Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Brent, so let me ask you this in in
in Getting to I Am Stephen Hawking?
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Was that one like? Is that was he one of.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
The Like every so often you'll say this one was
so requested, or you know, somebody will come out and go,
where's my where's my hero?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Where's the hero that represents me? What was it?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
What was it in the case of or was it
just his story? Which one was it for you to
do I Am Stephen Hawking?
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Yeah, this was a little of both. He wasn't the
most in demand, but we definitely had people requesting saying, hey,
can you do someone with a disability? Right? Like that's
the thing. And the other part is is Chris Aliopolis
are incredible artists who you know, obviously is our style
of the secret weapon of these books because it looks
like Charlie Brown, Calvin and Hobbs. He's the biggest super
(00:51):
like space nerd. Like he was the one who requested
Neil Armstrong. He's the one who requested Stephen Hawking. Like,
so Chris has been begging to do another kind of
space physics, you know that thing, and so you know,
we look at them and it's just like, you know,
when the time is right, and it just seemed like
and I'll tell you a big part of it also
is it's political too, and that is we're watching our politicians,
(01:15):
or at least one of them, who's going out and
saying he's always right, he's always got the answers. Everyone
agrees with me. And one of the things for me,
this is me personally, that I love about Stephen Hawking
is he's like the smartest man in the universe. And
he comes up with this theory of black holes that
says black holes are always expanding, and everyone's like, right, Wow,
(01:35):
that's amazing, that's true. And then later he's like, I
was wrong. They're not always expanding, like they actually can
contract too. And I purposely put a page in the
book that says, you know, the best scientists always keep
asking questions and acknowledging that you may be wrong. Real
intelligence means you're willing to make you may be wrong.
(01:56):
And that's the smartest person in the room. And I
need to teach my kid's death because certainly our politicians aren't.
You know.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
The other thing that I love is that, like, you know,
the I don't know a ton about Stephen Hawkings background,
but you, you know, you go through it and then
obviously we'll get to it. And you get to it
in the book where he falls down and there's something
wrong and that kind of starts the turn into als.
(02:25):
But like growing up, it's like people always said, I
was like the smartest one of the smartest thinker is ever.
He cried all through school because he missed his parents.
He had miserable handwriting, He was the last one pick
for sports teams. Like he was that guy that was
like that, that kind of felt I don't want to
say insecure. Well yeah, I guess a little insecure didn't matter.
(02:47):
But he was a normal He was a normal kid
in so many ways.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Listen, when he's twelve years old, one of the schoolmates
makes a bet that he'll never be successful. That's not
just being like pick Lass on the team. It's like, huh,
I'm gonna bet you're gonna be a failure. And I again,
that's a lesson. One of my kids went through a
bullying issue. I wrote that for him even though he's
passed it. But like, I know that there are thousands
(03:14):
of other kids out there who need to know that
they don't have to be the smartest and you know,
the series, as you know, is called Ordinary People Change
the World, and people will write and everyone's probably be like,
that's why are you calling it that, Like Einstein's not
ordinary Stephen Hawkins, I'm like, you're missing the point. They
absolutely are right, you know. I acknowledge that these guys
(03:35):
have brains and that lead into incredible things. But make
no mistake, they're going through life the exact same way
we are, which is fumbling our way through it. And
I need my kids to look at that and know
what it's like to be that underdog, to be considered weird,
to be considered you know, there's alignment that says sometimes
it could be hard when you're different. It's almost important
(03:56):
lines in the whole book, because man, we all have
a moment what we feel different. And I need my
kids to know that that's okay too.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Hey, by the way, the kid that bet him that
he wouldn't be successful, do we ever know did that
kid ever approach Stephen Hawking and give him a bag
of candy?
Speaker 3 (04:14):
I mean I have written so many like imaginary stories
of what happened to that kid, Like what horrors have
fallen on that bastard child? You know, like that kid
is the world. I'll bet you a bag of candy
that this kid the failure. Like he's like Johnny from
you know, Karate Kid mixed with every bad guy in
(04:35):
every Agies movie. Was a sweater over his you know,
around his neck. But I have no idea what happened
to him. I wish I knew, And.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
I also like it, Like one of the things that
gets pointed out is that, yeah, sometimes it's hard when
you're different, and that does stand out. I love how
it also talks about just his curiosity in general and
the whole family's curiosity, which was kind of I don't
want to say bred into him, but kind of just
he was always surrounded by it. Like where he talks
about like his friends would come over for like sleepovers
(05:06):
or something, and they would be at dinner and his
parents everybody's just sitting there reading books and debating what's
in the books?
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Not wholy that like I had to. I had, you know,
when you're writing a kid's book, you got to make
it up. Of course kid friendly. So one of the
things the mom used to ask his friends is like,
so what do you think about the modern state of religion?
But one of the other things you'd be like, is
what do you think of abortion? Like, I can't put
that one in the book, right right, I can tell
you this, but like, this is a family who's reading
(05:35):
at the dinner table, and you know, they called him eccentric,
and I was like, it's just another word for weird.
But that's okay too, man, Like, it's okay to be weird. Man,
I want every kid that reads this book to know
it's okay to be weird, it's okay to be centric,
it's okay to be different. And and if you just
embrace that, you on, that's that's that's that's amazing thing.
(06:00):
You can give us a gift. It's to teach your
kids that. And his parents, you know, I love there's
this moment where and I should do this with my kids,
which made me feel super smart, like because Stephen Hawking's
family did it with him. So I was like, oh,
I think I just wanted best parents because I didn't
know the story. But like I used to take my
kids on the grass and steit upside on our back
and we look up at the clouds. And I used
(06:20):
to say to him, telling what you see in the clouds,
I guarantee if you ask my kids right now, none
of them will remember this, right, I'll be like, I
don't remember that. But Stephen Hawking when he used to
do that with him, he used to be like, just
ask questions like where to come from? Where do you
think everything ends? Where does the universe end? Like where
does eternity come to an end? And he said has
his line, that's his line, it's not mine. Haven't you
(06:42):
ever wondered how can there be something without a finish?
Wondering where eternity ends? Instead of being like, wow, that's
weird question, kid, or like, you know, just look at
the clouds and enjoy his mom's like that's a beautiful question.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Oh, they nurured that. They nurtured that, like crazy.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Yeah, And that's why you get Stephen Hawky, Right, you
get it because that thing that makes me different than
everyone else. Instead of saying, hey, man, be like everyone
else or keeps up to yourself, they're saying, fantastic, fantastic.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Hey, can you you want to be childish for a second, Brad?
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Have they ever not wanted to be?
Speaker 2 (07:20):
I laughed hard when I read it in the book.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
So I'm assuming that either you knew it or when
you learned it the teacher that showed him the power
of math. Am I the only one that laughs when
I get to mister Tata.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Of course is the best. It's basically like one. It's
like this time when like in one of the books
we did it was like we tried sixty nine times
and I was like, oh, this is going in the book,
like that's it, it's going in. But also you can't,
you can't not.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
But like when he gets to college, and again I
didn't know this. He's a big party animal. In college,
he didn't have any friends. He went young, he was
seventeen years old. He joined the boat club. He throws
them off course because he can't get that right. And
you even you even point out like that the moment
where everything kind of turns.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Is I get what did you say?
Speaker 1 (08:11):
It was like towards his senior year of college and
he fell down the steps.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
He didn't know why, but he did.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
He started to lose control of his body, and the
doctor's the first thing the doctor say to him is.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Like, son, you need to stop partying so hard.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Oh. They literally think it's because you're a party you know,
you're drinking too much. And so, and then over the
next year, and at this point, you know, he's twenty one.
He's like almost twenty one, he's twenty years old. He
basically gets so nervous he stops telling anyone. He keeps
all of his fears to himself. He's like, why is
my hand shaking? You know what, I'm not telling anybody.
And then at Christmas he falls down while he's ice
(08:47):
skating and he doesn't know how to get backed up,
and his mother's like, Okay, you're done. You're going to
the doctor. And this is the moment that I think
is you know where Chris Eliopolis are artist on.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
The book Can I Jump In? Can I jump in?
Can I jump in?
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Take it? Take it? Go Go?
Speaker 1 (09:05):
The best two pages in the book they are completely
black except on the bottom right hand corner of the
second page. Sitting on a little table is Stephen Hawking
and his doctor, and that's where he finds out that
his whole life has changed.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
And he says, like the doctor says something. He's like,
my arms and legs aren't gonna work. The rest of
my body's gonna stop working. He's like, I'm sorry, and
they tell him right there at the bottom of this
black page. They told me I had two and a
half years to live, right, and ChRI like, I can
make that in a big scene or put a doctor's office,
but Chris puts it all in black, and you just
(09:43):
you know, and you want kids, you know, to feel like,
oh my gosh, this this is really what's he gonna do?
And the best part of courses is you see that
the guy. It winds up in the breakthrough to everything
because now at twenty one years old, he's like, I'm
not going to party anymore now have I want to work?
(10:04):
I want to accomplish so much more. My time is
two years. I have hope now because I'm this disease
is breaking my body. But the one thing that's never
going to touch is my brain. And that is it. Man,
That's the moment.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Hey, dude, people know enough about like I didn't know this,
but like I didn't know he was a party animal
in college, Like I didn't know any of that.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Like when he got when he.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Got his wheelchair, he takes it to San Francisco and
goes speeding up and down all the hills of San Francisco.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
That's freaking awesome to me.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
No, I listen. That's why I put in the book.
I'm like, this is awesome. I didn't know he was
a party animal either. I was like whatever, I grew
up with Stephen Hawking, like grew up with Stephen Hawking,
which is he's so smart. He's in a wheelchair, he
has a robot voice, and you know, he's smarter than
everybody else. But the guy wanted to live. The whole
reason he's Stephen Hawking is because he's like, man, I
got a little time left, I'm making the most of it.
(10:56):
And that that at you know, he's I know he's
got the big brain, but it's his attitude toward everything.
And the thing that actually blew me away more than
anything in the whole book is that it's his actual
disability that makes him great at what he does. Because
because he couldn't write stuff down, and he couldn't type,
(11:18):
and he had to move so slowly, he said, he
basically had more time to think and he had to
explore the universe in a different way with his which
is in his mind. He had to think in pictures
because he couldn't write anymore. Other physicists would write and
draw into formulas. He couldn't do that. So he mentally
travel through time and space and that's why he has
(11:38):
his breakthroughs. And so his disease gives him skills that
no one else has. And again, when we all have
things in our lives that knock us down right, whether
it's a parent or someone passing away, whether it's you know,
there are big things and little things with our kids
and our nieces and our nephews and all these things
that go on. But man to teach them that you
(12:00):
can embrace those hardships and tournam into something that's the benefit.
I can say those words, but no one believes me.
But you show the work of Stephen Hawking and there's
proof of it group, like actual science of it.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Hey, Brad, I know you do your homework very well,
but you also will talk about like whether it's Jane
Goodall or Billy jan King, who who are alive or
if it's somebody that you've written about who is dead,
that you'll go to their foundation, their their library, whatever
it is. Who did you who was who was your
expert that kind of I don't want to say proofred,
(12:34):
but like who looked things over for Stephen Hawking?
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Yeah, so we went to his state, of course, and
then I found a woman named Kitty Ferguson. And Kitty
Ferguson is you know she did one of them. She
was a co writer and one of the people who
wrote books with him. I didn't even realize when I
found her how close their relationship was. Is she you know,
interviewed him, knew him intimately, like just was like the
(12:59):
expert on Stephen Hawking. And again, it's always pretty amazing
to talk to these people because you've given the book
and I, you know, again, this is like a year
and a half ago, but I'm pretty sure what comment
was to us is like and I can send it
to you, but it was like, I think people would
really like this book a lot. And that's the comment
where you're like, oh, well, I'm done working for the week,
(13:21):
like I'm because you don't expect to get that, you know,
like I hope it's going to be right. I hope it.
I hope you know. For me, I was just like,
can you just make sure the physics is right because
I don't I never I can't do physics, like you know,
I'm trying to get it. But when she says that,
because you know the book has a sense of humor
because the book is playful. The book doesn't take itself
too seriously. Right when she says that again, that's when
(13:43):
you're just like, okay, days over, like that's it all.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Right, let me bounce around a little bit.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
So I was I was looking on the website and
going over stuff, and obviously I am Stephen Hawking is
is out today. But I saw on the site that
the next two books you've already announced that are come in.
One of them is the one that you had told
well kind of texted me about last time. So you're
the next two on the list or I am Sally
Ride and then you're doing We Are the Beatles, which
(14:11):
I love. I love that that's getting done. But how
do you get that done? Like there are some bad
moments or let me rephrase it, there are some non
kid moments around the Beatles.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Yeah. Man, you're first of all, you know all of
our books, like if you do I'm Abraham Lincoln or
I am I mean the Earhart, they always look the same, right,
it's a little Abraham Lincoln, even Stephen Hawking. We you know,
we show them a little bit. We talk to people
who are disability experts like do we show them in
a wheelchair always? And is kind of like ultimate view
because Abraham Lincoln always has a little beer in the
top half, Like what do we do with hawking? And
(14:47):
the disability experts said to us, like, you know, you
should show him that he wasn't in a wheelchair because
eventually he was. And those two things are true. So
it was the first time we kind of broke our
own rule, right, And then we got the Beatle and
the Beatles never look the same, right, like you have
the version of them when they're singing yeah, yeah, yeah,
and they're on the Ed Sullivan Show. And then you
(15:09):
got the you know what's the what's bultimate version? Is it?
Sergeant Pepper's is it? Let it be? Is it? You
know when they're on the rooftop? Is it? And not
only that, as you said, you're like, man, they're going
and losing their mind. They're going to you know, figure
out how the sitar sounds. And obviously we're not showing
a you know, how they're trying out drugs and it's
expanding their minds. But we're not ignoring like you know,
(15:32):
but but you see in that section, let's just say
that sections extra colorful, right and so darn so like
if you know what's going on. I wrote to Chris.
I have a text that I wrote to him and said,
I think this book is going to kill you, and
he was like, they all kill me. I'm like, but
he knew that this one. Every page that you turn
(15:54):
almost is a new style, because the whole thing about
the Beatles is that they're constantly evolving and we had
to show all and I'm like, when I say we
show all of it, it's like Yellow Submarine and Help
and like Revolver and the Using Rebb and now they're
changing sounds and they're changing books and like the White Album,
like you like, it's just we put all of it
(16:15):
in there, and I love that it's all in there.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Oh, I can't wait. I can't wait.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Hey, the other thing that uh that that I saw
And I don't think.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
I knew this about you, Brad.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
I don't know that I knew that you knew James
Earl Jones, Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
You know. I met him in Washington, d C. Actually,
so I when I was at hear the Full Story
where somethingone put on yournet, So I knew always that
James Earld Jones went to Michigan because when I was
at Michigan, they had a little welcome video that he
made that was like the little thing that would show
students when you were when you worked at like the university,
(16:52):
they would show this video. And I worked at the
university as a job there, and it went the University
of Michigan is a buying institution. And you know in
the awesome James Earl Jones voice, and I remember everyone
was like, that's Darth Vader Man. He Darth Baper went
to Michigan.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Hey told me not to interrupt, but you, your James
Earl Jones is impeccable, like you you really mailed that.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
I mean pretty much. I'm kind of like Dorothy. I
mean basically, it's I know it. Someone just put the
radio on and they were like, oh my gosh, James
girl Jones is alive again.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
And I I interrupted. I interrupted it.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
So now I so now I graduate, I'm twenty two,
I'm in DC and uh and I happened to spot
James Earl Jones at this event and I'd be lined
for them because I'm like a star wars nerd and
I think most people when they see him, probably blurred
out something like you know, I am your father or
something like that. But I again, it was the first
(17:48):
famous person that I've ever remember seeing. I was twenty two.
I had just gotten to DC, and I blurred out
him without him saying hello. I go, well, I went
to mission. I go the University of Michigan as a
fine institution. And as soon as I say it, I'm like,
oh no, I just did James Earld Jones to James
old Jones, and like, I just poured James Earl Jones
(18:10):
to James old Jones. And he smiles that awesome smile,
like to feel the dream smile, and he loves it.
And he asked me about you know, my going there
and when I graduate, bl blah blah. It's the greatest moment.
I'm like, this is exactly what I wanted. Now, flash
forward to a couple of months ago. I find out
I'm giving the commencement address a Michigan this year, right,
(18:31):
So I'm like, and if you look closely, the day
of the address is May the fourth, which is Star
Wars Day. May the fourth be with him. And I'm
not stupid. I'm like, I got a finale. I know
I'm going to do the finale that you know I'm
going to put on the speech, but I also was like,
I know I'm going to close this speech and James
earld Jones, I'm going to see if he can record
(18:52):
something for me to close the speech. And I contact
him and it takes me, like I'm not joking, a
month to get through all the people and the lawyers
in the paperwork, and one of his lawyers is really
nice and basically puts me in touch with his assistant
who puts ask James ol Jones, and James old Jones says, yes,
I'm with you Bright. I'm like, oh my god. I
(19:12):
tell him the whole story. That's why I get to him,
and he on the day that he's going in to
finally record it, they say, going in tomorrow, we'll speak tomorrow.
I'll send it to you tomorrow, you know, on you know,
like electronic places. And they called me the next morning
and they're like, I'm so sorry. He's falling ill and
he's really really sick. And for the no one I
(19:33):
knew for the past months how sick he was, obviously,
you know, for his privacy purposes, never said a word.
But to have a moment where I got to thank
him for being so nice to me when I was
twenty two years old was the best gift I was able,
you know that I ever got was you know, get
to thank that man for being so cool when I
was just a kid.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
That's awesome. That's awesome, what a great story. Also, you
mentioned the commencement speech. How unblelo is it that part
of the Michigan game day hype video features your commencement speech.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
I mean, so, here's the thing is, obviously do this
commencement address. It's one of the you know, when I
give this speech, you know there's a surprise ending when
I graduated and graduated Michigan. In the stands, the commensal
speaker called out Desmond Howard, who won the Heisman that year,
and basically Desmond Howard in the stands like ten rows
(20:29):
from me. I didn't know him at the time, stands
up because he won the highs in that year and
does the Heisman post. And I remember like this as
again a twenty two ar old kid, I was like, man,
that's badass. That doesn't Howard sitting ten rows bagually in
front of me? So at the end of my speech,
you know, I talked about how like you know, I
was twenty two years old, sitting in these stands washing
Desmont Howard, and now here I am. I'm, you know,
fifty in my fifties and like you know, and and
(20:52):
here we are again, like how do you get from
twenty two to stand on the stage. And at the
end of the thing, I say, you know, and ladies
and gentlemen, it's all about magic and should finding magic
in our lives. And I say, but the best magicians
have a final trick out their sleeves, I said, Ladies
and gentlemen, welcome Desmond Howard. And Desmon Howard comes out
on stage, and then we have two of the other
Michigan football players come on stage. And I at the
(21:14):
time and speaking to seventy thousand people in the Michigan Stadium,
I realized after the fact that I had leaned forward
when Desmond comes out, because it was like a hurricane
of cheering and love for him. That I leaned forward
because I thought I was going to be knocked on
my rear end because it was like standing in a hurricane.
And and the end of it, I'm screaming into the microphone,
(21:38):
not because I want to be a good hype man,
but because I can barely hear myself. The screaming is
so loud. You can't really hear it in the video
as much when you're watching it on YouTube. But I
have access to three jumbo trons and I can barely
for myself. And I'm like, it can't get better than
this moment. It's bananas, you know. And my son's in
the audience graduating. It's one of the single greatest moments
(22:00):
of my professional life. And then my son goes to
the football game this year and he's watching the hype video,
which is literally narrated by James Jones, and he has
the best He literally says, the University of Michigan is
the greatest university in the world, and like when they said,
(22:20):
Coach Harbaugh, maybe that's just like overstating things, the greatest
university in the world. And he's like, nope, we're the
greatest university in the world. How you say it? And
Jim Jones says, and so everyone loves the hype video
because it's so ridiculous. My son. You can watch on
my Instagram. You could hear my son reacting I didn't
know I was in it. And my son is at
(22:41):
the game, Corey the video just because you want to
see the video they do every year, and he sees
me his father in it and you hear him cursing,
screaming like, oh my god, is efininity? Is this? When
I'm like it can't get better? I'm like, how are
we in the hype video when James or old Jones
(23:01):
like so needless to say, no one like loves Michigan
more than my family does. This year, like this has
been ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
All right, last two things and then I gotta let
you jump. Number one.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
You went to see Dead and Company at the Sphere
in Vegas?
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Is it awesome?
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Though?
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Like I've never been in there? Is it awesome?
Speaker 3 (23:23):
So here's the thing. So I'm not like some you know,
big dead head or anything that I went because my
buddy like said, I got a box, it's free, let's go.
And I love my buddy and my friend my high
school friends. I'm like, you know, there's no party like
a high school party. And so my high school friends
were like, let's go. I wanted to see you too.
We couldn't make it like the weekend people were going,
I'm like, fine, will go to the Dead like just
(23:45):
because I want to be my friends. It was one
of the single best concerts I've ever seen in my
life because the Spear is such madness. And now because
of like, I don't care if you do drug drug,
that's not my team. My wife, my wife didn't recognized
a single song at the Grateful Dead Plate, not one,
not one, not even the cover songs, like, not one song.
(24:05):
And she was like, this is one of the best
concert I ever went to because one wouldn't have to
pay for it, and two but seriously, it was just
the Spear is it was playing. When you're in Vegas,
go there and watch the show. It doesn't matter. It's
so you have to go out.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Oh, I'm dying to go. I wanted to go to
the NHL Draft. That's all I wanted to do. I'm
dying to go there.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
That was Oh, we watched. They did an awesome job,
like when they put when they put the players up
there with the thing that that was. I was like,
if I were a player, I'd be like, this is
the best thing that's ever happened to me. And then
last time, when a little you're like you're seventy thousand feet.
You know. The thing you don't realize about the spear
is when you go on a ride or you go
see like you know, you know, the widescreen things that
(24:49):
like the science museums that I'm at the sides of
your vision and the top and bottom of your vision
can see the walls and the skilling on the floor,
and so you're grounded by that. You know it's all
fake because you have those edges when you're in the sphere.
And the odd part is the higher up you are,
the more you don't have those You can't there is
no perifree. You're just surrounded by screen. And so when
(25:11):
you're going up, the whole audience, admittedly if the dead
half of them are totally like baked off their brains, like,
but when you start rising in the air literally starts screaming.
They're like, what happening? Because it feels so real. It's awesome.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
That's awesome.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
All right?
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Last week? When are you getting to DC? What am
I saying you?
Speaker 3 (25:31):
I'm actually gonna be I'm gonna be in Baltimore this
weekend because my friend Supreme Court Justice Katanji Brown Jackson
hosting her event in Baltimore this weekend and where I'm veiling.
This is gonna be the neariest thing Baltimore Comic Con is. Listen,
it's one of my places. It's a place where awesome
nerds come together.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
If you don't fit in at the Dead Show, you
do fit in at Comic Con.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
No, no, no right. If you just say where are
your people and you say you can choose between the
Dead Show at the Sphere, well Baltimore Comic Con, I
can tell you where I'm going and and wait to
out nerd Baltimore Comic Con. We're going to debut. You know,
we have our show on Previous Kids, Xavier Wittle in
the Secret Museum, which is our kids. Books like Stephen
Auten come to you know, if they do a cartoon
(26:16):
of it. We're gonna do the world premiere at noon
on the Saturday Baltimore Comicon of I am Jerry Siegel
and Joe Schuster, the creators of Superman. And that is
gonna be where something where like the nerds at Baltimore
Comic Con are gonna call us nerdy, but it's so
(26:36):
it's gonna be. And Chris is coming and I'm coming
and obviously won't find books and do stuff there, but
at noon if you want to come to Baltimore Comic Coon.
So that's but I won't get the DC for that
and then, but I will be there for JFK. I
am for the JFK Conspiracy.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Well, dude, you know I can't wait for that. I
can't wait for that book.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Oh yeah. The thing that is that you're gonna love
about the book. Obviously, it's the first plot to kill him.
It's it's the original plot that no one knows about
at the start of his presidency. But what's so good
about the book is it's not just him, is so
much of an you'll see why about Jackie, right, and
(27:15):
his story with Jackie, like Jackie is so fascinating and amazing.
And you know, the not of Conspiracy is obviously as
a World War two epic thing that you know the
first and Spirits has the revolutionary war that's not there
in JFK. It's a much smaller in a good way. Book.
It's just about the marriage. It finally comes down to
and and it and that's the fascinating part about him
(27:37):
is because obviously they're selling camelots of the whole world,
and they're selling the perfect life and the perfect wife
and the perfect and the perfect smile, and of course
his life is anything but. So it just winds up
being this kind of amazing look at this incredible family
that is you know, as as uh as crazy as
(27:58):
the rest of us is, and the secretive as the
rest of us, but living in this amazing white house
on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
But still written like a thriller, right, That's what I
loved about the other ones.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
It opens up, Yeah, it opens up with a guy
trying to murder him like hardy, no, no, no, it
is like guys like, huh, you know what I'm gonna do.
I'm gonna take all this dynamite and blow him up.
Like it's there's you know, there's a guy of course
from Florida. Just thank you. You know, it HAPs to
everything crazy in Florida, but this guy in Florida who
(28:28):
decides to take ten sticks to dynamite and murder him.
So yeah, that's why I just you know, I just
ruined chapter one for you.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
That's all right, I'll take it all right. I am
Stephen Hawking. It is out and available today. Part of
the ordinary People change the World Series Brad, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Good to talk to you, my friend. I love you,
Love you too, talk to you later. Thanks Bud.
Hey, Brent, so let me ask you this in in
in Getting to I Am Stephen Hawking?
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Was that one like? Is that was he one of.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
The Like every so often you'll say this one was
so requested, or you know, somebody will come out and go,
where's my where's my hero?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Where's the hero that represents me? What was it?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
What was it in the case of or was it
just his story? Which one was it for you to
do I Am Stephen Hawking?
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Yeah, this was a little of both. He wasn't the
most in demand, but we definitely had people requesting saying, hey,
can you do someone with a disability? Right? Like that's
the thing. And the other part is is Chris Aliopolis
are incredible artists who you know, obviously is our style
of the secret weapon of these books because it looks
like Charlie Brown, Calvin and Hobbs. He's the biggest super
(00:51):
like space nerd. Like he was the one who requested
Neil Armstrong. He's the one who requested Stephen Hawking. Like,
so Chris has been begging to do another kind of
space physics, you know that thing, and so you know,
we look at them and it's just like, you know,
when the time is right, and it just seemed like
and I'll tell you a big part of it also
is it's political too, and that is we're watching our politicians,
(01:15):
or at least one of them, who's going out and
saying he's always right, he's always got the answers. Everyone
agrees with me. And one of the things for me,
this is me personally, that I love about Stephen Hawking
is he's like the smartest man in the universe. And
he comes up with this theory of black holes that
says black holes are always expanding, and everyone's like, right, Wow,
(01:35):
that's amazing, that's true. And then later he's like, I
was wrong. They're not always expanding, like they actually can
contract too. And I purposely put a page in the
book that says, you know, the best scientists always keep
asking questions and acknowledging that you may be wrong. Real
intelligence means you're willing to make you may be wrong.
(01:56):
And that's the smartest person in the room. And I
need to teach my kid's death because certainly our politicians aren't.
You know.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
The other thing that I love is that, like, you know,
the I don't know a ton about Stephen Hawkings background,
but you, you know, you go through it and then
obviously we'll get to it. And you get to it
in the book where he falls down and there's something
wrong and that kind of starts the turn into als.
(02:25):
But like growing up, it's like people always said, I
was like the smartest one of the smartest thinker is ever.
He cried all through school because he missed his parents.
He had miserable handwriting, He was the last one pick
for sports teams. Like he was that guy that was
like that, that kind of felt I don't want to
say insecure. Well yeah, I guess a little insecure didn't matter.
(02:47):
But he was a normal He was a normal kid
in so many ways.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Listen, when he's twelve years old, one of the schoolmates
makes a bet that he'll never be successful. That's not
just being like pick Lass on the team. It's like, huh,
I'm gonna bet you're gonna be a failure. And I again,
that's a lesson. One of my kids went through a
bullying issue. I wrote that for him even though he's
passed it. But like, I know that there are thousands
(03:14):
of other kids out there who need to know that
they don't have to be the smartest and you know,
the series, as you know, is called Ordinary People Change
the World, and people will write and everyone's probably be like,
that's why are you calling it that, Like Einstein's not
ordinary Stephen Hawkins, I'm like, you're missing the point. They
absolutely are right, you know. I acknowledge that these guys
(03:35):
have brains and that lead into incredible things. But make
no mistake, they're going through life the exact same way
we are, which is fumbling our way through it. And
I need my kids to look at that and know
what it's like to be that underdog, to be considered weird,
to be considered you know, there's alignment that says sometimes
it could be hard when you're different. It's almost important
(03:56):
lines in the whole book, because man, we all have
a moment what we feel different. And I need my
kids to know that that's okay too.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Hey, by the way, the kid that bet him that
he wouldn't be successful, do we ever know did that
kid ever approach Stephen Hawking and give him a bag
of candy?
Speaker 3 (04:14):
I mean I have written so many like imaginary stories
of what happened to that kid, Like what horrors have
fallen on that bastard child? You know, like that kid
is the world. I'll bet you a bag of candy
that this kid the failure. Like he's like Johnny from
you know, Karate Kid mixed with every bad guy in
(04:35):
every Agies movie. Was a sweater over his you know,
around his neck. But I have no idea what happened
to him. I wish I knew, And.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
I also like it, Like one of the things that
gets pointed out is that, yeah, sometimes it's hard when
you're different, and that does stand out. I love how
it also talks about just his curiosity in general and
the whole family's curiosity, which was kind of I don't
want to say bred into him, but kind of just
he was always surrounded by it. Like where he talks
about like his friends would come over for like sleepovers
(05:06):
or something, and they would be at dinner and his
parents everybody's just sitting there reading books and debating what's
in the books?
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Not wholy that like I had to. I had, you know,
when you're writing a kid's book, you got to make
it up. Of course kid friendly. So one of the
things the mom used to ask his friends is like,
so what do you think about the modern state of religion?
But one of the other things you'd be like, is
what do you think of abortion? Like, I can't put
that one in the book, right right, I can tell
you this, but like, this is a family who's reading
(05:35):
at the dinner table, and you know, they called him eccentric,
and I was like, it's just another word for weird.
But that's okay too, man, Like, it's okay to be weird. Man,
I want every kid that reads this book to know
it's okay to be weird, it's okay to be centric,
it's okay to be different. And and if you just
embrace that, you on, that's that's that's that's amazing thing.
(06:00):
You can give us a gift. It's to teach your
kids that. And his parents, you know, I love there's
this moment where and I should do this with my kids,
which made me feel super smart, like because Stephen Hawking's
family did it with him. So I was like, oh,
I think I just wanted best parents because I didn't
know the story. But like I used to take my
kids on the grass and steit upside on our back
and we look up at the clouds. And I used
(06:20):
to say to him, telling what you see in the clouds,
I guarantee if you ask my kids right now, none
of them will remember this, right, I'll be like, I
don't remember that. But Stephen Hawking when he used to
do that with him, he used to be like, just
ask questions like where to come from? Where do you
think everything ends? Where does the universe end? Like where
does eternity come to an end? And he said has
his line, that's his line, it's not mine. Haven't you
(06:42):
ever wondered how can there be something without a finish?
Wondering where eternity ends? Instead of being like, wow, that's
weird question, kid, or like, you know, just look at
the clouds and enjoy his mom's like that's a beautiful question.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Oh, they nurured that. They nurtured that, like crazy.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Yeah, And that's why you get Stephen Hawky, Right, you
get it because that thing that makes me different than
everyone else. Instead of saying, hey, man, be like everyone
else or keeps up to yourself, they're saying, fantastic, fantastic.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Hey, can you you want to be childish for a second, Brad?
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Have they ever not wanted to be?
Speaker 2 (07:20):
I laughed hard when I read it in the book.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
So I'm assuming that either you knew it or when
you learned it the teacher that showed him the power
of math. Am I the only one that laughs when
I get to mister Tata.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Of course is the best. It's basically like one. It's
like this time when like in one of the books
we did it was like we tried sixty nine times
and I was like, oh, this is going in the book,
like that's it, it's going in. But also you can't,
you can't not.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
But like when he gets to college, and again I
didn't know this. He's a big party animal. In college,
he didn't have any friends. He went young, he was
seventeen years old. He joined the boat club. He throws
them off course because he can't get that right. And
you even you even point out like that the moment
where everything kind of turns.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Is I get what did you say?
Speaker 1 (08:11):
It was like towards his senior year of college and
he fell down the steps.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
He didn't know why, but he did.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
He started to lose control of his body, and the
doctor's the first thing the doctor say to him is.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Like, son, you need to stop partying so hard.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Oh. They literally think it's because you're a party you know,
you're drinking too much. And so, and then over the
next year, and at this point, you know, he's twenty one.
He's like almost twenty one, he's twenty years old. He
basically gets so nervous he stops telling anyone. He keeps
all of his fears to himself. He's like, why is
my hand shaking? You know what, I'm not telling anybody.
And then at Christmas he falls down while he's ice
(08:47):
skating and he doesn't know how to get backed up,
and his mother's like, Okay, you're done. You're going to
the doctor. And this is the moment that I think
is you know where Chris Eliopolis are artist on.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
The book Can I Jump In? Can I jump in?
Can I jump in?
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Take it? Take it? Go Go?
Speaker 1 (09:05):
The best two pages in the book they are completely
black except on the bottom right hand corner of the
second page. Sitting on a little table is Stephen Hawking
and his doctor, and that's where he finds out that
his whole life has changed.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
And he says, like the doctor says something. He's like,
my arms and legs aren't gonna work. The rest of
my body's gonna stop working. He's like, I'm sorry, and
they tell him right there at the bottom of this
black page. They told me I had two and a
half years to live, right, and ChRI like, I can
make that in a big scene or put a doctor's office,
but Chris puts it all in black, and you just
(09:43):
you know, and you want kids, you know, to feel like,
oh my gosh, this this is really what's he gonna do?
And the best part of courses is you see that
the guy. It winds up in the breakthrough to everything
because now at twenty one years old, he's like, I'm
not going to party anymore now have I want to work?
(10:04):
I want to accomplish so much more. My time is
two years. I have hope now because I'm this disease
is breaking my body. But the one thing that's never
going to touch is my brain. And that is it. Man,
That's the moment.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Hey, dude, people know enough about like I didn't know this,
but like I didn't know he was a party animal
in college, Like I didn't know any of that.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Like when he got when he.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Got his wheelchair, he takes it to San Francisco and
goes speeding up and down all the hills of San Francisco.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
That's freaking awesome to me.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
No, I listen. That's why I put in the book.
I'm like, this is awesome. I didn't know he was
a party animal either. I was like whatever, I grew
up with Stephen Hawking, like grew up with Stephen Hawking,
which is he's so smart. He's in a wheelchair, he
has a robot voice, and you know, he's smarter than
everybody else. But the guy wanted to live. The whole
reason he's Stephen Hawking is because he's like, man, I
got a little time left, I'm making the most of it.
(10:56):
And that that at you know, he's I know he's
got the big brain, but it's his attitude toward everything.
And the thing that actually blew me away more than
anything in the whole book is that it's his actual
disability that makes him great at what he does. Because
because he couldn't write stuff down, and he couldn't type,
(11:18):
and he had to move so slowly, he said, he
basically had more time to think and he had to
explore the universe in a different way with his which
is in his mind. He had to think in pictures
because he couldn't write anymore. Other physicists would write and
draw into formulas. He couldn't do that. So he mentally
travel through time and space and that's why he has
(11:38):
his breakthroughs. And so his disease gives him skills that
no one else has. And again, when we all have
things in our lives that knock us down right, whether
it's a parent or someone passing away, whether it's you know,
there are big things and little things with our kids
and our nieces and our nephews and all these things
that go on. But man to teach them that you
(12:00):
can embrace those hardships and tournam into something that's the benefit.
I can say those words, but no one believes me.
But you show the work of Stephen Hawking and there's
proof of it group, like actual science of it.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Hey, Brad, I know you do your homework very well,
but you also will talk about like whether it's Jane
Goodall or Billy jan King, who who are alive or
if it's somebody that you've written about who is dead,
that you'll go to their foundation, their their library, whatever
it is. Who did you who was who was your
expert that kind of I don't want to say proofred,
(12:34):
but like who looked things over for Stephen Hawking?
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Yeah, so we went to his state, of course, and
then I found a woman named Kitty Ferguson. And Kitty
Ferguson is you know she did one of them. She
was a co writer and one of the people who
wrote books with him. I didn't even realize when I
found her how close their relationship was. Is she you know,
interviewed him, knew him intimately, like just was like the
(12:59):
expert on Stephen Hawking. And again, it's always pretty amazing
to talk to these people because you've given the book
and I, you know, again, this is like a year
and a half ago, but I'm pretty sure what comment
was to us is like and I can send it
to you, but it was like, I think people would
really like this book a lot. And that's the comment
where you're like, oh, well, I'm done working for the week,
(13:21):
like I'm because you don't expect to get that, you know,
like I hope it's going to be right. I hope it.
I hope you know. For me, I was just like,
can you just make sure the physics is right because
I don't I never I can't do physics, like you know,
I'm trying to get it. But when she says that,
because you know the book has a sense of humor
because the book is playful. The book doesn't take itself
too seriously. Right when she says that again, that's when
(13:43):
you're just like, okay, days over, like that's it all.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Right, let me bounce around a little bit.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
So I was I was looking on the website and
going over stuff, and obviously I am Stephen Hawking is
is out today. But I saw on the site that
the next two books you've already announced that are come in.
One of them is the one that you had told
well kind of texted me about last time. So you're
the next two on the list or I am Sally
Ride and then you're doing We Are the Beatles, which
(14:11):
I love. I love that that's getting done. But how
do you get that done? Like there are some bad
moments or let me rephrase it, there are some non
kid moments around the Beatles.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Yeah. Man, you're first of all, you know all of
our books, like if you do I'm Abraham Lincoln or
I am I mean the Earhart, they always look the same, right,
it's a little Abraham Lincoln, even Stephen Hawking. We you know,
we show them a little bit. We talk to people
who are disability experts like do we show them in
a wheelchair always? And is kind of like ultimate view
because Abraham Lincoln always has a little beer in the
top half, Like what do we do with hawking? And
(14:47):
the disability experts said to us, like, you know, you
should show him that he wasn't in a wheelchair because
eventually he was. And those two things are true. So
it was the first time we kind of broke our
own rule, right, And then we got the Beatle and
the Beatles never look the same, right, like you have
the version of them when they're singing yeah, yeah, yeah,
and they're on the Ed Sullivan Show. And then you
(15:09):
got the you know what's the what's bultimate version? Is it?
Sergeant Pepper's is it? Let it be? Is it? You
know when they're on the rooftop? Is it? And not
only that, as you said, you're like, man, they're going
and losing their mind. They're going to you know, figure
out how the sitar sounds. And obviously we're not showing
a you know, how they're trying out drugs and it's
expanding their minds. But we're not ignoring like you know,
(15:32):
but but you see in that section, let's just say
that sections extra colorful, right and so darn so like
if you know what's going on. I wrote to Chris.
I have a text that I wrote to him and said,
I think this book is going to kill you, and
he was like, they all kill me. I'm like, but
he knew that this one. Every page that you turn
(15:54):
almost is a new style, because the whole thing about
the Beatles is that they're constantly evolving and we had
to show all and I'm like, when I say we
show all of it, it's like Yellow Submarine and Help
and like Revolver and the Using Rebb and now they're
changing sounds and they're changing books and like the White Album,
like you like, it's just we put all of it
(16:15):
in there, and I love that it's all in there.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Oh, I can't wait. I can't wait.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Hey, the other thing that uh that that I saw
And I don't think.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
I knew this about you, Brad.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
I don't know that I knew that you knew James
Earl Jones, Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
You know. I met him in Washington, d C. Actually,
so I when I was at hear the Full Story
where somethingone put on yournet, So I knew always that
James Earld Jones went to Michigan because when I was
at Michigan, they had a little welcome video that he
made that was like the little thing that would show
students when you were when you worked at like the university,
(16:52):
they would show this video. And I worked at the
university as a job there, and it went the University
of Michigan is a buying institution. And you know in
the awesome James Earl Jones voice, and I remember everyone
was like, that's Darth Vader Man. He Darth Baper went
to Michigan.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Hey told me not to interrupt, but you, your James
Earl Jones is impeccable, like you you really mailed that.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
I mean pretty much. I'm kind of like Dorothy. I
mean basically, it's I know it. Someone just put the
radio on and they were like, oh my gosh, James
girl Jones is alive again.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
And I I interrupted. I interrupted it.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
So now I so now I graduate, I'm twenty two,
I'm in DC and uh and I happened to spot
James Earl Jones at this event and I'd be lined
for them because I'm like a star wars nerd and
I think most people when they see him, probably blurred
out something like you know, I am your father or
something like that. But I again, it was the first
(17:48):
famous person that I've ever remember seeing. I was twenty two.
I had just gotten to DC, and I blurred out
him without him saying hello. I go, well, I went
to mission. I go the University of Michigan as a
fine institution. And as soon as I say it, I'm like,
oh no, I just did James Earld Jones to James
old Jones, and like, I just poured James Earl Jones
(18:10):
to James old Jones. And he smiles that awesome smile,
like to feel the dream smile, and he loves it.
And he asked me about you know, my going there
and when I graduate, bl blah blah. It's the greatest moment.
I'm like, this is exactly what I wanted. Now, flash
forward to a couple of months ago. I find out
I'm giving the commencement address a Michigan this year, right,
(18:31):
So I'm like, and if you look closely, the day
of the address is May the fourth, which is Star
Wars Day. May the fourth be with him. And I'm
not stupid. I'm like, I got a finale. I know
I'm going to do the finale that you know I'm
going to put on the speech, but I also was like,
I know I'm going to close this speech and James
earld Jones, I'm going to see if he can record
(18:52):
something for me to close the speech. And I contact
him and it takes me, like I'm not joking, a
month to get through all the people and the lawyers
in the paperwork, and one of his lawyers is really
nice and basically puts me in touch with his assistant
who puts ask James ol Jones, and James old Jones says, yes,
I'm with you Bright. I'm like, oh my god. I
(19:12):
tell him the whole story. That's why I get to him,
and he on the day that he's going in to
finally record it, they say, going in tomorrow, we'll speak tomorrow.
I'll send it to you tomorrow, you know, on you know,
like electronic places. And they called me the next morning
and they're like, I'm so sorry. He's falling ill and
he's really really sick. And for the no one I
(19:33):
knew for the past months how sick he was, obviously,
you know, for his privacy purposes, never said a word.
But to have a moment where I got to thank
him for being so nice to me when I was
twenty two years old was the best gift I was able,
you know that I ever got was you know, get
to thank that man for being so cool when I
was just a kid.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
That's awesome. That's awesome, what a great story. Also, you
mentioned the commencement speech. How unblelo is it that part
of the Michigan game day hype video features your commencement speech.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
I mean, so, here's the thing is, obviously do this
commencement address. It's one of the you know, when I
give this speech, you know there's a surprise ending when
I graduated and graduated Michigan. In the stands, the commensal
speaker called out Desmond Howard, who won the Heisman that year,
and basically Desmond Howard in the stands like ten rows
(20:29):
from me. I didn't know him at the time, stands
up because he won the highs in that year and
does the Heisman post. And I remember like this as
again a twenty two ar old kid, I was like, man,
that's badass. That doesn't Howard sitting ten rows bagually in
front of me? So at the end of my speech,
you know, I talked about how like you know, I
was twenty two years old, sitting in these stands washing
Desmont Howard, and now here I am. I'm, you know,
fifty in my fifties and like you know, and and
(20:52):
here we are again, like how do you get from
twenty two to stand on the stage. And at the
end of the thing, I say, you know, and ladies
and gentlemen, it's all about magic and should finding magic
in our lives. And I say, but the best magicians
have a final trick out their sleeves, I said, Ladies
and gentlemen, welcome Desmond Howard. And Desmon Howard comes out
on stage, and then we have two of the other
Michigan football players come on stage. And I at the
(21:14):
time and speaking to seventy thousand people in the Michigan Stadium,
I realized after the fact that I had leaned forward
when Desmond comes out, because it was like a hurricane
of cheering and love for him. That I leaned forward
because I thought I was going to be knocked on
my rear end because it was like standing in a hurricane.
And and the end of it, I'm screaming into the microphone,
(21:38):
not because I want to be a good hype man,
but because I can barely hear myself. The screaming is
so loud. You can't really hear it in the video
as much when you're watching it on YouTube. But I
have access to three jumbo trons and I can barely
for myself. And I'm like, it can't get better than
this moment. It's bananas, you know. And my son's in
the audience graduating. It's one of the single greatest moments
(22:00):
of my professional life. And then my son goes to
the football game this year and he's watching the hype video,
which is literally narrated by James Jones, and he has
the best He literally says, the University of Michigan is
the greatest university in the world, and like when they said,
(22:20):
Coach Harbaugh, maybe that's just like overstating things, the greatest
university in the world. And he's like, nope, we're the
greatest university in the world. How you say it? And
Jim Jones says, and so everyone loves the hype video
because it's so ridiculous. My son. You can watch on
my Instagram. You could hear my son reacting I didn't
know I was in it. And my son is at
(22:41):
the game, Corey the video just because you want to
see the video they do every year, and he sees
me his father in it and you hear him cursing,
screaming like, oh my god, is efininity? Is this? When
I'm like it can't get better? I'm like, how are
we in the hype video when James or old Jones
(23:01):
like so needless to say, no one like loves Michigan
more than my family does. This year, like this has
been ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
All right, last two things and then I gotta let
you jump. Number one.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
You went to see Dead and Company at the Sphere
in Vegas?
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Is it awesome?
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Though?
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Like I've never been in there? Is it awesome?
Speaker 3 (23:23):
So here's the thing. So I'm not like some you know,
big dead head or anything that I went because my
buddy like said, I got a box, it's free, let's go.
And I love my buddy and my friend my high
school friends. I'm like, you know, there's no party like
a high school party. And so my high school friends
were like, let's go. I wanted to see you too.
We couldn't make it like the weekend people were going,
I'm like, fine, will go to the Dead like just
(23:45):
because I want to be my friends. It was one
of the single best concerts I've ever seen in my
life because the Spear is such madness. And now because
of like, I don't care if you do drug drug,
that's not my team. My wife, my wife didn't recognized
a single song at the Grateful Dead Plate, not one,
not one, not even the cover songs, like, not one song.
(24:05):
And she was like, this is one of the best
concert I ever went to because one wouldn't have to
pay for it, and two but seriously, it was just
the Spear is it was playing. When you're in Vegas,
go there and watch the show. It doesn't matter. It's
so you have to go out.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Oh, I'm dying to go. I wanted to go to
the NHL Draft. That's all I wanted to do. I'm
dying to go there.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
That was Oh, we watched. They did an awesome job,
like when they put when they put the players up
there with the thing that that was. I was like,
if I were a player, I'd be like, this is
the best thing that's ever happened to me. And then
last time, when a little you're like you're seventy thousand feet.
You know. The thing you don't realize about the spear
is when you go on a ride or you go
see like you know, you know, the widescreen things that
(24:49):
like the science museums that I'm at the sides of
your vision and the top and bottom of your vision
can see the walls and the skilling on the floor,
and so you're grounded by that. You know it's all
fake because you have those edges when you're in the sphere.
And the odd part is the higher up you are,
the more you don't have those You can't there is
no perifree. You're just surrounded by screen. And so when
(25:11):
you're going up, the whole audience, admittedly if the dead
half of them are totally like baked off their brains, like,
but when you start rising in the air literally starts screaming.
They're like, what happening? Because it feels so real. It's awesome.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
That's awesome.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
All right?
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Last week? When are you getting to DC? What am
I saying you?
Speaker 3 (25:31):
I'm actually gonna be I'm gonna be in Baltimore this
weekend because my friend Supreme Court Justice Katanji Brown Jackson
hosting her event in Baltimore this weekend and where I'm veiling.
This is gonna be the neariest thing Baltimore Comic Con is. Listen,
it's one of my places. It's a place where awesome
nerds come together.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
If you don't fit in at the Dead Show, you
do fit in at Comic Con.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
No, no, no right. If you just say where are
your people and you say you can choose between the
Dead Show at the Sphere, well Baltimore Comic Con, I
can tell you where I'm going and and wait to
out nerd Baltimore Comic Con. We're going to debut. You know,
we have our show on Previous Kids, Xavier Wittle in
the Secret Museum, which is our kids. Books like Stephen
Auten come to you know, if they do a cartoon
(26:16):
of it. We're gonna do the world premiere at noon
on the Saturday Baltimore Comicon of I am Jerry Siegel
and Joe Schuster, the creators of Superman. And that is
gonna be where something where like the nerds at Baltimore
Comic Con are gonna call us nerdy, but it's so
(26:36):
it's gonna be. And Chris is coming and I'm coming
and obviously won't find books and do stuff there, but
at noon if you want to come to Baltimore Comic Coon.
So that's but I won't get the DC for that
and then, but I will be there for JFK. I
am for the JFK Conspiracy.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Well, dude, you know I can't wait for that. I
can't wait for that book.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Oh yeah. The thing that is that you're gonna love
about the book. Obviously, it's the first plot to kill him.
It's it's the original plot that no one knows about
at the start of his presidency. But what's so good
about the book is it's not just him, is so
much of an you'll see why about Jackie, right, and
(27:15):
his story with Jackie, like Jackie is so fascinating and amazing.
And you know, the not of Conspiracy is obviously as
a World War two epic thing that you know the
first and Spirits has the revolutionary war that's not there
in JFK. It's a much smaller in a good way. Book.
It's just about the marriage. It finally comes down to
and and it and that's the fascinating part about him
(27:37):
is because obviously they're selling camelots of the whole world,
and they're selling the perfect life and the perfect wife
and the perfect and the perfect smile, and of course
his life is anything but. So it just winds up
being this kind of amazing look at this incredible family
that is you know, as as uh as crazy as
(27:58):
the rest of us is, and the secretive as the
rest of us, but living in this amazing white house
on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
But still written like a thriller, right, That's what I
loved about the other ones.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
It opens up, Yeah, it opens up with a guy
trying to murder him like hardy, no, no, no, it
is like guys like, huh, you know what I'm gonna do.
I'm gonna take all this dynamite and blow him up.
Like it's there's you know, there's a guy of course
from Florida. Just thank you. You know, it HAPs to
everything crazy in Florida, but this guy in Florida who
(28:28):
decides to take ten sticks to dynamite and murder him.
So yeah, that's why I just you know, I just
ruined chapter one for you.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
That's all right, I'll take it all right. I am
Stephen Hawking. It is out and available today. Part of
the ordinary People change the World Series Brad, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Good to talk to you, my friend. I love you,
Love you too, talk to you later. Thanks Bud.
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