The Power of Story: Jared Michaud on Fiction and Faith (Ep. 118)

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (01:05):
Alrighty. Hey, folks.
This is Joe Roos, and we are coming to you live tonight from the Asylum Studios,
broadcasting from the pimple on the backside of Texas,
the beautiful city of Eagle Pass,
and bringing you the best quality talk radio we could muster without all the bluster,

(01:26):
this
is the Joe Ruse show.
And folks, you are receiving this transmission at nineteen
zero oh four hours on Friday,
July
2025.
Welcome
to the show folks.

(01:47):
Alright, well,
we got one for you tonight.
We are going to have
at least one guest
that I'm aware of. Our second hour guest has not yet responded to our reminders,
but that's okay.

(02:07):
That's fine.
That's good.
Because in our first hour, we have
a good friend of mine
and a phenomenal writer, Jared Michaud, who's gonna be with us
in just a few moments while he well, at least until after we finish all the housekeeping stuff.
So that'll be exciting. It'll be a lot of fun. Can't wait to talk to Jared. Haven't spoke to him in a while.

(02:29):
I mean, we spoke before the show, I mean, obviously, duh, you know, but
we haven't had a chance to sit down as
hosting guest in a while, it's been a bit. So, this is gonna be fun, I'm looking forward to it, been looking forward to it,
and, the real treat for you guys
is the fact that
with Jared waiting in the wings, if our second hour guest doesn't come, Jared's gonna carry over a little bit into the 08:00 hour,

(02:57):
and you don't have to hear me bloviate my opinions on the politics of the world.
Alright?
I know we spent time yesterday, the day before yesterday, talking about Epstein, the Epstein files,
client list, no client list.
Sort of funny headline,
right before the show. And and and I promise you this is about as far as politics we're gonna get tonight, at least

(03:19):
just me.
Really funny headline that said that, Bongino and Patel are are are really angry at the way the DOJ has been handling this, and
Pam Bondi has been handling this. Well, I find that amusing.
So, we'll see. I don't
My confidence right now in
in any of them is is pretty much on the Well, I didn't really have much confidence in in Blondie anyway.

(03:47):
And I think that's the reason why they pushed to get Matt Getz out as quickly and as they did,
because they knew that he wouldn't,
capitulate the way she is, and I I really do believe that she is hiding something.
So, with that said, how about,
we do our housekeeping, and then we bring in our guest, Jared Michaud. So, folks,

(04:09):
wanna remind you, head over to our website, joerus.com.
That's joerus.com.
It should be up on your screen.
And, head over to our contact section, open up that little web form, and why don't you send us over any questions, comments, cares, or concerns that you might have, and, you know, any suggestions you have. If there's a particular topic you want us to talk about,
let us know, and we'll be happy to put something together on it,

(04:31):
and, we'll bring it to you. So just let us know what you're thinking. It's always important to hear from you guys. Love to hear from you guys. You can also drop a comment down below.
You can leave a message for us in the live chat, which unfortunately, you know, disappears after the show is over. So you're better off leaving a comment down below if you want us to really see it.
Alright. And also, don't forget that this is a value for value show.
And, if you can help us out with a donation, we really appreciate that. Donation link is up on our website. Go to the support page. You can see all of our crypto wallets if you wanna,

(05:00):
leave us a a donation in crypto. And speaking of crypto,
tomorrow,
we are gonna have a special show, a special Saturday show
for you guys
to kick off CryptoWeek.
So we're gonna have a CryptoWeek news segment with Marissa Lee. If you remember her, Marissa Lee is our crypto psychic.

(05:21):
She was on with us, about three or four days ago. And, I'm gonna tell you, if you were paying any attention to what she was talking about, she was absolutely
spot on.
Now I did take some advice, and I did make some purchases of some of the crypto that she had been talking about. And I am extremely pleased to let you know
that she was spot on. And,

(05:43):
made a little bit of money today off the crypto. That was great. Very excited about that. And so what we're gonna do is on a bimonthly basis on a Saturday morning, we're gonna sit down with Marissa, have a cup of coffee, and we are gonna talk about the trends in cryptocurrencies. We're gonna talk about what's coming up, what's going down, and, where we should be thinking about spending our

(06:03):
money and purchasing some cryptocurrencies.
Alright? So that's gonna be a lot of fun. We are excited about that. If you have any questions whatsoever,
send them over to us at info@joeroos.com.
That's info@joeroos.com,
Or make sure that you check-in tomorrow during the course of the show, 11AM
central time.

(06:25):
The live chat will be open. You can throw your questions up in the live chat, and we will answer those questions.
Alright? So we want you guys to get involved in this. This is a great time to do it. Got like I said, Crypto Week is coming, and and the crypto market's already
reacting to it. So check it out tomorrow, Saturday morning, 11AM,
Crypto Week news with Marissa Lee. Alright. Also, don't forget Sunday, our bible study hour, 6PM central time, Sunday evening, 6PM central time. We've been studying,

(06:52):
politics and the bible. And then, just this past week, we opened up our series on the,
on America's Christian heritage,
and, we're gonna be continuing that. It's probably gonna take us about ten, maybe
twelve weeks, 12 shows to do,
maybe more. I don't know. We'll see. We'll see how it goes as we go.
But definitely episode number two of that series will be available tomorrow. I'm sorry, Sunday at 6PM central time live right here

(07:19):
on rumble.com/jorooz
or on the Rumble app.
Also streaming, of course, on x, Twitch, and, Facebook later.
Alright. Let's see. Also oh, yeah. Before I forget, this is important.
We have a very, very interesting and a very special announcement
that we are going to make on Monday. Some really, really big news for us here on the Joe Russo

(07:46):
and for all those involved with Joe Russo. So make sure you tune in
Monday evening, 7PM central time. Right before we get to our guests,
we have an announcement,
and it's a good one. I think you're gonna be pleased, and it's gonna be very very very big thing for us.
Alright. Now,
with all of the housekeeping

(08:06):
stuff out of the way,
our first guest tonight is Jared Michaud. Now Jared is a good friend of mine. Jared, I've known for quite a while now. Right? I I would say.
He is a devoted fiction writer, a father of seven.
That's crazy, but a father of seven,
and a myth maker in the making.

(08:28):
Jared's love for storytelling started before the age of seven, and he never let it go. He's been influenced by literary titans like CS Lewis,
Orson Scott Card. He spent decades exploring the power of fiction to shape hearts, minds, and cultures.
From a quiet town in Wyoming, he crafts stories that reflect Christian values

(08:48):
and timeless truths,
hoping to build the kind of mythic narratives that future generations will carry with them.
Folks, if you believe in the power of a story,
or if you just want a reminder that good writing still matters,
then you need to check out Jared,
his books,
and his story.

(09:09):
So we'd like to welcome Jared Michaud to the show. Jared, why don't you, come on in there? Hey. You doing there, buddy? Long time no see. Joe, it has been a while. It certainly has. I
life gets away from you. You get busy doing this stuff, and you look up, and three years have gone by, and everything's
totally different. And yeah. No. I

(09:31):
You you just reminded me of a Pink Floyd song when you said that. Did I? Yes. I've I've never gotten into the Pink Floyd stuff. It's never been my thing. Pink Floyd has a song on their Dark Side of the Moon album called Time, and there's there's a section in there where he says,
that
time has come, time has gone. Ten years have got behind you.

(09:52):
Yeah. You know, you missed the starting guns. I know I'm mangling. Don't correct me, audience. I I
I don't know what to correct you. All I was gonna say is, you know, it's been
so Ten years have got behind you. Yeah. That's it.
It was it was, like, eight years that I was working for my dad's company, and it has been three years since I quit. I haven't had a regular paycheck in three years, Joe. Wow. That's just totally strange to me. Was around the time when you and I first first made contact. Right? Somewhere about that? About two, three years ago? It's been about two, I think, since I first talked to you. Because for the first for the first almost year of that, I was working on writing my first couple of books. Right. And I didn't actually get on any podcast during that time except one, and she's quit podcasting since.

(10:40):
And so,
you know, it's so it's been it's been about two years, and then
things just keep rolling. And, you know, eventually, God opens doors in places where you don't expect to do things that you never quite thought, but they're actually aimed in exactly the right direction for what you're what you're going for. Yeah. So yeah. Gotcha.
Alright. So let me ask you this. Before we get into edit, I have I have some icebreaker questions that I wanna

(11:04):
start off with. Alright? So I hope you're ready. Alright. Yeah. I know you said before the kids are listening, you may not want them to hear this, but, you know, I'm I'm kidding. I'm kidding.
Well, maybe not. Let me ask the question first, then you can decide. I'll wait. Okay? Alright.
What's something most people don't know about you, but should?
Most people don't know about me, but should.

(11:28):
That's actually kind of a hard one because there isn't anything that I really hide from people particularly. It's like if if people wanna know something, I mostly tell them.
You know, here's a fun one that a lot of people don't know about me.
When I met my wife, I was going to college in Virginia.
She was going to college in Oregon.

(11:49):
We met at a Christmas ball in Cheyenne, Wyoming,
and we were married by July 19 of that year. Oh, wow. Oh, so your anniversary's coming up. Yeah. It is. Oh, that's cool. And we'll be down in Arizona for our anniversary this year. But yeah. So Sweet. We we got married we we were both going to college opposite ends of the country, and we were married by July. Nice. So how many years of the life sentence have you completed?

(12:10):
Seventeen.
And, you know,
it's it's a life improvement for me. There you go. I know I know it hadn't been that way for everybody, and we've talked some about your story. So I don't wanna, like, trump on you or anything. But, no, for me, it has been a life improvement. It it has been the best thing I've ever done being married to Mary. That's awesome. So That's awesome. Yeah. I'm I'm I'm really happy for you too. Or how how about a little bit easier one for you? Okay? Sure. Alright. What's your what is your go to beverage to unwind at the end of the day?

(12:40):
Oh, okay. You know, it's funny. Most of the time, I just drink water. Like, I hear it sitting beside me. I got a I got my cup of water. But but if I'm unwinding,
I will occasionally have a reds apple ale, which is neither apple nor ale, but it is fairly yummy. And I will have one occasionally. Like, you know, once every two months or three months or something. No. I've never heard of that. I have no idea what that is. It's

(13:05):
basically, it's it's a very light,
almost
hard cider Okay. Sort of thing. So it yeah.
So so you could have, like, a couple of those and feel a little tingly?
You maybe could. I've never had more than one. I've I've never been drunk in my life. I don't actually know what that feels like because Not the best feeling. Myself better well, I know myself better than to do something like that because I'm one of those people who would get very scary if I if I lost control of myself,

(13:34):
And so I just made the habit of never going there. That's good. I'm I'm fine to keep it. No. That's good. That's good. That habit. I wish I could say the same. I I've I've had my bouts of temporary alcoholism. It's it's alright though. We could talk about those things. You know,
no criticism from my quarter, man. I know how life is. I know how difficult things get, and how we go where we go to cope with it. Oh, sure. You know, it's that's not necessarily an easy thing. No, sir. No, sir. Alright. So listen, let let let's get into the topic here a little bit. Let's let's let's get to the books. So now you've been fiction writing,

(14:07):
since you were a child. Right? What On and off. What what was the what was the first thing that really drew you to storytelling? And and and like when did you realize that this was gonna something that you wanted to do or was a life lifelong calling?
Well, okay. So those are two different questions. They are two different answers at least. The You could take it one at a time. I was well, what what draw drew me to it was I had a I had a difficult childhood. I was not

(14:30):
things were not all happy for me all the time, and one of the ways I escape was into my imagination. And I imagine that's true for a lot of kids. Mhmm. And so,
you know, at some point, I decided this stuff that I'm coming up with in my head is really pretty cool, and I wish I could share this with people.
The other people would like to see this too because this is fun.

(14:51):
And so that was what drew me to it, and I had to have been pretty young at the time, like, second grade or something when I wrote my first story.
But when I actually really got into it and started thinking I might have a future there was in my teens, I wrote the prequel to the first book that I ever published.

(15:11):
I ended up with something that was 250,000
words, which
if if you can see, this this is my first book, Bright Star. This,
this is 60,000
words. Mhmm. So the first book that I ever wrote, this 250,000
words long. That's, like, five of those. Wow. And it was totally unreadable.
And it was around then that I, you know, I decided, you know, this is something that I really am interested in. I couldn't have gotten through that many words if I wasn't. So Oh, for sure. For sure. Now you you also you you you cite CS Lewis and Orson Scott Card as as really key influences.

(15:48):
What did their work, I guess, awaken in you? And and then how did that shape your writing? It's it's two different stories. So Orson Scott Card wrote Ender's Game. And when I was a kid, reading that book touched something in my heart. It was like it did something for me that
I don't even know how to explain exactly. It was like, hey. Somebody understands me.

(16:12):
I was seen.
I was and so it it took up residence as part of my life for a very long time and still has a place there.
Or so that was the Orson Scott Card one.
CS Lewis is a bit of a different part of that. It's like with CS Lewis,
everything that he wrote for adults, like, a great example would be the great divorce. The great divorce is a story about heaven and hell.

(16:37):
It's a novel, but it's the most
the most interesting
exploration of the topic of heaven and hell that I have ever encountered.
He had some insight that I think could only have been given to him by the Holy Spirit, Joe. Mhmm. I think that I think that he was inspired to write things that were
really,

(16:57):
really true at a certain level, at a very deep level. And so
I I aspire to that.
Now Bright Star, your first book,
is part of a series. Correct?
It is, actually. I have actually, if you don't if you if you wanna see, I've got three Sure. All three of them here. So Bright Star is the first one.

(17:20):
It and then I'm doing something kind of odd. Between each book in this series, I'm putting out
a a short anthology of short stories,
which are about characters from the book. So, like, if you fall in love with a character that's not the main character and you wanna know their backstory,
you go to one of those and you'll find some of the short stories there that tells some of their history. And that's fun to do, and it makes the world bigger, and it it's a cool thing to do. Then this is the second one in the series, and that came out in November,

(17:53):
of last year of 2024.
And so that's the first series, and then I'm also working on a fantasy series as well,
which is You're pretty busy. You're pretty busy.
I well, I am, but then there's there's more to it beyond that because I'm editing books for people as well now. But this is the first one in the fantasy series. The second one is What was the what was the name of that one? I couldn't make it up. That is Winternight.

(18:16):
Winternight. Winternight. Yeah. It's,
it's
and it's a fairly classic fantasy story. It's, you know, elves and magic and those sorts of things, but magic is a fun topic because all of my magic is physics based at some level.
None of it is based on communicating with demons, which magic in our world is. Right. So there's that. Path of the Talonwood, the second book in that series is coming out,

(18:40):
basically in a few weeks. I'm actually about ready to open preorders for it on my website. So for those of you who are interested,
that's actually
something that I'm gonna be doing very soon. And I give away all of my ebooks to anybody who joins my email list. So if you wanna check this stuff out,
e6universe.com,
join the email list.
You can you immediately get an email with all of my ebooks

(19:04):
attached with different emails. It's like you get four of them, one with each. But yeah.
Because I want people to have the stories. Right. And we're gonna have links to all of your your your information in the show notes on both the audio stream and the video stream, so folks will be able to click on that and get right to your website. Great. Now I remember when we first spoke about the books that you were writing, you were talking about how, some of these books have a personal element involved. Is that something you wanna get into?

(19:30):
If you don't mind, there is a place I'd like to go, and that is
a personal element for each of us, actually. I'd this is what I like to say to all the people who I talk to about this. You know, each of our lives is a story.
Everything that we're doing at the current moment, we deal with physical objects and stuff. But if you wanna talk about any of the rest of your life, it is a story. Our lives are made up of story.

(19:53):
Everything we've done, everything that we're thinking, all of that, it's a narrative.
And
because of that, stories that we encounter, whether it's a fiction story or a true story,
they have a disproportionate
impact on us, which is why the god who gave us stories
gave us a Bible
that is story. It's because he knows that's what we connect with. So

(20:18):
when I do this stuff, my goal, my hope is to connect with people
in a way that is deep and
meaningful to them.
And, you know, most of my books are aimed at young people. The the fantasy stories are more general audience. The the sci fi is
more aimed at young people, but I would read them at my age. So, you know, if that's your sort of thing at all Right. They're fun stories.

(20:43):
But the idea is that it points you to something
that will hopefully have meaning for you in a way that's deeper than just, oh, that was a fun story.
Being a fun story is sort of the the price of admission. You have to have one, but, hopefully, it it has something deeper in it too. Yeah.
Okay. I don't know. What what were you thinking of? Well, I remember we were talking about,

(21:05):
about,
some
elements of being autistic
Uh-huh. And on the spectrum on that.
Yeah. So my main character in the Bright Star series, I wasn't intending to do this. Okay? So I get about halfway through this book, which is most of the way through the original Bright Star story.

(21:26):
And I'm sitting there talking to God. I talk to God in my bathtub a lot. So I'm sitting there talking to God, and I'm like, okay. So, you know, have you got anything for me that that's important? What what do I need to be paying attention to here? What what you know, just listening to what he has for me. And all of a sudden, I get this idea. And the idea is that my main character needs to be autistic. And I'm like, oh, you have got to be kidding. What is this?

(21:53):
Because I had never intended to do that. I'd figured that would be a turn
off, not a good thing. That wouldn't necessarily be
but I was wrong, and he was right. Go figure. I mean, that that never happens. Right? Repentance.
Well, like, yes. Repentance comes from the Greek word metanoia,
changing one's mind. Yes. I will change my mind because you know better than I do. And it's actually pretty cool when he knows better than we do because we get access to some knowledge and some understanding that's just next level. So Absolutely. I so, yes, I I do have

(22:27):
a brain that is wired differently from most people's brains. And
you people would call it autistic, but, really, what it is is just we're all different. We're all
we are made very individually by a creator
each of us and knows that we are
we're all

(22:47):
very special to him in our in each of our individual ways. And so
what this book is about is it's about somebody who's wired differently from
most people,
and
he's dealing with life that is not very friendly to him. And
when he's doing that, it takes him to

(23:08):
it takes him to another world where that that sort of different wiring is turned into a superpower, and he becomes something that
in that world has never been seen before. And so to me, that's a worthy thing to do. It's like
whether or not you are autistic,
which, you know, we put our labels on things, but whatever,

(23:28):
you are all we are all very different from each other, and we've all got that special place where we need to be seen.
We need to be understood. We need to be
and and if we aren't, it feels like we're very, very alone.
And he was very alone, and then he gets to go to another place that's very special. And he gets to learn something about life that's

(23:51):
not quite you know, it's not what he expected.
And, hopefully,
when he goes back, which
spoiler alert is coming at the end of the series, which is gonna have four, maybe five books in it. I'm working on book three right now.
Is hopefully, it it helps him to see his own life in a bit of a different light.

(24:15):
Interesting.
Now, how does your daily life shape
the worlds and the characters that you create?
My daily life. Well I mean, especially especially living in Wyoming, you know, small town life, small town living,
you know, how does That's an interesting question. I
I suppose I don't have a lot of

(24:37):
I I don't write a lot about scenes where people are in a
city or in the middle of a lot of people. I don't have a lot of experience with that. I you know, I've been to cities. I've even spent some time in them, but not enough to where
I can as convincingly
write about that as I can about a smaller setting. So I I would say that that's probably true that that it, you know, you you're right about what you know, and what I know is smaller groups,

(25:07):
more,
what would you call it, more familiar
settings. Because one of the things you find about small towns is that everybody knows everybody's business, and that can be a good thing or it can be a bad thing. It it isn't necessarily a good thing. It isn't necessarily a bad thing. Right.
But but it is one of those things where

(25:28):
you will find that to almost be a base assumption of a lot of a lot of the stories I put together is some element of that probably
just because that's what I know. So I suppose that's true, but to say that to say that in general it does, I don't actually know. I I don't know the answer.
Okay. Well, that's a first. I've I've came across somebody who doesn't know how to answer the questions. No. I'm kidding. I'm just messing with you, brother. You know that. Well,

(25:54):
you know, it's it's one of those things where when we don't know the answer, it's better to just say, I'm not sure. Absolutely. Absolutely. But me but I know this this question you're gonna be able to answer. This that that much I know. And, I I was as you were talking, I was kinda formulating how I was gonna present the question to you. As as a Christian,
you vow you value truth.

(26:14):
Highly. Highly.
And, you also you also value Western civilization, Western culture.
Somewhat.
Okay.
How did those convictions show up in your fiction?
So
I think that as far as truth goes,
there are different
there are different levels of truth. So for example,

(26:36):
when you're reading
a story that has a deeper meaning in it, where where
there's a truth there that can be expressed
best in a parable form, best in a story form as sort of a an example for us to look at rather than something that we just spell out.
I really hope to

(26:56):
do that at some level.
When it comes to personal honesty or a commitment to truth, you'll find that most of my characters have that whether I like it or not. Even the bad ones, even the evil ones have that at some level, a lot of them. Because
to me,

(27:16):
that has become such a part of me. I struggle to think outside of that. I can on purpose,
but it's like it's such it's so ingrained in me that that's what I naturally do.
Now when it comes to Western civilization,
I value it to the degree that it is based on a Christian,
a a Christ and God centered worldview and,

(27:39):
approach to life.
And
I think that the current order in the world is Western because of
that centering, because traditionally it has been centered on God, because it has been centered on truth.
And
as much as we adhere to that, I think it's a good thing. I think that's actually

(28:01):
a really
amazing thing. But when it comes
to a lot of the values that we've taken on, even going back to and I'm I'm gonna hit on something here that may make some of some people uncomfortable.
Did you know that the way we do church is actually not traced back to the Bible? It's traced back to Greek civilization,

(28:21):
and it it damaged
the Christian
worldview and the Christian church in a
profound way.
So there are influences there that are very much Western
that are not very good.
Well, try to expand on that one because that's that's an interesting thing because,
you know, a lot of people take church as for what it is, and they they think that this is something that actually goes back. But if you actually read your Bible, you study the scripture, you see that

(28:49):
the majority of what you see going on in a church today, especially with the
more Yes. More,
worldly churches, modern churches,
none of that really took place. Preaching was different, teaching was different, every the the way it was designed and set up was different and approach was different. So why don't you expand on that a little bit and give us some ideas? Well, and let let me give you a let me give you a good source for this. Frank Viola is his name. If you're interested in this topic, go look up one of Frank Viola's books. I recommend

(29:20):
something like Pagan Christianity.
And, basically,
because he put words to something that I have felt for my whole life. He he was the one who helped me to verbalize
feelings and senses that I've had about church
since I was young. So let me put some words to that now.
Basically,

(29:40):
what we see in the Bible is we see that church is based on a fellowship. The church is the body of believers who follow Jesus Christ, and what we do when we get together is we fellowship.
We are instructed in Corinthians, first Corinthians
I can't remember the chapter and verse right now, to when we get together for everyone to have a psalm or

(30:02):
something encouraging or whatever so that every person
is ministering
to the rest of the group. Right. That's actually something we're specifically instructed to do. We don't have a lot of instruction in the Bible about what we're to do when we get together.
We're supposed to listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit and to have everyone ministering to each other. How many churches have most of us ever been in where that's the case?

(30:26):
Why is that not the case? It's because the Greek influence that came in sort of turned it into a pagan service.
The pagan services at the time looked a lot like what church does now. You had a priest, a person get up in front of the group
and talk about a or or give a lesson, give a moral, give a, you know, some kind of something to the group who then went out and did the rest of their week after that

(30:54):
that service. And that's what
so so the the modern church service is actually based on a Greek tradition. It's not based on anything particularly biblical.
And the same is true of church leadership, and this is where I'm really actually gonna make a lot of people angry is
when when the children of Israel first came into the land of Israel,

(31:15):
they had a system that God gave them of government where they had judges.
And this is what God instituted was he put down laws for the people that he gave to them through Moses, and then they had judges
whose job was to administrate and to settle disputes. They didn't they had something that actually looked a lot like anarchy to us. They didn't have a lot of big government to tell them what to do or anything.

(31:39):
Most of that was very community oriented. They had small towns
with elders and groups of people, and and the only thing they had on a more national level was judges. They didn't have kings. Then the children of Israel went and asked for kings, and what did the kings do? They
took their young people to war. They started charging them taxes. They took the they took them as essentially as slaves.

(32:03):
And then we as the church, when Jesus came,
we had this system of
basically a very informal system of governance where we didn't have
individual leaders who were set over local groups.
Those sort of rose to the surface
and followed their calling more naturally. We did have
responsibility. We did have authority,

(32:25):
but that was something that the holy spirit mostly administrated. We didn't have
this system of hierarchy.
But instead,
as time went on, we reinstituted
kings in a fractal way. At first, it was as the Catholic church, the Roman church instituted a king who is the pope. Right. And then they have this hierarchy under him by which they administrate

(32:51):
their little state. That was not something that God
instituted.
Then we as protestants,
or I don't even know if I consider myself one exactly. I'm just a follower of Jesus. But Protestants broke away from that, and they fractally did the same thing. They they all instituted kings of their own little churches, and we even have it to this day where you have a head pastor who is the king of the church at your local church. And that is not something that God instituted or designed for us.

(33:19):
That that that is actually a fascinating study, and I think what we should do at some point is kinda reconvene.
Maybe do it on a Sunday, and do it as like a bible study type thing. And, and and go into those scriptures. You know, by the way, folks, just to remind you, August 3, don't forget, we're gonna have, we're gonna have our our Sunday
Italian dinner bible study

(33:41):
with, with Pat
Mangarelli,
who we interviewed last week. So don't forget that. That's coming up August 3, I think, if that's the Sunday. So,
hey, maybe you wanna jump in on that with us, bro.
August 3. I I actually might be busy that day. I'll have to look at my calendar. But one way or another, I am actually happy to get together with you some Sunday and go over this stuff because That'd be lovely. It's really fascinating subject. You have to cook though.

(34:08):
You have to you have to you have to make a sauce if that's what we're doing. We're doing My
my wife is the cook in my household. She makes amazing sauces.
I make,
I I don't know. Look. As long as long as you show up to the to the to the Bible study with the with the with some pasta and some salt, you're good. I I think we can manage it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we're not gonna cook on camera, obviously, because I'm not bringing my camera into the studio. You know?

(34:34):
And if and if I have to eat my own cooking, we might be there a long time.
Well, well, at least until the ambulance has to come and get you and take you to the hospital. Right? There you go. I I think you're I think you're kind of on the right track there. There there you go. But yeah. No. I I'd love to get together and discuss some of this. Yeah. We should do that. Because this is this is one of those things where I'm actually really passionate about

(34:56):
following Jesus in a way that is effective where we all grow up to be
not just
sinners saved by grace, but co heirs and rulers with him in this realm that he put us into to be that. Right. Yeah. I agree. That's totally scriptural.
Totally scriptural. Everything has to be scriptural

(35:17):
at unless we are actually saying so this is speculative. We can we can speculate. That's fine. But we have to call it speculation.
When we're actually claiming something, we have to make it scriptural. Had a had an old Bible teacher used to say,
where the Bible does not articulate, we dare not speculate.
Well, and I dare speculate a whole lot, but I don't claim it as being

(35:39):
authoritative. You have to give the caveat, you know, that says Right. That this isn't authoritative. This is my opinion. Exactly.
Now, now you've said you wanted to create myths that inspire future generations.
What makes a story
rise to the level of myth?
I think there are a number of things that go there. One would be the width and breadth of the world.

(36:02):
Like, there is something in each of us that is drawn to a massive world that has
untold history and stories and legends and struggles and trials
and
victories in it. That's that's one of the things. I think that another thing is
that element of truth where

(36:23):
one of the things I tell people about great art, whether it's writing or painting or any other kind of art is that there are these truths out there in the world that are very deep. And if and what we should aspire to is to find them and to leave them in our work for people to discover.
And

(36:43):
I can give you a shallow example of that if you like. Go ahead. One of the one of the characters
in my book, my first book,
talks to
the main character.
He's there at the school, the the most prestigious school in the galaxy, and she's talking to him. She's the headmaster. She says,
so Brightstar,

(37:04):
I tried
to protect them.
And
she's speaking of a specific set of circumstances,
but he looks at her and he says,
you can't protect them. You can only prepare them.
So
one of the things that I find with a lot of people who I've talked to lately, and and I've been doing the home school conference circuit. I've gone to 11 home school conferences in 10 states so far this year, most of them since April. Mhmm. So I've I've been busy.

(37:33):
And one of the things I find is that we have this
propensity
to protect our kids more than prepare them, where we wanna just keep the world from hurting them instead of teaching them how to operate in a world that's going to hurt them.
And there are two different mindsets. And so when you teach them how to operate in a world that is necessarily going to hurt them, that's preparation.

(37:58):
When instead you try to protect them from the world and to keep the world from hurting them,
that always ends in disaster.
That's really true. That's that's very true.
It is. That really is. That that that I had to I had to pause there and think about that for a second. That that it's a very good

(38:19):
point. But that's just a shallow example of what I'm talking about. When we're talking about myth level truth, it's the
there is this story that is embedded in the human psyche of good versus evil, of the hero versus the villain.
And it's it is so deep that we can't easily articulate it. We project ourselves onto it.

(38:41):
Almost everybody sees themselves as the hero of their own story.
And to some degree, that's true.
But at the same time, we've also got this this thing where we're looking at a greater hero, at Jesus Christ, at what he did, at his life, at at everything that's going on with him. And that is
one of the deepest truths

(39:01):
that we can
that we can aspire to leave in our stories.
And so
at every level when I write,
I want to leave truth there for people to find. I want to put something in there that's valuable.
Not to preach at people, not to not to, like, tell them you should believe this or you should do that, but to put something in there that speaks to your heart

(39:25):
in a way that is deep and meaningful.
And that I think is goes into the myth
in the in the sense that Tolkien used it. Mhmm. A myth is a story that holds deep truths in it that that we connect with at a visceral level.
Well, today's publishing world has,

(39:45):
really
can really be
just
oversaturated,
cynical. Right? Yeah. I think we could agree on that much. How do you stay grounded,
and how do you stay focused on on
purpose driven storytelling?
You know, Joe, it's actually funny. I

(40:06):
a while back, when I was starting to get into this, probably
probably around the last time we talked,
I was having a conversation with the Holy Spirit. And listening to the Holy Spirit is another topic. It's something that I'm not really good at, but I'm learning to do and that we as Christians all need to be better at. I agree with you. Because if we don't if we're not actually having a conversation with God all the time, that means you're not a Christian, folks. And that may be hurtful to some people, but it's just a fact that that

(40:35):
we find in the Bible that
we're actually designed to have a personal relationship with him. For now, we see as a through though as a glass darkly,
but then face to face. We should actually see as though through a glass darkly. We should actually be having those conversations,
and that's a tough thing. But I was having this conversation
where

(40:56):
I was saying, so what do I do with this? How do I sell this? How do I market this? And basically, the answer was you don't.
You don't.
Which I didn't listen to very well, Joe. I Yeah. Instead, I started going on podcasts, and I started trying to do it myself. I started doing all the things. And
so I was being disobedient.

(41:17):
I was not listening.
And so lately, what I've been doing is I've been going back to that. I do a few of these with friends. Like, I will do podcasts with people who I value as human beings like you. You are a friend, and and I love you, brother. And I wanna keep doing this because this is fun to talk to. It also gives me a chance to talk about the things that I love and to get it out there. But I'm not actively trying to market my stuff. Instead,

(41:43):
I've made all of the books free to anybody who joins my email list, and I trust that when the time's right, god will come forward and give me the tools I need to do this marketing.
And so I'm not actually trying to do it very much myself. I'm just doing what I was originally told to do, which is
just do the work,

(42:03):
and I will take care of the rest. And so when the time comes, he will take care of the rest.
Or I'm crazy and he won't, but, you know, whatever. It's it's my voice to try to listen to him and to have faith that he will do that. Well, that's the whole thing with faith. You you you it's like that old saying, you step out by faith. You know, you don't know what the outcome is gonna be, but you're trusting

(42:24):
that that God's gonna deliver you through whatever it is that comes about of the stepping out on faith.
And and somebody who I've been watching lately occasionally,
the way he puts it is, and if God doesn't show up you you put yourself in a situation where if God doesn't show up, you die,
and watch him show up because he will.
Well, okay. So I have I have a wife and seven kids. You said I have seven kids and I'm crazy? I don't have a job, Joe. I have not had a regular paycheck in three years. I'm living on savings. You wanna talk about crypto?

(42:56):
I didn't get interested in Bitcoin until shortly before I quit my job, and it was not a normal thing that I got interested in Bitcoin. It was kind of an out of the blue, okay, it's time for this. And I got into it, and guess what's been sustaining my family, dude? It's The Bitcoin. Because It's because God
gave me a
window into something, and now I understand it at a level that almost nobody does

(43:19):
because he taught me about this. And now
I I knew what I needed to do, and it has been sustaining my family. And God willing, it'll keep doing that for a while until he's ready to do something else. And when he is, I will go there, wherever there is. Amen. Amen. And I was I was trying to think of the verse, it's in it's in Hebrews chapter 11. It says faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Yes. So Yes. Which,

(43:43):
which totally summarizes everything we just said, basically.
It does. It's one And that's that's a beautiful thing about the word of God too. The manifold wisdom of the creator Yes. Put in our hands. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. Absolutely. And and it's the main the main thing about the word of God is that it you you could have this
deep profound thought
that will take paragraphs for you for you and I to explain, but God can say it in in in a sentence.

(44:08):
And occasionally,
every once in a while, he gives me a flash of inspiration where I get to say those things in a sentence and put them in my book. No glory to me, man. That is amazing
part of it. It's like, you ever have you ever have those times when you say the words that somebody needs to hear and did, and it was a blessing for you to be able to do that? It was Sure. God's reached into your life and said, here, you get to be a part of this beautiful thing. That's what it's like being inspired to write something. It's like, God gave me the opportunity to share this truth with people, and it will touch some people. And that is

(44:42):
awesome. Yes. Absolutely.
As a matter of fact, I don't know if you were able to check, cash the show yesterday, but I I spoke to a guy. I I gotta
I can't pronounce his last name without reading it, so I gotta go back to my notes.
Mark Matzenbacher.
Okay. Alright. You you need if you haven't checked out the show yesterday, go back and take a look at yesterday's show. This guy Okay. Just fits exactly into what

(45:06):
you just said.
Cool. His whole his he wrote a book about it. It it's it's amazing.
So definitely need to check that out, bro.
Here absolutely. So here's another fun thing that fits into this.
I didn't I
one of the things that I've always had
call it a passion
need for is

(45:27):
to have people beside me when I'm working. I don't I don't work well solo on things. I can do it for a while, but I need people who are fellow travelers, who are fellow workers, who are beside me doing the thing. Sure. And so when I started this,
I just didn't know what I was gonna do for that. I, you know, it was like I I I don't
a writer who writes alongside other writers who are doing the same thing.

(45:51):
But get this That's called collaboration.
Well, it is, but at the same time, it's hard to find those people. And I don't have a I don't have an audience to speak of, Joe. I've got a few 100 people who've bought my books, and that's about it.
And so
when I when I've talked to some people lately, this funny thing happened. There was this podcast that I used to really love. It is not one that I recommend anymore because

(46:13):
one of the one of the creators of that podcast
ended up quitting
about
eight, ten months ago,
and I developed a friendship with with him. And he has he has had it on his heart to write a book. It's not quite what I'm writing. It's an
but his vision is very similar to mine.

(46:35):
And through him,
I got to know another girl who is also writing a book that is
got a similar she's got a similar vision to mine. She's she's there to
share truths with God at the center of them that are healthy and so is he. And and but they're but they're fun stories. It's like we're he's writing a lit RPG and she's writing a romantisee.

(46:57):
And and so these are totally different genres from mine Of yeah. But they have similar vision to me, and I have more experience with the writing and stuff than either of them do. I've published books. I've done this stuff. So I'm like, yeah. I'll give you the download. I'll help you however I can. And
turns out they both ended up it ended up being they both needed

(47:17):
editor,
and
I ended up being the guy for that. So now I'm editing books too.
I'm not busy enough writing them. I'm I'm editing books for these other two people who are awesome folks and
are writing their own books. And yeah.
So in the process of editing, let me ask you this. This is kind of a Yeah.
Off the cuff question.

(47:39):
Should you ever read something that that's that you're working as as far as an editor goes and say, why didn't I think of something like that?
Oh, all the time.
You know, sometimes I'm the only book I've gotten through so far, she's writing she's writing a 180,000
word romant romantacy. It's a fantasy romance book.
And, occasionally, you know, I'm reading through it. I'm like, wow. This is this is just

(48:03):
amazingly beautiful writing.
And, you know,
at times, we do that through collaboration, but some of it's just hers. And I'm like, wow. I wish I'd come up with that. That's amazing. So, yes, of course. And then I come up with the ones where I
go, okay. So
this is a funny story that I should
because I'm telling on my my writer. You know? It's like it's those fun things where you get to you get to poke fun at them too. Yeah. And and then she's a really good sport. She'll poke fun at herself,

(48:33):
which is which is great. It shows she's, you know, she's she's a mature individual. Right? Sure. A little self deprecation is not a problem. Yeah. It is. It's a good thing. Yeah.
So,
what would you say some of the biggest challenges
or or what are some of the biggest challenges that you've faced as a writer

(48:55):
internally or externally?
You know, it's funny how
and I I'm gonna speak as a Christian here because this is something that I
that's essentially the way I have to answer this.
God uses the things that are in front of us to deal with the problems that we have, to deal with the things in us that need to be worked out,

(49:20):
whether it's pride or old triggers or
old things that we've had to deal with, like,
the whole not having a paycheck for three years thing. That isn't an accident. That's because I had a problem that I had to deal with. I had to learn how to trust him for these things instead of relying on my own strength
or,

(49:41):
you know,
my expectations being met. Instead, just trust God. That's a hard thing. That was the hardest one that I personally have faced. But there are others, like,
you know, some of the things that
writing about an autistic
main character
is a difficult thing for me because I'm exposing things that I really don't particularly

(50:05):
want to be talking about. It's not like I enjoy I understand that. Dealing with
dealing with the fact that when I'm when I work in a day, if I have more than two objectives, if I have more than two tasks,
I stop being able to function properly.
Like,

(50:25):
multitasking is something that is
almost impossible for me when I'm writing. I can go into multitasking mode, but I can't write. I can go into writing mode, but I can't multitask.
That's hard. That's not something I really
appreciate
having to share, but it's important.
Then, you know, there's the other stuff like,

(50:45):
old triggers, old things in your life that that you have not dealt with. That when
when you are doing what God's has used,
you know, what you're supposed to be doing, he'll bring those to the surface, and you have to learn how to deal with them in order to move forward.
And okay.

(51:07):
So what what did you do to overcome them though?
To overcome old triggers? Yeah. I mean, there are multiple things. Like, some of it, there there are memories that will come to my mind,
and I have to go into that memory. And I have to look at myself in that old memory and go, I forgive you.
I forgive you for being that weak, for being that

(51:31):
contemptible.
I forgive you.
I have to forgive myself for being what I was.
There are
other times where it's stuff that I don't even recognize, and I just have to pray the mercy of God over myself and ask him to help me see how to deal with that trigger. And that's one of those like, today, I was getting triggered by something that

(51:52):
had nothing to do with what was going on in front of me. It was it was a very distant thing. I don't know why it was triggering it, but it's like, I don't know I I don't know what was going on. But I was feeling this insecurity,
this fear, this sense of
of doom, and I'm going, okay. So what do I do with this, holy spirit? How do I how do I

(52:14):
show me what I need to change or what I need to do to make this right? Please fix this. Please fix me.
And
a lot of times, those conversations
take months
or years. It just depends on the conversation. Sometimes it's very quick. Sometimes it takes a long time. Mhmm. It isn't there's, you know, there's no pattern there necessarily that we can understand.

(52:35):
It's that
our creator knows better than we do when we'll be ready to deal with that particular thing. So,
you know, some of it's some of it's one way, some of it's another way, and it's very individual.
I I there are people who are a lot better than me if
at dealing with that stuff.
Like I'm sorry, brother. Somebody,
my dogs are barking like crazy out there, and somebody's at my door. I'm not gonna go check, obviously. I just want but I wanted to see what was on the camera there. That's why all the moving You're good. That's what all the moving around was. No. You're you're good. I Sorry about that.

(53:07):
I was mostly just thinking about what you'd said. I wasn't actually
Paying attention? Being dis well, I wasn't being distracted by you. Okay. I noticed, kind of, but in a sec sort of a secondary way. Remember, I don't multitask.
Yeah. Well, I don't do that either. I was trying to do it in such a way that that it didn't look like I was obviously checking the phone or less stuff, but then I couldn't reach it. And it was it was falling and Right. Oh, yeah. Sorry. I apologize. I mean, if you need to go check it, I'll just monologue here for a bonus. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. That's fine. Whoever it was or whatever it was didn't even show up on the Ring camera, so I don't I don't know. But it it set the dogs off and I got all these alerts saying there's somebody at your side door, but there's nobody there.

(53:44):
Fair enough.
I don't know. Anyway,
but that's it. But what you but you what you were saying that was that was really fascinating, brother. And and especially it
because I know how hard it is to to when when you're faced with some kind of a challenge and you end up getting triggered, you know, trying to find that way of dealing with it,
in in a way that's well, in my case, something that's a little more mature. You know, you don't wanna fly off the handle and and handle it in a way that, that's gonna be detrimental to yourself, your your your family, especially your family.

(54:16):
Reputation,
your professional abilities and whatnot. So, no, brother. I I totally totally agree with you.
Another question for you though is Yeah. Do you think that fiction
still has
I'm gonna put it this way. Do you think do you still think that fiction has power to shape culture the way it once did?

(54:40):
Because fiction used to really play was was used very very very influential with within cultures.
I think
well, let me preface this by saying there was only one fiction,
one fiction writer, one fiction creator in the Bible, and that was Jesus. Mhmm.

(55:03):
He gave us parables.
And I think that
I think that, really, when you're talking about shaping culture, what you're talking about is something that happens at an individual level. It isn't something that happens to the culture as a whole
as a whole. It happens to the to the people in the culture and then spreads out to an individual level.

(55:25):
So
do I think that there are stories that still touch people's hearts?
Absolutely, I do.
Are some of them fiction stories?
Unquestionably
so. Mhmm. And so, yes, fiction certainly has the capability
to touch people's hearts. And can that shape culture? Well, if if my story if Bright Star speaks to the heart of one person,

(55:52):
just one person,
then it has changed something, hopefully, in a positive way.
And
so the answer is yes
on a on a larger scale.
When you talk to people,
almost no one you talk to will have a life where they haven't had a story that's important to them. Mhmm. And often it's a fiction story. Often it's a

(56:18):
so is it possible to have
a single story capture people's attention the way it used to?
I don't know. I suspect so. You know, there are those that
it's like whether it you know, Star Wars
for most of my lifetime
has had a huge impact on the culture.

(56:38):
It's at base a Gnostic tale. It's not a Christian story.
It has light and dark, not good and evil.
It is very much a tool of the enemy. It is a mystery religion story. You can still love the story. I love
loved Star Wars. I grew up with it. It's still very dear to my heart. Same with the matrix. You know, the movie the matrix, all of the film crew and

(57:02):
a lot of the people who were everybody who worked on it was required to read gnostic philosophy to be a part of the filming.
Like, it it really is that amazingly
deep rooted in these stories. Yeah. But so, yes, I think they very much have a the power to shape culture.
I think that we're coming upon a time when it will be time for another story to capture the popular imagination.

(57:25):
We've had it happen a few times, whether it's Star Wars or The Matrix or Harry Potter or,
Game of Thrones kind of did for a while. There have been a number of them, and most of them have been
very much,
aligned with the enemy's goals, aligned with the mystery religions.

(57:46):
And since the time of CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien,
we haven't had a story that was
specifically and wholesomely Christian
that really captured people, but they still are.
So, yeah, I think it's totally possible.
I think we're coming up on time for something else to happen.
I don't know what it is or, you know, I I I'm not I'm not the guy to ask for which one it's gonna be, but up

(58:13):
on it.
So what themes and, you know, or or questions keep pulling you back, whether it's in character
arcs or
world building, or plot?
What things keep pulling me back?
I tell a story

(58:34):
that gives people a key to
the modern
experience
in a way that is totally unique
and hopefully,
hopefully,
just actually reaches them, but is
also
sort of

(58:55):
not not camouflaged
exactly, but it it isn't like I'm trying to use a textbook to teach people something. So for example, if you were to read the veil of mysteries,
if you were to read this book, what you would discover is that partway through the book, we have a little history of the universe
given by the bright star to a group of people who he's talking to. And that history of the universe winds up

(59:19):
giving them,
basically, a story of angels and demons, a story of a world that is under siege by evil and in which
everything they do is going to contribute
whether their life is,
you know, a healthy one,
that they are headed toward a good end.

(59:41):
And
I think that's a key to our modern world where everything that we do, we live in the middle of a spiritual battlefield, and a lot of people have lost without even realizing it.
Agree. That's very true.
Everybody
you meet who's just walking through their life, doing their daily life, going along
with

(01:00:01):
the culture and not
sold out to Jesus Christ has essentially lost.
They've lost the battle Mhmm. Because they're not fighting the battle.
And so to me,
if I can teach people that, if I can
if I can take the book of Revelation
and overlay it onto a fiction story in a way that that people go, hey, this is familiar. I wonder if I can learn something about what's going on in the world from what this dude's doing.

(01:00:32):
That's amazing to me. That's a goal worth pursuing.
Now you're writing for future generations.
What kind of a legacy do you hope that your stories leave behind?
I'm writing for all the generations.
And as to the legacy,
it's more about

(01:00:52):
a couple of different things. Number one, there's this song. I think it's
Nicole Nordman legacy.
Okay. Ever since I was a little kid, like like, this is this is many years old. This is most most people who are than
me would not recognize this song, but it's some of the words are, I wanna leave a legacy. How will they remember me?

(01:01:17):
Did I point to you enough to make a mark on things?
Because that's what matters.
Did I point to him
enough to make a mark on things?
Enough to enough to influence people's lives in a direction that
that points them to Jesus?
That's, to me, the legacy.

(01:01:39):
That is the only legacy.
Do you have a line from one of your own stories that still gives you chills when you think about it?
Like, have you written something that you that you said,
wow. And and it just resonated with you, like, where did that come from? You know?
Do you know what I'm saying?
As far as one liners, I don't know whether I have one liners, but there's

(01:02:06):
there are a couple of sections in my book where I read the page and it gives me chills.
Mhmm. Some of the
I I here. Let me give you a teaser from my upcoming book, The Path of the Talon Wood. Let me let me just read. It's it's actually a poem. Go ahead. Go ahead. This is this is from The Path of the Talon Wood.
A soul of stone and ice had she, the watcher of the wood, and from it came a dark resolve to triumph as she could.

(01:02:33):
Though tried and tempted by the world, pursued by pain and strife,
her courage polished by the cinders of her former life.
No crowd arrayed against her could ever force her heart to yield.
No enemy could overwhelm her, though alone upon the field.
And then at the end of the book, I finished the poem,

(01:02:55):
and I'm scrolling down there now.
And the end of the poem is,
in trouble, though she faltered, the king would hear her call. In darkness, though she lost her way, he never let her fall.
Let no man doubt the justice in the wounded heart she bore,
for it alone might carry through to win the demon's war.

(01:03:17):
Wow.
That's pretty good, brother.
Thank you. So That's really good. That's one of the things I'm doing for this whole series. You want me to read the poem on the first one too? Yeah. Please do that. Okay. So this is,
And I'm gonna give you the spotlight here. I'm gonna put you on full screen, brother.
Absolutely. So this is from Winternight. This is the first book in my fantasy series,

(01:03:41):
and this is the poem that goes along with it.
On winter's night of power, the comrades first shall meet, the princess of the woodlands,
the scion of watchmen bright,
the child of dwarves and fairies,
the giant from the East,
the son of fallen Simeon,
the outcast from the pack,
the wizard of the shattered coast, though present yet unseen.

(01:04:04):
Together will they forge man's fate,
together stand against the storm.
For when they find the light of yore, shall ancient darkness wake once more.
And then the final part of the poem is,
the keening wind blew long and hard, that bitter frosty night,
to pierce the heart and chill the bone and chase away the light.

(01:04:27):
When in the blasted land it claimed, the darkness woke once more
to rend a battered world from which 'twas bound in time of yore.
I really like that. And
Thank you. It you have I'll be honest with you. You know, I I've I've read
some of Bright Star.
Mhmm. I haven't read the whole thing of, you know, all confession here. That's fine.

(01:04:51):
You really have a a way of wording,
And it is it's it really is very elegant.
When you when you really sit I'm so I'm not being honest though. When you when you sit there and you really look read it, take the time to take it all in,
you have a very, very masterful way of putting together the words.
And,
I don't know. There there were a couple of points in the the book that I was when I was reading it that

(01:05:15):
I really did feel like I got lost in the story. Like, I became part of the story,
you know. That's amazing to hear. So it was a it was it was a real treat. And I would encourage anybody anybody that's listening right now that would be interested in in something like this story, you should really do need to read it. That those those little paragraphs of of poems that he just read to you,

(01:05:38):
That that that's just a small sample of how
how how masterful he handles the words. Go ahead, brother. Two things. Sure. First off, again, if anybody is interested,
e six universe dot com, the letter e, the number six universe dot com. Join the email list. You get all the books. I just email them right out.
And then the second thing,
I have one other poem I'd love to share with you if you're interested. Go ahead. This is this is the only serious poem

(01:06:04):
that I've ever written that I think is actually good.
Go for it.
K. This and this this communicates sort of the the core of what drives me to write, which is why it's particularly apt here.
This the poem's called intangible.
A breath of wind that whispers,

(01:06:24):
the breeze so sweet and slight.
We know not where it comes from as little where it goes.
The turning of the ocean's tides,
the rolling rhythm of the waves,
the things that mark the centuries
that loiter day to day,
the greatness of the universe,
the space between the stars,

(01:06:47):
the distance of a long, long road,
the thing that men call far,
How poorly words can fit the feelings,
verse the poetry.
And yet there is a driving need to capture such as these,
to gather into human terms the great intangibles,
and fit inside a single word a space too large to see.

(01:07:11):
For through words we remember
to others yet to come,
the things of joy we found in life,
and also things of grief,
In hopes that someday,
someone else will gaze into the sky.
To see the distance and the light
the same as you and I.
Wow.

(01:07:33):
That's So you
you ask why I write.
That poem is, like I don't know. I don't know. Thing where I ever went where I ever went. Okay. That captures it right. That that does it. It does. And it and it's and it's really, really well written, And, it's eloquent, and I like it. I like it a lot. I wrote it when I was, like, 17 years old. I haven't written a poem I really loved.

(01:07:55):
I mean, actually, the one the one for Path of the Talonwood is pretty decent. And that one, I actually did come up with most of that in the past
few months. But I don't do a lot of I don't do a lot of poetry lately. Maybe I should do some now and then. Wait. Why not? Why not?
It's
it's a different level of inspiration and effort than prose. So it's like, first, you have to have an idea

(01:08:22):
that's worth encapsulating.
You have to have something where you know, and then you have to have a twist on it that is unique and
interesting and hopefully powerful.
And then you have to take the time
to put that into words. And so, like, for example, this the path of the Talon Wood poem that I read first,
that one took me, like, eight or ten hours to get that right. Like, it's not a short easy thing to do. That's that's a huge amount of effort for a comparatively few number of words.

(01:08:52):
And so
it it's it's a lot of effort for a very small
quantity of output,
and most people don't appreciate poetry
unless it's in a very specific context. So, like, on these fiction books, it dresses it up nicely. It it's a little bit of,

(01:09:13):
you know, it's a fun little addition to the actual prose of the story.
But
to actually write a book of poetry,
you really have to have a a calling and draw for that. It has to really
draw you in to to for you to want to do that. And I don't have that. What I have is a little different.

(01:09:36):
So if you could speak one sentence into the mind of everyone listening right now and know that it would stick, what would it be?
Jesus Christ is the prize.
Amen.
Amen. You're the you're the first person to actually say it in one sentence.

(01:10:00):
There is there is well, I'm I stole that. I totally stole that from my men's group. I've got this Tuesday night
the bunch of guys who drive trucks and whatever the we we all went to men's encounter in It's it's actually pretty powerful. The spirit has been moving there.
And,

(01:10:21):
it was one of the guys there
who actually said that. I don't know where he got it, but I don't know whether I don't know that it was original to him, but Jesus is the prize. But that's okay because
Solomon said there's nothing new under the sun. So that basically means that if you got it you got it from somewhere, some the person you got it from got it from somebody else and so on and so forth then align. I think Solomon was wrong. You too.

(01:10:48):
Well, the Bible actually says it.
He says, God says, look here, I'm doing a new thing.
Well, I wouldn't exactly consider God himself as pro as a human being on the earth. No. No. He says Solomon says there's nothing new under the sun. Sure. Maybe
human beings. But the point is,
this actually bothered me. It's it's almost a pet peeve which is why I came out with that. Alright. Alright. Alright. Got it. It's like I peeved you. Go ahead. Well well, it's more like you tweaked me just the tiniest bit. Not like, okay. So Go ahead. Go for it. Really really though, God is actually doing new things all the time. And and this

(01:11:25):
experience and the things that are going on as we come to understand it, like, I'm learning more and more about the world that we live in, Joe, and about what God's actually doing.
The stories that he's bringing together, and some of the some of the things that have going on been on since
before we
have a written history of it in the Bible. Things that, like, it says the sons of God shouted for joy

(01:11:51):
when the world was when, you know, when the earth was created. What do you where do you think they came from? The do you think they didn't have histories? Do you think they didn't have stories?
Some of the things that are going on now and the stories that are being brought to a climax and the
the amazing way that our creator is doing things that he started opening my eyes to since I've been doing this writing so that I can hopefully share it with people have been just mind blowing.

(01:12:20):
And if I can give people just a tiniest look into some of the new things that God is doing,
I will be honored. I will be honored to be a part of that. Oh, praise the Lord. That's good. Yeah. Okay. Well,
didn't quite sell me on it, but we got it. We're good. We're good.
That's alright. I'm good. No. I know. I'm just messing with you, brother. I'm just messing with you. Alright. So,

(01:12:43):
I think I know the answer to this question already. But I'm gonna throw it out there anyway. So who is someone that you deeply respect right now, and what are they doing that we should be paying attention to?

(01:13:04):
Well,
the name that comes to mind actually irritates me.
Uh-oh. And it's not who I'm thinking. Okay. Go ahead. No. It's not.
And I'm actually recommending another podcast here, which is not
technically totally friendly, but
there's a guy named

(01:13:28):
Nice. Nice. There's a guy named Taylor
band. We didn't we didn't coordinate that. That
Yeah.
No. I got it. I I won't hit it. I won't hit the button. That's what I got.
Alright. So there's a guy named Taylor Welch doing a podcast called The Deep End, and what he's doing is learning in real time

(01:13:48):
all of the things that we as Christians
ought to already know
about the world, about our Christian walk, about our God.
He is not a pastor. He is not
he is not someone who I would recommend as someone having
good judgment or discernment.

(01:14:09):
He is not someone I would recommend as having,
a personality that is friendly or enjoyable,
but he is someone who the Holy Spirit is speaking to. And he's teaching Taylor Welch in some very frightening and difficult ways, but also very useful ways,

(01:14:30):
all of the things that you and I need to know.
And and so just for example, we talk about listening to the Holy Spirit. We talk about triggers. We talk about,
the history of the world when the sons of God
shouted for joy when the world was created. If you wanna learn about some of that stuff, you can watch some of his stuff because

(01:14:51):
God's using
that in a powerful way. That doesn't mean that he has good judgment or discernment or That's good. Like, it's a lot of those things where I watch it and I go, okay. So
this dude that you had on
said,
what now? He said, what?
And some of it's just totally off the wall and crazy. And I don't know whether I don't know whether the person he was talking to was even saved or not, much less was

(01:15:20):
like a a pathological
liar or what. But at the same time, then I listened to some of it and I'm like, wow,
holy spirit. Holy cow.
Oh my goodness. That was amazing.
Mhmm. So
we have to use discernment. We have to use judgment, and we have to and this is really critical.

(01:15:44):
And, actually, this is this is an admonishment
from me to anyone who's listening.
As a Christian, it is your duty to not put your brothers on pedestals.
It is your
responsibility
to not look to other people
to have a relationship with God for you. You are not to look to your pastor. You are not to look to a an influencer on the Internet. You are not to look to other people

(01:16:11):
to usurp your relationship with God. You are to test the spirits. You are to use your judgment. You are to do those things, and
that's between you and God. You will answer for that.
And when it comes to people who are very visible,
and this is incredibly important because this is something where if I ever become very visible, I need people to do this for me. For you to have mercy, for you to have

(01:16:38):
to not make judgments
about those people
behind their back or about their life or whatever. That isn't your job. Excellent point. Your job Excellent point. Is to your job is to actually look to them and to go, okay. What are you trying to teach me through this, Holy Spirit? And how can I have compassion for this person who is messing up in front of me?

(01:16:59):
Because that's what we do when we get on a national stage in front of people or a world stage. We mess up in front of people. That's right. And we become the we become the object lesson.
And so
when when we watch people,
we can take good things out of what they say, and that's awesome. And we can learn from them, and that's awesome. But we need to not ever put them on pedestals because when we do that, we are making them

(01:17:21):
a
Because when we do that, we are making them
a target. We are making them we are separating them from the herd and making them available to the enemy to destroy. Excellent point, brother. That's an excellent point. I like that. That's very good. Excellent point.
Thank you. Are you still podcasting or no?

(01:17:41):
I am not doing a podcast of my own of late. I my co host sort of had other things come up, and so we stopped doing it. And
so no. On the only podcast I'm doing, and this is actually kind of fun. If you look up
Energemeter six, so you can go to the website e6universe.com,
and you can look at the podcast tab. We read all of my work in audio format for anybody who wants to hear it. You can get it on Rumble, YouTube, or any podcast app.

(01:18:10):
If you put the word energeometric
six in there, all four of my current works
that are published are there in a relatively decently edited form.
And the fifth one is up there raw. I read it aloud to everybody this past Sunday as
a sort of a a final thing before I publish it.
So

(01:18:30):
it's actually available already, and I'm doing this so that everybody can get the stories. Is it e six or e s I x?
E six. Okay. The letter e, the number six, universe dot com. Great. I'm gonna make sure we got that up, and the links is also as well.
And,
well, our
our next guest

(01:18:51):
popped in and then popped out. So I'm assuming that, they didn't wanna wait until
we said goodbye.
So,
so that's it. We're,
we're we're free in the clear here.
So just,
go ahead. Go ahead. No. No. No. I was I I was gonna I was gonna give you a hard time about politics, but no. What were you gonna say? Oh, Oh, no. I was I was, I was just gonna say, do you wanna stick around for a bit? Because I wanna take a little break here. I wanna go use their little little boys room and see what the dogs are barking at, and then, come back in maybe in, like, two minutes, three minutes.

(01:19:23):
Fine to me. That's good. Alright, folks. So this is the Joe Russo. Don't forget, this is a live show Mondays.
Well, I can't even say that because we've been doing it every day. So this is, a
a daily show,
I guess.
This is a just folks, don't forget, this is a live show weeknight 7PM central time. Don't forget Saturdays 11AM tomorrow,

(01:19:46):
Sunday 6PM.
And, we have been talking with Jared Michaud, who is an excellent,
excellent guest, an excellent author. You need to check out his work. And, what we're gonna do is we're gonna take a little pee pee break, and when we come back,
we're gonna maybe dip into some politics for a little bit, because,
we like that. That's a lot of fun. Alright, folks. So don't forget, like, subscribe, share with your friends, your family, and your followers. Don't forget to help us spread this thing. Check out the website joeroos.com.

(01:20:16):
And, oh, before I do that, I gotta do this. Hey, folks. Listen. If you are looking
for a great place to host your podcast,
I wanna tell you about our sponsor and my host platform for the audio version of my podcast.
It's podhome.fm.
PodHome dot f m is the most modern and easy to use podcast hosting platform.

(01:20:38):
You can use it to publish your episodes, enhance your audio, automatically generate transcripts,
chapters, titles, show notes. They give you a website for free that they maintain for you. All you have to do is point and click what you want, and they put it up there for you. You could live broadcast
your podcast
through their servers.
This is a, this is an incredibly

(01:21:01):
dynamic
website,
host platform
that you can use.
Everything that you need
to make the best quality podcast you can possibly do is is all available to you in one affordable subscription
of $15.99
a month.
Now
folks, I've played around with other podcast host platforms.

(01:21:21):
For everything that Pod Home is offering to you for $15.99 a month,
other platforms are charging double and some places even triple that.
Podhome.fm
is the place for you to go. So go to podhome.fm,
try it out for free, and get thirty days free.
Thirty days to play with it, get used to it,

(01:21:42):
no obligations,
try it out, podhome.fm.
Alright. And again, folks, don't forget this is a live show. We make mistakes. We get goofy. We do a lot of stupid things from time to time, but thank you for staying with us, and we'll be back right after this break. Jared, you could shut your camera off. We'll be right back.

(01:26:25):
Up and down,
counting out,
Smiling through the taste of blood in my own mouth.
I got bruises
and broken bones,
but they don't know I ain't in this ring alone.

(01:26:51):
I'm a fighter.
No one can say that I'm a run

(01:27:17):
I'm a fighter.
I get back up.
That's what I
do.
I didn't soldier on this far,
just huge.
So take your shot.

(01:27:39):
Is that

(01:29:13):
Alright, folks.
Welcome back to the Joe Roos Show. This is Joe Roos.
We've been chatting with Jared
Michaud,
writer, author, extraordinaire
of
Bright Star.
He hasn't checked back in yet. He's, obviously there he is.

(01:29:34):
Waiting for brother Jared as we kind of groove along here with some
funk
kind of music.
I don't know. Believe it or not, this actually was the original
opening music to this show.
Interesting. Yes.
Yeah. I like your taste. We were kinda going for a different groove,

(01:29:57):
you know,
that kind of thing. I don't
know. But it's what it is.
Yeah.
Well I like your new music, and I like your old music. Well, thank you, sir. Good taste. Thank you, sir. Wait till you hear the closing music.
We have fun with that.
So,
so, yeah. So, I I'm not sure exactly what happened to our second hour guest. And she popped in,

(01:30:19):
stayed there for for a good maybe
five seconds, and then popped out. And I and I didn't wanna say anything because you were in the middle of the thought, so I didn't wanna interrupt you.
So she popped out, And, I just went into, the the the
pod service that we use for that, and,
it's I can't even find her message in there anymore. So I don't know what happened to her or her account, but,

(01:30:42):
I'll have to take care of that after the show, because I I don't wanna waste too much time doing that. Because, look, if you don't wanna be with the show, that's fine. Don't be with the show. It's it's alright. Well, I I mean, I'm here, and I wanna be with the show. So Of course. We love having you here, brother. We do. We do. We really do. I appreciate it. I actually really enjoy talking to you, Joe. Oh, we have a great conversations. I love the conversations that we have. It's it's a It's fun. It's it's, you know, we we get along really well, which is great. And and that's that's the main thing too is, like, you know, the one thing about this show is, like, I don't want anybody to come here and feel like this is an antagonistic show.

(01:31:13):
I the the the kind of vibe that I like that I wanna keep is like just like I like I said to you before. Just just two old friends sitting around having a drink, cup of coffee, whatever it is. Just just talking about life and and the things going on around us. And, you know, like, is is that that that's conversational style I like. It's comfortable.
It's relaxed
for what it's worth.

(01:31:34):
I've got something that most of your viewers probably haven't heard on the Epstein thing. Well, yeah. Actually, we we spent a lot of time the last two days talking about Epstein. So,
so go ahead. Let let's hear what you got, and then I got something for you too.
Okay.
Are you familiar with the term blackmail inflation?
Mhmm.

(01:31:55):
Yes. You caught you caught me with a mouthful of coffee. I'm sorry. But yes. No. You're alright. So you you know what that is then? I've heard of it. Yeah. Idea that okay, so this is the idea just for anybody who doesn't know. Blackmail inflation is the idea that
with the advent of AI,
it is possible to take almost anyone
and put them into a very, very damning,

(01:32:16):
position
in a video or audio
clip, which means that when it comes to any evidence that's in those Epstein files,
I can guarantee
that whatever's actually there has been seeded with a whole bunch of stuff
that isn't necessarily real. So let's say they released it.

(01:32:36):
It's gonna implicate a whole bunch of people who shouldn't be implicated, and the people who are
actually in charge of making the decisions about that know it.
So what do you do in that situation?
Very, very interesting
proposition there, brother. And and I don't disagree with you. I think
well, first of all, let's just back up for one second onto the the files themselves. I I Yeah. Something we we kinda indicated yesterday in in in our little chat about it. And it's

(01:33:06):
I don't think the files exist anymore. I think that they have been long since gone and scrubbed,
and I think that,
I don't buy
look,
let me back it up this way.
I think president Trump has done a fine job,
both terms,
given the circumstances that he's been faced.

(01:33:26):
I think coming into this, I think he did a great job on the border. I think he's doing a great job with the economy.
I really wanted to see the the level of transparency that we were expecting to see.
I don't know what happened
with, Pam Blondie and,
Cash Patel and Dan Bongino,
but did you see the did you see the, the interview that Patel and Bongino did on Fox News a couple of weeks ago when they came out and emphatically said that, you know, Epstein did in fact kill himself. You know, it was in fact a suicide and all that stuff.

(01:34:01):
Well,
okay. So I I wish I didn't take the clips out of the studio tonight. I that's alright. I saw I saw some of the clips. I saw some of the interview. I didn't watch the whole thing partly because
I don't find it all that surprising. But Correct. My read on this is a little different from yours, and that is basically that they wouldn't have been forced to do that if those files didn't still exist.

(01:34:26):
Agreed.
So they wouldn't have been if those files if those files were gone,
they would not have been forced to do that interview. They would have just told the truth. Files are gone.
Yeah. Yeah. I I agree. We didn't we don't have we we've dug
down to the bedrock. We can't find them.
That may be our bad, but we can't.
The fact that they said that they never existed at all and that or or that they don't exist or, you know, that that he killed himself, that it you know, whatever it is, whatever line they spun, they spun it because

(01:34:57):
it has to be painted that way for one of two reasons.
The first reason is either that,
and this is the one that I favor, that that everybody's on the list. All of Trump's allies, all of Trump's enemies, everybody's on the list, everybody's material's there because it all got blackmail inflated. Mhmm. But that it's still a political kill shot the first two times it happens until the public catches on that it doesn't matter anymore because of AI. That's one possible reason. The other possible reason in my mind is that they're actually trying to do something about it,

(01:35:31):
but it looked to me like they were way too defeated for that. And,
you know,
events since then have been
not particularly favorable to that outcome considering what we saw play out between Bongino and Whatsername.
So
Yeah. I'm just I was just looking at something here. I got a notification. So,

(01:35:52):
not that I like like I said, I don't really care about mentioning other podcasts on there, but
has his show is adverts is running a
a a chyron on a show right now that says,
both Bongino and Kash Patel have threatened to quit
over this.
I I don't know. I I when I saw that interview that they did on Fox News, I to me, it looked like they were sick to their stomach at what they were saying and that,

(01:36:21):
you know
yeah.
Because they knew. They know. They they know they're they're stepping into something and and they stepped into something that is is not gonna have a good outcome if they don't if they're not
obviously
truthful about it. So,
you know, you have Yeah. You have there, you know. Good outcome here. No. There isn't. You have look. Well, you had you have Kash Patel who went on to all, you know, before he was nominated for,

(01:36:46):
the, director of FBI, he went on all of the talk shows talking about how the evidence is there, the proof is there, it's all there, it's being suppressed,
and then he gets there and said, oh, no. No. No. No. No. There is no evidence. Everything's gone. You know? So
so either they got to him and and they've made a deal that he can't refuse Yes. Which is theoretically possible. Right? I mean, that we've all got we've all got our breaking point. We've all got that thing where if they say,

(01:37:14):
every person you've ever loved is dead, you go, well, what else am I gonna do? Right.
It's either that or
the situation is such that they realize if they released it, it would actually take down the whole Western all of western civilization, the Western
the Western world. It would take it all down. And and to me, that's a price worth paying just because it's all corrupt

(01:37:37):
to the core anyway. But Yes. But Bitcoin's in the middle of taking it down anyway. Bitcoin is basically cutting the cutting the legs out from under
the current world order. They just don't see it yet. It doesn't matter. Point is, what Bongino and Patel are facing is a there's there's obviously something there that that leads them to believe that they could not help but say what they said.

(01:38:01):
I think if Bongino if it were clear
to him that that it
that what was there was actually truthful
and that he could trust that what he was saying was accurate Mhmm. I think he just I think he just
I think he'd go off the reservation
because
because he has some character.

(01:38:21):
He's proven it. He's he's too deep into this.
I believe that this is necessary
for it not to be true of him. And so, yeah, he's obviously sick to his stomach. Something isn't right.
I don't know whether it's that they got to him or whether they they just know that there's nothing in that list that they can trust. There's nothing in that info they can trust because it all got inflated.

(01:38:42):
My guess is that.
That's a very good possibility. It's a very good possibility.
It,
I I would hate to think
that someone like Bongino, because look, I I like Bongino, you know. I I I followed his show quite quite closely.
I have a lot of like him at some level. Yeah. I mean and I and, you know, I have a lot of respect for him in his career. You know, I came from a law enforcement background. He's from a law enforcement background.

(01:39:08):
You know,
to hear him for so many years talking about this and and just
flat out saying that that this is a cover up, this is the, you know, the the this is a conspiracy to cover everything up, and and then and then to hear him say,
no. He killed himself.
So unconvincingly,
by the way.

(01:39:28):
You know? Like, no nobody who watched that actually thinks he believes what he was saying. Exactly. Exactly. And and it's a shame though that that that they're put back in they're put in a position where they have to deny it. I, you know, I
I say just just let it fall, man. Just do it. Just just Okay. But but let's say I'm right. Let's say that there are 50% of the names that are there don't belong there. Mhmm. That is a reason for Dan Bongino to do what he did.

(01:39:58):
That's the only convincing reason that I can think of for him to do exactly what he did.
If he knows that the information is going to implicate a lot of innocent people Yeah.
Because the information is tampered with.
Yeah. I I could I could see that. I I could I could agree with that.

(01:40:22):
And and I think that given his druthers, he'd just explain that. You know, whatever. He's working for somebody else. He doesn't have the option. The whole thing is a stinking mess, but the point is
the the character that he's shown and the the insistence that he's had about the subject lead me to believe that that it would take something

(01:40:42):
beyond just threatening the people he loves, beyond just
just putting him in a corner that he couldn't back out of to actually
do this. It it actually takes some one of two things. Either it's gonna take down all of western civilization
or
it's gonna implicate a whole bunch of people who aren't guilty. I don't see other options.

(01:41:03):
Just just seeing Bongino the way I do, we're all the hero of our own story. Sure. He would not be able to be the hero of his own story anymore
if he didn't
if he didn't have a an overriding reason.
Yeah. Well, I had a thought, and it just flew out of my head. I'm sorry. No. No. No. No. No. That's That's fine. It's as I'm getting older, my, my memory is becoming more and more like Swiss cheese. So it's,

(01:41:27):
like, you know, and if, you know, I I If if that happens to me, I I I dare say I won't be a good guest anymore because mine's already bad enough. So That's all good.
No. It's all good. So,
I I I don't know. I just,
you know, I agree with you that it could be that, but also
through discovery, through all that stuff, it would

(01:41:48):
and and analysis. Yeah. It would be a a
horrible situation.
No doubt about that.
But a temporary situation where people are being implicated in things that but it it has to happen. And you you be you can't But they can't tell. Because all they're doing right now is just is just wrecking this administration.
Yes. But that's the problem. You can't tell anymore which of the allegations are true or not. Because it doesn't take it isn't all that hard to take one piece of footage

(01:42:17):
and another piece of footage and splice them together in a way that there is no nothing in the world that
can tell what happened. So there is no way to know who is or isn't implicated anymore. There's no way to actually
it's not a thing where you can do that. And because it that that
that set of evidence now has

(01:42:38):
thousands of people in it,
hundreds of whom are not guilty.
What happens when that goes public is that those people it's it's a political kill shot. Those people wind up dead. Half of them wind up dead.
And and my folks, this is all speculation. We don't we don't know that there is this this level of of,

(01:42:58):
of blackmail taking place on anybody. We don't know that. We're just this is just speculation. Just so we Oh, we know that. It's not speculation. Well, deep down, we might know that. We can't point a finger on it and say that to that. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. Okay. One Nation Under Blackmail, Whitney Webb.
That those two books actually trace the history of
organized

(01:43:18):
crime, three letter agencies, and business in The US up to
the mid nineteen sixties, nineteen seventies, and a little further in some cases.
And when we get when we get onto that track and we start looking at what's been going on and at what they were doing at the time, also, FOIA released documents where the CIA was running child trafficking rings back in the seventies and why they were doing it.

(01:43:43):
We know what's going on, Joe. It's not a speculation.
The history's there. The the the paper trails are all there. They don't go all the way up to the present day, but they exist. No. What I meant speculation, I was talking about, the AI speculation, the, in the the the inflation
blackmail. That's what I was thinking about. AI to do that.

(01:44:03):
Well, today it would. Because to do because to make it that much more believable, of course, you'd run through AI to do it. Well, maybe you could, but it doesn't require it. Like, I have a good plan. Effects
special effects in the era of the Matrix could do it.
I have a great picture that I have of of me with, with a Gorn alien that it looks like Yeah. It looks like the two of us are are actually there taking a selfie together. Doesn't look like a picture. I mean, doesn't look like a cartoon or anything AI generated. So So I understand. Yeah. The the level of technology today would make it virtually impossible to to to not in not improbable,

(01:44:36):
but but not impossible to to separate truth from reality. Right. And and even if
the question there is not one of technology, it's one of
strategy and logic. It's the question is if this
could be done and it theoretically could be done, we know that,
then has it been done? Well,

(01:44:59):
the only thing that would stop it from being done is that somebody didn't think of it, but somebody had thought of it. I I learned about this from a video that was
years old.
So
the idea has been out there.
The capability has been out there. The idea that it hasn't happened is just

(01:45:19):
outlandish. So Agreed.
But you see, the the other part of the fallout of that too is and and and this goes back to what I said. Yes. You know, over time, you know, it would be proven that, okay, well, this person was implicated by it, but we found out that it's AI. But the damage is already done to the reputation,
you know, to
it it just casts that doubt in the in the mind of the public

(01:45:41):
that,
you know, this person was involved in that no matter what. Whether it was proved otherwise or not. Just like just like you you still have half the population or at least not well, a little less than half the population still thinks that Donald Trump was involved with the pee pee tape and liked getting peed on by Russian spies by by Russian prostitutes
and, and all that stuff. Yeah. Which, you know, which has been debunked and

(01:46:04):
and proven other and proven untrue
time after time after time again, but yet you still hear it.
Right.
And that's exactly right. And then the question is, can can the people who would have to right now be responsible for releasing that information,
can they know what the probable results of it would be? Yes. They can. And it involves

(01:46:26):
basically, what it involves is China world order. Mhmm.
Yeah. And that's interesting. Yeah.
So
Yeah. It's it's a it's a very dangerous time to be living in. And then, of course, you know, you have, you know, just to pivot for a second, just just as an example of the dangerous times in which we live. So you have AI possibly generating things that that that that are gonna be virtually

(01:46:52):
undetectable from from reality to fake.
Right. And then today, we we hear that,
that Antifa
is out there getting military grade drones.
You're talking about
using these things. And then just a few minutes ago, I saw a post on on truth
that president Trump has instructed ICE and federal agencies to use whatever force necessary to protect themselves

(01:47:19):
when confronted by protesters and,
well, I don't wanna say protesters, by rioters
at, you know, at these detentions.
So you were looking at
a very dangerous mix of events that are going on all at the same time.
You're looking at the potential of

(01:47:39):
a second civil war.
Yeah. Well, you know, the the way the Roman Empire fell is disturbingly similar to the events that we see going on in The US, and one of the big ones is demographic,
replacement. It's it's
the, the mass immigration
that went through Rome's borders that changed everything that I mean,

(01:48:03):
it it's just an it's just a repeat. So and then there's the whole currency devaluation, which is happening. Yes. It is. And it's being yeah. So the the whole thing is
we live in very interesting times, and that's not a that's that's not a I mean, it's fun if you trust God. If you're if you're watching the whole thing going, okay. So what you got next for us? This is

(01:48:26):
fascinating stuff, Lord. Yeah. If that's where you're at, then then maybe you can sit back and at least
appreciate it. But even even me, where I feel a burden
for people who do not
personally know Jesus Christ, who do not talk to the Holy Spirit daily and hear him responding to them. I have a burden for those people, Joe, because we all need that. Yes. Absolutely. And time's getting short. And so I can't I'm not comfortable. I'm not sitting back going

(01:48:57):
I'm like,
tick tock, tick tock, tick tock. Gotta do everything I can. Yeah. And you actually you you actually hit my next point. I mean, as as as two people
Yeah. Who
look at the word of God and see all of this stuff being laid out.
Yeah.
Thousands of years ago,

(01:49:18):
and to see it being played out right now in front of us. First of all, you need the Holy Spirit's guidance to even notice that. Okay? To even see that.
A lot of folks don't see that when you try to point out to them, you're a conspiracy theorist, you're crazy, this that and the other thing. But the the the,
the thing of the matter is this, you and I can sit back and say, yeah, look at this. This is incredible. Look at what's going on.

(01:49:45):
The Lord's at the door.
Wow. Wow.
Exactly.
You know. Wow. You know, and you get you get that, like, I got a goosebump when I said it. You know? Yeah. Right? I mean, I personally believe that, you know, the lord's gonna be back soon. I mean, I think, you know, if you follow
depending on when you you you gauge I know we're getting way off politics. We're getting back into the bible, but you can't separate the two. You can't separate the bible from politics.

(01:50:10):
Everything goes comes back to your worldview. Everything comes back to what you hold true. Right.
So
if you go by the bible, you go by scripture. Alright?
Because it's it's hard to say because, you know, calendars have been played with and messed with so many times.
You don't know if the calendar is really accurate, you know? So
go ahead. What about the one in the Dead Sea Scrolls? Which one?

(01:50:33):
The the well,
which one in the Dead Sea Scrolls? I I'm not familiar with what you're talking which There is a calendar that was the original Jewish calendar. It was preserved in the Dead Sea Scrolls. It was later messed with as you said. But if you use that original calendar and the book of Daniel, you can predict to within about a week, when the nation of Israel was reformed in the and when the Gentiles lost control of

(01:50:59):
Jerusalem in the nineteenth was it '67?
And so it's like within a week, you can predict from the book of Daniel using that calendar. That calendar says that the
the the millennial
reign is going to be in in in force. It's going to be happening before the year 2074.
Yeah. And now now I know what I know exactly what you're talking about. I I hadn't heard I hadn't

(01:51:22):
hadn't been referenced to me that way. So I I know exactly what you're talking about. I think it's gonna be before that. I think it's gonna be way before that. I think Well, we know we know by then. Right? We we don't know we don't know when. We know it's between now and then. I think. Personally and this is speculation. This is not I'm not This is Yeah. I am not preaching. This is doctrine.
And I've made the argument on many, many Bible studies that I've done.

(01:51:46):
If you go by
well,
you look at your scripture. Right? Jesus Christ wasn't born at year zero.
Okay? No. He was born somewhere like '4 '3 or April.
Alright. That's technically when it was. So
you gotta back up the calendars to that point at least.
When was the church founded? Was it founded at

(01:52:08):
the crucifixion? Was it founded at the resurrection? Was it founded at the ascension?
Was it founded when the apostle Paul, you know, got his commission to be the the, the apostle to the Gentiles?
When did the church start? You can argue and debate that stuff.
You know, is it,
are we only 30 off? Because, you know, if if if Jesus Christ was born, you know, and then his his earthly ministry didn't start till he was 30 years old and 33.

(01:52:37):
You can get lost in all of that stuff. Personally speaking, personally speaking,
I think it's very significant
that in the world of politics,
2030
is a mark.
Alright? You have the World Economic Forum, you have,
you have all of those globalist,
organizations talking about things like,

(01:52:59):
in the agenda 02/1930. You know, 02/1930, you will have nothing and you'll be happy. You will own nothing and you'll be happy.
It was agenda 2020.
It was. Yes. But now it's agenda 2030. So you and and actually, it's
more probable
that that can happen by 2030 than it would have by 2020.

(01:53:22):
And it's even more probable that it could happen by 2040 than by 2030, and it's even more so Sure. Yes. As we go further along, things get more and more
probable.
Right. But I think, again,
speculation,
opinion
Yeah. Yeah. Not
doctrine.
Okay? Right.
Twenty thirty,

(01:53:44):
maybe
2035,
somewhere in there. I personally believe we could expect the Lord to return.
Opinion.
Right. Not not doctrine. Okay? My opinion.
I I have a suspicion that it'll probably be a little longer than that, but it's just that. It's a suspicion. It could be anytime between now

(01:54:07):
and Exactly. Because we don't know the calendar. We don't know. But we do know, it's like
what he says about it is that this is how you will know the signs of the times. Well, guess what? We we can see the signs of the times now. We know we're getting close. We know that that things are happening.
And depending on how you pull things, it's it it could be more likely to be sooner than later. I don't know. What I do know is that

(01:54:34):
we see a lot of events that are
that are further along than,
like,
my lifetime,
probably. My kids' lifetime, almost certainly. Yep. And and then you look at things like,
actually, do you do you know the two factors that I that I am more interested in than anything else when it comes to sort of understanding where we're at? Good. Factor number one is the development of artificial intelligence. Yes. Because in the book of Revelation, we see that there is a an image of the beast that is given breath. Mhmm. Okay. That that seems like a likely candidate,

(01:55:14):
and that's about as close as we get. It's speculation. That's
a likely candidate. Agreed. And then the second thing
that I'm really interested in, and this one would actually be fun to go into at some length someday,
is
watch
what
watch the high watermark for Bitcoin this year.

(01:55:35):
What are you thinking?
Well,
if you look at if you look at the world reserve currency,
it has it's about a $300,000,000,000,000
market cap on the world reserve currency. Mhmm. If Bitcoin had a $300,000,000,000,000
market cap in today's dollars,
it would be around $10,000,000

(01:55:57):
of Bitcoin.
Okay? Alright.
In order for the in order for
things to progress the way they have to, in order for everyone buying and selling to be on the same currency,
we've gotta see a different world reserve currency. The US dollar isn't gonna cut it.

(01:56:18):
We've gotta have something that is more common to everyone.
Mhmm. And so
if we see Bitcoin hit
a $150,000
this year,
then the trajectory of Bitcoin says it's gonna be another thirty years before it's the world reserve currency. Well If if we see it hit a million dollars this year,
then we could see it within eight. And that really hurries things up a whole bunch, doesn't it? Oh, sure. Absolutely.

(01:56:45):
Let's take a look at something. Let me see here.
Do Do you ever notice every time you wanna do something,
your phone acts up and you have to go through a whole process?
Yes. If I didn't need to do this right now, it would logged in no problem. What is it that you're looking for? I'm curious. I was just curious what the current price is of, of Bitcoin.

(01:57:08):
As of right this minute, we are looking at $1.17
$6.89.
Okay. You got it up already? Alright.
Interesting.
So And that's up that within the past week, that's up, like, six or 8%.
But we're right in the correct part of the cycle for Bitcoin to go up.
Well and if you look at it, it's following global m two charts real closely right now, which means it should, like, teleport to $1.30 within the next few weeks, to a 130 within the next few weeks.

(01:57:37):
But we're right in the correct part of the cycle for it to have a real big bull run, which means we're going to see
between now and next
March or April, it's gonna top out, and it's gonna probably go back down again some.
But it's gonna hit some new all time highs before that. So
but before early next year, we should see

(01:57:59):
a pretty significant all time high in Bitcoin, and that high watermark is one to watch.
Now, just to now we gotta wrap this up because it's 09:00 already. So, Yeah. But just just to say this to what you said earlier.
One world currency
Yeah. Is one of the marks of

(01:58:20):
the Antichrist's
rule.
Yes. So one world government, which is already basically in place. Maybe. We don't actually know that.
That part's debatable, which is kind of funny, but going on. Well well, we can talk about that another time. We don't have time right now. But,
you have the one world government, the one world currency,
and a one world religion.
Those are those are three components that make up the Antichrist

(01:58:44):
religion or religions,
not religion. I'm sorry. World order. I'll go with two of them. So
why
that would explain why at this particular time there's such a push
for those central bank digital currencies
that the nations of Europe have been looking to implement, that The United States has been looking to implement. It's gone a temporary freeze at the moment, but

(01:59:12):
very very close to that
Because it can be a one world currency. It can
be manipulated
by the one world government.
I don't agree. No? Okay. No. K. That's a deep subject, though. Give you thirty seconds.
Basically,

(01:59:33):
the only way to get the whole world onto one currency,
you can't do it via force of arms because of the way people work, because of the way they're the way we're wired. The only way to do it is to actually create something that's attractive to them that they
adopt on purpose because it's good for them. And so you create something that is

(01:59:54):
that that follows
godly principles like Bitcoin Mhmm. And then you make it so that after it's adopted, it can be flipped. It can be changed.
Because when power centers change after a human institution
takes all the power, you see what happened to The US constitution,
that can happen to Bitcoin.
Alright.

(02:00:14):
Well,
let's see.
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Alright. Well,
I think on that note, my brother, we are going to, probably
try to wrap this baby up. So,

(02:02:25):
Jared, thank you so much for being with us tonight. Really do appreciate your your, your story, your your the work you're doing with your books, and I really do appreciate your political input input, even though you're wrong about certain things. But that's alright. I love you anyway. Folks, don't forget, tomorrow, Saturday, 11AM, Crypto Week news with Marissa Lee, Sunday Bible study announcements coming Monday.

(02:02:46):
Shout outs. Executive
producers Wayne Rankin, executive producer Rosanna Rankin, executive producer Carolina
Jimenez,
and our producer, missus producer,
anonymous Angela. Don't forget, to get in on that,
head over to our website, check out the support page, and check out the producer tiers.
Alright, folks. Thanks so much for being with us tonight.

(02:03:07):
God bless you. Make Texas independent again. Go podcasting.
Keep a steady stride, and more importantly,
keep talking.
We'll see you next time, folks. Have a great night. Take care.

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The Power of Story: Jared Michaud on Fiction and Faith (Ep. 118)

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