my mother when she left, only a little while, about five minutes before i went to school. I have no sickness, only a bellyache now and. I wont make a lot of noise. I missed my mother very much. So, why cant i see here thanks for reading this letter, sincerely yours, barbara leavy. So, then i had a feeling it would not work so i wrote a backup to my mother. Dear mom, how mean can a person the . If they dont let me and they really are mean. I will be so happy if i see you. I get tearyeyed. In school im in the mexican group, a study group on mexican culture and art. Eyeing the chairman. Love and many kisses to you. I am so choked up at these things because they are memories that you and i have so deep inside of a. Host exactly, this whole idea that any kid that can make in america, which we still believe today no matter where you came from i think its a big part of your story, but one of the things that was different about your story than some of the people weve seen in the senate is that you were a girl and here you are you then go to Brooklyn College following in your dads footsteps and you get a degree anyone to be a stockbroker. Your dad has instilled the sinew and you start interviewing around for jobs and it was not easy back then for a girl to get a job. Guest impossible. In those days they had a program at the wall street firms and they were called because the people who are selling the securities who are the stockbrokers were called customers men, amy. That was the man name. So, i wanted to be a customers man and so i was ready to do it your clinic that my first it was an assistant. Long story and i will go into it too much, but assistant to a woman who wrote a Municipal Bond newsletter. She was so smart, but she never signed it in elizabeth, which was her name. She signed it he cook to disguise the fact that she was a woman and i said why dont you sign it and she said no one will buy it because it was sold and she never became a partner for many years and it she was kind of in disguise. It was unreal. So, that i will take a different path. I will work for her get a salary. I guess i made 90 a week or something and then i said i had to make more so we could at least live a decent life , so i study for the exam because i couldnt get into the program. If you cut into the the customers man program you got trained and it was like studying for an exam. I did it on my own and i pass the test. I was so excited. I took it to elizabeth and she said, well, i dont know. You will have to go to the big boss. I did and he said, sorry memento to do that. The shocking thing about that was not only that he just said it like it was a fact of life, but that i took it work now, i just said okay. Boat but, i did quit. I quit and went to another firmware they allowed me quietly to have a little business on the side where i was kind of the assistant to one of the Vice President s and did his work and i had a little side business, so i was able to make 250 a week. Any, that was great. Host i think thats why some intense and politics some of us who came in on your shoulders, on your 5foot shoulders and Barbara Mikulski says we talk about the fact that when you came and it was so much harder and i think for young people to read your story and understand what you went through at a time when most women were expected to only have a few jobs and that was secretary, teacher, nurse, that was it and in fact, you kind of went over meetings to, your great husband whom you have been married to in my mind forever. Guest fiftyfour years. Host but, you say in one of my favorite quotes from the book, i often joke thats due married Debbie Reynolds and woke up with so to my air. Explained that. Guest remember when we met, girls, young women did not have the kind of opportunities we have today and that our daughters have today and i know you have a great one. Hope she is watching. So, we had to settle for a lot less. So, when he met me i was pursuing my dream of being an economics major and he knew that and he saw in those years when you got together for little parties the mid would be here talking about issues of the day and the women so as not to be persuaded as uppity would be here talking about seriously food and more appropriate things for women. That is the true that of course i would do my thing with the women and then i would covert them and talk to them also which was considered a bit odd, but i did it, so he knew some clues that i would not long stay a cheerleader that i was in Brooklyn College, head of the boosters in high school. When he met me i was a kid. I was 18. Going to the senate you might as well fed flying to the moon by yourself with your arms waving. Thats where was. Host then you make this decision which was monumental in your whole career and the history of america you decide to move to california and how did that come about . Guest while, my sister and her family had moved there and i wanted to visit and so stu, such a good student as he is he made law review and forward and i went with my parents and we drove out to california to work i to california, my eyes open up, my mouth drops and i said i have never seen anything as beautiful as this because i joke i grew up in brooklyn, which by the way is the coolest place to live now. Then it wasnt considered, but i talk about how only if you have a movie called a book called a tree grows in brooklyn because it wasnt in that green. You had beautiful places and now you have more beautiful places, but it was really the city. So, when i came to california where the environment is kind of history there, i mean, the first thing you learn about california if you pick up a history book is the beauty and the various ecology from the north of the state to the south where its a forest or the marsh lands or the desert or the ocean and of course, we have the richest farmland. So, i just send i was i guess 21 or so and i said i went to move here that was well then i said to him, could we move and he said why and i said you will see. Its gorgeous and youll love it. I cant describe it. We will have so much more freedom to the outside and outdoors. He said, okay, but i have to get a job in advance and so he did. He got a job two years in advance. We came out to california because of the beauty. Thats what i want to tell you and of course the diversity of the state and the excitement , hollywood and Silicon Valley and everything about it is so incredible. Host and then you are pregnant. Guest yes. Host doug, your first child is born two months early and stu is still in law school and we will go into the whole fact that they wont let him come out because he has an exam, but the biggest part of the stories that this is dangerous back then. There you are in your own and you have your family there. Guest no insurance. Host that got you somewhat interested in getting involved in government and politics. Guest copy interested in understanding what it means to be uninsured and frightened to death. Of course, that feeling you never forget it coming never forget it. I was uninsured, why . I thought nothing is going to go wrong. On happygolucky and everything will grow gray, which we always think when we are young. We will be gray, immortal and all of a sudden we had agreed to move, so i said honey i will go get us a place to live. You finish your exams and the first day i get here at doug wanted see california. That i always kid about it. I arrived on may 20 and he arrived on may 21. I was staying at my sisters place and all of a sudden the water breaks and i had not even met my doctor. Im lining up in the clinic in mount sinai hospital. It was so wonderful to me. I never forgot them stew and they took you and. Guest i was charity because i had nothing and they came in and said, you know, its calling to cost 1000 a day. Amy, the amount which today you can imagine what it is for a preemie and we said we dont know how long he will have to stay, at least a month if he survives, so im thinking this is that ended as. Of course all we cared about was doug. They said 50 50 chance of may said everyday it will go up 10 . We prayed and stu got out theres fast as they would let him. Doug is the most wonderful gift to us. I hate to tell you how old he is now. He takes care of me. Is a lawyer. He has his own family. We had our second child. She was preemie, but not as a as preemie and she that was a lesson of how it is to be in a situation where you really dont have anything. Host leading to your support for the Affordable Care act, but what most truck me during this traditional time just as you grew up in the shadow of the holocaust you are now in california, Northern California in the shadow of the vietnam war and you have not been that involved in politics. You learned that part of being tough, the title of your book if you start to get involved in organizing. Leading to something much bigger and your ultimate decision to run for county supervisor. Guest your right to point out the vietnam war because this was for of my going into politics. By that time i had two little kids you know as a mom yourself you start to think differently. You start to think longterm. You start to wonder, how is my daughter what kind of world will she grow up and in what will my son face and all of these issues came to the poor around the time of the vietnam war. The environmental movement, Womens Movement and vietnam war , but especially the vietnam war because it was the first word that came into your living room and you saw it and so i was part of the antiwar movement. Stu was. We used to take the kids and march and i became a real activist, a real activist. When a seat opened up, election for the county supervisor opened up in maureen county california, which is a beautiful place for the san francisco, the issues were all of the issues, even stopping the war. What could we do locally to do it in that environment and womens rights, so of course everyone came to stu and said which you run and i said stu, why dont you do it and he said honey, it pays 11000 a year, why dont you do it, so i ran. Host in the primary. Guest it was so crazy. I came out on top of the primary. The other two were republicans. The, you didnt run as a democrat or republican, so before we had two votes and i came out on top there was that incumbent, myself and this opposition who is running an issue they tried to use was anti choice issue. This candidates name was bill and he said i want to speak to you, barbara. Was excited because my campaign was going strong and i said come over and talk to stu enemy and we let him in that door and he looks across at me and said i have been giving this a lot of thought this election i thought he would say he started out and he said my wife is a physician and its been hard for her and then he said so this is what i want to say to you right now, you should drop out and i said why would i do that because you will be bad for women and i said where did you get that from and he said he know the oppressor has two free the oppressed and i remember him saying that host that men would have to free you. Guest guess or like whites to free blacks thats the first thing that came to my mind and because one of the arts of toughness is a fight against racism. Every hair on my body went straight up and i looked at him and i employ the art of tough, which is when someone is going over the line that is it. So i looked at him and i said this meeting is over and as i say the book stu and i got up and he got up and i shut the door and then i said we actually slammed the door. What happened was he was so mad at me, he can outlast and he endorsed the other guy, so i lost that by a small votes. It was a humbling of. Host how it affects us and then when you are running and women at the door i love the woman who said how can you do this when you have four kids and he said, no, i have two kids, no, you are for kids because of rumors were so strong like your you are leaving your kids at home. What were the stories about the dishes . Guest 70 various stories in this book, the art of tough. The book goes into what it was like to be a woman then and you had to have a sense of humor because if not you would just cry yourself to sleep. Coming i would knock on a door because i went door to door. He was a small election i think like you needed about 20000 votes to win , so knock knock whos there Barbara Boxer. The first thing that would happen if someone would open the door is headed not think you would be so small. What did they expect . They expected a big person. They would said did not expect you to be so short and i would say yeah, i am. Than this one woman said i would never vote for you. You are for a portage are abandoning and i said excuse me, i have two kids and she said no, you dont she got into an argument with me and i said lady, if you have a child you never forget it and i did it twice or comes at another meeting and things were going great and i was telling people how we had to preserve the environment and it was wonderful and i thought im making it. Im hitting it and a hand goes up in the back and this woman says how do you have time to do your dishes and even then i was taken aback. I mean, for Goodness Sake and i just said i use paper plates, which was stupid because this was that environmental group, so you couldnt. I thought it was a joke. I use paper plates, it was a joke i mean, amy host the questions you are getting about doing your dishes. There are a few questions like that these days, but not many. Guest we have come a long way, i will tell you that. And lost that race. They were not ready for me and the only reason i stayed after that, stayed in politics. Host you were a newspaper reporter for a while. Guest i did a little radio show but, the reason i stuck with it is because i read an article the newsmagazine and i write ab