Latest / For All Nerds Show / Seven Reasons Why Pokemon Trainers Are Pure Evil?!? (Tony Weaver Jr Talks Pokemon, Lanterns & More)

Transcript

Seven Reasons Why Pokemon Trainers Are Pure Evil?!? (Tony Weaver Jr Talks Pokemon, Lanterns & More) · For All Nerds Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's all Pokemon related. No one's killing like real people.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: They're like stealing Pokemon.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: But there's crime. There's crime. There's Team Rocket. There's Officer Jenny's.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's Pokemon related crime.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Pokemon crime.
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: And welcome in the next to a new episode of
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: For All Nerds. As usual, you know we bring you
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: the goods when it comes to the most incredible creatives
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: in the fandom space. And of course, we have the
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: incomparable Tony Weaver Jr., an award-winning educator, philanthropist, motivational speaker, author,
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: and voice actor who uses his platform to challenge the
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: status quo and shift the world towards passionate creativity and acceptance.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Tony Weaver Jr., welcome to the spaceship.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Hello, hello.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: How are you doing today? Thank you so much for
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: coming through.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: I'm having a great time. There's a lot of travel
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: going on, but I'm feeling good. I'm feeling good.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: All right, cool, cool.
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: Actually, I was just talking to you about how we
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: just saw you recently at New York Comic Con, how
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: we prefer New York Comic Con.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Comic Con is so fun because it's about the people, right?
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: What I love the most about you is about you
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: are about the people.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Everything you do is about changing the world.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: That is the goal.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: That is the goal, right?
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I don't mean that in a hyperbolic sense.
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: I think in the way that you approach when you're
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: doing your content, when you are speaking to people, we
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: mentioned you're a motivational speaker, that you make it known
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: that everyone can be themselves. And I think that's really paramount.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: It's something that we hold very dear here at For
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: All Nerds. And it's something that you had said recently
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: towards that. You were like, being normal is a scam.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: It is. Being normal is a scam. It is one
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: of the most comprehensive... wide-reaching scams that we have been
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: taught to accept. I actually think that a significant amount
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: of the status quo requires an overwhelming quorum of people
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: falling for that scam. So that normalcy is what I
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: fight against. There is no normal. The only norms that
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: we create are the ones that we choose. We're allowed
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: to create what our norms are. Normalcy is not something
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: that can be put on us. It's something that we
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: get to pick and negotiate and establish. And I want
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: people to wake up to that power.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: And that is interesting that you say that because there
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: is power in understanding that I guess there's no default, right?
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: Like we are given like a false understanding of what
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: the default is, right? You know, straight white male typically, right?
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: But when you look at it, when you look at
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: the world, like that is the least of it, right?
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: Like that's actually the minority.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: And I think people don't realize that, but the not
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: normal is the majority. What do you think about that?
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: Well, I think that ultimately acceptance is something that humans
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: are hardwired to yearn for. but kind of in this
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: rat race, hamster wheel type of society that we live in.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: What we are told is that you will gain acceptance
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: at the expense of personal sacrifice. You sacrifice who you are.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: You sacrifice the way that you would like to present.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: You sacrifice what you believe. You sacrifice how you feel
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: in order to become normal and therefore gain acceptance. So
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: you end up as a part of this kind of
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: homogenous group Meanwhile, everybody else in the group is mourning
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: what they sacrificed to be a part of the group.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: But nobody talks about it because we all think that
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: we're the only ones that had to sacrifice something to
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: get here. I think there's a way to kind of
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: put that on its head and say, no, the way
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: that you find acceptance is by embracing the things that
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: make you different. There's something that all of us bring
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: to the table and we need all of those things.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: We don't need everybody to be uniform. We don't need
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: everybody to be 100 percent the same. everybody has a
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: different piece of the puzzle that they hold and we'll
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: never get the full picture. Everybody doesn't show up with
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: their piece.
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: I want to add to that, maybe showing up at
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: your full self, right? Or learning who you are and
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: allowing that to be.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah. It's, I mean, it's a, it's a journey. I
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: think it's easier to be normal than it is to
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: be who you actually are. Cause for normalcy, there is a,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: there's a structure. There's an archetype. There's a generally accepted
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: right or wrong. You think about like, I think about
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: stuff from the 90s and the in the early 2000s
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: that kind of saturizes high school culture. You think of
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: like heathers, you think of mean girls and the specific
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: archetypes that kids get split in. It's like, oh, those
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: archetypes have rules. It's very easy for me to pick
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: and choose which one I want to be because I
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: know exactly what I need to become in order to
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: fit in that box. Whereas being yourself is a much
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: more ethereal thing. the boundaries aren't as clear. And sometimes
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: you feel like you're right in the center and you
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: have an understanding and who you are as a person
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: can change. I think about like in 2018, 2019, 2020,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: if you were to bump into me, my clothes were
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: very tight. I was like, I would like, my clothes
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: were like very form fitting in part because where I
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: was at the time, is that I felt like it
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: was extraordinarily necessary for me to present as masculine as possible.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: And that's how I felt at the time. It felt
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: right at the time. It's like, I'm working out five,
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: six days a week. I'm running three miles a day.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: I'm doing all this boxing. When people look at me,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: I need them to know that I'm strong. And that
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: was like something that was super important for me. So
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: even when the clothes were uncomfortable, It was like, yeah,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: but look at how it wraps around my muscles. Like
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: you can tell that I work out when you see me.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: That's how I felt at that point in time. You
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: look at me today, all of my clothes are like
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: really loose. I don't really care about whether you can
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: see my muscle definition or not because the masculinity isn't
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: necessarily what I'm trying to, like it's not what I'm
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: prioritizing right now. Like Tony back then prioritized that. Tony
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: today is like, I want to be comfortable, bro. I,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: I just want to like, uh, I, I, I want
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: to feel like, like a, like a, a, a roaming
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: wise man in the desert, the wind blows and the
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: pleats and folds on my clothes, billow in the wind. Um,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: I just want to be a lot more chill and relax,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: but both of those people were me 2018. Tony is
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: Tony 2026. Tony is Tony. Um, and it's, uh, it's
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: a journey as you kind of like shift and grow
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: and move and change. But it's a journey that I
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: think is like worth taking. It's a journey worth going on.
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 6:55
  Speaker 5: Often those journeys are not solo, right? Like you get
• 6:58
  Speaker 5: to that place with yourself. Like the idea of acceptance
• 7:01
  Speaker 5: changes once you kind of find the community that accepts
• 7:04
  Speaker 5: you as you are and you're allowed to like unfurl
• 7:07
  Speaker 5: that part of you. Could you speak to like how
• 7:09
  Speaker 5: community has been part of your journey and like how
• 7:12
  Speaker 5: does that suit and change how you feel about yourself
• 7:15
  Speaker 5: and perception itself?
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: Well, I think it's interesting. I definitely got a lot
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: of new friends. I meet a lot of new people.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: I incorporate people into my community, but I think like
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: my base, my core group, like the people that you
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: call when the chips are down, they've been rolling with
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: me for a really long time. My inner circle has
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: not necessarily changed, but as we've matured, and kind of
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: learned more about ourselves, learned more about the world. I
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: like to think that we positively influence each other. I
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: think the biggest change in my community is that I
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: have a friend named James who is older than me.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: So James is like one of my best friends, but
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: in many ways he treats me like a grumpy uncle.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: That's kind of what our relationship was like. So I
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: think a lot of people can attest as you move
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: through your 20s and you start hanging out with older
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: people where there's a little bit of an age gap,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: you care about fewer things because there's a person next
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: to you that's like, this literally doesn't matter. Why do we, like,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: why are we dedicating time to this? And even now,
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: some of the young nerds that have had the fortune
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: or misfortune, depending on what day you catch them, to
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: be pulled under my wing, when I hang out with them, like,
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: I have some protégés that are in their early 20s
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: and they'll come to me with paragraphs and paragraphs and
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: paragraphs and my response will be like, why does this matter?
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: Like this, like this specific thing that you just like
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: poured your soul out to me for is like, we're
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: in an emotional place. I get it. But like, why
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: does this matter? I'm actually struggling to understand the significance
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: of this. As I think like, as you get in
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: community with people, a different walks of life, you learn
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: to let go. If that makes sense. 100%.
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: I mean, and this is everything you're saying now is
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: really indicative also of what you speak about in your book, Weirdo. Like,
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: I think that you talk about, you know, coming into
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: your power and finding your power. That's a very powerful
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: tool that you've created and that you've been able to
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: utilize as you go along the country. You've been traveling
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: a lot, talking to different people, trying to help them
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: find their voice.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: You know, when you released that book, like, how did
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: you feel? Like, were you like, this is going to
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: be amazing? Or you were like, I am I'm scared
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: as hell. Like, how did you feel?
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: So I think there are a variety of things to
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: give context. I think weirdo, the work that I'm doing
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: with Nerds for Literacy and even the social media content
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: that I do is really positive on the surface. But
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: underneath that, it is rooted in a belief that I
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: personally will not be enough for whatever change I want
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: to see in the world. I look at the world.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: I say things need to move. Things need to shift.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: I look in the mirror at myself and I go, bro,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: it won't be you. It's not going to be you.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: You like. all this stuff that you want to change
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: all these ways that you think the world can be better.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: It won't be you. You are fallible. You are one dude.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: It's not going to be you flipping a switch. There's
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: no hero's journey of you like climbing to the top
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: of Mount Olympus and like, and like doing something. And
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: then all of a sudden the world just gets better.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: The only way that this happens is through the coordinated
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: efforts of lots of people, people that are going to
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: have solutions and pieces of the puzzle that you don't have.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: So in everything that I do, the goal is it
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: won't be me, but I can help empower the person
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: that it will be. So when I wrote Weirdo, that
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: was the goal. That was the call, the kind of,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: thing that i was putting out into the space and
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: putting out into the world was uh dear change maker
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: wherever you are your journey is going to be difficult
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: at some point and i need you to be equipped
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: for it when those difficulties happen this book is the
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: best sword that i can give you these tools are
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: the best knowledge that i can give you um and
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: that's kind of that's what the uh the the point
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: of view for the book was so when it's time
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: for that to come out there's a weight to it
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: right number one i'm scared because i know how the
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: publishing industry treats black authors so there's a fear right
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: for black authors and for their stories for them for
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: them to kind of receive mainstream support and appeal uh
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: you kind of have to appease the powers that be
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: There was a book that I won't name written by
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: a non-black author. And before that book came out, it
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: was this author's debut. I looked at the entire trajectory
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: of that book. I said, month one, they sold this much.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: Month two, they sold this much. Month three, they sold
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: this much. And then after month three, they got put
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: in the Scholastic Book Fair and then Target added them
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: on the shelves in their stores and their sales shot up.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: And they became a New York Times bestseller. And then
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: this happened. And then this happened. And then this happened.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: And I said, these are the numbers that I'll use
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: as a benchmark. So imagine my surprise when we come
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: out month one outselling that person by at least two,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: three X. And we're not a New York Times bestseller.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: And interesting how that works.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: Scholastic don't call. And Target, who wasn't being boycotted at
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: the time, I think my publisher went back to their
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: buyers three times. And they were like, yeah, no, we're
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: not interested.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: And it wasn't about vanity. It was just that these
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: are the kind of vain metrics that the publishing industry
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: uses to determine whose books get the privilege to be
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: in front of kids. And I think that entire time,
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: I couldn't even appreciate the fact that the book was
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: out and that the book was done because I'm like,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: writing the book is one thing. Producing the book is
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: one thing. Selling the book. It's an entirely different thing.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: And there's so much that's outside of my control. And
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: that's kind of where my mindset was. That's what I
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: was thinking about.
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: And in that, like, besides what you do personally, just
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: online on your channels, like now you have this book,
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: you have all this stuff going and you are becoming
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: a highly visible person. I know you had, you had
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: said in an interview, you were like, you were surprised
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: people knew your name. And I'm like, at this point,
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: how are you surprised? But also it's kind.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: Of like, how do you deal with that now that,
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: and I don't know if that's, you know, antithesis to
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: how you feel as a person.
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: Like, do you like being visible and out there?
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: Do you prefer kind of being chill?
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: I got visible at the right time. I think if
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: I had gotten visible before I sorted my own personal
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: stuff out, I would not be able to handle the
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: spotlight very well. There's a joke that I tell that
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: like inside of me, there is a sad, bullied 14
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: year old that just wants to be loved. And I
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: think if you let that guy pilot the ship, if
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: you give that guy the wheel when millions of people
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: are watching, you're going to end up in some nonsense
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: like really fast. So I'm glad that I got to
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: a point where I could heal that kid before the
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: responsibility of like a large platform presented itself. So now
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: I think... I see visibility as a means to an end.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: The bottom line is there are some things that people
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: just don't care about unless you got a number attached
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: to your name. So for me, any platform that I
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: build or any community that I put together is never
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: for the sake of vanity. It's never for the sake
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: of me being seen. It's more that in order to
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: be heard in the world that we're in today, one
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: must be seen first. I'm still surprised that people know
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: who I am. but I'm grateful that they do because
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: visibility lends itself to opportunities. And I'm confident enough in
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: myself that I'll use those opportunities for something good. You
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: won't catch me selling crypto or, or like gambling platforms
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: or trying to put negative messages into the hearts and
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: minds of kids. So I think, The visibility still surprises me,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: but I'm confident that I'll do the right thing with it.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: And I'm also like, if I don't do the right
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: thing with it, I think I've built a community both
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: in my personal life and in my online life that
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: are like, hey, bro, not a good look. Hey, I
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: don't this thing come off the way that you thought
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: it did. And I think that'll be that'll be like good.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: Like that's for me.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: You did mention that 14-year-old, you know, the scared 14-year-old,
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: the person that you were and maybe continuously are working
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: to heal. And I know that anime has been one of.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: Those healing factors for you.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: Like, was there a specific anime or characters that really
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: spoke to you or what really pulled you out? Because
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: you've been through a lot, Tony. You've been through a
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: lot personally and a lot of challenges. So I would
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: love to know.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: Well, I think it's actually really interesting. Yeah. There is
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: an anime called Eureka 7. Yep. came out in the
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: early two thousands. Um, and that show like means a
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: lot to me. That's still, that's still kind of like my,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: my comfort show. I learned so much from that show,
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: but what's interesting now is that as a voice actor,
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: it's like Renton Thurston is played by Johnny Young Bosch.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: I see Johnny Young Bosch in places now. Um, we
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: haven't worked on a show together, but like I see
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: Johnny Young Bosch in places now it's like, Oh, hello. Um,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: Stephanie Shea is the voice of Ereka, uh, And I
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: met Stephanie Shea a couple of weeks ago and that
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: was like huge. It's like, Oh, you're a, you're a person.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: Like you're a real person. I mean, like I knew
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: that cause, cause I voiced that characters too, but like,
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: it's so weird to think that the people that were
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: like your lifelines could one day be your, your coworkers.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: When I walked into the booth for the first anime
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: that I ever booked snowball or the dove was produced
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: by bang zoom and mommy Okada of the, the, co-founder
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: of bang zoom head of the organization. Mommy was the
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: dub director for a wreck of seven. So the same,
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: the same dub director that put together that show that
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: like changed my life, her, my voice and was like, Oh,
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: let's get them in the mix. And also my director
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: for that first show played the character moon doggy in
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: a wreck of seven. So it's like, wow, life is circular.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: There are some very interesting kind of bookmark moments.
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: I was going to say, do you believe in Providence
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: at that point?
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's certainly something going on. There's certainly something happening. Yeah.
• 18:03
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it sounds like part of your soul knew that
• 18:07
  Speaker 5: not only was it speaking to you whenever you were
• 18:09
  Speaker 5: watching the anime, but it was like the people who
• 18:12
  Speaker 5: were putting that all together for you were there to
• 18:15
  Speaker 5: be there for you when you were ready. It was like,
• 18:18
  Speaker 5: when you're ready, we'll be here for you. When you're
• 18:20
  Speaker 5: ready to be part of the journey and work on
• 18:22
  Speaker 5: your heel, we'll be here for you. When you're ready
• 18:24
  Speaker 5: to be on the next step, we see it for you.
• 18:26
  Speaker 5: We're ready for you to be here with us. That's
• 18:28
  Speaker 5: what it sounds like. It kind of sounds like that's
• 18:31
  Speaker 5: also kind of the... way that you're approaching how you
• 18:35
  Speaker 5: like are writing and like how you're being thoughtful to
• 18:38
  Speaker 5: reaching kids and other readers, what led you to be
• 18:42
  Speaker 5: a reader and what do you hope comes from the,
• 18:47
  Speaker 5: like your greatest wish for Nerds for Literacy?
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: Well, my mom was really strict. It was like, you
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: get a, you, you get a strict PhD educated black
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: woman as your mom. Please understand the books are not optional.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: Mandatory.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah. The books will appear. I think that for nerds,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: for literacy, it's inspired in some ways. It's going to
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: be a really roundabout thing, but I promise it'll make sense.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: A fun fact about me is that the first performing
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: arts training that I had was at the Tupac Shakur
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: Center for the Arts. His family members were teachers at
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: the center. His sister, Satua, who we call Aunt Set,
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: was my first poetry teacher there. And Tupac has a
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: quote where he says, I'm not saying that I am
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: going to change the world, but I do think I
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: will influence the person that will. When we were in
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: that program, it was called Pox Kids. There was like
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: a statue of Tupac at the center. And you hear
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: that quote and you think like, oh, he's talking about me. Oh,
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: it's going to be me. Oh, it's going to be me.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: But Nerds for Literacy is my way of kind of
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: carrying that baton and that torch forward. Because Tupac was like,
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying I'm going to be the one to
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: change the world, but I will inspire the person that will.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: And he passes that torch to me via a performing
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: arts center that he had in his will that he
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: wanted to be built before he passed. He passes that
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: torch to me and I hold it and I look
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: at it and I go. It won't be me either,
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: but we will inspire the person that it will be.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: And Nerds for Literacy, what we want to build is.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: Just like a national literacy network of nerdy teachers and
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: librarians getting resources into the hands of kids. I think nerddom,
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: nerdy materials, nerdy stories, fantasy, adventure, anime, magic, sci-fi, technology.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: These are the stories that I think can defeat the
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: youth literacy crisis. I think the way that we think
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: about reading and how we socialize kids around reading just
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: fundamentally has to change. And Nerds for Literacy, my goal
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: is to do that. I think about Dolly Parton and
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: the Dolly Parton Imagination Library and what she was able
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: to build, this kind of comprehensive tool for kids ages
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: zero through five. Majority of philanthropic and charitable efforts for education,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: expressing around literacy, focus on kids that are grade five
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: or lower. When they're babies, when they can't talk back
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: to us, And when they're so cute that your empathy
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: doesn't turn off, that's where most of the resources go.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: And that's important because I think early education establishes the
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: trajectory for a child's life. They say that if you're
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: not reading on grade level by third grade, then you
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: are in a really, really bad place. But there's a
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: sixth grader somewhere right now that's not reading on grade level.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: And that kid needs help. We can't give up on
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: him for the rest of his life because he's not
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: reading on grade level in the sixth grade. There has
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: to be some sort of intervention for those kids, for
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: the kids that are in juvenile detention centers, for the
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: kids that we call troublemakers. When he was in the
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: third grade, you would have given him a book. Now
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: he's in the eighth grade and you clutch your purse
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: when he walks by. He's still a kid and he
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: needs support. And I want nerds for literacy to do that.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: I hope that Over the course of the next decade
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: or so, we're able to grow to a scale where
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: we can fit in an ecosystem with a Dolly Parton
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: imagination library.
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: I love that. I love Dolly. I'm into Misty.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: I heard that.
• 22:39
  Speaker 5: I heard about the Maginational Library. I was like, oh,
• 22:41
  Speaker 5: this is amazing. I already love her, but this is
• 22:44
  Speaker 5: even more. So you taking up the torch and you
• 22:47
  Speaker 5: seeing that from Inspo and that leading it, I'm sure
• 22:50
  Speaker 5: that's exactly the energy that Tupac and Dolly both wanted
• 22:53
  Speaker 5: is people to take Inspo for them and to move forward.
• 22:56
  Speaker 5: But I also think it's very interesting that you noted
• 22:58
  Speaker 5: that the way that we talk about literacy and reading to.
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: Kids is very.
• 23:03
  Speaker 5: it's been this way for generations where they kind of
• 23:06
  Speaker 5: put reading as this like elite thing to do rather
• 23:08
  Speaker 5: than like make it easy. And I think graphic novels
• 23:11
  Speaker 5: and anime and manga, they do like have like a
• 23:14
  Speaker 5: space in helping kids build that relationship with readings that
• 23:18
  Speaker 5: it's not so stodgy an idea. So I guess like
• 23:21
  Speaker 5: one question I wanted to ask you like fandom related is,
• 23:25
  Speaker 5: and I think it's related to like being able to
• 23:27
  Speaker 5: actually insert yourself into a story is if you were
• 23:30
  Speaker 5: to isekai yourself into any universe, Which universe would you
• 23:34
  Speaker 5: choose to be part of?
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's easy. I'm going to the Pokemon universe. There's
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: no crime. No, no, no. It's all Pokemon related. No
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: one's killing like real people. They're like stealing Pokemon.
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: But there's crime. There's crime. There's Team Rocket. There's Officer Jenny's.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's Pokemon related crime.
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: Pokemon crime. It's not people crime.
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: Fake Pokemon daycare crime.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Think about the level of universal health care required
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: for Pokemon centers to be free, bro. there's no, you've
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: never had to pay to take your Pokemon to a
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: Pokemon center.
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: This is true. I would have, I.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: Would have a great time and I would be a
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: gym leader, but I would do, I would do double
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: battles at my gym. Like you gotta, you, you, you gotta,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: you gotta tag team at my gym. And what I
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: would be famous for is I would have a Snorlax
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: and a Golurk and I would throw them out at
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: the same time. And they kind of like, they kind
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: of like fuse. Cause like Golurk is a, He's a
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: ghost suit of armor. So Snorlax would like don the
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: suit of armor and it'd be really cool. I would
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: be undefeated. The Elite Four would be very upset. They'd
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: be like, we have no competitors because no one can
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: beat your gym. Oh, I was going to ask you
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: about Elite Four. Yeah, sorry, bro. You're not getting a
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: Tony badge. It is what it is. Sorry about it.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: No Tony Bash for you.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, not getting it. Not getting it.
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: That's hilarious.
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: Tony, you've been phenomenal in this. Before you go, we're
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: going to have a quick rap segment. That's really just
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: quick fire questions. Just a few of them.
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: You ready?
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: I'm ready.
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: Batman or Superman?
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: Ooh, I'm going to go Superman. Even though right now
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: I'm very much in Lantern territory. You can put them
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: both down.
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: I see.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: I'll go hang out with the core.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: Pokemon related, the original 151 or now the current modern version?
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: I'm going to go modern because I get to keep
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: the 151. I get to keep the base people. I
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: think Ruby and Sapphire are fun. Black and white are fun.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: X and Y are fun. I'm like, I rock with
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: all these people. Okay.
• 25:42
  Speaker 5: Would you choose anime subbed or dubbed?
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: Oh, dubbed. I'm a voice actor. We got to do dubbed.
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: Okay, I was going to say he's got to rep
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: for his set.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: In any medium, TV, film, music, anything, what's character's death
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: hurt you the most?
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: Ooh, that's tough. I definitely got hit hard when Kamina
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: died in Gurren Lagann, but I think Ryder from Fate Zero,
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: that got me.
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: I watched Fate Zero, yeah.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: I said, oh, my boy. What's going on?
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: Okay, that's a good one. I like that.
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: Name something you love that most people don't. Could be
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: like a movie food character.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: I ain't gonna lie to you. There's this movie from
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: the 90s called Baby Geniuses. I think it has like
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: a sub 10% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I love that movie.
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: It's a terrible movie to me.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: Particularly terrible. My parents got that movie from me from
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: Blockbuster and they rented it and I would come home
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: and watch it every day. And my parents got so
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: tired of me watching it. They took it back to
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: Blockbuster before it was actually due back. I love Baby Geniuses.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: I stand by that movie.
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 27:02
  Speaker 5: We're talking about Green Lanterns. You're selling Linton's Territory right now.
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: Who do you choose more?
• 27:07
  Speaker 5: Hal or Jon Stewart?
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: I think I'm definitely a John Stewart guy, but let
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: it be known. My connection to the Green Lanterns is
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: solely because it gets me closer to Blue Lanterns. I
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: think the Blue Lanterns are the superior core. I think
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: that hope is a much stronger power driver than will
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: because willpower can just like, like if you look at
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: Guy Gardner, right? It's like willpower can just be foolishness.
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: Like you may have strong willpower, Just because of sheer stupidity.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: Hope requires significantly more nuance. It's possible for there to
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: be ignorant hope, kind of like youth idealism. But for
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: you to be an adult Blue Lantern, for you to
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: look at the world the way that it is and
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: still have hope that it can improve and be something better.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: I'm a Blue Lantern guy. That's where I hang out.
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: That's an excellent answer. All right, here's the last one.
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: If you could have any one superpower, what would it be?
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: Ooh, ooh. Mostly because I have one on, I do
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: think a blue lantern ring would just be very useful. Okay.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: I'm quite imaginative. In episode one of Lanterns, there was
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: all that stuff about like, look at how Guy uses
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: the ring versus like, they use it for like specific things, blah, blah, blah.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: And I'm like, man, if you even mildly convenience me,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: That ring coming out, bro. I'm using the ring for everything.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: Traffic is bad. Ring. It's raining. Ring. I can't find
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: my keys. Ring. I'm using it for everything.
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: You're going to be charging that every five seconds with
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: that mentality.
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: No, they got to give me one of those Joe
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: Mullen rings where you ain't got to charge it. You just.
• 28:57
  Speaker 5: I mean, but she still did get down to like low.
• 29:00
  Speaker 5: Like she didn't wipe out every once in a while.
• 29:02
  Speaker 5: And she had to like store it up again.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: True. I think here's what we need. What we need
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: is a Joel Mullen story where she has a Blue
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: Lantern protege. That'd be nice.
• 29:14
  Speaker 5: And that protege just may happen to be like you.
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: Maybe wearing a Mount Lady shirt.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: It'd be great. Be wonderful. Be wonderful. Excellent.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: Excellent.
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: Well, Tony, you have survived the segment. You have also
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: made an amazing entry into For All Nerds. Thank you
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: so much for being here. Please, before you go, let
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: the people know where they can find you, any projects
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: or anything else you want to plug.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: I'm Tony Weaver Jr. You should go look up the
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Nerds for Literacy. We're fundraising to raise $ 200, 000 to put
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: books in the hands of kids at underfunded schools and libraries.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: And we deeply support, deeply appreciate your support in doing so.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: You go to nerdsforliteracy.com, make a donation. Excellent.
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 29:56
  Speaker 4: What's up, y'all? Thank you for watching whatever video you
• 29:58
  Speaker 4: just watched. I need you to hit those like and
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: the subscribe buttons that you see right below you as
• 30:04
  Speaker 4: you're watching right now. I mean, right now, hit them
• 30:07
  Speaker 4: and we can get right back to the video you
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: were just watching like this.
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much again, Tony, for joining the Spaceship.
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: Phenomenal interview. But really, man, you're a phenomenal person. Really
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: enjoyed everything you had said and everything that you're doing.
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: And we really support Nerds for Literacy. That's an incredible project.
• 30:25
  Speaker 3: And we do hope that it continues to be successful.
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: In the meantime, we want to thank everybody for joining us. Please,
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: as usual, make sure that you are supporting For All
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: Nerds as well. We are a podcast that is owned
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: and ran by independent Black people.
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: And the way to support the independent black people is
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: to do a few things.
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: First, make sure you are subscribed on every single platform.
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: That's for all nerds, F-O-R-A-L-L-N-E-R-D-S. Subscribe, follow, rate, all the
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: good things. Make sure you are commenting below, please. That's
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: important as well. Make sure you are watching on YouTube,
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: watching on the Twitch channel. Please also go to ForAllNerds.com
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: where you can find some fire merch. I am wearing
• 31:07
  Speaker 3: the NYX Fury Limited Edition right now. You see that
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: with the patch on the NYX Fury. Portia is wearing
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: a now custom Gucci Mane DeLorean shirt. And there are
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: a whole host of phenomenal, phenomenal merch. designs on forowners.com
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: so make sure you do that please be sure to
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: also go to our patreon patreon.com slash for all nerds
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: please follow us all over the socials she is portia
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: knows i'm tatiana king follow for all nerds also follow
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: my bro dj ben hameen go to big dj energy
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: to find out what he's up to on the music
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: front and as usual we love you we appreciate you
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: and we'll see you soon.
• 31:48
  Speaker 4: What's up, y'all? Thank you for watching that video that
• 31:51
  Speaker 4: you just watched. Do one thing for me. Hit the like.
• 31:53
  Speaker 4: Hit the subscribe button. Do it because you love us.
• 31:56
  Speaker 4: Do it for the cause. It's the 4 All Nerd Show.
• 33:02
  Speaker 4: For All Nerd Show is a member of the Loudspeakers Network,
• 33:05
  Speaker 4: where we always say rest in peace to our founder,
• 33:08
  Speaker 4: Combat Jack.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: For All Nerd Show is powered by our listeners.
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: Everything we do from our podcasts, live events, our website,
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: are all independently funded. Please continue to support us through
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: our Patreon page at patreon.com slash forallnerds.
• 33:23
  Speaker 4: Available now at forallnerds.com. The Gucci Mandalorian.
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: The Variants. The Dunkin' A's.
• 33:31
  Speaker 4: The Lion-O-Ritchie. New designs coming soon.