Latest / The Elsa Kurt Show / Parenting Like It’s War (Because It Kind Of Is)

Transcript

Parenting Like It’s War (Because It Kind Of Is) · The Elsa Kurt Show

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Well, hello my friends, welcome to the show.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Yes, I know you don't see Clay sitting behind me or beside me at least not virtually Today.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: It's just me, but I have special guests on and I'm so excited to talk to them.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: This is a topic that's really near and dear to my heart, so we're going to be diving into a conversation that's kind of part urgent and most definitely inspiring, and we're going to be talking about the real battle for our kids' hearts and their minds, and it's one that's being fought not just in the classrooms or on social media, but in the stories that they're soaking in every single day.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Entertainment is discipling our children and more often, it's more effective than the church, and that is a big problem and, by the way, more so than even their parents, which is truly a problem.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: But what if we could reclaim it and not just avoid the bad but create good?
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Well, our guests are Nathan and Dalitha I did it again, she's going to correct me on here Two powerhouse voices who aren't just raising a family, they're raising the alarm, offering a way forward, and from their own parenting journey to creating pro-God media.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: They're here to talk about tech, addiction, spiritual warfare through storytelling and how families can push back against a culture that wants to erase their authority.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: So buckle up.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: This is going to be the kind of conversation that could change how you lead your home.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: So, without further ado, let's bring on our guests.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Hello guys, how are you?
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Hi, we're great.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: Hey, thanks for having us.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: We're excited to be here.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for coming on.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: So, as we spoke a little bit beforehand and as I just mentioned, this is so near and dear to my heart because I have, you know, of course, I've grown children, but I have little tiny grandbabies now.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: I'm deeply concerned about the environment that is going on in the public school system and just in our culture as a whole.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: So I want to talk to you now.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: They have a new movie out.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: It's Aria Appleby.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Tell me again, Aria Appleby.
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: Aria Appleton, shine.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Appleton, I guess I'm hungry.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking Appleby's.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: I'll call you Appleton Shine.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Appleton, I guess I'm hungry.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking Applebee's.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, but before we talk about the movie, I would love if you would start by telling us a little bit about what you guys mean about entertainment, discipling our kids rather than us and the Bible and church, and what would it look like to reclaim it for good?
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: Well, I think all of you will admit that your kids spend a fair amount of time on screens and in front of televisions.
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: That's been true since the inception of the television, but it's just gotten more and more, and there's now a glut of things for them to watch, not only in training and television, but now that you see, kids are getting about 60% of what they look at.
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: They're not going to the cinema, they're watching YouTube, they're watching on their devices, so we have all of this material that's now easily available for them and you know, they pick up their phone and there it is the same amount of potential money in the other's hands, and so all of you know that is definitely a factor, especially why, in Hollywood or media in general, the fact that obviously the time factor is also something we talk about with people, parents who work 8 to 10 hours a day, sometimes 40, 50 hours a week.
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: They don't have a lot of time with their kids and they're trying to think over through a public school system that in the last few years, has proven to me that it does not have their, it doesn't have your individual kids functioning from a different things at this time.
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: Maybe at some point in history it was okay.
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: I'm about to show you the public school system and I was raised in Indiana.
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: Public school system was, at the time, was always 48th or 49th in the nation.
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: Academically, I was a Texas draw, which is nice.
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: That's good.
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: In fact, when I moved to Texas for the first time, I realized Texas schools were the top of the list.
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: The top of the list was generally second, I'm sorry, in the very bottom, I think, lowest percentile, in the very bottom, in the very bottom, I think, the lowest percentile of the African for public schools.
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: And so you know, I had a high kind of a higher quality maybe who still?
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: Public school education, whereas kids in Texas are probably doing something a little more well than I am, and so.
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: But we kind of turned them over to the state and the state is perfectly happy with that.
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: In fact, you know all of the legalities in both sides now suggest that the state continues to sell quality and staff as a building, and if you're not aware of that, then look it up.
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: But that one spot is proof that this company turned over our current authority in ecology to a different entity.
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: And if that entity isn't doing a good job and if that entity isn't getting what they're looking for in a product center, then I'm sure that they can make it into.
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: We can probably do something about it.
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: So we have the state issue, that is, time and volume.
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: That's a very, very time-consuming thing and we're going to have to correct every three years We've got to actually.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: So those are three big issues that have to be addressed before we can do anything about it.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: Let me ask you something here.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: I'm having a lot of background noise on your end.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: It's very muffled.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: There were a couple moments where it was super clear.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: It looks like your microphones are in a great spot.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: Are they super close?
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: And are you hearing me?
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Okay?
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Are you hearing me nice and clear?
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: I do hear you.
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: One sec Okay.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: We're in a podcast studio where we broadcast from on a regular basis.
• 7:12
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: Just double check the volume.
• 7:15
  Speaker 5: Well, through this end, it's good.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: Right, yeah, I can hear you perfectly when you just did that Nice and sharp perfectly when you just did that nice and sharp.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, perhaps we're just getting a screen live or maybe getting some.
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: Well, while he was talking, I heard this high pitch noise all of a sudden, and it's gone now, so maybe that was just some weird interference.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: OK, you are clearer now.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: It's still.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I hear this.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: It comes and goes.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: It like this um comes and goes.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: It's like a funny, almost like a whooshing sound, almost like it's almost like when you came over to whatever.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: You came over to your computer, maybe you got super clear and sharp, but from where you are now it sounds very distant.
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: I think we're probably running through computer microphones and not necessarily through the mic.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: I think that might be the case.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Okay, I think Nathan's going to go get our audio back, no problem.
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: Are you going to edit this or is this how it's going to be?
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: no, you know what I mean.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: How would you I don't know what your time constraints are I, I almost would want to do that part over.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: I know he just had such a great thing and I'm hearing it and I'm trying, I'm looking at adjustments on my end.
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: She said that the computer audio is working, and these aren't necessarily that great.
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: Got it.
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: Alright he's getting them.
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no problem.
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: I think we have another hour and a half we can hang out with you.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, I just want you to be able to have the best you know thing to put out there at the computer she can hear us so it's funny.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I hear him like right in my ear, so wherever the sound is coming from it's it's where he is.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: I just said that, so technically didn't I I.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: It was so impressive.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: All right, can?
• 9:24
  Speaker 5: you hear me better.
• 9:25
  Speaker 5: Now Can you hear?
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: me.
• 9:26
  Speaker 5: Oh my God, perfect, okay, so that's all it is.
• 9:29
  Speaker 5: I was right, I know tech, yeah.
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: No worries.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: Okay, how's that?
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: So they've kicked off the.
• 9:42
  Speaker 5: AC and rerouted us, and now we're running through the microphone Perfect, nice and super clear.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Perfect okay, nathan, I'm so sorry.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you heard that part.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: We were just talking.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: I would prefer, if it's okay with you, to kind of just do that first question over.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: You gave such a answer and I hate to make you do it over um I just I'm afraid that I don't have enough skill to clean that up in post-production to make it clearer.
• 10:08
  Speaker 5: So and I'm all about it because you asked the question and then my morning brain was like I don't know what she just asked.
• 10:14
  Speaker 5: So this is going to be great.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: Perfect, I listen.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: This is like my second cup of coffee.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm still muddling through here, so bear with me as well.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay, so, um.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: So we're actually funny enough.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: I didn't even hit the pause button on the recording, so obviously I'll be cutting all of that out.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: Nice yeah so for bloopers.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: We always could, but no, we don't need to.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: All right, so I'm going to re-ask that question.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: We'll take it right from that point, and then I hope you remember every single thing that you just said, nathan.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I got it.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: I think I got it.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: We'll see what happens.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: Perfect, okay, all right, so here we go.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: So before I ask you about the movie and I want to hear all about it I did get to see, I got to see most of it and it looks so good, it is so charming, and we're going to talk all about that.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: But I want to talk a little bit about if you could tell us what you mean by when you say that entertainment has been discipling our kids.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: And more importantly to me is what would it look like to reclaim that?
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: And, more importantly, to me is what would it look like to reclaim that?
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know in the Old Testament.
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: It talks about you know, sharing the law and the teachings of Christ and of God.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: When you walk with your kids, like you, just you know.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: When you walk along the road, when you're at home, you know you're sharing time with your kids, and so time is a particular factor.
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: Parents who work 60 hours a week and turn their kids over to a public school system, you know, don't get nearly as much time with their kids as they probably did in former generations, where, when kids actually worked with their parents and maybe participated in the in the actual jobs that the parents had, and maybe participated in the actual jobs that the parents had.
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: Delighth and I, though, are both public school products.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: I was part of the Indiana public school system, which is always first or second in the nation academically.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: She was part of the Texas school system, which is not which is not.
• 12:17
  Speaker 5: It's the opposite of that.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: It's the opposite.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: It's down on the other end, probably just by virtue of being a much larger state, and the statistics are skewed, but Texas is usually 48th in the nation academically.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: That's not good, and so we have this wide variety of public school potential for kids, and we're both byproducts.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: We're not enemies of the public school system, but we do think that the public school system needs some serious reformation, and I'm all about the Department of Education reorganizing to give more control back to the states, because I think that will empower parents more so than they have felt empowered in past generation.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: So the time that parents get to spend with their kids is limited because of the lifestyle that Americans are currently living, when some of those families, in order to just survive, are working two and three jobs and mom and dad are both working and the kids are in that school system that in many cases, is now ideologically opposed to what they believe in to a large degree.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: And then they're surprised when their kids come home and they're we're just talking about it this morning, about a good friend who's got and she actually teaches in a in a school, and her child is coming home with some positionalities and ideas and things that are shocking to us.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: We're going.
• 13:36
  Speaker 5: Oh no, here we go, uh and more time at school than she gets to spend with her parents, truly.
• 13:42
  Speaker 5: So who is influencing the child at that point?
• 13:44
  Speaker 5: It's all of her peers, the people who are in the same age bracket as her.
• 13:48
  Speaker 5: There's not a lot of wisdom there.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: And then, who are the peers being influenced by?
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: Well, they're being influenced by the glut of media that is available to them.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: Right now, kids are getting 60% of what they watch from YouTube or more, and that that is a crazy statistic.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: That's blowing the minds of of Disney and Nickelodeon and people like that who are going oh wait, what's going on?
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: Everything's moved to YouTube.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: That's weird.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: The format's even changed, and so kids are getting their stuff from YouTube.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: They're getting it from each other, they're getting it from TikTok, and there's a major shortage, too, of material in that space for young people.
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: Less than 15% of what's produced worldwide in media is made for kids and young people and would be considered, maybe, family friendly, and a far smaller percentage than that is actually something that might have a Christ watching, or they're very likely to be watching something that you don't want them watching or you don't agree with on a weekly basis, and they've turned over their parental authority to the state and to a system that now is an enemy to the family, and to a large degree, and the state's perfectly happy with that, because, just from a legal standpoint, based on the system they designed, they consider themselves the parent of your children and you're just the steward kind of stewarding them, and if they don't like how you're handling the way you raise your kids, they'll take them away from you, and so that system needs some reformation, in my opinion.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: And so we have a state problem, we have a timing problem, we have a glut of media problem that's right there in front of kids, and now they have a device in every hand.
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: So we really are in a kind of a bad state.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: We really are and they're so smart, meeting these tech companies, these content producers.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: I've read that for these preschool shows, which is probably the most alarming to me, that these people looked at what's happening, looked at these statistics and these numbers and and have studied the the brain, you know, of children and their behaviors, and actually did things where they would have babies or toddlers, you know, watch a program that they want to put out and track how long each scene kept their attention.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: And they're designing these shows, you know, like that Cocoa Melon is probably one of the top ones that comes to mind that they are.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: So the scene changes like every I think it's like seven seconds or so.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: So they're actually starting from infants and toddlers and working their way up to what you all are seeing and, of course, what I'm seeing as well with our school age children in the public school system.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: It is just this mass manipulation and taking over of their brains, of their minds, and, you know, any parent that isn't realizing how terrifying this actually is needs to look at some of these studies and see some of this research, because it's frightening and the magnitude and the effect of it and, as you said, the type of programming um is not really encouraging and fostering um, family minded, moral minded uh, values that we're all, or we've all, been trying to teach our kids and, obviously, in my case, grandkids now Um, so it's, it's really scary and and I love that you guys have really tackled this head on and and the issues are are just so, so many that we need to tackle, but it's it's kind of wild how sort of simple the solution is right, just to make that shift, cause we're we're looking at, you know, tech addiction with kids.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: Can you talk a little bit about, um, what you're observing?
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: You know, I know you touched on some of there, but what kinds of things are you seeing in the families today?
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: Is there, is there a growing divide between parents and their children?
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: I probably most particularly like the teenage children.
• 18:44
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean.
• 18:45
  Speaker 5: So I have a three-year-old and I have a 12-year-old and the three-year-old we had to address what you were just talking about, about you know those, those kids, little preschool shows and going okay, well, this is clearly just brainwashing you and training your brain to be the ADHD generation, like it's not helping anything.
• 19:06
  Speaker 5: And so we have been battling him because we're guilty too.
• 19:10
  Speaker 5: When we need to work, we work at home.
• 19:12
  Speaker 5: Sometimes they hand the iPad over and if I'm not paying attention he knows how to work that thing and get to the things he's not supposed to watch, and so for us it's hard because we know we know better.
• 19:24
  Speaker 5: And so we do try to tell ourselves just take him outside, just jump on the trampoline, just go on a walk, because all he needs is a minute with us.
• 19:32
  Speaker 5: I mean he doesn't need like half of just play, right, but we do have to make a sacrifice and prioritize in the moment.
• 19:40
  Speaker 5: So it's down there at three.
• 19:42
  Speaker 5: Our 12 year old's pretty good now.
• 19:44
  Speaker 5: But I have been hearing horror stories from my friends with teenagers and adult children with the addiction factor and I mean but if you hand over a device to a teen and you don't have clear boundaries and clear consequences for what happens if they break those boundaries.
• 20:06
  Speaker 5: Well, you're setting yourself up for failure.
• 20:08
  Speaker 5: You know you might as well just hand your child over and be like well, I tried my best, I'm sorry, because they're not ready.
• 20:15
  Speaker 5: Even the adult children are having issues.
• 20:19
  Speaker 5: I mean, we have a friend who the son had a major addiction to what he was seeing on the screen when he was 16, and now he's 24.
• 20:28
  Speaker 5: And it's only gotten worse because it wasn't really addressed and it wasn't corrected.
• 20:35
  Speaker 5: And sometimes you have to make really bold choices and just take it away, be like I'm sorry.
• 20:42
  Speaker 5: I gave you that phone when you were 14.
• 20:43
  Speaker 5: I thought you were ready.
• 20:44
  Speaker 5: Clearly you're not Now you're 16.
• 20:47
  Speaker 5: You don't get it again until you actually graduate, you know.
• 20:50
  Speaker 5: And it's hard if you're sending your kids to public school or private school where everyone has a phone because they all do.
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: It's easier as a home, you know go ahead.
• 21:01
  Speaker 5: Well, it's just easier as a homeschool mom because you know, as a homeschool mom I'm I'm going okay.
• 21:07
  Speaker 5: Well, the kids you are hanging out with their parents have the same sort of standards that we do.
• 21:14
  Speaker 5: You know, I'm getting to kind of pick and choose and curate.
• 21:18
  Speaker 5: What my child is is who she's really interacting with, so it's easier.
• 21:22
  Speaker 5: On the homeschool front there's still some struggles, but not as much as if you're actually sending your kids to school.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you touched on a little earlier that you know some of the solution or counter to that, in particular for families who aren't, for you know, whatever their reasons are, they're not able to homeschool, that they need, or they just simply prefer the public school environment.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: You know no judgment whatsoever on what anyone chooses to do, but they're still seeing, more so than anyone else, probably, those struggles that you were just talking about, and you guys have some you know great alternatives for for combating that, that overload.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: So you advocate for creating media that's pro-God, not just clean.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: So what differences does that perspective bring to the content that you create?
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: Well, I think that pro-God to us just represents that the people who make that media keep God in mind.
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: They're not sanitizing it, they're just.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: I believe in the idea that sanctified people, people who are seeking God, people who are attempting to live in a moral space, if that same person sets out to make media or to do anything at all, well, everything they do is going to be affected by that concept, that positionality.
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: Obviously, people can sit and write and I write occasionally and I'm surprised what I write.
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: If you're just being really organic and honest, it just comes out.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: But even still, you might be able to write something that might be less savory for kids.
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: You put it on paper and you go, oh, okay.
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: But if you're looking at it from a, you put it on paper and you go, oh, okay.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: But if you're looking at it from a logical view and a Christian worldview and a moral position, you could look at it and go, well, I don't think kids are ready for that, I don't think they're going to understand that.
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: So I'm not going to you know, we won't make that and put that out there in the space for them.
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: So I do believe that who we are as a people and who we are in our hearts.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: As a man thinks in his heart, so he is, and as a direct byproduct of that, that person is going to create probably a more savory product for families and kids and things like that.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: Obviously, it will be affected by the belief system, and so that's first things first.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: The other factor that you brought up is also and Delitha said this too people need to make a bold choice about how they interact.
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: Some families do probably have enough going on in their circumstance and they could, if they would make a major change and homeschool or move.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: Sometimes just moving from one school to another, if they're in public or private, could make the difference because of the culture of that particular school or something might make a difference.
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: Some parents need to downsize, maybe in their own lifestyle, in order to create time with their kids where they go.
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: You know what?
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: We don't need this ginormous house, or we don't need three cars, or we don't need some of the things that we may be hanging on to from a lifestyle standpoint and I'm working three jobs to try to afford all of this stuff and so some families may need to do some of that downsizing in order to create the time, and parents who do have kids in public school, I think, need to be just as intentional probably more intentional than homeschool parents.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: Homeschool parents spend a fair amount of time kind of programming the day and what we're going to do and who's going to be doing what and what material we're working through, and then you know when we're working through and then you know when we're playing versus when we're studying, and so we have the ability to affect that more.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: Parents who have kids in public school need to look at that, get involved in the school board and the PTA and make sure they're having an influence on what's being taught in those spaces and what's being shared in those spaces, because that's your right.
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: It's a public space, it's a public school.
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: You have a right to get in there and make an impact on and have a voice in that space.
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: So I think parents ought to do that and then be very intentional about those few hours in an evening and a weekend that you do get to spend with your kids, where you do sit and talk to them about what's going on in the world and what we believe, and getting more involved in talking to them, asking questions and then, particularly regarding media, talking about what you're watching, because we're in this position too.
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: We've literally gone, like all of you gone to the movie before with your kids, and then you're hoping, you look at it in the trailer and all this, you're like, oh, this looks pretty good, this is rated for families or whatever.
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: And then you watch it and you go, oh great, now I have to talk to my nine-year-old about this particular subject that they really shouldn't be talking about until they're, you know, quite a bit older.
• 26:44
  Speaker 5: And, uh, we were getting tired of doing that.
• 26:45
  Speaker 5: We were tired of going okay, I've looked it up online, I've done all the reviews, I've seen it, this is going to be great.
• 26:48
  Speaker 5: And if it's a TV show, often it would be like it'd be fine.
• 26:51
  Speaker 5: And then in episode six, bam, something would get in there where you're like no, no, I didn't see this thing.
• 26:57
  Speaker 5: Or you know, a movie will go and then they'll put it in the credit crawl.
• 27:03
  Speaker 5: You're like we made it through the whole movie and you did this to me.
• 27:08
  Speaker 5: You know, I got tired, I got fed up, and so you know, we've done something that is proactive and we've created a movie where we are giving parents the opportunity to still have a discussion with your kids, but about things you want to talk about, like, oh, adoption, let's talk about adoption, that's a beautiful thing.
• 27:28
  Speaker 5: Or let's talk about dying to self, let's talk about that, please.
• 27:32
  Speaker 5: And so we've created a little movie that has lovely themes throughout it that are relevant.
• 27:39
  Speaker 5: We have anti-bullying and cyber bullying in the movie, and we've created a parent and leader's guide that accompanies the film so that parents can have good conversations about topics that really matter and that are relevant.
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because some parents don't feel comfortable right now.
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: For instance, I went to seminary.
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: I'm a preacher's kid, I studied Bible.
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: I've worked for the church a little bit over the years.
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: I feel more prepared if my kid sits down and says I've got some questions, or you discover your kids be an emo and you want to intervene, and I feel a little more prepared probably than some parents just because of my upbringing and my education, and so we knew that just through talking to our own friends.
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: It's like not everyone feels that prepared.
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: They don't know what scripture to refer to.
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: They don't know how to talk to their kids, in some cases about a biblical idea contrasting what's going on in the world, and so the Leader's Guide is for that, just as a tool to try to help support parents, because it's going to happen anyway.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: I mean, you're going to be watching something that's in the mainstream on a streamer and you're going to end up in these conversations anyway, so why not put something in the playlist that everybody's going to enjoy?
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: What we did is kind of cotton candy meets nutrition, because it's in a package that's a little unfamiliar to people, because most people making faith and family friendly content don't put these types of stories into a comedy and particularly into a satire, which is what we did and and so it's a little unfamiliar to people, but it's what is going on out there and it's one reason that that we we see so much of this glut being so impactful on the kids, because the quality and the content that they're getting is often fun, musical comedy, it's things that kids want to watch.
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: It's that kind of thing.
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: When we start looking into the faith-based and family market, there's very little of that.
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: It's high drama and it's very stoic and serious and the kids are not going to just sit there with you and watch most of these things.
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: I didn't want to watch some of it when I was in my twenties because my parents were putting on movies that were made by some very well-known people in the faith-based space.
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: No offense to them, but they're trying to show this stuff at church and they're asking me they're like hey, what'd you think about that movie that we showed at church?
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: And I'm going, eh, and as as a guy interested in film and the arts, I was like I don't think it's that good, like it's not a good quality product and it's got bad acting and the script is clunky.
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: Um, god has chosen the foolish things to the world to shame the wise and the simple things, to shame those that are.
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: So I was.
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: I was giving God credit because he's using that stuff and I know he does, but he's but it's not affecting kids and young people because they're not watching that, they're not paying attention, and and so we were very, uh, interested in the the kid and young adult space, because we're just kind of goofy kids ourselves and have always loved kids movies, and so we're hopeful that what we're doing will help inspire some out of the box thinking on the part of people who are making that type of material for families and that it'll help families have that conversation.
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: And and, um, my dad was great at that.
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: My dad was pretty incredible rockstar public, um, pulpit minister, who you know.
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: If you got to watch a clip from Braveheart at church, you know we were all like we're watching a movie.
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: Hollywood has come to church this morning and that was always fun.
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: And my dad was good at taking the heart out of a mainstream movie and then pull the theme out and give it to us and make a biblical connection or a godly connection to that theme.
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: He was very good at that, and so we are hoping that we'll inspire other filmmakers and other people and continue ourselves to be inspired.
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: To take a little piece of fiction, but it's true.
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: You could say that some of those things are fairy tales.
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: Are they true, though?
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: Yes, does it have a truth in it?
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: Yes, it's intended to teach you something, and film can be used that way.
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: Film can be used that way.
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: It is happening broadly, like we were talking about preschool programming.
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: It's been happening that way in Hollywood and from people in high places for a long time.
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: It's just that the church has not been involved.
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: They've just turned over their authority and their sovereignty to these organizations to a large degree.
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: I was reading the other day that a couple of our very well-known billionaires who are investing heavily in kids' cartoons and they're doing this because I don't think it's because they nefariously want to influence the kids towards a particular ideology, necessarily, but they do want to influence those kids to buy their products for the next 40 years, and so they are doing that, and so I don't know that all of it's particularly nefarious, but some of it is, and you know it when you see it and you look at it and go, oh, wait a minute, it is, and you know it when you see it and and you look at it and go oh wait a minute, that that's pure evil right there.
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: I don't this, you know there's.
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: There's a little difference, so we're getting a little of both.
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: We need to be uh, we need to be vigilant, we need to be awake, we need to wake up and and pay attention to what's going on.
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: So we're hoping what we're doing will at least stimulate that and and help people.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: Well, I especially love what you're doing.
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: Comedy and satire is really my home.
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: That's my lane.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: When I'm not doing podcast stuff, I'm doing, uh, comedy skits and and all of those things, and it's usually, you know, culture and also politics uh related.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: But you know, I felt the same thing that you guys did.
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: Like, you know, you're getting all of this information.
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: Everybody is telling the news, everybody is a podcaster now, everybody is an independent media person now, and everybody is delivering the same news, the same headlines, the same stories, the same everything, everything, high drama, uh, you know, tension, everybody's angry and, uh, you know, I love to laugh.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: Comedy is just my whole life.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: That's always been my happy place.
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: You know, literally and figuratively, I guess.
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: Um, so what and I agree with you fully what what you're doing is, is you're bringing this to um children in the way that they relate best to.
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: They're not watching, they don't care about soap opera style, you know anything.
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: They make them laugh, keep them entertained and give them that wholesome messaging that we're all craving.
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: And I would say, the only thing different as of late and I as of late, I mean by the past, I don't know, maybe 10 years, I may be exaggerating, I may be underestimating is that we'll say, at least the last few years, that they are less sneaky about it.
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: They are so open now and I weirdly thank them for doing that because you can't miss it now and I and I weirdly thank them for for doing that because you can't miss it now.
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: You know there's there's still some stuff that they sneak in there and that you're you know, you don't realize it until you're watching.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: You're like something doesn't feel right with this program, like what is it?
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: But now they're so blatant with their, you know, messaging and and their culture, um, ideas and all of those things.
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: So that, thankfully, is in its weird way, a good thing, because you can spot it and boot it and get it out of your kids' lives as best as possible.
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: You gave some great suggestions for parents who are like just waking up to all of this what's happening in media and what our children are watching and the lack of control that they have.
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: Um, before we talk a little more fully about the movie, like I promised guys, I promised we would be talking about this movie Um, I just want to ask you quickly if you could like, if you could give like a few I don't know, practical first steps for parents who are just realizing what's going on, like how they can engage proactively.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: And I'm going to offer the first one watch their movies.
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: Start there.
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you.
• 36:44
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 36:44
  Speaker 5: So for me it just depends on where your kids are.
• 36:46
  Speaker 5: So with my three-year-old, you know, he has discovered YouTube and fortunately there is YouTube kids and you can go in and you can control the exact videos that he will watch.
• 36:56
  Speaker 5: And so I went in and I was like what are the VBS songs?
• 37:00
  Speaker 5: What are the?
• 37:01
  Speaker 5: You know?
• 37:02
  Speaker 5: Because there are VBS programs out there, like with puppets and stuff, and so we put that on there.
• 37:06
  Speaker 5: But he also likes race cars and he also likes motorcycles.
• 37:09
  Speaker 5: So I got to select all of those things, which is great for the littles.
• 37:14
  Speaker 5: The older ones are harder, because you might be able to control a little bit about what they see, but the commercials come on and the commercials have no filter, right, and so you're like, oh what, ok, they just presented that to my child.
• 37:27
  Speaker 5: Thanks, thanks everybody.
• 37:28
  Speaker 5: And so for the olders I would I mean for me, I am just, I draw hard lines, and so you know we don't do like my daughter.
• 37:38
  Speaker 5: She's 12.
• 37:38
  Speaker 5: She does not have a phone, she does have a tablet and she has Wi-Fi.
• 37:43
  Speaker 5: But guess what, I control the Wi-Fi.
• 37:45
  Speaker 5: So if she does something truly naughty, which she doesn't, I can turn that Wi-Fi off, I can change the password and so that's easy for her there and for your teens.
• 37:55
  Speaker 5: So I just say be the counterculture.
• 38:00
  Speaker 5: And so just because they think they need a phone doesn't mean they need the phone.
• 38:06
  Speaker 5: Oh, I need to go jump off that cliff right now, mom.
• 38:07
  Speaker 5: No, you actually don't, sorry, your brain's not fully formed.
• 38:08
  Speaker 5: I'm going to be your mom.
• 38:09
  Speaker 5: You just have to draw hard lines and say no to this, no to this, no to this, or know your child and know kind of where they are.
• 38:18
  Speaker 5: But you have to also present something positive.
• 38:20
  Speaker 5: Right, that's a lot of negative.
• 38:21
  Speaker 5: No, no, no.
• 38:22
  Speaker 5: So what's a positive?
• 38:23
  Speaker 5: So I like a lot of the shows that are on Angel Studios.
• 38:28
  Speaker 5: There's Wing, feather Saga and there's Studio C.
• 38:31
  Speaker 5: I love Studio C.
• 38:32
  Speaker 5: It's clean, saturday night live, sort of skits, and so that's fun.
• 38:37
  Speaker 5: Find other things, like the littles.
• 38:39
  Speaker 5: I like Bluey.
• 38:40
  Speaker 5: I mean God is not presented in Bluey, but at least it's positive and fun.
• 38:45
  Speaker 5: So find things that the kids will enjoy, that you approve of, and maybe start right there, and that's a lot to filter through all of these things.
• 38:57
  Speaker 5: I think that's a lot.
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: We also have some hard rules around time of day when it's okay to be on a device.
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: You're not allowed to just have a device and just be on it all day long.
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: That's not how that works.
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: It shouldn't be that way in any home.
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: And if parents are doing that, and parents are just willy nilly on their phone all day long or on their device all day long, justifying that, well, I need it for work and and half the time you're just sitting there doom scrolling, you probably ought to check yourself and come up first.
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: Establish some household rules for mom and dad about their devices, like we don't do devices at the dinner table.
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: We have, you know, we have a few, just nominal rules.
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: Everybody kind of understands, but put some, put some things into play like that for the parents and then and obviously parents who do use devices and things like that for work, you can have a different rule for yourself than you have for your kids, and the kids have to accept that and go.
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: Well, mom and dad have to work.
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: I need to be at my computer to do my job or to do what I'm doing for this amount of time a day, but um, and then have some rules around the kids.
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: I made up an arbitrary rule a year ago for Maxwell.
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: He's three and you know, and he was like, well, I want to get on your phone and uh, and it just came out of my mouth one day.
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: I was like it's after 630.
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: And he doesn't even know what that means.
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: But in our house during a day, if he asks to get on my phone, I might let him do that to watch YouTube, kids or something, for a few minutes during a day, but not all day long.
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: He might have 15 or 20 minutes of that type of interaction with my device, but then I have this arbitrary it's after 6.30.
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: That sounded good to me and I think that you know you have to come up with what kind of seems sensible to you and your house and then hold that line and now you know that's just how it goes.
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: He doesn't know what it means really, but he accepts it and he just goes oh okay, it's after 6.30 and we go play with blocks or we can do something else.
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: And as a dad I have to be intentional, like Delilah said earlier.
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: You know I've got to if he's tapped me on the shoulder twice in a day and said, hey, I want to do this or would you do this with me?
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: I just stop what I'm doing, whatever, no matter how important that is to me.
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: I just generally go.
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: You know this can wait and I'll go jump on the trampoline for three minutes and then come back and get back to work and that's sufficient for him.
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: But but yeah, we have some kind of hard lines for ourselves, we've drawn some hard lines for them, and if you haven't done the research on the potential EMF dangers for kids from radiation to Bluetooth to all of this you should go check that out.
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: You should look into that.
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: It's going to give you pause and make you go.
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: Oh well, maybe we should put some more strict rules in place around how much time we spend on these things.
• 41:54
  Speaker 5: Rules in place around how much time we spend on these things.
• 41:56
  Speaker 5: The final thing I would say is create a box or an area where all the devices go.
• 42:01
  Speaker 5: So when it's like, oh, it's 830 and this is our cutoff time, everybody, all the devices go there.
• 42:08
  Speaker 5: That's where they charge, that sort of thing, and then they know when they are allowed to get back on it.
• 42:13
  Speaker 5: So if you're a homeschool mom, you're like, okay, well, once school's over tomorrow and you've had a good attitude, then you can get it back.
• 42:21
  Speaker 5: But make it a privilege to get that device back out of that area.
• 42:24
  Speaker 5: Some people need a box that they can lock up, because I have had students in the past who have confessed to me yeah, my mom tells me I'm not supposed to get on the iPad after eight, but as soon as she goes to sleep I just get on it.
• 42:38
  Speaker 5: Oh, okay.
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: Well, you're the naughty one.
• 42:41
  Speaker 3: You need a lot of boundaries, so you need to know your kids.
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we also recommend to people that if some families might want to consider a detox from devices for a minute to gauge your own addiction and so parents sometimes need to do that they may need to go.
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: You know what.
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: Let's do two weeks off and let's just everybody shuts down for two weeks.
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: We go device free for two weeks and see who's the most addicted and see who has the biggest problem.
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: Those types of two week or 30 day detoxes could be really helpful.
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: But they can have a reciprocal problematic reaction where people start to feel ashamed about device usage.
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: Parents feel guilty sitting down to check their email to us or have a kind of a contraction expansion problem around shame and we don't want that.
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: You don't want to create the essence of like a bulimia versus anorexia problem for yourself regarding your device usage.
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: You don't want to do that and so we don't shame people, we don't shame ourselves about this.
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: We just go hey, let's just have some practical ways to handle this.
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: And then some parents who may want to do the detox, but for a minute to gauge where they are as a family.
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: Some families may not need to do that.
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: They may have some reasonable rules in place.
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: The theme of our movie is make good.
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: That's it.
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: Let's make good, let's make good movies.
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: That was our dream.
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: Let's make a good movie.
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: It doesn't have to be perfect, but let's make a good one and let's make sure that it has the goodness of God in it.
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: Let's put that in there.
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: Then, from a family standpoint, let's look at our device usage and instead of going cold turkey to be like, oh no, we have all these really strict rules that kids might be tempted to rebel against, right, because that's the essence of the law.
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: Paul said that about the law that as soon as the law came, it inspired in me every desire to break the rules, and we see that in kids all the time.
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: So why would we then create all these really super strict rules around it and not be reasonable?
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: It also begs a question about well, I assume that this tech is all evil, it's all bad, and I think that is short-sighted where we as the people of God ought to look at that and go, no, we could redeem this.
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: We can actually take this technology and use it for good.
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: And so some families need to do that.
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: They need to look at it and go, hey, what's maybe a 30-day project we could do as a family to repurpose our Facebook pages or set up a give send go on behalf of a friend or a missionary or somebody we know that's sick, or can we start some sort of family project that supports widows and orphans Anything that we could do as a family.
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: And then that is what you do for your tech time.
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: It's like, well, we're not going to sit and just surf YouTube today, but we are going to get online and we're going to shoot a video.
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: We're going to start a family podcast or a vlog.
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: We're going to put something together that actually blesses people, blesses the world, takes technology and puts it into play for good.
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: And so that's our other recommendation to people is that's the proactive part.
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: You know, what we sit and dwell upon and what we think about is what we create in our lives.
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: And if we sit and just think, oh, I shouldn't be doing that, I shouldn't be doing that, oh, shame on you for getting on your phone, we're going to just create more of that for our kids and ourselves.
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: We don't want that.
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: So let's be proactive and flip the script and just go no, what can we do?
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: That's useful.
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: What can we do?
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: That's good?
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: Whatever is good, lovely, useful, excellent, praiseworthy.
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: Think on those things and apply Philippians, chapter four, to your use of technology in your house.
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: I love all of that so much.
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: You hit on both of you hit on every factual, actual thing that I think we all I shouldn't generalize, but I'm going to generalize that we're all experiencing, including the shame factor, the, you know, if you're on your phone, you're feeling like you're being judged, so you're feeling guilty.
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: You feel like you know, and I know that's an aspect for me and I don't even have small children in the house, but I, you know, doing all of the things that I do, it's all media based, it's all tech based.
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: That phone, you know, I'm surprised my hand isn't, you know, permanently in the claw shape from holding the phone.
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: It's crazy and I'm aware of it and it does.
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: It instills that sense of guilt that you know and I love that perspective shift and, and I think you know, if you're feeling that shame and that guilt, for you know, being on your phone when your kids are, you know, playing on the floor in front of you or you're on your phone while your kids are on their tablet, and all of those things, that little bit of a perspective shift on it I I think really will mobilize, uh, parents and just whether you have little kids or big kids, um, it kind of motivates you and I love the suggestions and ideas Absolutely brilliant and and I think that just that just shifts everything.
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: That was wonderful.
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: Um, now, officially, I want to talk about this movie.
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: Um, your, your lead actress there.
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: She is absolutely adorable and talented, so I want you just to walk me through the, the process, the, the idea of the movie, the, the creation, everything.
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: I'm giving you a wide berth here of a question, but I know you got this, yeah so.
• 48:35
  Speaker 5: So I think Nathan should probably start the story, because I do, but I'll start it anyway, okay.
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: So, I'll interject.
• 48:43
  Speaker 5: Okay, great, I was an actress.
• 48:46
  Speaker 5: That is how I made my living in my early twenties, in late twenties and early thirties.
• 48:52
  Speaker 5: And then I had a child.
• 48:54
  Speaker 5: I had my first child, aurora, and when I had her I went back to the theater, cause that's what I knew to do.
• 49:00
  Speaker 5: And that first show back, I felt so guilty, being of guilt, but I did.
• 49:05
  Speaker 5: I felt guilt, being away from her for hours during the day and, um, I just did not have a good time and I decided that that was the last show I was going to do for a while and I was going to be a mom and that was my priority.
• 49:19
  Speaker 5: And so I made that decision and, kind of simultaneously, nathan had a moment.
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, about the same time I had been in the media arts and in the film industry space.
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: We had done a bunch of things.
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: At that point we designed Capernaum Studios and Gardens where they shot the chosen seasons one through three.
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: I had produced three features with friends, I'd done a bunch of short films, I'd worked as an art director, I'd worked as an actor and I had just had this variety of artistic experiences for over a decade.
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: And then, right about that point, when she made that shift, the Lord grabbed me by the scruff of the neck sort of, and I was like what, and I was feeling rather cynical about some of what I'd been involved in.
• 50:07
  Speaker 2: I had just come off of a feature that really was just a mainstream feature, I was working as a producer and it just beat me up psychologically and spiritually.
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: I came off of it and I was just kind a producer and it just beat me up psychologically and spiritually.
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: Like I came off of it and I was just kind of tired and fatigued and um, and I want my life to uh serve God in, in in the way that it can through what I do.
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: Uh, but I really wasn't feeling gratified.
• 50:29
  Speaker 2: And when I and when I got to the core of like why do I not feel gratified?
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: It was like, well, what we just made is pretty much worthless and has no redeeming quality, no redeeming value.
• 50:40
  Speaker 2: And one of the things that's important to me is mission and helps drive me not motivated by much except mission and purpose and I kind of got grabbed by the scruff of the neck.
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: It's like, hey, you need to straighten yourself out.
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: And when I got really serious before the Lord, I was just like what, what do you want?
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: And those of you who pray and or have had this type of experience will understand what I'm talking about.
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: But it became very clear to me in a conversation with the Lord that I needed to sell my house, I needed to sell a truck.
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: And that was terrifying to me because it put me on my heels and as a preacher's kid, I was like, oh God, please don't put me in a pulpit.
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: I don't want to, please don't make me do what my dad was doing.
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: I got into that headspace and we started talking and she, being who she is, just said let's go, what are we doing?
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: And I was like I don't know, but we're selling the house, we're selling the truck.
• 51:43
  Speaker 2: We just had a baby, so very weird time to do that.
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: It felt very strange and out of place sort of.
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: But on the flip side of that, after kind of praying and thinking about what to do, where to go from here do I need to get out of the arts and out of the film space?
• 52:01
  Speaker 2: What do I need to do?
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: Do I need to just go get a normal job?
• 52:04
  Speaker 2: But we were clearly sent back, irrespective of one another.
• 52:09
  Speaker 2: I came to her, said hey, I've been thinking about this.
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: She said stop, I know we're going to make a movie and um, and so we kind of got sent back into the space, but with more of a mission, and that was let's go back into the space, let's make something, but let's keep God in mind, let's make sure that what we're doing has a heart and a mission and that's not just flippant or willy nilly or it's not ambitiously motivated, it's motivated for a kingdom purpose.
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: And uh, and that was what we came back to, and so that's that's how we got in.
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: But the the getting to your question, which is sarah, sarah grace prajan, our lead actor.
• 52:49
  Speaker 2: She's a byproduct of delitha's voice studio and the life ended up just one afternoon sitting down at the laptop and started cranking out what became this script.
• 53:01
  Speaker 2: And as we discussed how and who, and all of that, sarah Grace became the answer to our casting question.
• 53:11
  Speaker 5: And so she and along with the, the actor Steven Newton, who plays Ty they were both in the last show I did, um, and so we had this great kid cast.
• 53:21
  Speaker 5: I did a lot of children's theater and they were these talented actors and I taught them both voice lessons, um, through that theater.
• 53:29
  Speaker 5: And I just, you know, as I was, I hadn't, I didn't have them in mind when I was writing it.
• 53:34
  Speaker 5: I didn't have anyone in mind.
• 53:35
  Speaker 5: I had one person in mind that I thought would play the lead, and then when I saw her after it was written, she had aged up.
• 53:41
  Speaker 5: She looked like a teenager even though she was like 12.
• 53:44
  Speaker 5: And so we just opened up the casting call to kids that I knew that were professional actors in the area, and they came in and those kids were just the perfect answer to the casting.
• 53:58
  Speaker 5: Sarah has such a great voice, she's such a tremendous talent and she's just got that snarky attitude that we were kind of looking for and she's so perfect for it.
• 54:09
  Speaker 2: She was, interestingly, as it should be, the last kid to actually audition.
• 54:13
  Speaker 2: We'd had a long audition day, uh, after several rounds of auditions, looking who's going to play aria, because it has to be very specific kind of snark and a very specific kind of uh attitude who can show both the shadow side of that character.
• 54:30
  Speaker 2: And we also believe, uh, the narration of that story and the end of that story, that she's gone through a transformation.
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: We believe that, oh, she's turned over a new leaf and so she had to be able to do both.
• 54:42
  Speaker 2: That's a tricky thing for a 10-year-old and it's funny because she does truly, I think, have a soft, gooey center.
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: But she does have a rather sharp edge on her at 10 years old and is super smart.
• 54:57
  Speaker 2: And when she came in and auditioned, I looked her in the eyes and I saw that snarky old soul down in there who was looking back and who had sung her heart out for us.
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: I looked at Delilah.
• 55:10
  Speaker 2: I was like that's her.
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: I was like that is her.
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: I love that.
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: I love that.
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: You just, you just knew like they always say that, right, when you know, you know, and you guys knew, you knew that was your girl right there.
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: I love that.
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: That is terrific.
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: Um so how long, how long did it take from like a conception to having it in front of us?
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: It's on, uh, Amazon prime, correct?
• 55:34
  Speaker 5: Yes, it's on Prime Video, absolutely Prime Video, thank you.
• 55:37
  Speaker 5: You can buy or rent it, and then we also have a soundtrack, because it is a musical, and so you can find the soundtrack on Amazon Music, itunes, itunes Music right now.
• 55:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and it took a lot longer than we thought it was going to take.
• 55:55
  Speaker 2: It was kind of cool, though.
• 55:56
  Speaker 2: From inception to distribution at this point it has taken almost 10 years.
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: We won the ICVM Gold Crown Award last year for Best Feature Comedy and we were also nominated for Best Picture at ICVM, next to Jesus, revolution and Sound of Freedom.
• 56:19
  Speaker 2: And one of our actors, julie K Rhodes, opened the program when we were at ICVM and she said check it out, you guys were nominated for Best Picture.
• 56:28
  Speaker 2: And she said, next to Sound of freedom.
• 56:30
  Speaker 2: And I looked at her and I said well, that's ironic.
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: It took sound of freedom 10 years to get made and that's approximately what it took us to get out to.
• 56:38
  Speaker 2: So we felt like that was kind of a God wink for us, like, uh, you know, it was like hey, it's okay, they had a lot of money and some big stars and you didn't have that.
• 56:48
  Speaker 2: You had five loaves and two fish and and what and and and original idea, and and you're both here at the same time, and and.
• 57:04
  Speaker 2: So we that that was helpful for us.
• 57:05
  Speaker 2: But it took about 60 days to shoot the movie with a bunch of kids who were non-union kids, across evenings, weekends, christmas break, spring break, stuff like that it took.
• 57:12
  Speaker 2: It took from Christmas to spring break to get everything in the can and then we had about a year of initial post-production.
• 57:20
  Speaker 2: We went to festival, probably too early because I wasn't really done with it, but we had a reasonable festival cut of the movie.
• 57:30
  Speaker 2: We went to several faith and family festivals.
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: We got rejected by some kind of mainstream kid festivals.
• 57:38
  Speaker 2: We got a nasty letter from a mainstream kid festival who said how dare you try to influence point?
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: And then in 2019,.
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: We did our last festival of that cycle at Content Media in Texas and I'd had some offers for distribution at that point, but I couldn't turn loose of it, and when I got honest with myself about why, why?
• 58:14
  Speaker 2: As a filmmaker, I just said you're not finished, you're not done with it.
• 58:18
  Speaker 2: So you, you have something else you want to do.
• 58:20
  Speaker 2: I did have a list about a hundred things I wanted to fix.
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: Just little things that would, that were little sacred cows for me that were going to help me sleep better at night, and so I set out on a mission to do that.
• 58:32
  Speaker 2: That was October 2019.
• 58:35
  Speaker 2: It took until February 2020 to kind of get organized for that second post and we put it back in post and I had it open on a timeline to start fixing it.
• 58:50
  Speaker 2: March 21st of 2020, when the pandemic like, like everybody locked down and I went what I was like no, and instead of using that season to hunker down and be at home and edit, we kind of had our legs knocked out from under us financially and so we had to pivot and it took another two years to get through post.
• 59:16
  Speaker 2: So I printed the master in September 22 and we went back to festival and that's when we but at that point we had a better product.
• 59:25
  Speaker 2: Uh, I was happy I had finally abandoned it the way you're supposed to.
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: They say films are never finished, they're only abandoned, and that is true.
• 59:35
  Speaker 2: You just get to a point where, like, okay, I can sleep at night, I think I'm done.
• 59:46
  Speaker 2: And so we moved on and went to content media again.
• 59:47
  Speaker 2: They thankfully brought us back through for another cycle.
• 59:49
  Speaker 2: We ended up at Christian Worldview, nominated for Best Picture and several other festivals no-transcript criminal, you know and and we just we got to a point where, like, I don't think we can go this direction.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 2: And I nearly got, nearly signed a distribution contract about seven or eight months ago and got my hand slapped and and I was like, okay, lord, not that.
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 2: Then what, then what?
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 2: And so as soon as we decided to self-distribute through Prime Video, we picked up some momentum again and the opportunity to take it out, some money for marketing.
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 2: It was like the ship began to sail again.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 2: At that point we went okay, this is intended to, we're soft, releasing this through.
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 5: We're homeschooling her.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 2: We're homeschooling the movie.
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 2: That's what we're doing there you go.
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: I love that.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: I especially love your, and I envy your patience and, of course, your perseverance with this and your faith in what you guys had created, because that is a long journey and, by the way, not terribly different from writing books and that whole process.
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: As an author, I can tell you that it's all of that.
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: I never do any conventions and things like that, or festivals, which would be, I guess, the equivalent of of the film festivals and all of that.
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: Um, but so much respect and admiration for for the process that you guys went through and, of course, dealing with everything that you're dealing with, uh, at home, you know.
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: So you have this work life that you're you're working through and and, in the meanwhile, home life, which, of course, talks finances and crosses over into that work life big time, you know.
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: So huge kudos to both of you for for sticking with this and putting out something that's really very special and and I I so look forward to seeing what else you guys are going to be putting out in the future.
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: I have a feeling it's going to be just more great things.
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: I'm putting in a personal request for, uh, listen, I've been asking somebody to do a, a just a really good quality sitcom.
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: I was pushing for my own sitcom, listen.
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 5: I don't think that's going to happen you, I have one.
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 5: Thank you.
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I have a part for you too, if you want it like it's, of course I do.
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's a comedy.
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: Yes, that's my dream.
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: So, yes, and so there we go.
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I see we put it out there and now we have to make it happen.
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: We do, oh, I can't thank you both enough for coming on.
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: Your inspiration, your motivation and your information has been just, I think, so invaluable to parents.
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: And, of course, the movie.
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: I'm so excited to be sharing info about that for people to show your kids get to watch something that you're not going to be cringing about.
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: How exciting is that for parents in this day and age?
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: Right, if you could tell everybody where to find you guys, what you have coming up next.
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: Tell them, of course, one more time where to find you guys what you have coming up next.
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: Tell them, of course, one more time, where to find the movie, where they can rent it, download it, buy it, all of the good things and the soundtrack.
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: So give them all that info one last time.
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 5: So if you can only remember one thing, remember ariaappletoncom, a-r-i-a apple, like you eat it, and then ton T-O-N.
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 5: Ariaappletoncom, because that'll get you everywhere you need to go.
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 5: But if you can remember more, or if it's in the show notes, then also go to Prime Video and look up Aria Appleton.
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 5: That's all you have to type for it to come up.
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 5: You can buy it or rent it.
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 5: If you're there on the Amazon portal, wherever you are, then the soundtrack will come up as well and you can purchase or you can go to iTunes or Apple Music for that.
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 5: We also have a parent and leaders guide that I briefly mentioned and this is a tool for you, for parents, for youth leaders.
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 5: It's great conversation starters and there's worksheets for the little so that they can do little dot to dots and that sort of thing while they're listening to the conversations with you and the bigs, and so that you can find at give, send gocom, backslash Aria Appleton, and you can give a penny or give more.
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 5: Whatever you give, you'll get the leaders and youth the parent and leaders guide.
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 2: We're also adding to that a some suggestions about instead of.
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 2: You know you might need to do a 30-day detox from tech, but we're also suggesting a make good challenge that we're going to provide along with that.
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 2: If you go to GiveSingo and do that, that gives you some ideas about some things you can do at home and some challenges and how to utilize that, how to take tech and use it for good, like we were talking about earlier.
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 5: And then we would love to connect with everyone on social media.
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 5: So aria appleton has her own page.
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 5: It's the film on instagram and facebook tiktok, um.
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 5: And then we also have a youtube page, which is uh, the youtube page is grafted studios, which is our production company, but if you type in aria appleton or Aria Appleton shines, things will pop up and we would love for people to like our YouTube page, um, and then just connect with us.
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and in terms of what's next, uh, we have, like you said, it's funny.
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 2: One of our next projects that we're working on is um, another kind of satirical, um episodic show.
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 2: Um, that's more adult friendly.
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 2: It's obviously still within the bounds of what we're writing, but it's not specifically for kids.
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 2: But we also have another kid series that's completely written.
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 2: That is more like high concept, high intelligence kids television that we've seen in the last decade, from Malcolm in the Middle to Gordimer Gibbons and some shows of that style.
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 2: So we have one that does have more of a biblical, ideological backdrop and so that one's ready to go.
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 2: We really like to do that.
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 2: So those are kind of in the works, in the pipeline.
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 2: This summer we're off for this podcast tour that we're participating in now and August 2nd through the 9th, I am directing Film Camp with the Chosen at Camp Hoblitzel, which is where the sets are, if you're following the TV series, the Chosen, and so if you've got kids between the age of 13 and 23, and they're interested in film, musical theater or acting for camera, they can go through that camp and it is a fantastic camp.
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 2: Kirk B Waller, who plays Gaius on the Chosen, is our acting for camera instructor along with me and Delitha.
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 2: I'm directing the film unit on the whole.
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 2: Delitha's directing music for the musical theater side of camp and BJ Foreman, who's the art department coordinator for the Chosen, is directing a musical theater camp within that campus.
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 2: So really cool teens and young adults it's fun there's horseback riding and ziplining.
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 5: It's just like a true summer camp.
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 2: Camp Hobbitzall is an epic 1500 acre summer camp, Super cool place.
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 2: Plus they get to meet cast and crew of the chosen and that's.
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 2: That's a nifty experience for everybody.
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: So absolutely yeah, wow, I, you know, I I don't.
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: In my whole adult life I don't think I've ever said, gee, I wish I could be a kid again.
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: Until now, because that sounds so amazing, as a first and only time ever that I'll say, gosh, I would love to be a kid again because I would be there so fast.
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: That sounds absolutely amazing, oh, my goodness.
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: Well, thank you both again so much for coming on the show and sharing all of this.
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: Your next project listen, you guys have an open invite, come back anytime, share whatever you have going on.
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: I would love that so much and it's been so great talking with you both.
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: Thank, you.
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 2: Thank you Likewise.
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 2: We've loved it and we appreciate being here with you today.
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: Absolutely All right guys.
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: Well, you got so much information out of that.
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: I got so much information out of that.
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: I'm going to try and sneak into that camp.
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: Do you think anybody will notice?
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: I've lost some weight.
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: I'm kind of short, I might fit in there.
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 2: Let's go, let's go, come on down.
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: Oh my goodness.
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: Thank you guys so much for watching.
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: All of that information will be in the show notes, so you'll be able to find everything with just a couple of clicks of your mouse.
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: We'll take care and we'll see you next time.
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: Bye-bye.