Latest / Arroe Collins Like It's Live / Being Right Requires Crash And Rebuild The Wright Brothers From Brad Meltzer
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: I don't know if you've done it yet, but please
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- 0:31Speaker 1: your exploration. Hello and good morning, party people.
- 0:36Speaker 2: Hey, brother. How you doing?
- 0:37Speaker 1: Doing very well. This is kismet to have you being
- 0:41Speaker 1: where you're at and him talking about where you're at. So,
- 0:44Speaker 1: I mean, come on now. Brad, he doesn't know that
- 0:48Speaker 1: you and I talk about a billion times a year.
- 0:51Speaker 2: We know each other for like decades at this point.
- 0:55Speaker 1: Hey, before we even get started, I want listeners to
- 0:57Speaker 1: know they need to go to your website and get
- 0:59Speaker 1: on board when it comes to your newsletter, because I
- 1:01Speaker 1: find out things months in advance and I'm always knocking
- 1:05Speaker 1: on your door and you're like, oh, dude, it's coming.
- 1:06Speaker 1: It's coming. Just hold off. I mean, that's what I
- 1:09Speaker 1: love about what you do with your social media. You
- 1:12Speaker 1: are so up to date and so active and engaging
- 1:16Speaker 1: that if they don't get that letter, they're missing out
- 1:18Speaker 1: on a big part of this journey.
- 1:21Speaker 2: No, listen, I appreciate it. We are very lucky to
- 1:25Speaker 2: have friends like you who look out for us. And it's,
- 1:28Speaker 2: you know, the fact that you still read it and
- 1:30Speaker 2: you're on it means the world to me.
- 1:32Speaker 1: Well, you know what, dude? This is the kind of
- 1:34Speaker 1: book I wanted when I was a kid in school.
- 1:37Speaker 1: In fact, I was going to ask you about that.
- 1:39Speaker 1: One of the things that Mrs. Knight and Mrs. Restad
- 1:41Speaker 1: used to have, they used to have these gigantic boxes
- 1:43Speaker 1: of books that were all in a collection. This being
- 1:46Speaker 1: your 40th book, are you going to do that where
- 1:48Speaker 1: every one of them are going to be in one
- 1:50Speaker 1: big box?
- 1:53Speaker 2: I wish we had one big box. You can buy
- 1:56Speaker 2: a full set. Um, and they all come, but they're
- 2:00Speaker 2: not in a box, but I know what you're talking about.
- 2:02Speaker 2: I want that. My goal is to do a hundred
- 2:05Speaker 2: books and we get to a hundred. I want a
- 2:07Speaker 2: hundred giant box. Maybe we'll do it for 50. Maybe
- 2:10Speaker 2: for 50, we should do like a giant box for 50.
- 2:13Speaker 1: I'd be all over that because, because that's the power
- 2:15Speaker 1: of selection or the power of choice. And I'm all
- 2:18Speaker 1: over the power of choice, especially for young readers, because
- 2:20Speaker 1: if they learn the power of choice, then they, they,
- 2:23Speaker 1: they too can become writers or storytellers and they can
- 2:26Speaker 1: share that journey forward.
- 2:29Speaker 2: I agree. I think that for me, this has never
- 2:33Speaker 2: been me writing books. You know me long enough to
- 2:36Speaker 2: know it's been a mission to give kids better heroes
- 2:39Speaker 2: to look up to. And right now we're in this
- 2:42Speaker 2: age of anger. Right now we're in this age of
- 2:46Speaker 2: fighting with each other and screaming.
- 2:48Speaker 1: At each other.
- 2:49Speaker 2: This age of division. And I refuse to accept. inspiration.
- 2:56Speaker 2: And for the 40th book in the series, we asked,
- 2:58Speaker 2: we let America vote. We said, pick who you want.
- 3:00Speaker 2: And instead of picking someone famous, they picked the Wright brothers,
- 3:03Speaker 2: two brothers from the middle of the country who use
- 3:06Speaker 2: teamwork and ingenuity and perseverance. These values endure, even if
- 3:11Speaker 2: our leaders are lacking them. So believe it or not,
- 3:14Speaker 2: we still have shared values in this country and it's
- 3:16Speaker 2: time to use our own ingenuity. And our own sense
- 3:19Speaker 2: of connection to show kids a better world. That's what
- 3:22Speaker 2: the mission for these books has always been.
- 3:24Speaker 1: Oh, my God. When you when I found out you
- 3:25Speaker 1: were doing the Wright brothers, of course, that hit me
- 3:27Speaker 1: hard because I'm right here in Carolina and I have
- 3:29Speaker 1: been at Kitty Hawk. Did you go there? And if
- 3:32Speaker 1: you did, there were every time I've been there, there's
- 3:35Speaker 1: always been deer out there at the front gate. And
- 3:37Speaker 1: I'm going, are they planting those deer or do the
- 3:39Speaker 1: deer want flight as well?
- 3:43Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, everyone wants to fly. Who doesn't want
- 3:46Speaker 2: to fly brother?
- 3:50Speaker 1: But, but it's such a place. And you know, and
- 3:52Speaker 1: the thing about it is though, is that you do
- 3:54Speaker 1: this in the book where I feel like I am
- 3:57Speaker 1: right there because I've been there. I know that what,
- 3:59Speaker 1: what that feeling's like. So when I open those pages,
- 4:02Speaker 1: I'm going, Oh my God, it's like, he's right there.
- 4:05Speaker 1: And he did all the sketching and the illustrating right there.
- 4:10Speaker 2: Yeah, well, that's what, you know, Chris, our artist, has
- 4:12Speaker 2: this great art style that's like Charlie Brown meets Calvin
- 4:15Speaker 2: and Hobbes. And that's why kids love the books. But
- 4:19Speaker 2: the parents love the books because, you know, he goes
- 4:22Speaker 2: and he looks and he sees and he has details
- 4:24Speaker 2: nobody else has. It is like you're right there. And,
- 4:27Speaker 2: you know, this book has my favorite story. I've talked
- 4:31Speaker 2: to you a lot, but it's my favorite story of
- 4:32Speaker 2: every hero we've ever done is this one story about
- 4:35Speaker 2: the Wright brothers. that every time the Wright brothers would
- 4:38Speaker 2: go out to fly their plane, they would bring enough
- 4:41Speaker 2: extra materials for multiple crashes. Which means every time they
- 4:45Speaker 2: went out, they knew they would fail. And they would
- 4:47Speaker 2: crash and rebuild and crash and rebuild, and that's why
- 4:51Speaker 2: they took off. And I love that story, man. I
- 4:55Speaker 2: wanted my kids to hear that story. I wanted my
- 4:56Speaker 2: son to hear the story, my daughter to hear the story.
- 4:58Speaker 2: I want everyone to know you dream big, you work hard,
- 5:00Speaker 2: you have a good side order of stubbornness. You can
- 5:03Speaker 2: do anything in this world. And I said, that's the
- 5:05Speaker 2: book I want to write. Not a book of rules,
- 5:07Speaker 2: but a book of heroes. And these hero books have
- 5:11Speaker 2: all kind of blown up out of that belief that
- 5:14Speaker 2: I could change the world through writing these stories.
- 5:16Speaker 1: See, and that's the way a lot of young adults are.
- 5:18Speaker 1: They'll come up to me and they go, oh, I
- 5:19Speaker 1: tried and I quit. Why'd you quit? Well, it didn't
- 5:21Speaker 1: go the way I wanted to. Do it again. Do
- 5:23Speaker 1: it again. Get back up again. And they think that
- 5:26Speaker 1: I'm the weird old man. I'm going, I'm not the
- 5:28Speaker 1: weird old man. I'm somebody who believes in your chance taking.
- 5:32Speaker 1: And if you if you stop now, someone else is
- 5:34Speaker 1: going to do it. You're going to go. I did that. No,
- 5:36Speaker 1: you didn't. You don't have the proof. You quit.
- 5:39Speaker 2: Well, and that's the thing is I always say, you know,
- 5:41Speaker 2: it's really hard to change the minds of adults. But
- 5:45Speaker 2: for over a decade now, I've been working to arm
- 5:49Speaker 2: the next generation of kids with lessons of kindness and
- 5:52Speaker 2: compassion and being a good person. And brother, I'll take
- 5:56Speaker 2: that fight any day. That's what the I Am books
- 5:58Speaker 2: are about. That's what I Am Rosa Parks is about.
- 6:01Speaker 2: I Am Muhammad Ali is about. I Am Dolly Parton
- 6:04Speaker 2: is about. We are going to give your kids the
- 6:07Speaker 2: best lessons. And like you said, your kids are going
- 6:09Speaker 2: to pick heroes whether you like it or not. You
- 6:12Speaker 2: might as well have some say in it.
- 6:13Speaker 1: So now I got to be honest with you. Reading
- 6:15Speaker 1: the story with the Wright brothers right away, I was
- 6:18Speaker 1: taken to the to the story of Tom Schultz of
- 6:20Speaker 1: the group Boston, that it was only him in that studio.
- 6:23Speaker 1: So when you talk about how these people brought things together,
- 6:26Speaker 1: I am and I built upon that. and I change
- 6:29Speaker 1: people's lives. Is music going to be a part of
- 6:32Speaker 1: that in the way of like a Tom Scholz of Boston,
- 6:35Speaker 1: in the way that there were no electronics built. He
- 6:37Speaker 1: built them and then created the band.
- 6:41Speaker 2: Yeah, and I love those stories. I told my publisher
- 6:44Speaker 2: at the time when we started the series that they
- 6:46Speaker 2: were like, oh, cute, you want to do two books.
- 6:48Speaker 2: I'm Amelia Earhart and I'm Abraham Lincoln. I'm like, no, no, no, no.
- 6:51Speaker 2: I want to do 100 books. So yeah, I'd love
- 6:53Speaker 2: to do that. I want to do Grandmaster Flash and
- 6:57Speaker 2: how he figured out– literally using bicycle– and the things
- 7:03Speaker 2: on bicycles, the spokes on them to figure out how
- 7:06Speaker 2: a turntable goes to do a mixing board. Like that's
- 7:09Speaker 2: a trial and error in science he was doing in Brooklyn,
- 7:12Speaker 2: New York back in the 70s. Like I want to
- 7:14Speaker 2: do everyone. We did We Are The Beatles, but yeah,
- 7:17Speaker 2: I want to do all, we did I'm Dolly Parton.
- 7:18Speaker 2: Like I love how music changes the world too. So
- 7:22Speaker 2: I want to do David Bowie. I want to do Prince.
- 7:24Speaker 2: There's so many amazing people I want to do.
- 7:26Speaker 1: And one of the things that you'll always do with
- 7:28Speaker 1: your books, and this is what I encourage adults, pick
- 7:31Speaker 1: up the book and be a kid again and also
- 7:33Speaker 1: be your adult self. Because I didn't know that the
- 7:36Speaker 1: Wright brothers were inspired by a helicopter. It was a toy.
- 7:39Speaker 1: And it's like, I want that toy.
- 7:41Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, let's talk about that a moment. The
- 7:45Speaker 2: Wright brothers are 11 years old and seven years old.
- 7:49Speaker 2: They're kids. And their dad comes home with a present.
- 7:52Speaker 2: He says, boys, look what I got. And out of
- 7:54Speaker 2: his hand, he throws this thing in the air. And
- 7:56Speaker 2: it's what they call a helicopter. It really was a
- 7:58Speaker 2: propeller on a pencil with, like, a rubber band around it.
- 8:02Speaker 2: And most kids would, like, you know, today throw that
- 8:04Speaker 2: away and be like, bad toy, dad. But back then,
- 8:06Speaker 2: that was like a Nintendo. And so, but they become
- 8:09Speaker 2: obsessed with it. They start seeing how long will it
- 8:12Speaker 2: stay in the air? How high will it actually fly?
- 8:15Speaker 2: They become obsessed with flight. But the second part of
- 8:18Speaker 2: that story that I love is that what eventually happens
- 8:23Speaker 2: is their mother is the reason they start building. Their
- 8:27Speaker 2: mom used to build their sleds, used to build stuff
- 8:29Speaker 2: for them because her dad was a builder and he
- 8:33Speaker 2: used to build things. And they come home one day
- 8:36Speaker 2: and one of the boys has taken apart someone's sewing
- 8:39Speaker 2: machine to pieces, like to the nuts and bolts. My mother,
- 8:43Speaker 2: may she rest in peace. You know what she would
- 8:45Speaker 2: do to me if I took apart the sewing machine?
- 8:49Speaker 2: But the Wright brothers' parents look at their kids and
- 8:52Speaker 2: they're that that's why we get the right brothers. And
- 9:01Speaker 2: that's a lesson for parents. It's a lesson for kids.
- 9:03Speaker 2: It's like, you got to love your kids for who
- 9:05Speaker 2: they are and whatever they love it, you know, just
- 9:08Speaker 2: to say thanks and say, that's amazing and encourage them.
- 9:11Speaker 2: And that's how you'll get the best version of them.
- 9:13Speaker 1: See, that's why I always say, go outside little ones
- 9:16Speaker 1: and go out there and see the bugs. Don't kill
- 9:18Speaker 1: the bugs. Just go out there and look at the
- 9:19Speaker 1: ants and don't kill the spider, but look at the web,
- 9:22Speaker 1: look at what they're doing. And you can do the
- 9:24Speaker 1: same thing if you just give it effort.
- 9:28Speaker 2: That's exactly right. That's exactly right.
- 9:30Speaker 1: I love sharing conversations with this guy. We're going to
- 9:32Speaker 1: be right back with Brad Meltzer. The focus is on
- 9:36Speaker 1: the Wright brothers. We are back with Brad Meltzer. The
- 9:40Speaker 1: smartest people that we learn from, it comes from mistakes.
- 9:45Speaker 1: That's what I'm learning from a lot of your books
- 9:46Speaker 1: is that they make a mistake. I don't even want
- 9:48Speaker 1: to call it a mistake. They tripped, they stumbled, they fumbled,
- 9:51Speaker 1: they did something that wasn't what we see today as
- 9:54Speaker 1: being great, but yet they didn't stop. And we learn
- 9:57Speaker 1: from that. How did you tap into that connection? and
- 10:00Speaker 1: even recognize it as being such?
- 10:04Speaker 2: You know, for me, it actually is my own career.
- 10:08Speaker 2: And I know it because I lived it. I got
- 10:11Speaker 2: on my first book, 24 rejection letters. There were only
- 10:14Speaker 2: 20 publishers. I got 24 rejection letters, which means some
- 10:18Speaker 2: people were writing me twice to make sure I got
- 10:20Speaker 2: the point. But I said, if they don't like that book,
- 10:22Speaker 2: I'm going to write another. And if they don't like
- 10:24Speaker 2: that book, I'm going to write another. And, you know,
- 10:26Speaker 2: Chris and I, when we started this book series, we
- 10:28Speaker 2: didn't know Like how to figure out how to tell
- 10:35Speaker 2: someone's story in the best way. You know, we had
- 10:37Speaker 2: to learn. We had to bring experts in. We had to,
- 10:38Speaker 2: you know, make sure we got it right. And I
- 10:41Speaker 2: felt like when I got to this, I was like, yeah,
- 10:43Speaker 2: we're like, obviously we didn't invent the airplane, but we're like. that's,
- 10:55Speaker 2: you know, one of the great lessons built into the
- 10:57Speaker 2: Wright brothers is exactly that. It's like, there's a line
- 11:00Speaker 2: in there. It just haunts me. I, and I wrote it,
- 11:01Speaker 2: but I love it. And it says, you know, it's
- 11:04Speaker 2: easy in the world to find doubters, but the world
- 11:07Speaker 2: is always changed by dreamers. And that's my favorite line.
- 11:12Speaker 2: And we are the Wright brothers. So if you have
- 11:14Speaker 2: a kid in your life, a niece, a nephew, a grandkid,
- 11:16Speaker 2: you know, any kid in your life that needs, instead
- 11:19Speaker 2: of for the holidays this year or their birthday this
- 11:21Speaker 2: year and buying some plastic boy garbage, you know, and
- 11:31Speaker 2: you'll have a gift that will pay you back forever.
- 11:33Speaker 1: Now, because I'm here in Carolina and we are so
- 11:35Speaker 1: spoiled to have the Wright Brothers history here, are you
- 11:38Speaker 1: going to be selling this book there? Because I'm that
- 11:40Speaker 1: kind of guy. If I find out where a book is,
- 11:43Speaker 1: I'm going to go buy it there because the receipt
- 11:45Speaker 1: goes really cool with the book and then you have
- 11:47Speaker 1: something for the future to hold on to, to share
- 11:49Speaker 1: with great-grandchildren.
- 11:52Speaker 2: I love that. You know, the funny thing is that
- 11:54Speaker 2: we are, I wish we were coming to Carolina on
- 11:56Speaker 2: this tour. Um, it's only a five day tour, but
- 11:59Speaker 2: I love the fact that so many, you know, we
- 12:02Speaker 2: once did a, uh, another store, quick store on the
- 12:05Speaker 2: Wright brothers and all these people from Carolina, like we
- 12:08Speaker 2: better be in there. And all the people from Ohio
- 12:09Speaker 2: are like, we better be in there and Huffman Prairie.
- 12:11Speaker 2: And I was like, we gotta be in there too.
- 12:13Speaker 2: And you know what, what I realized is, is everyone
- 12:15Speaker 2: claims the Wright brothers, but here's the thing. It's like
- 12:18Speaker 2: the Wright brothers themselves. You can't take one piece out
- 12:22Speaker 2: of it. If you do, the plane doesn't take off.
- 12:25Speaker 2: So I love the fact that all these places do
- 12:28Speaker 2: have an appropriate and correct claim to it. And without
- 12:30Speaker 2: North Carolina, right, it doesn't go. The same thing with
- 12:33Speaker 2: their parents. Take one of their parents out of it,
- 12:35Speaker 2: they don't go. And that's what all our lives are.
- 12:37Speaker 2: We're all built, we're all these little mosaics. that are
- 12:41Speaker 2: built on over time. And I love the fact that
- 12:45Speaker 2: we get to show in the Wright brothers what, you know,
- 12:48Speaker 2: when you let that mosaic thrive, when you nurture it,
- 12:51Speaker 2: that you really can change the whole world with it.
- 12:53Speaker 1: Well, you prove inside this book that 12 seconds feels
- 12:56Speaker 1: like a lifetime. And it brought up so many childhood
- 12:58Speaker 1: memories for me because I grew up on a farm.
- 13:00Speaker 1: I'm in Montana. We would row to till the yard.
- 13:03Speaker 1: And the reason why, so I could jump off the
- 13:05Speaker 1: garage because I wanted to fly. And I mean, and
- 13:07Speaker 1: so I'm jealous that the Wright brothers got 12 seconds.
- 13:10Speaker 1: I think I got, I got two seconds and a bloop.
- 13:12Speaker 1: That was all I got out of flight. And, and so,
- 13:15Speaker 1: but yet it's still, it ignites something in my imagination
- 13:19Speaker 1: that I still believe I can fly because of a
- 13:21Speaker 1: book like this.
- 13:23Speaker 2: Oh, I still, my regular recurring dream is flying. I mean,
- 13:28Speaker 2: to this day, and yes, maybe it was launched from
- 13:30Speaker 2: Superman rather than the Wright Brothers, but we all understand it.
- 13:34Speaker 2: We all know it. It makes sense. And I think
- 13:37Speaker 2: it's not just because flying is cool, but it's a metaphor.
- 13:41Speaker 2: It's being able to do what's never been done. When
- 13:43Speaker 2: you look at the Wright Brothers, when they're first trying
- 13:46Speaker 2: to put together their plane, they have no idea what
- 13:49Speaker 2: they're doing. But there are all these people Right. And
- 13:55Speaker 2: they're better funded and they've got government contracts and they've
- 13:58Speaker 2: got millions of dollars. And the Wright brothers got a
- 14:01Speaker 2: bicycle shop and they got their imagination. And when they
- 14:04Speaker 2: go out, actually, in Carolina, one of the first times
- 14:07Speaker 2: out there, they try to get people to come. They
- 14:09Speaker 2: want to get a crowd to drum up support and enthusiasm.
- 14:11Speaker 2: You can maybe get funding. show up by people and
- 14:17Speaker 2: you know why it's because no one thinks it's possible
- 14:21Speaker 2: they're like this isn't impossible i know when you right
- 14:23Speaker 2: now say oh obviously you can you know when you
- 14:27Speaker 2: flying is you know we see it all the time
- 14:29Speaker 2: we see planes all the time but back then they
- 14:31Speaker 2: were like no one will ever be able to fly
- 14:35Speaker 2: it's never going to happen there was a german guy
- 14:38Speaker 2: that they called the flying man auto uh that the
- 14:41Speaker 2: right brothers looked up to who used to made a
- 14:43Speaker 2: glider and he's to jump off like little hills and
- 14:45Speaker 2: then off cliffs and guess what he died too like
- 14:50Speaker 2: their hero died and they still were like I don't
- 14:52Speaker 2: care we're gonna crack this thing and what's so amazing
- 14:55Speaker 2: now is the Wright brothers never flew together they would
- 14:59Speaker 2: never fly together because if the plane crashed when they
- 15:01Speaker 2: were both on it they lose everything all the knowledge
- 15:04Speaker 2: is gone there's no disk drive there's no backup back
- 15:06Speaker 2: then And then once they start training everybody, and they
- 15:10Speaker 2: train people in other countries, and they train the military
- 15:13Speaker 2: and teach them how to build planes that they have,
- 15:15Speaker 2: then to fly home, the Wright brothers fly together. And
- 15:20Speaker 2: to me, I don't know a better, more perfect image.
- 15:23Speaker 2: And that's, of course, what We Are the Wright Brothers,
- 15:25Speaker 2: the book ends with. And I love that idea of that,
- 15:29Speaker 2: you know, in the end, they get to get on
- 15:31Speaker 2: that plane together. Wow.
- 15:33Speaker 1: I got to give you a kudos and a compliment
- 15:35Speaker 1: on the way that you design this book. And to me,
- 15:38Speaker 1: I call it the big picture. I always expect the
- 15:40Speaker 1: big picture with the little bubbles of information on the side.
- 15:44Speaker 1: I love that because in a reader's mind, you're creating
- 15:47Speaker 1: what comedians call the beautiful pause. You've got to have
- 15:51Speaker 1: that pause so I can take the time to digest it.
- 15:54Speaker 1: And you, as an author and your illustrator, you give
- 15:57Speaker 1: me that pregnant pause.
- 16:00Speaker 2: Listen, the beauty of doing a picture book, and I
- 16:05Speaker 2: can't do this in a novel, in a movie, in television,
- 16:08Speaker 2: and in a picture book, you can do silence. Yep.
- 16:12Speaker 2: In a novel, I can't do silence. I can say
- 16:15Speaker 2: everything went quiet, but there's no pause. You just have
- 16:19Speaker 2: to use more words to say the world was like
- 16:21Speaker 2: we were underwater. It sounded like my ears were, but
- 16:24Speaker 2: you can't show it. I can describe it. I can
- 16:27Speaker 2: tell it, but I can't show it. In a movie,
- 16:29Speaker 2: you can show silence. TV, you can show silence. In
- 16:32Speaker 2: a picture book, you can show silence. And that moment
- 16:34Speaker 2: when they take off and they fly through the air.
- 16:37Speaker 2: It's beautiful. I don't put any word balloons on that page.
- 16:40Speaker 2: I'm not stupid. Just let the moment sing. Let the
- 16:44Speaker 2: silence sink in and feel the wonder and the awe
- 16:48Speaker 2: as you're witnessing something for the very first time being
- 16:50Speaker 2: done in this world. That is, to me, one of
- 16:53Speaker 2: the best parts of doing picture books for kids is
- 16:57Speaker 2: opening their eyes to see something that is awe-inspiring. And
- 17:01Speaker 2: I love that.
- 17:02Speaker 1: You know, with the attitude of crash and rebuild, crash
- 17:05Speaker 1: and rebuild, and you team it up with perseverance. And
- 17:07Speaker 1: deep inside my heart, and once again, it's only because
- 17:09Speaker 1: I'm originally from the Pacific Northwest, when I saw Evel
- 17:12Speaker 1: Knievel try to go over that Snake River, I really
- 17:16Speaker 1: wanted the attitude of Orville and Wilbur to say, get
- 17:20Speaker 1: back on that bike and do it again. Okay, so
- 17:23Speaker 1: the parachute opened too quickly. They would get up there
- 17:26Speaker 1: and do it again.
- 17:28Speaker 2: Oh man. But first of all, you're talking to someone
- 17:30Speaker 2: who not only had the Evel Knievel that you would
- 17:32Speaker 2: wind the thing on the side and would take off.
- 17:34Speaker 2: But when, when my kids were little, I went on
- 17:36Speaker 2: eBay and bought another one and I put it on
- 17:39Speaker 2: and I, it's so, I love it to this day,
- 17:42Speaker 2: but I will tell you that's exactly right. And, and
- 17:45Speaker 2: to me, isn't that amazing, right? Like it's so amazing
- 17:49Speaker 2: to watch someone try to do what's never been done before,
- 17:52Speaker 2: but yeah, the Wright brothers are like, then do it again.
- 17:55Speaker 2: Who cares? And, and you know, and, It's so funny
- 18:00Speaker 2: to watch. I know we're of a similar age, and
- 18:03Speaker 2: so we have those similar heroes. But those people that
- 18:07Speaker 2: try to do those things, that is like an age
- 18:10Speaker 2: of wonder to me. And I think we don't celebrate
- 18:13Speaker 2: it enough. I think right now we spend so much
- 18:16Speaker 2: time doing this. We're so angry at each other. Everyone's angry.
- 18:19Speaker 2: And politicians make us angry and are mad. Cable shows
- 18:23Speaker 2: make us angry, and of course, AI and social media
- 18:27Speaker 2: make us angry. Why? Why do politicians want us angry?
- 18:30Speaker 2: Because angry people vote, and angry people watch, and angry
- 18:36Speaker 2: people will scroll endlessly on their phone. And to me,
- 18:40Speaker 2: there's this quote that just has been haunting me lately,
- 18:43Speaker 2: and it says, be the reason people believe in good.
- 18:47Speaker 2: Be the reason... People believe in good. And that's what
- 18:52Speaker 2: these books are. It's like what to me is I'm
- 18:55Speaker 2: not trying to teach you and your kids lessons about history.
- 19:00Speaker 2: What I'm trying to show you is your ability to
- 19:03Speaker 2: make history. And that's why I love the Evel Knievel.
- 19:06Speaker 2: It's why I love the Wright Brothers. It's why I
- 19:08Speaker 2: love Marie Curie or even like Jim Henson and Mr. Rogers.
- 19:12Speaker 2: They were doing what no one had done before and
- 19:16Speaker 2: just trying to make some history just by finding something
- 19:19Speaker 2: they loved and sharing it with others. And that's all
- 19:22Speaker 2: the Wright Brothers are. There's no difference between them and
- 19:24Speaker 2: Jim Henson and Mr. Rogers to me.
- 19:26Speaker 1: And somebody who's writing 100 books about telling history. In fact,
- 19:29Speaker 1: I got to be honest with you. I always tell
- 19:31Speaker 1: my students in broadcasting, You don't have a podcast until
- 19:34Speaker 1: you have 100 episodes. So when I hear you say
- 19:36Speaker 1: 100 every time, I sit there and giggle like a
- 19:39Speaker 1: kid because I'm going, you ain't an author until you
- 19:41Speaker 1: hit 100. So I'm going to be your biggest fan.
- 19:43Speaker 1: I'm going to be going, come on, 60 more, man.
- 19:45Speaker 1: You got it. You got it. You can do it.
- 19:47Speaker 1: Come on, more sit-ups. You can do it. You can
- 19:49Speaker 1: do it.
- 19:51Speaker 2: I do feel like you're like Mickey and you're like
- 19:53Speaker 2: catch the chicken, right? Like you got to do it.
- 19:55Speaker 2: And it took us 12 years. ahead of us but
- 20:02Speaker 2: you know we're stubborn and we're committed to the cause
- 20:05Speaker 2: and just like the Wright brothers we're not giving up
- 20:08Speaker 2: like I really want to do it so I love
- 20:10Speaker 2: the fact that uh we still yes I got 60
- 20:14Speaker 2: more in front of me but I got 40 in
- 20:15Speaker 2: my rear view and I'm ready to go.
- 20:17Speaker 1: I love it where can people go to find out
- 20:19Speaker 1: more about you Brad and to get that letter because
- 20:22Speaker 1: I want them to have all of that pre-information that
- 20:24Speaker 1: you you just send to me and it makes me
- 20:26Speaker 1: feel so good as a reader.
- 20:29Speaker 2: Yeah, go to Brad Meltzer on any social media platform.
- 20:34Speaker 2: And on Instagram or anything else, you can see all
- 20:37Speaker 2: the links are on there. Or just Google Brad Meltzer
- 20:40Speaker 2: Invisible Army. Join the Invisible Army, and you can see
- 20:43Speaker 2: all the information before anyone gets it. Or just click
- 20:45Speaker 2: on bradmeltzer.com and hit the– literally, when you click on bradmeltzer.com,
- 20:49Speaker 2: a pop-up will come up that says join the mailing list.
- 20:52Speaker 2: Join it. We give you free stuff. We tell you
- 20:54Speaker 2: about things before anyone knows who the next hero is.
- 20:57Speaker 2: And I love that so many people come. A guy
- 21:00Speaker 2: came last night with an Invisible Army pin. Someone came
- 21:03Speaker 2: with their Invisible Army membership card that we sent. And
- 21:07Speaker 2: I love the fact that, you know, I already got
- 21:08Speaker 2: someone who told me the story that they're, after hearing
- 21:11Speaker 2: the story about the Wright Brothers crash and rebuilding, they
- 21:14Speaker 2: were teaching their kids to ride a bike and the
- 21:15Speaker 2: kid fell over. And they looked over their shoulder or
- 21:18Speaker 2: looked at their parent and got back up and said,
- 21:20Speaker 2: crash and rebuild, crash and rebuild. And that's why they
- 21:24Speaker 2: started to ride their bike. And I love the fact
- 21:26Speaker 2: that that's already happening, even though the book only came out, uh,
- 21:29Speaker 2: you know, just in the past few.
- 21:30Speaker 1: Days, you got to come back to this show. Anytime
- 21:33Speaker 1: in the future, Brad, you know, the door's always open for.
- 21:35Speaker 2: You, dude. Always brother. You know that.
- 21:38Speaker 1: Well, you be brilliant today. Okay, sir.
- 21:40Speaker 2: Uh, I appreciate you. Always appreciate you supporting us in
- 21:44Speaker 2: every different genre. Yeah.