Daniel James Brown, Author of “The Boys in the Boat”

Today, my guest is Daniel James Brown, author of the New York Times best selling book The Boys in the Boat, a story about 9 working class boys who became the 1936 U.S. Men’s Olympic gold medal winning rowing team.

With a team composed of the sons of blue collar workers and led by Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, the University of Washington’s eight-oar crew team was never expected to defeat the elite teams of the East Coast and Great Britain, yet they did, going on to shock the world by defeating the German team rowing for Adolf Hitler.

The story is the subject of the documentary "The Boys of '36" by PBS's The American Experience and the MGM Award-Winning movie Boys in the Boat directed by George Clooney.