philadelphia phillies fans are happy. they beat the padres 4-3 to win the national league championship series three games to win. bryce harper was named mvp after blasting a two run home that gives philadelphia the lead in the bottom of the eighth and you can see here, right here, that fans in philly were fired up as they watched their team win. this will be philadelphia's first trip to the fall classic since 2009. they'll play the winner of the american league championship series between the houston astros and new york yankees. up next, he's talking soto some of the biggest names around. stay tuned for "who is talking to chris wallace." i'm pamela brown and we'll see you again next weekend.

welcome back to "who's talking." my next guests took very different paths to prominence. a cop and songwriter turned pop music sensation and one of the best selling authors of all time. up first, new york city mayorer i -- mayor eric adams with less than one year on the job. migrants bussed to the big apple and many are scared to ride the subway. you're saying the crime problem in this city is more presumption than reality? then pop singer meghan trainor tells me about her first album since becoming a new mom and how her breakthrough single changed everything. >> it was like watching the greatest movie ever and i was right there on the screen. >> and later, best selling author james patterson on the

rivalry with steven king and his controversial writing process. i will say in your autobiography, you seem a little defensive. i worked a lot on this question, alex. [ laughter ] are you always like this? are you saying parents are wrong? >> yes. >> will you come back? >> yes, of course i will. >> okay. new york city mayor eric adams led the nation's biggest city for some ten months now. a 22-year police veteran, he came into the job promising to fix decades old problems. we talked about those but we started with the new issue he's dealing with, immigration. new york city has seen a flood of migrants since april, thousands of them, venezuelans

escaping the economic collapse in that country. it so bad you had to declare a state of emergency. what do you think is behind the surge of people coming into the country illegally and ending up here in new york city? >> it's clearly a crisis created by human hands. the manner it was carried out by the governor of texas, governor abbott, his refusal to communicate, coordinate in april this started we discovered the buses were coming and we immediately jumped into action and a of this date, we have 20,500 in our care and about 15,500 are still in our care. >> the democratic mayor of el paso since august bussed 11,000 people who came into the country illegally here to new york city. so it's not just the republican governor, it's also the

democratic mayor. >> that's very interesting because what happened was the governor of texas put in place the blueprint and others started to dub plicate and copy that an that's what i stated when we first discovered this has become a method to use to really poll lit -- poll lit size what is happening to migrants and asylum speakers. i sent a team down to texas who is different here is the governor abbott did not want to communicate and actually lied and stated he did communicate or we do not reach out which is untrue. >> i haven't heard you talk about joe biden and the fact is, since he took office, the illegal immigration problem in this country has exploded more than two million arrests at the border in a single year for the first time in our history and obviously the people that weren't arrested and got through

a lot worse more than that so i guess the question is, what responsibility does president biden bear for this influx of migrants first of all over the border and ending up in places like new york city? >> i want to be clear. we were talking about and i indicating what party governor abbott belonged to. this say humanitarian crisis created by human hands and stated over and over again this national problem must be settled on a national level. we must have a real decompression strategy and make sure the entire country absorb what is happening with migrant and asighylum psseekers. we are going to start in mexico and it's the right thing to do the way the governor -- the way the president started. >> mayor, if you look at the record and the unaccompanied

minors coming across the border and ended the remain in mexico policy asylum seekers had to wait for the asylum adjudication in mexico as opposed to in this country, what responsibility does joe biden bear for this flood of illegal immigration? i think it's a bipartisan responsibility. we must sit down at the table and have a clear pathway for those seeking to experience the american dream and i think we have failed to do that for generations. >> i'm going to try one more time. what grade would you give joe biden for immigration policy to this point in 2022, almost two years later? >> i'm a terrible grader. [ laughter ] i think i give our entire bipartisanship we have failed to do it properly for generations and to state this president failed to do so is inadequate. we must all come to the table and decide a pathway for those who have legal citizen ship in

this country and ensure those danger rus in this country are not coming into this country because some people will exploit that. >> i want to talk about your political standing because you did come in and people thought, well this is kind of the new raging moderate in the democratic party. you've taken hits since then. i want to put up polls. in january 63% of new yorkers had a favorable view of you while 20% said unpafavorable bu 29% say you're doing a good or excellent job as mayor while 64% say fair or poor. those numbers have just flipped. >> no, they didn't. think about it for a minute. tell me when fair is failure. >> well. that's -- so you're saying fair is okay? >> i'm saying fair people stated when that poll came out, this guy has been in office for a few months with decades of problem

and so the pollster put poor and fair and put it together. if you're in new york and the overwhelming of new yorkers are saying you're fair, good or excellent, let me tell you something, if you know new york city, that's a darn good statement to say about you. >> so fair, you view as an endorsement? >> i believe fair is saying give the guy a chance. give the guy a chance that's dealing with decades of homelessness, decades of school failure, decades of crime issue. decades of homelessness. anyone that has a corporation as large as new york city with 10 $1 billion budget to think you can turn around and ship movement in the wrong direction in a few months, that doesn't make sense. >> new yorkers say the biggest problem is crime, back in march here you were promising to make the city safer especially on the subways, take a look. >> this system turned into a

place come in the subway system and do whatever you want. and so people are pushing back on me, you know, there goes that mean popo police officer. call me what you want. we going to be safe. i'm like broccoli, you going to hate me now but you going to love me later. i love that quote, by the way. >> that's your quote. i'm glad you like your own work. [ laughter ] but former democratic governor said the other day things are worse than ever. check him out. >> for the first time in my life, everyone in the late '80s and '90s when the crime rate was killing 2,000 people a year, i never felt like i do now just walking around and god forbid sometimes we take the subway home from wabc and you're hearing about an assault on the subway almost every other day. >> think about that for a moment. that's such a powerful quote

that he made. he said even during the time we had 2,000 homicide as year, i policed during those times. we're not having 2,000 homicide as year. the difference from then and now we have an average of less than six crimes a day on the subway system with 3.5 million riders. but if you write your story based on the narrative there. you're going to look at the crimes and put it on the front pages of your paper every day people are going to start to feel what david patterson just stated. so i have to deal with those six crimes a day, felony crimes and the perception of fear. yes, the decrease gun violence in the city i zeroed in on, decreased home sicides, we remo off our streets of over 5700 guns. 27-year high and a gun arrest. we are attacking the problem exactly the way i stated and now

we have to deal with the real perception, we'll put our police officers doing patrol again. giving that moral back in the police department. >> you're saying that the crime problem in this city is more perception than reality? >> no. it's a combination of both, of new yorkers must be safe. they're not safe enough for me. even if it is less than six crimes a day, that is too many for me and i'm clear on that. >> but mayor, the new york city crime statistics are that year to date, crime in the subways is up 41% over the same period last year and serious crime, mayor felonies are up even more than that. that's not perception. that's reality. >> right. as i stated, if you do an analysis of the six major cities in america, the crime waves tackling all of our cities, new york city is the safest out of the six mayor cities in america. also showed how i have turned around the moral of the police

department 27 year high and removing guns off our streets. the over proliferation of guns, so yes, we have a real crime problem that we're addressing but part of that is the perception that every day those six crimes are being highlighted over and over again. when we come back, the so-called night life mayor in the city that never sleeps gives us a billion-dollar reason he goes out so much. and find out what had me reacting like this. respectfully, that is the most politician answer you've given me so far.

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why on earth would all of that lead you to want to become a policeman? >> because i saw the duality of public safety, you know, yes, there was a number of police officers who were abusive, but that was not what i saw every day, as well. i saw men and women with the nobili nobility of running towards danger when others moved in another direction. if we have the balance of justice and public safety, that's a prerequisite to our prosperity i believe now and then and i sit every day with the men and women. >> you like to go out at night and have picked up the nickname the night life mayor and you've had for folks that don't know around the country, you've had to deal with this for instance this summer. >> if i tell you i'll do full page stories on them, nobody will hang out with me no more. you write these stories about me, you have to look at them and laugh.

you know, i have an active lovely life. right. >> right. >> new york city. new york city. think about this for a moment. 24-hour city. when i go out. i'm having dishwashers and cooks subway si go visit this 24-hour city. this is not a 9:00 to 5:00 and this is a city that never sleeps. this should be out and directing the people of the city and i love that. it's a multi billion-dollar industry our night life industry. tell me all the time, thank you mayor for acknowledging us. >> you know you take hits for that. you respond to it there. when you got a migrant emergency

when the city is facing an economic downturn and a crime issue, any thought of toning it down? >> think about what you said. you said we have an economic issue. my night life is a multi billion-dollar industry. people are afraid to go back out to restaurants. now they see their mayor going out saying come back out to our city. that is what the whole theme is. so you say okay, eric, you're taking hits. what has been the mayor of new york without taking hits? you know. you can't wake up and read the papers in the day and say my god, i'm afraid of being criticized. i have 8.8 million people in the city. i have 35 million opinions. that is the city we call new york. >> a few months ago on tv, you said that if you're learning -- your learning disability had been diagnosed earlier, we would be calling you mr. president instead of mr. mayor. you seemed to be joking. first of all, were you joking?m

mayor. you seemed to be joking. first of all, were you joking? >> i was. >> would you like to be president? >> you could run the country from new york. the way new york goes, america, i enjoy being the mayor solving problems on the ground, duplicating solutions, helping my colleagues across the country as i learn from them, they learn from me. i enjoy being the mayor of the city. this is something i wanted to be for 28 years to resolve those on the ground problems and serve in the city. that's why i'm happy doing this job. >> respectfully, that is the most politician answer you've given me so far. would you like to be president? >> no, i like being the mayor of the city of new york. one of the most important cities on the globe. >> no, are you ruling it out? are you saying i will never run for higher office? >> who would answer that? i'll never run for higher office. i don't know what's in the card. i have a job to do now and the worst thing that could happen is i have to sit in front of you again one day and you said eric,

you said this or that. i'll always do the job i'm in now and that's the mayor of this great city, new york. >> you're bidding on behalf of the city for new york to be the host of the 2024 democratic national convention. should joe biden run again for president or should he step aside for a new younger generation? >> he should. >> yes, he should what? >> yes, he should run again. he's been amazing navigated us out of covid. it was a total mess when he inherited, what he's doing around student loan forgiveness, when he's done really around highlighting the over proliferation of guns in our country. i think he should run again and we're hoping the convention will come here to new york city. we think the diversity of the city speaks volumes of the democratic party and hopes it comes here. i'm excited about that he's planning on running again. >> when you were elected mayor,

you called yourself the quote new face of the democratic party. now, i'm sure you remember -- >> yes, i do. i still feel that way. >> that you're the new face of the democratic party? >> yes. >> let me ask you a question, what does that mean? >> first, i'm the face. i think that in our country, we have allowed the far extremes on the far left and the far right to hijack what every day americans and new yorkers want and that's what it's about. >> if you're the face of the new democratic party, how does that differ from the old democratic party? >> you did say new democratic party. >> i don't know if the term is exact ly new or old. for a long time the democratic message has been ignored and we've allowed the far left to determine what that message is. that is untrue. even when you look at defund the

police, that was not a call by the main stream radically practical democrats i like to classified myself as republicans took that message, hijacked that message and made it appear like that was the message of the democratic party. even the president called for proper funding of the police and in fact, republicans blocked some of the funding that we wanted. so if anybody is defunding police, it's the republican party, not the democrats. coming up, pop singer meghan trainor tells us the real story behind her first big hit. it's all about that base. >> that base, no treble. how did you get that. >> and the book he never published about the fictional death of one of his biggest rivals. so i go triple... with trelegy. with 3 medicines in 1 inhaler,... it's the only once-daily treatment for adults that takes triple action against asthma symptoms.

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welcome back to "who's talking." he started as a teenage song writer working on hits but meghan trainor quickly became a grammy award winning star in her own right. now at age 28 she's out with her first album since becoming a mom called "taking it back." and that's where our conversation began. >> it had similar sound to the first album and myself loving anthems, obviously, always have those on my albums but i started writing this album with a few songwriters, mozella being one who is amazing and she said it's crazy. i have artist coming in saying i want to do the meghan trainor sound. i was like i have a sound? are they talking about the duop thing? she said yeah. i can do that in my sleep. i can do that again. that's always fun. so we took it back to the old school 19-year-old meghan

trainor. >> so when you say self loving anthem, what does that mean? >> oh, when i roll "all about that base" and songs like that like "me too" it was more songs i wish were on the radio, songs i never heard on the radio and when i saw what it did to fans when i met them in meet and greets and parents said this changed my kids' life. they were too depressed to get up and go to school and now they're happy. so i said every album we need a self-love anthem because it's something we're all working on every day including myself. >> this is your first album since you had your son riley last year. >> yes. >> and he's -- is he as cute as that? >> yeah. in real life. >> he is -- although, i've seen some later pictures. he's a real red heat. >> oh, yeah, he has beautiful red hair and he can't see well

so he has gorgeous glasses now. >> so i know you said you dealt with physical and emotional challenges both during and after the pregnancy. and what i wonder is does creating a song, does telling your truth help you -- >> help? >> -- deal with that? in a sense, is writing about things that you feel a form of therapy? >> yeah. and i don't -- i don't always go in going i'm going to write about, like, this today. but i noticed the first few songs were kind of heartbreaking. they were sad at first. i'm happiest i've ever been. my first songs were about being a mom and about like don't i make this look easy? i'm exhausted. i'm a working mom when i have mom guilt and i try to make them relatable and put them in every song. >> so 2014 you moved to nashville, you're there, you think, to write songs for other people and you meet a record producer named kevin kadish and

the two of you come up with a song. is it -- >> yeah. >> we'll get to the song in a minute but i want to talk process first. is it true it took you 45 minutes to write "all about that bass". >> it was a quick write, yeah. it's like chemistry. have you ever created something with a stranger so fast? i guess that's not a relatable thing. song writing sessions is like you meet like a blind date. kevin was this man who had a wife and a kid and i was a 19-year-old kid just trying to write songs so i was like nice to meet you. thanks for letting me come to your home and writing a tune with you. and we talked about where we're from and that i was a chubby kid growing up and we -- he said i have a title all bass no treble. i said you know what the kids say? i'm all about that. let's make it all about that bass in trebl treble.

let's say base is my booty and this is treble because i don't have nothing up here. let's be confident in our skin, which is opposite of what i thought in real life. >> he was thinking "all about that bass" in musical sense and you're thinking about bass in terms of body shape and booty. >> yeah, like my thickness, you know, and that moment we were like how can we make this make sense? i was like bass, no treble but we've made it basically we like the thickness and the body. >> so you had the phrase "all about that bass." did you have a melody? >> we liked duop music and old school. he played that tacky bass sound on a keyboard like dom, dom, f very impressive. i was like by the way, i can rap. he was like what? i said i can rap.

the first verse should be it's pretty clear, i'm ain't no siz. nobody will ever sing this we said. i know pop music you want reputation and something easy. i learned so much from that song. like after i wrote it. i watched babies dancing to it in diapers on tables. all about that bass, okay, simple but cleaver. [ laughter ] like grandparents love it and babies love it. >> well, that's why -- okay. so you finally get to sing it for the legendary record producer l.a. reed who at that time was the head of epic records. >> yes. >> there you are with him and let's look at the result. ♪ i'm all about that bass, about that bass, no treble ♪ ♪ i'm all about that bass, bass, hey ♪ ♪ i'm bringing booty back, go ahead and tell them skinny bs

that ♪ ♪ no, i'm just playing, i know you think you're fat but i'm here to tell you every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top ♪ >> eight weeks at number one. sells 1 1 million copies and you win the grammy for best new artist. how -- >> isn't that crazy? >> how suddenly and totally did that change your life? >> oh my god. everything was -- it was like watching the greatest movie ever and i was right there on the screen. >> you were the star. >> i was also in the front row watching like could you imagine? every -- we're still -- my family and i because i kept them with me the whole ride. my brothers are still like what are we doing here? everything is a pinch me moment still. >> was it at any point overwhelming? >> for sure. yeah. the schedule got crazy. i was a girl that slept in every day and started my song writing

work at noon, you know? and now it was like get up at 3:00 a.m., sing on "the today show" run to this place and do interviews all day, talk, talk, talk, talk and my voice koocoult keep up. my mental health couldn't keep up. i got bronchitis all the time. i was so sick. i didn't know how to take care of myself. >> when we come back, we explore the physical and emotional tour of success. meghan opens up about her struggles in a rare conversation you don't want to miss. did you think to yourself that this great career that you worked so hard for and that has just started -- >> was gone. >> could be over? >> yeah, was gone forever. can help you grow and protect your wealth, even when you're not working. they'll look at your full financial picture and help you create a flexible strategy designed to balance growth potential and guaranteed income. so you can stop worrying about the future

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from the outside, meganhan

trainor's pop career sent a positive message in music but also comes with road blocks including a major problem with her vocal chords that forced her to make a tough decision. suddenly, you have a problem with your vocal cords and you got to cancel your tour when you're just really making it. >> uh-huh. >> and have surgery. and then have another surgery. how serious was your condition? >> i had an exploded polyp. a polyp looks like a boil on your -- a big pimple, a big bloody pimple on your vocal cords. >> we get the idea. >> and mine popped. so there is blood -- and, you know, it was gnarly and i had pain and they were like if you do more, you'll lose it forever. you need to stop everything and

do surgery. the first time that happened i was on my tour bus almost done with tour. they're like you need to sit because we're about to tell you something that sucks. i was like what -- there's got to be another way. what do we do? i didn't lip sing. i didn't have anyway to finish the tour. we had to cancel and disappointed so many people. to this day, i'll have people come up to me and say, oh my god, i was supposed to see you at that show and you didn't make it. i'm like i'm so sorry. i still get people upset about it. so that was devastating and it was the first time i really upset people and then when it happened again after i got my vocal surgery, it was just after a bunch of work, just nonstop and then i went to a different doctor and got surgery, which was very tough for me because it was like the year after i won my grammy and it was on the grammy day. there's -- >> the anniversary. >> yeah. it was the only day she had

open. >> did your -- i mean, did you lose your voice? it -- i mean -- >> yeah. >> what was the -- what could you tell? it just that it hurt? you actually couldn't -- >> it hurt and i couldn't hit the notes. >> did you think to yourself that this great career that you've worked so hard for and that is just started -- >> was gone. >> could be over? >> yeah, was gone forever. >> you go a few years ago on cbs because you're going to announce the nominees with the other anchors, you're going to announce the nominees for the grammy awards. let's take a look at that. >> okay. oh, no, i've never seen this. >> 25 by adele, lemonade by beyonce, purpose by justin bi bieber, a sailor's guide to earth but ster gle simpson. >> adele versus beyonce. >> that's a statement right there. i don't know.

>> so you look just fine there and you have said, if i'm not revealing something, that you haven't put out there that when that ends, you go back off camera, as soon as you were away and you collapse. >> yeah. >> why? >> i got up at 3:00 a.m. that day to get glam to be on the show. i haven't seen that since. i haven't seen that clip. and -- >> i'm sorry. >> nope, it all right. i'm still honored to be here. [crying] and i was so tired. i was so tired. i was working so hard, and my assistant gave me that schedule for that day and week and i just knew, that was before my second surgery, so i was like if i do all this, i'm going to have to cancel everything again and just be in this cycle of cancelling stuff and no one will hire me again and it's -- i'm never going to survive and i started my first panic attack at 4:00 in the morning that day in new york

and i didn't know what was happening to me. i just knew i was sobbing crying and i couldn't breathe and i had to lay down and i was sweaty, really fast. i thought i was dying. i was like this is it. my body is giving up. i was like if i freak out like that again, i'm going to be live on tv freaking out. and i kept my cool but reading the list, you can -- i can hear i start -- i remember losing vision. like i was like trying not to faint. that's what i remember. i was like just don't pass out on tv right now. just get through this. and i was supposed to jump into an interview right after but as soon as they said, okay, we're off the air. i sat down and started crying in front of all those people, gayle king, every camera guy, everyone and i lost it and my team circled around me and looked at me and we're like okay, we're done. and i found out months later that this was anxiety and my chemicals were all messed up.

i was like no, i must have an illness, i have a fever clearly and i'm sweating and i would go to the emergency room and be like, i must have ate something that's closing my throat. can you check, you know? the doctor looked so sad coming in trying to explain what a panic attack is to me. i'm like that's not it. i'm very happy. i have everything i ever wanted. all is well. but i didn't realize my body was screaming for help. >> there is one part of this story i love and that is that at a certain point, you were ordered to take vocal rest when you started following a fellow actor. you're worried that your silence is going to scare him away. >> because that's my charm. that's -- yeah. talking to him -- we were finally like -- i mean, we were like i love you day six. so i couldn't tell it back to him and that made me sad. >> and this is you and your now

buzz. >> he's cute. >> and the father of your little boy. >> and my future babies, yeah. he's wonderful. he's here today. hi, dear, i love you. e baby? you have news? >> i'm pregnant -- no, i wish. i wish. november and december i'll start for sure. >> so what is the state of meghan trainor today? you are in your music is a light and bouncy and upbeat. are you? >> yes. so now i feel much better and i got the help i needed and i'm a big -- i'm a big asker for help and hearing other people like carson daily hear about his panic attacks was amazing for me to explain to my mom who doesn't know what a panic attack is this is how i'm feeling and that clicked for her.

so i try to talk about it as much as i can and brings up terrible memories in case someone out there is like mom, that's what i'm talking about and this is how i feel and know that if you're at that place, you should probably ask for help and someone can help you. as i told meghan, she's a teacup of sunshine. up next, we turn the page to the world's best selling author. and how he writes so many books. (vo the new iphone 14 pro is here.

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hi, my name's steve. i lost 138 pounds on golo and i kept it off. so with other diets, you just feel like you're muscling your way through it. the reason why i like golo is plain and simple, it was easy.

i didn't have to grit my teeth and do a diet. golo's a lifestyle change and you make the change and it stays off. golo's changed my life in so many ways. i sleep better, i eat better. took my shirt off for the first time in 25 years. it's golo. it's all golo. it's smarter, it's better, it will change your life forever. the most successful writers of all time. his co-authors include dolly

parton and bill clinton. i think it's fair to say, he is competitive with other big name writers. i want to start with your book "empire." several times in your autobiography you note you are the best selling writer on earth. how important is that to you? >> it isn't. >> why do you say it a couple of times? >> i don't remember saying it. i'm sure i did. it isn't important. one of the -- the fortunate things for me is i grew up in upstate new york, a little town. a blessing that i have is that i still see the world through the eyes of this kid. t this is a big deal. the idea i have written books with president clinton, et cetera, the idea i have sold a lot of books, i'm not impressed with it. i have sold a lot of books. >> how do you explain it?

>> i think mainly i am -- i think i'm a good storyteller. i think that's useful. i have a sense for -- when i'm writing a book, i pretend there's somebody across from me and i don't want them to get up until i finish the story. i think that's both my strength and my weakness. strength because it does help me to sell a lot of books. weakness because if i dug deeper at times and wasn't worried about holding the reader, the books might be deeper. >> you have made no secret of the fact that you sell a lot more books than steven king. >> that's not me. that's the publisher. i don't know what it is. i like his books and i leave it at that. >> you also once wrote a novella. >> i did. >> in which the characters, the villains in his book plot the murder of steven king. >> yes.

however, steven king was the hero of that book. he was the hero. you will never get to read it because we didn't publish it. i have 100 copies which will be worth several million dollars at some point. he is the star in the book. he is a hero. i certainly meant him no harm. no harm here. i think he's a wonderful writer. he is probably a very funny guy. like me. two funny guys. >> let's talk about your process. you write a 50 to 80-page outline for every book. you write in longhand. you put ideas for books in a folder with the word ideas on it. >> clever title on the folder, yes. >> where does an idea for a book come from? >> it can be anything. i can be sitting here and watch the cameraman and something pops. i will write it down. >> how many of those do you have in the folder?

>> hundreds and hundreds. >> do you occasionally pick one out and go, what the hell is thi this? >> i know what it is. sometimes it's years before i can connect a story that -- i will go, i like that idea. i don't know what to do with it. sometimes i will sit there and i will begin to outline three or four different concepts. i go, okay, this one -- i have a story with this that i can -- i can tell a story. i know where it's going. i got a beginning and an end. somebody said -- i will say it right here. you can make a lot of money if you write beginnings and ends. if you write middles, you get the nobel prize. nobody writes the middle. >> this brings us to the biggest controversy about you. you know where i'm headed. this is that you write these very detailed -- 50 to 80-page outlines. and then you hand it over to a

co-author to write the rest of the book. you may -- >> i don't think -- >> let me finish the question. >> i don't find it controversial. >> you may have 30 projects going at the same time. i will say that in your autobiography, you seem a little defensive about the idea that -- >> i didn't mean it to be defensive. maybe it is. it could be. look, part of the thing is, if you think about tv shows, invariably -- almost always there's eight, nine, ten writers in the room. is there something wrong with that? what is wrong with collaboration? no collaboration, no -- we would still have covid. there's nothing wrong with collaboration. collaboration is a good thing. steven king has written some

collaborations. i happen to write a lot of collaborations. not everything i do is a collaboration. in one year, i wrote -- i don't remember the number, like 2,600 pages worth of outlines. the outlines are a big deal. i had an agent at one point and she said, i can take your outline and write a best seller. >> you have had a number of books that have been turned into movies or tv shows, both famously, the detective in "kiss the girls." take a look. >> these women are more than just attractive. they are all extraordinary in some way. smart, talented. >> something tells me he ain't choosing them for their c conge congeniality. >> i think our guy is different. >> how so? >> i think killing is not his ulterior motive. this guy is a collector. i bet these women are alive.

>> that morgan freeman. >> i think that's good. but you are tough on hollywood. you say that most of the adaptations they have done were not very good. you tell a story in which when you first brought alex cross to hollywood, the first note was, make him what? >> make him a white guy. i walked away. they offered -- in those days i didn't have a lot of money. they offered seven figures. i don't want to do that. he is in the room with serial killers and you didn't know it. how smart is alex cross? >> well, good drama. >> yeah. >> you don't think they have made good movies and tv shows? >> i think morgan freeman is great. you get morgan freeman. you count your lucky stars. i think those movies are okay. i love movies. you just want to walk in there

and go, my god. >> one of your passions is literacy, kids reading early. why is that so important to you? how many millions of dollars have and your wife sue contributes to literacy programs? >> she doesn't give any. she's tight. no. sue is wonderful. >> my lord. are you always like this? did i just get you on -- >> this is it. i'm always like this. my mother was a teacher. that's a piece of it. honestly -- one of the things -- in this country, i think 40% read at grade level. that's a disaster. this isn't through me, but the university of florida has been working on a program. they can get it up to 80%. we have the vaccine. we just can't get the states to use it. that's a tragedy. that means every year we don't

use the vaccine, thousands of kids basically will get lost. they will eventually -- if you can't read -- if you are not a competent reader, you can't get through high school, you can't -- if college is appropriate, you can't go to college. that's a big thing for me. if we can do stuff -- literally save lives. this is huge. >> james patterson tries to write at least 350 days a year. he has no intention of slowing down. you can catch the entire conversations with him as well as mayor adams and meghan trainor any time you want on hbo max. thank you for watching and please join us here on cnn every sunday night to find out who is talking next. >> announcer: the following is a cnn special report