1
00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:03,480
Ooh, hey, how are you
doing today, Brad? I'm good.

2
00:00:03,520 --> 00:00:07,320
Hey, you been absolutely fantastic.
Man. I'll tell you what I love

3
00:00:07,400 --> 00:00:11,279
the way that you put thoughts into
people's heads. I call it planting,

4
00:00:11,679 --> 00:00:14,919
because when you do a book like
this, you know, ordinary people change

5
00:00:14,919 --> 00:00:18,120
the world. I mean that that
to me says it's time for us to

6
00:00:18,199 --> 00:00:23,079
look out at ordinary people and stop
basically idolizing those that are that are already

7
00:00:23,079 --> 00:00:28,320
famous. That was the mission,
and listen, I wish I could say

8
00:00:28,320 --> 00:00:31,120
it was, you know, completely
selfless. I did it for my kids.

9
00:00:31,280 --> 00:00:34,399
Yes, I did it for my
own selfish reasons. I wanted my

10
00:00:34,479 --> 00:00:37,640
kids to have better heroes to look
up to. I wanted to teach them

11
00:00:37,640 --> 00:00:40,840
how to be good people. And
you know, I tell them all the

12
00:00:40,840 --> 00:00:43,039
time, if you want to be
a hero, you got to help someone.

13
00:00:43,600 --> 00:00:46,560
Having a billion dollar company doesn't make
you a hero. You got to

14
00:00:46,600 --> 00:00:50,520
think of someone beside yourself. So
that's where we started the series. As

15
00:00:50,560 --> 00:00:52,679
you know, you know, we've
talked about it many a time. We

16
00:00:52,719 --> 00:00:56,560
started with I'm Amelia Earhart and I
am Abraham Lincoln. We did I am

17
00:00:56,640 --> 00:00:59,880
Rosa Parks and I am Albert Einstein, my son loves sports. I said,

18
00:00:59,880 --> 00:01:04,200
for get millionaire overpaid athletes. Here
as I am Jackie Robinson and my

19
00:01:04,239 --> 00:01:08,319
youngest son. You know who loves
being creative and legos and drawing. I

20
00:01:08,359 --> 00:01:11,159
did. I am Jim Henson,
and I am Walt Disney. Our daughter

21
00:01:11,280 --> 00:01:15,680
loves our dog. Here's I am
Jane Goodall. And now we're thirty two

22
00:01:15,760 --> 00:01:19,719
books in the series. Ten years
into it. I can't even believe it's

23
00:01:19,760 --> 00:01:23,439
been that long. But it's just
been my mission as a parent to just

24
00:01:23,519 --> 00:01:26,840
try and try and teach them how
to be better people. And you invite

25
00:01:26,879 --> 00:01:29,400
those to step into that part of
your life. That's the thing that I

26
00:01:29,400 --> 00:01:33,159
love about it is that you're not
afraid to release what you're feeling and what

27
00:01:33,200 --> 00:01:36,640
you were experiencing. Whereas other writers
let me just shove it underneath my bed

28
00:01:36,680 --> 00:01:38,319
or put it up in the attic. A nobody needs to feel this.

29
00:01:41,560 --> 00:01:45,799
Listen. Era, My first book
that I ever wrote, got twenty four

30
00:01:45,840 --> 00:01:49,680
rejection letters. Oh man, there
were only twenty publishers. I got twenty

31
00:01:49,719 --> 00:01:53,680
four rejection letters, which means some
people were writing me twice to make sure

32
00:01:53,719 --> 00:01:55,879
I get the point. But I
said, if they don't like that book,

33
00:01:55,879 --> 00:01:57,599
I'm going to write another and if
they don't like that book, and

34
00:01:57,680 --> 00:02:00,439
to write another. And the one
thing I know is if you want to

35
00:02:00,480 --> 00:02:05,079
be happy in life, if you
want to have your dream, you've got

36
00:02:05,079 --> 00:02:07,760
to admit what you love and what
you want. And that's a scary thing

37
00:02:07,799 --> 00:02:09,599
to do, because if you admit
what you love, you may not get

38
00:02:09,639 --> 00:02:14,960
it, but it is the only
answer. Do you see yourself as being

39
00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:19,919
a historian or an archaeologist because you're
digging up things that many of us have

40
00:02:20,039 --> 00:02:24,120
long forgotten? Oh? I like
that question, you know, I'm not

41
00:02:24,159 --> 00:02:28,319
sure I see the difference between them
that, you know. I like the

42
00:02:28,439 --> 00:02:30,879
history, but I do like digging
up the stuff you've never seen. I

43
00:02:30,879 --> 00:02:34,000
mean, even in Ruth Bata Ginsburg, the newest book. Yes, I

44
00:02:34,039 --> 00:02:37,719
love finding the story that no one's
heard about her. That to me is

45
00:02:37,759 --> 00:02:39,800
the fun, you know, is
a story. You know, we all

46
00:02:39,840 --> 00:02:44,280
think of her as a serious Supreme
Court justice, right, And I guess

47
00:02:44,319 --> 00:02:46,599
I could write a book about that, But we don't want any politics in

48
00:02:46,639 --> 00:02:49,159
our book. You know. We
put Amy Cony Barrett, and we put

49
00:02:50,039 --> 00:02:53,280
you know, Sandrade O'Connor in this
book. What I loved was the story

50
00:02:53,319 --> 00:02:57,120
no one knows. What I loved
was when when Ruth Beata Ginsburg was a

51
00:02:57,159 --> 00:03:00,800
little girl growing up in Brooklyn,
New York, all she wanted to do

52
00:03:00,960 --> 00:03:06,319
was go on adventures and climb trees
and play tag. And it's a time

53
00:03:06,360 --> 00:03:08,960
when girls aren't supposed to do that. You can't do that, that's what

54
00:03:09,039 --> 00:03:13,280
you know, you would think they
would say back then. And it's her

55
00:03:13,319 --> 00:03:17,639
mother who helps break the stereotype because
she takes young Ruth to the local public

56
00:03:17,719 --> 00:03:21,840
library and says to every Friday afternoon, Ruth, you can pick out five

57
00:03:21,840 --> 00:03:24,759
books, and among the ones she
loves most are the ones about real heroes,

58
00:03:24,800 --> 00:03:30,400
Amilia Earhart, Harriet Tubman. And
in that lesson, she gives her

59
00:03:30,520 --> 00:03:35,680
daughter one of life's great lessons,
which is there's absolutely nothing that a girl

60
00:03:35,759 --> 00:03:38,840
can do. Wow. And you
got to work with her too, the

61
00:03:38,919 --> 00:03:43,479
daughter. Yeah. So you know
when we did I Am Jing Goodall,

62
00:03:43,560 --> 00:03:46,240
Jing Goodall helped us with the book, and we did I Am Dolly Pardon

63
00:03:46,400 --> 00:03:47,919
or I Am Billy Jing King.
We got help from them. Even John

64
00:03:49,039 --> 00:03:52,840
Lewis was helpful with our Doctor King
book. You know, we've been very

65
00:03:52,919 --> 00:03:57,439
lucky, but this was the first
hero who I knew the hero Ruth big

66
00:03:57,479 --> 00:04:00,560
Ginsburg before we were writing about her, because her daughter was one of my

67
00:04:00,639 --> 00:04:04,120
mentors in law school. And you
know, it was incredible because I did

68
00:04:04,159 --> 00:04:06,240
events with her, I knew her. You know, the family helped me

69
00:04:06,280 --> 00:04:12,240
with the books. But you know, one of Justice Ginsburg's clerks was one

70
00:04:12,240 --> 00:04:16,480
of my close friends. And when
she got married, my friend asked she

71
00:04:16,519 --> 00:04:20,120
needed two witnesses for the wedding certificate. And she asked Ruth bay Ginsburg to

72
00:04:20,160 --> 00:04:25,120
sign be one signature and me to
be the other. And I'll never forget

73
00:04:25,120 --> 00:04:28,439
being in that back room. Ruth
Banne Ginsburg's there, my friend's in her

74
00:04:28,480 --> 00:04:32,000
white wedding dress, and Justice Ginsburg
signs the wedding certificate. And I looked

75
00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:34,560
at my friend and I was like, come on, do you really need

76
00:04:34,600 --> 00:04:38,759
me now? Like you got it. It's official, and I think it's

77
00:04:38,800 --> 00:04:42,959
going to be just fine. My
one regret is I never got to tell

78
00:04:43,600 --> 00:04:46,040
Ruth Beata Ginsburg that we were doing
a book about her. Wow. Wow,

79
00:04:46,319 --> 00:04:50,480
what do you think she would have
said? I think, you know,

80
00:04:50,600 --> 00:04:54,800
every time I spoke to her,
she just was like she was just

81
00:04:54,800 --> 00:04:58,399
a sweet little old lady. You
know, thank you that's it. I

82
00:04:58,399 --> 00:05:04,519
think she'll be. I think she
was always surprised by how much people loved

83
00:05:04,519 --> 00:05:09,199
her. When an icon she became, she was surprised by Kate McKinnon doing

84
00:05:09,199 --> 00:05:12,920
her on Side Live. I think
she just sort of said thank you.

85
00:05:13,360 --> 00:05:15,680
Well, she was so down to
earth, so ordinary like like it says

86
00:05:15,759 --> 00:05:20,879
ordinary people, that is it,
I mean, And that's what we forget.

87
00:05:20,920 --> 00:05:25,560
You know, when Ruth Banmaginsberg was
a little girl, instead of having

88
00:05:25,560 --> 00:05:29,639
birthday parties, her mom used to
take her to the local Jewish orphanage and

89
00:05:29,680 --> 00:05:33,199
they would give away ice cream to
the orphans. And what she learned there

90
00:05:33,759 --> 00:05:39,319
from her mother was that's how you
make change. You make change yourself.

91
00:05:39,720 --> 00:05:42,399
And that's not a lesson she got
from law school. It's a lesson she

92
00:05:42,439 --> 00:05:46,800
got from her mom. And you
know, she used the law to make

93
00:05:46,920 --> 00:05:48,879
change. That's how she put good
in the world. And that's all these

94
00:05:48,879 --> 00:05:53,319
books are to us. It's our
way of putting good into the world,

95
00:05:53,439 --> 00:05:56,199
and we just use these books to
do it. I love the way you

96
00:05:56,240 --> 00:05:58,639
say that, you know, you're
proving to the world that little girls can

97
00:05:58,639 --> 00:06:00,240
go out and play. And right
away I had a picture of little Hannah

98
00:06:00,240 --> 00:06:03,120
who lives across the street from us, and her mother is out there with

99
00:06:03,199 --> 00:06:06,720
her every day. I mean,
she's climbing ladders, she's she's doing her

100
00:06:06,759 --> 00:06:10,199
own thing. Little baby Hannah.
I mean she's not maybe not even two

101
00:06:10,279 --> 00:06:13,040
years old yet, but she's out
there doing her own thing. And I

102
00:06:13,079 --> 00:06:15,800
find so that's I want to transition
this book to them so that she can

103
00:06:15,879 --> 00:06:20,439
keep teaching that to her child.
Well, that's what I love, you

104
00:06:20,439 --> 00:06:24,079
know. You know, as I
said, we're doing. This is now

105
00:06:24,120 --> 00:06:26,920
our thirty second book in the series. When I when I first went to

106
00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:30,480
the publisher and I said, they
said, oh, it's so adorable.

107
00:06:30,480 --> 00:06:33,000
You want to do I'm Amelia Earhart
and I am Abraham Lincoln. Two books

108
00:06:33,040 --> 00:06:35,680
for your kids. How nice and
adorable? Yep. And I said,

109
00:06:35,680 --> 00:06:38,720
no, no, no, you
got it all wrong. I want to

110
00:06:38,720 --> 00:06:41,720
do one hundred books. And I
love the fact, I said, I

111
00:06:41,759 --> 00:06:46,439
love the fact that people use our
books now to build libraries of real heroes

112
00:06:46,480 --> 00:06:48,120
for their kids, their grandkids,
their nieces or nephews, and as you

113
00:06:48,199 --> 00:06:50,959
just said, just for your neighbor, someone you see who needs this story

114
00:06:50,959 --> 00:06:55,959
in their life. People donate them
to their local schools. I love the

115
00:06:56,040 --> 00:07:00,879
fact that people build these little libraries
from the ordinary people change the world series

116
00:07:01,199 --> 00:07:03,959
writing a story, how does it
come to you? Are you sitting on

117
00:07:03,959 --> 00:07:08,199
the sofa and it just comes to
you? Are you walking through the public

118
00:07:08,240 --> 00:07:11,240
What is it that that makes you
go to, well, this is the

119
00:07:11,279 --> 00:07:15,439
next book? You know. I
always think the best stories are the ones

120
00:07:15,480 --> 00:07:19,199
you can't shake. So you know, it's the one where like, I'll

121
00:07:19,240 --> 00:07:23,439
dive down a couple of rabbit holes
and I'll look at things, but I'm

122
00:07:23,480 --> 00:07:26,120
like, that's interesting. But I
stopped thinking about it in a day.

123
00:07:26,519 --> 00:07:29,279
And you all know that story.
You know, something you've been scrolling on

124
00:07:29,279 --> 00:07:31,839
on Instagram or anywhere else that you're
still thinking about three days later, four

125
00:07:31,920 --> 00:07:35,000
days later, a week later,
a month later. That's the story you

126
00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:38,560
gotta tell. That's the one that
you can't get out of your head.

127
00:07:39,120 --> 00:07:41,879
And that's how I always find the
next story. I just go with the

128
00:07:41,959 --> 00:07:46,160
You know, Ruth bade Ginsburg with
the number one most requested hero from kids

129
00:07:46,199 --> 00:07:49,839
over the past few years, number
one. I can't you know she died

130
00:07:49,879 --> 00:07:54,160
obviously back in twenty twenty. You
know, never thought for a second that

131
00:07:54,560 --> 00:07:56,639
this was going to be you know, I thought she reached the kind of

132
00:07:56,680 --> 00:08:01,480
peak of her popularity, but for
whatever reason, she roaring back and we

133
00:08:01,519 --> 00:08:05,480
listened to kids. So I started
looking into a story and just said,

134
00:08:05,519 --> 00:08:07,319
you know what, this is going
to be a really fun one. And

135
00:08:07,360 --> 00:08:09,120
when I heard those stories about her
as a kid, I was like,

136
00:08:09,199 --> 00:08:13,600
Oh, this is going to just
be perfect. Do you ever worry about

137
00:08:13,600 --> 00:08:16,959
being in a position of woke because
this woke generation is just it's a it

138
00:08:18,040 --> 00:08:24,120
feels out of control. Yeah,
listen. I mean I think that the

139
00:08:24,160 --> 00:08:28,560
word woke has been used to kind
of you know, I understand what it

140
00:08:28,680 --> 00:08:33,519
is, but I feel like what
it's what it's been manipulated to kind of

141
00:08:33,759 --> 00:08:37,679
fear and scare moon, you know, scaremonger. Like is it woke to

142
00:08:37,759 --> 00:08:39,879
tell the true story about someone?
I don't think so. I think you

143
00:08:39,960 --> 00:08:43,120
got to tell it, you know, like we I take my books,

144
00:08:43,519 --> 00:08:48,399
you know we did. We've I
go from Fox News to CNN, I

145
00:08:48,480 --> 00:08:52,200
go from Glenn Beck, I go
to NPR okay with the same book,

146
00:08:52,639 --> 00:08:56,639
and everyone's like, Yep, this
is the story we should tell. So

147
00:08:56,320 --> 00:08:58,720
I don't know, I'm just telling
the right story. And I love the

148
00:08:58,720 --> 00:09:03,480
fact that there's no politics in our
books. I love the fact that you

149
00:09:03,480 --> 00:09:05,000
know, we don't. We don't
do that. What I don't like is

150
00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:09,679
when you see people manipulating the facts
to their own ends. That to me

151
00:09:09,759 --> 00:09:13,679
is something bad. And you know
what I see honestly, both sides do

152
00:09:13,759 --> 00:09:16,279
that. Everyone plays and picks with
their cherry pick from what they want.

153
00:09:16,360 --> 00:09:20,360
You know, they say, they
say, you know, don't don't tear

154
00:09:20,399 --> 00:09:22,919
the statues down. We got to
have all our history. And I don't

155
00:09:22,919 --> 00:09:26,120
want people tearing down statues either.
I think you've got to give context to

156
00:09:26,159 --> 00:09:28,440
them. But I also see that
same group saying, you know what,

157
00:09:28,600 --> 00:09:31,720
let's pull these stories out of the
library. Well, which is it?

158
00:09:31,799 --> 00:09:33,840
You want to keep all the history? You just want to keep the ones

159
00:09:33,879 --> 00:09:37,840
you want. That's a little bit
of hypocrisy. But we turn our noses

160
00:09:37,879 --> 00:09:41,799
up at right because we like our
politics, and and to me, what

161
00:09:41,840 --> 00:09:45,320
we have to do is instead of
And the one thing I learned, you

162
00:09:45,320 --> 00:09:46,840
know, and this is what I
love about Ruth bitt at Ginsburg. You

163
00:09:46,840 --> 00:09:50,799
know, is Ruth bitte Ginsburg's best
friend on the Supreme Court? Was it

164
00:09:50,919 --> 00:09:54,240
was Scalia? Really that was her
best friend. Scalia was her best friend.

165
00:09:54,440 --> 00:09:58,840
And why is Scalia and Ruth Bitte
Ginsburg's why are they the two best

166
00:10:00,039 --> 00:10:03,960
friends? Because they're the two smartest
ones and despite the fact that they may

167
00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:07,440
disagree politically, they can still be
friends. And I know that may sound

168
00:10:07,480 --> 00:10:11,960
like something trite or you know something, but that's an idea worth fighting for.

169
00:10:11,080 --> 00:10:15,279
Man. And I think if we
took a little bit of time and

170
00:10:15,360 --> 00:10:18,000
stopped, you know, trying to
pick fights and try to find you know,

171
00:10:18,279 --> 00:10:20,799
I always say if you're if you
listen to one news source for your

172
00:10:20,840 --> 00:10:24,240
news, you're not an informed person. You got to listen to the other

173
00:10:24,320 --> 00:10:28,080
side, whatever your whatever your side
is, it'll frustrate you, it'll drive

174
00:10:28,120 --> 00:10:31,720
you creation, it'll make you mad, but you will realize they're human beings

175
00:10:31,759 --> 00:10:35,960
too. And that's to me.
That, to me is the more important

176
00:10:35,960 --> 00:10:39,639
part than you know, picking buzzwords
and pointing fingers. Oh my god,

177
00:10:39,639 --> 00:10:41,080
you just described me, because that's
exactly what I do. I try to

178
00:10:41,080 --> 00:10:45,879
go to every single thing because I
don't want to be one sided. Now,

179
00:10:45,919 --> 00:10:48,240
one of the things that I love
about your books is that in Hollywood

180
00:10:48,320 --> 00:10:52,159
is so so sick with this is
that everything is based upon you. You

181
00:10:52,200 --> 00:10:56,279
don't play that game, you you
you tell the story it's not based upon

182
00:10:58,879 --> 00:11:01,240
When I see those words in a
Hollywood movie, my brother, you know,

183
00:11:01,279 --> 00:11:05,120
based on a true story. My
first thought is, this is a

184
00:11:05,159 --> 00:11:09,840
lot of nonsense, right like it
just is based upon means. We didn't

185
00:11:09,840 --> 00:11:13,120
tell the full story. We told
you the good parts we like, and

186
00:11:13,159 --> 00:11:16,679
then we added other parts that you
know, suit the story better. So

187
00:11:16,840 --> 00:11:22,320
don't get your history from Hollywood movies. Hollywood has its own agenda, and

188
00:11:22,360 --> 00:11:26,039
their agenda is to keep you happy
and to keep you buying tickets. What

189
00:11:26,120 --> 00:11:28,919
I love about our kids books,
and these are books ages four or five

190
00:11:30,000 --> 00:11:31,840
years old, about twelve years old, is even though they're for such little

191
00:11:31,919 --> 00:11:35,879
kids, we show you all the
failures. We show you all the elections

192
00:11:35,879 --> 00:11:41,360
Abraham Lincoln lost and George Washington lost. We show you what you know Rosa

193
00:11:41,399 --> 00:11:43,200
Parks went through that day when she
faced that bus driver the first time,

194
00:11:43,240 --> 00:11:48,039
because she faced him before and she
didn't say anything the first time. We

195
00:11:48,080 --> 00:11:50,600
show you what doctor King went through
as a little kid, when he was

196
00:11:50,679 --> 00:11:52,960
really angry and mad at the world, when someone told me how to sit

197
00:11:52,960 --> 00:11:56,279
at the back of the bus.
He lost to school. He's not perfect,

198
00:11:56,279 --> 00:11:58,799
even mister Rogers, when he's a
little boy being bullied loses his temper.

199
00:12:00,519 --> 00:12:03,120
But everyone you look up to,
whether it's Rosa Parks, Doctor King,

200
00:12:03,200 --> 00:12:05,960
Mister Rogers, Ruth Beginsburg, anyone
else, whoever you look up to,

201
00:12:07,080 --> 00:12:11,039
your hero is have moments where they
were scared and terrified and didn't think

202
00:12:11,039 --> 00:12:15,360
they could go on, but they
do. And that's not the flaw of

203
00:12:15,360 --> 00:12:18,639
their story. That's the beauty of
it. And I think you know to

204
00:12:18,720 --> 00:12:22,159
me, don't again, don't getch
your history from Hollywood movies. Rad.

205
00:12:22,159 --> 00:12:26,039
How can somebody reach out to you
to get your books, to find out

206
00:12:26,080 --> 00:12:30,080
more about what you're doing, and
to give you some love. No,

207
00:12:30,279 --> 00:12:33,080
listen. You can find this obviously
on all social media at Brad Meltzer,

208
00:12:33,159 --> 00:12:37,879
Instagram, Twitter, everywhere else and
Facebook, and you know you name the

209
00:12:37,879 --> 00:12:41,120
platform, we're there. But if
you go to Brad Meltzer dot com and

210
00:12:41,120 --> 00:12:43,799
it's it's Meltzer is like seltzer that
you drink, but with an M like

211
00:12:43,879 --> 00:12:46,360
Mary, you can email me.
You can tell me your suggestions for the

212
00:12:46,399 --> 00:12:50,000
next hero. I always love hearing
it. We listen to our readers and

213
00:12:50,039 --> 00:12:52,639
listen to friends like you have been
with us from the start of this series.

214
00:12:54,679 --> 00:12:58,120
And I really do I think it's
important to, you know, to

215
00:12:58,200 --> 00:13:01,720
hear what people are looking for and
what the what they're searching for. When

216
00:13:01,720 --> 00:13:05,639
we looked around and saw how cruelly
we were treating each other, that we

217
00:13:05,679 --> 00:13:07,240
need more kindness in the world.
That's where I am, mister Rogers as

218
00:13:07,240 --> 00:13:11,960
a book came from. So,
you know, communicating with us and emailing

219
00:13:11,039 --> 00:13:13,399
us and telling us that stuff is
vital to us. So thank you for

220
00:13:13,440 --> 00:13:16,559
it. Oh man, you got
to come back to this show anytime in

221
00:13:16,600 --> 00:13:18,440
the future. You know, the
door is always going to be open for

222
00:13:18,480 --> 00:13:22,600
you. Well, I appreciate it, you know. But what I appreciate

223
00:13:22,679 --> 00:13:26,080
is all the people who use these
books to kind of do something good for

224
00:13:26,159 --> 00:13:30,320
their kids and their nieces and their
nephews. That's the beautiful part. I

225
00:13:30,399 --> 00:13:33,759
love the people for ten years now. You know, it's very hard to

226
00:13:33,840 --> 00:13:37,480
change the minds of adults, oh
boy, but we have spent ten years

227
00:13:37,679 --> 00:13:43,879
arming a generation of kids with lessons
of kindness and perseverance and generosity and humility,

228
00:13:43,919 --> 00:13:46,200
like these great American values that need
to be brought back. And I'll

229
00:13:46,240 --> 00:13:50,799
tell you what, I love that
fight every single day. It's worth it.

230
00:13:50,840 --> 00:13:54,399
Will you'd be brilliant today okay,
sir, thank you, my friend