An Army of Normal Folks - Favorite Nonfiction Books

Episode Date: July 25, 2025

For Shop Talk, Bill and Alex reflect on 4 of their favorite nonfiction books. What's yours?! Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey everybody, it's Bill Courtney. Welcome to Shop Talk Number 62. Welcome into the shop, Alex. Thank you, Bill. I want to show you to this back corner of the shop. I've made an addition back here in the back corner. You want to see it? Want to walk back here with me and see the new corner in the shop? Sure. It's the bookshelf.

Oh, nice. I thought you were going to say my own cigar chair after last week's. No, but I was going to tell you back in the corner where the bookshelf is, I have you a very nice comfy chair where you can see the whole room from there. Actually once your house renovations are done, if they're ever done, that's when you need to work on next, like a smoking room. There will never be done. Have you ever met Lisa? Like ventilation? There's no such thing as finished. Yeah, just keep going Well, maybe just add the smoking room in there. I do well

I have a card room so maybe I can smoke where we play cards. You got to get the ventilation though Why just open the windows? Lisa's cool that What no what she doesn't know won't kill her. Shop Talk number 62, my favorite dot dot dot coming up right after these brief messages from our generous sponsor. ["The Time of the Year"]

My Uncle Chris is definitely somebody worth talking about. He was the kind of guy that lived in a trailer with an ex-con and a retired stripper, left loaded machine guns laying around, drank a bottle of whiskey a night, claimed he could kill a man with his bare hands, drove a garbage truck for a living, spoke fluent Spanish with a thick southern accent, and is currently buried in a crypt alongside the founding families of Panama. Listen to the Uncle Chris podcast to hear all about him and a whole lot more. Wild stories about adventure, romance, crime, history, and war intertwine as I share the tall tales and hard truths that have helped me understand Uncle Chris. This collection of stories will make you laugh,

it'll make you cry, and if I do my job right, they'll let you see the world and your place in it in a whole new way. I can't wait to tell you all about Uncle Chris. Listen now to Uncle Chris on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Kelly Harnett spent over a decade in prison

for a murder she says she didn't commit. — I'm 100% innocent. — While behind bars, she learned the law from scratch. — Because, oh, God, Harnett, jailhouse lawyer. — And as she fought for herself, she also became a lifeline for the women locked up alongside her. You're supposed to have faith in God, but I had nothing but faith in her.

So many of these women had lived the same stories. I said, were you a victim of domestic violence? And she was like, yeah. But maybe Kelly could change the ending. I said, how many people have gotten other incarcerated individuals out of here? I'm going to be the first one to do that. This is the story of Kelly Harnett, a woman who spent 12 years fighting not just for her own freedom, but her girlfriends too. I think I have a mission from God to save souls by getting people out of prison.

The girlfriends, jailhouse lawyer. to save souls by getting people out of prison. The Girlfriends, Jailhouse Lawyer. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. For My Heart podcasts and Rococo Punch, this is The Turning, River Road. I knew I wanted to obey and submit, but I didn't fully grasp for the rest of my life what that meant. In the woods of Minnesota, a cult leader married himself to ten girls and forced them into

a secret life of abuse. Why did I think that way? Why did I allow myself to get so sucked in by this man and thinking to the point that if I died for him that would be the greatest honor? But in 2014, the youngest of the girls escaped and sparked an international manhunt. For all those years, you know, he was the predator and I was the prey. And then he became the prey. Listen to The Turning, River Road. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. A murder happens, the case goes cold. Then, over a hundred years later, we take a second look. I'm Paul Holes, a retired cold case investigator. And I'm Kate Winkler-Dawson, a journalist and historian. On our podcast, Buried Bones, we reexamine historical true crime cases. Using modern forensic techniques, we dig into what the original investigators may have missed. Growing up on a farm when I heard a gunshot, I did not immediately think murder.

Unless this person went out to shoot squirrels, they're not choosing a 22 to go hunting out there. These cases may be old, but the questions are still relevant and often chilling. I know this chauffeur is not of concern. You know, it's like, well, he's the last one who saw her alive. So how did they eliminate him? Join us as we take you back to the cold cases that haunt us to this day. New episodes every Wednesday on the Exactly Right Network. Listen to Barry Bones on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Check out Behind the Flow, a podcast documentary series following the launch of San Diego Football

Club. We go behind the scenes and explore the stories of those involved. San Diego coming to MLS is going to be a game changer because this region has been hungry for a men's professional soccer team. We need veteran players and we need young players. Like, you're building a team from scratch and so the succession plan of long-term success needs to be defined. We need to embrace this community.

When I was 13, my uncle took me to a qualifier, and we watched Paraguay against Chile, pouring rain, just watching the fans jumping up and down. I think that was definitely a watershed moment for me. Not only was that going to be my game, but it was going to be my life. Listen to San Diego FC behind the flow. Now on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Everybody welcome back to Shop Talk number 62. Last week we talked about my two, my two, nah, not my favorite, two of my favorite fiction books. This time we're going to talk about my two favorite non, no, two of my favorite nonfiction books and Alex is going to give us one. Why do I get one? Okay, Alex can give us two but no more. My first one, get two years up, you're gonna be next.

I actually haven't thought about it yet. Well, start thinking. My first one is one that I read actually very, very recently. I attended a conference actually in the Caribbean where I spoke and then this gentleman spoke. And I found him and it very interesting. And then when I read it... And I found out that so much of he wrote three or four years ago when he wrote the book is actually happening right now. I decided he might be a modern-day Nostradamus. I mean, it's unbelievable. The name of the book is... it's a little sobering, is The End of the World

is Just the Beginning, Mapping the Collapse of Globalization. It's by Peter Zeon, spelled Z-E-I-H-O-N. I cannot suggest enough that if you want to understand what's going on in the world that you buy this thing. The premise is this, buy it and read it. The premise is this, after World War II, there was only one Navy left really completely intact that could dominate the world's waters and it was the US Navy. And we were also the only power left

with a big enough army to really dominate the world. And we could have. We could have been imperialists. But in their wisdom, and I mean that seriously, in their wisdom, the leaders of the day in the United States realized that imperialism never worked. If you think about all the imperial, you think about the Roman Empire, you think about the British Empire, you think about Mongolian Empire, you go on and on and on. It becomes too arduous and too expensive to continue to govern and rule over vast swaths of land and people who don't want to be ruled by you. So, ultimately, imperialism always collapses. So, at the end of World War II, we had a choice, be imperialist or pull back, but we had this massive navy.

And so, we made a deal, and that deal became basically NATO, which says, we will police the waters, we will keep the world free for global trade, so nations can trade and build themselves up. But to do so, for us to do that, we need trade agreements with people all over the world, and the dollar is going to be the currency of the world. And that went on for many, many, many, many years until recently, when it's become too arduous and too expensive to police the world. And where the people who were happy to have those agreements, countries quit spending the requisite amount of money it took to join in that effort with us. And as a result, this is four or five years ago, the author's premise was that the US would have to pull back

from globalization and other countries that have stuff up. Also, as he makes that argument, he pars shrinking population and growing population with what countries will have enough people to actually spur and continued spurred economic growth. And what's crazy is there's only three countries that he says over the next 20 years will have both the banking systems, the economic and military strength, and enough population growth to sustain itself in a world where globalization is pulling away and is shrinking. And ironically enough, the United States is one of them. You'll be happy to know. But the depopulation of China over the next 20 years, he says will be there undoing. That's all I'm saying. Read the book. It is phenomenal. That's why it's

called the end of the world is just the beginning because it's basically the end of the world as we have known it since World War II. One other thing, he says that all of us have grown up accustomed to free trade and relative peace across the world, basically buttressed by the United States military and Navy, which is true. But he says that we've grown up thinking that that's normal, when in fact, in the history of mankind, the decades we've had since World War Two with relative world peace and free trade across the globe is actually quite abnormal

and has never been achieved before because of the cost of reaching that achievement and that the cost has gotten too big for us to continue it. And therefore, the world will look with population decline, de-globalization in terms of economics, and the cost associated with the one power who's been able to usher in this relative peace and global trade over the last decade. It's changing that the next 50 years for mankind will look very different than the last 50 have. And he makes an incredibly good argument.

I'm not saying I agree with every single thing in the book, but the guy's smart, done a lot of interesting studies. And I highly suggest you read it if you want to try to figure out what's going on in the world today, whether you like the politics of it or not, the inevitability and the reality of our changing world is very, very well laid out in this book. So that's one. What about you? I thought you're going to do two. No, I said you're next. I'm going to do one, you're going to you? I thought you were going to do two. No, I said you're next. I'm going to do one, you're going to do one, then I'm going to do two, then you can do the next one. Okay. Randy Lewis. Have I ever told you about Randy Lewis? The book is No Greatness Without

Goodness. So he was the head of logistics for Walgreens, like a billion dollar category, 10,000 employees. His son was diagnosed with autism and it really changed his life. The kind of things he realized is he would yell at his girls and they would basically be fine within an hour, but he would yell at his son and take him a day or two to recover from that. You could see the emotional difference and it really had him reflect on what am I doing to my kids. He talks about how it made him a better person and softened him.

Then he's like, look, I got to do something with this. If someone like me is not going to do something, who is? And so he decided at Walgreens, you know, how can we employ more folks with disabilities? Because I forget the exact stats. We're doing this off the fly. But, you know, it's something like 60 or 70 percent of people with intellectual disabilities are unemployed. And he was opening up a new distribution center in South Carolina. They were going to hire 600 people.

And they had the idea of what if 200 of them Wow people with disabilities third. Yeah, and there was kind of a theory behind a two of a two-for-one match, right? So two typically able, you know, employees would be able to you know be mentor and help and and all this and He didn't think it was like such a big deal But sort of like the today show and the Terminal, all these people are writing about it. Even funnily reflects how pathetic is it that this is such groundbreaking news of doing this.

But what's amazing is their retention rate was better, their safety rating was better, and it also changed, just like how it changed him, it changed the culture in the facility too. So rather than the manager of the plant treating people as witches, they actually had to treat them as human beings. And so it made everyone better. So it's called No Greatness Without Goodness. I love that.

Yeah, but it's an amazing story. And so they've done this for all of their distribution facilities. Now it's maybe like 40% of all the workers there are folks with disabilities. But then Walgreens has also set a goal for the nationwide consumer stores that 10% of the employees there will be too. And one of those things early on too is we are going to open this up for all of our competitors to see, which traditionally like you wouldn't let your competitors like come in here and see exactly what you're doing with this.

But he's like, we got to share this with the world if it works. So it's like Best Buy and Sephora and Starbucks and like all these other companies have copied, you know, what he's done, which is amazing. And anyway, so I had the blessing of interviewing him once and he's Oh, you interviewed him? Yeah, he's a hell of a human being. I mean, where's he from? He's from Chicago.

Actually, like a funny thing, obviously, he's done pretty well, you know, with that title at Walgreens. But like he bought his like lake house in Gary, Indiana, rather than like one of these fancy places. So you're kidding. Yeah. I mean, he's just a total like normal dude, an amazing person. Huh. OK. Well, there's one for you. Here's my second one. I read it in college. It was assigned to me by Sparky Breuden. Nice. It's called Unbecoming a Leader by Warren

Bennis, who actually, he passed away, I don't know, ten years ago or so. It's not really a how-to of leadership, but it explores the tenets and characteristics of leaders and how you find leaders for your organization. He, in the book, he discusses what's called contemporary leadership and he discusses all kinds of different ways to foster leadership in your organization but it all breaks down to service. It's the basic thing and it's been out forever and I read it in college and I read it again about six, seven years ago. And I think I'm going to read it again, highly suggest it for young upcoming seniors in high school and freshmen and sophomores in college to just contemplate what real leadership is. So there you go.

I'm Becoming a Leader by Warren Dennis. Love the book. What about you? You got a second one? You know, I'm actually gonna plug one. I haven't read yet, but I've listened to podcasts with this guy It's worth reading and I want to get him on the show, but it's been tough So this book is called the art of neighboring. Oh, I've heard about this. Have you yes So I've actually maybe I told you about her. Maybe you heard it separately, but he's in Denver. We got an interview in Denver He's basically like my travel schedule is too nuts. They won't come to Memphis. I Mean, he's like Denver sucks. You got a land in the air. I actually love Denver No getting in and out of Denver sucks because they put their airport about seven and a half hours

I'm gonna sit in any of the New York airports. At least they got a train in from the airports of the city Outside of the city better than any of the New York airports At least they got a train in from the airports of the city We got to get him in why no actually kind of respect him for this I mean so he's a pastor You know that thing travels for some paid speeches and he's like look I want to be home with my family Sorry, I get it. Yeah, that's nice guy next time. We're in Denver. We got a I guess he's game to do it But what's the book so that Because I've heard something about it. Yeah. Might have been from you.

So he realized, like, look, there's a lot more we could be doing as a church in our community. And he decided to get like 20 pastors like him to go meet with the secular mayor in Denver and say, how can we help? And the mayor said, well, you know, you can do this with homelessness, you can do this with property, this with second chances, all that stuff. We said at the end of the day, if you guys just loved your neighbor, we wouldn't have any of these problems.

It's basically like, if you guys are just good Christians, all these problems go away. The secular mayor said that to the pastors? Yeah. If you guys just lived out your faith, like it's pretty. Wow. Pretty simple. Wow. Yeah. I don't think he was trying to be a smart ass. This is like hitching at the face of the board. Yeah. And the here's the next thing.

He realizes how many of my neighbors do I know? And he knew like two of them. I actually just true. I actually just shared this in my Bible study the other day, because actually the part we're reading kept talking about love your neighbors. I mean, it's like in the Bible, like, does it mean your literal neighbor? Probably, probably. And so and so he's like, I mean, he's a busy guy. He runs a church, you know, he knows all the people there.

But does that mean you get to ignore your obligation to love your neighbor? And so he came up with this cool thing. People can go on the website, I think you could probably look up ArdentNeighboring or maybe DaveRunion.com is the guy's name, it's there. But this resource, that looks like a bingo board, and yourself in the middle, and you write down the names of your eight closest neighbors. Now that's interesting. And part of the idea is like you set the barrier so low that anybody can jump over it like first do that. And if you do that, you're going to start talking to them or a bigger bingo board, too. Yeah, you're going to start having them over.

You're going to start helping each other out. I don't know if I'm I have them over. I'm kidding. I don't know. Let's not get carried away here, Alex. With how much construction you're doing, I don't think I don't know. Let's not get carried away here Alex with how much construction you're doing I don't like I don't think any of your neighbors want to come over. Nobody wants to come over to mud It's called the art of neighboring the art of neighboring. Okay. So there you go. We got on becoming a leader We've got the end of the world is just the beginning no greatness without goodness

No greatness out goodness and the art of neighboring. Okay. That's me and Alex's nonfiction, some of our favorite nonfiction books to share with you. Write me at Bill at normalfolks.us and share with me your ideas because I like to read and we should put it up on a website or something and share it with everybody. Book suggestions, right? Maybe one day a normal folks book club. That would actually be pretty cool That actually would be pretty cool, but we could at least share this stuff. Yeah. Yeah. All right Hey, if you like this episode rate it review it share friends join a not join subscribe to the podcast Do any and all this stuff that helps us grow right we? We still want you to sign up to join the Army at normalfolks.us. Do that. Write me anytime. Fill at normalfolks.us. I'll respond and that's it. Shot talk number

62. Alex and Bill, we're out. My Uncle Chris was a real character, a garbage truck driver from South Carolina who is now buried in Panama City alongside the founding families of Panama. He also happens to be responsible for the craziest night of my life. Wild stories about adventure, romance, crime, history, and war intertwine as I share the tall tales and hard truths that have helped me understand Uncle Chris. Listen now to Uncle Chris on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you listen to podcasts. The Girlfriends is back with a new season, and this time I'm telling you the story of Kelly Harnett. Kelly spent over a decade in prison for a murder she says she didn't commit. As she fought for her freedom, she taught herself the law. He goes, oh God, her and that jailhouse lawyer. And became a beacon of hope

for the women locked up alongside her. You're supposed to have faith in God, but I had nothing but faith in her. I think I was put here to save souls by getting people out of prison. The Girlfriends, Jailhouse Lawyer. Listen on the iHeartRad radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Open AI is a financial abomination, a thing that should not be, an aberration, a symbol of rot at the heart of Silicon Valley. And I'm going to tell you why on my show Better Offline, the rudest show in the tech industry, where we're breaking down why open AI along with other AI companies are dead set on lying to your boss that they can take your job. I'm also going to be talking with the greatest minds in the industry about all the other ways the rich and powerful are ruining the computer. Listen to Better Offline on the iHot Radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you happen to

get your podcasts. Check out Behind the Flow, a podcast documentary series following the launch of San Diego Football Club. San Diego coming to MLS is going to be a game changer because this region has been hungry for a men's professional soccer team. We need to embrace this community. Listen to San Diego FC Behind the Flow on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When I became a journalist, I was the first Latina in the newsrooms where I worked. I'm Maria Hinojosa.

I spent my career creating journalism that centers voices who have been historically sidelined. From the most pressing news stories to deep cultural explorations, Latino USA is journalism with heart. Listen to Latino USA, the longest-running Latino news and culture show in the United States. Hear it on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.