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A San Francisco woman accidentally found a forgotten legend · Cultural Wars | America Out Loud News

• 0:09
  You're listening to The Hidden Lightness on America Out Loud Talk Radio.
• 0:12
  I'm your host, Jimmy Hinton.
• 0:14
  There's a really cool story out of San Francisco.
• 0:16
  And I just had to share this.
• 0:19
  It's super, super cool, and it's it's inspiring and has all the feels.
• 0:24
  So uh what happened was that a young woman in her 20s gets a new cell phone, and like most of us, we get random numbers assigned to us, and she started getting these text messages.
• 0:40
  It's like, hey, Vern Dog, Vern Dog, Verndog, what you up to, Vern Dog.
• 0:45
  She's like, Vern Dog, what in the world?
• 0:48
  And what's interesting is instead of her ignoring those text messages, curiosity got the best of her.
• 0:56
  So she and her friends began to do a little bit of legwork and a little bit of research, and they found out that Verndog was in fact a man who was absolutely famous and iconic.
• 1:13
  In fact, I would almost guarantee that most of you have seen some of some of Werner's work.
• 1:21
  He's a photographer, and a very famous one at that.
• 1:26
  His name is Verner Cruton.
• 1:29
  He has more than 500,000 images that he's taken worldwide.
• 1:36
  Many of those are very famous images.
• 1:39
  He's taken them of famous people, famous events, natural disasters.
• 1:45
  And uh, so this young woman, Laura, starts to answer him back, and she becomes friends with him.
• 1:56
  At first, it was a couple emails and text messages, then it turned into phone calls, and then visits to his house, and Werner and Laura Stevens became really good friends.
• 2:12
  This is a really cool story, and uh it's just one of those cool things.
• 2:17
  I talk about this a lot with my kids, that there really aren't coincidences in life that I truly believe that God puts certain people in our life at certain times for a very specific reason.
• 2:33
  I don't think that fate brings people together.
• 2:37
  I don't think it's accidental, I don't think it's coincidental.
• 2:41
  And the reason I say that is because it's happened far too many times in my life.
• 2:47
  Situations where I run into people at the right time at the right moment, uh, and it becomes a life-altering event, either for myself or for the person that I came into contact with, or for a series of people, and that one interaction ends up creating a chain of events that it really really shifts the future course of somebody's life.
• 3:16
  I don't think that that's coincidental.
• 3:19
  I really don't.
• 3:20
  I I think that some of us are at the right place at the right time.
• 3:27
  And yeah, I if it happened one time, maybe you could chalk that up to coincidence.
• 3:32
  But some of us, and some of you know what I'm talking about, you experience this very often.
• 3:39
  Where there almost seems to be uh it's the law of attraction is the formal definition for it, where that seems to play out in your everyday life.
• 3:52
  Now, the law of attraction technically is a philosophical belief, and uh I believe there's definitely a spiritual component to that.
• 4:02
  Uh I have no doubt about that.
• 4:05
  But the philosophers say that positive or negative thoughts bring corresponding experiences into a person's life.
• 4:13
  So if you think positive thoughts, positive things happen.
• 4:17
  If you think negative thoughts, negative things happen.
• 4:20
  I'll give you an example of that.
• 4:22
  It's the people who claim that bad things always happen to me.
• 4:28
  Yeah, uh if I say that something's gonna happen, it it just happens to me.
• 4:35
  And it's always bad things.
• 4:41
  That actually is true.
• 4:43
  Yeah, you take a step back and you're like, man, how can somebody have so many bad things constantly happen to them?
• 4:50
  We we have an expression in our family.
• 4:52
  We certainly didn't coin this, but we look at some people's lives and we're like, man, their life is an absolute train wreck.
• 5:00
  And we don't mean that in a derogatory manner, it's just that some people's lives uh it's hard to fathom how many bad series of events happen.
• 5:11
  And I'm not talking catastrophic or anything like that, but just bad things, like the the tree falls on top of the car.
• 5:20
  Uh and the timing is always really peculiar, right?
• 5:26
  The tree falls on top of the car the day after somebody drops insurance on the car, which by the way, that happened to my wife and I.
• 5:36
  That exact scenario.
• 5:37
  But I was talking to somebody the other day, they had the exact same thing happen.
• 5:42
  Literally the same exact thing.
• 5:44
  They were like, we literally dropped insurance on the car because they were switching cars or something.
• 5:50
  Uh, they were about to sell that car.
• 5:52
  A tree falls on top, crushes the car, and nobody's insurance will like homeowners' insurance won't cover it.
• 6:00
  And uh literally the same exact thing happened to my wife and I.
• 6:04
  So on and on it goes.
• 6:06
  Those sorts of things happen to certain people, and the opposite of that is true.
• 6:12
  Where sometimes just everything falls, it kind of seems to fall into somebody's lap, and things come together, and their life is it just seems so cushy.
• 6:24
  And those people tend to be positive.
• 6:29
  And just yesterday, my daughter said, because somebody uh a good friend of mine, somebody had given her money for a trip that she's taken to Europe.
• 6:41
  And my friend who I haven't spoken to literally in years, just reached out to me and was like, hey, uh, we my wife and I want to help your daughter out.
• 6:53
  We want her to get to Europe.
• 6:55
  And he sent a really nice message to my daughter, and it was it was really incredible.
• 7:01
  And my daughter said, why did these things always seem to happen to us?
• 7:01
  And my daughter said, why did these things always seem to happen to us?
• 7:06
  Like just super nice people come out of the woodwork and they just give us things just to be kind and be generous.
• 7:06
  Like just super nice people come out of the woodwork and they just give us things just to be kind and be generous.
• 7:17
  And I told her, look up the law of attraction.
• 7:17
  And I told her, look up the law of attraction.
• 7:20
  It's when when you're positive and you believe that these kinds of things happen, they tend to happen.
• 7:20
  It's when when you're positive and you believe that these kinds of things happen, they tend to happen.
• 7:28
  And again, I don't know.
• 7:28
  And again, I don't know how much merit there is to this philosophically, but spiritually, Jesus says in the Gospel of Mark, when you pray, believe that you have already received it, and it will be yours.
• 7:46
  And I really really truly believe the words of Jesus.
• 7:49
  And I believe when we pray for certain outcomes, that if we really believe that that prayer is going to be answered, it's answered.
• 7:59
  So I I don't believe in all these coincidences.
• 8:02
  And I think that this story, the story that we're talking about today with Laura Stevens meeting one of the most famous people just by getting a new phone.
• 8:12
  She got a new phone, and somebody started texting her, hey Verne Dog, what you up to.
• 8:19
  She looks into who Verndog is, and it ends up being one of the most famous photographers of possibly of all time.
• 8:27
  That's a little too uh coincidental to be just an accident.
• 8:35
  And she talked about uh I I believe she's a person of faith because she talked about prayer and uh you know different things that God is blessing.
• 8:44
  So I I believe it sounds like anyway from her language that she's a person of faith.
• 8:50
  But there's a story by NBC Bay Area, and it is excellent.
• 8:55
  There's a video that accompanies it too.
• 8:57
  The video is really good.
• 8:58
  That's actually how I found out about this story.
• 9:01
  But uh the story was just published on May 3rd, and I'll post to it in the show notes.
• 9:06
  So this is a recent story, and it's so cool.
• 9:11
  So I'll read a little bit from the article because it's just uh it's it's it lays it out in a very good way.
• 9:17
  Sometimes even a wrong number can make the right connection.
• 9:21
  That was the case for Lara Stevens, whose newly assigned work phone came with an unexpected problem.
• 9:29
  It kept receiving calls and texts from somebody named Verndog.
• 9:34
  At first, the messages were confusing.
• 9:37
  Over time, they became life-changing for both Stevens and the man behind the nickname.
• 9:43
  Renowned San Francisco photographer, Verner Cruton.
• 9:49
  Shortly after getting the phone, Stevens began receiving repeated messages, clearly meant for someone else.
• 9:56
  Curious, she and a group of friends did some online sleuthing to track down the intended recipient.
• 10:03
  It didn't take long.
• 10:05
  One of my friends texted me and said, This guy, Werner Cruton, he's iconic, Stevens said.
• 10:13
  Cruton, 72, has spent more than six decades traveling the world with a camera, documenting everything from people and architecture to insects and everyday projects.
• 10:26
  While his work spans continents, some of his most famous uh photographs were taken closer to home in San Francisco.
• 10:36
  One image immediately stood out to Stevens.
• 10:39
  Cruton's striking photograph from the 1989 Loma prey to earthquake, showing a card dangling from the collapsed bay bridge.
• 10:51
  I actually remember that photo.
• 10:52
  I saw the photo, it's uh, I think it's a red, it's like a red Pontiac or something.
• 11:00
  Like those ugly, uh, no offense to anybody if you still have one of these, but I think they're the ugliest car in the world, and that's how I remember this.
• 11:08
  It's one of those um Pontiac Aztecs.
• 11:13
  They they look like uh I I think this was I think the Pontiac Aztec was like a precursor to the Tesla Cybertru.
• 11:22
  They kind of look like each other.
• 11:25
  Uh it is really ugly, it's very boxy and had like this weird square back window with the the whole back hatch was glass.
• 11:36
  It's just really, really ugly.
• 11:38
  But anyway, that's how I remember those things.
• 11:41
  I I remember certain things, and my wife is like, How do you remember that stuff?
• 11:45
  I'm like, I don't know.
• 11:46
  It's just when I see something ugly or pretty, uh, I tend to remember it.
• 11:51
  And that though that car was really ugly.
• 11:54
  So kind of stands out.
• 11:55
  But anyway, it's that iconic photo of this car dangling off of the Bay Bridge.
• 12:02
  And it's an up close photo.
• 12:03
  Like he walked up to the car and got this iconic photo.
• 12:09
  And uh it was in textbooks.
• 12:13
  In fact, that's what Laura said here.
• 12:15
  Uh she said, I grew up seeing that photograph in textbooks and documentaries, and this was the photo.
• 12:24
  So uh it turns out that Laura's a longtime film photography enthusiast.
• 12:31
  Again, I don't think that's coincidental.
• 12:35
  She found Cruton's old website, photovault.com, which is an archive of nearly half a million images.
• 12:45
  She decided she was going to email him.
• 12:48
  And that began as an exchange about uh just kind of forwarding messages.
• 12:55
  She was going to forward the messages that she was receiving to him, but quickly they they uh gained a bond.
• 13:03
  And she wanted to see his archives in his house.
• 13:09
  And uh so Stephen said, you could tell he didn't really care about the messages.
• 13:15
  What mattered to him was that somebody cared about his work.
• 13:19
  I think that's really interesting, too.
• 13:22
  Uh she was doing him a service, trying to connect him to to old friends who were sending him these messages, these text messages, thinking that that was Werner's number.
• 13:35
  And it turns out he didn't really care about the messages.
• 13:39
  He was he was more interested in the fact that somebody was interested in his work.
• 13:45
  You know, he and and you got to think about it this way, because that sounds a little bit calloused, like, oh, you don't care about your your old friends.
• 13:54
  It's not necessarily that he doesn't care about them, but think about what he poured into his life work.
• 14:00
  Life work.
• 14:01
  I mean, this to get these photographs and to get them timed right and to be at the again being at the right place at the right time.
• 14:01
  I mean, this to get these photographs and to get them timed right and to be at the again, being at the right place at the right time, he poured blood blood, sweat, and tears into this work.
• 14:10
  He poured blood blood, sweat, and tears into this work.
• 14:15
  Uh it is not easy to make it as a photographer.
• 14:15
  Uh it is not easy to make it as a photographer.
• 14:20
  In fact, that's also part of this story.
• 14:20
  In fact, that's also part of this story.
• 14:23
  It's the financial struggles that he's facing.
• 14:23
  It's the financial struggles that he's facing, and now there's some added attention to him.
• 14:26
  And now there's some added attention to him.
• 14:30
  And of course, you know how these stories go.
• 14:34
  Lara Stevens did in fact start a GoFundMe for him.
• 14:39
  And it's just uh really, really cool that he found somebody who found an interest in his work, and he was like, My goodness, like I poured my entire life into this, and now somebody actually cares.
• 14:53
  Like it's not just that she's given niceties, she legitimately is fascinated with his work.
• 15:02
  And so, of course, he he invited her over to his house.
• 15:08
  The emails and phone calls turned into in-person visits in Sonoma County, and uh the article says as their friendship grew, Stevens began to understand the challenges the celebrated photographer was quietly facing.
• 15:28
  Um he started his website in the 1990s, the late 90s, that was on the cutting edge, uh, when you still had to type WWW, or else you wouldn't you wouldn't get to it.
• 15:42
  You remember those days when somebody would would say, What's your website?
• 15:46
  They would say, Oh, www.ever.com.
• 15:51
  You always had to say the WWW, and you actually had to type it in.
• 15:56
  But at the time, he was ahead of the technological curve.
• 16:01
  But as things moved digital, he started to struggle financially, and he's been barely making it financially.
• 16:14
  And uh I don't know.
• 16:17
  He says, I've peared down everything.
• 16:21
  I don't even have heat in the house.
• 16:25
  And I think that's a shame.
• 16:26
  I think when somebody is is has poured their entire life into something like this, and he was at one time very famous.
• 16:36
  His photographs were very famous, and it just shows how quickly everything can change in life.
• 16:46
  That uh things can definitely change over time, they can change gradually, or they can change on a dime.
• 16:54
  And in his case, I think it was more of a gradual, just the digital world started taking over.
• 17:00
  And uh, well, we'll talk more about this after the break.
• 17:03
  I just looked at the clock, we're coming up on a hard break.
• 17:06
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• 20:37
  She was getting text messages.
• 20:39
  She got a new phone and started getting text messages.
• 20:44
  Those text messages were intended for Werner.
• 20:49
  People kept uh referring to her as Verndog.
• 20:53
  And she's like, I'm definitely not Verndog.
• 20:56
  Uh, who is this Vern dog?
• 20:58
  So her and some friends started looking up who Verndog is, and they found out that Vern Dog was actually Werner Cruten, the photographer.
• 21:00
  Started looking up who Vern Dog is, and they found out that Vern Dog was actually Werner Cruton, the photographer.
• 21:10
  And she's like, Oh.
• 21:10
  And she's like, oh.
• 21:12
  So as a courtesy, she started sending him the message.
• 21:12
  So as a courtesy, she started sending him the message.
• 21:16
  She would forward the messages by email.
• 21:16
  She would forward the messages by email.
• 21:18
  And she also expressed the interest in his photographs and the work that he did in photography.
• 21:19
  And uh she also expressed the interest in his photographs and the work that he did in photography.
• 21:25
  And she's like, this is really cool.
• 21:25
  And she's like, This is really cool.
• 21:27
  Like, I remember seeing this iconic photo.
• 21:27
  Like I remember seeing this iconic photo in textbooks.
• 21:33
  The one of the car dangling off the Bay Bridge.
• 21:37
  Well, Werner really appreciated that.
• 21:40
  And he's like, wow, I've got a whole story.
• 21:44
  Like I've got an entire archive at my house.
• 21:48
  And so they kept talking, and uh eventually she began to go over to his house, and they struck up a really good friendship.
• 21:59
  And I think it's I think it's just really cool.
• 22:01
  It's very inspiring.
• 22:03
  And she found out pretty quickly that Werner's really struggling financially.
• 22:10
  He doesn't have heat in his house.
• 22:12
  He does, or at least he doesn't use the heat in his house.
• 22:16
  He's trying to pinch pennies as much as he can possibly pinch them.
• 22:20
  And it's still a struggle for him.
• 22:23
  The digital age really took over.
• 22:27
  And I remember, I remember my first digital camera.
• 22:31
  And it's kind of interesting going back and looking at my pictures and seeing how I used to have a 35 millimeter camera.
• 22:39
  Like I would take uh actual photographs that you had to get developed.
• 22:45
  And it is amazing how much technology has changed now.
• 22:51
  And now with cell phones, I mean, they're honestly, cell phones take better pictures than what the the old 35 millimeter cameras did.
• 23:00
  And that's just on the auto settings.
• 23:02
  If you really know what you're doing, and you change settings, and then of course do a little bit of editing, it's incredible the kind of pictures that you can get.
• 23:10
  We did our family photos.
• 23:12
  Uh I actually shot them, uh, I think it was last year, maybe two years ago.
• 23:17
  I don't remember now.
• 23:19
  Time just flies, it all blends together.
• 23:22
  But I shot our family photos just for the heck of doing it.
• 23:26
  I shot them on my cell phone.
• 23:30
  And I did the editing on them.
• 23:33
  And I'm not bragging or anything.
• 23:38
  But, and I know a little bit about photography.
• 23:41
  Definitely not a professional by any stretch of the imagination, but I've done videography before.
• 23:48
  And I know enough about settings to be able to get something pretty decent, and I know enough about editing to be able to color correct and those sorts of things.
• 23:59
  And these photographs, the family photographs that I shot on my cell phone, are absolutely.
• 24:13
  But they're really good.
• 24:15
  They're really, really good.
• 24:17
  And so it's one of those things that uh people are figuring this out now with artificial intelligence and the ability to edit photos, I mean, very easily with AI.
• 24:30
  It's eliminating the need for professional photographers.
• 24:35
  You know, the whole family shoot where you get family photos for $300 or $400, those days are quickly disappearing.
• 24:45
  And it's getting harder and harder for photographers.
• 24:49
  Uh, in in a lot of senses.
• 24:52
  I don't think they're going to completely go away.
• 24:54
  I think there's definitely a place for professional photography.
• 24:58
  100%.
• 25:01
  But it's getting harder and harder for people.
• 25:04
  As technology changes, as uh things are more automated, and that's built into smaller and smaller uh cameras that you can carry around literally in your cell phone, it's much easier to snap pictures.
• 25:20
  Where before people like Werner would have to go out with a 35 millimeter camera, and you'd have to sit and wait and wait and wait and carry all your equipment and all your light gear, all your lighting, all that stuff.
• 25:34
  You had to lug this stuff around, just pounds and pounds and pounds of camera equipment, and you had to hope for the best.
• 25:42
  You really had to be at the right place at the right time.
• 25:44
  Well, now everybody has a cell phone, and so if you see something cool, 50 people at any given time are pulling their cell phone out and taking pictures.
• 25:53
  So they're really incredible pictures.
• 25:57
  And now artificial intelligence, it's getting harder and harder to tell the difference between AI and real photos.
• 26:06
  And you can take uh you can actually generate photos of like a deer in a field, um doing a snort and uh like you can prompt it, right?
• 26:20
  Uh a deer in a field during golden hour doing a buck snort in cold weather, and it'll generate a picture that looks so stinking real, and it's so incredible, like the lighting is perfect, everything's just perfect.
• 26:38
  And so it's getting harder and harder for people who are actual photographers because people don't care.
• 26:44
  Honestly, a lot of times people don't care whether those images would when they're nature images, they don't care if it's AI or not.
• 26:52
  If it looks realistic, they'll they'll take the photo, they'll accept it.
• 27:00
  So I understand the predicament he's in, and it's actually really sad that this is the way that things are moving, but it is what it is.
• 27:10
  It's we're not gonna reverse what's happened culturally, we're not gonna reverse the AI shift.
• 27:18
  We're not going to reverse the digital age.
• 27:22
  It's here, and it will always be here.
• 27:26
  So at any rate, uh, Werner said he's really been struggling.
• 27:31
  He said that his savings could last anywhere from six months to two years.
• 27:37
  After that, he has no idea what's going to happen.
• 27:42
  And so here you go.
• 27:43
  Again, right place at the right time.
• 27:48
  Because what she did is absolutely incredible.
• 27:52
  She started a GoFundMe campaign to help with Cruton's living expenses.
• 27:58
  And here you have a young, I think she's 24, if I remember right.
• 28:00
  I think she's 24, if I remember right.
• 28:04
  I think she's 24 years old.
• 28:04
  I think she's 24 years old.
• 28:07
  Uh she's young.
• 28:07
  She's young.
• 28:09
  She's in her 20s.
• 28:09
  She's in her 20s, and she has a heart for somebody.
• 28:11
  And she has a heart for somebody.
• 28:15
  And again, it goes back to this idea.
• 28:15
  And again, it goes back to this idea.
• 28:19
  I talk about it so often that young people get a bad rap.
• 28:19
  I talk about it so often that young people get a bad rap, that they're lazy, that they don't care, they don't care about other people, they're selfish.
• 28:25
  That they're lazy, that they don't care, they don't care about other people, they're selfish.
• 28:30
  On and on and on.
• 28:31
  You've all heard all of this talk before.
• 28:35
  And yet, time and time and time and time again, we see the exact opposite.
• 28:41
  Her and her friends did the legwork.
• 28:43
  They did the research.
• 28:45
  They found out who Verndog was.
• 28:49
  That had to have taken hours, I assume, to try to make those connections.
• 28:57
  It's incredible.
• 28:58
  And then she reaches out to him.
• 29:00
  And then she's courteous and she's like, hey, here are the messages.
• 29:04
  I keep receiving these messages intended for you.
• 29:07
  I'm going to forward the messages to you.
• 29:09
  By the way, I think your photography is really cool.
• 29:14
  All right, I thought the young people are heartless.
• 29:17
  I thought that they're cruel.
• 29:18
  I thought that they're lazy.
• 29:20
  I thought they don't care about other people.
• 29:24
  And yet, time and time again, we see the exact opposite.
• 29:29
  I'm going to read a little bit of this fundraiser that Lara Stevens started.
• 29:35
  The title of it here, she titled it Support 50 Years of Photography, Werner's Life Work.
• 29:44
  She says a simple wrong number led to a genuine friendship with Werner Cruton, a photographer of more than 500,000 images worldwide, an archivist, explorer, lifelong student of the universe whose life work spans more than five decades.
• 30:04
  His website and photography archive, photovault.com.
• 30:10
  Verner has spent over 50 years documenting 500,000 photos of history, culture, science, and humanity across the globe.
• 30:20
  His work reflects not just moments in time, but a deep reverence for curiosity, connection, and all.
• 31:04
  Had his work featured in global broadcasts, including live aid, produced films, books, and published photography worldwide.
• 31:15
  Meticulously organized and individually coded and tagged more than 500,000 photographs.
• 31:24
  He even developed his own cataloging philosophy called Fluid Logic to map the universe through imagery, creating a system that connects ideas, disciplines, and moments across time.
• 31:39
  For most of his career, his website drew extraordinary attention, averaging nearly 100,000 views per day at its peak.
• 31:49
  Today, that traffic has dwindled to roughly 50 views per month.
• 31:54
  And sales often total less than 100 a month.
• 31:59
  The shift from traditional media to digital platforms dramatically altered the landscape for independent photographers, and the impact has been profound.
• 32:10
  I'm still reading it.
• 32:11
  I mean, this is the GoFundMe.
• 32:14
  Look at how much time and detail she put into this.
• 32:23
  She goes on.
• 32:24
  Despite the scale and cultural importance of his archive, his income has steadily decreased.
• 32:31
  At 72 years old, he's now facing the possibility of seeking outside employment simply to meet basic living expenses.
• 32:40
  Beyond his accomplishments, Werner is an empathetic, deeply thoughtful, and genuinely good human being.
• 32:48
  He approaches life with humility and wonder.
• 32:50
  Over time, he's become someone I lovingly call my adopted grandpa, a mentor and friend whose wisdom and kindness extend far beyond photography.
• 33:02
  An artist who has dedicated his life to preserving history and inspiring wonder should not have to worry about financial survival.
• 33:12
  This fundraiser is dedicated to supporting Werner directly.
• 33:15
  Contributions will provide stability for essential living expenses, housing, food, clothes, support the continued physical preservation of his archive.
• 33:26
  Fund ongoing digital archiving and organization of more than 500,000 images.
• 33:34
  Ensure that his life's work remains protected and accessible for generations to come.
• 33:42
  Very, very cool.
• 33:43
  Then she gives a link to his website again and says if you prefer to support him by becoming a collector, you can purchase his artwork directly at photovault.com.
• 33:55
  Every print purchased and every donation made here goes toward one simple goal.
• 34:01
  Making sure Werner can afford to live, continue his work, relieve his financial struggles and not step away from his life's work out of financial necessity.
• 34:17
  There's actually more here.
• 34:26
  But this is really cool.
• 34:28
  Over $30,000 has been raised already.
• 34:33
  The top donation is $5,000.
• 34:36
  And again, this goes back to the hidden lightness.
• 34:41
  That all it takes is one person to see potential, one person to speak up, one person to celebrate another person's life.
• 34:51
  And look at the chain reaction that happens.
• 34:55
  And that is one of the beautiful things about the digital age.
• 34:59
  You know, shifting to the digital age did cause a lot of problems for people.
• 35:00
  Shifting to the digital age did cause a lot of problems for people.
• 35:04
  Verner is a case in point.
• 35:04
  Werner is a case in point.
• 35:07
  But there's a flip side to that coin.
• 35:07
  But there's a flip side to that coin.
• 35:11
  It also is becoming his savior.
• 35:11
  It also is becoming his savior.
• 35:14
  It's becoming the very thing that's rescuing him and allowing him to thrive.
• 35:14
  It's becoming the very thing that's rescuing him and allowing him to thrive.
• 35:19
  And that's really cool.
• 35:19
  And that's really cool.
• 35:20
  And kudos to Laura.
• 35:20
  And kudos to Laura.
• 35:22
  I mean, what a really, really cool young lady.
• 35:22
  I mean, what a really, really cool young lady.
• 35:27
  Just so inspiring and so happy.
• 35:27
  Just so inspiring and so happy and full of life and thoughtful, caring, uh, believing in the in the good fortune of other people.
• 35:39
  And it's just really inspiring to see this.
• 35:43
  That her actions, her willingness to speak up and to tell other people about Werner and his work.
• 35:53
  It's really cool.
• 35:55
  And this is what the world needs more of.
• 35:58
  We need these kinds of stories.
• 36:00
  Again, this is another one of those stories.
• 36:02
  It's not on national media.
• 36:05
  Can't find it anywhere on national media.
• 36:08
  And I would love to change that.
• 36:09
  I would love for uh people to pick up this story for reporters to hear this.
• 36:14
  Uh I'd love for them to take it and run with it.
• 36:18
  I'd love for other social media influencers to pick up this story.
• 36:24
  It's just really, really cool.
• 36:25
  And the fact that she's trying to preserve his work and give him dignity, and it's not because she feels like he's a project.
• 36:34
  I mean, that's what's really cool about this.
• 36:35
  Like, she legitimately appreciates the work that he does.
• 36:40
  She legitimately appreciates the hard work that he put into this, the dedication.
• 36:48
  Absolutely fantastic.
• 36:50
  Uh, what a stand-up young woman.
• 36:54
  And same for Werner.
• 36:55
  What a really stand-up guy, really cool guy.
• 36:58
  And uh just watching the video made me actually want to visit him.
• 37:03
  I I won't, because I just don't really necessarily have the time, at least not in the near future, but uh it really made me want to.
• 37:12
  I was like, what a cool guy.
• 37:14
  It'd be really, really cool to hang out with him and just spend a day with him and see his work and pick his brain.
• 37:20
  Well, we are coming up on another break here.
• 37:22
  All of our shows do go to podcasts the next day after the broadcast is heard on talk radio.
• 37:28
  You can hear them on Spotify, Stitcher, Pandora, iHeartPodcast, Apple Podcast, many, many more.
• 37:33
  Be sure to subscribe, like the show, share it, rate it, all of that good stuff.
• 37:40
  When we come back, we'll talk more about this inspiring movement.
• 37:44
  We'll be right back.
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• 39:12
  Whenever somebody reached out to him, a complete stranger, total stranger, and realized that he was the iconic Werner Cruton.
• 39:24
  Really cool.
• 39:29
  A very famous photographer.
• 39:32
  He's been around the world many times.
• 39:35
  He's has a uh a vault of photos of over 500,000.
• 39:42
  I actually was looking at his website.
• 39:44
  It's incredible.
• 39:45
  Uh Werner Cruten has man, this guy has been around the block.
• 39:51
  And for over 50 years, he's been chronicling people's lives.
• 39:56
  He's been uh taking pictures of nature, he's been taking photos of major events, famous people, famous places, and uh famous events, things like the the infamous uh San Francisco earthquake, and there's the iconic picture of the car on the bridge as the bridge collapsed, and uh Verner was the one who took that picture, and I I still remember seeing that in textbooks when I was a kid.
• 40:32
  Uh, really cool, really cool stuff.
• 40:35
  So this uh this young woman accidentally uh gets his phone number.
• 40:42
  She got a business phone, her work phone, and it was tied to Werner's old numbers.
• 40:48
  So he rather started getting text messages from people.
• 40:52
  They're like, hey Vern Dog.
• 40:54
  And she's like, what in the world is Vern Dog?
• 40:58
  Who is Vern Dog?
• 40:59
  So her and her friends started looking into it, and lo and behold, they find that it's Werner Cruton.
• 41:06
  Uh the the infamous Werner Cruten.
• 41:10
  So really really cool stuff.
• 41:12
  And she struck up a friendship with him, and they now are BFFs.
• 41:18
  And she goes to his house and looks through photographs that uh he's just got volumes and volumes and volumes of photographs.
• 41:28
  He's done documentaries, uh, shot videos, and uh mostly it's his photographs, though.
• 41:36
  And I love this story because I love photography, and I drive my wife absolutely crazy because she always tells me you need to just live in the moment because anytime there's an event like a baseball game, like I I pull my professional camera out, and I don't have a uh a really good lens, so I borrow it's a $2,000 lens from a very good friend of mine, which I'm very gracious that he's willing to let me borrow that lens.
• 42:00
  $2,000 lens from a very good friend of mine, which I'm very gracious that he's willing to let me borrow that lens.
• 42:07
  I don't know that I would be so quick to lend a $2,000 lens out to somebody, but he's very gracious.
• 42:07
  I don't know that I would be so quick to to lend a $2,000 lens out to somebody, but he's very gracious, and he lends it out to me, and I've gotten some of the coolest action shots, and that's always my goal.
• 42:14
  And he lends it out to me, and I've gotten some of the coolest action shots.
• 42:20
  And that's always my goal.
• 42:21
  I'm I'm like, man, and I'm just uh I'm an I'm a nobody.
• 42:21
  I'm I'm like, man, and I'm just uh I'm an I'm a nobody.
• 42:26
  I'm not a professional photographer by any stretch of the
• 42:26
  I'm not a professional photographer by any stretch of the imagination.
• 42:31
  And uh I I just I love I've always loved photography, and I think it's really cool when you get action shots.
• 42:38
  That's my all-time favorite.
• 42:39
  I don't like to pose, I don't like posing people.
• 42:43
  I just they're so superficial to me.
• 42:45
  Absolutely superficial.
• 42:48
  I like the action shots, and that's why sports photography is uh it's just really really fun for me, and it's it's just cool to get to capture that that end product.
• 43:00
  Um, but anyway, it's it's really cool.
• 43:04
  It takes a very special skill, it takes a lot of patience, it's uh it's not easy to do, and Werner being the professional that he is captured really the uh the personality, the personality of people, the personality of even animals.
• 43:28
  I believe firmly that animals have personality, and when you catch these action shots, uh man, it's just something special.
• 43:37
  So yeah, I'm actually looking through his uh vault right now, his photo vault.
• 43:45
  I was kind of browsing, and man, it's it is really something.
• 43:51
  Uh I I just it makes me sad when photographers of this caliper end up forgotten.
• 44:00
  And uh, you know, he he kind of went from being super busy and and traveling the world to now he's struggling to pay his bills, and he keeps his heat turned off to conserve money, and that just breaks my heart, and I know that it breaks it breaks uh the heart of a lot of people, which is why the GoFundMe is taken off the way that it is.
• 44:26
  As I mentioned, Lauren Stevens is the young lady who received his phone number and made the connection and figured out who he is and became very good friends with him, and is the one who started the GoFundMe.
• 44:39
  So, you know, again, back to this idea that young people are are lazy and they just don't care about people, they're selfish.
• 44:47
  I just don't see it.
• 44:48
  I mean, unless I'm completely naive, I just don't see it.
• 44:52
  I see young people who are driven, I see young people who are kind, compassionate, gracious, uh very good work ethic, and they have a heart.
• 45:03
  You know, some of the some of the older generation, you know, way back in the day, they weren't exactly known for being cuddly, like coddle people and and and be nice to them.
• 45:16
  Uh they may have been nice, but but they didn't express it.
• 45:21
  And that's the difference.
• 45:23
  You know, the young people actually express their kindness, and they they genuinely genuinely care about other people and they want to see other people do well, and I love that.
• 45:34
  I love that about our nation.
• 45:36
  I love that about the young people, that they're driven to help other people succeed.
• 45:43
  And I gotta tell you, like every experience that I have with with young people with volunteering and uh, you know, the work that we do at church, it's always the young people who drive the mission of the church.
• 45:57
  It's always the young people who pick up the baton, and not that the older people don't do it or haven't done it in the past.
• 46:05
  I'm not saying that, but it's the young people who drive that mission today.
• 46:11
  They they always are the first people to ask, what can we do?
• 46:14
  How do we help?
• 46:15
  How do we get this thing off the ground?
• 46:17
  Whatever it takes.
• 46:19
  We're here, we're committed, and I love that.
• 46:22
  I think it's fantastic.
• 46:24
  So I want to go back to this GoFundMe because uh I'm I'm looking at it and it's you know, it's picking up a little bit of steam.
• 46:31
  I think that if a national news media uh outlet picked this up, it would pick up a lot more momentum.
• 46:37
  So this is literally just grassroots, uh word of mouth kind of thing, and it's already uh well over $30,000.
• 46:48
  So uh it has a goal right now at least of 50,000.
• 46:54
  Uh around 800 people have donated so far.
• 46:59
  And that number I I suspect is going to continue to grow.
• 47:03
  This thing's only been been up for a few days.
• 47:06
  And uh let's see, yeah, about 10, 10 or 11 days now.
• 47:11
  It's been active.
• 47:12
  So not bad.
• 47:14
  Uh over 35 grand in uh 10 or 11 days, not bad.
• 47:21
  So that again, this goes back to this idea that as Americans we are absolutely driven.
• 47:30
  We're motivated by positive stories.
• 47:34
  It's the positive stories, and this could have been framed as a bad story.
• 47:39
  You know, and and and a lot of people, I think, would have taken the story and they'd be like, Steve, uh, people are struggling in America.
• 47:46
  Look at what Trump's economy is doing.
• 47:48
  You know, I can see the headlines now, but that's not what this story is.
• 47:53
  This story is positive.
• 47:55
  It's like, yeah, this this guy's struggling.
• 47:58
  So let's do something about it.
• 47:59
  Let's help him out.
• 48:00
  Let's pitch in together.
• 48:03
  Let's see how we can change this man's life and give him a proper retirement.
• 48:08
  And that's the difference between the clickbait media and people who legitimately care.
• 48:15
  You see, the clickbait media, it's gonna be like you always you always hear like these supercharged words, like pulverized.
• 48:23
  What was the one that I just saw the other day?
• 48:24
  I just saw one that um it was like somebody decimates somebody in it in a debate.
• 48:33
  I'm like, man, drama much.
• 48:37
  Like, why don't you just write the story and share it in a positive way, and I guarantee it would get a lot more clicks, it would get a lot more likes.
• 48:48
  People like positive stories.
• 48:50
  People are tired of all the negativity.
• 48:53
  And I think that's why this story is resonating so much.
• 48:56
  And even though the national media never picked it up, uh, this story's out there.
• 49:00
  Uh the story's out there.
• 49:02
  And it is definitely all over social media.
• 49:02
  And it is definitely all over social media.
• 49:06
  And that's what I love about the free social media.
• 49:06
  And that's what I love about the free social media.
• 49:11
  You know, there aren't paywalls and all this stuff.
• 49:11
  You know, there aren't paywalls and all this stuff.
• 49:14
  Like, literally any single one of you can put a story out there.
• 49:14
  Like literally any single one of you can put a story out there.
• 49:19
  And it can go viral within within minutes.
• 49:19
  And it can go viral within within minutes.
• 49:24
  You know, if if if you tell the story right and tell the story with passion.
• 49:24
  You know, if if if you tell the story right and tell the story with passion and tell it and give details, tell the story like where you do it justice.
• 49:37
  Actually share somebody's story.
• 49:39
  It can go absolutely wildly viral without ever contacting the media.
• 49:46
  And I think it I think that's a blessing.
• 49:50
  You know, we hear a lot of negativity about social media.
• 49:53
  And believe me, there's plenty.
• 49:56
  There are plenty of downsides to social media.
• 50:00
  But the good part of it is we can do things like this.
• 50:04
  Lauren can start a GoFundMe.
• 50:09
  And 800 people see it.
• 50:12
  And can well, not see it.
• 50:14
  A lot more people than that saw it, but 800 people have given over 35,000.
• 50:22
  That wasn't the media pushing that.
• 50:24
  That was literally just a grassroots.
• 50:26
  Let's put it out there.
• 50:28
  Let's see what happens and see how God blesses that.
• 50:32
  And I just love that.
• 50:34
  I love that we live in a digital age where this kind of thing is possible.
• 50:40
  I mean, that again, let's go back to this idea that people complain about America.
• 50:45
  I just saw another article.
• 50:47
  It was like, uh, so and so, I think it was like Barbara Streisand or something.
• 50:52
  I I don't know.
• 50:53
  I could care less who hates America.
• 50:56
  That's just these people are nuts.
• 50:59
  But it was like, you know, whoever vows that they're gonna leave America.
• 51:04
  Okay, who cares?
• 51:05
  Why is that even newsworthy?
• 51:06
  Who cares?
• 51:07
  Let them leave.
• 51:10
  Now, some of us who like to travel, we come and go all the time.
• 51:15
  That's not national news.
• 51:18
  Yeah, every time we leave the country and go visit another country.
• 51:23
  That's not national news.
• 51:25
  Nobody cares.
• 51:27
  Nobody cares whenever we leave the country and go visit another country.
• 51:31
  Or if we decide to pack up and move.
• 51:35
  Move to Canada, move to somewhere in Europe.
• 51:39
  Nobody cares.
• 51:41
  That's not newsworthy.
• 51:42
  Yet the news continues to hammer down on that.
• 51:45
  And they're like, oh, so and so says that they're gonna leave the country.
• 51:49
  Ellen deGeneris says she's leaving America.
• 51:53
  Oh, okay.
• 51:54
  Who cares?
• 51:56
  Let her leave.
• 51:59
  Let her let her go.
• 52:01
  That's not newsworthy.
• 52:04
  But those are the kinds of news stories that we see all the time.
• 52:07
  And my point is that people are just tired of it.
• 52:11
  People are worn down by the endless news cycles of nothing, nothing news.
• 52:16
  And I think that's why Trump is so hard on the media.
• 52:20
  Now, he's not the kindest.
• 52:22
  Uh I'm not a fan of how he talks to reporters.
• 52:25
  Sometimes is a little bit funny, but uh he he's harsh.
• 52:30
  He is really, really harsh.
• 52:32
  And he gets personal jabs into people, calls them stupid, and I'm just not a fan.
• 52:38
  I I just I think it's very um not classy.
• 52:43
  But I do understand his frustration.
• 52:46
  I do understand where he's coming from.
• 52:48
  Not saying he's going about it right, but I do get where he's coming from.
• 52:54
  Because I think people are drawn to positive stories.
• 52:58
  And he's like, look at what this administration has accomplished.
• 53:03
  And you guys never cover that.
• 53:04
  You always cover scandals or the perceived scandals.
• 53:08
  And he's like, even before there's evidence, you're like, oh, yeah, the biggest scandal to hit the Trump administration.
• 53:15
  And it's all sensationalized.
• 53:18
  And anyway, that's why I love stories like this.
• 53:21
  It gets you away from the sensationalized uh ebb and flow of the media, and it just gets you right to the heart of what's happening right here in America.
• 53:33
  And when you take a step back and you actually look at what's going on, a very beautiful picture begins to emerge.
• 53:42
  And you start to see people's hearts, and you see the heartbeat of America.
• 53:49
  And you see that that heartbeat is very strong.
• 53:53
  This nation is not sick.
• 53:55
  You know, that's the thing.
• 53:56
  Everybody wants you to believe that the nation is it's in it's in shambles, it's in disrepair, it's it's beyond repair, everybody's desperate, everybody's hurting, everybody's everybody's feeling pain in the nation.
• 54:12
  That it's just not what I see.
• 54:18
  There are way too many stories just like this one that show something different.
• 54:25
  It's that sheer determination.
• 54:27
  Here's a man, here's a man who once was incredibly famous, possibly one of the most famous photographers in our nation's history.
• 54:40
  He's not running his heat because he can't afford to.
• 54:45
  And yet you don't hear him, uh, this country sucks.
• 54:49
  I'm gonna leave America.
• 54:51
  Um, this is awful.
• 54:53
  Uh Trump this, Trump that, Biden, this, Biden that.
• 54:57
  You don't hear him say that.
• 55:00
  He's simply living life, grinding, doing what he has to do to make it, and he seems to be pretty happy.
• 55:11
  And that's the thing.
• 55:12
  Like, they want you to think that unless you're on government assistance or unless you're you're raking in all this money that you're you're not possibly gonna be happy.
• 55:20
  How could you possibly be happy living a life where you have to shut the heat off under this oppressive regime uh that's currently in Washington, right?
• 55:34
  Those are the headlines.
• 55:35
  Really, really struggling or homeless.
• 55:39
  Sure, but most people they just grind and grind and grind and and and they work and they they do what they gotta do and they're happy and uh they love our country, and they they don't care who's in the presidency.
• 55:56
  You know, they just want to go about their life and they want to they want to work hard and contribute.
• 56:00
  And contribute.
• 56:02
  And that's what I love about stories like this.
• 56:02
  And that's what I love about stories like this.
• 56:04
  It reminds us that there's a world beyond the subworld that the media creates for us.
• 56:04
  It reminds us that there's a world beyond the subworld that the media creates for us, and it's actually a really beautiful world, and uh it's fantastic.
• 56:11
  And it's actually a really beautiful world.
• 56:13
  And uh it's fantastic.
• 56:15
  So, anyway, that my friends is the hidden lightness.
• 56:15
  So, anyway, that, my friends, is the hidden lightness.
• 56:19
  Check out Werner's uh photo vault.
• 56:19
  Check out Verner's uh photo vault.
• 56:22
  It's really, really special.
• 56:22
  It's really, really special.
• 56:24
  You can find more out about my show and get all the latest podcasts if you go to the menu navigation bar at America Outloud.new.
• 56:24
  You can find more out about my show and get all the latest podcasts if you go to the menu navigation bar at AmericaOutloud.news under our shows or schedule.
• 56:31
  You'll be in the know.
• 56:32
  There is a hidden lightness that shines inside of all of us.
• 56:35
  When there's so much darkness that envelops the world, remember that it doesn't take much light to expose that darkness and to ultimately inspire other people.
• 56:42
  Join me in being a light.