Time Patriot: What if Washington Was Here Now? | S01E09

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Welcome back to the podcast where we
discuss the plausibility of sci fi concepts with

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experts. I'm your host, Heidi
Compo, and today we have a very

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special episode. This will be the
first book that we are featuring on the

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show, and I would like to
welcome Kim Mickey, the author of the

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brilliant series The Time Patriot, which
is a science fiction masterpiece that explores the

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concept of a group of modern time
travelers from the twenty thirties who travel back

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in time to seventeen eighties to find
George Washington and convince him to come back

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in time with them and help stop
an imminent civil war. We're going to

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be talking about time travel, history, politics, corruption, and exploring what

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the Founding Fathers intended for our country
through the story brought to life by Kim.

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I know that many of you have
some kind of a reading goal with

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your New Year's resolution list, so
I wanted to encourage listeners to consider checking

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out the Time Patriot series. And
since this is reality check, we will

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still be scoring a concept at the
end, but I also don't want to

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spoil the book for you, so
at the end of this episode, I

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will ask him to rank in his
opinion from one to five how likely it

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would be for a founding father to
be able to fix modern politics assuming we

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could time travel and they agreed to
come back with us. So, without

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further ado, let's get ready for
another mind blowing episode of Reality Check.

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All thanks prepared for hypercrime active big
TRACTI being just engage tractor betue, you're

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late for light speed like speed,
it's too slow. All right, Reality

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Check, Kim, welcome to the
show. Let's keep things off by telling

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us a little bit about how you
got the idea for your book. Well,

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it was pretty interesting to me anyway. You know, I've always been

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a fan of time travel. I'd
written several time travel stories already. And

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Martha and I are retired from active
participation and then work the workforce. So

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we watched a lot of television,
and we do find ourselves a lot of

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news programs. I should say we
follow politics more than most people do,

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and we find the people on the
TV say the the stupidest things and stuff

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that is just completely ridiculous. And
I mean sometimes as a politician, sometimes

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as a newscasters whatever, and uh
so I just kind of wondered out loud.

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I said, I wonder what our
founding fathers would think about what we've

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done with this experiment in Democratic Republic. And Martha said, well, you

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got a time machine. Why don't
you go ask them? That's that's what

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came up without you. I went, hmm, you know, and I

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thought what might be a good good
study. And originally we thought about Thomas

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Jefferson. The reason we thought,
well we actually we've thought of George Washington.

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Knew it, everybody probably does George
Washington. Let's do somebody else,

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you know. And so we started
thinking about Thomas Jefferson. And then when

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I started doing some research, I
found out he was out of the country

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at the time when they did the
Constitution. He was ambassador to France,

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so he wasn't involved in any of
that stuff at all. So then we

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started looking at other people and we
found out, and there's a book called

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The Quartet about them, that there's
George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay

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and James Madison. They were the
four people who, kicking and screaming helped

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people in the United States come forward
to actually accept another boss, right,

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I mean, they just got rid
of the British and now they're gonna get

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somebody local to do the same thing. Right, one of my good friends

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says, old boss, same as
the new boss. So back it up

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just a little bit here. So
your wife said, well, hey,

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you've got a time machine, why
don't you go ask them? And she

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was referring to your first books that
you had already written, because you were

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an established author before you even started
this series. Correct, Can you explain

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to me a little bit about this
time machine that you created in your universe?

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Because in sci fi there is a
lot of different concepts of time travel

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because you know, we haven't really
proved it yet, we haven't done it.

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There's a lot of theories. So
what what kind of theories did you

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explore when you were creating your time
machine in this universe? And what theory

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did you go with for the time
patriot? Okay, there's there's a couple

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of questions in there. There's actually
two ways to do science fiction. One

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way is to uh is to go
into detail explanation about all the mechanics and

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the physics, and that I call
that hard science fiction. And then there's

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another kind called soft science fiction,
where you uh, you present the idea

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and and the reader makes a leap
of faith to say, Okay, all

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right, I'm going to assume that's
possible. Let's see what happens now.

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And my stories are really more about
people and about actions and stuff than they

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are about the science that haven't been
said. One of the one of the

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time travel things, time travel theories. I really liked it. It was

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in a movie, a movie called
Time Blind by Michael Crichton. Was the

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book it comes from. I love
that book. That's one of my favorite

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books. It's an awesome book.
And uh and uh, they made a

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great movie out of it with Gerard
Butler might have been the biggest heart throb

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in the country at the time.
I love you his mind when that movie

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came out. Yeah, he did
such a great job in the show.

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And it was a young guy who
was popular from one of the uh one

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of the Car a lot of the
car movies. I can't remember his name

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now. That was Paul Walker,
Paul Walker, right exactly. And he

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was a big heart throb and and
and he did a good job. But

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I think Gerard Butler stole the show. Yeah, it's an awesome movie.

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But their idea was the way they
put it was that basically your atoms were

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reduced to a stream, and it's
like a fax machine going across which one

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of the problems as if you win
a lot of time, just like you

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faxed something, then you fax it, get that and then you fax it

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to somebody else, it eventually deteriorates. And in that in that book,

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the same thing happened to the people
as they were moved, As they were

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you know, made more and more
trips, their body just started to deteriorate.

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You know, for example, I
blood vessels might not line up correctly

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and that kind of stuff, which
is all very dangerous. And it's so

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funny that you bring up Timeline because
I read that as a young child,

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an elementary school kid, and I
remember when the movie came out, I

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was still a child, and so
that was that was one of my first

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sci fi books that exposed me to
time travel. So it's so crazy to

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me that you're explaining this concept because
I was like, yes, that's the

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one I'm most familiar with. So
it's another fun one. So the way

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I approached in my first book,
the idea was that the scientists who invented

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time travel was a trekkie and he
was trying to develop a warp engine,

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and he had disconnected and was testing
and it's so point and that total accident.

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He's touching it when it goes off, and it throws him twenty five

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years in the past, and so
he's you know, he was in his

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fifties, now he's in his twenties. And he goes back into the same

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office he was working in where he
was a young guy, a new professor,

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and so now there's two of them, and he has no way to

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get back. So he ends up. You know, he and he and

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his younger self work forward using the
two of them. They're both very brilliant

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guys, and they bounce stuff off
of each other and they developed a way

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to take care to make it work
and return. So that's in the first

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book called Time Limits, and that's
a playback to in my time travel,

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you can go to any year that's
a twenty five year multiple of where you

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are right now, in the future
or in the past. In other words,

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you could go twenty five years,
twenty five years ago, fifty seventy

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five, one hundred like that.
And you have a background is a math

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educator. Is there a reason why
you chose twenty five well, you just

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seemed like a good number to me. That's a good answer. Yeah,

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there's no there's no physics or anything
calculations behind. I just thought so because

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I did end up with three generations
of the same guy working together. So

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one of them and at the time
of the books, one of them is

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about one hundred years old, was
about seventy five, the other was about

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fifty so, and there are a
lot of other things I won't go into,

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but they continue to be working on
their warp engine ideal, and they're

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also working, you know, coming
up with new features for the time machine,

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like a flexible return beacon. Like
in Timeline, they had a return

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beacon that they had around their neck
and they pressed that to come back right,

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and so they eventually ended up away. Over the course of four books,

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they ended up with the ability to
program in several, uh, several

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locations. Each time you clicked that
you went to the next one. And

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also that they could hook their cell
phones through it to send messages, to

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send status messages. I kind of
ignored the fact that the people in the

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future, you know, no matter
where they were coming from, the message

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was gonna call like you know,
like they go they're gone, Okay,

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oh, here's a message, you
know, So we can we can.

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And that's the beauty of fiction is
we can glaze over those little things so

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we can still enjoy the whole plot
together. Fiction. I mentioned to you

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before the show that I introduced a
lady Lady Ranger who is really tough.

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And uh, there's this thing in
the first book where I picked a couple

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of things. Did you ever see
the time Machine with Guy Pierce his version?

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I feel like I did you jog
my memory or explain it with an

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audience. Well, it's it's kind
of a it's it's a new take.

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It was a new take on the
original H. G. Wells, Uh,

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right, book. And so but
at the end, they are the

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Morlocks who are the villains. He
goes way way in the distant future,

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and uh, there's a more lock
who tries to grab a hold of him,

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and he hits the time machine button
and he jumps out of there.

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And of course the guy part of
part of them is inside the bubble and

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part of them is outside. So
it's just like truncated him and so ugly

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death. And so I had a
situation when they were testing the time machine

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when my guys were testing the time
machine, and what they would do is

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they have it kind of like a
little lawnmower thing and put it out on

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a platform and then hit the button
and send them someplace with a certain voltage

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and certain settings. And then it
would have a camera that pointed straight up

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at the sky. And they did
it out in New Mexico, so when

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he came back, they would see
the position of the stars in the sky

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could get an estimate of where what
year it was. So that's how they

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were testing that. And it comes
back one time and it's really kind of

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it looks like it's got something piled
on top of it. So one of

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the guys runs over to it and
he gets way too close before he realizes

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that I'm in back rattlesnake and and
it jumps at him and he falls down,

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but it lays right next to him, and this lady Rager jumps on

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it. I mean she just jumps
on, grabbing by the head and by

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the tail, and uh so,
uh, it was an opportunity to develop

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two characters. Only one of them
was in the rest of that story that's

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in the first book Time Limits,
but that lady is a main character in

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the next three books. Really yeah, and and her name is her name

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and the story is Karen Hatcher again
from Terry Hatcher. Okay, and I

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don't want this episode to include spoilers. Usually I don't care about ruining my

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movies because if you haven't seen,
you know, Jurassic Park by now,

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then this is probably not the right
that you'd be interested in. But I

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do want people to read these books, so I'm not going to give too

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much away. But I do think
it's really funny when your Ranger when she

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does meet Washington, and it's like, I think we can give that away.

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It's like they do successfully travel back
in time. That's the whole point

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of the book. She meets Washington
and he's just so confused. He's like,

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you have women in the military.
But he was such a forward thinking

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person that he accepted it pretty quickly. He was like, Okay, this

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can make sense for me based on
the logic that you're providing. So can

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you tell us about your process of
learning about Washington and bringing him to life,

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because the Washington you created in these
books, I think is the most

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vivid and personable Washington that I've ever
read about personally, I can tell you

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a little bit about it. I
got a hold of what I was looking

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for. Was once we figured out
we couldn't use couldn't use Thomas Jefferson,

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and we found the quartet, and
then I focused on everything I saw said

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that Washington was the main driver of
the Constitution. So I said, okay,

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what about George Washington? How can
we pick what can we do for

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him? And so I started thinking
where do where would give it our twenty

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five year multiple thing? And they're
in twenty thirty seven, what where can

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they intersect Washington and in seventeen eighty
seven, that's two hundred and fifty years

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back, So that's a multiple.
The interesting thing about it is that from

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the end of the war in seventeen
eighty three and when they get everything going

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for the for the United States in
seventeen eighty nine, he went back to

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being a farmer, that's what he
did, and then went back to his

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to his engineering around his farm.
But so I was thinking, how do

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I get how do I get this
guy by himself to have a minimum of

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interruption and least impact the history.
And so luckily, when uh, when

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Washington was part of the Virginia volunteers
who fought against the Indians and the French

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in the French and Indian War.
Washington was a young young lieutenant, I

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believe, and actually inavertently caused a
major scandal. Uh. He went with

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some Indians and he's trying to meet
peaceably and talk to some guys, and

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one of the Indians goes over and
whacks the guy in the head with an

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axe, and so so Washington's got
in a lot of trouble about that.

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But overall, because of what all
he did do, he was rewarded by

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a property on the other side of
the Alleghenies, and so where that comes

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into play. He frequently went during
that period seventeen eighty three to seventy eighty

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nine. He would get on his
horse and go with his manservant, William

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Lee, slag Willim Lee, and
maybe a couple of other people, sometimes

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with a big roue garage. But
he would go across the mountains, across

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the mountains of a Virginia and into
the Alleghany area and to check on the

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property he had and you know,
kick off squatters or get him to start

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paying rent or whatever. So that
was an excellent opportunity to catch him while

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he's making that journey with a small
group, and so it was easy to

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get there and actually have him by
himself. And that's one thing I really

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appreciated about this book because sometimes you
read or watch sci fi and it's just

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so far fetched that it just takes
me out of the story and I'm just

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rolling my eyes, like this is
just ridiculous. But your characters like their

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even their thought profit because when they're
having their meeting, they're like, hey,

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where can we get him? Well, why don't we just jump forward

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this time? Like, no,
that's not going to work if he's already

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has these things going on. So
there was a lot of history built into

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this, and I feel like it
was like I'm a little embarrassed at I'm

218
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not the biggest history buff, but
I was even learning along with this,

219
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and it was a fun way for
me to learn. So you have a

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pretty healthy background in history. Did
you have to do a lot of extra

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research to bring this story to life? I did do a lot of research.

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My idea about science fiction is that, as I said before, you

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want to build something and have a
leap of faith that the person says Okay,

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I'll believe that, and then okay, if I believe that, you

225
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know, I'll pretend that's true.
Make that leap of faith, and then

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see where the story goes. So
I'm a firm believer in making that leap

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as small as possible. So what
I try to do is really try to

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figure out where Washington was, what
he was thinking about, and all during

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this time he was corresponding with other
patriots about the fact that the Articles of

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Confederation were not working because and if
we'd kept them, and that's one part

231
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of the story. If Washington is
not there for the convention, there's a

232
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good chance that the Constitution never gets
written or ratified and we exist on the

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Articles of Confederation, which is not
unlike, not seriously unlike the European Union.

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Got all these countries that do what
they want to do, and they're

235
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tied together by the European Union,
but when it comes down to their area,

236
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they're going to do what they got
to do. That is interesting.

237
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And the Washington you painted for us, you know the fact that he when

238
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he got done in the military with
his service, and he did have this

239
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period where he went back, I
mean he worked as a farmer. It

240
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almost makes me kind of think of
the character Maximus from a Gladiator when Caesar

241
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asks him, he asks him,
please, will you come be emperor?

242
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And he's like, with all my
heart, no, I want to go

243
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back to my farm and my family. And it kind of is that reminder

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that some of the greatest leaders don't
necessarily want to lead. They just want

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to live a humble, quiet life
on their farm with their family. But

246
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they see a great need and they
feel the call to that leadership, not

247
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because they want it, not because
they want the power or the glory,

248
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because they it's the servant leadership.
And that I see that with Maximus as

249
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a character, and I see that
with the way you brought Washington to life.

250
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Is that servant leadership and how he
truly just wanted to be a humble

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guy living on his farm, enjoying
his life, but he felt the call

252
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of duty and he responded, Yeah
he did. And he was an interesting

253
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guy. I learned a few things
about him that I had no idea about,

254
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like what well. One is that
he had a legendary stink eye.

255
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In other words, if you said
something he didn't agree with, you could

256
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tell it by looking at his face. So that's something that him and I

257
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have in common. That's right.
Well I don't know that as as from

258
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my experience with you, but it's
right. I mean, you know,

259
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he apparently, you know, somebody
said something he thought was stupid, or

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said something that he vehemently didn't agree
with, he would give that look,

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and everybody knew where they stood with
him. I suspect it's part of like,

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you know, wearing your heart on
your sleeve. He probably was like

263
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that, except he wasn't a He
wasn't a sentimental man, but he was.

264
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But he he did let you know
where he stood. He was always

265
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about honesty. Yeah, my dad's
gonna my dad is going to get a

266
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kick out of that when he listens
to this part. Because I love you,

267
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Dad, That one's for you.
Well. And another thing was a

268
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lot of people don't know about this. He didn't have any children of his

269
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own. Oh okay, but but
when he married Martha, she had two

270
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children, and so the way of
work back in those days, if the

271
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father passed away, then the children
had the mother got equal shares. So

272
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if you have two kids, there's
three shares, one for one kid,

273
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one from the second kid, and
the other one for the wife. So

274
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when Washington married Martha, the only
part of the first fortunate he had was

275
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what was her share. But it
was a good step up for him.

276
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He uh he went into the military
because he was not the first son.

277
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You know, the first son gets
the property, gets the name, is

278
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charge of carrying the name on.
He was not the first son, so

279
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basically that person has to make their
way out over they can. And he

280
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was a surveyor and all that everybody
knows about. But he joined the army

281
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because he saw it as a way
to prosper and he loved being in the

282
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British army. Uh. Well,
he was actually in the in the uh

283
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colonial troops right for Virginia, and
he he took his uh responsibility to those

284
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kids very very seriously. It's his
job to be steward over those two shares

285
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that belonged to the kids who were
just little kids at the time. So

286
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he was really really tight with his
money. And one thing that a lot

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of people don't know is that even
after the war with England, a lot

288
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of the landed gentry in Virginia would
still work with a clearing house in England

289
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to buy stuff. Is send him
a note say, I want you to

290
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get me a carriage. You know
how much? Is it okay? Buy

291
00:24:26.279 --> 00:24:30.160
one for me and send it to
me here in the States. And so

292
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there's a lot of evidence that Washington
thought he was being cheated by those folks,

293
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and he was. He was pretty
adamant about letting him know that he

294
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thought he was being cheated. The
record, the official record, does not

295
00:24:48.839 --> 00:24:56.519
show that there's no record or nothing
to indicate that they ever cheated. It's

296
00:24:56.640 --> 00:24:57.799
just that he was, you know, it was going to make sure he

297
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wasn't cheated. So he took that. So he took his reputation that way.

298
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He didn't want you. He considered, He considered a lot of hard

299
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before going to the Constitutional Conference,
because he knew that if he went there,

300
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he would be lending his reputation and
everything to it, and if it

301
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turned out badly, then that would
be a stain on his record. And

302
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so he was a lot about propriety
and about being perceived as a gentleman,

303
00:25:30.480 --> 00:25:37.160
as a very knowledgeable and educated gentleman. That's so that kind of paints a

304
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picture a little bit on how you
developed his character. Did you take many,

305
00:25:44.240 --> 00:25:48.319
if any creative liberties with creating Washington. Well, I guess, of

306
00:25:48.319 --> 00:25:52.960
course he did take some creative liberties
with dialogue and whatnot. But what kind

307
00:25:52.000 --> 00:26:00.680
of created liberties did you take with
depicting the seventeen eighties and or the lifestyles?

308
00:26:03.240 --> 00:26:07.359
I tried not to take any.
If I did, it's purely by

309
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accident and my fault. I uh, you know, most of most of

310
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the stuff you read about, you
don't you don't really hear about. You

311
00:26:22.519 --> 00:26:27.400
don't hear about the personal side of
some of these guys back then. And

312
00:26:29.440 --> 00:26:33.759
a great example of what we know
and what we don't know, Washington.

313
00:26:33.960 --> 00:26:38.000
Just like everybody else, they are
the paintings that we see. They probably

314
00:26:38.000 --> 00:26:44.519
don't look more than just sort of
like the person really looked, because if

315
00:26:44.519 --> 00:26:48.279
you were a painter back then,
you got paid only if the person liked

316
00:26:48.279 --> 00:26:52.160
the picture. Yes, same things. People will use the app if it

317
00:26:52.240 --> 00:26:57.680
has the best filters, that's right, that's right. And so so somebody

318
00:26:57.720 --> 00:27:04.440
painted his picture. I mean,
we know he had smallpox when he was

319
00:27:04.519 --> 00:27:08.359
young, and he has some scars
on the on one side of his face,

320
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and he always tried to favor not
showing that side in any picture or

321
00:27:11.960 --> 00:27:15.039
anything. But it didn't matter because
when they painted him, they were not

322
00:27:15.079 --> 00:27:22.839
going to show those cars anyway,
So you know he might if he came

323
00:27:22.839 --> 00:27:26.440
here today. You look at him, go, the guy looks familiar.

324
00:27:26.200 --> 00:27:30.759
We've don't seen that guy before,
you know. Uh, and uh,

325
00:27:32.960 --> 00:27:36.599
it'd just be because we've seen all
these pictures. But all of the pictures,

326
00:27:36.640 --> 00:27:38.960
if you've noticed all the pictures,
look kind of different. Mm hmm.

327
00:27:40.720 --> 00:27:44.079
I'm looking up right now because I'm
kind of curious how tall he was,

328
00:27:45.319 --> 00:27:52.759
and it's saying that he was six
to two and that is not just

329
00:27:52.839 --> 00:27:56.519
tall for our current times, but
that is very tall for historical times.

330
00:27:57.000 --> 00:28:02.079
Do you think it's that accurate or
do you think that's an embellishment. No,

331
00:28:02.119 --> 00:28:03.759
I think it's accurate. I think
it's accurate. He was known for

332
00:28:03.759 --> 00:28:08.000
me just like Thomas Jefferson was known
for being tall. I think he was

333
00:28:08.039 --> 00:28:15.319
taller really, you know. So
the average height for men in the seventeen

334
00:28:15.359 --> 00:28:19.000
eighties was about five feet and ten
inches, So yeah, these Founding followers

335
00:28:19.000 --> 00:28:26.599
were truly towering figures over their calrons. Yeah. I used to work with

336
00:28:26.640 --> 00:28:30.920
a guy when I was at Bell
South. I worked with this guy and

337
00:28:32.319 --> 00:28:36.960
he was six seven. Whenever he
wanted to make a point at the conference

338
00:28:37.000 --> 00:28:41.279
table. He would always manage for
some reason to stand up, and he

339
00:28:41.359 --> 00:28:45.279
said, you'd be amazed. I
mean, people will consider you a figure

340
00:28:45.319 --> 00:28:51.039
of authority if you're big, and
so he used it better than anybody I've

341
00:28:51.079 --> 00:28:55.119
ever seen. I mean, he
never did anything threatening. He just would

342
00:28:55.160 --> 00:28:59.559
stand up at certain times, you
know, and say something and long or

343
00:28:59.640 --> 00:29:03.920
outside stretched storms, you know,
and just all encompassing. Plus he was

344
00:29:04.000 --> 00:29:10.039
really smart, so that helped too
well. And that's kind of interesting because

345
00:29:10.160 --> 00:29:12.440
I don't know what the exact statistic
is that I'm not going to look it

346
00:29:12.519 --> 00:29:18.000
up, but there is something to
be said for tallness. And I apologize

347
00:29:18.000 --> 00:29:22.359
to all my short kings out there
listening, but this is just, you

348
00:29:22.400 --> 00:29:25.680
know, this is just a thing. Most of our presidents are taller people,

349
00:29:25.920 --> 00:29:30.799
and most CEOs and people in positions
of power do tend to be taller.

350
00:29:32.079 --> 00:29:37.759
And for whatever reason, it is
that deep psychological reason that there's like

351
00:29:37.839 --> 00:29:42.279
sort of that authority that they sort
of evoke. So let's kind of start

352
00:29:42.319 --> 00:29:48.559
to bring uh Washington into our modern
world. So he would look like you

353
00:29:48.720 --> 00:29:52.359
just said, he would look like
someone kind of familiar, maybe a little

354
00:29:52.400 --> 00:29:59.119
bit different. He wouldn't be much
shorter than modern day people because historical people

355
00:29:59.240 --> 00:30:04.119
were youually, a lot smaller.
He probably wasn't very muscular because they weren't

356
00:30:04.200 --> 00:30:07.079
nourished the same way as us.
So he is just, you know,

357
00:30:07.160 --> 00:30:11.960
kind of a tall, skinny guy. But bringing him kind of into our

358
00:30:12.000 --> 00:30:18.000
modern world. What are kind of
some of your more thoughts on on that

359
00:30:18.160 --> 00:30:26.640
without giving way too much of the
book, Well, I think if you

360
00:30:26.680 --> 00:30:33.599
can imagine, let's say, you
know, the only thing you know about

361
00:30:33.640 --> 00:30:38.240
electricity is that your friend Ben has
been trying to capture lightning in a jar.

362
00:30:40.720 --> 00:30:47.880
That's it, no applications, nothing, and there's no central heating or

363
00:30:47.960 --> 00:30:53.039
his central air. And you bring
that guy to the present. So he

364
00:30:53.119 --> 00:31:00.680
comes into what would be like a
gymnasium room, the uh, the lab

365
00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:07.559
at the it's the hero lab.
And I'll I do want to jump in

366
00:31:07.640 --> 00:31:14.559
real quick to say, okay,
HERO stands for a historical event research organization.

367
00:31:15.039 --> 00:31:18.880
Just it comes from an act by
Congress, and I intentionally made it

368
00:31:18.960 --> 00:31:25.960
cringeworthy because I mean, you know, Congress is famous for naming stuff that

369
00:31:26.160 --> 00:31:33.440
isn't what it is, you know, and so but they really really are

370
00:31:33.559 --> 00:31:37.880
kind of heroes. You know,
the lead character's Mark mcnight, so he's

371
00:31:37.960 --> 00:31:42.680
kind of got knight in his name, and he's army Ranger, which if

372
00:31:42.680 --> 00:31:47.799
you're a Lord of the Rings fan
is also a night. A ranger is

373
00:31:47.839 --> 00:31:52.880
a Knight. So there's there's a
lot of things there that we're working with.

374
00:31:52.519 --> 00:31:57.519
But if he came into any room
and he goes, what's that sound?

375
00:31:59.480 --> 00:32:02.079
You know, and we're like,
what do you mean? And like,

376
00:32:02.400 --> 00:32:06.880
you hear the hum from the lights, if you have that kind of

377
00:32:06.920 --> 00:32:14.240
lighting, who would hear the air
rushing through the through the duckwork in the

378
00:32:14.240 --> 00:32:20.319
building, and you hear the hum
from the electronics. And so he's like,

379
00:32:21.559 --> 00:32:24.440
what's all that because he's not used
to any of that. Modern world

380
00:32:24.519 --> 00:32:30.240
is really noisy, right, and
then when you go outside, there's airplanes,

381
00:32:30.480 --> 00:32:37.400
there's car noise, it's all kinds
of things. I just thought,

382
00:32:37.400 --> 00:32:40.319
you know what if he rides in
a car and he's sitting looking out the

383
00:32:40.359 --> 00:32:46.960
side window trying to see things and
everything's rushing by really really fast. My

384
00:32:47.039 --> 00:32:51.640
oldest daughter, well both my daughters
used to get really sick in the car

385
00:32:52.000 --> 00:32:54.920
looking out the window and tell her
finally figured out, tell him, don't

386
00:32:54.960 --> 00:32:59.599
look at what's right there, look
at what's way over there, and because

387
00:32:59.599 --> 00:33:06.319
they would get ill, you know, and so and I think my favorite

388
00:33:06.359 --> 00:33:12.440
thing that I put it in one
of the books in that story was when

389
00:33:12.480 --> 00:33:17.079
the President of the United States lands
in h in Mount Vernon out on the

390
00:33:17.119 --> 00:33:22.279
Bowling Green in a helicopter and you
got it. You know, if you've

391
00:33:22.279 --> 00:33:27.039
ever heard one of those things,
they really make a huge amount of racket

392
00:33:27.119 --> 00:33:31.400
up close. And uh so you
can see him sitting in his his traditional

393
00:33:31.440 --> 00:33:37.920
home of Mount Vernon and he hears
some huge, god awful racket. And

394
00:33:38.400 --> 00:33:45.559
so that's another example of things.
So I spent a lot of time with

395
00:33:45.640 --> 00:33:50.359
that trying to figure out how to, you know, how to how would

396
00:33:51.640 --> 00:33:57.799
Washington react to those things? And
that's and that's like just so fascinating to

397
00:33:57.839 --> 00:34:01.480
even think about, because you even
think if modern if us right now we're

398
00:34:01.519 --> 00:34:07.240
transported that far into the future,
what kind of technologies are going to exist

399
00:34:07.400 --> 00:34:10.440
that we can't even haunt, Like, we can't even conceptualize what they would

400
00:34:10.440 --> 00:34:14.840
be like because we don't even have
that technology yet. It's like, what's

401
00:34:14.880 --> 00:34:19.559
the equivalent of the of the electricity
breakthrough? It's like those future technologies might

402
00:34:19.599 --> 00:34:23.000
seem like magic to us. And
that's also you know, it's it's uh,

403
00:34:23.280 --> 00:34:27.480
what is it compounding, it's exponential, So it's always going faster and

404
00:34:27.519 --> 00:34:35.559
faster. Check in science fiction.
But what about our politics. I'm really

405
00:34:35.599 --> 00:34:37.639
curious to talk to you about this
because this is kind of the big premise

406
00:34:37.639 --> 00:34:42.599
of the book, right, is
we have the politics that America was founded

407
00:34:42.639 --> 00:34:46.360
on versus where politics are at now. So where uh So, how much

408
00:34:46.360 --> 00:34:51.719
of it's similar and how much of
it's different. That's a great question,

409
00:34:52.400 --> 00:34:58.000
so uh to give to give your
listeners an idea that the premise of the

410
00:34:58.039 --> 00:35:05.320
book is that the political divisions that
we're seeing now don't get resolved. They

411
00:35:05.519 --> 00:35:08.679
escalate, and they move further and
further apart to the point that there's about

412
00:35:08.719 --> 00:35:14.880
to be a civil war. And
the president, Wade Harrison is the name.

413
00:35:14.920 --> 00:35:22.880
He's just been elected president and twenty
thirty six. It's in early February,

414
00:35:22.960 --> 00:35:29.360
so he's just been president a few
days and he's looking for some way

415
00:35:29.400 --> 00:35:34.760
to unite people, and he figured
that he needed to find somebody that everybody

416
00:35:34.800 --> 00:35:37.199
would listen to. And you know, I don't know about you. Can

417
00:35:37.239 --> 00:35:40.480
you think of anybody now that people
on the left and on the right would

418
00:35:40.480 --> 00:35:45.159
listen to. I think it would
need to be a superman like alien who

419
00:35:45.280 --> 00:35:52.039
came from planet Krypton who is a
non partisan demi god that people would listen

420
00:35:52.119 --> 00:35:57.440
to at this point, right,
And so he had time travel and so

421
00:35:57.519 --> 00:36:02.039
he thought, okay, let me
send a tea back to fire George Washington

422
00:36:02.079 --> 00:36:07.559
and try to get him to come
forward look at what's happening today and then

423
00:36:07.840 --> 00:36:14.320
make observations and you know, tell
everybody what and and so he uh uh.

424
00:36:14.760 --> 00:36:21.440
Two of the things he's really he
sees, which you know, we

425
00:36:21.480 --> 00:36:25.199
had no income tax back then.
We didn't have income tax until the early

426
00:36:25.840 --> 00:36:31.039
early nineteen hundreds, and so when
we started having the income tax, I

427
00:36:31.039 --> 00:36:34.719
mean, and they didn't want to
have a tax, because that's that's why

428
00:36:34.760 --> 00:36:37.679
they split up from Great Britain.
That's why they got a divorce, why

429
00:36:37.679 --> 00:36:42.440
they threw the t in the ocean, right exactly. There's a series on

430
00:36:42.559 --> 00:36:46.960
a new series on on Fox Nation, I think with Rob Low talking about

431
00:36:46.960 --> 00:36:53.039
that it looks look, it looks
really interesting. So the long of the

432
00:36:53.079 --> 00:36:57.000
short of it is he's going to
see several things. One, he's going

433
00:36:57.079 --> 00:37:06.199
to see a media that no longer
talks about the truth. It's well,

434
00:37:06.199 --> 00:37:12.960
it's not everybody's truth. They talk
about they have an agenda. When I

435
00:37:13.000 --> 00:37:17.679
was younger, you'd have the news
on the news, straightforward on the super

436
00:37:17.719 --> 00:37:22.599
board, and then you would have
political commentators after that. But it never

437
00:37:22.800 --> 00:37:27.679
entered into the broadcasting the news broadcast
it was. That was all just straight

438
00:37:27.840 --> 00:37:32.480
arrow. But that's for example,
there was a classic guy, Walter Cronkite,

439
00:37:32.559 --> 00:37:38.239
who was a newscast for many years
and you really couldn't tell if he

440
00:37:38.280 --> 00:37:44.039
was a Democrat or Republican. You
had no idea because he just gave the

441
00:37:44.079 --> 00:37:47.840
news and that's it, you know. But today y'all gets mixed up.

442
00:37:49.800 --> 00:37:57.039
And then one of the things that
I really am disappointed in that there's a

443
00:37:57.039 --> 00:38:01.400
lot of Americans who are more interested
in and their political party than they are

444
00:38:01.519 --> 00:38:06.920
their country. Yeah yeah, their
loyalty is their party, not their country.

445
00:38:07.119 --> 00:38:12.239
And on both sides, right yeah, And back then the parties were

446
00:38:12.320 --> 00:38:15.239
very different. We again, guys, I'm not a history buff, I'm

447
00:38:15.280 --> 00:38:20.679
a sci fi person. So we
had the Quakers and the Democrats, right,

448
00:38:21.360 --> 00:38:24.800
the Alicans came later, we did
we had oh my gosh, you

449
00:38:25.239 --> 00:38:30.480
text my memory now, Oh no, this is what we're saying. They

450
00:38:30.519 --> 00:38:37.400
had, They had federalists and anti
federalists, and what that was about was

451
00:38:37.440 --> 00:38:43.880
do we have a central leader,
central hub that coordinates all the different states.

452
00:38:44.239 --> 00:38:50.239
In the constitution, the last part
of the constitution, uh says all

453
00:38:50.280 --> 00:38:54.360
the other things are left to the
states. You know, it's not a

454
00:38:55.360 --> 00:39:00.039
list of what the government is charged
to do. Is a list of limitations

455
00:39:00.119 --> 00:39:04.480
on the government. This is what
they can do and nothing more than this

456
00:39:05.079 --> 00:39:10.679
and everything else left to the states
and so and the way it should be

457
00:39:10.880 --> 00:39:15.920
anything that's or at least the way
I see it. If your strict constitutional

458
00:39:15.039 --> 00:39:21.519
is then if it's not in the
constitution, then it should be managed by

459
00:39:21.519 --> 00:39:30.039
the states. And we've gone way
past that. Of course they would One

460
00:39:30.039 --> 00:39:35.599
of the things Washington would would note
would be the intrusiveness of the government today.

461
00:39:37.039 --> 00:39:39.840
And he would he would know that
the government has their figures and a

462
00:39:39.880 --> 00:39:45.480
lot of stuff that they shouldn't be
Historically, what was the limitations of the

463
00:39:45.519 --> 00:39:51.480
government that has changed from then to
now? Oh well, it was very

464
00:39:52.119 --> 00:39:59.679
finally defined the ideas that the the
legislative body and the executive body and the

465
00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:06.079
initial body were separate entities, and
they put them at odds to each other

466
00:40:06.199 --> 00:40:08.960
on purpose, so that if one
gets out of line, the other two

467
00:40:09.000 --> 00:40:16.159
will snap them back in place.
However, once political party becomes more important

468
00:40:16.280 --> 00:40:25.480
than the than the country, then
you see you see the three branches lining

469
00:40:25.639 --> 00:40:30.519
up differently, and you know,
you may have one branch that wants to

470
00:40:30.559 --> 00:40:34.679
go too far and the other one
the people in another branch or of the

471
00:40:34.719 --> 00:40:37.519
same political party. You say,
oh yeah, let's say let's and if

472
00:40:37.519 --> 00:40:46.559
they're not if they're they're not balanced
within each each uh uh, each part

473
00:40:46.599 --> 00:40:50.280
of the government, each third of
the government. If they're not balanced,

474
00:40:50.719 --> 00:40:54.480
then you're going to end up with
basically, for example, maybe the courts

475
00:40:55.320 --> 00:41:00.800
and the uh and the legislative branch
being in cahoots with each other. We

476
00:41:00.840 --> 00:41:05.480
want to ram this through, somebody's
going to challenge it, and there's Supreme

477
00:41:05.519 --> 00:41:09.519
Court is going to hold us up. I'm not It's good to support us,

478
00:41:09.639 --> 00:41:14.719
is what I mean. Yeah,
So, what I probably noticed right

479
00:41:14.760 --> 00:41:19.639
away that we do have these very
polarizing parties that are at odds with each

480
00:41:19.639 --> 00:41:22.079
other. And that was probably one
of the I have it. I have

481
00:41:22.119 --> 00:41:25.199
all the books here with me.
Again, guys, please check out these

482
00:41:25.199 --> 00:41:28.960
books. They're so much fun.
I got all four of them in the

483
00:41:29.039 --> 00:41:31.239
series. They're not too hard to
read. So again, if you have

484
00:41:31.599 --> 00:41:37.639
read more books on your UH New
Year's Resolution list this year, please check

485
00:41:37.639 --> 00:41:43.280
these out and we will be linking
where you can get them. And then

486
00:41:43.400 --> 00:41:47.360
the other thing I was just in
the middle of saying something is I totally

487
00:41:47.400 --> 00:41:51.880
lost my train of thought. Kim, go ahead, I do it all

488
00:41:51.920 --> 00:41:55.880
the time. What I was gonna
say is, as I was reading The

489
00:41:55.960 --> 00:42:04.159
Return of George Washington, that also
so covers the writing how they did everything

490
00:42:04.199 --> 00:42:07.800
with the Constitution and they had to
go sell it to each of the states.

491
00:42:07.719 --> 00:42:12.360
They did one thing that if they
had not done it, it would

492
00:42:12.360 --> 00:42:17.039
have never passed, and that is
within them to a man, every one

493
00:42:17.039 --> 00:42:21.920
of the founding fathers said, Okay, there are some things about this that

494
00:42:22.000 --> 00:42:24.480
I don't like, but I'm not
going to point that out. I'm just

495
00:42:24.519 --> 00:42:28.079
going to say this is the best
we can do, and I'm going to

496
00:42:28.119 --> 00:42:30.679
try to get them to approve it
because it's better than what we got now.

497
00:42:31.880 --> 00:42:37.079
And so that's how they sold it. But there was infighting that you

498
00:42:37.119 --> 00:42:40.000
would not believe. And I thought
when I was reading, I thought,

499
00:42:40.199 --> 00:42:45.559
Garling, this sounds like today.
And it's true that, you know,

500
00:42:45.599 --> 00:42:50.039
back then, they had people just
as passionate, just as convinced they were

501
00:42:50.119 --> 00:42:54.199
right, just as convinced that they
needed something. As a matter of fact,

502
00:42:54.239 --> 00:42:58.079
one of the first things that happened
was there was a group of folks

503
00:42:58.599 --> 00:43:02.079
wanted to do a carve out in
the constitution to give them special privileges.

504
00:43:02.920 --> 00:43:07.840
You know, the Constitution is supposed
to say everything applies to everybody, and

505
00:43:07.880 --> 00:43:13.280
they and yeah, and they wanted
they wanted a carve out, but they

506
00:43:13.400 --> 00:43:20.519
uh, and that's that's something I
will say that Washington had slaves. A

507
00:43:20.559 --> 00:43:23.960
lot of the founding fathers had slaves. There was no country in the world

508
00:43:24.000 --> 00:43:29.280
that did not have slaves back then. And it's important to know. Some

509
00:43:29.400 --> 00:43:34.800
people say that our country, you
know, was founded on slavery, but

510
00:43:34.920 --> 00:43:40.159
what they're not taking into account is
we were the first country to abolish slavery

511
00:43:40.239 --> 00:43:46.559
and then and what these guys did
helped it, right, these guys built

512
00:43:46.719 --> 00:43:52.079
a platform that would facilitate it.
Because there's automatically a question, well,

513
00:43:52.119 --> 00:43:54.440
okay, all men, Hey,
wait a minute, they got over there.

514
00:43:54.480 --> 00:43:59.119
He's he's a man, but he's
black. Why can't he But and

515
00:43:59.159 --> 00:44:04.199
so it started all the conversation that
oviginally led to our civil war, and

516
00:44:04.239 --> 00:44:08.000
then it was straightened out. And
then when women got the vote, because

517
00:44:08.239 --> 00:44:14.000
well, you know, shouldn't man
be a mean like humankind? If so,

518
00:44:14.000 --> 00:44:17.880
why wouldn't women be able to vote? Oh, started that conversation and

519
00:44:17.920 --> 00:44:22.519
it ended up being I'm sure to
add that it was the right thing.

520
00:44:22.639 --> 00:44:28.159
It was a good thing, absolutely, and that was so that was something

521
00:44:28.159 --> 00:44:31.320
interesting that you taught me earlier when
we were talking before we started recording,

522
00:44:31.519 --> 00:44:37.719
is I did not know this.
So previously, when our country has founded,

523
00:44:37.800 --> 00:44:40.719
you had to be a land owner
in order to be able to vote.

524
00:44:42.400 --> 00:44:45.800
It wasn't just you know, it
wasn't just men non slaves being able

525
00:44:45.840 --> 00:44:50.840
to vote. You had brought a
landowner specifically. So you know, even

526
00:44:50.840 --> 00:44:55.000
interesting that George didn't have the first
born son right to his lands. He

527
00:44:55.119 --> 00:45:00.239
kind of got some of his initial
wealth through Martha. And so that's interest

528
00:45:00.400 --> 00:45:07.320
to me how things have changed and
how that original intention with you had to

529
00:45:07.599 --> 00:45:10.559
own land in order to vote.
The intention behind it was so that people

530
00:45:10.599 --> 00:45:15.719
who were investing in their country would
be the ones making the voting decisions.

531
00:45:16.079 --> 00:45:22.400
And now it's it's changed it's every
everybody votes, well just not to but

532
00:45:22.440 --> 00:45:27.480
everybody can vote. Yeah. Some
people may look at that and say,

533
00:45:27.679 --> 00:45:30.639
well, why landowners, you know, and I see that a little bit

534
00:45:30.679 --> 00:45:37.480
differently. The reason they chose landowners
because it was an easy way to discern

535
00:45:38.159 --> 00:45:44.280
what they were looking for. And
but today's standards, the idea is that

536
00:45:44.320 --> 00:45:47.519
if you were a landowner, you
you kept a budget, you knew how

537
00:45:47.559 --> 00:45:53.159
to handle money, you knew about
borrowing money and getting paid back and that

538
00:45:53.239 --> 00:45:58.679
kind of stuff, and you learned
about investment. If you're not a landowner

539
00:45:59.159 --> 00:46:04.400
like data day worker who just goes
for a paycheck, who doesn't invest anything.

540
00:46:04.480 --> 00:46:07.800
Back in those days, they were
when you get right down to it,

541
00:46:07.800 --> 00:46:12.480
it wasn't they were looking for people
with money who owned a property.

542
00:46:12.480 --> 00:46:17.039
They were looking for people who were
educated, who understood what these things,

543
00:46:17.639 --> 00:46:23.679
understood what the struggles were to make
a country work. So I thought that

544
00:46:23.800 --> 00:46:28.000
was you know, I used to
think, well, that's not land owners,

545
00:46:28.000 --> 00:46:31.400
Well that's not that just that disenfranchises
the poor. Yeah, I don't

546
00:46:31.400 --> 00:46:36.559
have land, but it I'm a
little lineal i'mns have land for maybe ever,

547
00:46:37.239 --> 00:46:40.000
right, But that really wasn't what
it was about. I don't.

548
00:46:40.039 --> 00:46:45.159
In my opinion, it was they
were actually trying to make sure that people

549
00:46:45.280 --> 00:46:50.880
voted were people who were educated at
least about money, so they would understand

550
00:46:51.679 --> 00:46:57.480
how a country needs to work where
you know, about bringing in money and

551
00:46:58.280 --> 00:47:01.360
using that money to send it place. We're in the environment now right where

552
00:47:02.679 --> 00:47:12.760
during the Revolutionary War, the army
served almost without pay. They were promised

553
00:47:12.800 --> 00:47:19.440
pay, and Congress, the Continental
Congress, put levies out to all the

554
00:47:19.480 --> 00:47:23.760
states. All the states were supposed
to pay to help support the army.

555
00:47:24.000 --> 00:47:30.239
They only a fraction of what it
costs was actually given to them. So

556
00:47:30.920 --> 00:47:35.760
a lot of soldiers went without getting
paid. They should have been paid.

557
00:47:35.760 --> 00:47:38.840
They risked their life and everything,
but they never got paid. And so

558
00:47:38.960 --> 00:47:43.440
that so they were aware of that, right, so they're like, okay,

559
00:47:43.480 --> 00:47:46.599
we got to make sure that we
you know, I'm sure that Washington

560
00:47:46.679 --> 00:47:52.079
would have embraced a balanced budget for
example, you know, we don't spend

561
00:47:52.079 --> 00:47:54.599
money, we don't have well and
that's and that's just the thing is,

562
00:47:55.559 --> 00:48:00.920
it's you know, usually my episodes
are focused on, you know, the

563
00:48:00.079 --> 00:48:04.360
future, but it's like you can't
look at the future without looking at the

564
00:48:04.400 --> 00:48:08.440
past. And the cool thing is
is humans are always We've always been humans,

565
00:48:08.800 --> 00:48:13.559
and the way we've gone we've gone
about things or spoken about things.

566
00:48:13.840 --> 00:48:16.280
Maybe our language is a little different. But the system that they were trying

567
00:48:16.320 --> 00:48:22.960
to build in was a system of
creating discernment. So with that said,

568
00:48:22.360 --> 00:48:29.639
there's a lot of interesting I guess, so I can't say that word social

569
00:48:29.800 --> 00:48:35.280
ideologies and the seventeen hundreds that are
kind of explored in your book. What

570
00:48:35.519 --> 00:48:40.039
are some of these ideologies or core
political beliefs that you think could really stand

571
00:48:40.639 --> 00:48:45.039
the test of time and be applicable
to our modern era. Maybe we have

572
00:48:45.119 --> 00:48:49.599
to change some of the language around
it, Like instead of being a landowner,

573
00:48:49.800 --> 00:48:53.880
maybe you have to be a person
of discernment. Like you kind of

574
00:48:53.880 --> 00:49:00.840
get where I'm going here, right
right, yeah, I in today's world,

575
00:49:00.360 --> 00:49:04.599
I don't know, this comes kind
of like to your gut check,

576
00:49:04.679 --> 00:49:09.239
right, your reality check. But
in today's world, it'd be really hard

577
00:49:09.280 --> 00:49:16.039
to take voting rights away from somebody
because because they're not very smart. Okay,

578
00:49:16.960 --> 00:49:24.639
because they're not at all. But
but there's I think the idea.

579
00:49:28.519 --> 00:49:31.760
I can't remember if this was before
we before we interviewed, or after,

580
00:49:31.920 --> 00:49:38.199
but Washington, in his farewell address
from as President said, he said two

581
00:49:38.320 --> 00:49:44.760
things. He said, beware political
parties. We all know how that turned

582
00:49:44.800 --> 00:49:50.000
out. And he also said another
one that'd be really something to think about

583
00:49:50.079 --> 00:49:57.360
today. He said, beware foreign
foreign entanglements, you know, making alliances

584
00:49:58.000 --> 00:50:01.559
that don't benefit our country. And
if you look at both of those things,

585
00:50:01.559 --> 00:50:05.400
and he said, god, lead, does he have a time machine

586
00:50:05.480 --> 00:50:10.000
himself that he could come for and
see that. Oh maybe maybe he did

587
00:50:10.079 --> 00:50:15.960
come into the future and went back
with that in mind, right, Yeah,

588
00:50:15.960 --> 00:50:22.519
but go ahead. I was just
gonna say, so, with the

589
00:50:22.559 --> 00:50:25.000
things that are going on today,
here's the thought I wanted wanted to throw

590
00:50:25.039 --> 00:50:35.639
out there. If George Washington came
from seventeen eighty seven to the future and

591
00:50:36.239 --> 00:50:44.519
to the twenty thirty sevens okay,
and he gets killed or assassinated so he

592
00:50:44.639 --> 00:50:52.239
doesn't go back to seventeen eighty seven, doesn't participate in the Constitution, it

593
00:50:52.440 --> 00:51:00.119
likely doesn't pass. Then all that
we have now is not what we're going

594
00:51:00.159 --> 00:51:09.880
to end up with. So what
foreign powers would benefit by assassinating Washington?

595
00:51:12.960 --> 00:51:15.760
Well, I could think of three
off the top of my head. I

596
00:51:15.800 --> 00:51:20.039
can think of Russia, I can
think of China, I can think of

597
00:51:20.199 --> 00:51:29.760
Iran, that is book three and
four. Well, I think, yeah,

598
00:51:30.079 --> 00:51:34.320
that part of the plot develops in
those books. Yet, so and

599
00:51:34.400 --> 00:51:38.679
you know, there would be a
lot of people who were One of the

600
00:51:38.719 --> 00:51:44.920
things I wrote down to think about
while I was writing the book was,

601
00:51:45.239 --> 00:51:49.400
Okay, who would not want George
Washington to come and change the way we

602
00:51:49.440 --> 00:51:53.360
do things? And I mean,
I'm sure we have a ton of people

603
00:51:54.119 --> 00:51:59.599
in government who like it where they
are to make a good money and they

604
00:51:59.599 --> 00:52:04.760
don't want to give it up.
And so what would they be afraid for

605
00:52:05.039 --> 00:52:08.960
George Washington to say? And what
to what lenks would they go to prevent

606
00:52:09.079 --> 00:52:15.000
him from succeeding? Now, there's
a lot of ideas there, you know.

607
00:52:15.039 --> 00:52:20.760
I thought about organized crime and opposition
party, whoever they may be,

608
00:52:22.239 --> 00:52:28.519
and for those who wandered by politics, I try to stay away from from

609
00:52:28.519 --> 00:52:31.679
positions of one side or the other. I just try to. I actually

610
00:52:31.760 --> 00:52:39.760
talked about the the majority party in
the UH and the minority party. As

611
00:52:39.800 --> 00:52:45.079
I talk about them, I don't
say who they are. It's irrelevant.

612
00:52:45.800 --> 00:52:52.519
There are bad actors all over the
place and with different philosophies of government,

613
00:52:52.639 --> 00:52:57.800
and so who would not want him
to succeed? So when I started thinking

614
00:52:57.840 --> 00:53:02.599
about that. I thought, how
would how would they act act some of

615
00:53:02.639 --> 00:53:09.360
these things? And and I would
If you want to see something interesting about

616
00:53:09.440 --> 00:53:19.079
science, go look up google the
Jetson one and it is a car.

617
00:53:19.239 --> 00:53:28.960
Remember George Jetson the cartoon with a
little flying car. So they developed a

618
00:53:28.960 --> 00:53:34.880
a little car not a car,
but it actually is a little flying car

619
00:53:35.440 --> 00:53:42.440
with it's all electric and it has
fans like a drum. And it's a

620
00:53:42.480 --> 00:53:46.920
one man deal, one person or
one woman deal. Well, it carries

621
00:53:46.960 --> 00:53:53.480
one person and it's a recreation recreation
vehicle basically because you can go about thirty

622
00:53:53.519 --> 00:53:58.159
minutes on one charge. You know, that's where they are today, but

623
00:53:58.199 --> 00:54:01.360
they're working on it. And I
I took that and decided to use it

624
00:54:02.159 --> 00:54:05.639
in the book. And then I
said, you know, if I use

625
00:54:05.719 --> 00:54:09.760
that, I'm going to get sued
somehow for something. So I changed the

626
00:54:09.880 --> 00:54:13.719
name of it. But if you
want to see what I was looking at,

627
00:54:13.800 --> 00:54:17.360
look at the Jetsum one. It's
remarkable. They have some great and

628
00:54:17.400 --> 00:54:22.079
I think you can buy one for
about eighty grand. That's not on my

629
00:54:22.159 --> 00:54:28.679
list right now, maybe later,
So I don't know. I'm just now

630
00:54:28.800 --> 00:54:31.719
just thinking about like flying cars like, we need to do an episode on

631
00:54:31.760 --> 00:54:35.559
that. I keep thinking my Back
to the Future car, but like Back

632
00:54:35.559 --> 00:54:37.159
to the Future too, when it
flies and it runs on garbage. Yeah,

633
00:54:37.280 --> 00:54:40.519
that's that's the key, when it's
running on gard That was pretty awesome.

634
00:54:40.599 --> 00:54:44.920
That was pretty awesome. That was
a fun one, And you just

635
00:54:45.039 --> 00:54:49.079
touched on why I went to the
twenty five year rule to twenty five year

636
00:54:49.159 --> 00:54:53.800
multiple. The reason I went to
that was there's a scene in Back to

637
00:54:53.880 --> 00:54:59.960
the Future where Marty mcflyigg says something
like a I don't know how I'm gonna

638
00:55:00.320 --> 00:55:02.320
Oh wait, I have a time
machine. I could do anything I want.

639
00:55:02.400 --> 00:55:07.280
I can fix anything I want.
And that's exactly what I did not

640
00:55:07.480 --> 00:55:12.440
want. I wanted some urgency.
You know, you can only have so

641
00:55:12.519 --> 00:55:15.480
many times you can go back and
try to fix something before it's too late.

642
00:55:16.559 --> 00:55:20.360
So that's why I went with it. Oh and that's great, Yeah,

643
00:55:20.440 --> 00:55:22.840
because I have always thought about that. It's like, man, if

644
00:55:22.840 --> 00:55:27.840
you had a time machine, you
could you know, even if you need

645
00:55:27.880 --> 00:55:31.079
to practice giving a presentation, it's
like you can practice giving it. It's

646
00:55:31.079 --> 00:55:34.480
like, Okay, I didn't really
like my delivery that way, Let's go

647
00:55:34.519 --> 00:55:37.000
back in time. Let's redo it
and we'll redo the wording, and it

648
00:55:37.159 --> 00:55:40.960
just I think if you have like
sort of like an unlimited use time like

649
00:55:42.119 --> 00:55:47.840
free range time machine, it really
kind of eliminates that stress and pressure that

650
00:55:49.559 --> 00:55:52.480
makes us human. And it's sort
of like this Groundhog Day where you can

651
00:55:52.519 --> 00:55:58.360
just make infinite mistakes and then nothing
matters. But that's not reality. That's

652
00:55:58.519 --> 00:56:01.440
you know, I like the there
is urgency here. You know, Washington

653
00:56:01.559 --> 00:56:05.679
does need to show up and prevent
us from this. You know, we're

654
00:56:05.679 --> 00:56:09.519
on the precipice of another civil war
here in the twenty thirties, and you

655
00:56:09.519 --> 00:56:12.960
know, by the time we air
this episode, it's we're going to be

656
00:56:13.000 --> 00:56:15.320
in January. It's going to be
an election year. And I know that

657
00:56:15.440 --> 00:56:20.440
a lot of I have listeners all
over the world, but I know a

658
00:56:20.440 --> 00:56:25.480
lot of American audiences do get nervous
around this every four years, and a

659
00:56:25.480 --> 00:56:30.199
lot of the rest of the world
sitting there holding their breath. So,

660
00:56:30.559 --> 00:56:36.400
if we were to transport Washington or
any of the Founding fathers here today,

661
00:56:37.079 --> 00:56:43.400
what do you think would be some
of their core values or intentions that they

662
00:56:43.400 --> 00:56:46.480
would really want to communicate to modern
day people to help kind of fix some

663
00:56:46.599 --> 00:56:54.880
of our current political issues. Well, I think they would look at a

664
00:56:54.920 --> 00:57:00.400
lot of the things we're doing today
and realize that government has seriously overstepped their

665
00:57:00.400 --> 00:57:09.320
balance. They have uh back in
the history when they when they wrote the

666
00:57:09.360 --> 00:57:14.079
constitution, then they had to go
sell it to all the states to get

667
00:57:14.119 --> 00:57:19.800
them to sign off on it before
they could have a union. And uh

668
00:57:19.840 --> 00:57:24.679
so one of the big problems that
other people had with it was they had

669
00:57:24.880 --> 00:57:30.559
just had an oppressive government. Uh
and they just threw that government off.

670
00:57:30.400 --> 00:57:37.519
And that's why they had the Articles
of Confederation because it was much looser thing.

671
00:57:38.159 --> 00:57:44.360
But the problem is it didn't it
didn't have the ability. Uh.

672
00:57:44.480 --> 00:57:49.039
Number one. What one of the
things Washington was worried about is the articles

673
00:57:49.159 --> 00:57:52.400
are not strong enough for us to
be able to field an army if we

674
00:57:52.559 --> 00:57:57.519
have to defend ourselves agap uh you
know, uh, God forbid the Spanish,

675
00:57:57.559 --> 00:58:02.360
the French, and and you know
about fifteen years later, not fifteen,

676
00:58:04.519 --> 00:58:07.840
about twenty five years later, we
had a war with England. And

677
00:58:07.880 --> 00:58:12.679
so we would not have survived that
if they had not had a stronger government.

678
00:58:13.360 --> 00:58:16.599
And the people were not interested in
that, so they made That's why

679
00:58:16.639 --> 00:58:22.400
they made sure to make the Constitution
a list of things that the government that

680
00:58:22.440 --> 00:58:29.679
the that the people will allow the
government to do. And and then the

681
00:58:29.760 --> 00:58:37.360
last article says something about other All
other powers and laws are of the preview.

682
00:58:37.119 --> 00:58:39.840
Purview, I think is the word, the purview of the states.

683
00:58:40.280 --> 00:58:46.199
Does the states get to make that
decision. That's for example, when Roe

684
00:58:46.280 --> 00:58:52.599
versus Way got overturned, they didn't
say it shouldn't be a law. They

685
00:58:52.679 --> 00:58:58.599
said it's not in the constitution.
The states need to make their decision about

686
00:58:58.599 --> 00:59:04.800
that, which is exactly what's supposed
to happen in the constitution. So so,

687
00:59:05.119 --> 00:59:07.280
uh, you know, I whether
that's the victory, a victory or

688
00:59:07.320 --> 00:59:13.000
a defeat, you know, it
depends on your political persuasion and your thoughts

689
00:59:13.039 --> 00:59:20.280
about abortion, right, But that
was the decision really was the easy one

690
00:59:20.719 --> 00:59:24.440
for although it was politically messy,
it was an easy one to make because

691
00:59:24.599 --> 00:59:30.159
not in the constitution, so therefore
it must be regulated by the state.

692
00:59:30.480 --> 00:59:37.719
So we have we have fifty laboratories
democratic laboratories out there that we use.

693
00:59:38.360 --> 00:59:43.719
And when one state does something really
well, then the other states see it.

694
00:59:43.760 --> 00:59:47.559
Go that's a good idea. I
saw one good idea, and I

695
00:59:47.599 --> 00:59:57.079
think it is Alaska who's picked it
up is called I can't remember the exactly,

696
00:59:57.280 --> 01:00:02.280
but it's about voting and instead when
you you vote, no matter where

697
01:00:02.320 --> 01:00:07.000
you are in the country, it's
managed by the state, but you vote

698
01:00:07.000 --> 01:00:15.639
for the top five people and you
recommend order. Right. So then when

699
01:00:15.719 --> 01:00:21.960
they start scoring the election, they
see where everybody fits in. Everybody,

700
01:00:22.000 --> 01:00:24.039
you know, who are all the
first places. They just look at the

701
01:00:24.079 --> 01:00:29.320
first places and just count all those
and see where they land. Okay,

702
01:00:29.679 --> 01:00:34.760
then the one that gets the least
vote is dropped out, and then they

703
01:00:34.760 --> 01:00:38.679
look at the second choices of everybody
and add their vote see to the total,

704
01:00:40.159 --> 01:00:45.480
and then again the lowest ones dropped
out, So you end up with

705
01:00:45.679 --> 01:00:52.679
someone who almost always know I think
they discerned that always they would get more

706
01:00:52.719 --> 01:00:58.559
than fifty percent of the vote.
And that's the big fight we have about

707
01:00:58.559 --> 01:01:05.000
electoral college, right. So,
uh uh so I read about that other

708
01:01:05.199 --> 01:01:07.519
I went, oh, that's a
good idea. Yeah, that's really interesting.

709
01:01:07.559 --> 01:01:10.400
I'll have to look into that more. I'll try to find the link

710
01:01:10.480 --> 01:01:15.920
and send it to you. Yeah, that'd be that. There's a really

711
01:01:15.079 --> 01:01:22.519
interesting idea. So uh so that
takes the political parties out of it.

712
01:01:22.960 --> 01:01:27.719
They don't they don't nominate. I
mean, everybody who's running for president gets

713
01:01:27.719 --> 01:01:31.960
to run. Everybody who qualifies to
run gets to run. And then they

714
01:01:32.159 --> 01:01:37.639
uh, you know, and then
you score the top five and and and

715
01:01:37.719 --> 01:01:44.599
you vote once for five people,
your five choices. This guy interesting.

716
01:01:45.119 --> 01:01:47.920
Yeah, so uh and I looked
at it. I went, what a

717
01:01:47.960 --> 01:01:52.920
great idea, you know, And
it takes the it takes the electoral college

718
01:01:52.920 --> 01:01:58.519
out of it. You know.
Right now there's a big fight about people

719
01:01:58.559 --> 01:02:05.679
who win the electoral college but don't
win the popular But that's happened four or

720
01:02:05.679 --> 01:02:09.079
five times in the last ten elections. I think several times. I know,

721
01:02:09.199 --> 01:02:15.679
Trump beat Hillary without without having a
majority of the country. He had

722
01:02:15.760 --> 01:02:22.880
fewer votes, but he uh,
he took great care to go to all

723
01:02:22.960 --> 01:02:28.079
the states, which she did not
do. And uh. And there are

724
01:02:28.079 --> 01:02:34.960
other reasons too, of course.
But and I think same thing happened to

725
01:02:35.039 --> 01:02:38.079
somebody regionally. I can't remember who
it was. There was somebody you wouldn't

726
01:02:38.079 --> 01:02:43.119
expect. Yeah. But but the
whole idea is that's why a lot of

727
01:02:43.159 --> 01:02:46.559
people are saying, get rid of
the uh, get rid of the electoral

728
01:02:46.599 --> 01:02:53.360
college. But the electoral college is
designed so that all the states have a

729
01:02:53.440 --> 01:03:00.119
say, and uh they uh,
you know, they have more representatives and

730
01:03:00.199 --> 01:03:09.159
the bigger states. But if you
if you take away the electoral college,

731
01:03:09.239 --> 01:03:20.000
just go by by the just the
vote count, then the big cities determine

732
01:03:20.039 --> 01:03:23.440
who's the who's the president, and
and you know, like I mean,

733
01:03:23.960 --> 01:03:28.880
God blessed little North Dakota, right, they don't have that many they got

734
01:03:28.880 --> 01:03:34.159
I think they got one representative and
two senators, you know, and but

735
01:03:34.199 --> 01:03:38.199
they got a lot of people there
who but not that many, but their

736
01:03:38.280 --> 01:03:44.920
state would be impacted no matter who's
president. So yeah, that was the

737
01:03:44.960 --> 01:03:47.480
idea for the electoral college, and
I think it's worked pretty well so far.

738
01:03:49.079 --> 01:03:55.000
Yeah, Kim, this question a
really interesting conversation. I definitely feel

739
01:03:55.000 --> 01:04:00.480
like the wheels in my head are
turning, and I feel like my curiosity

740
01:04:00.639 --> 01:04:05.360
is being kind of peaked for me
to learn more about history and politics.

741
01:04:05.960 --> 01:04:10.360
I will openly admit these are not
my strong suits. I'm kind of like

742
01:04:10.480 --> 01:04:15.639
a science and technology nerd. But
again, I do not deserve to invest

743
01:04:16.119 --> 01:04:20.000
my knowledge into science and technology if
I'm going to ignore history and politics,

744
01:04:20.039 --> 01:04:24.960
because they are very intertwined and they're
very important to pay attention to. All

745
01:04:24.960 --> 01:04:29.079
of them. We are getting close
to our reality check moment, but I

746
01:04:29.119 --> 01:04:32.239
just want to ask you if there's
anything else that you wanted to add in

747
01:04:32.320 --> 01:04:38.119
that you think is relevant to our
discussion or bringing your story to life before

748
01:04:38.159 --> 01:04:43.599
we get to our reality check moment. Well, it's kind of a logistic

749
01:04:43.599 --> 01:04:47.760
there. I wrote it as you
see, before I wrote four standalone novels.

750
01:04:48.239 --> 01:04:53.239
I wrote this as a series because
you know, every time you journal

751
01:04:53.239 --> 01:04:57.239
on the television, they're advertising some
series you know that they're doing, like

752
01:04:57.320 --> 01:05:02.400
Reacher is the big one right now, and it's several different episodes that they

753
01:05:02.639 --> 01:05:06.039
you know, put on weekly,
you know, And so that I was

754
01:05:06.079 --> 01:05:10.760
thinking what I'd like for somebody to
pick this up and make this a series,

755
01:05:10.840 --> 01:05:15.880
And so I just kind of naturally
tied them together and broke them up

756
01:05:15.920 --> 01:05:20.440
that way. It was it was
a lot harder to do as a series

757
01:05:20.480 --> 01:05:28.039
than I thought it was because they're
not stand alone. So if you wait

758
01:05:28.079 --> 01:05:32.159
a long time between them, between
reading them, then you lose the chain

759
01:05:32.239 --> 01:05:36.519
of all the people. That's why
I put you know, a lot of

760
01:05:36.519 --> 01:05:43.239
books have maybe ten characters all together. Well I've got dozens, uh,

761
01:05:43.719 --> 01:05:48.480
and you can really nice what's it
called in the beginning the cast and character,

762
01:05:48.639 --> 01:05:53.599
so we refer to them, you
know, through the whole book,

763
01:05:53.639 --> 01:05:57.920
which is really put. I put
that because I knew I didn't want to

764
01:05:58.000 --> 01:06:02.400
leave anybody sitting there think who is
that now and start so, oh,

765
01:06:02.719 --> 01:06:04.880
maybe it was one of in one
of the other books. Only go what

766
01:06:04.880 --> 01:06:08.719
did I do with that book?
You know? Oh, I loaned it

767
01:06:08.719 --> 01:06:11.920
out. Oh no, And if
you have the kindle edition, you can

768
01:06:11.960 --> 01:06:15.480
just click their character name and it'll
pop up with the box and remind you

769
01:06:15.519 --> 01:06:16.440
of who they were. Or if
you have a physical book, you can

770
01:06:16.519 --> 01:06:21.480
just flip the first page and they're
all right there behind her right. And

771
01:06:24.039 --> 01:06:30.480
so I think that as an author, I had a really good time doing

772
01:06:30.559 --> 01:06:36.000
I learned a lot, and I
feel I have the utmost respect for George

773
01:06:36.039 --> 01:06:39.760
Washington at this point. And one
of my challenges, of course, that

774
01:06:39.840 --> 01:06:45.880
I told you, was to make
him human and be a human man with

775
01:06:45.039 --> 01:06:50.920
faults, but also treating him with
the respect he deserves. That was a

776
01:06:50.920 --> 01:07:00.440
hard line to follow. I did. There is a there's one interview with

777
01:07:00.480 --> 01:07:04.880
a member of the hostile press with
George Washington that I thought it took a

778
01:07:04.920 --> 01:07:09.199
long time to write, but I
think it's pretty well done. So we'll

779
01:07:09.199 --> 01:07:14.840
see what happens. People hope people. I hope people will comment. I

780
01:07:14.840 --> 01:07:16.679
hope they'll you know, do me
a review and you know, loved it,

781
01:07:16.760 --> 01:07:21.400
hated whatever, but just let me
know what you think, because I

782
01:07:21.519 --> 01:07:26.679
learned more from that than I do
from anything else. And I have a

783
01:07:26.679 --> 01:07:30.920
couple of guys I can count on
a couple of my readers that have read

784
01:07:30.960 --> 01:07:33.679
all the books and they give them
good reviews, and they'll send me a

785
01:07:33.679 --> 01:07:38.599
private messagecy i' found a typo on
this page, you know, also,

786
01:07:39.320 --> 01:07:43.000
which I'm grateful. I go in
and fix them, you know. Yeah.

787
01:07:43.039 --> 01:07:45.880
No, I kind of feel similar
with YouTube. I have I have

788
01:07:45.039 --> 01:07:48.119
positive comments there a wow, these
interviews are so interesting, and I have

789
01:07:48.159 --> 01:07:54.639
negative comments where people, uh,
you know, they were expecting different content

790
01:07:54.760 --> 01:08:00.800
and they're disappointed because they wanted more
science and less you know, science fiction,

791
01:08:00.079 --> 01:08:02.920
or they wanted more fiction and less
science. You know, it's it

792
01:08:02.960 --> 01:08:08.559
can't it can't be perfect. But
you know what is going to be perfect

793
01:08:08.760 --> 01:08:13.960
is your reality check score. So
here we go, miss the time.

794
01:08:15.039 --> 01:08:20.199
So how likely would it be for
a founding father to be able to rectify

795
01:08:20.840 --> 01:08:27.800
modern problems in politics using our reality
check score. You're up, Cana.

796
01:08:28.439 --> 01:08:31.600
That's a really good question. Uh. Well, first, there's obvious say

797
01:08:31.640 --> 01:08:39.000
that time travel has to exist.
But the other thing is when you look

798
01:08:39.039 --> 01:08:44.920
around today at the members are of
our government. Uh, it is my

799
01:08:45.159 --> 01:08:49.479
humble opinion that way too many of
them a concern with the political parties than

800
01:08:49.520 --> 01:08:55.199
they are the actual thing of the
government. So I would see, I

801
01:08:55.239 --> 01:09:00.000
would think that a founding father would
have an impact, but it wouldn't fix

802
01:09:00.039 --> 01:09:03.319
all the problems, and it wouldn't
come close. There would be a lot

803
01:09:03.359 --> 01:09:08.039
of people who had come up to
say, for example, oh, yeah,

804
01:09:08.079 --> 01:09:11.159
he's he's from two hundred years ago. He doesn't know, he doesn't

805
01:09:11.239 --> 01:09:16.079
understand anything about modern stuff. Right, although a lot of the same rules

806
01:09:16.239 --> 01:09:21.760
of of finance, all that kind
of stuff, that's still valid rules.

807
01:09:21.880 --> 01:09:30.640
But a lot of people talk about
modern modern money. Uh modern money theory,

808
01:09:30.760 --> 01:09:33.600
that's the best way to say it. And uh and as all bs

809
01:09:34.920 --> 01:09:41.319
that stuff doesn't change, it's still
the same and uh so uh, I

810
01:09:41.359 --> 01:09:45.439
mean you spend more money that did
you got Eventually there're gonna be consequences,

811
01:09:45.479 --> 01:09:50.399
so I think, But I think
there's still people who would make excuses and

812
01:09:50.439 --> 01:09:57.279
say not so I'm gonna say too, if you have if you have time

813
01:09:57.359 --> 01:10:00.800
travel, assuming you have time travel, I'd say like two, they would

814
01:10:00.840 --> 01:10:04.520
be able. Some people would listen. Some people who really wanted to know

815
01:10:04.640 --> 01:10:10.680
and really wanted to understand would listen
to what he said and weigh at and

816
01:10:12.399 --> 01:10:18.880
uh and then the act accordingly.
But there are people out there now who

817
01:10:19.760 --> 01:10:27.199
are entrenched in what they call the
deep state, And what they really are

818
01:10:27.279 --> 01:10:31.039
is they're entrenched on not a particular
party, but keeping things like they are

819
01:10:31.319 --> 01:10:35.119
for them because they found a way
to make a lot of money and be

820
01:10:35.279 --> 01:10:41.800
comfortable, and you know, stroke
their ego like being a leader, being

821
01:10:41.880 --> 01:10:49.159
in charge, being considered a great
thinker. They are invested in that.

822
01:10:49.600 --> 01:10:54.560
Yeah, the opposite of the servant
leader we talked about earlier. That's you

823
01:10:54.600 --> 01:10:57.239
know, and that's just a reminder
to all of us. You know,

824
01:10:57.319 --> 01:11:00.960
if if even George Washington, if
we had a machine and George Washington himself

825
01:11:00.960 --> 01:11:05.000
could come back and talk to us, there would still be you know,

826
01:11:05.039 --> 01:11:10.119
there'd be the naysayers and the negativity. And that's a reminder that the majority

827
01:11:10.159 --> 01:11:13.800
of the change has to come from
us. And I'm chuckling because I always

828
01:11:13.840 --> 01:11:16.439
get to this cheesy moment on these
shows where every single time I'm just like,

829
01:11:16.520 --> 01:11:19.840
hey, guys, you know,
changes up to us. It's in

830
01:11:20.079 --> 01:11:25.800
our teachers to do their best job
taking care of the children. It's in

831
01:11:25.840 --> 01:11:30.640
the parents to instill good values.
It's in the scientists to practice ethical science.

832
01:11:30.680 --> 01:11:34.880
It's in right every single person's job
to do your best. And no

833
01:11:34.960 --> 01:11:40.199
matter where you're at in this world, if you're a politician or if you

834
01:11:40.359 --> 01:11:45.079
are a school a college student,
you can still make an impact in the

835
01:11:45.119 --> 01:11:49.039
sphere around you by being a good, virtuous person and taking care of the

836
01:11:49.079 --> 01:11:55.000
people in your circle. And that's
how we're really truly going to make change

837
01:11:55.039 --> 01:11:58.439
because at the end of the day, like we don't have a time machine,

838
01:11:58.479 --> 01:12:01.960
we can't travel to a different place
and fix things. All we can

839
01:12:02.039 --> 01:12:08.800
do is fix what we have in
this present time. With what we have,

840
01:12:10.199 --> 01:12:13.119
I could could have said it better
myself. I'm going to go back

841
01:12:13.159 --> 01:12:16.119
to this podcast or write some of
that down. Thank you so much,

842
01:12:16.159 --> 01:12:20.439
that man, good stef Thank you. So if people do want to buy

843
01:12:20.479 --> 01:12:25.159
your book or of course you know
so authors. This is a big deal,

844
01:12:25.199 --> 01:12:28.279
guys. I'm going to give Kim
a plug for him, so he

845
01:12:28.319 --> 01:12:31.560
doesn't have to do it for himself. Reviews are a big deal because people

846
01:12:31.600 --> 01:12:35.760
are not going to discover books like
this unless you write a review. If

847
01:12:35.800 --> 01:12:40.119
you are listening to this and you're
part of a book club, try to

848
01:12:40.199 --> 01:12:43.760
get your book involved in your book
club. Talk to your local library.

849
01:12:43.800 --> 01:12:46.640
Make sure that this book is at
your local library, because the fact of

850
01:12:46.640 --> 01:12:53.279
the matter is that a lot of
authors out there like Kim write beautiful masterpieces.

851
01:12:53.279 --> 01:12:57.239
And I'm really enjoying this. It's
well written, the characters, it's

852
01:12:57.319 --> 01:13:00.560
easy to read. It's a fun
sci fi. It's not as deep and

853
01:13:00.640 --> 01:13:04.039
complex is something like done our hyperion, but it's not. I wouldn't say

854
01:13:04.039 --> 01:13:08.439
it's like a young adult either.
It's very well written, it's easy to

855
01:13:08.439 --> 01:13:12.039
read, and it's relatable. And
we're not going to get books like this

856
01:13:12.239 --> 01:13:15.560
discovered unless I'm doing my cheesy thing
again, like we can do it,

857
01:13:15.640 --> 01:13:19.680
guys, unless you people like you
and I try and get more of these

858
01:13:19.840 --> 01:13:23.800
smaller books, promote it. And
I think it's a great book, and

859
01:13:23.840 --> 01:13:27.720
I would love for you guys to
read it, write reviews on Goodreads,

860
01:13:27.760 --> 01:13:30.720
Amazon, Kim, take it away. Where else can they find you or

861
01:13:30.760 --> 01:13:36.079
your book? Well, mostly on
Amazon, they could go to my website

862
01:13:36.600 --> 01:13:41.960
and get more information. I have
a section on myself which more I look

863
01:13:41.960 --> 01:13:46.560
at, the more I think it's
too much information, but I had I

864
01:13:46.600 --> 01:13:54.199
actually made a couple of pages that
are not showing currently, but one was

865
01:13:54.239 --> 01:13:58.039
about the names I used in the
story because all the names, almost all

866
01:13:58.039 --> 01:14:01.800
of the names come from my path. There there people I admired, or

867
01:14:01.840 --> 01:14:11.680
people I knew or whatever. And
most of the places are places I have

868
01:14:11.920 --> 01:14:17.359
been to. I've actually been there
that I got one scene in Finland where

869
01:14:17.359 --> 01:14:19.960
I was there. I was there
as an excent. I worked for Eccentric

870
01:14:20.039 --> 01:14:23.800
at the time, and I was
on the job there in Finland, and

871
01:14:24.359 --> 01:14:27.279
I thought this would be a good
place for a story, you know,

872
01:14:27.399 --> 01:14:30.760
and and I tucked it away and
it was like ten years before I came

873
01:14:30.800 --> 01:14:35.680
back to it. But but that, you know, just different places where

874
01:14:35.680 --> 01:14:40.359
I've had stuff. In Virginia,
you know, I've been to Mount Vernon

875
01:14:40.439 --> 01:14:45.439
many times. Beautiful place. It
is a beautiful place. And my first

876
01:14:45.439 --> 01:14:50.960
book takes place mostly inside of an
office tower. And it was actually the

877
01:14:51.000 --> 01:14:57.079
building that I used to be in
data security for Bell South, and it

878
01:14:57.239 --> 01:15:00.239
was the building the model for the
building is the old Sauce Center in downtown

879
01:15:00.279 --> 01:15:04.520
Atlanta, and anybody who's been there. I mean, I was in the

880
01:15:04.560 --> 01:15:09.800
security department for a while. Mostly
most of my career was as a programmer,

881
01:15:10.319 --> 01:15:15.239
but they drafted me to help help
catch hackers. And one of the

882
01:15:15.239 --> 01:15:19.039
things I ended up doing a lot
of times was doing security evaluations of different

883
01:15:19.039 --> 01:15:24.239
places in the building. And so
most of the places in the building are

884
01:15:24.239 --> 01:15:28.720
places most people can't see, but
we saw it and uh and they were

885
01:15:28.760 --> 01:15:31.760
perfect. I got all kinds of
ideas walking around the building, look at

886
01:15:31.800 --> 01:15:35.079
this stuff. Oh, that'd be
cool, you know, it's fun.

887
01:15:35.119 --> 01:15:39.840
Thank you so much for giving us
a window into your creative process. And

888
01:15:40.079 --> 01:15:45.079
hopefully you can serve as an inspiration
to others who were who are trying to

889
01:15:45.079 --> 01:15:47.239
be creative themselves. And you can
take you know, you can take from

890
01:15:47.239 --> 01:15:51.520
your surroundings in the world that you
are living in right now. So thank

891
01:15:51.560 --> 01:15:55.920
you so much for listening. Everybody. If you have anything that you would

892
01:15:55.960 --> 01:16:00.000
have added to this conversation, I
know it's political, so I'm sure all

893
01:16:00.039 --> 01:16:01.960
all of you have a lot of
that you would want to say, please

894
01:16:02.039 --> 01:16:06.159
leave a comment and let us know. Until next time, everyone, thank

895
01:16:06.159 --> 01:16:10.119
you for listening. To check the
science