(compelling music) - Coming up next on this special literary edition of "Arizona Horizon."

Mental health advocate and former Congressman Patrick Kennedy talks about his new book regarding courage and mental health.

Also tonight, we'll hear from the co-author of a book that chronicles the life of the author's father, a Holocaust survivor.

And a local news reporter releases an award-winning mystery novel of stories and more next on this special edition of "Arizona Horizon."

- [Announcer] This hour of local news is made possible by contributions from the friends of PBS.

Members of your PBS station.

Thank you.

(uplifting music) - Good evening and welcome to this special literary edition of "Arizona Horizon."

I'm Ted Simons.

Former Congressman Patrick Kennedy, son of the late Senator Ted Kennedy and nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, is a vocal advocate for mental health and addiction concerns.

His new book is titled "Profiles in Mental Health Courage."

Patrick Kennedy recently joined us to talk about the book.

This is a follow up now on "A Common Struggle," which was your memoir, correct?

- [Patrick] That's right.

- But this is a little bit different, and we talked about your dunkle there, profiles and courage.

This is "Profiles in Mental Health Courage."

- [Patrick] Correct.

Correct.

- [Ted] Talk to us about it.

- Well there's great effort being made to de-stigmatize these illnesses, and we have made some progress.

You see more and more people willing to say that they have a diagnosis or say, "Oh, I've suffered that, too," or, "I am in recovery," but they don't say really what that means.

So I decided in this book to find 12 people, each from different backgrounds, different walks of life, and each with a different diagnosis.

And I get them to tell me the story, a deep dive into what it's like to live with these illnesses.

How do they deal with relationships in their family, with work?

And these are the things that really, most Americans don't really know about unless you're one of those who has these illnesses.

And if you are, you often don't think that you're making it because it looks as though everyone else is doing better.

But the point in this is that these are messy illnesses, they're complex, but we have to have a better understanding of them if we're gonna be able to finally tackle these in a comprehensive way.

- How did you find these people?

- So, I know a lot of people in the mental health world.

I have the honor of writing the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, and that calls for an end to discrimination in insurance coverage for those who are seeking care for mental illness and addiction.

It basically says you've gotta treat the brain like any other organ in the body, and insurance can't impose any higher treatment thresholds, or premium costs, or deductibles, or all of that any more so than they would cancer or diabetes.

So in the course of all those years doing that, I've gotten to know a lot of people, and what I asked them to do is, "Could you forward a letter to whatever patients you had that you think are interesting, and we'll see if they're interested in participating."

And I got a very diverse group of people.

- And you mentioned if they're interested in participating.

Was it tough asking these folks these kinds of questions?

- Well, I said to them that they could always pull out of the book at the 11th hour, especially after they've read the chapter, do they think that it accurately portrays their story or not?

And a lot of people took me up on it.

(Ted laughing) But I'm happy that we have 12 really good stories, and those people told it all.

And in telling it all, they really helped distinguish themselves from their illness because, you see, most of us conflate who we are to our illness.

And by really going into the details of living with these illnesses, you really got to see the person and then you got to see their illness as two separate things.

- Yeah, it's interesting 'cause there are some success stories, correct?

And there are other stories where the success is still a little bit there.

- Well, these are chronic illnesses, which means you have progress, and then you often relapse, and you make some progress.

And it's challenging because first, stigma doesn't...

It means most people don't want to ask for help, too.

If they do ask for help, their insurance plan probably doesn't cover it.

Three, if they do get coverage and they get treatment, there's nothing to say that that treatment is evidence-based treatment, believe it or not.

A majority of our treatment in this country, it does not use, if you can believe it, evidence-based therapies, which means you're not getting the cognitive behavioral therapy to a person with an eating disorder, a type of addiction to a mental illness.

There are different types of cognitive behavioral therapy and they ought to be deployed based upon what your particular diagnosis is.

- Is it still kind of an elephant gun approach?

- Yeah, we're a one-size-fits-all, and what we need to do is get... Like cancer, you have radiation, chemo, surgery, immunotherapy, you've got a lot going on.

But in mental health and addiction, we really don't know, what does it entail?

Well, obviously, there's some talk therapy, there's some medication, and there's a lot that has to do with socialization: supportive employment, supportive housing, sober housing, clubhouse models.

By the way, none of that is paid for because we pay for it as a medical illness, but we know this is much more than a medical illness.

It's a spiritual malady, a psychological.

So you have to get all to tackle together in order to get people the best chance of optimal recovery.

- And you're also in the book, I believe have been in the book, it's only been out for four days, so I haven't had a chance to look at it.

But from what I understand, you're talking to caregivers and families as well?

- We've got a number of couples.

One of the spouses has the mental illness, and it's a terrific example of what it's like to live with someone who has these illnesses.

And we also feature my cousin Mark, who lost his 19-year-old son to suicide.

And it was the first time in the last six years he's talked about his son's death.

And I talked to not only him, but I talked to Harry, who took his life.

I talked to his brother, Belton.

I talked to Harry's roommate in college.

The thing I got from it is that Mark, the father, knew things that the brother to Harry didn't know.

The brother to Harry knew things that the father didn't know.

The roommate in college knew things that neither one of them knew.

And when you started to put it all together, you saw fuller picture of what Harry was going through.

I think that characterizes a lot of these illnesses.

I think we have just a very narrow perspective.

If we were more open about talking about these illnesses, you wouldn't have people so quiet and so unwilling to intrude, quote, unquote, intrude on people's personal space.

But their lives could be at risk.

So we have to get more comfortable talking about these issues.

- And and you were obviously comfortable about this.

So your memoir "A Common Struggle," as I mentioned a follow up here, you talked about your struggles- - [Patrick] That's right.

- And your concerns with these issues.

And so did you see yourself in some of the folks you were talking to?

- Well, I'm blessed.

I'm in 12-step recovery.

For me, it means I have not had to drink, or drug, or use any mood or mind-altering substance since February 22nd, 2011.

And I say that because a lot of my colleagues in peer recovery feel like it's a violation of the 11th tradition in a certain 12-step.

But if you don't say the type of 12-step recovery you're in, it's fine, just say you're in 12-step recovery.

And we have nearly 30 million Americans in long-term recovery.

But most Americans don't see success in recovery.

So they're constantly bombarded with all the negative stories.

And I think it's important that you could still maintain your anonymity, but also be an active citizen, which is what I think we need to do more of.

- And so as far as this book is concerned, what do you want folks to take from it?

- I want them to not feel as alone because we're always comparing ourselves to the outside.

But so many people need to know these are not easy illnesses, but not to feel put down by that.

To know that you gotta keep up, and struggle, and keep moving forward.

As we say in recovery, we have to trudge the road of happy destiny, which means you gotta keep working at it.

And I think more people will survive this terrible epidemic of suicide and overdose if we talk earlier 'cause we don't treat these illnesses till they're a Stage 4 illness.

If it were cancer, we screen Stage 1.

If it's a mental illness or addiction, we wait till you're at death's door before we intervene.

We have to change that paradigm and go upstream, and treat this like we would cancer or any other physical illness because prevention is the best form of intervention.

- Well, you're certainly doing your part.

Patrick Kennedy, again, "Profiles in Mental Health Courage."

Congratulations on this book.

And of course the predecessor there, the memoir.

You're doing great work, it must be very rewarding.

Thank you so much.

- I love what I do.

Thank you, Ted, for having me on.

- You bet.

A new book tells the true story of Samuel Soldinger, a holocaust survivor who endured seven Nazi concentration camps, knew and worked with Oskar Schindler, and wound up making his way to The Valley where he worked as a skilled diamond cutter, raised a family, and lived his life with positivity and purpose.

The book is titled "Death & Diamonds," and was co-authored by Samuel's daughter, Laura.

She joined us on "Arizona Horizon" to tell us more about the book and her father's legacy.

And congratulations on the book.

- Thank you so much, thank you for having me.

- You bet.

Now, this was basically...

These are his words in the books.

Talk how that process worked.

- Yeah, so for many, many years, my dad worked to have his memoir put together.

And unfortunately, he passed away prior to it being published.

So we basically, my co-author and I, basically pieced his words together through many of his speeches.

And he did a lot of public speaking on the Holocaust.

So we pieced everything together and were able to put the memoir together.

- And again, seven Nazi concentration camps.

I mean, when you were young, when you were growing up, did he protect you from some of this or did he tell...

When did you realize, "Dad's really special," here?

- He started speaking to me about it probably when I was about 10 or 11.

I wanted to know when I was younger, but of course, he never shared those stories with me because I was too young.

But as I grew older, he did share stories with me, and he always felt it was very important for me to understand what he had gone through and learn about the Holocaust.

- Yeah, yeah, and some of the stories in the book, they're difficult to read and it's difficult to go through.

- Absolutely.

- But I wanna show some photos from the book as well.

The first is Oskar Schindler.

Everyone knows "Schindler's List."

He knew and worked with Oskar Schindler?

- He did, he did.

And he considered Oskar Schindler one of his saviors.

He was very fortunate that he ended up working in Oskar Schindler's factory because Oskar Schindler became somewhat of a protector against the Schindler Jews.

And he just felt very fortunate to have worked in his factory and really felt that that was a big reason why he survived.

- What did he think of "Schindler's List"?

- He loved it.

He thought it really, really depicted the true story of what happened.

And of course it was a Hollywood movie, so there were some parts that- - [Ted] Sure.

- That weren't realistic.

But, for the most part, he really thought, and it so much depicted his life because he had grown up in Krakow, and the film, for the most part, was exactly what he had gone through.

- We have another photograph of what is labeled as the Stairs of Death in a concentration camp, and I believe this is the concentration camp that your father was liberated from, correct?

- Yes, that's correct.

This is from the Mauthausen concentration camp.

And this was a rock quarry that they would have the prisoners carry large rock stones up just for labor purposes.

They weren't being used for anything other than to have the prisoners- - [Ted] Do something, I guess, yeah.

- Do something.

Yeah.

And it was very few people ended up surviving and enduring many days in the quarry.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, and that, again, that was the camp that was his last concentration camp.

- [Laura] That's correct.

- Yeah.

- [Laura] And- - Go ahead.

- I was gonna say it was the... And it was also the last concentration camp to be liberated.

- Interesting, interesting.

A next photo, this is of your father basically doing something that got him here to Arizona, and basically, I mean, he was a... Look, he knows what he's doing over there.

(Laura laughing) Diamond cutter, huh?

- Yes, he was.

He was a diamond cutter.

So after he was liberated, he began learning the diamond trade and eventually made his way to America.

In New York, he was a diamond cutter and cutting diamonds.

And fortunately, in 1962, Barry Goldwater founded a deal with Harry Winston and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and they ended up opening a diamond factory to give the Native Americans in Arizona a trade.

- [Ted] Yes.

- And my father was fortunate enough to be hired to manage the diamond factory for Harry Winston.

- Wow, that's fantastic.

The last photograph that we wanna show is of you and your dad, and this is obviously very special to you.

And when you did this project, I mean, obviously this is family, and you heard and you learned as you...

But as you did, did you learn more?

Did you look at things differently?

How did you respond to this book?

- Yeah, thank you for asking that.

I absolutely learned so much more.

I grew up with it, so I felt like I knew everything and I knew every story.

But once you really delve into his story and the details, and also, too, just the historic significance of everything and understanding the full circle of what went on, so yeah, I absolutely learned so much.

- Yeah, and it's important to share that story still, is it not?

- Absolutely, absolutely.

And that's one of our goals is to truly educate Arizonans, educate everyone, but educate the children, and just so it's never forgotten.

- Yeah, yeah, and that's the title, "Death & Diamonds."

Again, congratulations on the book.

One last thing, I feel almost weird bringing this up, but I love table tennis.

- [Laura] Oh, that's fun.

- I played table tennis a lot as a young person.

He was pretty good.

- He was.

He was a table tennis champion.

He started playing in Europe, and I have tons of trophies of his.

And yeah, we always had table tennis tables as a child, and yeah, it's a great sport.

- Yeah, yeah.

Well, congrats...

I just, I had to bring that up because I'm just such a fan to hear that, that was like... Congratulations on the book.

Great job, and- - Thank you so much.

- Thanks for telling his story.

Thanks for sharing that story, too.

- Thank you so much for having me.

- You bet.

(pensive music) (pensive music continues) A local broadcast news reporter is out with an award-winning mystery novel set right here in The Valley.

The book is titled "Off the Air," and the author, Christina Estes, takes readers through a bonafide whodunit amid a number of local landmarks that give the mystery novel a definite sense of place.

Christina Estes joined us on "Arizona Horizon" to talk about her debut novel.

You've been a guest host here, this is like home to you.

- Now I'm an author here.

- Now you're an author.

Was there always a mystery writer on your shoulder as you were going through life?

- I think.

I think so, because when I was really little, I always loved to read mysteries.

"Trixie Belden" and Nancy Drew.

And when you're little, there's always that annoying adult that says, "What do you wanna be when you grow up?"

- [Ted] Right.

- And I would say, "Author," but I never knew any authors and I never knew anybody who pursued that as a career.

But I certainly saw reporters on TV, and heard them on the radio, and saw them in the newspapers and magazines, and I think that's what steered me toward journalism.

- And again, the novel TV news reporter, it's a case of write what you know.

Is that what's going on here?

- Absolutely.

And it's set in Phoenix, though.

- Yes.

Controversial talk radio show host dies, okay?

And there's all sorts of competition for your protagonist here, who is, by the way, a news reporter, a TV news reporter, to get the story.

I mean, there had to have been a whole lot of things you could bank on in the past.

- Absolutely.

And I love that I have all of those experiences.

What I found in writing is that I had these great experiences spending more than 20 years here in Phoenix reporting, but I was also still a reporter.

And so the challenge was to make it fiction and not make it a news report.

- Well, that's very...

I know a lot of people in journalism and non-fiction find it very difficult to write fiction.

Did you find it difficult to write something that really didn't happen?

- I did, but what I think I found more difficult was the actual novel itself, because I was really naive going into it thinking, "I'm a reporter, I write every day.

How hard can it be?"

Yeah, it's a different beast to write 300 plus pages versus 400 words on a website or 30 seconds in a newscast.

- And it takes a lot of time.

I mean, you could be out doing things, going places, but you gotta sit down beside that computer, or typewriter in the old days.

(Christina laughing) You gotta work, you gotta write.

Nothing gets done if you don't get it done.

- Can you please explain that to my dog?

(Ted laughing) He feels very neglected sometimes.

- [Ted] Is journalism a character in this book?

- I think so because it's so interesting.

So the early feedback I've received has been just, oh, my gosh, across the gamut.

So people who have experienced local news say, "Oh, my gosh, this is so spot on.

This is awesome.

It's like the most accurate representation that we have seen yet."

And other people who have no clue what goes on behind the scenes, some of them are like, "Wow, I don't want anything to do with that.

I would never want that job."

And I'm thinking, "Oh, but I love my job."

- Well, yeah, and I think the protagonist loves her job.

She's got a lot going on there.

A lot of things with neighbors and all sorts of things.

Phoenix, The Valley, Arizona.

Characters in the book.

- Oh, absolutely.

Yeah.

When I moved more than 20 years ago, I came here to work for the ABC affiliate here in Phoenix, and I signed a three-year deal, and I was like, "I'm getting out of here.

The minute that three years is up, I am gone."

I made the mistake of moving in the summer from the Midwest where it was green, and then here it was really hot, and brown, and dry.

But here I am.

Phoenix grows on you.

- [Ted] Yes.

- And the neighborhoods grow on you, and the beauty grows on you, and certainly the weather and the friendships.

- And then when you're writing the book, I wanna get the process here, and it's whodunit.

I mean, this is not some grand Thomas Hardy thing or something like that, Jane Austen.

I mean, this is a whodunit.

How hard is it when you are writing to keep that under wraps?

- See, now I wanna share things with you, but in my mind, I'm thinking, "Don't go down that avenue because it's gonna sort of..." The ending is not what I thought it would be.

- So I was gonna ask you that.

Did the characters change?

Did the ending change?

- The ending did change, which also affected some other things in the book.

And if I talk anymore, I know I'm gonna end up saying something, but- - [Ted] All right.

- But I hope people who read it, talk about it after reading it, and maybe we can too, because there was a reason that I chose that ending.

- Yeah, were you happy?

But there's a reason we chose it.

But that wasn't your original ending.

- Absolutely not.

It is not an ending that anybody would advise you to go down, so, yeah.

- Were you happy with the ending, or is there still work to be done?

Is this the first in the series?

- Oh, it is, Ted.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- [Ted] Congratulations.

- Thank you.

And absolutely, here's what I learned in the process.

Several things, but one thing is I will never be 100% satisfied, ever, with anything I write.

It just won't happen.

- And I was gonna ask you, I mean, first of all, how does it feel to hold a book in your hands that you wrote?

It's your book.

How did it feel the first time you held that book?

- It was amazing, for sure.

I was just like, "It's so smooth."

It was like a baby, like a baby's skin, right?

So smooth.

And then I heard the audio version just a couple of weeks ago, and that made me burst into tears.

- [Ted] Wow.

- Because I had heard the words in my head for years, only my voice saying it.

And to hear this professional, beautiful narrator made me cry.

- Well, how emotional can that be?

It's holy.

But it would also, I would think...

I mean, do you go to bookstores and just kind of walk down the aisle and look for the ease?

- Oh, I'm going to.

It just published yesterday, so I haven't had the opportunity yet- - [Ted] So it's okay.

- But today, somebody posted on social media, they showed a photo at a library in Winnetka, Illinois, my first library post.

- [Ted] Oh, my goodness.

- And that also made me cry, Ted.

- Wow, but that's the thing.

You are what you weren't for so many years and were striving to be.

You're there now.

- Oh.

My younger "Trixie Belden" loving self is like melting inside, thank you.

- Well, but okay.

We'll see how you like this next question.

It's a cliche, it takes a lifetime to write the first novel.

You don't have that kind of time for the second novel.

You ready for it?

- Oh, I'm working on it right now, yes.

And my editor won't see this, but it's due in May.

(table thudding) So, yes.

(Christina laughing) - But again, it's... Well, but again, it would be easier, I would think, because you went through some pretty rough spots early on.

You went through whatever questions you might have had and character development issues.

I mean, you're a pro now.

You're an established author.

- Well, I don't know that I would go that far.

That's very nice.

First off, thank you.

I read Shonda Rhimes' book, "Year of Yes."

You're supposed to say, "Thank you," smile, and shut up.

So thank you, smile- - [Ted] Well, we look for a little more than that.

- No, but it's always a learning process.

So you're right, though.

The second one, I'm more excited about it because I do feel familiar with the characters.

- Now, having read your book, I was looking for a handsome and charming PBS television host.

I didn't see it, I didn't see it in there.

- No, but- - Will that be in the sequel?

- Ted, if you pay close attention to the last chapter, there's a character named Ted Woods and it's a combination of you and Mike Woods, who was a meteorologist head channel 15 many years ago.

I combined your names.

- I missed that, I missed that part.

I saw the Ted but I missed that part.

But I mean, are people coming up and going, "Was that me?

Was that me?"

- Absolutely.

And in some cases, the characters aren't them, but I put names in of people that mean something to me.

And it doesn't necessarily mean that's their character, but... - Last question.

Hollywood television.

I don't even know what goes first anymore, television or Hollywood, because- - [Christina] Streaming, everything's digital, right?

- Yeah.

Any interest they getting any nibbles out there?

- I have no idea at this stage, Ted.

Just published yesterday.

- But I mean, to have...

The pre-publishing, nothing's been chopped around or anything, or... - I don't know.

Ted, my mind is all about the book.

So honestly, I know there were some authors that are like that's their like ultimate goal.

My ultimate goal right now is to like celebrate this book, get my second one in on deadline, and start working on some more.

So I really, I'm focused so much on...

I just want this Phoenix space series to work.

- Well, it's obvious.

Phoenix is so much a part of this.

The Valley is a local folks history lore, the... Congratulations.

- [Christina] Thank you so much.

- We're all proud of you.

- Thank you.

I really do feel...

I feel the love, so thank you so much, I appreciate it.

- Well, and thanks for sharing here and best of luck out there.

- Thank you, Ted.

- And that is it for now.

I'm Ted Simons.

Thank you so much for joining us on this special edition of "Arizona Horizon."

You have a great evening.

(uplifting music)