WEBVTT - What is "Colored People Time?" 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.520 Hey everyone, it's Manny here with a special announcement. Some 0:00:03.600 --> 0:00:06.640 of you may remember that I recently wrote and published 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:09.960 a book. It's called Colored People Time, A Case for 0:00:10.039 --> 0:00:13.520 Casual Rebellion, and it's a collection of humorous essays about 0:00:13.560 --> 0:00:17.239 the way time wraps itself around our lives. Don't be 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:19.680 fooled by the title. There's a lot of content for 0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:23.240 the whites in this book. That's true, and I'm happy 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:26.200 to announce now that one hundred percent of the proceeds 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:30.480 from this book will go to Penguin Random House Publishing, 0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:35.920 because that's how book deals work. Anyway, if you like 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:39.160 this podcast, I genuinely think you're going to like this book, 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:43.040 and the link to purchases in the show description below. Now, 0:00:43.120 --> 0:00:46.240 what you're about to hear is a conversation between Devin 0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:49.120 Noah and I about my book. It was recorded live 0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:51.879 at Caveat in New York City. Shout out to Caveat 0:00:52.040 --> 0:00:55.920 for hosting and enjoy today's episode. 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:26.440 Please welcome Manny Noah Devin from the No Such Thing Podcast. 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:32.640 All Right, how's it going everyone? Thanks for coming. So 0:01:32.720 --> 0:01:35.800 we've got a Devin and no are leading the show today. 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:38.160 I'm actually gonna not yet as much as I normally do. 0:01:38.400 --> 0:01:44.039 Yeah, stop talking, Manny, No, we're here to celebrate, Manny. 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:44.839 You wrote a book. 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:45.600 Man, it's true. 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:46.160 You did it. 0:01:49.720 --> 0:01:54.440 Hanguin, Penguin, Random House. That's right. Yeah, they're one world imprint. 0:01:54.600 --> 0:01:57.640 It's the same imprint as a Tana Hesse Coats and 0:01:57.840 --> 0:02:01.000 Trevor Noah and Steph Curry. And so I'm excited to 0:02:01.000 --> 0:02:04.320 be like the worst person on that list. Yeah, it's fun. 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:13.280 Steph Curry is one of my favorite writers. Do you 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:15.200 want to describe what the book is a little bit? 0:02:15.280 --> 0:02:18.280 Yeah, I think I can just start by explaining the 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:21.839 concept of the title Colored People Time. I'm sure most 0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:26.160 of you have heard this phrase used before. It's essentially 0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:29.240 just the idea that people of color are kind of 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:32.360 working on a maybe different time frame than than the 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:35.959 rest of the world in terms of lateness, in terms 0:02:36.000 --> 0:02:39.280 of tardiness. As a quick example, you know, if I 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:42.799 invited both Devin and Noah to dinner at my place tonight, 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:46.640 Noah would be showing up first. That's basically what this 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:50.720 concept is. And yeah, and so it's just basic. It's 0:02:50.720 --> 0:02:53.920 a kind of a tongue in cheek way to uh 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:58.240 introduce people to this book. Only one of the chapters 0:02:58.320 --> 0:03:03.840 is actually about like the tardiness aspect of this, but it's, 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:08.480 you know, largely about my personal life, about politics, about 0:03:08.520 --> 0:03:12.240 a bunch of things, video games, video games, sports, gardening. 0:03:12.440 --> 0:03:13.919 There's a lot packed into this. 0:03:17.520 --> 0:03:20.040 So you're gonna read a little bit from the first chapter. Yeah, 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:23.680 this chapter, it's very it's a good example of the 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:26.120 rest of the book. You started the very beginning of time, 0:03:26.760 --> 0:03:29.840 arguably before it the big Bang, and you kind of 0:03:29.840 --> 0:03:31.400 take us all the way through to the present and 0:03:31.480 --> 0:03:34.400 the future. And the book does a great job of 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:37.120 kind of having these huge ideas but also zooming in 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:39.000 on very small, particular things. 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:40.840 Wow, thank you. I didn't feed that to him. 0:03:40.880 --> 0:03:40.920 No. 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:44.240 Yeah, I'm reading my script. But can you talk a 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:46.880 little bit about how you approached this writing this first 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:47.760 chapter before you get into it. 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:48.440 Yeah, for sure. 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:48.640 So. 0:03:50.120 --> 0:03:55.160 I think normally in journalism or in storytelling, it's quite 0:03:55.160 --> 0:03:57.760 common to start with a very specific thing and explain 0:03:57.840 --> 0:03:59.880 to people the thing you want to talk about and 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:03.400 then zoom out. I like to do the reverse, for 0:04:03.440 --> 0:04:06.400 whatever reason. I like to get very big picture before 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:09.360 I go into into the specific ideas I'm talking about. 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:13.040 That's been very annoying for my editor's son, who who 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:15.720 I think is in the crowd. She's like, Okay, you're 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:18.440 writing a book about politics, but you spent ten pages 0:04:18.480 --> 0:04:21.440 talking about like the formation of the earth, and that 0:04:21.600 --> 0:04:24.440 was like tough for her. So shout out to her. 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:27.919 She saved you. She saved you from like a much longer, 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:34.960 much more head scratching book. I think I haven't seen 0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:37.600 that movie, but I'll circle back on that, okay. 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:41.040 And you're like, why and this it makes more sense. 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:43.839 Before I do this reading, though, I was curious, have 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:47.080 either of you like, what's like the worst thing you've 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:52.640 ever been late to? So read this book a deep 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:53.560 sigh to start. 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:55.200 I'm not usually late. 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:59.200 Okay, that's true. Yeah, that example I used earlier was 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:00.720 actually not that, no. 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:02.120 Would be no, one would be early. 0:05:02.400 --> 0:05:02.640 Yeah. 0:05:02.680 --> 0:05:04.680 I used to show up on so. 0:05:04.640 --> 0:05:09.760 When you asked a late story, I've never been late, 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:11.400 so I can't say meet myself. 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:13.360 Well, that's just not true. 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:17.280 But one of the first music videos I worked on 0:05:17.720 --> 0:05:20.640 was with Nicki Minaj, whoa yeah, and. 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:23.400 She was Trump's number one fan, Trump's. 0:05:23.120 --> 0:05:25.440 Number one fan. She was very late. 0:05:25.800 --> 0:05:27.800 She was actually a feature in the music video, so 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:30.919 it wasn't her video, okay, it was supposed to be 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:34.640 like a six hour shoot. She showed up about four 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:36.800 hours late and says she was leaping in thirty minutes. 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:39.760 Oh so you had thirty minutes to kind of get hurt. 0:05:39.920 --> 0:05:41.800 And she walked in first ball. It was a music 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:45.240 video with Nicki Minaj. We're you know, they're filming her. 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:48.920 The team comes out and says, when she comes out here, 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:52.640 do not look at her, do not make on contact. Yeah, 0:05:52.839 --> 0:05:55.960 speak to her. And after every take, she would take 0:05:55.960 --> 0:05:58.359 about five ten minutes to look in the mirror do 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:01.680 her glam. So they up getting about thirty minutes. 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:03.920 Of usable footage. They had to change the whole concept 0:06:03.960 --> 0:06:04.640 of the music video. 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:08.480 And you can't even complain. No, it's not like who 0:06:08.480 --> 0:06:11.800 are you going to write to? It's just that's it. 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:13.040 That's the music video. 0:06:13.080 --> 0:06:15.200 It makes sense though, it's like, how long is the song? 0:06:15.320 --> 0:06:18.360 Three minutes? How much time do you need? At least 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:22.520 once the whole thing, at least once that's around. You know, 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:23.839 she had a crazy writer. 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:25.920 So I was running around the city getting all the stuff. 0:06:25.960 --> 0:06:27.159 She never even went in the trailer. 0:06:27.240 --> 0:06:30.320 Oh my god, that's I don't have a I should, 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:33.200 I should come up with a writer. Yeah, something soon, 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:40.080 Yeah yeah. Nicki Minaj does not appear in my book. 0:06:40.160 --> 0:06:42.479 Rihanna does that way at one point in a chapter. 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:46.320 But I'll go ahead and start reading this first chapter. 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:54.119 It's called from Time. It's dark. And when I say 0:06:54.240 --> 0:07:02.599 it's dark, it's dark everywhere and anywhere, perpetually and all encompassing. 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:11.080 Nothing exists yet, but nothing exists existing, doesn't even exist yet, 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:17.600 But the absence of existing does It is emptiness. If 0:07:17.640 --> 0:07:22.000 something that doesn't exist can be empty the most brutal 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:27.200 or gentlest of realities, depending on your perspective. But your 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:32.239 perspective doesn't exist yet. And then in a split second, 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:39.640 everything a giant explosion, a big bang. Galaxies are now 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:45.080 zooming through an infantile universe, whatever that is. These galaxies 0:07:45.120 --> 0:07:50.160 flow and expand in incomprehensible ways. They seem random, but 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:53.600 are also the exact shape they need to be. This 0:07:53.960 --> 0:07:58.480 is infinity. It's awesome, not in the way that the 0:07:58.600 --> 0:08:01.840 NBA playoffs are awesome, but in the literal sense of 0:08:01.880 --> 0:08:06.480 the word awe inspiring. Only there's no one to inspire 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:10.800 just yet. There are no mailmen or teachers or police 0:08:10.840 --> 0:08:16.520 officers or politicians or pundits. There are no children, no teenagers, 0:08:16.640 --> 0:08:21.440 no adults, no elders. There are no feelings, no emotions, 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:25.920 no conflicts, no wrongdoings, no good deeds. There are no 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:30.520 good times or bad times. There's no justice and no peace, 0:08:31.440 --> 0:08:37.000 Just time from time. Stardust is flowing through the clouds 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:40.199 on adolescent planets, like mountain dew through the veins of 0:08:40.240 --> 0:08:42.760 a call of duty enthusiast in two thousand and nine, 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:45.040 who will try not to call me the N word 0:08:45.120 --> 0:08:49.800 after losing in an online match. He will fail, But 0:08:49.920 --> 0:08:53.840 these planets, in their apparent mission to sustain life, will not. 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:57.640 At least one planet will succeed and set forth a 0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:01.120 derivative series of events that could be described as beautiful 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:05.600 or regrettable, depending on your perspective, which for the record, 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:11.880 will exist soon. Relatively speaking, the planet Earth, our home, 0:09:12.240 --> 0:09:15.760 does not begin in a calmer manner. We start off 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:19.800 with molten rock. Seas of lava crash into one another 0:09:19.920 --> 0:09:23.560 like patrons at an overrated bar on the lower east side. 0:09:23.840 --> 0:09:29.240 This is Earth's least habitable form, as extreme as the 0:09:29.280 --> 0:09:33.959 start of the universe. A smaller planet lunges into Earth 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:38.559 and ejects continent sized pieces of rock into space. These 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:42.560 massive boulders come together and form the Moon, which sways 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:45.880 Earth's oceans. A billion years after, the curtains fall on 0:09:45.920 --> 0:09:50.560 their teenage magma phase, and then the first sign of 0:09:50.640 --> 0:09:56.240 life microbial organisms or microbes. They just sit there and 0:09:56.320 --> 0:09:59.839 writhe in the dirt, pulsating and throbbing, without a s 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:04.120 single thought in their minds, pushing ahead for reasons unknown 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:09.800 to them. I'm envious. Eventually they become mushrooms and plants 0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:14.680 and vegetables and at some point fish. Narratively speaking, the 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:18.199 fish flop out of the water and grow legs, running 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:21.440 around the world reproducing. They create a web of different 0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:25.000 hideous creatures, born with the mission to keep remaking themselves. 0:10:25.960 --> 0:10:30.120 Different climates affect these creatures and change them, making them 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:34.080 even bigger and even uglier. Some of them grow wings 0:10:34.120 --> 0:10:37.280 and fly away, untethered to the drama on the ground. 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:41.880 The dinosaurs arrive and rule the Earth for one hundred 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:45.520 and sixty five million years. They are wiped out by 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:50.120 an asteroid that is approximately six miles long. The rock 0:10:50.240 --> 0:10:52.440 came from the depths of the universe that, in the 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:58.760 meantime has been endlessly unfurling, stretching, and expanding. As the 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:02.640 universe is infinite, there are infinite places. Sorry, there are 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:08.080 infinite planets going through these similar growing pains. I wonder 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:10.640 if any of the infinite options will end up as 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:16.160 tedious as ours On Earth. We're back to chaos. Millions 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:19.640 of animals are obliterated in an instant in, millions more 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:22.839 starved to death due to the extreme conditions caused by 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:28.040 the asteroid annihilation for seventy five percent of living species. 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:32.520 The remaining twenty five percent bounce back. They're not just 0:11:32.600 --> 0:11:35.520 the stepfathers of life. They're the fathers who stepped up 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:41.640 the first primates begin to evolve over time, first gorillas 0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:45.680 and then chimps. The ancestors of humans diverged from the 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:50.000 chimp lineage. One such creature from this new lineage lives 0:11:50.040 --> 0:11:54.040 in what will become Ethiopia. For some reason, millions of 0:11:54.120 --> 0:11:58.480 years later, scientists will name her Lucy. Luam or lem 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:01.880 Lem would have been a more geographically apt option, but 0:12:01.960 --> 0:12:06.320 I digress. Lucy's nieces and nephews migrate across the globe 0:12:06.360 --> 0:12:11.240 and become Homo sapiens. Depending on where the Homo sapiens settle, 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:15.200 their skin color begins to change. The less the sun 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:19.880 rules your land, the lighter your skin becomes. I pause 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:23.640 here for a moment of silence. The Earth's most intellectually 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:29.120 advanced creatures are about to become really stupid, and I'll 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:29.559 stop there. 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:35.880 Well done, so many How did you decide what to 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:38.959 include in that chapter and what to leave out? 0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:43.640 Because you do zero some interesting things there. 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:45.960 I don't know, I did a lot of I took 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:51.120 about like a weekend to kind of go through Wikipedia pages, encyclopedia, 0:12:51.280 --> 0:12:54.520 like just really wanting to understand the trajectory of life. 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:59.439 And obviously I skipped probably millions of years here and there, 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:02.800 and each paragraph I really just extracted what struck out 0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:06.320 to me, like the most interesting things about evolution or 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:10.880 the way that like planets were formed. So it was 0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:13.520 kind of ViBe's based. To answer your question. 0:13:17.040 --> 0:13:20.839 You do this thing too where you'll say something, you 0:13:20.960 --> 0:13:23.559 say something really deep, hmm, but. 0:13:23.520 --> 0:13:26.679 Then you'll make a little joke, okay, and then you say. 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:29.120 Something really deep. So you have this section here, Let's 0:13:29.120 --> 0:13:31.679 see if I can read it. There is some pain 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:34.360 in knowing that the names of the ships that trafficked 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:37.479 human beings for profit were likely created by the dorkiest 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:41.920 guys imaginable. I can't help but picture a rosy cheeked 0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:45.720 Londoner dipping his feathered quill pen and ink and being 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:47.960 proud of himself after writing down a name like the 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:48.960 Brilliant Hog. 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:52.520 And I feel like that's like the book itself. 0:13:52.600 --> 0:13:56.520 You do a good job of like balancing some things 0:13:56.520 --> 0:13:57.880 that are like, oh god. 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:00.640 You know when you really thinking about them. Yeah, there's 0:14:00.760 --> 0:14:01.280 just humor. 0:14:02.160 --> 0:14:04.439 Yeah, there's like there there ends up being a lot 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:07.920 of dark topics in the book, and I always try 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:12.280 to kind of inject some levity into those just to 0:14:12.320 --> 0:14:14.760 make them more consumable. I feel like a lot of 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:19.160 times when you talk about race and politics, it's it's 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:22.040 presented in packaged to you in a way that makes 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:25.960 it feel like homework. You know, we've we've seen this 0:14:26.040 --> 0:14:28.680 during like Black History Month, when you're in elementary school. 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:30.760 You just get things that you're like, okay, okay, I 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:32.960 know this, I know this. I wanted to present a 0:14:32.960 --> 0:14:34.640 lot of the stuff in this book in a way 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:40.000 that made it feel fun and relatable, and so I do. 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:46.840 That, all right? Should we do chas favorite chapters? 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:48.800 Yeah, where we starting all right. 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:51.920 My favorite chapter is called Ticking time Bomb. Okay, you 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:53.440 want to set up with ticking time Bomb? 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:58.080 Yeah, yeah, okay, So this is chapter two. It's called 0:14:58.080 --> 0:15:02.280 Ticking time Bomb, and it is essentially a story about 0:15:02.880 --> 0:15:05.840 how many of us have to grow up a little 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:10.240 bit earlier than we'd like to. For me, specifically, this 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:14.120 this came in the wake of nine to eleven. Uh 0:15:14.440 --> 0:15:17.280 we I grew up in Ohio and even over there 0:15:17.720 --> 0:15:21.520 we face a lot of this kind of the after 0:15:21.760 --> 0:15:25.120 math of like bigotry to that a lot of families 0:15:25.120 --> 0:15:29.400 face in this country afterwards. And so yeah, for me, 0:15:29.480 --> 0:15:31.880 it made me think about I had to start thinking 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:35.760 about interactions I had and breaking them down in an 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:39.560 analytical way that that only now I realized was like, 0:15:39.560 --> 0:15:41.400 oh man, I should have been more worried about like 0:15:41.480 --> 0:15:44.280 power rangers or something. And so that's what the chapter 0:15:44.360 --> 0:15:45.120 is about largely. 0:15:45.320 --> 0:15:47.840 All right, Before we get into the chapter, let's talk 0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:49.720 about our nine to eleven stories. 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:51.200 I thought nine. 0:15:51.120 --> 0:15:53.400 Eleven is one of the rare everyone's got. 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:56.160 Everyone knows what they were, what they were doing. 0:15:56.600 --> 0:15:58.400 Yeah, you know, we're I feel like we're just at 0:15:58.440 --> 0:16:00.600 that age too, where he was just a little bit 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:01.240 younger than us. 0:16:01.680 --> 0:16:02.800 Don't remember that. 0:16:02.960 --> 0:16:05.240 We're about I think we're the cutoff kind of. 0:16:05.200 --> 0:16:06.120 Because we were nine. 0:16:06.440 --> 0:16:08.720 Yeah, yeah, around nine, and I think out of the 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:10.360 three of us, you're the only one who was in 0:16:10.400 --> 0:16:10.840 New York. 0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:11.920 Yeah, I was in Long Island. 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:13.240 So what was what happened? 0:16:14.040 --> 0:16:17.120 Similar to you, A lot of people just started going home. 0:16:17.400 --> 0:16:18.600 My teacher was crying. 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:23.400 But that wasn't really like she cried a lot, you know, 0:16:23.520 --> 0:16:25.880 So it wasn't like we were just like like, Okay, 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:27.200 here's michu macher crying again. 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:28.040 What else? 0:16:28.320 --> 0:16:29.240 What else did she cry about? 0:16:29.280 --> 0:16:29.640 She cried. 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:31.560 She she loved that we were a good class. You know, 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:33.720 we were one of her first classes. She got emotional. 0:16:33.880 --> 0:16:34.320 She was crying. 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:35.200 Good. 0:16:35.360 --> 0:16:35.800 Yeah, she. 0:16:37.320 --> 0:16:39.120 Expecting you to be Jack. No. 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:40.560 No, So like that wasn't the. 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:43.200 Gut That's why my teachers cried because you were so bad. 0:16:43.320 --> 0:16:44.360 The class was just terrible. 0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:48.080 I did make a teacher, well not me, but I 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:50.479 was a part of a class that made it substitute 0:16:50.480 --> 0:16:51.240 cry in high school. 0:16:51.320 --> 0:16:52.760 Oh wow, but we can get to that later. 0:16:52.840 --> 0:16:57.640 Okay, so kids started going home early. I was one 0:16:57.640 --> 0:17:00.280 of the last kids to go home. But yeah, it 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:03.120 was destorted thing where, you know, I went home watching 0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:06.640 TV trying to make sense of what is happening. 0:17:07.359 --> 0:17:08.760 Like I knew this, it was a thing that was 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:09.360 happening in. 0:17:09.320 --> 0:17:13.440 The city, but like, yeah, I had a cousin who 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:15.760 was in one of the towers, so like they were 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:17.920 looking for her for a few weeks, so it was 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:20.359 like it was like a whole while. But it is 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:22.760 one of the like I remember so much from that 0:17:22.880 --> 0:17:24.879 day in a way that I can't recall what happened 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:25.800 like last week. 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:29.200 Yeah, it makes sense for obviously people to be worried 0:17:29.240 --> 0:17:29.840 here in New York. 0:17:29.880 --> 0:17:30.080 Yeah. 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:33.000 Now I'm in Ohio and people are freaking out, and 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:35.439 I'm you know, even as a kid, I'm like, guys relaxed, Like. 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:37.439 Well, that was funny. You mentioned that You're like your 0:17:37.520 --> 0:17:40.040 parents were like, I'm not picking you up, You're not 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:41.200 coming out. Yeah. 0:17:41.240 --> 0:17:44.080 I remember, as I write, as I write in the chapter, 0:17:44.200 --> 0:17:46.800 you know, everyone in our school was getting called home 0:17:46.840 --> 0:17:50.280 from their parents. Uh me, but me, my siblings and 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:52.280 like a few other kids who were just like, Okay, 0:17:52.320 --> 0:17:54.840 I guess we're sticking around. We didn't. We didn't really 0:17:54.920 --> 0:17:57.919 know what was happening until we got home. But yeah, 0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:00.760 it was kind of surreal, like the teacher brought in 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:03.600 one of those we old TVs and just like made 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:06.080 us watch not crazy. Yeah, it was like the nuts. 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:10.000 You know, is your teacher put on the TV for 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:10.560 you to watch? 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:10.920 No? 0:18:11.040 --> 0:18:11.600 They they? 0:18:11.760 --> 0:18:14.000 I mean I was in Connecticut, close to New York, 0:18:14.040 --> 0:18:16.160 so there are people whose parents commute into the city, 0:18:16.240 --> 0:18:18.680 so I think they were just like I just noticed 0:18:18.680 --> 0:18:20.720 all the teachers like hushed talking to each other, like 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:24.239 what's going on? Then kids started going home. But then 0:18:24.280 --> 0:18:26.040 I went home and I my dad's watching TV and 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:28.920 he's just like, oh, this happened. I was like, oh, interesting, 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:30.440 that's that's odd. 0:18:30.760 --> 0:18:32.040 Like why would someone do that? 0:18:33.680 --> 0:18:36.200 So yeah, no, it was just a day of confusion. 0:18:36.440 --> 0:18:37.040 Yeah. 0:18:37.600 --> 0:18:41.159 Yeah, especially as a kid, you know, trying to understand 0:18:41.280 --> 0:18:42.640 you know, people did a bad thing. 0:18:42.760 --> 0:18:44.040 Why did they do a bad thing? 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:48.399 Yeah, And I write about like learning what it was. 0:18:48.760 --> 0:18:52.080 So my dad, who's in the crowd here tonight, was 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:54.720 trying to explain to me as like a kid like 0:18:55.240 --> 0:18:59.800 kind of international geopolitics, and it probably didn't land the 0:18:59.800 --> 0:19:02.919 way he was supposed to, but you know, he was 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:06.159 giving me kind of the kids bop version of you know, 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:10.040 what's happening in the Middle East. And I remember that 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:13.479 vividly because he always speaks in such a wise tone, 0:19:14.160 --> 0:19:16.840 and uh, you know, we come from an East African 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:20.399 household slightly different view about the world than what we 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:23.240 learned here in the West. And yeah, and I just 0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:27.199 remember going to so he's he's trying to explain to me, 0:19:27.240 --> 0:19:30.120 you know, sometimes big world powers we go to places 0:19:30.200 --> 0:19:32.720 we kind of mess things up. It's not a it's 0:19:32.760 --> 0:19:35.679 not condoning what's happening, but it's important, I think, to 0:19:36.520 --> 0:19:39.520 try to understand why things happen so that you know, 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:41.160 in the future we can try to avoid them, although 0:19:41.200 --> 0:19:43.160 that doesn't seem to be happening right now in this moment. 0:19:44.480 --> 0:19:46.680 And yeah, I remember going to school the next day 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:48.840 being like, if we just left people alone, and it 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:57.159 wasn't it didn't land as well. So it was an 0:19:57.240 --> 0:19:58.960 interesting experience for me for sure. 0:20:01.000 --> 0:20:03.000 But you talk about I think it was like a 0:20:03.040 --> 0:20:06.240 year later, you're having a discussion, you know, ten year 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:07.760 old Manny about nine to eleven. 0:20:07.880 --> 0:20:08.919 Teacher overhears you. 0:20:09.240 --> 0:20:14.080 Yeah, and it sort of like confirms sonodobiases that she, yeah, 0:20:14.400 --> 0:20:15.600 something she may have thought about you. 0:20:15.720 --> 0:20:18.800 I just remember, you know, we're not even Arab, like 0:20:18.840 --> 0:20:22.200 we're we have East African last name. And but people 0:20:22.320 --> 0:20:25.000 just I think in the form especially exactly, they just 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:27.560 look at something that looks kind of different, and but 0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:30.960 you know, they assume things. But yeah, I think. 0:20:30.880 --> 0:20:31.600 Were around then. 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:34.160 That was like kind of the first time I was like, oh, 0:20:34.200 --> 0:20:38.199 this person thinks something else of me. And you know, 0:20:38.240 --> 0:20:40.280 I was, I guess ten years old. That was a 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:42.760 year after nine to eleven, and that was just an 0:20:42.800 --> 0:20:44.680 experience that really stuck with me. I was like, why 0:20:44.760 --> 0:20:47.200 isn't she being as kind of friendly as she used 0:20:47.200 --> 0:20:51.000 to be? Uh, you know, and so it made me 0:20:51.000 --> 0:20:51.480 think a lot. 0:20:52.080 --> 0:20:54.560 All right, I'm going to ask you to read, Okay, 0:20:54.560 --> 0:21:02.000 fair enough, page twenty nine, page nine. Like halfway through 0:21:02.880 --> 0:21:05.600 that paragraph into page thirty. 0:21:05.600 --> 0:21:07.960 I'm still finding twenty nine. Give me a second. Here, okay, 0:21:07.960 --> 0:21:08.399 here we go. 0:21:09.400 --> 0:21:10.720 So it's starting facing. 0:21:10.520 --> 0:21:13.120 Okay, and how long do you want me to read? 0:21:14.320 --> 0:21:17.680 I want you to read until read the whole next pitche. 0:21:17.640 --> 0:21:20.679 Okay, all right, here we go. Facing bigotry at a 0:21:20.720 --> 0:21:25.000 young age forces people of color into analytical thinking before 0:21:25.040 --> 0:21:27.880 they should ever be burdened by it. As time went on, 0:21:28.000 --> 0:21:32.399 I started wondering where my classmates had learned their colorful insults. 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:36.040 I thought about their older siblings and their parents. The 0:21:36.080 --> 0:21:39.240 Internet was still relatively young then, but maybe they'd seen 0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:42.280 the words on some forum or in a comment section. 0:21:43.080 --> 0:21:46.400 Were these kids just products of their environment or had 0:21:46.400 --> 0:21:49.560 they made an active decision to be mean? And if 0:21:49.560 --> 0:21:53.200 they were just parrotying others, did that even matter? Did 0:21:53.200 --> 0:21:56.080 it make it better? It didn't change all that much 0:21:56.119 --> 0:22:00.320 from my point of view. These invasive contemplations provide, and me, 0:22:00.600 --> 0:22:03.600 in scores of other black and brown kids, a regrettable 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:07.600 early path to understanding nuance, to look at a situation 0:22:07.800 --> 0:22:12.439 and understand its context as a child, to think in 0:22:12.480 --> 0:22:15.600 the face of a hurtful encounter that there was something 0:22:15.920 --> 0:22:19.440 more under the surface of it. Far too soon in life, 0:22:19.600 --> 0:22:23.160 I and others like me developed sixth sense that many 0:22:23.160 --> 0:22:26.520 people don't ever have to develop. How did we get 0:22:26.520 --> 0:22:30.000 to this moment? Growing up as a black or brown 0:22:30.080 --> 0:22:33.320 kid requires a level of hyper awareness, and at a 0:22:33.359 --> 0:22:36.119 time when we should be chiefly concerned with whether the 0:22:36.200 --> 0:22:39.280 main characters and power Rangers will defeat the latest alien 0:22:39.359 --> 0:22:43.600 sludge monster in the next episode, they will In the 0:22:43.600 --> 0:22:46.720 Western world, we have to navigate societies that see us 0:22:46.760 --> 0:22:50.119 as others, while also appealing to the sensibilities of the 0:22:50.200 --> 0:22:53.960 systems ruling those societies. This was a burden on me 0:22:54.359 --> 0:22:57.600 in the breezy innocence that defined much of my adolescence 0:22:58.040 --> 0:23:02.400 was replaced, in part by a pinching sense of consciousness. 0:23:03.240 --> 0:23:06.359 In this way, critical thinking wasn't just an academic skill 0:23:06.520 --> 0:23:09.760 learned over the course of a boring semester in middle school. 0:23:10.200 --> 0:23:13.119 It became a tool for walking through a world riddled 0:23:13.160 --> 0:23:14.520 with implicit bias. 0:23:16.760 --> 0:23:22.719 Wow, I just think you summarize that so Like I 0:23:22.800 --> 0:23:26.159 was literally the week before I read this talking to 0:23:26.200 --> 0:23:27.159 my therapist about this. 0:23:27.200 --> 0:23:27.920 I was like, I. 0:23:27.840 --> 0:23:31.399 Feel like I overanalyzed everything people say, like I'm super 0:23:31.440 --> 0:23:33.640 aware like social cues, and like I don't know where 0:23:33.640 --> 0:23:34.160 that comes from. 0:23:34.320 --> 0:23:35.440 Yeah, And then I read that. 0:23:35.359 --> 0:23:39.520 Chap You're get a refund money. 0:23:43.080 --> 0:23:45.480 But is this feeling that you you talk about of 0:23:45.600 --> 0:23:48.200 just like as a kid even and you know your 0:23:48.240 --> 0:23:49.960 parents talk to you a lot as a kid too, 0:23:50.000 --> 0:23:52.280 as a black kid, of being just like, hey, when 0:23:52.320 --> 0:23:56.240 you're in public areas, you need to be aware, yes, hinting, 0:23:56.440 --> 0:24:00.160 and aware of how what people are doing around you. 0:23:59.840 --> 0:24:01.800 I think you just summarized that just like. 0:24:02.480 --> 0:24:06.120 Really yeah, And of course you know, other people, other races, 0:24:06.160 --> 0:24:09.919 demographics go through other things that might make them do 0:24:10.040 --> 0:24:12.240 the same thing earlier than they should be. But I 0:24:12.240 --> 0:24:15.880 think that's really what what struck me about that time, 0:24:15.960 --> 0:24:19.720 the early two thousands, us growing up, us being in 0:24:19.760 --> 0:24:22.920 our most formative years in the early two thousands. 0:24:24.240 --> 0:24:29.320 Yeah, hm a right now, any thought? Yeah, yeah, as 0:24:29.320 --> 0:24:30.040 a white boy. 0:24:29.880 --> 0:24:32.399 And what were you bullying? I did under Connecticut? 0:24:32.480 --> 0:24:34.680 I did underline And then I think in the next 0:24:34.680 --> 0:24:36.600 paragraph you talk about you know, it's like most of 0:24:36.640 --> 0:24:39.720 your peers who you know, didn't just approach the world 0:24:39.720 --> 0:24:42.679 with a trust in institutions, And it's like, yeah, yeah, 0:24:42.720 --> 0:24:44.440 like that did come much later where it's like, oh 0:24:44.520 --> 0:24:46.600 maybe you know, or even just what you're explaining with 0:24:46.880 --> 0:24:52.000 getting explained why not eleven happened? It's like, yeah, there's 0:24:52.000 --> 0:24:58.040 a logic to it. Yeah, So that was nothing else 0:24:58.040 --> 0:24:58.439 to say there. 0:24:59.119 --> 0:24:59.960 That's good, that's good. 0:25:00.040 --> 0:25:02.880 Well, Gas, you learned now, yeah, yeah, yeah, I learned 0:25:02.880 --> 0:25:03.520 this last week. 0:25:06.760 --> 0:25:07.760 Should we go to my chapter? 0:25:07.880 --> 0:25:10.280 Yeah, I'm realizing the favorite trap because I picked well, 0:25:10.400 --> 0:25:12.439 I give you an option for which one we discussed. 0:25:12.480 --> 0:25:13.880 But I'm realizing it makes it look like we only 0:25:13.880 --> 0:25:16.320 read the first three chapters because minus the one minus 0:25:16.400 --> 0:25:19.240 chapter three, okay, And it's called how to Grow a 0:25:19.280 --> 0:25:23.480 Lemon Tree. Takes place during twenty twenty, and do you 0:25:23.480 --> 0:25:27.920 want to explain a little bit about Yeah. 0:25:27.200 --> 0:25:29.000 At the beginning, I don't know if it manuals here, 0:25:29.000 --> 0:25:33.080 but at the beginning of the pandemic, my one of 0:25:33.080 --> 0:25:37.440 my best friends and roommate at the time, like temporarily 0:25:37.480 --> 0:25:39.919 moved to d C to be with his partner at 0:25:39.960 --> 0:25:42.359 the time. And then a couple of days later, he 0:25:42.400 --> 0:25:45.359 got this big package that was a lemon tree. And 0:25:45.400 --> 0:25:49.000 he was that package, you don't know, like as tall 0:25:49.040 --> 0:25:51.200 as me. I think it was like a six feet 0:25:51.400 --> 0:25:59.800 a six eight package. Yeah, muscular package. Yeah. And and 0:26:00.400 --> 0:26:02.040 you know he called me the next day and he's like, 0:26:02.160 --> 0:26:03.960 I'm so sorry I forgot to tell you about this, 0:26:04.040 --> 0:26:05.600 but I need you to take care of this lemon 0:26:05.640 --> 0:26:08.600 tree until I get back. And it was right at 0:26:08.640 --> 0:26:13.560 the kind of the most unhinged part of the pandemic. 0:26:13.640 --> 0:26:16.959 It was like that April or May when we're like 0:26:17.040 --> 0:26:21.199 stuck inside and like everything's closed, and uh, yeah, the 0:26:21.280 --> 0:26:23.879 chapter is about me literally growing the lemon tree and 0:26:23.960 --> 0:26:25.800 just what it taught me about myself. 0:26:26.960 --> 0:26:28.440 I think you did a great job of kind of 0:26:28.480 --> 0:26:30.719 revisiting this time. I feel like we're only kind of 0:26:30.760 --> 0:26:32.760 just at the point where people are able to kind 0:26:32.760 --> 0:26:36.240 of reflect on this, you know, maybe more cool calm 0:26:36.240 --> 0:26:39.760 collected way with some distance, but it seems like everyone 0:26:39.800 --> 0:26:41.680 kind of has their own you know, lemon tree, Devin, 0:26:41.680 --> 0:26:43.159 did you have a lemon. 0:26:42.880 --> 0:26:47.280 Tree still with you? 0:26:47.359 --> 0:26:47.560 Yeah? 0:26:48.280 --> 0:26:52.000 He made it through. But yeah, we're similar to Manny. 0:26:52.000 --> 0:26:53.359 It was a similar sort of thing of just like 0:26:53.400 --> 0:26:55.320 I need to put my energy into something if I'm 0:26:55.320 --> 0:26:56.399 going to be stuck in a house. 0:26:56.640 --> 0:26:59.240 Yeah, it's like I don't know the dog. 0:26:59.440 --> 0:27:01.639 A lot of peopleur sourdough breads. 0:27:01.720 --> 0:27:04.760 Yeah, sour dough. I tried relearning saxophone for the first 0:27:04.760 --> 0:27:05.680 time in twenty years. 0:27:05.720 --> 0:27:08.800 Oh wow, lasted about I tried it, like based it for. 0:27:08.720 --> 0:27:10.040 Two days, and I was like, all right, this is 0:27:10.040 --> 0:27:13.560 pretty hard, but maybe now a few years of past, 0:27:13.600 --> 0:27:15.399 maybe I'll try to get give me a shot. 0:27:15.520 --> 0:27:18.200 I did play the Sims for like a week because 0:27:18.200 --> 0:27:19.439 I used to play that a lot as a kid, 0:27:19.440 --> 0:27:20.560 and I was like, maybe I'll get back in the 0:27:20.640 --> 0:27:21.160 video games. 0:27:21.240 --> 0:27:25.560 Yeah, I'm gaming, whether there's a pandemic or not that 0:27:25.680 --> 0:27:26.280 wasn't for me. 0:27:27.880 --> 0:27:28.400 And the chapter. 0:27:28.400 --> 0:27:29.760 I think the chapter is a great job because you 0:27:29.760 --> 0:27:34.320 reflect on kind of this. You know, everyone's alone together 0:27:34.359 --> 0:27:37.520 in this right their own ways. And then I like, 0:27:37.600 --> 0:27:40.959 kind of you're talking to your roommate distantly as he's 0:27:41.040 --> 0:27:43.119 kind of coaching through how to grow this lemon tree, 0:27:43.160 --> 0:27:45.840 and he's, you know, and this is true to what 0:27:45.880 --> 0:27:47.600 I know of him in real life. He's quite you know, 0:27:47.640 --> 0:27:49.679 wise and sage, and it's like he's kind of this 0:27:49.880 --> 0:27:52.480 like omnipresent person you're reaching out to. 0:27:52.560 --> 0:27:54.960 For advice throughout this, which is nice. It was almost 0:27:54.960 --> 0:27:56.880 it was felt like praying and word yeah. 0:27:56.920 --> 0:27:59.280 And it's like I like, how do I pollinate this thing? 0:27:59.720 --> 0:27:59.879 You know? 0:28:00.040 --> 0:28:01.399 And he's like it's okay, Like you can do it, 0:28:01.400 --> 0:28:02.960 Like you got this, like he's just like a voice 0:28:02.960 --> 0:28:05.520 in your head and not like a real person. And 0:28:05.560 --> 0:28:07.520 then you do, you know, you go through stuff by 0:28:07.520 --> 0:28:09.080 step how to do this, and then you'll get to 0:28:09.119 --> 0:28:12.919 a pretty sensual scene where you're pollinating this tree. We 0:28:12.920 --> 0:28:15.480 don't need to get into the details, but I would 0:28:15.520 --> 0:28:17.280 like to know kind of how what was your process 0:28:17.320 --> 0:28:18.159 like actually writing that? 0:28:18.720 --> 0:28:19.480 How did you approach. 0:28:19.800 --> 0:28:20.920 Yeah, intimacy. 0:28:21.040 --> 0:28:24.040 Noah's referring to that. You know, you grow the tree 0:28:24.080 --> 0:28:27.960 to a point where it needs to be pollinated. Now 0:28:28.240 --> 0:28:30.679 like out in the wild or on a farm or whatever, 0:28:30.760 --> 0:28:34.680 that that happens naturally, like bees will come and take 0:28:34.880 --> 0:28:36.840 some parts from some part of the plant and put 0:28:36.840 --> 0:28:38.560 it on the other part of the plant. But am 0:28:38.600 --> 0:28:42.320 my bedsty apartment. I had to do that by myself, 0:28:42.560 --> 0:28:46.080 and so it involves like kind of using your hands 0:28:46.120 --> 0:28:48.920 and in a way that I thought would be fun 0:28:48.920 --> 0:28:51.960 to write about, like as a young adult novel, Like 0:28:52.520 --> 0:28:55.000 I just take like a quick pivot into one of 0:28:55.040 --> 0:28:58.160 those like fake Harry Potter books where it's about that 0:28:59.040 --> 0:29:04.360 the fan fictions. Yeah and so yeah exactly, but for 0:29:04.440 --> 0:29:08.800 like five sentences and yeah, I just thought it would 0:29:08.800 --> 0:29:11.680 be a cool kind of writing exercise to you know, 0:29:12.040 --> 0:29:13.560 quickly visit that type of writing. 0:29:13.800 --> 0:29:15.560 I'd love to see the kind of Google doc with 0:29:15.600 --> 0:29:18.160 all the revisions, because it was there ever a time 0:29:18.160 --> 0:29:20.320 when it was a little racier and then you pulled 0:29:20.320 --> 0:29:20.640 it back. 0:29:21.640 --> 0:29:22.200 It was there, was it? 0:29:22.320 --> 0:29:22.400 No? 0:29:22.520 --> 0:29:25.479 It started off tamer? Yeah, edits was like, if you're 0:29:25.520 --> 0:29:27.120 gonna do that, we're gonna try to sell some books. 0:29:27.240 --> 0:29:31.160 Yeah, HBO is not buying this one. Yeah, okay, that 0:29:31.200 --> 0:29:33.600 makes sense, I get. I guess more on just the 0:29:33.720 --> 0:29:36.840 overall kind of COVID point, like how did you approach 0:29:37.160 --> 0:29:40.520 actually tackling this time where it's like all right, Like, 0:29:40.760 --> 0:29:42.800 how'd you feel about kind of revisiting that. 0:29:42.880 --> 0:29:46.320 Yeah, it's weird. I mean we there are, like we've 0:29:46.360 --> 0:29:48.080 had a couple of movies that have attempted to do 0:29:48.120 --> 0:29:50.880 that since I wrote this, and like it's just impossible, 0:29:50.920 --> 0:29:53.360 Like I think you can't really do it. It was such 0:29:53.360 --> 0:29:57.760 a surreal moment, especially in a bigger metropolitan city like 0:29:57.800 --> 0:29:59.360 New York. I know there are other parts of the 0:29:59.360 --> 0:30:03.120 country that like barely changed the way they lived, but 0:30:03.600 --> 0:30:07.520 it's just such a stark like a time that feels 0:30:07.520 --> 0:30:09.960 like it was one hundred years ago. Sometimes it feels 0:30:10.000 --> 0:30:12.800 like it was yesterday. And so I thought the best 0:30:12.800 --> 0:30:15.680 way I could kind of process it was literally go 0:30:15.800 --> 0:30:18.440 through what I was doing and trying to figure out 0:30:18.480 --> 0:30:20.920 if I could like extract any meaning from it, and 0:30:20.960 --> 0:30:23.480 so that I'm actually, really, as I write in the chapter, 0:30:24.000 --> 0:30:27.520 so happy that the lemon tree was there. In retrospect, 0:30:27.560 --> 0:30:33.760 there's a moment before the lemonry arrived where Emmanuel called 0:30:33.800 --> 0:30:38.080 me because I had posted something on Instagram that was like, 0:30:38.360 --> 0:30:41.960 I was like trying to teach people how Cleopatra used 0:30:41.960 --> 0:30:43.160 to bathe in milk. 0:30:43.400 --> 0:30:45.760 Okay, where you're really trying to teach people. 0:30:46.040 --> 0:30:49.840 You teach, that's probably twenty percent of it. Yeah, And 0:30:49.880 --> 0:30:52.960 so I posted like this step by step process and 0:30:53.080 --> 0:30:54.560 I thought it was cool and funny. And then he 0:30:54.600 --> 0:30:56.920 called me and he was like, is everything okay over there? 0:30:58.120 --> 0:31:00.400 And so then the lemon tree came out kind of 0:31:00.400 --> 0:31:02.400 the perfect time for me to like focus on something 0:31:02.440 --> 0:31:09.160 real and tangible until it bore fruit. Eventually it's beautiful. 0:31:09.440 --> 0:31:12.360 How many how many you say, how many cups of lemonade? Yeah? 0:31:12.440 --> 0:31:15.760 I actually the amount I knew about like lemon trees 0:31:15.880 --> 0:31:18.920 or just I mean, any plants in general was really embarrassing. 0:31:18.920 --> 0:31:21.880 At the time, I kind of thought that it would have, 0:31:22.040 --> 0:31:24.960 you know, twenty thirty lemons coming out of it, but 0:31:25.000 --> 0:31:27.960 it was three, I think three, three or three or four. 0:31:28.120 --> 0:31:30.920 We squeezed them out to like two glasses of lemonade 0:31:31.040 --> 0:31:33.320 and that took eight months. It just gave me, It 0:31:33.760 --> 0:31:37.840 gave me such respect for the farming All the farmers 0:31:38.120 --> 0:31:41.680 farming community are great farmers. Yeah, have you continued? 0:31:41.760 --> 0:31:43.280 Have you continued to farm? 0:31:43.640 --> 0:31:46.120 I have not farmed since then, but the lemon tree 0:31:46.400 --> 0:31:49.760 does live at Emanual's apartment. It's looking much better under 0:31:49.760 --> 0:31:50.120 his care. 0:31:50.440 --> 0:31:50.600 Good. 0:31:50.680 --> 0:31:52.400 Yeah, Okay, I'm glad to hear. 0:31:52.320 --> 0:31:55.600 That you have plants. I'm a plant. 0:31:56.200 --> 0:31:57.800 What are we working with? 0:31:58.840 --> 0:31:59.680 I love at those? 0:32:00.120 --> 0:32:02.080 Okay, you know that's everyone's got those. 0:32:02.200 --> 0:32:03.000 I mean they're easy. 0:32:03.600 --> 0:32:06.120 I actually have I have an app for my plants 0:32:06.160 --> 0:32:07.360 that tells me when to water them. 0:32:07.680 --> 0:32:10.560 Oh what do you take a picture and. 0:32:09.760 --> 0:32:11.920 You just put what plant you got where it's why 0:32:11.960 --> 0:32:12.840 are we talking about this here? 0:32:13.280 --> 0:32:15.680 Where it is in your apartment? Curious? 0:32:15.720 --> 0:32:17.960 And then it tells you when to fertilize it, yeah, 0:32:18.200 --> 0:32:20.680 when to water it, yeah, when to repot it, which 0:32:20.720 --> 0:32:21.160 I never do. 0:32:21.360 --> 0:32:21.719 Mmm. 0:32:22.360 --> 0:32:24.000 My snake plant is going through that right. 0:32:24.080 --> 0:32:24.280 Yeah. 0:32:24.320 --> 0:32:26.480 I also buy plants that are you basically don't have 0:32:26.560 --> 0:32:29.640 to take care of. Yeah, but somehow they still get. 0:32:29.560 --> 0:32:33.560 That underwortered and over water yeah yeah yeah, yeah. 0:32:33.600 --> 0:32:35.600 Anyway, curious. 0:32:38.960 --> 0:32:40.160 Plant habits. 0:32:41.320 --> 0:32:45.080 Just more general many what what were was there anything 0:32:45.120 --> 0:32:46.840 that was cut? Any essays that you had in here 0:32:46.960 --> 0:32:48.080 before it and you were yeah? 0:32:48.240 --> 0:32:52.640 Actually it so originally it was ten kind of like 0:32:52.720 --> 0:32:55.800 more writerly essays which are still in the book. 0:32:56.320 --> 0:32:56.520 Uh. 0:32:56.560 --> 0:32:59.120 And then there was some more kind of creative like writing. 0:32:59.160 --> 0:33:03.160 There was short story worries. Yeah, mostly just short stories. 0:33:04.440 --> 0:33:04.680 Yeah. 0:33:04.720 --> 0:33:07.000 Fiction There was like I was gonna do like an 0:33:07.360 --> 0:33:10.280 excerpt of a screenplay I had, but then we I 0:33:10.320 --> 0:33:12.160 was reading through it and I just I was like, Okay, 0:33:12.160 --> 0:33:13.680 this is going to take a whole other two years 0:33:13.680 --> 0:33:16.480 if I had at the pace that I'm writing this at, 0:33:16.520 --> 0:33:19.680 which is very slowly. Uh So we decided to kind 0:33:19.720 --> 0:33:21.840 of condense things and make it just the essays. 0:33:22.520 --> 0:33:25.160 But yeah, I think that was a solid choice. 0:33:25.160 --> 0:33:30.280 But yeah, I was telling her yesterday, this is a 0:33:30.360 --> 0:33:30.880 type book. 0:33:31.200 --> 0:33:34.360 Honestly, she deserves like a co author and credit. She 0:33:34.440 --> 0:33:35.600 saved you guys from There's. 0:33:35.360 --> 0:33:36.479 Not a waste of shigne in it. 0:33:36.480 --> 0:33:40.200 It's just like everything feels necessary because wow, usually. 0:33:39.920 --> 0:33:44.840 When wanted off the dome, we're getting paid very well 0:33:44.880 --> 0:33:45.120 for this. 0:33:46.320 --> 0:33:47.840 It's one hundred dollars per. 0:33:49.440 --> 0:33:51.720 Uh No, no, I feel like usually but yeah, you 0:33:51.720 --> 0:33:53.520 get a book of essays, there usually like two or 0:33:53.560 --> 0:33:56.040 three that you're like, all right, they need to fill 0:33:56.160 --> 0:33:56.960 some pages here. 0:33:57.120 --> 0:33:59.880 Yeah, I did feel I felt strongly that it should 0:33:59.880 --> 0:34:01.880 be a pretty quick light read. 0:34:02.040 --> 0:34:02.280 Yeah. 0:34:02.320 --> 0:34:07.200 I keep telling people because that's what I liked two hours. 0:34:08.080 --> 0:34:10.920 If you haven't bought it yet, exactly, it's very quick. 0:34:10.960 --> 0:34:11.160 You know. 0:34:11.880 --> 0:34:14.839 We got it but a week or so ago, yeah, 0:34:15.120 --> 0:34:15.720 last weekend. 0:34:15.960 --> 0:34:21.400 Yeah. Yeah, and it was I mean I signed the 0:34:21.600 --> 0:34:25.080 deal to write the book like almost three years ago, 0:34:26.400 --> 0:34:29.440 and then, you know, topical to the title, I was 0:34:30.000 --> 0:34:33.960 a year late and turning in the in the manuscript. 0:34:34.040 --> 0:34:37.000 Yeah, I remember you talking about. 0:34:38.080 --> 0:34:40.160 It was a whole year. But because like we were, 0:34:40.200 --> 0:34:42.359 we were, you know, we were doing the podcast. I'm 0:34:42.400 --> 0:34:44.279 going to blame it on. 0:34:47.680 --> 0:34:49.480 Yeah, I remember you went to a cabin with me 0:34:49.560 --> 0:34:50.280 at one point. 0:34:50.400 --> 0:34:52.520 Yeah, I wrote probably half of a chapter up there. 0:34:53.480 --> 0:34:54.600 We've got a lot of work done. 0:34:55.600 --> 0:34:57.840 When when you first kind of sold the book, what 0:34:57.840 --> 0:35:01.239 what did you have at that point? I Typically the 0:35:01.239 --> 0:35:02.759 way it works is like, if you're going to do 0:35:02.880 --> 0:35:08.480 a nonfiction, you can you propose like a publisher that 0:35:08.520 --> 0:35:11.200 comes with like an overview, so you describe what the 0:35:11.200 --> 0:35:14.840 book is, and then you typically include a few chapters. 0:35:15.960 --> 0:35:19.640 If you want to sell a novel, it's much more 0:35:19.680 --> 0:35:22.160 common to actually have to write the whole thing before 0:35:22.200 --> 0:35:24.960 you propose it, which I'm kind of working on so 0:35:25.920 --> 0:35:26.560 little tease. 0:35:29.480 --> 0:35:30.600 Did you did you so? 0:35:30.640 --> 0:35:32.680 Which of these did you have written first? I guess 0:35:32.719 --> 0:35:33.880 this is my next question. 0:35:33.960 --> 0:35:38.120 Great started. The first three chapters were the first one 0:35:38.680 --> 0:35:42.359 Summer sixteen, which is a chapter trying to figure out 0:35:42.400 --> 0:35:45.839 why we all missed that summer of twenty sixteen. It's good, 0:35:46.160 --> 0:35:50.080 thank you. And the third one was the third one 0:35:50.080 --> 0:35:52.440 was a chapter that didn't make it. So there's a 0:35:52.520 --> 0:35:55.040 quick paragraph that you'd referred to in the first chapter 0:35:55.080 --> 0:35:58.520 about the names of the slave ships that came to 0:35:58.560 --> 0:36:01.080 the US. There was a whole chapter about like how 0:36:01.160 --> 0:36:04.400 embarrassing some of those names are. It didn't end up 0:36:04.400 --> 0:36:06.920 making the final cut, but it's a good paragraph. 0:36:06.960 --> 0:36:07.239 Thank you. 0:36:07.320 --> 0:36:11.640 Yeah, it makes a great paragraph. 0:36:11.680 --> 0:36:15.080 What was the hardest essay for you to short? A crack? 0:36:17.280 --> 0:36:20.840 Great? These are great questions, guys. Give it up for 0:36:20.920 --> 0:36:25.280 knowing that. I think the hardest one. There's a chapter 0:36:25.320 --> 0:36:28.000 in here called Ocarina of Time, which is a reference 0:36:28.040 --> 0:36:32.120 to one of my favorite video games called The Legend 0:36:32.160 --> 0:36:35.320 of Zelda Ocerna of Time, and the chapter is about 0:36:36.160 --> 0:36:39.720 a near drowning incident I had when I was a kid. 0:36:39.800 --> 0:36:42.520 Which is something I heard about obviously. 0:36:42.640 --> 0:36:44.080 Yeah, I've told you. I've told you guys about this. 0:36:44.840 --> 0:36:46.720 A lot more detail in the book, a lot more detail. 0:36:47.480 --> 0:36:51.000 You learn how much closer to death I was, probably. 0:36:54.160 --> 0:36:56.759 But now it made so much more sense more around 0:36:56.840 --> 0:36:58.880 bodies of water, You're like, I need a life jacket. 0:36:58.880 --> 0:37:01.120 I'm like, dude, like not getting into water. But now 0:37:01.200 --> 0:37:03.800 that makes. 0:37:03.320 --> 0:37:05.520 Yeah, it still affects me to this day, like big 0:37:05.560 --> 0:37:08.160 bodies of water are just kind of like I have 0:37:08.160 --> 0:37:10.320 a lot more respect for them after writing this chapter 0:37:10.520 --> 0:37:15.919 and say that, yeah, yeah, exactly, Yeah, this is like metaphysical. 0:37:16.080 --> 0:37:17.080 Yeah, this could be a movie. 0:37:17.120 --> 0:37:21.200 It was, thank you, I'll pitch it. The chapter is 0:37:21.239 --> 0:37:25.520 about that, and like there's a there's a mechanic in 0:37:25.600 --> 0:37:27.800 the video game where you go back and forth in time, 0:37:28.239 --> 0:37:30.960 and so it's about me trying to escape that moment. 0:37:31.760 --> 0:37:34.600 But it was really hard to kind of nail because 0:37:34.760 --> 0:37:37.120 the game itself, like the plot in the game is 0:37:37.200 --> 0:37:41.200 quite confusing, and and then this exercise in and of 0:37:41.239 --> 0:37:44.160 itself is kind of confusing, but hopefully it landed in 0:37:44.200 --> 0:37:44.759 a place that. 0:37:44.880 --> 0:37:47.520 Was making consumable video games. 0:37:47.560 --> 0:37:53.160 So that chapter, yeah, it was in the. 0:37:53.200 --> 0:37:55.640 Chapter as trying to save my life, but not really 0:37:55.680 --> 0:37:56.120 doing it. 0:37:56.160 --> 0:38:00.120 Well enough, raising your hands. 0:38:00.120 --> 0:38:02.560 But we we obviously I'm here today. It worked out. 0:38:03.600 --> 0:38:07.920 Yep, you made it, you made it. Yeah, what is 0:38:08.000 --> 0:38:09.200 the movie there? 0:38:09.280 --> 0:38:11.919 It's a doc where this guy, like a kid goes 0:38:11.960 --> 0:38:14.840 missing and then a guy comes back and he pretends 0:38:14.840 --> 0:38:19.759 to be that kid of the chameleon. No, no, all right, 0:38:20.040 --> 0:38:24.040 well to be it reminded me of that, okay, for 0:38:24.040 --> 0:38:27.040 like seven years, and then somebody was pretending to. 0:38:27.040 --> 0:38:29.600 Be very similar. Okay, it's very similar. I'm gonna check 0:38:29.640 --> 0:38:30.280 your chatter. 0:38:30.120 --> 0:38:30.840 But it would be crazy. 0:38:30.840 --> 0:38:32.600 What if this isn't Manny? 0:38:33.640 --> 0:38:35.680 Who knows if this is the real Manny? 0:38:35.800 --> 0:38:39.880 I just got chills, goose scared? 0:38:40.800 --> 0:38:43.839 All right, should we do okay? Yeah, well we got 0:38:43.880 --> 0:38:44.440 like ten minutes. 0:38:44.560 --> 0:38:46.359 Oh well should I read first? 0:38:46.560 --> 0:38:48.239 Yeah? Oh yeah, read last? 0:38:48.320 --> 0:38:49.160 Okay, I'll read last. 0:38:49.640 --> 0:38:50.040 Yeah. 0:38:50.200 --> 0:38:51.120 Are there any questions? 0:38:51.120 --> 0:38:51.480 Any question? 0:38:52.280 --> 0:38:53.280 Come out here with the lights. 0:38:53.360 --> 0:38:55.360 But I know you guys haven't read the book. So 0:38:55.400 --> 0:38:57.760 if you don't have any questions, just keep asking more questions, 0:39:00.080 --> 0:39:02.399 any questions? Yeah, you got a question. 0:39:02.600 --> 0:39:04.800 I'm scared. I'm actually scared of Sarah's question. 0:39:05.360 --> 0:39:06.400 I have two questions. 0:39:06.440 --> 0:39:09.239 Okay, one question is the audiobook was great? 0:39:10.480 --> 0:39:14.160 The narration Oh, it was really hard. Actually, I thought 0:39:14.239 --> 0:39:16.560 I could walk in there. I mean I I yap 0:39:16.680 --> 0:39:18.920 for a living, so I thought this would be easy. 0:39:19.000 --> 0:39:22.239 But it was a grueling process. It took three sessions 0:39:22.719 --> 0:39:26.000 and each session was like eight hours long. Yeah, so 0:39:26.239 --> 0:39:29.359 thank you for reading the audiobook. Yes, and please read 0:39:29.400 --> 0:39:32.320 the audio. Thank you for listening to the audiobook, I 0:39:32.320 --> 0:39:33.440 should say, and. 0:39:33.320 --> 0:39:35.480 For those of us that know you, we are dying 0:39:35.480 --> 0:39:37.720 to know who Rihanna was in the book. 0:39:38.280 --> 0:39:40.719 Oh interesting, there may be some people in the crowd 0:39:40.760 --> 0:39:42.800 who knows who she is, but I'm not going to reveal. 0:39:43.200 --> 0:39:46.200 I'm you know, this is a journalistic endeavor. I can't 0:39:46.440 --> 0:39:50.520 I can't reveal my sources. Thank you. 0:39:51.680 --> 0:39:55.240 Any other questions the audience, Oh no, I'm. 0:39:55.080 --> 0:39:57.320 Only getting questions from people. I'm scared to get questions. 0:39:59.040 --> 0:40:00.000 I have two questions. 0:40:00.160 --> 0:40:03.040 Yeah, First is what was the hardest editing feedback that 0:40:03.120 --> 0:40:04.000 you had to receive. 0:40:04.560 --> 0:40:08.120 That's a really good question. You do get some feedback 0:40:08.160 --> 0:40:10.680 that's like this kind of sucks. Cut this one out. Yeah, 0:40:11.120 --> 0:40:13.239 you get like you get feedback that's like, I don't 0:40:13.280 --> 0:40:15.359 know why this is in the chapter really, and if 0:40:15.360 --> 0:40:17.319 you can't explain it, then it shouldn't be in here, 0:40:17.480 --> 0:40:20.040 but it was really helpful for just the writing process 0:40:20.080 --> 0:40:20.560 in general. 0:40:20.920 --> 0:40:22.400 Was there one that you were like that was like 0:40:22.480 --> 0:40:24.920 really tough, that you really didn't want to cut, but 0:40:24.960 --> 0:40:26.560 that you at the end you realized it was the 0:40:26.640 --> 0:40:27.240 right decision. 0:40:28.200 --> 0:40:31.520 There were, Yeah, like once basically once we decided to 0:40:31.560 --> 0:40:33.960 get rid of the kind of short story stuff, like 0:40:34.040 --> 0:40:37.080 I had an attachment to those, but they'll come out 0:40:37.120 --> 0:40:39.040 in some form sooner or later. 0:40:39.600 --> 0:40:39.920 Okay. 0:40:39.920 --> 0:40:42.240 My other question is that I had a writing teacher 0:40:42.280 --> 0:40:45.319 once who was like, if you're afraid to write, you're 0:40:45.320 --> 0:40:46.480 afraid of being alone. 0:40:47.000 --> 0:40:48.960 If you're afraid to write, you're afraid of being alone. 0:40:48.960 --> 0:40:51.240 I don't know if I agree with that, but either way, 0:40:52.000 --> 0:40:54.560 was there times where you were like feeling fear of 0:40:54.640 --> 0:40:55.320 like writing? 0:40:56.360 --> 0:40:59.880 There is? Yeah, I mean there's there's fear of like 0:41:00.160 --> 0:41:04.120 how people will receive the writing. Of course it's been 0:41:04.840 --> 0:41:07.720 it's been great so far, thankfully, but what if it sucked. 0:41:07.760 --> 0:41:08.960 I don't know how that's going to feel. 0:41:09.400 --> 0:41:12.680 How do you get over like kind of like being 0:41:12.680 --> 0:41:15.319 afraid to start writing and like just actually like okay, 0:41:15.440 --> 0:41:16.160 let me just write. 0:41:16.280 --> 0:41:18.160 Yeah, there's a huge like you always hear about the 0:41:18.160 --> 0:41:21.080 writing bump, but it's so real, like it's it's a 0:41:21.160 --> 0:41:23.720 huge challenge to figure out where to start an idea. 0:41:25.200 --> 0:41:28.719 But yeah, honestly, sometimes I'll just go to like a 0:41:28.760 --> 0:41:33.200 bar nearby and have a couple of beers and like nice, 0:41:33.360 --> 0:41:37.080 did juices start flowing after that? Yeah, it's quite like 0:41:37.160 --> 0:41:41.680 Hemingway esque. I think we've got some more questions. 0:41:43.760 --> 0:41:48.120 Hello, many My question is about the concept of time. 0:41:48.280 --> 0:41:50.799 When did that start to fully come together? Like when, 0:41:50.880 --> 0:41:53.319 like when those essays start to all become the core 0:41:53.440 --> 0:41:55.880 ten when. Yeah, I'm such a standout as like the 0:41:55.920 --> 0:41:57.000 thing that you want to feel. 0:41:56.880 --> 0:41:59.320 Great question. I mean, it's how I start, Like I 0:41:59.400 --> 0:42:03.839 every idea came from that idea. For whatever reason, I've 0:42:03.880 --> 0:42:06.799 always been fascinated about, like the passage of time, Like 0:42:06.960 --> 0:42:10.239 all my favorite movies have the the time loop kind 0:42:10.280 --> 0:42:15.600 of mechanic Christopher in Time with justin Timberlane. Yeah, Tenant, 0:42:16.120 --> 0:42:19.480 that's a real deep cut Tenant of course. Yeah, so 0:42:19.520 --> 0:42:22.160 there's like even back to the future like that, all 0:42:22.200 --> 0:42:26.279 of these kind of looping scenarios I've always been really 0:42:26.360 --> 0:42:31.359 fascinated by. And yeah, each chapter kind of deals with 0:42:32.160 --> 0:42:36.520 that format in its own way, which I thought was 0:42:36.520 --> 0:42:39.920 really which helped me write it. Like, there's so many 0:42:39.920 --> 0:42:43.920 different ways you could approach different subjects. So thanks, thanks, 0:42:44.440 --> 0:42:45.120 thank you, Jordan. 0:42:47.600 --> 0:42:50.719 What's up man, Congratulations on the book. This is great, 0:42:51.880 --> 0:42:55.360 and congratulations on this event. Really interesting and very entertaining. 0:42:56.200 --> 0:43:03.280 So so you've explained the first part of the title, 0:43:03.600 --> 0:43:06.880 Colored People Time, which makes a lot of sense, but 0:43:06.960 --> 0:43:09.480 you haven't explained the second part, which is a case 0:43:09.560 --> 0:43:14.400 for in quotation works casual in parentheses, casual rebellion. 0:43:14.719 --> 0:43:17.160 What's the what does that mean? 0:43:17.239 --> 0:43:19.160 And why the casual? 0:43:19.400 --> 0:43:22.160 It's a part. It's a great question. It's also a 0:43:22.160 --> 0:43:25.000 great segue into the reading. I'm gonna end up doing 0:43:25.840 --> 0:43:28.840 the subtitle. Both the title and the subtitle refer to 0:43:29.920 --> 0:43:33.160 just one of the chapters. Actually it's not titular because 0:43:33.160 --> 0:43:34.720 it doesn't have the same name, but it's the chapter 0:43:34.800 --> 0:43:37.359 that's kind of best represents of the book, I think, 0:43:37.400 --> 0:43:42.719 and it's called pro the procrastination reparation, and it's it's 0:43:42.840 --> 0:43:47.600 essentially a sarcastic argument for a new kind of reparation 0:43:47.960 --> 0:43:51.759 for black and brown people in the US, and that 0:43:51.880 --> 0:43:55.160 reparation is just like being allowed to be late to things. 0:43:55.960 --> 0:43:59.320 Uh So I write about like how that should be 0:43:59.360 --> 0:44:01.840 like kind of a led lative thing that we should 0:44:01.880 --> 0:44:06.720 pass from the Supreme Court. Basically, the idea being like, Okay, 0:44:06.960 --> 0:44:09.080 if you know, I'm sure you run into this in 0:44:09.120 --> 0:44:12.440 New York where you have a group dinner somewhere and 0:44:12.480 --> 0:44:15.000 they won't see you until everyone in your party arrives. 0:44:15.040 --> 0:44:17.600 And I argue that if the last person who isn't 0:44:17.600 --> 0:44:19.560 there is a person of color, they should see you 0:44:20.040 --> 0:44:21.799 until they show up. And so there's all these like 0:44:21.800 --> 0:44:24.760 different kind of scenarios like that, and so the casual 0:44:24.840 --> 0:44:28.960 rebellion is it's just kind of a reference to the argument, 0:44:29.520 --> 0:44:33.000 the sarcastic argument. I'll say that I make in that 0:44:33.120 --> 0:44:36.319 chapter that I'm about to read from, but we've got 0:44:36.360 --> 0:44:40.200 one more question over here, and then I'll just reading. 0:44:43.239 --> 0:44:43.479 Thanks. 0:44:43.520 --> 0:44:45.680 I thought question time was over, but thank you. 0:44:48.120 --> 0:44:51.600 I wanted to know how you knew when you were finished. 0:44:52.560 --> 0:44:57.520 Wow, great question. Interesting. I did write it kind of 0:44:57.600 --> 0:45:01.600 like the first chapter was the first one I wrote, 0:45:01.640 --> 0:45:03.319 in the last chapter's last one I wrote, and then 0:45:03.320 --> 0:45:06.560 everything in between was kind of out of order. But 0:45:06.640 --> 0:45:08.799 I always knew the last chapter, which is the one 0:45:08.800 --> 0:45:12.520 that's the most important to me, is about the country 0:45:12.640 --> 0:45:17.279 that my family comes from Eritrea, and it's about like 0:45:17.440 --> 0:45:20.880 how the country has progressed over the past three decades 0:45:21.000 --> 0:45:23.719 or so. And I always knew that I wanted to 0:45:23.719 --> 0:45:27.120 write that one to end the book. And so I 0:45:27.120 --> 0:45:29.480 guess when I wrote the last sentence of that essay, 0:45:29.719 --> 0:45:32.720 I knew I was done with the book. But good question. 0:45:33.000 --> 0:45:35.160 We've got one more from my father. 0:45:41.920 --> 0:45:42.280 Money. 0:45:44.320 --> 0:45:48.080 I am so proud of your book. I read it twice. 0:45:48.480 --> 0:45:51.680 Wow, thank you. 0:45:51.719 --> 0:45:58.799 Now I went back to your second year in college. Man, 0:45:58.920 --> 0:46:02.640 you have the a little bit of discussion. I want 0:46:02.719 --> 0:46:09.040 you to go to science or engineering, but he said, no, no, 0:46:09.320 --> 0:46:13.000 this is my my career. I want get involved to 0:46:14.520 --> 0:46:22.839 the movie, editing or doing these stings. So while I'm 0:46:22.920 --> 0:46:27.680 happy of your career, now do you do you still 0:46:27.800 --> 0:46:32.080 get involved? Do you still plan to get involved into 0:46:32.800 --> 0:46:33.440 a movie? 0:46:33.760 --> 0:46:36.640 Wow? This is a great question. This is a good 0:46:36.760 --> 0:46:38.319 question that. 0:46:38.560 --> 0:46:38.799 Yeah. 0:46:38.920 --> 0:46:41.600 So my passion kind of since I was a teenager, 0:46:41.719 --> 0:46:46.000 has always been getting into the film industry. And uh, 0:46:46.080 --> 0:46:48.920 I remember when I was trying to pick my college 0:46:49.160 --> 0:46:54.400 uh degree. You know, it's quite common for immigrants to 0:46:54.560 --> 0:46:58.160 want their kids to do something practical, obviously, uh, and 0:46:58.239 --> 0:47:00.200 I wanted to do film and that was just kind 0:47:00.239 --> 0:47:03.240 of a kind of a shaky concept for my parents. 0:47:03.360 --> 0:47:06.560 So I had to do some convincing, uh. And then 0:47:06.680 --> 0:47:10.040 eventually I did buy a plane ticket to Los Angeles 0:47:10.040 --> 0:47:12.360 and I was gonna live with my friend, try to 0:47:12.400 --> 0:47:14.680 get try to be a production assistant here and there. 0:47:14.719 --> 0:47:17.640 But then eventually came to New York anyway and did 0:47:17.640 --> 0:47:20.520 a journalism uh internship. 0:47:22.120 --> 0:47:23.840 It seems like your brother may have had something to 0:47:23.880 --> 0:47:24.080 do with it. 0:47:24.160 --> 0:47:26.399 Yeah, my older brother actually sent me the I don't 0:47:26.400 --> 0:47:28.480 even know if you remember this. You sent me a 0:47:28.560 --> 0:47:32.120 link to the the Business Insider internship and I was like, 0:47:32.160 --> 0:47:35.320 what is this? Then I applied on me. I applied 0:47:35.360 --> 0:47:37.480 on a whim and then I was all of a sudden, 0:47:37.480 --> 0:47:39.880 I was talking to Devin in an interview, talking to 0:47:40.040 --> 0:47:42.400 Justin in an interview. Who's who's right behind my brother? 0:47:44.000 --> 0:47:49.040 And But but to answer your question, I think I do. Yeah, 0:47:49.200 --> 0:47:52.120 I still want to be involved in filmmaking in some way. 0:47:52.520 --> 0:47:55.359 I no longer see it as like the number one 0:47:55.600 --> 0:47:58.640 kind of uh way for me to make a living. 0:47:59.480 --> 0:48:03.040 But yeah, I think if this becomes so successful that 0:48:03.080 --> 0:48:05.680 we have time to go do other things, and I'll 0:48:05.680 --> 0:48:07.399 make a short film or something. 0:48:07.160 --> 0:48:08.840 They do want us to pivot to video. 0:48:08.960 --> 0:48:18.040 So yeah, exactly, so video video production. I'm still very 0:48:18.040 --> 0:48:21.840 heavily involved with that filmmaking. You know, I'll try in 0:48:21.880 --> 0:48:22.360 the future. 0:48:22.560 --> 0:48:24.000 Yeah, definitely write a screenplay. 0:48:24.120 --> 0:48:26.200 Yeah, I've written some screenplays. They're not that good, but 0:48:26.280 --> 0:48:30.080 we'll work on we'll get better. Yeah. All right, So 0:48:30.160 --> 0:48:33.640 we'll just end this event with a reading from the 0:48:33.880 --> 0:48:39.480 chapter I was mentioning earlier, called, uh, the Procrastination Reparation. 0:48:39.560 --> 0:48:42.879 I'll just read the first couple pages. Now, let's see 0:48:42.920 --> 0:48:45.040 if I can remember where in the book this is? 0:48:45.320 --> 0:48:47.359 Yeah, say what page? For the audience with all their 0:48:47.360 --> 0:48:48.439 books many so they turned. 0:48:48.960 --> 0:48:51.600 Yeah, I'll find out here in a second. Okay, here 0:48:51.680 --> 0:48:54.480 we go. This is page The page number is not 0:48:54.520 --> 0:49:00.760 on the page. Okay, it's eighty three. When the Zulu 0:49:00.800 --> 0:49:04.680 warriors of South Africa learned that British forces wanted to 0:49:04.719 --> 0:49:10.000 capture their territories, they must have been pretty bummed. After all, 0:49:10.480 --> 0:49:14.560 they were equipped mostly with shields and spears, and they 0:49:14.560 --> 0:49:18.120 had heard of the weapons the British used, metallic beasts 0:49:18.160 --> 0:49:21.480 that ejected death with a force so fast it couldn't 0:49:21.520 --> 0:49:25.280 be seen. The warriors knew that when the rosy cheeked 0:49:25.320 --> 0:49:29.839 British troops raised their arms that that invisible power would 0:49:29.840 --> 0:49:33.320 strike them before it even made a sound. The idea 0:49:33.360 --> 0:49:37.160 of resistance was silly, but the Zulu king felt otherwise, 0:49:37.400 --> 0:49:42.800 so they prepared to fight. One specific Zulu regiment, which 0:49:42.840 --> 0:49:46.160 for the purposes of this story will call Bravo Team, 0:49:46.520 --> 0:49:50.839 was stationed some miles away from the impending battle, sequestered 0:49:50.880 --> 0:49:55.239 at the mountain of Essendlwana. As a unit, they were 0:49:55.280 --> 0:49:58.440 steadfast in their goal to defeat the British forces, but 0:49:58.600 --> 0:50:03.400 individually they quivered barefoot. They marched for miles, and during 0:50:03.400 --> 0:50:06.000 the long journey they thought about what the battle would 0:50:06.040 --> 0:50:10.880 yield for their destinies. Would they die, If so, how 0:50:11.640 --> 0:50:17.319 mutilation decapitation by bullet or by knife. Would they need 0:50:17.400 --> 0:50:20.040 to drop their spears and come to their comrade's aid. 0:50:21.360 --> 0:50:24.480 Some of them might draw their final breaths defending their friends. 0:50:25.400 --> 0:50:27.800 Some of them could be tasked with flanking the enemy 0:50:27.840 --> 0:50:33.839 in a suicide mission intended to divert attention. Meanwhile, explosions 0:50:33.880 --> 0:50:37.040 of fire and dirt would riddle the hills. But maybe 0:50:37.080 --> 0:50:40.719 Bravo Team, in the face of ostensible doom, would start 0:50:40.760 --> 0:50:44.520 to see the momentum shift. Maybe whatever atrocities they faced 0:50:44.520 --> 0:50:47.640 in battle would be worth it. A pile of their 0:50:47.680 --> 0:50:50.200 bodies could be used as a backdrop in front of 0:50:50.239 --> 0:50:52.960 which their king could announce the defeat of the British, 0:50:53.640 --> 0:50:56.959 and that alone would be an honor. Maybe they'd die 0:50:57.000 --> 0:50:59.200 by the time of the delivery of the victory speech, 0:50:59.480 --> 0:51:03.120 but back in their hometowns and villages they would become heroes, 0:51:03.680 --> 0:51:08.399 legends whose achievements were sung in annual celebrations. The thought 0:51:08.440 --> 0:51:12.600 of this legacy was more than enough motivation to fuel them. 0:51:13.000 --> 0:51:16.440 They marched across the final stretch to the battlefields, ready 0:51:16.440 --> 0:51:21.320 for the inferno. But they were late as hell in 0:51:21.480 --> 0:51:25.040 Alpha tem the comrades that had so nobly been tasked 0:51:25.040 --> 0:51:28.120 with supporting them had not only already won the battle, 0:51:28.239 --> 0:51:32.319 but had left the area entirely. Bravo teams morale was 0:51:32.360 --> 0:51:36.120 completely deflated. They slowly made their way across the grounds, 0:51:36.239 --> 0:51:39.359 walking around or over the scores of British soldiers who 0:51:39.360 --> 0:51:42.600 were woefully unprepared for the might of the Zulu warriors. 0:51:43.239 --> 0:51:48.040 Minus Bravo Team, the firm confines of punctuality robbed them 0:51:48.080 --> 0:51:51.280 of their glory. But to be fair, they were alive. 0:51:52.600 --> 0:51:55.920 The Zulus obviously didn't mean to be late. Things happened. 0:51:56.480 --> 0:51:58.960 Maybe they got a bit lost along the way, scratching 0:51:59.000 --> 0:52:01.320 their heads while trying to figure out which way was west? 0:52:01.920 --> 0:52:05.200 Where does the sun set anyway? Maybe they broke out 0:52:05.280 --> 0:52:07.400 into song during a break and needed to get to 0:52:07.440 --> 0:52:10.880 the good part before continuing. Just wait until you hear 0:52:10.920 --> 0:52:13.560 the chorus, one Bravo, Team Warrior must have said to another. 0:52:14.480 --> 0:52:17.160 Or maybe they wanted to be a little wanted to 0:52:17.200 --> 0:52:20.880 be a little late fashionably. So I never intend to 0:52:20.920 --> 0:52:23.040 be late to a party, But when I am, I 0:52:23.160 --> 0:52:26.080 like to imagine everyone twiddling their thumbs waiting for me 0:52:26.120 --> 0:52:31.040 to enter and revitalize a move that isn't necessarily dull 0:52:31.440 --> 0:52:35.759 but could be better. This categorically never happens, but I 0:52:35.840 --> 0:52:38.719 like to imagine it does. It's okay to be late 0:52:38.719 --> 0:52:42.040 to parties sometimes, but I am no Zulu warrior, and 0:52:42.160 --> 0:52:45.520 neither are you, and I'll stop there. Yeah, thank you, 0:52:47.000 --> 0:52:51.279 bar There's nothing better in our podcast saying something and 0:52:51.320 --> 0:52:58.719 getting a mm a deep deep him. So I think 0:52:58.760 --> 0:53:01.960 that's it for our show, is am I right? I 0:53:02.000 --> 0:53:04.960 think I'm right? Yeah, thank you, thank you, thank you 0:53:05.000 --> 0:53:08.600 everyone for coming. We've got a few more books that 0:53:08.920 --> 0:53:12.120 uh that for sale if you haven't, if you haven't 0:53:12.120 --> 0:53:15.279 grabbed one yet, and we do have a heart out 0:53:15.440 --> 0:53:19.760 in this room at one thirty, so please so please 0:53:19.960 --> 0:53:24.960 adhere to that timing and thanks for coming.