Hello and welcome. Thank you for joining us for our program in the company of men, a novel by author Varonique Tajo, who's joining us from London, and Bay Area writer Faith Adeel, who's joining us from Oakland. I'm Laura Shepherd, director of events at the Mechanics Institute. Today's program is also co-sponsored by the Museum of the African Diaspora of San Francisco. And I'm very pleased to thank and also acknowledge our colleague Elizabeth Gessel, who's the director of public programs. And we've been collaborating on wonderful events together. And we would look forward to continuing our wonderful relationship and bringing to you programs by both of our organizations and please see our websites to keep in touch with what's going on in each of our wonderful cultural institutions. If you're a first time here to the Mechanics Institute, we were founded in 1854, and we're one of San Francisco's most vital literary and cultural institutions in the center of the city. We feature a general interest library, an international chess club, and we have ongoing literary and author programs throughout the year, and also our cinema lit film series on Friday night. Of course our building is closed, but you can still get books to go. So order your book online, and you can pick it up at the front door. Today's program will be followed by Q&A, so if you have questions for our authors, please put them in the chat and Pam Troy, our events assistant, will be reading out the questions to our guests. I'd like to introduce our program. Veronique Tajo's novel and the company of men offers us solace during this time of pandemic. In a village a deadly disease suddenly spreads. The voice of an ancient Baobab tree laments our neglect and pleads us to respect nature and its resources. The stories of a doctor, nurse, volunteers, and grave digger tell of their struggles to care and tend to the sick and dying. Even the voice of Ebola itself is summoned. And to those who suffer the virus in Guinea and Sierra Leone and Liberia, this beautifully written table is an antidote for today. Veronique Tajo is a writer, poet, novelist and artist from Côte d'Ivoire. She earned her doctorate in black American literature and civilization from the Sorbonne, Paris for, and went to the United States as a full bright scholar at Howard University in Washington DC. She headed the French department of the University of Water's Rom in Johannesburg up until 2015 and headed the French department and also translated and her books have been translated into many languages. Her publications include The Blind Kingdom, to the Shadows of Imana, Travels in the Heart of Rwanda, and Queen Poku, Concerto for a Sacrifice, which was awarded the Grand Prix de Literature de Autrique Noir in 2005. And Faith Adiel is associate professor at the California College of Arts, where she teaches contemporary African literature and creative writing. And is the host and co-founder of the African Book Club at the Museum of the African Diaspora. She is also the author of two memoirs, The Nigerian Nordic Girl's Guide to Lady Problems and Meeting Faith and Inward Odyssey, which won the Penn Award. And she's also co-editor of Coming of Age Around the World, a Multicultural Anthology. In the PBS documentary, My Journey Home, chronicles her search to find her father and siblings in Nigeria, and her essays on race, gender, culture and travel appear in many different magazines such as Oprah Magazine Essence, Transition, Brittle Paper, and The Huffington Post. And we're very pleased to bring together these wonderful and beautiful ladies of letters to our program. So please welcome, Veronica Tajo with Faith Adiel. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay, unmute, Faith. Thank you so much for that lovely welcome and introduction. It's so great to see you after all this time. Absolutely. I'm glad to be here. Yeah, we're, yeah, so lovely you could be here. I hadn't even realized that you were in London. So thank you for staying up to be with us. And I have a lot of questions, but maybe before we get started, we can hear you read a little bit. Okay, all right. So as I wanted to give the book a very strong environmental atmosphere, I therefore will start with the Baobab, who is the big witness of the story of the epidemic in Guinea, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. His, yes, is an unlikely witness because it's a tree. But I think that everywhere in the world, the Baobab occupies kind of special place. I often think that it is a celebrity, a bit of a celebrity among trees. And it's a tree that can be as old as several centuries. And it's the, so for me, it's the memory of humankind in a sense, because you find this tree in Madagascar, but you also find this tree in Australia, for example. So it has that kind of universal dimension. So it is a witness. So let me start with the first chapter about the tree when the Baobab speaks. We, the trees, our roots run all the way down to the heart of the earth, and we can feel the beat of her pulse. We inhale her breath, we taste her flesh, we lean and die in the exact same spot, never moving from the land we occupy. Both prisoners and conquerors of time, we stand riveted to the ground, yet soaring upward, reaching for the clouds. We adapt to all weathers, rain or shine, hurricanes or the dry, hammered wings. Our crowns merge with the sky's cotton wood wings. We are the link between man and his past, his present, and his unpredictable future. We exhale the fresh breath of mourning. Our step is vital force. Our souls hundreds of years old. We see everything. We feel everything. Our memory is intact. Our consciousness dwells beyond space and time. We have listened to stories both happy and heart-rending, and we shall witness new life cycles in the future, for such is the passage of time. We were here to last. We were here to spread our shade over the remotest lands. We were here so that our foliage would murmur the secrets of the four corners of the world. But human beings have destroyed our hopes. No matter where in the world they are, they wage war on the forest. Our trunks crash to the ground with a sound like thunder. Our naked roots mourn the end of our dreams.  Humans today think they can do whatever they want. They fancy themselves as masters, as architects of nature. They think they alone are the legitimate inhabitants of the planet, whereas millions of other species have populated it since time immemorial. Blind to the suffering they cause, they are mute when faced with their own indifference. And if only they could feel the weight of our suffering. Our energy is running out, our strength is gone. We, the trees, give shelter to the world. A world that is itself its own rainbow. Birds and insects, climbing plants, flowers, mosses and lichens come and seek refuge in our arms, all along the length of our bark, be it smooth or rough. Overliving beings may rest in our branches or hunt there, or eat there, shoots and birds, fruits and tender leaves. With our breath, we replenish the air and slate its first for oxygen. Thank you. Thank you so much for that. I'm so glad you read from that too, because I mean I want to talk about the content and I also want to talk about the structure. There's so much interesting stuff here, but I think the having the recurring voice of the tree and also of the virus itself does something really interesting here, which allows you to both critique man's behavior in the company of man, but also maybe give a long range view since the tree has been there for hundreds of years and see things come and go. Also with the use of the virus, speaking how the virus says, you know, essentially I'm not a villain, I'm just an organism trying to do my thing. Exactly. Yeah, so yeah, so I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the decision to use the use the voice of the tree use the voice of the virus to do some social critique work here. All right, so I'll tell you how the bomb up came to my mind. What was happening is that when the epidemic started, I began to research on the epidemic intensively. So I was going everywhere, you know, online in the newspapers on the radio on television talking to people going to conferences. So wherever I was, I would be very much involved in knowing more, and I happened to travel to different places. So, although, as I said, I'm from, I mean, I'm from West Africa, I'm from Abidjan. I also was based in Johannesburg, in South Africa. So there were lots of conferences there also and and Ebola was in everybody's mind because it was a terrible epidemic and everybody was worried about the future. It happened also to travel to the United States to Rodriguez University, we have told for several months. And there again, I got more, more information meeting with people discussing the topic. So that's how I gathered information. So when I came back on a visit to, to, to Godiva, I wanted to see what was putting place against the disease because Godiva has two borders, one border, I mean common borders with the three affected countries. In Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea share the same border in the north, and in the west, Côte d'Ivoire shares a border with Liberia. So in fact, we were expecting the disease to come anytime. One day I was there and talked to people who were very concerned and doing all the things that you do in terms of health restrictions and being very cautious. I went to see Ebola Center that had been built just as a preventive measure in case the epidemic came to Godiva. It never happened, thankfully, but the Ebola Center was there. And when I saw this Ebola Center at the end of a very big hospital, you know, in the vicinity of a very big hospital, there was this huge tree that was almost shedding, the big foliage shedding the building. And I suddenly thought, wow, if something had happened, that tree must have been, would have been the witness of what was unfolding. And that's how this majestic tree came to my mind as a witness. Because it was so close to the Ebola treatment center. Wow. Then of course, so many other things came to my mind, because I wanted to give different perspectives on who had been involved in the fight, how people have been impacted in many different ways, and what we could learn from this. And because I'm from West Africa, where oral traditions are very strong, so the storyteller has enormous freedom. That means the storyteller can use music, songs, even political language, historic facts. It's just a lot of freedom in the way of telling the story. So I remember that, and I've always liked that job, because I think that we all have folk tales. Every culture in the world has folk tales. And somehow we grow with them. Yes, we grow with them and we are made by them in a way, constructed by those ancient stories that carried from generation to generation. So this is also a genre that is very universal. Yes. Yeah, that's one of the things I was most excited about. I immediately recognized the griot, the West African storytelling tradition, the fact that you've created this polyphonic text that has songs, poems, prose, different speakers using the I, using the we. There's even a moment where I think one of the characters is reading one of your poems. So we've got this kind of meta thing going on. I was like, ah, yeah. But I just thought that was, it was honoring the, you know, the African oral tradition. And I also think it's something that's really important because there's, you know, genre is very political. And in the US, there's a lot of fighting around it about, you have to be able to know what John something is. And so I love the fact that you're creating this hybridity, which is, I think, realistic for how we live our lives. And it even announces itself the, I think the virus itself says I'm a hybrid and proud of it. We're all. It's the bat. Oh, okay, it's the bat. Yes, which is a mammal and a bird, of course. Right. Oh, right. At the same time. Yeah. Right. And then we have to be versatile. We have to adapt. And so I just like love that the hybridity is, is throughout. That's why I told the story, which I think is really important. And I think this is a moment where we're seeing a kind of an opening and people being willing to read things that are, we think they're new, but in fact, they harken back to traditional stories. Exactly. And I guess we also have to remember that older species have to adapt over time if they want to survive. So in fact, it just raises the question of purity. If you have anything that's, that's like, completely pure or do you, do you not learn from nature that it is important to know how to, to adapt otherwise you cannot, you cannot survive. Because you, we live in different conditions all the time. Right. You have to learn to have that flexibility. Right. Take us to take us further. And yes, concerning the virus. I didn't want the virus to be completely the villain and the only villain of the story for the simple reason that we need viruses. Yes. We do the part of life and the part of the equilibrium in the environment. So they are of course is a question of, of course not falling on a bad virus, but viruses in themselves are not necessarily antagonistic to human life. Right. Right. Particularly if, I mean, I think the book is always reminding us that humans aren't the only species. So just because, you know, we're at war with it, it doesn't necessarily mean that, yes, that it's conscious. And I mean, one of the things that I noticed is that the virus is challenging borders, which is an interesting thing for it to do, you know, metaphorically in our world. Yes, exactly. Exactly. Yes. That's why I also thought that if the virus was the only villain of the story in a sense, you would have a tendency to think that, you know, men have nothing to do with all this that we are totally virtuous and it's an act of God that this has happened. But in fact, when you look at the environmental degradation, you have to see that we're pushing boundaries of survival and we are putting many other creatures in danger, putting ourselves in danger as well. Because we, in the case of West Africa, we're talking about deforestation, which has had the impact. But in the case of other places in the world, you could look at industrial farming, for example. Which is this intensive breeding of animals in really terrible conditions and creating a lot of also conditions for diseases to erupt. So we need also to understand that it's not on one side, it's epidemics on the other side, environment, and on the other side, global change. It's all of these together. Right, exactly. Yeah. So that so that we understand it better and can be more prepared for the future. I think that after the pandemic, for example, I am hoping that we will have a more balanced relationship with animals. For example, and that maybe we will look differently at how we have been involved with a lot of animals and the way we consume them. Right. Yeah.  I mean, one the Ebola crisis was, you know, basically 2014 to 2016 and this book comes out right when we're in the midst of another one. And that one is saying, you know, yes, we've regained our peace, but let's remain vigilant. I love that after dying several times over, we must learn again how to live the idea that this, you know, this will continue and so we need to have a different sort of way of conceptualizing it. And, you know, taking advantage of the opportunities, it, it, it affords us to rethink the way that we're doing things and not feel that science will solve everything. And then once we've, you know, then it's over. But that was really interesting because like the first time I met you. I mean, I saw you out at WITS in 2008 because I loved your book about the Rwandan genocide it had like really haunted me as a family as you know someone whose family had been impacted by the Nigerian genocide. And so I just like love that text and then, and then now, you know, your text about the Ebola virus comes out right when we're dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. Yes. There's something about you being really kind of prescient around these things that are happening. And as I read this I was highlighting I mean so many things just applied to what we're going to right now, you know, having to tell people that the way that they're, their cultural ways need to be a challenge they can't bury their dead they have to disinfect their hands the economies collapse I mean almost everything applied to what we're living through right now and some really interesting how this book is in conversation with what we're living through right now, and what's that absolutely if you take for example the the loneliness and the isolation that that that people who seek fear, and also even over people because how do we do you express love, for example, how do you express tenderness when you're not supposed to touch people. How can you expect a mother, not to be able to, to tend for children or a daughter not being able to touch or embrace her father. So, all these links that we take it we used to take for granted, a kind of destroyed. And we have to just hold on and hope that, you know, the time will come when we can resume this kind of expression of love but in the meantime. If you look at this, what is said about the pandemic. Very often on the radio on TV, they're saying show your love, don't go and meet your mother or your father. You see this is extraordinary you know show your love don't go there. This contrary to everything we've been doing up until now so it's very difficult, but I think that we will be learning a lot. And that's why whatever we are learning, we must then apply. And I always think to progress and to understand a different way of living, living together as well. Wonderful. Wonderful. Thank you. I was struck by the fact that this you did so much research, you know it's such an ambitious book and yet it's such a small book it's so slim and so I was wondering about the restraint involved I mean you talk to scientists medical workers and geos journalists, researchers survivors in three and I mean I teach students how to write documentary narrative and I think there are two things that happen that one you yourself can be very overwhelmed as a witness of stories. How do you recover and kind of put a handle on it, and then also how do you find the story in it and hone it down and resist the temptation to just include so much research and testimony. Yes, in fact, because I tell you the truth, I'm more into shorter books. What I prefer to do is just go for the jugular. And so, you know, of course you can you can you can explain things more, and I could have added some more portraits, in a sense, but after a while I thought that look is there is all there. And in fact, if the reader wants to, he or she can go and find their own portraits. Because, because I didn't want to be exhaustive. Right. It would have been impossible anyway, because so many people acted in different ways that you can't say it all. So why pretend you're going to say, oh, just just just condense whatever you have to say and leave it to the readers to then continue the story. Sometimes my hope is that if, if, if I have been able to touch them, the readers in one way or another, they will do their own, their own, they will continue their own research or continue to try and understand a bit more about what has, what has happened. That's very interesting. That's interesting.  And you know, because it's difficult to, to mix Rwanda with Ebola because it's such different contexts, but in the case of Rwanda, there's this survivor who said, Yolande Mukassagana, who said, don't be afraid to know. Meaning that when you seek information is, is, is always something that's going to normally makes you stronger. Right. It doesn't make you weaker.  Whereas when you try to make the effort to understand more, to go deeper than the headlines or than the news at 10 or news at 8pm or, you know, that sort of thing. You, you then feel stronger, because you know better. And I think that is about information as well. We need two things, we need information and emotion as well. Because information alone, data, numbers, scientific, pure scientific facts cannot do it for us. Right. We need to be touched somewhere at some point. And so you, in fact, it's about handling both. It's about saying, this is what I learned. And I'm trying to share it because other people have shared it, shared it as well. I remember doing my research, going to the site of MSF, you know, doctors without borders. They were extremely involved in the fight. And you could find on online, a whole graph of an Ebola treatment center, complete with all the details of where the patients coming where they come out where they go here, where they go there. It was absolutely incredible in terms of the research and of the information you could access. So I was, and that's why I, in the acknowledgement section, I thank all those who have been generous enough to share the information. And as you know, it's a classic to say information is employment. The only thing is that when you're talking about literature, how do you kind of process part of this information and make it literature, not anything else. Right, right. Yes. What do you think. Yeah, so is that a process of just kind of taking the stories in and letting them ruminate until some, the structure it wants emerges from you or that you feel that there is some sort of imagining that happens outside of the polemic or how do you how do you wrestle with that. When I wanted, I decided that I was going to write on the subject, the Ebola epidemic, I didn't know how I would handle it. In fact, to tell you the truth, the plague by Albert Camus was a very strong influence on me. I've read the book and I also taught it at this university to my students. So, at some point I had this idea maybe I'd do a rewrite of the plague that in the context of Africa, and then I realized that that's not what I wanted to do. So I just continued writing and in the natural process characters started to emerge. Maybe because when I found those characters, I was surprised. Okay. I was surprised. I was surprised that such a person like chlorine sprayer exists. You know, in my mind it was, it was, I never thought about a young man going, you know, in front of the teams and spraying chlorine so that they are safe. Yeah. I think these things also surprised me. I will remember that grave diggers. We don't think about grave diggers, but of course they were running really, they were in big danger, just by burying the dead. So something that surprised me very much was the way it was necessary to do a whole communication campaign with people teams going from villages to, from one village to the other to explain to people, the Ebola virus was exactly because you imagine if you live in a remote place in Liberia or Guinea or Sierra Leone, and you don't have real access to information. You think that this disease is just a curse. So you need, you need to be informed. And what I found also very, very interesting was the fact that after a while medical experts understood that they have to, they had to go through the healers, for example, because healers are very close to people still. Yeah. And you need to talk to them, train them, and let them relay the information to their own patients. So it made a big, big improvement in terms of spreading information and making people more aware of what to do and not do. Yeah, yeah, you know, respecting those, you know, kind of traditional modes of communication and belief patterns I think is kind of is crucial and I think we're, you know, seeing, you know, people who don't believe it, you know, even in societies that are super science based. You know, I think that when we look at what is happening today, it makes us rethink what, how we view people who deny, for example, the disease and who are living far, far, far in some remote places. We thought that we were so much better than them. So much advanced, so much more advanced, so much better. But then you realize what, we're in the middle of a major city and there are people who still don't want to believe this. There's television, there's everything, the whole media is on it. And yet there are people who continue to deny it. So there's something in human nature. Right. That, that, that is what we have to and to try and understand as much as possible. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you even talk about it. Yeah, there's the temptation to lie to ourselves, of course. I thought, yeah, I thought that was really, really interesting. It does make us really rethink how we imagine we would behave because now that moment is here. We're not necessarily behaving that way. I have one last question for you before we open it up to the audience and it's, I'm still kind of trying to formulate it, but, you know, so I've been teaching contemporary African literature ever since this renaissance of literature came out. Like in the last five to 10 years, and we've been running this African book club that recently partnered with Moab, which is our co-sponsor today. We're actually going to be reading your book next month. Thank you for African book club. I'd be interested to know what the reactions are. Yeah, exactly. I as well. So one of the things that comes up whenever we talk about African literature, if we can even say there's an African literature of course, because it's so huge. Is there's this debate, which is, you know, kind of the narratives of Africa that we inherited from the West, which have been problematic and authors have been laboring under that and so of course there are these debates or African writers are always saying like we can't write about a crisis or we can't write about crisis, you know, so there's always this tension and then Absolutely. Recently, a local writer, a local Zambian writer and I'm Molly Surpell, who's a Cain Price winner and lives in the Bay Area has written about, about empathy and kind of the idea that we kind of assume that literature creates empathy. She's trying to critique that and say, in a way, it promotes its own kind of moral callousness that, you know, we become fascinated with stories of pain, or we feel that if we're reading a book that that's equivalent to actually taking social or political action that you know we've worked all of our emotions out in the story. But, you know, so she's been asking like what is, what is the usefulness of literary empathy so I was just wondering if that is that whole debate about writing about problems in Africa. Did that concern you did it shape your approach with kind of doing the more imaginative inventive structure or where do you engage or not engage with that debate. I totally engage with that debate and there's nothing more than I would like to talk about pure love and flowers and which exists and I think that's how I can, I can solve this tension is that by always coming out of a position of love. That means it's a position of empathy because I think I am too attached to life and to human destiny and I have, I still have a lot of faith in what humans are capable of doing, because in fact we're capable of the best. And also, of course, of the worst, but I think that it's the tension in life, but it depends where it's coming from. If it's coming from a place of, yes, I can only say a place of love, then, then you can talk about what is more difficult. That's the difference. I'm not coming from over. I'm not trying to give lessons to anybody. I'm not trying that. And that's why I have many voices, because I'm just trying to understand as much. And sometimes I hope that by interacting with the readers, I will continue to understand. I'm very, very, very interested in human nature, wherever it is. I have a strong belief that it's just a question of context. We are influenced by different contexts, but basically we have more or less the same reactions, especially when confronted with death and life, of course. But yeah, I have confidence in human kind. So that's such a great answer. It's such a beautiful approach. And I remember, I mean, one of the things I found most impactful in the book was the young man who brings his fiancee, and they have to be separated and then he leaves poems to be left at her feet.  And that's what's missing in the kind of reporting that happens around crisis is, you know, the human resilience and the beautifulness and the fact that people are larger than their crisis or their victimhood. So thank you for that. Great. So I know that we want to open up some questions from the audience. So, who is doing that. I will, I will read out the questions. The first question I see is from Christian Gorman. I have viruses throughout human history so it isn't unique to today, but I happen to believe that stresses in nature create the opportunity for pandemics. Currently the stress is rapid climate change. Is this a widely held view in the countries where Ebola has wrapped it. The crime, the climate crisis and the Ebola epidemic. Yeah, climate. She's asking if climate crisis is seen as something that might have caused the Ebola epidemic. Absolutely. I think absolutely in the sense that I was talking about the deforestation earlier. It's an important factor, because when you destroy the territory of wild animals, they then come closer to villages and where human beings live and to feed on fruit trees, for example. And this contact is not something that is good for both species. And in the case of Ebola, since it's transmitted by fluids, it's this close contact with wild animals is in part the cause of the epidemic. Because we were talking about the bat. The bat is a healthy host of the virus. That means a bat can carry the virus and be fine. But the moment you kill the bat, start eating the meat or start doing something with that animal and touching the blood or you may be infected. The next question is from Mark Maroudis. Just a simple question. Does Veronique write her books in English or French? French first and then English. Yes, this translation was a big collaboration and it went through several stages and it was a real work of love again and commitment. Clarice Saidis says, I have two questions if I may. One, how did you come to the title? Can you say more about that? And two, given that genres are not real, I think of them as false borders, how did you decide to make this a novel? Was that a category you landed on? Or did the work get you there? Or was that a publishing decision? Being familiar with your poetry, I wonder about the choice to make this tale a prose novelistic one? Yes, yes, yes. In the company of man indicates the fact that we have changed the perspective. It's not man being above nature, but man being within nature. And in fact, in the company, the animals and the creatures and all those who talk in the story are looking at man and their behaviors. So certainly man and the rest of nature are at the same level. They are equal in this sense. The animals are in the company of man. They are together watching what man are doing, what human beings are doing. And in terms of calling it a novel, it's really, look, the novel has evolved a lot. And it's not always the conventional linear narrative that is only accepted.  I've got a problem with récit because it's between tales and stories. That's that's how I call what I write, récit, which is a little bit more neutral than a novel. Dorothy Abbott asks, I heard you in a previous interview and you were asked about creating different perspectives.  You talked about how with a sculpture, you walk around it and see it in different ways. Would you please talk more about your mother and her art and how she influenced you? She was a big influence because of course we were living together and I could see her working every day in her workshop and she was someone that would not leave you alone. In the sense that if she was doing something, at the beginning it was painting and then it became a sculpture, she would say, come, come, come, come, tell me and you'd have to give your opinion on what she was creating. And she was entering in a conversation with you. And what I remember most about her is the fact that when she was creating something she was, for example, using, when she created a sculpture, she was using all the little bits that had fallen off and that she had to discard when she was doing that sculpture. So from those pieces that she had discarded, she would then try and create something else. And a kind of creative recycling. And I thought that that was very interesting to watch her doing that and trying to connect pieces that had fallen off from a complete sculpture. Interesting. I also had quite a bit of admiration for her from the fact that she came from a small village in France, then went to Paris to study art and then said, yes, when my father said, let's go to Côte d'Ivoire and live there. And in fact, she lived in Côte d'Ivoire until the end of her life. So that was quite an adventure. And interesting to watch her and to see how she was influenced by living in Côte d'Ivoire and how she was trying to kind of find a fusion between these different influences. It's all really evident in your work. You know, it's almost that this Q-list approach as you, you know, create these different perspectives and move around it. So it's great to hear the backstory about that. Yeah. You're muted, I think. All right. Meredith asks, given your research and lived experiences writing this book, is there a message or insight you'd like to share with the public about our current pandemic? What do you wish we knew? I think it's all at the end of the day boils down to solidarity and collaboration, because it was very tight. At some point the Ebola epidemic was going to go to go wide and spread further from the region. And it's only when, in this kind of selfish way, people realize in the West that there was a real danger of the disease spreading further, that there was this massive influx of money and aid and people coming and even the army being deployed in Liberia, for example, to just end that disease. And I think that we have to come back to that sort of mentality, but not as a knee-jerk reaction, but looking at the world in a more stable way, more durable way, more holistic way, and say, okay, let's put the emphasis on prevention. That means not just money where there is a crisis, but being always a step forward, always a step ahead so that we know that primary care that is important for people to have access to health security, for example. I think we just need to see more widely than just own borders. So Clarice also asks, you mentioned Camus plague. Were there other works that helped you access your own or do you know some companion reads we might consider alongside in the company of men? Well, you could also try Les Fables de la Fontaine. I don't know if you know about Les Fables de la Fontaine. Les Fables de la Fontaine is the 17th century poet, French poet, who wrote a lot of fables where animals were talking and were giving all sorts of moral ideas about in fact how human beings should live. It's interesting that he got the inspiration from Greek fables. So you see how storytelling travels. So you have this 17th century French poet who wrote fables, but who was inspired by Greek mythology. And that's how stories travel, stories travel. And so, in fact, I would say companion books would be, yes, Greek tragedy as well. But there's a lot like also, for example, a lot of what has happened during the AIDS period. It's very important to remember how it was handled and how it is still in our lives and how we must deal with it. So there's a lot that can be learned from different places. There's a question from Elizabeth to piggyback on Clarisse's question. Are there other authors, artists who influence you? In this particular book, no, I can't say that. It's difficult because I'm influenced by so many writers. And sometimes it's not necessarily because they're treating the subject you're writing on that they influence you but you have read them and they're still with you.  So it's not, it would be many, many, many writers and I can't say for the moment, I would say for the moment to tell you the truth. Albert Camus was my most, my biggest influence and also because I like him as a writer. It's one of my favorite writers, the stranger. Yes, but the tales also, as I said before, the oral tradition is very important for me. So a writer like Amadou Kourouma who also has written the sons of independencies and waiting for the wild beast to vote or something like that, you know. It's absolutely important because he has this way of drawing on culture and at the same time finding innovative ways of telling very political stories. That's what I liked about him. Vanessa asks, you spent several years living in South Africa teaching it with. Can you speak about how this influenced your writing the shift from West Africa to Southern Africa francophone to Anglophone cultures, and the charge context of a post apartheid society. Big, big, big, big influence. Right. Yes, my time in Johannesburg was like not waste of time. Because it's a country that's always bubbling with something. There's always something happening. We spent 14 years in Johannesburg and I said 14 years. It looks like it was like you would have told me three years, four years, I'd say okay, I agree. But 14 years, it went really very, very fast because there's always something happening. And also the fact that it's a post apartheid society that is still in full transition is absolutely fascinating. And it's also recent history. And so everything is coming up all the time. The past is coming up but at the same time people are really very much into moving forward and trying to move forward. And as I said, it's a fascinating, fascinating place. And when we were there. I mean, Mandela was still alive. Next on Mandela was still alive. That's one to two big people. And to know that you're in the same area that you're in the same country is absolutely fascinating and also all the young people who are trying to find now a new way to live together.   We've gone through beyond that phase. We want to really be able to assert ourselves and not be reminded every day that there was the terrible thing, which, which created so much tension in the country. Now, if you are a young white person, how much do you take of that? What do you say to your parents? What do you say to them? You say, how come you knew about it, but you didn't do anything about it. It's an amazing place. It's totally in full transition and you have really full of big stature and it's fascinating. At the same time, you have the violence as well that erupts regularly and that is a legacy of the apartheid era. So you never quite sitting on your chair, in your chair when you were in South Africa. So we have time for one more question and it is from Eva. What subject are you working on now? Can you tell us a little bit about your next project to emerge?  It's bad luck. And it's all those changes all the time, because if I tell you now and then I change in the middle of it and you say, but you said you were writing about, you know, the truth is that we have been secretive about that. Yeah, I'm writing on the novel. Let's say I'm writing on my next, I'm working on my next novel and I'm writing also, I'm working also on an essay. Have you, have you written about South Africa? Yeah, I've written a book on Mandela. Yeah, I've written a book on Mandela and in my next novel it will come up again. And my feeling has been like, I can't write about the place when I'm there and when I'm away from it, I miss it and I write about the place. I'm just wondering, like, you know, because you've lived in so many, you know, places, like, is that then when you look back and think about that? Yeah, 14 years is a long time, so it has been really important and a very strong influence on me, so I'm really so happy and I feel privileged to have been there. And I have to say, we are so privileged to have you, Verinique Tajo, in conversation with Faith Adeel for an incredibly inspiring and moving conversation and I want to encourage everyone to order your books at alexanderbook.com or your local independent bookstore. And I also want to thank Elizabeth Gessel, director of public programs at the Museum of the African Diaspora and just remind everyone once again, Faith is going to be moderating a wonderful book club talk on in the company of men on March 28 at five o'clock, so sign up. And we'll continue talking about your incredible work and all of the very deep and powerful messages that lie within the narrative. Also, we have a drawing for a free book, so we do have a winner, we did a digital drawing, and the winner is Dorothy Abbott and Dorothy will be sending you your book and Pam will get your address. On a chat private chat so once again Verinique, it's just so wonderful to meet you from afar on zoom and faith thank you for joining us and thank you. So we'll be collaborating again we look forward to your new publications as they come out in the future, and we'll be in touch and thank you everyone for joining us for this really inspiring conversation. We have a lot of things about and so moving as we are experiencing all of what is in this book right today right now this minute. This is very insightful. Thank you, thank you very much. All right, well and be in good health everyone and join us again. And we'll see very soon on mechanics Institute for our programs. I also want to ask Dorothy Abbott to please type your mailing address in direct message to me and chat so we can get Thank you so much. Thank you very much for having me. Wonderful, wonderful conversation, and everyone else just watch our website for upcoming events. And we've got cinema lit on Friday nights. We also have another program coming up later in in March with Alice Walker's daughter, Rebecca Walker and her writing collaborator Lily diamond for what's your story. That's going to be for women's history month that's on the February sorry it's March 25 at 530. We have a lot of co sponsorships with the Bay Area Book Festival that are coming up in early March so see our website for those programs. And the chess clubs got all kinds of tournaments going on and the writers lunch of course is Friday afternoon at noon time so so much is going on at mechanics and of course there are incredible events at Moab. So please visit both websites. And we look forward to seeing you again. Okay, everyone would like to unmute just to say bye bye. Dorothy, I will be emailing you and hope you can get me your address that way. So everybody. So long. It's good to see all the familiar faces. I'll be closing the doors just a minute. We'll be seeing you soon I hope for me it's great to be back in touch. So long. Okay, it was a great event everybody, and so long. Bye bye.


From Hollywood, it's time now for Edmund O'Brien as Johnny dollar This is Bruce Hardwick. Mr. Dollar. Do you remember me? I think I do.  That's right. We have some work for you if you aren't busy. I'm not shoot good Our New York office got a call from the police this morning They had investigated some trouble on the east side and found one of our policies at the scene and Wanted to find out what the company knew about the man had covered which was very little What kind of trouble was it? Nobody seems to know all the signs of murder understand But nobody will you go down and see what you can make of it? Edmund O'Brien in another adventure of the man with the action-packed expense account America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator. Yours truly Johnny dollar Expense account submitted by special investigator Johnny dollar to home office currently in life and liability insurance company Hartford, Connecticut The following is an accounting of expenditures during my investigation of the Richard's Plain matter Expense account item one thirty five dollars trip from Hartford to the scene of the crime a Part of Manhattan where the citizens have been conditioned to sleeping through screams gunshot and even the odors I was met by a homicide sergeant and the tenement flat he took me to lived up to its first description It did bear all the signs of murder Except a body Well, it must have taken a long time to accomplish all this The place rented in the name of Richard's plane. Yeah, what's the address on his insurance policy the number on 2nd Avenue? How does the report read on this so far sergeant? You can see everything we saw from the amount of busted furniture a violent struggle from the amount in placement of bud stains a Sustained beating of someone there by the radiator. Nobody heard it. Nobody cared if they did hear it We've asked questions, but the people won't admit anything. They don't want to get involved The landlady phoned us after she's on the door open and looked in any blood stains out in the car I haven't found any you seen enough Yeah, I guess What's this part of some wreck ship models? Seem to be planes hobby collecting them Yeah, there's not much we can do but this flat under lock and key We can hold it that way for a while and wait for him to come back But that's about all until we have some concrete evidence like a body that will help Are you going to wait for us or follow it up yourself? I've got that address on 2nd. That's his wife, isn't it and beneficiary in the policy I can't do much with her until she makes a missing person's report or something and she hasn't yeah Well, I get anything from her. I'll let you know Expense account item to a dollar and a half taxi to the 2nd Avenue address Mrs. Plain was a rather dumpy blonde with tousal hair and half applied lipstick She obviously didn't want me to come in. Well, it's not that I don't want to help anyway I could mr.    Oh now mark hold your temper. This man is from the insurance mr. Dollar This is mr. Bond. How are you? Okay?  I almost forgot about it myself. It isn't very much $35,000 How did you learn about what happened? It was a police phone me wanted to know if he was here I told them the same as I told you or I don't even know if dick was in or out What do you mean in or out in port or at sea? He worked on a boat In his policy he listed his occupation as a carpenter. Well, he used to be but since the war he's been a ship's carpenter He's away all the time. That's one of the reasons I dumped him. That wasn't the worst mark You talk to mr. Dollar. Well, I go on Well, what do you want to know about him whether he's dead or alive You think he'd call Mrs. Plain if he was hurt and in trouble. No, I know for sure. He wouldn't and they quit They met it has there been a divorce not yet Of course money. She hasn't got any I haven't explained as he's not letting loose Would you happen to know if there's somebody he would turn to? The police check the hospitals without finding him. No, I don't know where he'd go Hey, what makes you so sure explains the one that got messed up. Maybe he went to work on somebody else That's what I was thinking one thing. I can't tell you from experience Dick can take care of himself and he's mean But honest, that's the very best I can do Okay Here I put my hotel room number on my card in case you want a phone And I'll let you know if anything develops Expense account item three a dollar and a half to splain's flat I decided that it would be easier to learn there the name of his last ship and with that I hope to find someone who was closer to him than his wife Sergeant Burns was no longer there, but a liar too got a pass key from the landlady and I went in The top drawer the battered bureau produced not only what I was looking for but more The name of the ship was the Tangier and an envelope that contained his seamen's papers Also contained a small address book with enough names and addresses to keep at least one investigator happy. I Started to jot them down But got no more than halfway through. I Hope you don't mind Sergeant Who are you Shut the door Nobody seems to know what happened Who are you a cop private type? Splendid Who'd want to kill him? I don't know Blood and everything busted up look I don't want to get mixed up and I just knew him like in the bar Wait a minute. Come on. What's the idea shorty?  Well, sure I do that sometimes I come to talk to him Sometimes when he's in from a trip, I can't go to them places. He tells me about him I'd like to hear about Tangier in them places and he shows with them ship models. He makes Do you know any of the people he does? Well, all I know is where he's been he never stays in more than a week He eats at Sweeney sometimes. That's just across the street. I can't help you missin. Let me go What's your name? I don't make no difference what my name is. I don't want to get mixed up and somebody don't know anything about Come on now, please give me a break with you. Okay. Hey What are you reaching for my wallet? Will ten bucks pay for your time? You're a good guy, I'm sorry I can't help you more Expense account item for ten dollars peace offering I Had a feeling I'd paid for lies with it and covered the possible loss by tailing the rabidly little man to an address a few blocks away his name turned out to be Paul Krell What was left of the afternoon was spent on routine leg work and at six I was on the phone in my hotel room This is dollar Sergeant I've got nothing explaining his wife separated and can't afford a divorce She's taken up with a guy named Mark Bond. They both say they haven't seen or heard from explained for a long time It seems he's a ship carpenter. I got the name of a ship when aboard He's been with it for a couple of years same one plies between here and North African ports Those people don't know much about any of their crewmate shore life. So I didn't get much few names I can check tomorrow. What's the ship the Tangier white flag line pier 80 on the East River Have you run into anything? I'm still waiting Well, you've got my hotel. Yeah, they found your husband nothing that would put the heat on mark by itself if they're holding him They they must know more. I think he's lying myself He couldn't prove where he was when the police said my husband died Are you sure you didn't mention that thirty five thousand dollar Palisade a mark? I don't think I ever did No, no, I'm sure of it Why did you come here? What do you want me to do? I'm I'm trying to get up my nerve. Mr.  No, I never told anybody But maybe it's important now You're right true or untrue. It is important On the way back to the plane flat I lined up the things that bore out her story one The remains of the ship models in his wrecked room To the possibility that Paul Krill may have been an iconic buyer and free The address book that could have contained a list of customers But I didn't have a chance to do any more probing when I got there the place was under police Nobody goes inside Sergeant Burns up there. What are we? Well, I've been working with him on this. My name is dollar insurance investigator All right, thank you. Thanks What's all the activity and cover something just another body What yeah first not enough not too many I could figure it when I got this plane's door now the evidence I'd tampered with concerned two murders The body of Paul Krill they beat into death in the middle of the wrecked room In just a moment. We'll return to the second act of yours truly Johnny dollar starring Edmond O'Brien, but first How's for trying to sing it again tonight? $5,000 in cold hard cash and $10,000 in fine prizes are waiting for the CBS listener who can solve the phantom voice mystery Then Seymour will be on hand with those coast-to-coast phone calls again Alan Dale Eugenie Baird Bob Howard and the Riddlers will be making the music and remember There's many a fine prize for solving the tuneful riddle songs that lead to the phantom voice mystery It's an hour of fun and music to entertain you and perhaps pay off every Saturday night and most of the same CBS station Here's sing it again tonight, won't you? And now with our star Edmond O'Brien, we return you to the second act of yours truly Johnny Keep them out. How does this happen? You're showing up. I got tired waiting for your call You were going to phone this morning of anything broke. I was and what kind of cooperation is this? I gave you everything I got yesterday almost The landlady tells me you came back here yesterday You know it's things like that that lose licenses for guys like you I'm down Sergeant you gave me the nod to go ahead without waiting for the police not to mess around with evidence I'm in the verge of putting you away 48 hours for questioning.  I Guess we just put our cards on the paper what you come back here for yesterday to get the name of splain ship I figured it would be easier to get it here than by making the rounds of the hiring halls I told you what I got out of it a few names. Come here There's only one change when we came back here to find this body Top drawer of the bureau was standing open This envelope was torn with this stuff dumped on the top. Do you do this? No Don't touch that keep your hands where they belong We're dusting that stuff for Prince Sorry I guess I'd better get out of here sergeant before you and I lock horns. You're beginning to make sense Teller I thought I was too at least hope so The notebook from which I'd copied the list of names and addresses Wasn't among the other articles dumped on the bureau top But sergeant Burns threat to hold me for 48 hours Made it easy to keep my mouth shut about it and about my having met Krell Well, did they let mark lose don't be funny, of course they didn't what did you tell him about the little boats in it? I thought it was better not to There's been another murder at your husband's place Who little guy named Paul Krell that name mean anything to you. I never heard it before What's it all about a lot of people are wondering Where was Mark Bond last night they don't think he did that one, too I didn't ask But I know how their minds work. They'll accuse Mark of going back to cover tracks. Where was he? He was right here with me and he witnesses to prove that there's me. I know he was here. Don't I under $35,000 circumstances? That's hardly enough How do I know this narcotics tale of yours is true? I don't get it Why would I admit it if it wasn't true liable to get me in a lot of trouble isn't it? It could throw up a whale of a smokescreen for mark, too All right, I'll show you something. I got one here in the closet This one he called a frigate First you you have to set it on something Then you twist this thing a mask. I think This part opens up Let me see that That's pretty thick was always good with his hand. This is the only thing he's like that Well, maybe a chemist can prove whether or not it carried narcotics. I can't Assuming that was the case who did he sell to I don't know I didn't want that kind of money in the minute. I found out one night I told him to get out and never mention it again. It's too bad If he was cutting in on a combination that might account for his death But if he was playing ball with him at something else which brings us right back to your boy mark Have you thought of that? I know he didn't do it if I thought he did would I look you up? I'm taking the other approach if he was innocent Why would you bother torsing me this model ship bone to chew on? Expense account item five twenty five dollars blanket item covering transportation for the rest of the day at the address of Falkrell I learned what I believed to be the truth that is association with Splane was no more than a friendly one From the list of names I copied I picked Jerome Kentner Who had the closest address an apartment about two hundred and fifty dollars a month away from the park? Mr. Jerome Kentner. Yes, I Like to talk to you about a man named Richard Splane. What about I don't know any I'm afraid so mr. Kentner, but you don't have to be afraid of me. I'm not a policeman That's what you want to commit. I think I'd better right. What is it Splane is dead He was murdered night before last bad, isn't it? How did you find out about me? There's a list of names in his rooms Yours was one of them You bought narcotics from him ship models. I collect them. Don't you see them there in the case? Yeah, I noticed who are you? What do you want private investigator? I want to find out who kills Splane. I didn't why would I do that? I don't know When did you last see him well, it wasn't night before last I don't think I have to answer I don't want a blackmail you and answering them, but I will if I have to It was last week sometimes Tuesday, I think How well did you know I'm very much all many through friend of mine. What's this friend's name? Go ahead and blackmail. I'm not talking anymore Suit yourself. I'll leave my phone number in case you change your mind The next two stops yielded nothing the names were either conveniently or Coincidentally out of town the next miss Francine Wells and address on 82nd Street Miss Francine Wells, please in regard to what? Well, I'd rather tell her if you don't mind. I'm afraid I'll have to insist. Are you a salesman? No, I'm not a salesman. It's miss Welles in young man. You have to tell me who you are Yes, I remember and this gentleman is not Fred. Oh Good afternoon. Hello. I'd like to talk to you if I cut miss Wells What about I don't know you do I know you don't but it's important that I speak to you in private if possible Dad Be a good guy and go in the other room for a minute and leave you alone with the stranger Come on, it's probably something about work. It is. Why must it be so private? Later Now if it is that private keep it low, he'll be listening What's it all about? Richard Splane who Richard Splane Who did you ask for here? I Mean there's been a mistake. You must have come to the wrong place if your name is Francine Wells I haven't it was that name and address I found in this flat How on earth would my name and address get into the apartment of a man? I never heard of Unless we have mutual friends Maybe you do your name was only one of a dozen or more. I don't understand at all. Who is this rich explain? Well, maybe you knew him without knowing his name He sold narcotics He's been murdered. No And I do I am a pushover for shocker, aren't I? I'm sorry. I just worked out that way.  I'll stand up This day with the dead here. I dreamed about it. Here it is What happened? Well, I'm not being paid to press the narcotics charge. I'm trying to find out who killed him Being paid by his insurance company. When'd you see him last? Day or two ago. What are these names you mentioned so far all customers? You have the list. I made a copy of it And do you think that one of them is the name of whoever killed this? explain I Really didn't know his name. How did you run into him? I don't think that's important I was introduced to him by a friend not a man named Mark Bond by any chance or a woman named Clara Explains wife. No, I don't know anything about him Just enough to watch for the bait of his ship The government man would be the next to show up at my door. It's not up to me. I Can't promise you any help, but I I want you to look at this list of names and Tell me if you know any of them Anything I can do I will do No, I don't know Sorry, I don't want to sound as if I feel sorry for myself. I don't Was going to say I thought he deserved to be killed, but His fault any more than it's the fault of Difference does it make I Want to leave my card with you in case there's something you haven't told me. I'll jot down my hotel Most of the others I got to pretty much the same mixtures of fear Desperation sometimes defiance and usually fatalism by the end of it I arbitrarily set the name J. L. Tucker as the last for that day He lived in a cold water spread close to Greenwich Village, and he was different Doesn't make any difference who knows it. I've been through these things before so you're wasting your time You asked me how I got in touch with Splain. I Knew his wife. That's her. She was shilling for him before they got tired Go ask her Dollar I just left a man named Tucker. He said he knew you I thought I'd better call He tells me you made the contacts for your husband before you separated. Why would he say it? I've spent a long day and we're back to you chubby. Oh, look, don't decide to leave town Expense account item six four dollars dinner at my hotel item seven same amount few brandies of the bar I Had the idea I'd spent a lot of energy for nothing until the elevator dropped me at my floor And I turned the corner toward my room It's all right You left your card with me. You must have expected so I left my card a lot of places. I didn't expect you miss well You don't seem to have had any other take Come on in you said if there was anything else I wanted to tell you well there there is It goes a long way back. I Don't know how these things happen to some people and not others. I Was no angel, but I was all right I've always told myself that some people get bitten by rattlesnakes and others don't but it's not the same It was in school after a party neither one of us had any sense he got it from somebody Who is this in Pennsylvania? His name was Phil. I don't know I came home never saw him again But that was the start of it It was only two years ago. I Knew it would end kept wondering how Now it has it What are you trying to tell me? I killed Richard's plane. That's what I'm trying to tell you Why because I went to him without any money and he laughed at me. I don't know what happened to me I picked up something started to hit him Why didn't you tell me this before Went to him without any money. I picked up the first thing I touched and started to beat him. What was that? I don't even remember an and iron. Yes. I think that's what it was and Paul Krell. You killed him, too Yes, I did I must have Good try, but it won't work This wasn't a woman's killing no matter how desperate she was You want me to go you want to stay here? Please? Please I did Isn't that enough? Yeah, I'm afraid you have Where's my daughter? I want to talk to you about it. Where is she? Mr. Wells Somewhere in this apartment if you haven't destroyed it There's a piece of very important evidence What's that you say a notebook containing a lot of names among them your daughters She told you this hardly she was trying to protect you She confessed to killing Richard's plane. They haven't arrested him. Not yet. She was lying, you know that I'm afraid I do I'm glad I Told her about it after I heard you leave. Are you married? No, if you were and you were my age and had a daughter you'd understand You know what it's like to watch her change. I didn't know for a long time. I wonder But I followed when I learned the truth. I killed him Surely you don't blame me I Turned Wells over to the police not Sergeant Burns And heard him explain his second killing that of Paul Krell Who had arrived as Wells was looking for any trace his daughter might have left that explains Remarks don't question the policy payoff to Clara's plane in spite of the fact that she hardly deserves it Expense account item seven same as item one expense account total $375 Yours truly Johnny dollar Yours truly Johnny dollar stars Edmond O'Brien in the title role and is written by gilded out with music conducted by Wilbur hatch Edmond O'Brien may soon be seen in the Paramount Pictures production Warpath featured in tonight's cast were Herb Butterfield Raymond Burr Joe Gilbert Bill Bushey Howard McNeer Barry Kroger and Mary Lansing Yours truly Johnny dollar is produced and directed by Jaime Del Valle This is Bob Stevenson inviting you to join us next week at this time when we'll again bring you Edmond O'Brien as Yours truly Johnny dollar Have you met the Coopers Liz and George? They're the young married couple who keep things humming and keep you laughing in that hilarious domestic comedy My favorite husband broadcasts every Saturday night over most of these same CBS stations So tune in every Saturday night to my favorite husband And now stay tuned for Vaughn Monroe's caravan, which follows immediately over most of these same Columbia stations This is CBS the stars address the Columbia Broadcasting System


Hello and welcome to the session. In this session, we shall learn how can we draw inferences from two populations using center and measure or spread from random samples. Whenever two samples are given, we can find its center using mean, median or mode and we can also find its spread using range, interquartile range, etc. Measure of center helps us to know the value around which the most of the values in the data lie. For example, if we want to compare marks of students of two schools, we can collect random sample of marks of students from school A as well as from school B and find the center of the two data. If school A students have average marks, 35 and school B students have average marks of 55, then we can say that school B students higher than school A measure of variation describes the data is spread out. Sometimes the data is clustered around a single value, but sometimes there is a lot of variation in the data. For example, in the series 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 12, 15. Here the values are clustered in the beginning where they are only 1 unit apart. They start to spread after 5 where they are 2 or 3 units apart. So we can say that with the help of spread, we can draw inferences about two populations like we can know which city has more variation in temperatures. And we can make use of the box and whisker plot, box plot following center and spread of the two data sets can draw inferences about the populations. Let us take an example. The following box and whisker plot shows the amount of calories for the two random samples drawn from fruits and vegetables respectively. What inference can you draw for the calories, food energy of fruits and vegetables? Now we know that this line in box and whisker plot represents lower quartile, the lower line is the median and this line represents upper quartile. As we can see here, most vegetables have calories between 100 and 125 of food energy and most fruits have between 75 and 125 of food energy. And the outliers here show that one fruit has 400 calories and one vegetable has 375 calories of energy. Here we notice that inter quartile range of vegetables will be given by upper quartile minus lower quartile. Here we see that in case of vegetables, the upper quartile is 125 and the lower quartile is given by 15. So we have the inter quartile range as upper quartile that is 125 minus lower quartile that is 50 which is equal to 75. And similarly inter quartile range in case of fruits will be given by upper quartile minus lower quartile that is 165 minus 100. So we have inter quartile range in case of fruits is equal to 165 minus 100 which is equal to 65. And median in case of vegetables is given by 100 and in case of fruits is equal to 125. So median for vegetables is given as 100 and for fruits it is equal to 125. So we can say that although the calories we get from fruits is higher than vegetables but food energy of fruits and vegetables does not vary much. This completes our session. Hope you enjoyed this session.


This study investigated how the community environment, leisure, and social activities affect the health status of older adults with diabetes. The survey data from the 2020 National Survey of Older Koreans was analyzed. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the participants' characteristics and regression analyses were conducted to measure the effects of community environment, leisure, and social activities. Additionally, mediation tests were performed to determine if leisure and social activities could explain the relationship between the community environment and health status. The key findings were as follows. 1. Community environmental satisfaction affected participation in leisure and social activities. 2. Community accessibility had a negative effect on subjective health, while community environmental satisfaction had a positive effect on subjective health, cognitive function, and chronic diseases. 3. Leisure activities had a positive effect on cognitive health, while social activities influenced subjective health, cognitive function, and chronic diseases. 4. Analysis of the mediating effect of leisure and social activities on the relationship between the community environment and health status confirmed a partial mediating effect. In order to improve older adults' mental and physical health. This article was authored by Jion Kim, Yoon Ho-rae, and Yoon Sur-gi. We're article.tv, links in the description below.


Before I get into today's video, I want to remind you to enter our giveaways. We have two giveaways going on right now. One is for a Nintendo Switch, a PlayStation 5, or an Xbox Series X. You can comment, like, subscribe to the channel on Jazz. Information on how to enter is down in the description. Also, we're giving away two copies of Pikmin 3 Deluxe. Again, comment, like, subscribe.  All right, we have some news on Super Mario 3D. All-Stars in particular sales because guess what? Super Mario 3D All-Stars has outsold. Yes, you heard that correctly. Outsold Super Mario Odyssey in the UK, which is one of the major gaming regions in the entire world in terms of overall sales. Crazy, crazy stuff. Okay, so we knew, you know, that Super Mario 3D All-Stars had the third biggest launch of the year in the UK. I've known this for a little bit, but now we have all this additional information coming from Christopher Dring and then also from Niko Partners Senior Analyst Daniel Ahmed. And let's get into some things that we know. So during launch, Super Mario 3D All-Stars is the 15th biggest Nintendo game launch of all time in the UK. So it's all time dating all the way back to the NES. The second biggest Mario platform launch right behind Super Mario Odyssey. Now, noticeable, this is at launch for like the couple day period at launch. Odyssey did beat out very narrowly. It notes very narrowly. It beat out Super Mario 3D All-Stars in the same launch period. And it's the fifth biggest UK Switch game launch of all time behind Sword and Shield, New Horizons, Smash Ultimate, and then Mario Odyssey. Only three bigger UK physical game releases featuring Mario, debuted bigger than 3D All-Stars. There'll be a Mario Kart Wii, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and Odyssey. Super Mario Galaxy on Wii is the 22nd biggest UK launch game. Sunshine's the 35th, and Mario 64 is the 187th. So none of these games are even close to doing these numbers on their own. However, over a longer period, aka an entire week, okay? So we're not talking just the launch, you know, the few days that count in that launch period. We're talking for the first week. Nego partner senior analyst Daniel Ahmed says that Super Mario 3D All-Stars had higher unit sales in the UK than Super Mario Odyssey for the entirety of that first week. Think about that. So in a one-week timespan, even though Odyssey shot out the gate in its first few days, a little bit quicker, 3D All-Stars is having already a better tale of sales. Now, think about this. Super Mario Odyssey sold 18 plus million units worldwide. We already know that Super Mario 3D All-Stars had a great debut in Japan. Already know, 220,000 plus units sold in the first week. We'll get second week sales here in four days. NPD, we're not gonna hear about till next month, but when that comes out, I expect to see massive numbers for 3D All-Stars. Guys, Super Mario 3D All-Stars very well might be a 10 plus million seller, and man, in some regions it's going to outsell Odyssey. And Odyssey right now is the best selling 3D platforming Mario game of all time. And we're talking, we are talking about 3D All-Stars getting numbers close to that potentially. You wanna talk about record setting? Now, for some people, this is gonna be disappointing.  That's gonna come up. Every time we talk about sales, you're gonna get people in the comments that are gonna say, hey, that's great, but this also sucks, because it means Nintendo got away with minimal effort and now they're making noodles and noodles of money. Reality is, Nintendo knows the demand for these games. Just like they know the demand if a Zelda collection happened, that features like, Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, The Wind Waker, or like, you know whatever, like Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, even together as HD remasters, Nintendo knows. Nintendo knows the demand for these titles in HD. They're well aware, so minimal effort or not, emulated or not, it doesn't really matter. These are three of the greatest Mario games ever conceived, put together and thrown on the market. And right now, people are saying, we love it, thank you, Nintendo. We love it, we want it, and it's a limited release. And that limited release is going to lead to it having a lot better sales, I feel like over the next, you know, handful of months, then it maybe would have otherwise, because everyone knows March 31st is gone, digitally and physically it's gone, and we're talking mostly about physical sales. We're not even including digital, because Nintendo keeps that internal. It could be crushing Super Mario Odyssey for all we know. It might not even be close. Now I've said, if this game keeps selling like crazy, all the way up to March 31st, there's no way Nintendo doesn't extend the deadline.  If this game is selling like hotcakes heading into March 31st, they're gonna keep the sales up. Why would they stop making something that is selling this well? But again, we'll have to see, because Mario Odyssey really like exploded in that first year, and then it's kind of fell off. You don't see Super Mario Odyssey hitting the top charts anymore.  Super Mario 3D All Stars debuts right in Japan. What jobs jumps back into the top 10 in sales? Breath of the Wild, because what game do people keep picking up almost consistently when they buy a Switch? Breath of the Wild, right? They're not picking up Odyssey. Even though Breath of the Wild's on Wii U, they're not picking up Odyssey. It's not viewed as a must have game, despite the fact that it's my favorite 3D Mario game. So this is really, really interesting, just to see what's happening with this collection, whether you agree with what Nintendo did with it or not, just how it's being perceived and accepted by the grander video game community, how well it's doing in sales. I mean, to me, it's at least exciting in that this has to tell me that Nintendo is going to do something like this for Zelda. I always worry that because we got Twilight Princess HD on its own, we got the Wind Waker HD on its own. They sold it at 60 bucks a pop. It actually sold well on Wii U. That Nintendo might be a little more hesitant to package three Zelda games together, considering they know they could just HD them and release it for 60 bucks. However, seeing the sales of this, I can see why Nintendo would still be willing to package games together for the 35th anniversary of Zelda, simply because you're gonna get sales numbers that aren't going to be like anything you would get selling them on their own. That's just the truth. Yes, Link's Awakening did really, really well on Switch, right? 4, 5 million or so, that's great. But imagine that you could try pack some of the best Zelda games of all time together and all of a sudden, but bam, you're selling 10 plus million within a month. That's why I'm excited by what they did with Super Mario 3D All-Stars. It's not about 3D All-Stars, although I really like Sunshine and what they did with Sunshine of the Game. I realized there were still some bugs and some debug stuff and it's not a perfect port, but man, I can't help but be excited by the prospect of Nintendo doing this to Zelda games. And obviously we have the Metroid Prime trilogy, but what if there's more than the Metroid Prime trilogy next year? What if they decide to give us some of the best top-down or side-scrolling, I should say, Metroid games, right? I am just thrilled by the possibilities and thank you people for picking up this game because I feel like the signal we're sending to Nintendo isn't so much about the whole lazy port job that people are all bashing Nintendo over, but more so indicative that there's such high demand for these games that Nintendo is gonna keep bundling games together even outside of anniversaries and just keep tossing them out there. Just keep tossing them out there, giving us an opportunity to replay these games in HD. I am totally okay with that. I would love obviously to have them remade, right? I would love a Final Fantasy VII style remake for Ocarina of Time. It is a game that deserves such a remake, but it's not going to happen. Just not from Nintendo, anyways. All right, folks, at least we got the little 3DS. You know, that was kind of neat. Anyways, I am Nathaniel Robojance from Nintendo Prime. Thank you so much for tuning in. Man, it feels good to be talking some mostly positivity stuff here around Nintendo here on a Sunday. I'll catch you guys in the next video.