Hey, welcome. Good morning, Joe.

In the afternoon, we have with us, Ed Luce.

He's a U.S. national editor and columnist for the Financial Times, and also the author of Zabig,

the life of Zubignu-Brasinski, America's Great Power Profit.

Ed, thank you so much for being with us.

It's a delight, Joe.

Ed, the reviews for Zabig have just been extraordinary over the top.

I must say, though, I was only concerned about one review, and that was my wife.

And from the first read-through, she has been so moved by it.

And also so moved by the work that you did, the depth of the character,

showing not only the extraordinary sides of her father,

but also the challenging sides as well.

Talk about your journey in writing this book and where it's brought you.

Well, I have to say, I mean, Meeker's response and that of her brothers, Mark and Ian has been,

you know, a particular delight because there were uncomfortable things in there.

And, you know, they did take a sort of gambling in handing these papers and diaries and things to me

without any conditions, knowing that they would read it at the same time as everybody else.

And so, you know, their response to this has been particularly gratifying

because, you know, not everything in there about their dad was necessarily comfortable reading.

And that kind of gets your question.

The endeavor of trying to get to the bottom of a character, the well

springs of that person's life to really explain their journey and who they became. Now, that is a relentlessly

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