Speaker 1: My League Brooks has how the knowledge you want. League
Speaker 1: Books has how the knowledge you need. My Lady Books. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they have all the books that the whole wild world
Speaker 1: want us read My League Books. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to
Speaker 1: Malik's Bookshell bringing a world together with books, culture and community. Hi,
Speaker 1: my name is Malik, your host of Malik's Bookshew. I
Speaker 1: hope you enjoyed last week that was Malik speaks to
Speaker 1: his mama. She's near and dear, she's special. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: be here. I came through the canal and wound of
Speaker 1: life Thrower, and I hope you enjoyed that last week's
Speaker 1: episode Malik speaks to Mama. You know, we're going through
Speaker 1: some trials, miss last week, just dealing with a lot
Speaker 1: of things. But hey, I'm back this week. I'm putting
Speaker 1: together this episode and it's called Let's Talk. And I
Speaker 1: have a few guests that I was able to interview
Speaker 1: last week. Won by the name of Laura Robbins, who
Speaker 1: wrote a book called Stash, so I interviewed her. Also
Speaker 1: interviewed h Shelley Poxton, who wrote a book called Sobbatical
Speaker 1: And both of these books are intriguing, So I got
Speaker 1: a chance to interview while I was at Loyolamremont and
Speaker 1: they did a lecture out there, so I was able
Speaker 1: to was blessed to do a quick few minutes talk
Speaker 1: about with them about their books, and so I hope
Speaker 1: you enjoy that. Uh, you know, I don't want to
Speaker 1: do any spoiler, but I think these books are relevant
Speaker 1: and real and timely. It's a lot of addiction and people,
Speaker 1: and Laura talks about how she was able to overcome
Speaker 1: her addictions and what she was dealing with and her
Speaker 1: new Memoirsta and the Sobbatical by Shelley Poxton. It's all
Speaker 1: about she was the chief marketing officer for Harley Davidson,
Speaker 1: you know, so she was on top of the food chain,
Speaker 1: well accomplished, you know, in the business world, worked in
Speaker 1: it for twenty six years. So she offers, you know,
Speaker 1: her insight into how she was able to transcend from
Speaker 1: the corporate world into a transformation and personal development and
Speaker 1: this called Sobbatical. The other thing is, hey, Malik, journey
Speaker 1: to a school and I was able to talk to
Speaker 1: some kids, some youth and inspire them. So I'm gonna
Speaker 1: feature that on this episode. I don't get a whole
Speaker 1: lot of those where I'm talking in front of our
Speaker 1: young and youth. But I do believe children of one
Speaker 1: hundred percent of our future. So I was honored and
Speaker 1: when I visited the school and I got a chance
Speaker 1: to talk to the kids and talk to them about
Speaker 1: things that I think that are important and try to
Speaker 1: help inspire them. Also, I interviewed Joso Bozo, who is
Speaker 1: a clown that Bozo was the most recognizable clown in
Speaker 1: the past. With Joso Bozo was like, they're making a family,
Speaker 1: you know, a fair type of thing, and it's something
Speaker 1: that I thought was interesting. I got a chance to
Speaker 1: talk to her at this event, this Black History event,
Speaker 1: well it was a Keen Festival event, so I got
Speaker 1: a chance to talk to her and I opened up
Speaker 1: about some things about myself throughout that interview, and it
Speaker 1: was all about aspiring kids and youth. That's because they
Speaker 1: wanted to set up my future. So I featured that
Speaker 1: on this episode. Hope you enjoy that. So sit back.
Speaker 1: We like and enjoyed this new episode. Let's talk. Well,
Speaker 1: how you doing. I'm alive, I'm okay, I'm about to
Speaker 1: interview You're from a podcast. Malik spokeshef bringing the world
Speaker 1: together with books, culture and community that I got two bookstores.
Speaker 1: I'm in Los Angeles and I'm in Covid City wonderful
Speaker 1: Pleasure Medium. So I have I have the author here
Speaker 1: wrote a wonderful new book that just came off called
Speaker 1: Stash My Life in Hiding. Her name is the author
Speaker 1: is Laura Cathcart Robbins. So just tell me a little
Speaker 1: bit about this wonderful book that just came out. Well,
Speaker 1: this book is an addiction memoir. It's about ten months
Speaker 1: of my life from the year in the year of
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight m during which I ended a marriage,
Speaker 1: I went to treatment for a drug and alcohol addiction,
Speaker 1: and I fell in love. Wonderful. Yeah, So the was
Speaker 1: it the marriage that caused the addiction? I know, I
Speaker 1: don't believe anything like that causes an addiction. I believe
Speaker 1: you're born with it. Okay, That's what I believed. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so you struggle within in for ten months, um,
Speaker 1: for a little bit longer than that. But it was
Speaker 1: the ten months that brought me down. Well, actually half
Speaker 1: the book I'm sober because I've gone to treatment and
Speaker 1: I've gotten sober. So it's really four months of addiction. Okay. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so this is a journey then, yes, it And this
Speaker 1: is a personal journey. Indeed it is. It is my journey,
Speaker 1: and I'm talking about it fifteen years later from a
Speaker 1: new vantage point. Yeah. And now you an author, tell
Speaker 1: us a little bit about your background and where you from.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I grew up kind of all over the country.
Speaker 1: I've written ever since I was five years old. And
Speaker 1: I had a few different careers, including raising my two
Speaker 1: sons who were now in their twenties, and so writing
Speaker 1: was something that I went back to about four years ago.
Speaker 1: So you've written before, You've never authored a book before,
Speaker 1: but always written. Yeah, do you teach or anything like that?
Speaker 1: I do not, Okay, and so and so now that
Speaker 1: you got your story on these pages and what have you,
Speaker 1: what do you hope to gain from your book? I
Speaker 1: hope that other people can find themselves in the pages
Speaker 1: and get well. When you know, mental health and addiction
Speaker 1: is rapid in these communities all over America. That's number
Speaker 1: one of the number one problem. So your story is
Speaker 1: definitely gonna be inspirational to help others alone in that journey.
Speaker 1: And one more thing, one more question, anything you would
Speaker 1: like to tell my audience at Malik's Bookshelf that you
Speaker 1: think can resonate. I think you know support independent bookstores,
Speaker 1: especially black owned. This is why we ask for you
Speaker 1: to be the bookseller at this event because bookstores are dying.
Speaker 1: People do not go to bookstores and buy books off
Speaker 1: the shelves. It is so important. We need the next
Speaker 1: generation to be able to go find themselves on the
Speaker 1: shelves of a bookstore. To Shank, I love that. Thank you,
Speaker 1: and everybody. Well, hey, I'm at another event at Loyola
Speaker 1: Marymount University and Shirley Paxton came out, Shelley, let's get
Speaker 1: it right against get it tight. Shelley Paxton came all
Speaker 1: the way from Chicago to speak about her book So Bad. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So look at So Battical, a corporate rebels guide defining
Speaker 1: your best life. Well eight, I have the author, so
Speaker 1: she could tell you more about the book than me.
Speaker 1: I love it. You nailed that. I should have you
Speaker 1: do more readings for me. That's amazing. So yeah, this
Speaker 1: is Shelley. This is the story of my uh you know,
Speaker 1: leaving the corporate world. So I was in the corporate
Speaker 1: world for twenty six years. I worked for some really
Speaker 1: incredible brands. I climbed to the top of the proverbial
Speaker 1: corporate ladder, and twenty six years later, I was the
Speaker 1: chief marketing officer of Harley Davidson. And I got to
Speaker 1: the top of that and I was like, how can
Speaker 1: you get to such a place in life and still
Speaker 1: feel empty inside and feel drained and feel burned out
Speaker 1: and not feel fulfilled? And so this is the story
Speaker 1: of a nightmare was having that woke me up to
Speaker 1: my truth, that sent me on a journey to reconnect
Speaker 1: with my soul. And I'm still doing it six and
Speaker 1: a half years later. So this story is like the
Speaker 1: journey that I went on. Everything I learned, it's meant
Speaker 1: to inspire others to rewrite their own script of success.
Speaker 1: You found your soul, you found yourself, and if you're
Speaker 1: not happy in early, then you can't reflect it out early.
Speaker 1: A brother, you know, twenty six years top brand, you said,
Speaker 1: chief operating Chief marketing Officer Harley Davidson was my Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was my last gig in the corporate world. Yeah.
Speaker 1: People pull the hair out to get these positions. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you had them for sure. You did the thing
Speaker 1: and then you left it, I did the thing, and
Speaker 1: I walked away. Yeah, that's a story by myself, because
Speaker 1: that's a risk. You used to a certain lifestyle. Was
Speaker 1: you're able to still maintain that because in the twenty
Speaker 1: six years that you may, you know, you sacrifice another
Speaker 1: person before you found the soul of yourself. Where was
Speaker 1: you able to then, you know still financially? Yeah? Over time? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean what I did initially was that I had
Speaker 1: a little budget and I said, you know what, I'm
Speaker 1: going to take some time. I'm going to give myself
Speaker 1: a year. Maybe it'll be less than a year, maybe
Speaker 1: it'll be more than a year, but I'm going to
Speaker 1: give myself a year to do this exploration. So I
Speaker 1: had been working for long enough that I could start
Speaker 1: to set aside a little bit of money and then
Speaker 1: ultimately figure out, like where was this leading me? And
Speaker 1: it led me to become an author and I do speaking,
Speaker 1: and I do teaching and I do coaching and wow,
Speaker 1: yeah all different kinds of things. And so yeah, over time,
Speaker 1: I've definitely like built up my revenue again. But you know,
Speaker 1: but I definitely put aside a little money to do it. Well,
Speaker 1: you had to have developed a work a holic habit
Speaker 1: working at the top of the food chain. Now, I
Speaker 1: worked a lot night and that's part of what I
Speaker 1: talk about where I think that we're honestly like work.
Speaker 1: We become slaves to that, right, So I think that's
Speaker 1: why burnout is such a real thing. And so I
Speaker 1: think how we rewrite the script of success is also like,
Speaker 1: how do we how do we, you know, have a
Speaker 1: script that's more about our own well being, our own humanity,
Speaker 1: our own soul. And so that's important to me and
Speaker 1: that's what I write about you. You're contributing now to
Speaker 1: not only you know, to the humanity. That's why I
Speaker 1: think you said soul batticle, right, you know it still
Speaker 1: a sub batticle. It's so battle yes, yes, yes, well, hey,
Speaker 1: I think that's a message that can resonate with my
Speaker 1: audience and the world. And one more last question, um
Speaker 1: from my audience at Maliek's books of bringing a world
Speaker 1: together with books, culture in a a community, what would you
Speaker 1: like to say to him? Oh, man, stay bold, brave
Speaker 1: and badass, do the thing that your soul is calling
Speaker 1: you to do now beingal you heard it live from
Speaker 1: Shirley Paxton. Shelley, I got it wrong again, Shelley Paxton,
Speaker 1: bo I didn't right. I'm at your place and I'm saying,
Speaker 1: well with that thing. It's a honor to talk before
Speaker 1: so many bright shines stars, and my name is relieved.
Speaker 1: I'm a founder and you call woman. I'm on with
Speaker 1: eight book right here, and uh, we have a couple
Speaker 1: of book stories in the community. How many of you
Speaker 1: like to read? Now? Come on, man, that that should
Speaker 1: be everybody had. What you're gonna do in this world.
Speaker 1: If you don'nna read, it's funding and it's part of you.
Speaker 1: If you don't, I'll tell you something. If what you
Speaker 1: don't like, sometimes you got to learn to like. So
Speaker 1: if you don't like reading, I will jesting read a
Speaker 1: little bit every day and develop I having because every career,
Speaker 1: every profession, and anything that you're trying to do in
Speaker 1: this world, even graduating requires three y'all understanding that, okay,
Speaker 1: So if you don't like to read, I applause you
Speaker 1: to learn. I know y'all love them phones, I know
Speaker 1: y'all love them video games, but have that same passing
Speaker 1: for reading, you know, because you ain't gonna go far without.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you it ain't easy. I'll his word. We
Speaker 1: got a couple of bookstores in the community, and our
Speaker 1: purpose and believe voices is to get voice to the voice. Listen,
Speaker 1: you see y'all too young to understand it, but when
Speaker 1: you get older you will. But you have a voice,
Speaker 1: and you need to speak when your voice and a
Speaker 1: resigning your way as you get old. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: ushould be talking to adult. So hey, I'm gonna do'tna
Speaker 1: have to learn how to talk to some youth. But
Speaker 1: I tell you what, though, I'll tell you what. One
Speaker 1: thing that I love to say is that you know, um,
Speaker 1: belief books is just an extension of you where our
Speaker 1: growth of the voice of our people. You know? And
Speaker 1: how many in here know that that black people were
Speaker 1: kings and queens and royalty from Africa? How many an't
Speaker 1: here know? Happen? See? And you know that's less than
Speaker 1: a fifty percent of the rong hand in the hand.
Speaker 1: But everyone in here from ross, everyone everyone in here
Speaker 1: as a descent that was a king in a point
Speaker 1: who got it? Everyone in here, you, specially you are somebody.
Speaker 1: You're born to be great, you're worn to step and
Speaker 1: two who you are born to be. You gotta love yourself.
Speaker 1: That's why I'm believing books exists because we want our youth,
Speaker 1: which is one percent of our future, to love themselves.
Speaker 1: You know why, because your success depending on how you
Speaker 1: see yourself. You gotta love yourself. I don't care what complexion,
Speaker 1: I don't care what skick color. I would care what
Speaker 1: texture you'll have. You gotta love yourself, whatever size you
Speaker 1: are behind me, did you hear? Because you're paying a
Speaker 1: price to be here. Y'all don't even understand which wick
Speaker 1: to to get here. But I'll tell you here now,
Speaker 1: and you are the best of the best, and you
Speaker 1: gotta be productive in order to be what you want
Speaker 1: to be. That's require reading. It's going to require signifies.
Speaker 1: You'll understand that right now. But you do understand reading. Man,
Speaker 1: when the rook or take rock. So but how many
Speaker 1: of y'all understand that in order to in order to build,
Speaker 1: or in order to do anything, it requires a man?
Speaker 1: All right? Yeah? And I should get everybody, all right?
Speaker 1: Who who knows? How many steps did you take when
Speaker 1: you walk through this assimility to day? How many? All right?
Speaker 1: He said? For how many of you? Pat steps? You
Speaker 1: do it? Okay, twin, but you actually didn't comprenation. You
Speaker 1: just walked over here, right, but it didn't take a
Speaker 1: certain amount of steps to give here. That's a man.
Speaker 1: That shirt you got on your back, it took mass
Speaker 1: to make it. You choose you got on your feet.
Speaker 1: It's at math to make it. There's nothing that he
Speaker 1: says without math and masters. That's the number one subject
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to learn. And if you read more,
Speaker 1: it gives you comprehension, which helps you in man. Because
Speaker 1: everything is a word problem, every single thing. You can
Speaker 1: reduce everything you do to a simple word problem because
Speaker 1: math is the rule of all language. And so I'm
Speaker 1: telling you and come in terms of man. I would
Speaker 1: love to see y'all brought and be scientists, be doctors,
Speaker 1: be nurses, being engineers, be astronaut, to be pilot jack
Speaker 1: because it doesn't higher line. Those are nation building skills. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: a lot of childs are going away, and y'all gonna
Speaker 1: be Scott going to see that sharking with your years
Speaker 1: as y'all grow up. So hey, Man, don't be shot
Speaker 1: matter because man is the root of all languages. So
Speaker 1: I'll tell you there's nothing without There's nothing that exist
Speaker 1: in this world without maga. Did y'all know it took
Speaker 1: matter to make this building? Did you know it took
Speaker 1: matter to make this Viking phone? Did you go when
Speaker 1: it took manter to make no phones? Did y'all like
Speaker 1: to pry on? Did you know what your man play?
Speaker 1: The video games you playing? That's the rue language. Don't
Speaker 1: run from that math because that's number one in this world.
Speaker 1: That's number one. So if I could need anything, any thoughts,
Speaker 1: it would be, you know, work on you man, work
Speaker 1: on your reading, love your self. And that's why I'm
Speaker 1: legals exist. Now I need y'all to tell your parents
Speaker 1: come on out without a group of build here. But
Speaker 1: when we ain't here, you can find us in the
Speaker 1: Ball and ball you can find us in the West
Speaker 1: Coast anymore. And guess what y'all can followers too? Got
Speaker 1: great contact, Belie. Most is his degramming time. Alright, alright now.
Speaker 1: I had the honor and pleasure of meeting Joso Bozo
Speaker 1: at this community event in Inglewood. It was called the
Speaker 1: keen Fest, and I had an opportunity to interview her
Speaker 1: about her becoming a known, well known, recognizable clown. You know,
Speaker 1: Bozo was the most recognizable clown in the world at
Speaker 1: one time. My understanding was she someone I guess brought
Speaker 1: the rights to Bozo and creating a family around the concept,
Speaker 1: and she and her character it's called Joso Bozo, and
Speaker 1: she jazzed up the youth, the kids, and had a
Speaker 1: wonderful time here at the festival. So I got a
Speaker 1: chance to interview or about her how she come about
Speaker 1: to become a Bozo, that is Joso the Bozo. So hey,
Speaker 1: here's the interview. He bought the rights to Boso the Clown,
Speaker 1: and he said, you want to come with me to
Speaker 1: work on this documentary. So I was like, sure, of course,
Speaker 1: I didn't know he meant as a character character. And
Speaker 1: he's like, I got this costume for you, I got
Speaker 1: the shoot for you, got everything ready, know if you
Speaker 1: want me to be Toboso. I wanted to be a
Speaker 1: Boso and he was like, yeah, I do. So he
Speaker 1: documents you wherever you travel, wherever you go. So yeah,
Speaker 1: so the new Bozo, we're bringing back Bozo the Clown,
Speaker 1: and he's got a bunch of friends. So I'm Joso
Speaker 1: Bozo got new new boss, not a bunch of press. Yes,
Speaker 1: so you let the clown frown sending the clown that's older,
Speaker 1: and that's some we'll talk about, you know, bringing back
Speaker 1: that happy clown and getting rid of that scary Oh
Speaker 1: he's talking up in the pokmobilit here talking. Yep, he said,
Speaker 1: I believe I can. So you go surfaces and good
Speaker 1: things right there. Or television television, Yeah, okay. Bozo was
Speaker 1: a television clown and he used to be the most
Speaker 1: famous clown. But we are the most famous and friendliest clowns.
Speaker 1: So we're friendly clowns. Yeah, not scary friendly. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: laughing is contagious, Smiling is contagious. And it's also the
Speaker 1: best medicine, the best medicine, best medicine. We've been working
Speaker 1: with a company called Healthy Humor, okay, and so they
Speaker 1: helped children and hospitals who are sick with clowning. So
Speaker 1: they bring clowns and they came home and they healthy kids.
Speaker 1: And they say, I think they say it's a seventy
Speaker 1: or eighty percent rates up their sickness. Who goes, you know,
Speaker 1: they get deals, they're better buy the clowns coming in
Speaker 1: and working with them. Wow, because laughter, laughter, laughter, chemical
Speaker 1: and um. Yeah, you know when you're in a hospital,
Speaker 1: you kind of get a little defeated. Yeah, like why
Speaker 1: am I here? I can't be home? But you have
Speaker 1: these chilly clowns who come around, and you can't just
Speaker 1: go into the hospital. You gotta go through clown training,
Speaker 1: you gotta go through toops, you gotta pop certain bubbles.
Speaker 1: WoT a home or you can just become a hospital clown.
Speaker 1: Yeah really I didn't know that. Yeah, it's not simple.
Speaker 1: You getta the shutter pot. Yeah, yeah, hospital, So chuck
Speaker 1: out Healthy Humor. They're agree organization helping Kim. Yeah. We
Speaker 1: actually have an event coming up and on sunset have
Speaker 1: Bootsy Bellows that's called the Bashot Bootsey. So we're doing
Speaker 1: a huge charity gallery to help Healthy Humor raise money
Speaker 1: for the kids in hospital. Bosons all about charity everything,
Speaker 1: every dollar may stick to charity, all for the kids.
Speaker 1: When you know, part of my podcast really Bullshelf is
Speaker 1: about community. Yeah yeah, yeah, you know yeah, And I know,
Speaker 1: like I said, that's also cultural because you know, laughing,
Speaker 1: smiling and the historical years of you know, people bowling,
Speaker 1: you know, looking at clowns, whether it be a circus hospital,
Speaker 1: you know, like you said, television Boson being the movie
Speaker 1: recognizable clowns in the world bringing the crowd together before
Speaker 1: the circus big events happen. They would get the people together,
Speaker 1: you know, in the community and bring them in and
Speaker 1: make them laugh and remind them to be silly and
Speaker 1: to do all of those you know they would normally
Speaker 1: not doing. They're so serious. Yea. And then you watch
Speaker 1: the show. The clowns are clowning us been around forever,
Speaker 1: and there's clowns been all different cultures. Absolutely French clowns,
Speaker 1: there's clowns, bying clowns, there's the American clowns. Yeah, there's lines,
Speaker 1: there's all different types of clowns. And you know what
Speaker 1: has helped me be more outspoken and video you know
Speaker 1: how used to have stage right, Really I was just
Speaker 1: shy and introvert. I still have shy, I still have here.
Speaker 1: But what helps me talk to my audience and even
Speaker 1: due these interviews, when I'm doing an interview with a
Speaker 1: Turret Crews or a Spike League or a car sail
Speaker 1: or any you know, a O. B. Lister, what helps
Speaker 1: me not fold or feel inferior is the fact that laughter,
Speaker 1: smiling sweet It takes the anxiety away. Yeah, it's all
Speaker 1: made with just to do the him or nothing worth. No, folker,
Speaker 1: you don't for it's the laughter. And I was you know,
Speaker 1: I talked with somebody up there boxing. Man. I was
Speaker 1: never like it, but I found the joy of smiling,
Speaker 1: laughing when I'm getting I love that. I love that.
Speaker 1: I love that. It has helped me. Yeah, we overcome
Speaker 1: the stage quart and anxiety I used to. It's really important.
Speaker 1: That's important that three year podcast I'm sharing. I was
Speaker 1: there so they can understand too. And they have anxiety
Speaker 1: or depression or any kind of fear. Hey, I can
Speaker 1: laugh it up. You know. I lacked it up absolutely. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well this is wonderfulman. Will definitely fat believe books were
Speaker 1: world with books culture. Yeah, Joe, Joe, thank you. Yes,
Speaker 1: You're so welcome. They thank you. Say thanks for listening
Speaker 1: to Malik's Bookshelf with topics on the shelf, our books,
Speaker 1: culture and community. Be sure to subscribe and leave me
Speaker 1: a review. Check out my Instagram at Malik Books. See
Speaker 1: you next time.