Latest / Arroe Collins Like It's Live / It Came From The Creek From Amy S King Whats Buried Beneath Your Home And Path

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It Came From The Creek From Amy S King Whats Buried Beneath Your Home And Path · Arroe Collins Like It's Live

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Speaker 1: It's nothing but a bunch of interaction fun. Arrow.net, A-R-R-O-E.net.
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Speaker 1: One of our favorite features is music's lost history. You
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Speaker 1: know the music, but do you know the artist and
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Speaker 1: the story behind the music? See if you can name
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Speaker 1: the title or the artist before we give it to you. Arrow.net, A-R-R-O-E.net.
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Speaker 1: It's music's lost history. Enjoy your exploration. Hello and good morning.
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Speaker 1: How are you doing today?
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Speaker 2: I'm doing very well, Errol. How are you doing?
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Speaker 1: Absolutely fantastic. I love the way that you take something
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Speaker 1: that is so serious and you turn it into a
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Speaker 1: storyline that, you know, it can turn us all into activators.
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Speaker 1: This is a book that is for all people. And
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Speaker 1: it touches me so much because I live in a
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Speaker 1: forest and the flow of this stream that's with this
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Speaker 1: forest that leads to the basic lake. I mean, I'm
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Speaker 1: always watching that and measuring how things are because you
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Speaker 1: don't know what people are pouring into those creeks.
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Speaker 2: That's so true. That's so true, sadly.
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Speaker 1: And especially since nowadays, it seems like cities and states,
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Speaker 1: they don't want to deal with water being distributed into
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Speaker 1: the sewers, so therefore they're dumping them into the lake.
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Speaker 1: So what are people doing? Putting their antifreeze in the
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Speaker 1: dang gutter? I mean, it's horrible.
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Speaker 3: Right.
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Speaker 2: It's, you know, it's always been there, though. If you
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Speaker 2: look back into the 60s, which I just did for
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Speaker 2: this book, you know, you look back 60s and 70s,
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Speaker 2: it was wild. I mean, there was, I don't know
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Speaker 2: if you've ever heard of the Valley of the Drums
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Speaker 2: in Kentucky, but like if you see pictures of that place,
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Speaker 2: it's just drums, same as Love Canal in Niagara Falls
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Speaker 2: in New York. It was incredible how much waste is
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Speaker 2: out there and how people disposed of it back then.
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Speaker 2: And now they still are looking at the same problem.
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Speaker 2: The waste hasn't gone away. They're just trying to figure
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Speaker 2: out how to do it in an ethical way and
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Speaker 2: not poison whole communities. And now, of course, we just
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Speaker 2: saw the biggest deregulation in EPA history as well. So
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Speaker 2: you're right. It can just come right back to– it's
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Speaker 2: funny you said that about antifreeze because I got four–
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Speaker 2: I don't know why I have four bottles. of antifreeze
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Speaker 2: but they're still just sitting in my uh eating in
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Speaker 2: my garage and i'm not quite sure what to do
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Speaker 2: with them but i certainly wouldn't put them on the
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Speaker 2: gutter arrow that that's just it's just amazing though isn't
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Speaker 2: it it is people sometimes just don't care.
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Speaker 1: But it takes books like yours to get us re-educated
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Speaker 1: into what we should do with antifreeze such as that
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Speaker 1: because i i right away i would say just take
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Speaker 1: it to lowe's or home depot they'll they'll know what
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Speaker 1: to do with it Right, right.
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Speaker 2: That's a good point, yeah. And I know I have
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Speaker 2: someone local in my county that can tell me what
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Speaker 2: to do with it. But it's just so interesting that
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Speaker 2: people will, you know, people, we take the easy way out.
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Speaker 2: We tend to be busy, and oftentimes we don't think
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Speaker 2: the full thing out. Or in some cases, they may
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Speaker 2: not even know antifreeze is bad, right, in that way.
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Speaker 2: You never know. It's kind of wild when it comes
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Speaker 2: to the level of education we have on set. I
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Speaker 2: think if you would have asked me a few years
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Speaker 2: ago if antifreeze is poisonous, I'd have been like, I
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Speaker 2: don't know. I have no idea. Whereas the research I
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Speaker 2: did for this book, the amount of things I found
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Speaker 2: out were really harmful are carcinogens or things like that.
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Speaker 2: I had no idea that chloroform, for that matter, I mean, yeah,
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Speaker 2: I know what chloroform is used for for years, but
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Speaker 2: I didn't realize that in large doses it was a
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Speaker 2: carcinogen for locals if it was being dumped, let's say,
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Speaker 2: in a chemical dump, which... It was in many places.
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Speaker 1: Didn't you love doing the research? Cause I love digging
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Speaker 1: into the deep and then saying, Oh my God, there's
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Speaker 1: a story here and I'm going to create it with
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Speaker 1: a way that Katie and Joel are going to come
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Speaker 1: in here and they're going to just bring things together,
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Speaker 1: including my readers.
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Speaker 2: Yes, that is, yes, I love research. And with this,
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Speaker 2: I went for the Freedom of Information Act of the
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Speaker 2: EPA before they, you know, they fired about 60% of
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Speaker 2: the scientists and staff there and got thousands of pages.
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Speaker 2: And I say thousands, I'm like six to 9,000 pages
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Speaker 2: just on this one tiny little secret page. place, right?
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Speaker 2: That no one really knew about. The only reason I
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Speaker 2: found out about it, I wrote, is because of the
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Speaker 2: haunted house next door, which is just perfect because Joel's
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Speaker 2: a real person and Joel loves haunted houses. So I
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Speaker 2: was like, oh, this is perfect. Like Joel's a real person.
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Speaker 2: We didn't do this, right? This didn't happen to us.
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Speaker 2: But Joel and I, and I would be, I suppose, Katie,
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Speaker 2: but Joel and I were friends for a long time.
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Speaker 2: So I wanted to just talk about sort of that
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Speaker 2: kind of friendship that it was and all that. But
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Speaker 2: then in the end, like when I got those documents,
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Speaker 2: I had to look at the ones that were relevant
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Speaker 2: to this time, right? That it was relevant to that
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Speaker 2: 1980 is when it's set. And I had to look
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Speaker 2: at those and I did and there was plenty of
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Speaker 2: them and I got the book was coming out, I'm like, well,
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Speaker 2: I should prep. I should just read through these files.
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Speaker 2: And about two weeks ago, Arrow, I was up until
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Speaker 2: two and three o'clock. I was eating Captain Crunch at
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Speaker 2: my kitchen table in the dark, still scrolling through this
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Speaker 2: enormous file that was about... The dumping that happened after
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Speaker 2: it closed, which is, you know, and they don't say
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Speaker 2: it that way, but how come there's chemicals in there? So,
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Speaker 2: I mean, I'm putting two and two together. But yeah,
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Speaker 2: like to me, it's kind of interesting because you can
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Speaker 2: only put so much in a book for honestly anybody.
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Speaker 2: It doesn't just matter that it's for young people that
5:21
Speaker 2: you can put so much information in a book. But
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Speaker 2: the amount of information I have could be an incredible,
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Speaker 2: you know, three part series in The Atlantic. I just
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Speaker 2: don't have time to write that right now. But yeah,
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Speaker 2: I love the research here.
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Speaker 1: I was going to ask you about that because there's
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Speaker 1: so many different angles that you can take to make
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Speaker 1: this into a serious book series. I mean, you could
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Speaker 1: talk with people who have inner city forests and the
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Speaker 1: way that they're not taking care of the forest floor.
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Speaker 1: I mean, you can love a tree all day, but
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Speaker 1: if you're not taking care of that floor, it's not
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Speaker 1: going to be there for the trees.
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Speaker 2: It's totally true. And it's just sort of I think
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Speaker 2: right now the idea that. that nature is they're called
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Speaker 2: undeveloped land that's called nature and and nature needs to
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Speaker 2: be here it's part of our system you know i
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Speaker 2: have this giant oak tree in my neighbor's backyard i'm
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Speaker 2: looking at it right now it's ginormous.
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Speaker 3: It's probably about 100 years old and i look at
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Speaker 3: it all the time and i thank it because it's
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Speaker 3: enormous and it's giving me oxygen and people i think
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Speaker 3: forget um What really, you know, humans are here for.
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Speaker 2: And when we get into the chemical companies, it's not
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Speaker 2: that they forget. They just have waste that they need
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Speaker 2: to get rid of. You know, that's that's sort of that.
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Speaker 2: And then and then whoever and they pay decent money
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Speaker 2: to put it wherever they possibly can.
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Speaker 1: Please don't move. We've got more with Amy S. King
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Speaker 1: coming up next. The name of the book, It Came
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Speaker 1: From the Creek. Oh, it is so personal, not just
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Speaker 1: to me, not just to me, to millions of people
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Speaker 1: around the world. It Came From the Creek. We are
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Speaker 1: back with Amy S. King. Well, you've got kind of
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Speaker 1: a really interesting subplot here that was an eye-opener for
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Speaker 1: me because, I mean, it seriously was. You know, it's
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Speaker 1: like the person that, you know, isn't taking care of
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Speaker 1: the planet could actually be a bully at school. And
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Speaker 1: I never even made that connection because if they're being
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Speaker 1: evil to a human, what else are they being not
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Speaker 1: so good to?
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Speaker 2: And I discovered this while I was writing the book.
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Speaker 2: And of course, I kind of knew sort of the
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Speaker 2: direction I was going, which is how I work on
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Speaker 2: middle grade books. I don't work on other books that way,
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Speaker 2: but I sort of had an idea. And as I
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Speaker 2: wrote it, I was like, wow, I've been talking to
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Speaker 2: young people for years in their school. and one time
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Speaker 2: I talk about bullying I talk about sort of what
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Speaker 2: it's like to be bullied and how you know how
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Speaker 2: it affects you throughout your whole life sometimes and then
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Speaker 2: I explain to them that it doesn't end in school
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Speaker 2: like bullies are everywhere like I was you know there's
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Speaker 2: adults who bully all the time I've recently been bullied
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Speaker 2: as I guess the business now wow 13 years ago
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Speaker 2: but it feels like yesterday you know how time goes
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Speaker 2: there anyway but you know I was in my 40s
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Speaker 2: in this without getting bullied. And it wasn't ribbing and
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Speaker 2: it wasn't teasing. It was bullying. And I was like,
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Speaker 2: this is weird. But it continues to happen. So just
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Speaker 2: being able to talk about how we can stop, we
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Speaker 2: can get together and we can stop. But it also
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Speaker 2: means that if you have a strong friendship, I think
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Speaker 2: it puts Joel in a very interesting position having the
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Speaker 2: bullies in school, specifically sort of bullying him for being
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Speaker 2: friends with Katie because she's a girl, which is classic
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Speaker 2: at that age, right? 10, 11. And it's sort of.
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Speaker 2: It gave Joel an opportunity to sort of reckon with
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Speaker 2: his own silence and like being stunned that these kids
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Speaker 2: are suddenly have gone this far. But then ultimately standing
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Speaker 2: up for Katie and standing up for their friendship, really,
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Speaker 2: and being like, no, like this person means a lot
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Speaker 2: to me. And I, you know, I'm not going to
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Speaker 2: put up with your stuff.
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Speaker 3: Right.
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Speaker 2: Yeah. But it's, yeah, it's kind of amazing how it goes.
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Speaker 2: You know, it is about resilience. It's about how young
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Speaker 2: people are actually really quite knowledgeable and we underestimate them.
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Speaker 2: And so, so many times we underestimate young people at
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Speaker 2: every turn. And this is, this is them getting their
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Speaker 2: community together because adults are busy. So somebody has to
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Speaker 2: go knock, knock, knock, Hey, check it out. Well, you
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Speaker 2: just said the forest floor or whatever it is, like
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Speaker 2: there's something going on here and we should, we should
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Speaker 2: take care of it. And yeah, Ultimately, we usually don't
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Speaker 2: take care of things until it shows up.
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Speaker 1: In our backyard. That's it. I think I'm so drawn
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Speaker 1: to this story. And I want listeners, especially those middle schoolers,
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Speaker 1: to understand that if you do take the time to
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Speaker 1: really activate it and do something with that activation, that
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Speaker 1: beauty of the future does grow. And the reason why
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Speaker 1: I bring that up is because when I planted 1,700
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Speaker 1: trees inside this forest, my neighbors, everybody around me, I
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Speaker 1: was bullied. They thought I was insane. Why are you
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Speaker 1: doing this? And then when I did everything to get
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Speaker 1: the animals to come back in, holy God, it was
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Speaker 1: like the worst thing I'd ever gone through in my life.
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Speaker 1: But today, guess what? Everybody brags about how beautiful this
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Speaker 1: forest is. And I'm going, where were you in 1997?
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Speaker 1: You were attacking me. But I want the activators and
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Speaker 1: these middle schoolers to go, just go through the mountain,
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Speaker 1: make your way through it. You're going to be challenged,
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Speaker 1: but it's going to make it a beautiful picture. And
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Speaker 1: your book is a first step of a brand new
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Speaker 1: beginning for so many people.
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Speaker 2: Well, that is great to hear. Yeah. I mean, I
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Speaker 2: like to be able to give kids their power. You know,
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Speaker 2: this is one of the three messages I give when
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Speaker 2: I go into schools is your your your feelings are important.
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Speaker 2: Your experiences are important and your voice is important. And
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Speaker 2: those first two are so important because the minute you say, oh, well,
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Speaker 2: your experiences and you belittle it and you're like, well,
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Speaker 2: you know, that's just normal. Like, you know how bullies
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Speaker 2: are and maybe try and blow it off and you
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Speaker 2: just sort of. You keep blowing it off. And so
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Speaker 2: I want to tell these kids, no, actually, your experience
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Speaker 2: is completely important and it's completely relevant. And now what's
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Speaker 2: going on? What's the next thing you're going to do? Right.
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Speaker 2: Because because you can use your voice and your voice
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Speaker 2: is important. And those are the three main things. And
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Speaker 2: once you use that voice, you can get you can
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Speaker 2: inspire other people to use theirs. And hopefully you join
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Speaker 2: together and work. You can, you know, if you want
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Speaker 2: to start something, we'll say like you did with your forest,
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Speaker 2: you started a thing. It's not just about stopping things.
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Speaker 2: It's about starting things too, right? But, you know, this
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Speaker 2: kind of stuff takes a community. And, you know, at
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Speaker 2: this point, you know, there's a world community. Community isn't
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Speaker 2: just where you live. There's, you know, so many communities
11:07
Speaker 2: out there now, especially with the internet. You and I
11:09
Speaker 2: are in a community. Here we are talking.
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Speaker 1: Right.
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Speaker 2: So it all depends on how you look at it.
11:14
Speaker 2: But you're not as isolated as you think. I mean,
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Speaker 2: I grew up in a rural area. This takes place
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Speaker 2: in a rural area because it's based on my area.
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Speaker 2: And there are things we can do if someone is,
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Speaker 2: we'll say, bullying our land or if someone's bullying us
11:29
Speaker 2: in school or if we just have something to say.
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Speaker 1: Wow. God, 10 minutes with you is just not enough.
11:35
Speaker 1: My God.
11:35
Speaker 2: I know. Why don't you have me on for half
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Speaker 2: an hour?
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Speaker 1: I'm with you. I'm with you. I'm so afraid that
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Speaker 1: I'm going to step on somebody else's time because I'm
11:43
Speaker 1: not even through my freaking notes yet. I mean, it's like,
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Speaker 1: oh my God, we just started. Where can people go
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Speaker 1: to find out more about you? Because I love where
11:50
Speaker 1: you are. I really do.
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Speaker 2: Well, people can find me at as-king.com. Honestly, you can
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Speaker 2: just Google me. You can find me on Instagram too,
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Speaker 2: although that's really not related to my books. That's just
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Speaker 2: random flashes of my life. And you can find my
12:06
Speaker 2: books in your local independent bookstore or wherever you shop
12:09
Speaker 2: for books. And yeah, I always say about this one,
12:13
Speaker 2: because we talked about when I released Attack of the
12:15
Speaker 2: Black Rectangles, I always say, if my first middle grade book,
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Speaker 2: me and Marvin Gardens, and Attack of the Black Rectangles
12:22
Speaker 2: had a baby, it would be this book. Because it's
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Speaker 2: about ecology, and it's also about activism, which is really,
12:27
Speaker 2: really important, I think. I think we need to keep
12:31
Speaker 2: reminding people that they have to, where they live is
12:34
Speaker 2: their responsibility, if we make it that way, right? Like,
12:36
Speaker 2: whether it be you know, who's taking care of the people,
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Speaker 2: who's taking care of the plants, who's taking care of
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Speaker 2: how clean the, you know, the road is. It's our
12:44
Speaker 2: responsibility ultimately. And, and we have to take it on
12:48
Speaker 2: this with joy kind of, you know.
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Speaker 1: Can I, can I, can I throw something one more
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Speaker 1: in there? What are the builders of where you live?
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Speaker 1: What are they hiding that you haven't discovered yet? Because
12:58
Speaker 1: they hid something in order to make your yard beautiful.
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Speaker 1: There's something underneath the soil that is being kept from
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Speaker 1: you until that one day you find it and realize
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Speaker 1: you've got toxic soil.
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Speaker 2: I'll tell you what, Arrow, I'm nodding because you know
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Speaker 2: what's interesting about this place that I researched? Yeah, sure,
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Speaker 2: there's the little chemical dump. Yeah, sure, there's a big,
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Speaker 2: there's another, there are two super fun sites in this area.
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Speaker 2: One is heavy metals from a different space, but then
13:26
Speaker 2: above it is a community diner that I used to
13:29
Speaker 2: eat at all the time, a little church, you know,
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Speaker 2: a bunch of things. And guess what? That's all built
13:33
Speaker 2: on an old landfill. They call it a, what do
13:36
Speaker 2: they call it? A a former landfill. And then I
13:39
Speaker 2: just happened to mention it to my neighbor recently. And
13:41
Speaker 2: she said, oh yeah, the place I just lived was
13:43
Speaker 2: on top of a landfill. I'm like, how do you know?
13:45
Speaker 2: She's like, oh, when it rained, we had a real
13:47
Speaker 2: swampy back of the yard and plastic bags would come up.
13:50
Speaker 2: And one time a toothbrush came up and I was like, oh.
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Speaker 2: Oh my goodness. And you know, all those, you talk
13:55
Speaker 2: about 1997, do you know all those little, what do
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Speaker 2: you call them? Things we used to bury, pine castles
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Speaker 2: to show what life was like in whatever, 1980 or whatever.
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Speaker 2: And I think to myself, if people dug around, they'd
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Speaker 2: find more about us in the landfills underneath the soil
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Speaker 2: than they'd ever really learn about us in our pine castles.
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Speaker 2: It's a terrible thing, way to think, but I'm not,
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Speaker 2: and that's not negative. It's just real. Like I love
14:20
Speaker 2: researching this stuff because I know more about it now. Yeah.
14:24
Speaker 2: I could talk to you forever, Arrow.
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Speaker 1: Please come back to this show anytime in the future.
14:28
Speaker 1: You know that door's always going to be open for you.
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Speaker 2: You rock, Arrow. Thank you very much. And always good
14:34
Speaker 2: to talk to a fellow writer.
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Speaker 1: You be brilliant today, okay?
14:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, you too. Take it easy. Have a great day.