WEBVTT - The Karol Markowicz Show: The Red Pill Controversy with Blake Nelson 0:00:06.320 --> 0:00:09.799 Hi, and welcome back to the peril Markoi Show on iHeartRadio. 0:00:10.119 --> 0:00:13.320 The dating monologues continue to be popular in both my 0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:17.680 mentions and my messages. A listener wrote out a list 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:21.639 of suggestions for people hoping to meet someone. I particularly 0:00:21.680 --> 0:00:25.400 like these two points. First, identify the kind of mate 0:00:25.400 --> 0:00:28.400 you want. Then transform yourself into the kind of person 0:00:28.440 --> 0:00:31.240 who would make a good mate for him her. Maybe 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:34.240 that fails too because your concept of the best mate 0:00:34.360 --> 0:00:38.320 wasn't fully developed. That's part of the learning and maturing process. 0:00:39.000 --> 0:00:42.040 Then you readjust your perception of what is optimal, remake 0:00:42.080 --> 0:00:44.960 yourself again, try again until you get it right. You 0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:48.880 become a better person in the process, and second, become 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:52.400 the most happy, content sociable, fulfilled, et cetera person you 0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:56.320 can be without a partner, and even the best of marriages, 0:00:56.400 --> 0:00:59.240 you don't cease to be an individual, nor does your partner. 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:02.680 Both pretty good on your own than your expectations and 0:01:02.800 --> 0:01:06.080 needs from each other are lower, therefore increasing the success. 0:01:06.520 --> 0:01:09.080 So a lot of this stuff is not rocket science. 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:12.520 As I've said before, and even on TikTok you can 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:14.959 hear that working on yourself is a good thing to do, 0:01:15.280 --> 0:01:18.320 but it's important to say out loud, and I particularly 0:01:18.440 --> 0:01:21.800 liked how he says your idea of the perfect mate 0:01:21.840 --> 0:01:22.959 isn't fully developed. 0:01:23.640 --> 0:01:25.160 You don't really. 0:01:24.880 --> 0:01:27.759 Know what you want sometimes a lot of the time, 0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:31.560 and that hinders people from finding what they actually need. 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:34.480 That's one of the many problems with the swiping culture. 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:37.640 For some reason, a lot of this advice is aimed 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:40.440 at women, but men need to get that advice too. 0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:45.000 What you're attracted to in a picture won't necessarily be 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:47.160 what attracts you in real life. 0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:48.480 A lot of the time, the. 0:01:48.440 --> 0:01:51.960 People I hear from want to help someone else, often 0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:54.680 their grown child, but sometimes a friend or a family 0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:59.280 member find someone. Now, obviously that's a tough thing to do. 0:01:59.600 --> 0:02:02.720 Helping others with this kind of thing is even harder 0:02:02.760 --> 0:02:05.760 than helping yourself. If you're trying to help someone else, 0:02:06.160 --> 0:02:10.600 advise them to go easier on themselves. It's so easy 0:02:10.639 --> 0:02:13.600 to get into that spiral of you know, no one 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:16.440 will ever want me, et cetera. A lot of life 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:18.600 is luck, and a lot of the rest of it 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:21.320 is putting yourself in the right situation to get lucky. 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:24.959 This isn't a dating podcast, so I'll wrap up the 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:28.320 dating segments here, but it is a show about living 0:02:28.320 --> 0:02:32.359 a better life, and I pretty firmly believe that finding 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:35.080 someone to spend your life with makes it better. If 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:38.240 you've got thoughts, drop me an email. Carol Markowitz Show 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:41.959 at gmail dot com. It's Ka R O L M A. 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:45.800 R kow I c As and Charlie Zias and Zebra's 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:49.080 Show at gmail dot com. Coming up next and interview 0:02:49.160 --> 0:02:52.520 with Blake Nelson. Welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show 0:02:52.600 --> 0:02:57.040 on iHeartRadio. Blake Nelson is the author of many adult 0:02:57.120 --> 0:03:00.720 and young adult novels. His many titles include which was 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:03.919 serialized by Sassy Magazine, My Favorite When I Was a 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:07.639 Teen to Great Acclaim, Paranoid Park, which was made into 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:10.799 a film by Gus Vincent, and Recovery Road, which was 0:03:10.840 --> 0:03:14.200 adapted into a TV show for ABC Disney. 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:18.119 In twenty sixteen. He currently writes travel and memoir pieces 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:23.079 on his Fantastic subsetac page Travels to Distant Cities. Hi, Blake, 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:24.080 so nice to have you on. 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:27.240 Oh great to be on. Nice to see it, Carol. 0:03:27.240 --> 0:03:29.799 Really good to see you too. Can I tell the 0:03:29.840 --> 0:03:30.720 story of how we met? 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:32.560 Is that sare okay? 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:35.920 Do you know what you know? So it was funny. 0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:43.040 I met a woman on Twitter, right, Julia Malucci, and. 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:45.119 We hit it off. 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:46.800 I don't know, I don't even remember how we scott 0:03:46.840 --> 0:03:49.160 to talking, but I looked up that she had written 0:03:49.160 --> 0:03:51.800 a book I loved and lost and made spaghetti and 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:53.000 I read the book and. 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:55.160 She and I were going out for a drink and. 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:58.160 I said, you know, I think one of the guys 0:03:58.200 --> 0:03:59.920 in your book it was a book about like. 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:01.880 Love affairs she had had. 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:04.440 I said, I think I know one of the guys 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:07.200 in your book is Is it Blake Nelson? And she 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:10.280 said we were out for a drink and she said, yes, 0:04:10.320 --> 0:04:10.760 it is. 0:04:10.720 --> 0:04:12.480 And he's meeting us here in ten minutes. 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:15.800 And I was like, Blake Nelson my favorite writer, and 0:04:15.880 --> 0:04:18.119 so I you know, sometimes I hold up a book 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:18.960 I'm about to like. 0:04:19.360 --> 0:04:24.000 I have many Blake Nelson books. I am obviously huge, 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:24.599 huge fan. 0:04:26.120 --> 0:04:28.520 I have The City Once You Alone on my nightstand 0:04:28.680 --> 0:04:30.560 that it's in the cue for me to read. So 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:33.279 that's why it's not that stat extra showed. But you 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:37.160 are a long time, very much one of my favorite writers. 0:04:37.200 --> 0:04:40.000 I read everything. You're right, and I'm so happy to 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:40.839 have you on the show. 0:04:41.440 --> 0:04:42.600 No thank you so much. 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:45.640 And you know, when I was talking to Julia, it 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:48.880 was just funny that I was able to figure out 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:54.880 who you were based on her description of Portland music 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:59.200 writer guy. And so tell us a little bit about 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:02.800 how you got to, you know, having seventeen thousand books 0:05:02.800 --> 0:05:03.360 on my shelf. 0:05:04.360 --> 0:05:07.040 Well, I just I was a musician when I was 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:11.360 a teenager and in my beIN in college and uh 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:14.680 and I but I love to write. I always love 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:16.840 to write, and so writing and music were my two 0:05:16.920 --> 0:05:23.280 favorite things. And when I got sort of kind of 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:25.760 deep into the music world, I kind of felt like 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:27.480 I had to make a choice if I wanted to 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:31.640 be a writer or a musician. And I'd seen I'd played. 0:05:31.360 --> 0:05:32.679 A terrible decision. 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:35.120 I know, how did you choose that? 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:36.880 I would definitely music? 0:05:37.200 --> 0:05:39.560 And I just chose it based on the fact that 0:05:39.640 --> 0:05:41.720 I thought I'd be doing it for my whole life. 0:05:42.279 --> 0:05:45.760 And I thought the music thing is super fun when 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:50.760 you're twenty one, and but but doing it forever would 0:05:50.800 --> 0:05:54.479 just be kind of a slog I thought. And I'd 0:05:54.560 --> 0:05:58.159 seen the life, you know, I'd played clubs, I'd played 0:05:58.160 --> 0:06:00.480 with bigger bands that I could see what it was 0:06:00.560 --> 0:06:04.040 like to be successful in that world, and I just 0:06:04.160 --> 0:06:07.320 thought being a writer would be more interesting, and I 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:10.479 thought it would last longer. I felt like, you know, 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:14.200 people take writer seriously when they're in their forties and fifties, 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:16.120 and nobody. 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:21.400 Take it like, you know, Mick Jagger is still jumping 0:06:21.440 --> 0:06:25.040 around the stage and he's like eighty, so I'm in 0:06:25.080 --> 0:06:28.000 my forties. I saw Mick Jagger the Rolling Stones play 0:06:28.040 --> 0:06:30.800 when I was in college collegames a long time ago, 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:32.719 and I was like, ooh, these guys are too old 0:06:32.839 --> 0:06:35.159 and they're still playing today right now. 0:06:35.800 --> 0:06:37.400 Yeah, so you could have. 0:06:37.320 --> 0:06:40.200 Had a long, illustrious musical career if you had done 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:41.000 it slightly. 0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:45.840 You know, maybe most musical careers are not do not 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:49.159 go like the Rolling Stones. Most musical careers. And I 0:06:49.200 --> 0:06:52.919 saw myself as a musician. You have a kind of 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:55.599 breakout and have like maybe a big record or something, 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:57.840 and then you kind of just try to hang around 0:06:57.920 --> 0:07:01.000 as long as you can. And I see bands that 0:07:01.040 --> 0:07:04.479 were my contemporaries and they're playing in small clubs now. 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:08.400 You know, these great bands like the Psychedelic Firs just 0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:11.840 played in a club in Portland, and I'm really glad 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:14.520 I became a writer. I don't want to be writer 0:07:14.520 --> 0:07:14.920 the right. 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:19.120 Decision making yes, no other pants for you at the stage. 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:21.800 And also as a writer you're kind of always doing 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:25.400 new things, whereas in music, if you kind of have hits, 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:28.720 then you just really got to do the hits. Yeah, 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:30.600 And I just thought it would be more interesting. I 0:07:30.640 --> 0:07:34.240 thought it would just I didn't know. And at the 0:07:34.320 --> 0:07:36.880 time I was doing music, like every every kind of 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:40.720 cool person did music, and I thought, don't we need 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:41.520 some cool people? 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:43.840 Yes, we did, We did need that. 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:46.600 And so and that really turned out to be right 0:07:46.640 --> 0:07:48.960 because when I read wrote Girl, the book you were 0:07:49.160 --> 0:07:52.880 that you were saying talking about nobody really wrote a 0:07:52.880 --> 0:07:56.040 good book about that world. No, So I felt like, 0:07:56.400 --> 0:07:58.920 you know, in one sense that just on the basis 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:03.240 of that one book, my sort of gampit to try to, 0:08:03.280 --> 0:08:05.920 you know, to try to do something interesting in the 0:08:06.040 --> 0:08:08.880 literary world. You know, it was worth it, because really 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:12.080 there wasn't. If there wasn't that book, you know, that's 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:13.920 kind of the best potent if you want to know 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:18.560 about that scene the nineties Northwest, that was a significant 0:08:18.600 --> 0:08:21.560 cultural moment. Yeah, and it really isn't that, you know, 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:23.880 there's not really a good novel about it except for 0:08:23.920 --> 0:08:27.160 why right there really was Eddy, There isn't any novels 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:28.920 about it, and so that's right. 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:32.160 We'll have more coming up with Blake Nelson, but first, 0:08:32.320 --> 0:08:36.480 in today's world, where rising crime threatens families, violent crimes 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:40.280 are now taking place every twenty six seconds. 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You're just somebody I 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:48.600 think is interesting and. 0:09:48.600 --> 0:09:50.640 I wanted to have on the show where you did 0:09:50.640 --> 0:09:53.400 have a bit of a political controversy with a book 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:54.439 a few books ago. 0:09:54.320 --> 0:09:55.400 Now right, two books ago. 0:09:56.240 --> 0:09:59.200 Your book was called The Red Pill and it was 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:04.680 about the dating kind of guys, the what are they. 0:10:04.600 --> 0:10:06.920 Called the manosphere? 0:10:07.000 --> 0:10:12.080 The manosphere, I think on the pickups, the pickup pickup artists. 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:14.160 Yeah, can you you know. 0:10:14.240 --> 0:10:16.600 And you got some pushback and you had some protests 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:19.280 at bookstores, but I didn't feel that you. 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:21.199 Were glamorizing them at all. 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:24.199 I didn't think that, Like I didn't read that book 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:25.960 and think, oh, I hope my son grows up to 0:10:26.000 --> 0:10:29.280 be one of these guys either. So what what was 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:32.079 that like for you to have that kind of controversy 0:10:32.559 --> 0:10:34.560 not a political person, Yeah. 0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:38.320 You know, I'm not really in the book. I named 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:41.000 the book the Red Pill because the book was so 0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:45.160 he was so non political. It was about his family 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:50.000 that was they kind of went through. This is just 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:53.679 a story of a family during the time of the 0:10:53.760 --> 0:10:56.880 year before Trump got elected, in the year after Trump 0:10:56.920 --> 0:10:58.800 got elected, so it was kind of which was a 0:10:58.920 --> 0:11:03.920 very storm me weird time, and families were kind of 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:08.640 families that, you know, normal families will often have conservatives liberals, 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:12.160 right at that moment for the first time that was 0:11:12.200 --> 0:11:16.040 really causing problems with families, and so that's what the 0:11:16.040 --> 0:11:18.960 book was about. The book was about a family of 0:11:19.440 --> 0:11:23.600 fairly normal, up er, middle class, liberal, arts educated people. 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:26.440 But one of the guys in the family was kind 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:30.360 of a manisphere guy, and one of the other people 0:11:30.360 --> 0:11:33.920 in the family was trying to get married and was 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:37.440 having a terrible time. So the manisphere guy tries to 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:41.280 help the guy wants to get married, and it was 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:47.400 very funny, yeah, hilarity exactly, but it was also a 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:49.680 pretty serious look at that time. And I thought it 0:11:49.720 --> 0:11:51.839 was great. I know, I thought it was going to 0:11:51.920 --> 0:11:55.240 be a big hit or something like, I thought it 0:11:55.360 --> 0:11:59.040 was my house. Yeah, So, but I bet it did 0:11:59.080 --> 0:12:01.120 get a lot of pushback. People didn't want to hear 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:05.319 anything about Trump. And I handled the Trump thing completely objective. 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:07.240 It was a lot about Trump, it was not about 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:11.080 any of that stuff. But but it just didn't ay 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:15.440 red Pill. I've got people really upset and and it 0:12:15.520 --> 0:12:18.240 was again that was that really affected me. I had 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:20.920 to sort to deal with that. It was it kind 0:12:20.960 --> 0:12:23.960 of that kind of pushed me into the substack world 0:12:24.000 --> 0:12:26.679 where I, you know, which is the only real place. 0:12:26.720 --> 0:12:30.480 I felt like I could pursue something else, and you know, 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:33.640 and eventually I started writing the Travel Staff and then 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:37.319 and then that's turned out really well. So yeah, I. 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:40.839 Loved your I love your travel writings and hearing about 0:12:40.840 --> 0:12:44.439 the different places. Actually your recent one of your recent 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:47.479 ones was about Julia's memoir where. 0:12:47.240 --> 0:12:48.000 She mentioned you. 0:12:48.320 --> 0:12:51.240 So I was like, oh, this is how we we 0:12:51.360 --> 0:12:52.040 first met. 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:54.719 Yeah. Yeah. A question I. 0:12:54.679 --> 0:12:57.800 Asked all of my guests is what do you worry about? 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:00.559 Well, I just worry about the world in general. Uh 0:13:00.640 --> 0:13:03.880 you know, I as as things crank up and get 0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:09.720 more uh interesting, shall we say, Uh, Like two years ago, 0:13:09.840 --> 0:13:14.520 I was more worried. And now that everybody else is worried, 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:18.680 if everybody else is free, dad that I can relax. Right. 0:13:19.880 --> 0:13:22.079 It's so in a weird way, I'm not that concerned 0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:25.480 about this Coverlent election, and everybody else is very worried 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:28.880 about it. In Portland, they're you know, gearing up the 0:13:28.920 --> 0:13:32.920 police force and putting unsensires for the stuff and. 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:36.280 For the Trump supporters who are going to riot, right, well, 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:39.240 I think that they did well. 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:44.200 Yes, not a lot of Trump supporters in Portland, right right. 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:48.240 But yeah, the anti foot right there, their concerns that. 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:51.080 They're very active here. We see them, you know, they 0:13:51.280 --> 0:13:55.280 they come out when uh, they might make an appearance. 0:13:55.320 --> 0:13:57.760 But you know what, usually, as I noticed in the 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:00.760 years when the we'd have these riots, that one summer 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:04.840 we had riots every night. The more the media tells 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:09.480 you there's going to be a riot, there's less chances. Interesting, Yeah, 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:12.840 when everybody gets all geared up, right, nothing happens. 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:13.880 I think that you. 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:17.160 Don't worry when everybody else is worried, but you worry 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:18.840 when nobody else is worried. 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:20.520 Or is that WEIRDO? 0:14:20.680 --> 0:14:24.160 I don't think you would write ya stuff, you know, 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:28.200 young adult novels, so you are speaking to teenagers a 0:14:28.200 --> 0:14:30.960 lot of the time anyway, But what advice would you 0:14:31.080 --> 0:14:33.240 give a sixteen year old Blake Nelson? 0:14:33.320 --> 0:14:36.560 How would you do things differently? Or what should he know? 0:14:37.440 --> 0:14:39.560 Wow? You know, I don't know. You know, one thing 0:14:39.600 --> 0:14:43.040 in my particular case, the thing about the music and 0:14:43.080 --> 0:14:45.520 the writing. You know, music is a lot less political 0:14:45.880 --> 0:14:48.240 so if I wanted to have a nice, long career 0:14:48.280 --> 0:14:51.480 in the arts, maybe music would have been the better choice. 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:56.160 Because now, you know, in a climate where politics is 0:14:56.200 --> 0:14:59.200 really important, then they're being a writer, it becomes much 0:14:59.280 --> 0:15:04.160 more dicey and so I but this has only happened recently. 0:15:04.320 --> 0:15:08.760 So for most of my writing career, I was I 0:15:08.800 --> 0:15:12.320 was faring. So but yeah, I would say tell my 0:15:12.400 --> 0:15:16.200 young self, just do you know, just follow your instincts, 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:19.160 which is what I did, and just enjoy it. You know, 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:23.680 I'm a warrior and I you know, and it was 0:15:24.360 --> 0:15:26.720 obviously being a writer is very difficult that you know, 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:29.080 you have to get rejected a ton and you have 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:32.640 to you know, my career had wild ups and downs. 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:35.680 We'll have more coming up with Blake Nelson. But first 0:15:36.240 --> 0:15:39.120 October seventh was the one year mark of the worst 0:15:39.120 --> 0:15:42.880 massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Twelve hundred 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:45.840 Israelis were murdered and more than two hundred and fifty 0:15:45.880 --> 0:15:50.880 taken hostage. The war in Israel rages on today. Israel 0:15:50.920 --> 0:15:53.680 and the Jewish people are facing attacks from enemies on 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:58.360 all sides seeking Israel's destruction. The International Fellowship of Christians 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:01.880 and Jews is on the ground providing food, shelter, and 0:16:01.960 --> 0:16:05.720 safety to those in need during this crisis. Since the 0:16:05.760 --> 0:16:09.720 war started, there are reservists every day is Raeli citizens 0:16:09.720 --> 0:16:13.680 who have left families behind to serve their country, soldiers 0:16:13.720 --> 0:16:17.320 who have been injured, and their families need support. Your 0:16:17.400 --> 0:16:20.360 gift of one hundred and fifty dollars today helps the 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:24.320 Fellowship provide food and other necessities to these families to 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:28.040 help them survive, and thanks to a generous Fellowship supporter, 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:32.320 your gift will be matched to double an impact. Join 0:16:32.440 --> 0:16:34.400 us and letting those families. 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:36.520 Know that listeners like you stand with Israel. 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:39.160 Call to make your one hundred and fifty dollars gift 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:43.600 right now at eight eight eight four eight eight IFCJ 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:48.160 that's eight eight eight four eight eight four three two five, 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:52.800 or go online to support IFCJ dot org to give 0:16:53.160 --> 0:16:56.600 that's one word support IFCJ dot org. 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:00.880 You like to write. 0:17:00.720 --> 0:17:03.240 About like what's your You know, I know that you 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:06.640 like like music and sort of talking to the teens, 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:10.280 But do you have like what you consider your passion Like. 0:17:13.240 --> 0:17:16.399 Yeah, I don't know. Well, I really loved writing the 0:17:16.400 --> 0:17:18.680 young adult books. I kind of got forced into writing 0:17:18.680 --> 0:17:21.000 the young adult books because I was having trouble getting 0:17:21.920 --> 0:17:25.439 my adult stuff published. After those first couple of books, 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:27.919 I kind of hit a wall with that. So then 0:17:27.960 --> 0:17:30.720 I started writing YA books. And at first I was 0:17:30.800 --> 0:17:32.960 kind of annoyed, like I don't want to write WYA books. 0:17:32.960 --> 0:17:34.800 I want to be a famous writer, Like, oh, that's 0:17:34.880 --> 0:17:40.160 you know, coming away. But I found that I really 0:17:40.400 --> 0:17:44.159 liked writing about teenagers and the stuff that you go 0:17:44.320 --> 0:17:48.000 through at that age. And I felt like teenagers are 0:17:48.160 --> 0:17:52.560 kind of more themselves than adults are, you know, because 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:58.399 they're kind of they're becoming themselves, and they're way more idealistic, 0:17:59.000 --> 0:18:04.359 and they're more uh, they're more like focused as personalities. 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:06.960 They don't have to call they haven't they haven't compromised 0:18:07.480 --> 0:18:12.439 away all themselves yet and uh and you know, in 0:18:12.440 --> 0:18:15.439 the in the draw and the romantic dramas they go 0:18:15.560 --> 0:18:20.080 through are kind of pure in a way because it's 0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:22.679 the first time they're going through it. And I just 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:24.960 I just loved it. I just really love doing it. 0:18:25.480 --> 0:18:28.000 And uh, and I'm one of those people that I 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:34.000 kind of I didn't ever really mature. I never so 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:36.840 it's always was very close to my heart and it 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:38.639 was just fine I really and it turned out I 0:18:38.680 --> 0:18:41.800 loved it doing it, and uh, and then and then 0:18:41.880 --> 0:18:45.520 it turned out, you know, I got it movies and 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:48.879 you know, it just was a good place for me. 0:18:48.960 --> 0:18:51.560 And then, what do you like about being on sub sect? 0:18:52.200 --> 0:18:55.200 I'm not like I'm on it, and I do send 0:18:55.280 --> 0:18:58.520 out an occasional thing, but I can't say that I've 0:18:58.600 --> 0:18:59.600 I understand it yet. 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:01.000 I feel a little old for it. 0:19:01.200 --> 0:19:03.360 All my young friends are like, you should be on substack, 0:19:03.440 --> 0:19:05.040 and I'm like, I don't get it. 0:19:05.320 --> 0:19:07.760 So you see, you do get it. Tell me about it. 0:19:07.840 --> 0:19:10.000 Well, you know the thing I did on it is 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:13.840 I just I just developed. I'm a columnist on Substack. 0:19:14.160 --> 0:19:17.480 Every Saturday at three pm, I put out one of 0:19:17.480 --> 0:19:21.199 my travel pieces. Travel pieces, don't yes, because I do 0:19:21.320 --> 0:19:26.160 that on a regular basis. I can't always write about travel, 0:19:26.359 --> 0:19:29.080 so I have to write about other things also, And 0:19:29.119 --> 0:19:33.359 I've kind of just led myself adjust to the schedule 0:19:33.400 --> 0:19:35.240 of it. And I kind of always when I was 0:19:35.280 --> 0:19:38.480 a kid, I always wanted to be I love columnists. 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:41.160 I loved it's the same person and you could tell 0:19:41.160 --> 0:19:43.280 when they were bored, you could tell what they did 0:19:43.359 --> 0:19:48.439 really want to write the column. 0:19:46.840 --> 0:19:49.520 As a columnist. I find that bar. 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:55.440 Being yeah, yeah, and yeah, so you should know that pattern. 0:19:55.800 --> 0:19:59.359 But uh yeah, I feel like that, and I feel 0:19:59.400 --> 0:20:02.120 like I I feel like in the Rolling Stones and 0:20:02.160 --> 0:20:05.320 the Beatles in those early days in the sixties, those 0:20:05.359 --> 0:20:08.359 bands would put out singles like all the time, like 0:20:09.440 --> 0:20:13.639 very quickly. You're not not once a week obviously, but 0:20:13.720 --> 0:20:17.040 I love that idea. I love like, oh, this week's 0:20:17.080 --> 0:20:19.920 Colin didn't really hit Oh, but that Colin really did. 0:20:20.000 --> 0:20:23.119 You know, maybe I can. It's just this way or 0:20:23.160 --> 0:20:26.040 that way you have just and that's what and that's 0:20:26.040 --> 0:20:29.600 what substack is fun for because you get this instant feedback. 0:20:30.240 --> 0:20:33.040 You you know, if you're lucky, you start to develop 0:20:33.040 --> 0:20:38.440 a following. Like I now have enough fans or subscribers 0:20:39.040 --> 0:20:43.000 that I really get a broad you know, I can 0:20:43.080 --> 0:20:45.359 kind of tell like what the older people like, I 0:20:45.359 --> 0:20:49.800 can the kids sort of like this stuff. And it's 0:20:49.920 --> 0:20:52.960 really fun and it's really interactive. I really enjoy it. 0:20:53.760 --> 0:20:56.520 When I had to kind of retire from the book business, 0:20:56.640 --> 0:21:00.320 I really did. I can't really imagine myself published at 0:21:00.400 --> 0:21:03.680 Simon and Schuster, Random House or something like that, which 0:21:03.720 --> 0:21:06.320 is how I made my living for you know, all 0:21:06.359 --> 0:21:09.439 my adult life, but says, I can't do that. I 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:11.520 really didn't know if there would be anything I could 0:21:11.520 --> 0:21:14.560 do that would be fun or rewarding, or should I 0:21:14.640 --> 0:21:17.840 just stop writing completely and learn how to make chairs 0:21:18.000 --> 0:21:21.040 or something, you know, Like, I really didn't know what 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:25.480 to what to do. And I stumbled into substack and 0:21:25.680 --> 0:21:29.320 I just started writing up. And I I loved writing 0:21:29.320 --> 0:21:32.119 travel stuff. Early in my career. I'd written some travel 0:21:32.200 --> 0:21:38.480 articles for Details magazine. Yeah that was really fun, and 0:21:38.480 --> 0:21:40.440 they would pay you lots of money in those days. 0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:44.120 And imagine getting paid lots of money to write that's. 0:21:43.960 --> 0:21:50.879 Crazy, no way, Oh my god, it's amazing. But so 0:21:51.040 --> 0:21:54.480