An Army of Normal Folks - Nate Deen: The Teacher Who Saved My Life (Pt 1)

Episode Date: January 28, 2025

As a 6 year old, Nate saw his parents get killed right before his eyes. He was living out of his car and then in prison, until his English teacher Stan Deen decided to try to save his life. This extraordinary story is the subject of Angel Studios’ latest film Brave the Dark, which is in theaters now.Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

And so thankfully Stan comes and visits again and says, do you need to get back in school? Mr. Dean, Stan. Yeah, Mr. Dean. Yeah. Which is crazy. Now he tracks you down at the grandparents house because you're not back in school. Correct. And he's thinking, I got the kid out of jail, why isn't he back in school?

So now he searches you out a second time. Yep. And a second time this man searches for you. Correct. And didn't need to. See, there's this overriding subtext theme to me about somebody who loves you unconditionally, always searching for you. Yes. Welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Horton. I'm a normal guy.

I'm a husband, I'm a father. I'm an entrepreneur. And I've been a football coach in inner city Memphis. And the last part somehow led to an Oscar for the film about our team. It's called Undefeated. Y'all, I believe our country's problems will never be solved by a bunch of fancy people in nice suits using big words that nobody ever uses on CNN and

Fox but rather by an army of normal folks. Guys, that's you and me. That's us. Just deciding, you know what, maybe I can help. That's what Stan Dean did in the life of his adopted son Nate, whose voice you just heard, and in the lives of countless others. The story is so compelling. It's the subject of Angel Studios' latest film,

Brave the Dark, which is in theaters now, and I cannot recommend it enough. You gotta go see it. I can't wait for you to meet Stan through his son Nate, right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. Hey everyone, it's Katie Couric. Well, the election is in the home stretch and I'm exhausted. But turns out the end is near, right in time for a new season of my podcast,

Next Question. This podcast is for people like me who need a little perspective and insight. I'm bringing in some FOKs, friends of Katie's, to help me out like Ezra Klein, Van Jones, Jen Psaki, Ested Herndon. But we're also gonna have some fun even though these days fun and politics seems like an oxymoron. But we'll do that thanks to some of my friends like Samantha Bee, Roy Wood Jr. and Charlamagne the God. We're gonna take some viewer questions as well. I mean isn't that what democracy is all about?

Power to the podcast for the people. So whether you're obsessed with the news or just trying to figure out what's going on, this season of Next Question is for you. Check out our new season of Next Question with me, Katie Couric, on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What if you asked two different people the same set of questions? Even if the questions are the same, our experiences can lead us to drastically different answers. I'm Minnie Driver, and I set out to explore this idea in my podcast, Minnie Questions.

Over the years, we have had some incredible guests. People like Courteney Cox, star of the infinitely beloved sitcom Friends, EGOT winner Viola Davis and former Prime Minister of the UK, Tony Blair. And now, Mini Questions is returning for another season. We've asked an entirely new set of guests our seven questions, including Jane Lynch, Delaney Rowe, and Cord Jefferson. Each episode is a new person's story

with new lessons, new memories, and new connections to show us how we're both similar and unique. Listen to mini questions on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Seven questions, limitless answers. Tickets are on sale now, y'all, for our 2025 iHeart Country Festival, presented by Capital One,

happening Saturday, May 3rd, at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas. Don't miss your chance to see country music's biggest superstars. Brooks and Dodd. Thomas Rhett. Rascal Fletz. Coles Wendell, Sam Hunt, Megan Maroney, Bailey Zimmerman, Nate Smith, all on one stage, hosted by Bobby Bones. I Heart Country Festival, let's go!

Streaming live only on Hulu, and you can be there in person. Tickets are on sale now. Don't miss out. Get yours before they sell out at Ticketmaster.com. That's Ticketmaster.com and we'll see you at our 2025 iHeart Country Festival presented by Capital One. Say yes all my time! How serious is youth vaping? Irreversible lung damage serious, one in ten kids vape serious, which warrants a serious conversation from a serious parental figure like yourself. Not the seriously know-it-all sports dad, or the seriously smart podcaster.

It requires a serious conversation that is best had by you. No, seriously. The best person to talk to your child about vaping is you. To start the conversation, visit talkaboutvaping.org brought to you by the American Lung Association and the Ad Council. I'm glad to be here. Yeah, so excited to be here. You got here last night. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, very late. You know, probably good that you got last night. I don't know when you're leaving, but there's weather. I'm time stamping Alex, but there's weather. They just shut down the Houston airport. Oh, we leave tomorrow morning.

I hope you're connected. I hope you're connected. I hope you're connected. I hope you're connected. I hope you're connected. I hope you're connected. I hope you're connected. I hope you're connected.

I hope you're connected. I hope you're connected. I hope you're connected. I hope you're connected. I hope you're connected. I hope you're connected. I hope you're connected. I hope you're connected. I hope you're connected. I hope you're connected. I hope you're connected. I don't know when you're leaving, but there's weather. I'm time stamping Alex, but there's weather.

They just shut down the Houston airport. Oh, we leave tomorrow morning. Hope your connection doesn't come through there. Oh, it's tomorrow morning? Yeah, tomorrow morning. So you're good. Straight to Philly. So where do you guys hail from?

Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Where's Lancaster? About an hour east of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Yeah, now I know Harrisburg. Or an hour and a half west of Philadelphia. So kind of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Yeah, no, I know Harrisburg or an hour and a half West of Philadelphia. Yeah, kind of in the middle there. Yeah in the middle central, Pennsylvania kind of Allegheny Forest comes kind of near there doesn't yeah. Yep. Yeah, we're safe south of that talking to God owns lumber business Nate Dean and Derek Deener.

Dean and Deener. That's, I mean, do you ever get the Dumb and Dumber thing? No, we actually never did. Wait, that's not true now. I know, I know. Exactly. So everybody, Nate Dean is the writer and executive producer of Brave the Dark. It's another of Angel Studios films.

And Derek Deener is the producer of Brave the Dark. We have done in probably two years, four episodes highlighting movies. We had Micro about something to stand for. And then- Paul Young with The Shack. And then we had Paul Young something to stand for. And then Paul Young with the shack. And then we had Paul Young with the shack. And then we had the sound of hope from Angel Studios, which to remind everybody is about the church in Possum Trot, Texas, who eradicated their county's need for foster care because

their church adopted every available adopted kid on earth. And then we had of course, folks who remember Todd Comer Nicky from Bonhoeffer and other Angel Studios. And now I guess you're number five. You guys, Nate and Derek with Brave the Dark also and Angel Studios release I think their most recent film as usual We're not having an interview just to promo a film. It's the story inside the film. That's awesome and we To let everybody know this listening Nate you are not only the writer and executive producer, but you are the subject of the film. Yeah, this is, Brave of the Dark is my story. True life story.

And how did you and Derek hook up? So about four years ago, we were kind of in need to finish financing. We were struggling financially and- On the movie project. On the movie, yes, on the movie end. Every movie struggles financially in the indie world. Some of the early producers were in New Zealand and with COVID and stuff, they couldn't get

over to kind of help finish this thing out. And so Derek came on board, thankfully, and we were able to raise the fund very, very quickly and move it forward. Well, you got a pocket full of money there. No, I was able to. I mean, before I came on board, they had the director, Damien Harris. Jared Harris was connected to it. Nicholas Hamilton story was so there, but they needed the financial side of it. And I have a lot of I'm an entrepreneur. So I have a lot of business mentors and people in the community that know me,

but also new Nate and knew Stan's story and I was able to connect the dots and bring 47 investors to come behind us to make this film happen. So every everything from 35,000 to a million dollar investment community came together. That is the tradition of what a producer does. Absolutely. When your title the producer of Brave the Dark shows up. Yeah, you your title the producer of brave the dark shows up. Yeah, you're it Nate

we're gonna get into your story I at 430 this morning watched an early screen of the movie and After having read part of your story and then seen it Cinematically, it is absolutely a story that needs to be told and I want to celebrate that story. But first I want to ask you something. Okay. The first time you saw it. Well, let me just tell you. Now I know that the movie Undefeated was a documentary about my life, but it was done more in a narrative sense than in like your typical narrated documentary, right? And the first time I ever saw it was one of the most real experiences in the world. To see my to see my story and then also to know that I was about to share my soul with a bunch of people that don't know me.

I'm just curious. The first time you saw your story actually. Edited with music done, ready to go, and you plopped down and actually watched your own story. But as an audience member, what was that like for you? It was surreal, to be honest. You stole my word and come up with another one. I know, I used your word, but it was.

It was, you know, it's happened so long ago to me, and I've healed from a lot of the pain of it. So watching it, I could actually watch it from a filmmaker's perspective, that it was a character in a movie, but then it became so real again for me. And I remember sitting with the director and he was so worried how I would react to the film.

I bet, as were the directors of Undefeated with me. I hadn't even thought about that, but they were watching me watch the film. Yes. You know what I mean? They were looking to see my reaction to what they'd produced. Yeah, that's what what Damien Harris who directed this who had directed Brave the Dark. He was kind of watching me and when the movie was over and lights came

up. I just looked back at him and I just said, you got the story. You nailed it. Like this is exactly the story we need to tell. So this is not some embellished, sensationalized version of the truth. No, no. It's important. I hope everybody listening to us goes out and watches the movie and there are so much that is sensationalized and all the today's, you know, all these non-scripted reality

quote shows which are completely scripted and not really reality. Right. I think when we watch something that's that's opening screen opening decks as based on a true story, when we actually know it represents the true truth, I think we connect to it more. And and you're telling me That's what the the viewer is gonna watch is the truth Yes They're going to watch the truth on screen one of the cool things with going through the script with the director and even with Jared Harris who plays Stan early readings through they would ask me so, you know, what part of this is embellished or you know, what what parts Are we you know able to touch and move and embellished or, you know, what parts are we, you know,

able to touch and move and I said, no, these, this happened. Like the, there's a Christmas scene in the movie and it is so unbelievably close to what actually happened. And the way Jared captured it is remarkable, unbelievable. Listen, in a two hour film, not everything can be exactly as it is because you can't tell a story this big in two hours I mean it could have been a series, you know Yeah, just timelines, you know, you you know, there was a couple of girlfriends It wasn't just one, you know Just because it's too hard to to share all of the different elements with you know, you trying to introduce too many characters

Because the film is basically about what a teacher did for me at a time in need. Right. So our listeners, when they watch this thing, can go, ah, this is a real story that's a real story. Yes. And since you wrote the screenplay, you would know. Yes.

That's it. So we're an army of normal folks, right? We don't dive off into a lot of political stuff. We don't dive off into a lot of entertainment stuff. The movies and the people, the directors and the subjects and the actors that we've talked to and directors that we've talked to around movies like this have not been for the sake of the movie. I know that a great sideline to this is that we're exposing these pieces of work to a large audience and that probably sells some tickets and I'm great with that because the primary reason we focus on the stories that we focus on that happen to be movies is because we're an army of normal folks and somewhere embedded in each of these stories is a heroic normal person who did some extraordinary. And that is the story as told through the lens of your eyes, because you were the recipient of that amazing piece of work, which is what we're going to get into. Okay. But I gotta ask Derek first. Yeah. When you first read

the script, forget anything else. Your first reading, not notes, not just reading the script. What did you think? I was completely moved and emotional. You know, everybody that's read this script has said, oh my gosh, the script. Oh my gosh, the story like it. It's not something I read a lot of scripts and you don't always get caught up and you're like, Oh, what time is it? I got to go and I have to finish this that you just get drawn into it.

And it also, you know, being from the same town that it takes place in, I went to Garden Spot High School, the same high school. I knew Stan well, you know, not as good as Nate, but I knew Mr. Dean pretty well too. It just brought so many feelings and emotions. But I also didn't know the depth of what Nate went through until I read the script. I knew some things, he had told me some things,

but I didn't know the depth, so it was moving. You knew Nate prior. Yes. And so as you're reading a script about a friend of yours and things are being revealed to you that you had not known, it had to have been kind of personal. Oh, yeah. It was, you know, the movie kind of peels back the onion slowly and with flashbacks and different things starts to reveal. And when you read when you read the script, it just visually you just are there. It's a really it's a beautiful script. And so that that's the foundation of any independent

film is a good story, which is then the script. And that's how you get people to come alongside and help you make it so script draws it in. in. You can have the greatest actors in the world. You can have the greatest director in the world. But if you have a crap script, nobody's ever going to deal with it. Conversely, you may have no director or no actor. But if you have a killer script, it will attract the talent and the money.

That's what happened. And that's what happened. And the money came from the culmination of the script, the talent that got attached to it, the community. There was people, adults like Nate that grew up with Stan being an impact, obviously not to the level that he did for Nate. But there were a lot of adults that own businesses now where entrepreneurs are like, man, I want

to tell the story with you. I'm going to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars without a distributor yet and just believe that this film will find its way. And it went on a rollercoaster ride the last, I mean, Nate 13 years ago penned the first draft with his writing partner. And four years ago, I came on board. In between that, you know, we title it the film, you know, like just like the little engine that could, the little film that could, it's always had positive momentum moved in the right direction. But it's not for the faint hearted either, you know. And now a few messages from our generous sponsors.

But first, we've launched a new written series called Normal Folks Wisdom. I think Alex came up with that. Did you come up with that? And An Army of Normal Dead Folks. People have strong feelings on that one already, so we'll see what they think about this. I don't know about these titles, but anyway, we've got this thing called Normal Folks Wisdom.

Come on, you like it. I do like it, actually. I like it better than dead folks, but whatever. What normal folks wisdom is, is it's the heroic normal folks we interview and when they share poignant, cutting, practical and oftentimes hilarious wisdom with us. So we want to make it digestible for army members, especially if you don't get a chance to listen to every single episode with shame on you you should Or all the way through so we think everybody can find it valuable

The best way to start getting normal folks wisdom is to follow us on Instagram at Army of normal folks or Army of Normal Folks, or by signing up to join the Army at NormalFolks.us as we're going to start emailing these things out as well. There's some fancy folks with some wisdom, but normal folks got a whole bunch of it and are often overlooked. So I hope you'll check it out. We'll be right back. my podcast, Next Question. This podcast is for people like me who need a little perspective and insight. I'm bringing in some FOKs, friends of Katie's, to help me out like Ezra Klein, Van Jones,

Jen Psaki, Ested Herndon. But we're also gonna have some fun, even though these days fun and politics seems like an oxymoron. But we'll do that thanks to some of my friends like Samantha B., Roy Wood Jr., and Charlemagne the God. We're going to take some viewer questions as well. I mean, isn't that what democracy is all about?

Power to the podcast for the people. So whether you're obsessed with the news or just trying to figure out what's going on, this season of Next Question is for you. Check out our new season of Next Question is for you. Check out our new season of Next Question with me, Katie Couric, on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What if you ask two different people the same set of questions?

Even if the questions are the same, our experiences can lead us to drastically different answers. I'm Minnie Driver, and I set out to explore this idea in my podcast, Minnie Questions. Over the years, we've had some incredible guests. People like Courtney Cox, star of the infinitely beloved sitcom Friends, EGOT winner Viola Davis, and former Prime Minister of the UK, Tony Blair. And now, Minnie Questions is returning for another season.

We've asked an entirely new set of guests our seven questions, including Jane Lynch, Delaney Rowe, and Cord Jefferson. Each episode is a new person's story with new lessons, new memories, and new connections to show us how we're both similar and unique. Listen to many questions on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. 7 questions, limitless answers. Tickets are on sale now y'all for our 2025 iHeart Country Festival presented by Capital One

happening Saturday, May 3rd at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas. Don't miss your chance to see country music's biggest superstars. Brooks and Dodd. Thomas Rhett. Rascal Flatts. Coles Wendell. Sam Hunt. Megan Moroney.

Bailey Zimmerman. Nate Smith. All on one stage. Hosted by Bobby Bones. I Heart Country Festival. Streaming live only on Hulu. And you can be there in person. Tickets are on sale now. Don't miss out.

What is up Austin Texans? Get yours before they sell out at Ticketmaster.com. That's Ticketmaster.com. And we'll see you at our 2025 iHeart Country Festival, presented by Capital One. Say yes all my time! Yes! How serious is youth vaping?

Irreversible lung damage serious, one in 10 kids vape serious, which warrants a serious conversation from a serious parental figure like yourself. Not the seriously know-it-all sports dad, or the seriously smart podcaster, it requires a serious conversation that is best had by you. No, seriously, the best person to talk to your child about vaping is you. To start the conversation, visit TalkAboutVaping.org, brought to you by the American Lung Association and the Ad Council.

Before we get into the story, I think our listeners, listen, movies and actors, there's this mystique around it and people find it fascinating and all of that. But before we get to your stories, one other sideline that I think is just interesting for our listeners and you guys can speak to it, but I didn't know anything about this world until 2009 and then the world changed for me. And I'm the producer on two films in develop ones in development ones about to be in production now and so from a little bit I'm kind of on the peripheral of the movie business but everybody listening here needs to know that the movie business model is the most screwed up business

model on the face of the planet. You have three legs. You have development, you have production, and then you have distribution. And at any point and any time, you could have millions of dollars invested, and if one of those legs falls apart, you can throw the whole thing in the garbage.

Big production houses in Hollywood, I'm gonna guess, and I'm gonna try to not to exaggerate. It's exponentially more I would say there are 20 times the number of films that anybody ever sees. There are 20 times those number of fields canned sitting on a shelf somewhere that we never see. Yeah. One big time producer told me that they will spend money at the big houses developing 30 or 40 films a year to make to actually release and distribute. Four to eight on a really good year and of those four day eight, two will be profitable. And basically two profitable movies

carry the entire cost load for all 30 projects of the year. And if they don't get one or two to make money, they lose money if they make one, if one or two make money. So it is a massively risky business. Yes. It takes an enormous amount of money to produce a movie. And all the way along until it hits a theater and you actually get distribution from somebody,

you still have no idea if you're pouring all that money down the drain somewhere. Yes. What was your experience with this film in terms of the development, production up to distribution, which is about to happen in a couple weeks. Yeah. Okay. I mean, explaining it like that so well invokes anxiety.

Especially since you're the one out there telling all these people, give me your money. It's gonna be great. How many investors did you say? 47. So that's 47 phone calls of what did you do with my money? telling all these people, give me your money, it's going to be great. How many investors did you say? 47. So that's 47 phone calls of what did you do with my money you bought home? That's what happens. No, it's what happens. I think I'm very fortunate that this was, there was so much positivity and belief and energy and impact with this film. It's an impact film. And all of our investors,

they knew what they were getting into. They knew I wasn't promising returns. I wasn't doing anything like that. They you know, they had met Nate, they heard his story directly from him. And and we're like, you know, this is a if there's any film I want to get behind, it's this film. And, and it's also like the biggest film to come out of Lancaster since Witness. It's the only film to come out of Lancaster that's based on a true hero, Mr. Dean, and Nate's story and how that kind of all came to be. So, you know, we were very fortunate because it's not like we were in LA and 100 movies were being made and you had to pick one to invest in. Like this was the film of the century to come out of our town.

People wanted to be part of it. They wanted to be kind of this momentum that was beginning. We had wind at our back, even though it was insanely hard. We never distributed yet. We had a great agent at the time. We had amazing talent. We had a great cinematographer. Our director was great. I mean, we had a great script story.

All the things you need, all the pieces. But except the cash, except the cash. Yes. And then we slowly had like a couple of people saying, okay, I'll give you 500,000. I'll give you 300,000. And then, and then it started to build. And then we, you know, there's an underwater scene that was going to get cut because that was done months later because we didn't have money.

And then the investors came in, they gave us more money. And then we needed more post-production. We needed some compote. We really wanted to work with these composers, but we needed more funds. The investors came, kept giving me more money, kept giving us more money and they would come on set, you know, and we have, you know, you're burning whatever, a hundred thousand a day.

I don't know, you're burning a lot of money every day. They come out on set. They're all entrepreneurs. They see like, I'm an entrepreneur as much. I'm an entrepreneur filmmaker. And they see the hustle that everybody's doing to make this happen What how many days for his production 26? Yeah, that's so most people also think people spend a year. Yeah, you can't it's 26 days is and that's

Hammering it's hammering and we were very fortunate like so Jared Harris our lead actor He's Damien Harris the director's brother and and Jared's played in what he was in Chernobyl and Mad Men and the Crown, you know, in, I mean, over 100 credits or, you know, in film and TV really amazing actor, Richard Harris, his son, Damien Harris, and Jamie Harris, their other brother, we're all three in this. And so we were fortunate because he came in a month early to start rehearsing with Damien and then Nicholas Hamilton, who played Nate, came in a month early too. That never happens in independent film. They show up the day before you start shooting and then they just go.

They did that on their own. That's quite rare. And they were like doing research. They, you know, Nate was introducing them to people who knew Stan, you know, people who knew Nate as a kid, you know, just so many people they were doing so much research they met it was a huge in character development. Yes. And we had a dialect coach because there's a there's a show called Mare of Easttown in our community there. The dialect coach of that, Suzanne, she came early because Jared's from the UK, so British accent, Nick's from Australia, Australian accent.

So she was working with them and rehearsing with them and they started building a camaraderie. And that is how it translates to the screen. So fortunate. A lot of times on these indies, these actors actors are coming, like I said the day before, hey, how you doing? You read the script, I read the script, let's start. That's on low budget Indies. That's well, give me my hours, time out, write the check.

And then also like, you know, kind of combating on like, okay, well, I need to be here for this scene. Like, this is where I feel like I need to be. And then, you know, the cinematographer and the director's like, well, I would love for you to be here. Like, no, no, no, I kind of really need to be. And then the cinematographer and the director's like, well, I would love for you to be here. Like, no, no, no, I kinda really need to be here. And Jared and Nick were like, tell me where to go.

I will act wherever I need to act. Let's make our days. We never missed our days. If that stuff's going on, you know you've got a shot. Yeah. Those little things, give me the chills that you said that. Cause like, it was like oxygen. Like all those little things, even the chills that you said that because like, you know, it's it was like oxygen Like all those little things that happened every time nate and I would get a setback get punched in the gut the next hour

Something crazy like that would happen. Like it was like starts to feel like Yes, yeah jared jared came on set like he said like literally a month before and listened to every audio, video, clip, photograph. He looked through everything. He interviewed people that knew Stan, loved Stan. And so he was very much involved, you know, and that he loved the story so much and so did Nick. That's why I think it was so successful because they were willing to do the things. Okay. So everybody's got the background on the movie business now.

Specifically this. I don't want to spoil everything, but I will say the movie opens with you in high school. But there's a series of flashbacks and all kinds of other content, why you are where you are and how you are in high school is revealed throughout the movie. So there's that. But again, we really want to celebrate not only you as a subject of the movie, but the real hero of the movie. And to get to the real hero of the movie, I think we need to go back to you as a five-year-old and kind of start there. Why don't you tell me about your experience as a little boy? Yeah, you know, sadly in this world, children are hurt at very young ages and I was.

Physically, emotionally, in all the ways that a young child can be hurt, I felt at the age of five years old. I remember it as if it was yesterday at times and childhood trauma affects the rest of your life. It still affects me to this day in certain ways. I don't let it hold me back. I pushed through most of it, but yeah, I experienced some major childhood trauma

at the age of five years old. And I don't know how much we wanna get into. I wanna hear it. You wanna hear it? I wanna hear it. I've seen it. Okay. I've read about it.

I want our listeners, when they're watching the movie, I want your voice today to echo in their minds. Yeah, so at the age of five, I was playing out in the front yard of my house. And my father pulled in in his, you know, loud car and was very angry. And I didn't realize or understand why. And he did your five. Yeah. And he just kind a look down at me and yelled at me and it's like where's your mother and I'm not gonna give this part away but I said something to him that I ended up blaming myself for for most of my life and he ran inside yelling for her and found my

mother and dragged her outside of the house by her hair literally ripping the hair Out of her head at times in clumps. He was pulling her that hard face down Humiliating her yelling at her and she's screaming for help and there's no one there to help her I couldn't do anything and for some reason I didn't run and hide I just kind of was stunned and just some reason I didn't run and hide. I just kind of was stunned and just watched as he... I think that's legitimately shock.

Yeah, it was shock. But I'm a very visual person. I've always been. And so those visions, you know, more of that than the sounds. There's only a couple of sounds that I remember as much as just screaming and whatnot. But to then see her being pushed up against the car and being forced to look in the rearview mirror, like in the rear seat window and saying, do you see what I have for you? And he had been target practicing with his 30 odd six. He had determined that he was going to do some very bad things that day. There was no question. And somehow she managed to struggle free.

And she ran past me and she's yelling for me to stay with her, to like run with her. And I just couldn't, I just froze, a complete froze. And then, you know, I saw her run into the house and of course as a mother, you know, she looked back and she looked out the window to find me, to see me and encourage me to run and I didn't, I just stood there frozen. And meanwhile, my father had grabbed the gun out of the back seat and he walked towards the front door and when she opened the curtains to look back he pulled the trigger and that's probably the sound that I

Remember the most is the loud sound that gun the explosion of that gun going off And just shaking just like it just reverberated through my soul to see my mom fall and Still screaming she rated through my soul. To see my mom fall and still screaming, she managed to crawl into the living room. And for some reason, I kind of came to I guess, I walked into the house, open that door where the bullet had gone through the window and walked over to my mother. And I knelt down and she didn't

say I love you. She didn't say she was going to miss me. She just said run. She said run because she didn't want something bad to happen to me. And so I ran and hid behind the sofa where I had always hid because this wasn't the first time my dad had shown violence to my mother. He had always beat her and yelled at her and put her down and choked her as I was always seemed to be there in the background hiding. And thankfully most of the times he just pushed her down and left.

But this time he didn't. We'll be right back. Hey everyone, it's Katie Couric. Well, the election is in the home stretch and I'm exhausted. But turns out the end is near, right in time for a new season of my podcast, Next Question. This podcast is for people like me who need a little perspective and insight. I'm bringing in some FOKs, friends of Katie's, to help me out, like Ezra Klein, Van Jones,

Jen Psaki, Ested Herndon. But we're also gonna have some fun, even though these days fun and politics seems like an oxymoron. But we'll do that thanks to some of my friends like Samantha Bee, Roy Wood Jr., and Charlemagne the God. We're gonna take some viewer questions as well. I mean, isn't that what democracy is all about?

Power to the podcast for the people. So whether you're obsessed with the news or just trying to figure out what's going on, this season of Next Question is for you. Check out our new season of Next Question with me, Katie Couric, on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What if you asked two different people the same set of questions?

Even if the questions are the same, our experiences can lead us to drastically different answers. I'm Minnie Driver, and I set out to explore this idea in my podcast, Minnie Questions. Over the years, we've had some incredible guests. People like Courtney Cox, star of the infinitely beloved sitcom Friends, EGOT winner Viola Davis,

and former Prime Minister of the UK, Tony Blair. And now, Mini Questions is returning for another season. We've asked an entirely new set of guests our seven questions including Jane Lynch, Delaney Rowe and Cord Jefferson. Each episode is a new person's story with new lessons, new memories and new connections to show us how we're both similar and unique. Listen to mini questions on the iHeartRad app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

7 questions, limitless answers. Texas, don't miss your chance to see country music's biggest superstars. Brooks and Dodd, Thomas Rhett, Rascal Flatts, Coles Wendell, Sam Hunt, Megan Moroney, Bailey Zimmerman, Nate Smith, all on one stage hosted by Bobby Bones. I Heart Country Festival, let's go! Streaming live only on Hulu and you can be there in person. Tickets are on sale now. Don't miss out. What is up, Austin Texans? Get yours before they sell out at Ticketmaster.com. That's Ticketmaster.com.

And we'll see you at our 2025 iHeart Country Festival presented by Capital One. How serious is youth vaping? Irreversible lung damage serious, one in ten kids vape serious, which warrants a serious conversation from a serious parental figure like yourself. Not the seriously know-it-all sports dad or the seriously smart podcaster. So I just said, mommy, don't go. and the ad council. So I just said, Mommy, don't go. And so then I heard the front door open again, and I heard my dad's cowboy boots walking across the floor. And so I listened to my mother, I ran and hid behind that sofa and she,

I kind of heard the last breaths of my mother. And then my dad walked in and at the same time we both saw her kind of body twitch. It was kind of like that last inhale and like, I believe that she had passed, but he wanted to make sure and so he took that gun and he pointed at her head and he shot again and I just remember holding my my ears and my eyes tightly closed and I don't know how long that was something that's not in the film we just felt like it was just too much for the audience.

But when my dad went back outside on the porch, I went back to my mother and I cradled her head in my arms and I held on to her. And in the distance you could hear the sirens, my neighbor had called the police, but it could have been 20 minutes, who knows, I don't even remember time wise. But I kind of walked outside and I walked over to my dad and he was sitting on the porch and he was crying and he still had the gun in his hand, but he was crying. And all of a sudden he kind of noticed me there and it kind of shook him for a moment. And he kind of almost instantly stopped crying and he stood up and he walked right over to me and he looked right down at me and he's and you know, you

know in the film you're like oh my gosh is he going to do something to this kid but to me I didn't know anything. I just stood there like questioning what's going on and in total shock and he looked right down at me and he said I I'm sorry son, but if I can't have her, no one's going to have her. And that's emphasized in the film because they were separated and my mom had moved on, but he did not. And then the hard part where he tried to put the gun in his mouth and pull the trigger, but he couldn't reach the trigger. He turned around with his back to me and I would say that he shoved that gun so far into

his throat that he could pull the trigger. And I stood there as... And again, we kind of cut some of this stuff, just too much for the audience, but his blood went all over me and he fell to the ground beside me. And I just remember closing my eyes for a very long time, afraid to open them, afraid to even move. I don't even know how long I stood there. And in the movie, I just, you know, I just sat there but in reality I actually went

up the stairs to my mom's bedroom and I just sat on the bed. And something else that's not portrayed in the movie but I'd love to share is that when the police did arrive, they didn't know what was going on. They thought it was a double murder because they didn't understand how a guy could take a gun like that and do that. But again, they figured that out. But one of the police officers came upstairs and he led me down the stairs and said, we're going to take you somewhere. And I just remember walking down and they held blankets up to cover my mom so that I

wouldn't see my mom. And they did that with my dad. And then they handed me over to my neighbor lady who I knew and that's portrayed in the film where she takes me over to her house into her mud room and she puts me in this little galvanized metal tub, takes my shirt off and begins to pour water over me to remove all the blood. She started singing this little light of mine. It's really prevalent in the film.

Yeah, so that was the day. That was what I experienced. You're going to find out through our conversation that you're in my life has interesting intersections. One of which is my mom's fourth husband took out a gun when I was in high school shot the house up. And I dove out of one to save myself and my mom hid in the attic and he ran out of bullets and was reloading when the cop showed up. My mom lived so I can't even begin to identify

with watching. Plus I was a teenager, I wasn't a five-year-old. But I can tell you this, bro. The sounds, the looks on faces, I remember the bullet that passed me in the hallway when it hit the closet. The weirdest thing I remember is the clothes hangers knocking because a bullet went through it and like I don't even remember the sound of the gun but I remember the clothes hangers going clink clink clink clink. And all I can say is for a five- old to experience that, that's as traumatic and will spur as much PTSD as anybody that served in a war. And it will have a profound effect on the psyche of any

human being that's been through it, much less a five year old. And what is needed at that point is an enormous amount of love and patience for grieving and everything else, which you did not get. So next step is the only people you've got is your grandmother and grandfather at this point. Yeah. So tell me about that part. Yeah, I kind of, my grandparents didn't know what to do. And sadly, people lied to me. People tried to say that it was just an accident, that it never really happened. Like

that. I didn't see it was the seventies, right? Yeah. 73. Yeah. Five. You're not the same age. You're born in 68 then. Yeah, me too. So was that shame and they were trying to hide the quote real story or were they trying to protect you or both? I think a little bit of both. I think, no, you sat there and saw it. You're five. You weren't three. You have memories. They weren't there to see that I saw it. Yeah. So when I said, I saw this happen, they're like, no, you like no you did not like they I think in some ways They were trying to protect where the gas lighting you know yeah, I mean I

Think a lot of times adults can lied especially to foster child Oh, you're not adopted like like they don't say that you've been adopted or like you know you find out when you're 16 that You were adopted like that to me is like insane. Like why would you not tell your kid that you are fostering or adopting that they're adopted? Like why let them find out on the internet? Anyway, that's a whole nother story. Why hit somebody in the face with that stark reality?

Yeah, and they find out from someone else. And then end your whole reality. Correct, and so I began questioning like, what did I see? Did I see this? You know, was it really true? Which makes you feel crazy. Yeah, but I knew, I knew there's no hiding or denying that. But I had to hide it. Your grandparents couldn't handle you and so their answer to that was...

Yeah. So I ended up shutting down. My body shut down as a five year old. That stress, that hurt, I shut down. I literally did not speak for the next two years. And for the two months I think that I was with my grandmother and grandfather, they tried desperately to get me to talk, but I just would not say anything. I had nothing to say for one. You need professional help, that's trauma. Yeah, I had severe trauma.

Deep, deep trauma. And back then it was a different thing. Like it wasn't like it is today. Nobody understood trauma. Yeah, I had severe trauma. And back then it was a different thing. It wasn't like it is today. Nobody understood it. Yeah, no one understood that. And again, the newspaper was like, there was a child there, but he was upstairs. He didn't see anything.

So that made everyone reading it go, oh, at least that didn't happen. Well, thank goodness. Right, but he's okay. Right, right, he's okay. But we hide some of those truths sometimes. And again, I didn't tell people other than my, so no one really knew that I had seen it at that time.

But anyway, my grandmother felt that they were too old to take care of a traumatic five-year-old, you know, a kid full of trauma who wouldn't speak. She didn't know how to handle me. And she thought the best thing to do was to take me to an orphanage and drop me off. And can I tell you driving up that lane to that orphanage, sitting in the back seat, looking at the rear view mirror and seeing her crying and just bawling and then not understanding what was happening and getting out and being walked up to a lady that was going to take care of me,

like here you are, take care of this kid for us, was pretty brutal. And I just remember it was another moment where my grandmother just knelt down, hugged me, said she was sorry, gets back into her car and literally never looked back, she just drove away. And I remember running after the car. He wasn't there that day. He didn't go along to do that. It was just my grandmother. Oh, man, I have lots of thoughts. But I don't want to talk about your grandparents. Yeah, how do you let a woman go through that alone? Yeah, there's a lot of dysfunction in my family. Over the course of all this, you know,

the father's side, blaming them, you know, the mother side and the mother side blaming the you know, the father's side blaming them, you know, the mother's side and the mother's side blaming the, you know, all sorts of blame and sadly goes on. And meanwhile, there's a five-year-old getting locked up in the middle of everybody else's dysfunction. Yes, yes. And so, hey, let's put him in a home. Hopefully he'll get adopted by a wonderful family and he'll live a happy life.

How'd that work out? That didn't work out. That did not work out. that work out. That didn't work out. That did not work out. And that concludes part one of my conversation with Nate Dean and Derek Deener. And you don't want to miss part two. It's now available to listen to. Together guys, we can change this country. Because we can change this country, but it starts with you. Well, the election is in the homestretch, right in time for a new season of my podcast, Next Question. I'm bringing in some FOKs, friends of Katie's, to help me out like Ezra Klein, Jen Psaki,

Estet Herndon. But we're also going to have some fun thanks to some of my friends like Samantha Bee and Charlamagne the God. We're gonna take some viewer questions as well. I mean, isn't that what democracy is all about? Check out our new season of Next Question with me, Katie Couric, on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You should probably keep your lights on for Nocturnal Tales from the Shadow. Join me, Danny Dre, and step into the flames of fright.

An anthology podcast of modern-day horror stories inspired by the most terrifying legends and lore of Latin America. Listen to Nocturnal on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Alec Baldwin. This past season on my podcast, Here's the Thing, I spoke with more actors, musicians, policymakers, and so many other fascinating people, like writer and actor Dan Aykroyd.

I love writing more than anything. You're left alone. You know, you do three hours in the morning, you write three hours in the afternoon, go pick up a kid from school and write at night and after nine hours you come out with seven pages and then you're moving on. And actor and comedian Jack McBrayer. The most important aspect is the collaboration with people that I like, I trust, are talented. That has been the most amazing gift to me about this crazy business that we've chosen. Meeting these people who have such diverse talents and you're able to create something together. Listen to Here's the Thing on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

What if you ask two different people the same set of questions? Even if the questions are the same, our experiences can lead us to drastically different answers. I'm Minnie Driver and I set out to explore this idea in my podcast and now, Minnie Questions is returning for another season. We've asked an entirely new set of guests our seven questions, including Jane Lynch, Delaney Rowe and Cord Jefferson. Listen to MiniQuestions on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Seven questions, limitless answers.