Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher - Jeffy's Corner: 'I Am Martin Luther King Jr.' - Best Selling Author Brad Meltzer joins Jeffy

Episode Date: January 16, 2016

'I Am Martin Luther KingJr.' and more of Brad Meltzer's children’s books are available here: http://bradmeltzer.com/Jeff Fisher is live from 6am to 8am ET, Saturday. Listen for free on The Blaze Radio Network: www.theblaze.com/radio & www.iheart.comFollow Jeffy on Twitter: @JeffyMRA Like Jeffy on Facebook: www.facebook.com/JeffFisherRadioFollow Jeffy on Instagram: @jeffymra Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to the Jeff Fisher Show. When our water heater broke down last month, it was a nightmare. It took five hours for the plumber to show up, and he charged us a couple of hundred bucks just to come out. Then it cost another $1,800 to put in the new water heater. By the time it was all said and done, I felt like I'd been taken. But what else could I do? The smartest thing you can do is get a home warranty from American residential warranty. Their home warranties pay to repair or replace all your major appliances when they break,

and they will break and at the worst possible time. Call American Residential Warranty right now for free information on home warranties starting at just pennies a day. Don't wait for your refrigerator to stop running or your ceiling fans to stop turning. Call American Residential Warranty right now. Ask how you can save up to 50% on washer and dryer coverage. Just call 1-800-6-6-39-10. That's 1-800-6-86-39-10.

Again, 1-800-6-6-6. 686, 3910. Thanks for coming along for the ride today. Okay, this weekend, Martin Luther King weekend, right? Yesterday we celebrated, and remembered his birthday. Monday, we celebrate the national holiday of Martin Luther King. A quote, The time is always right to do right from Martin Luther King, Jr. joining me right now on the broadcast, the man himself you know Brad Meltzer

I mean world class author has his own clothing line which I it's only children's clothes right no you get close to yourself really? Yeah

you have fat guy sizes too listen we love everybody I'm actually now now you've just now you've lost the opportunity to lie to me and say I know. We wear the clothes too. I know.

Actually, my children love your clothes. I was just joking. Listen, I love your children for that. I also love your wife for making me the best cookies of all times. She makes the best cookies for many people, and only you get the special blend, which is, you know, you're welcome. You're welcome. You're welcome. You get the special blend, Red.

You know that. That's right. Special. You know that. You know you do. Okay. So before we get the second tour of your office, I want to talk about. about your latest book, I am Martin Luther King, Jr.

I appreciate it. The latest edition in the series, how many children's books do you have now? So, you know, what happened was a couple years ago, I was just tired of my own kids looking at reality TV show stars and loudmouth athletes and thinking that that's a hero. And, you know, we're friends a long time. I was just, I was like, listen, that's being famous. And being famous is different than being a hero. Let me give them better heroes.

And because of the history channel TV show, because of the thrillers I write, like the President's Shadow, which is, you know, stock with history. I've got better heroes. So we've done now, we started with I'm Amelia Earhart and I'm Abraham Lincoln, and we've now done eight books that have run through. We've done Rosa Parks. I'm Albert Einstein. I'm Jackie Robinson.

We've done Lucille Ball, Helen Keller, and now we're doing I am Martin Luther King, Jr. My daughter loves these things so much. I brought I am Martin Luther King Jr. home. And before we get to actually sit down, and read it. She's excited to start turning the pages and find out where you are in it. I know. The where's Waldo of Brad Nelson.

The artist hides me in every book. We've got to find Brad. We have to find Brad. I said, but he's turned me into like this bald where's Waldo. It's exactly what it is. It's fantastic. And I actually, I did laugh out loud when I brought this home because that was the first thing. We've got to find Brad.

We've got to find Brad. In the next book that we're doing, you know, we're doing, I am George Washington next, which I've been waiting to do for it. Oh, that'll be great. And in the next book, kids became so obsessed with finding me in all the biographies that they actually have an author photo of me in the back as a cartoon of me. So you can actually see me and then know what to look for in case you, you know, could have a ball guy. Yeah, that's great. All right.

So we're going through the I am Martin Luther King. And I am Martin Luther King, Jr. Don't forget the junior, I know. And the story is fascinating. And the way you told it makes, I don't know, my kids wanted to go back and learn more about Martin Luther King Jr. Even with all the information they got from your book, it's like, we have to know more about this man. And it really does create that. That's the goal of the books, right?

If I tell my kids, Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech, my kids are not impressed. They don't care. They have no point of reference for the March on Washington or anything about the civil rights movement. But when I tell them that, and there's a true story, when Martin Luther King, Jr. was six years old, just six years old. His best friend was a little white. This little boy who was white, right? It's an amazing story. This is what the book opens with.

And we always open all the books. I am Abraham Lincoln, everything else. We open with stories from when they're little. So you see when he's six years old, Martin Luther King Jr.'s best friend is a little boy who's white. And they play together. They have fun together. And then one day the boy's father comes to him and says, my dad said, I can't play with you anymore. And young Dr. King is like, why?

I don't understand. We're friends, aren't we? And the kid walks away. And Dr. King is confused. He doesn't understand why they can't play together. And then he asks his parents, and his parents tell a six-year-old Dr. King, it's because you're black and he's white. And he's so mad at that.

He's like, I want to hate the father. I want to hate that boy. I want to hate the whole family. And his parents give him this amazing message. They tell him, listen, don't have more hate in the world, have more love in the world. and his mother tells him one of the other lessons, don't let anyone make you feel less than you are. And those lessons stick with him forever.

Forever. Six years old when he learns it. Obviously, we have six-year-olds who read these books. Those lessons stick with your kids forever. And once you tell your kid that story, every kid, and every adult, including myself, you, everyone, knows what it's like to be rejected by someone from someone who doesn't want to play with you anymore.

And once that happens, now your kids, can relate to him, and Dr. King is just like them. And now that's the goal of the book, Jeff. He is like, these aren't the stories of famous people. This is what we all experience every day. This is what we're all capable of on our very best days. And now you can go forward and your kids are attached to them. And then you obviously see the civil rights movement begin, and it goes from there.

And it's almost, I mean, my daughter, and she's, you know, obviously like you said, she's like your kids have heard the stories and it glosses right over until she gets inside the kids book. I am Martin Luther King Jr. and realizes that this, now she believes it actually happened and starts paying attention. It's difficult to believe that something like this could happen in America. Oh, for sure. Just unbelievable.

And to have someone to grab onto Martin Luther King Jr., man, it is important. We definitely need another Martin Luther King, Jr. I don't know today, but that's an interesting part. The amazing part is when you read this book, every parent that's read it, you know, I have a friend who read I Am Rosa Parks with his daughter. They're a mixed-race family, so they adopt a little girl. She's black, he's white, and they get to the last page. The last pages of the book always show the real pictures of the person.

And she said to him, she said, wait, this happened? This really happened. She couldn't believe it happened. Right. Every adult that reads the book is like, we need someone like this today. We are starving for people like this today. And, you know, to me the fun of I am Martin Luther King Jr. is that as a book, it's not only the stories when he's little, because, again, you see other stories when he's little and you can relate

to him. But when you start getting into the civil rights movement with your kids, you actually see the children's crusade. And now you hear the story of kids marching. These aren't just adults marching and changing. Right. But your kids see that kids had a hand in the Civil Rights. movement that a thousand kids showed up to March 900 were arrested.

And then your kids go, oh man, nobody's going to come the next day. The next day, instead of a thousand kids, two thousand, five hundred kids show up. And now it goes on national television. Everyone starts going, hey, man, that's not fair. You can't arrest kids. What are you doing these kids? They're putting a hoses on kids and dogs. And now your kids are going, wait, this isn't the action of just some adults.

I'm capable of this. I can take a stand. I have that power. And to me, when you teach your kid that, just like Dr. King, when he's six years old, those lessons stay with them forever. You arm your kids with these lessons forever. And those moral, you know, these books, you know me a long time, and we've sat in Dallas together.

And I always say what these books do is they're there to give these, it's not just a history lesson, it's a moral lesson. It's a moral, like when I did these books, all of our IAM books, it's a moral lesson of what you can teach your kids. And this isn't about what date the March on Washington is. It's about if you stand together, nothing can stop our dream. That's what it says in the back of the book. Just like on the back of I am Abraham Lincoln, it says, I will always speak up for others.

Or in the back of Amelia Earhart, it says, I know no bounds. And those are the lessons I want my kids to have. I want my daughter to have. I want my sons to have. It's that, you know, in this day and age where morals are thrown out the window so often that we need someone to teach, you know, our kids are going to pick heroes, whether we like it or not. you might as well have some saying it. So we can get this, Brad Meltzer.com, Amazon, available everywhere.

Yep, yeah, you can get them in any bookstore. I think they're even at Walmart Target and everywhere else. All right. So now let's move on to Brad Meltzer. Let's move on to Brad Meltzer. All right. We've had people, I've had people tweeting me for a second. We get to have a second look at your office on the broadcast.

Yeah, so what do you want to know about my office? I saw that on my Twitter. I was like, wait, what's the second? I know we did the first thing. What are we having to do? We did the first one. We need, you know, let's open up a drawer. Okay.

I don't know. Let's open up a drawer. I don't know. You're sitting at your desk. I'm opening a drawer right now. All right. We're opening up the drawer. Anything.

Anything. I don't care. This is actually fun. Okay. So here, this is great. So in here, I open my drawer is, um, I'm, listen, I, as someone who hosts lost history and decoded, like I'm obsessed with history. So my drawer has a stack of, of business cards.

look like business cards. I'm going to read through this. You'll find the best ones we have. Okay. So here is, you know, there's obviously things like your airline numbers and your nonsense like that. But this is how crazy I am, Jeffie. So here's my college ID. Now here's I promise you, this is true, I can send you a picture. So I have a, here's a Rolodex card.

Oh, my gosh. Most people don't even know what that is anymore. Right, right. If I show my kids this, they'd be like, why is there? Why is there a cut in that card? So it's a Rolodex card. That's the old-fashioned contact. This is where you used to keep your phone numbers, right? And so it is a phone number. And what happened was when I was starting out, I was 22 years old, and I was putting out my first book and trying to find an agent. And my boss at the time said, you should call this agency.

Every New York agency rejected me. They know nothing to do with me. I got 24 rejection letters in my first book. There were only 20 publishers. I got 24 rejection letters, right? And it was a disaster. but on this card is someone recommended to me an agent named Jill Niram or Lane Zachary. They were both at the same agency, but there were two names.

And I took the card, and I looked at the card, and I had to figure out which of these agents should I submit my book to. And I looked at Jill and a woman named Lane. And I was like, man, Jill sounds much nicer than a fake name like Lane. No kidding. No kidding. And I literally, and that woman that I sent to in that one decision of picking which of these two women, that's who became my agent and sold my first book. So here's the Rolodex card that I made the decision from.

That's how crazy I am. I kept that too. Oh, you can't throw it away. Yeah, no, no. It's a good one. I kept, so let's see what else is in here. I have baby pictures, of course, from kids. Oh, I have my Legion of Superhero's membership ID card for the Superhero Club.

Nice. What number are you? You know. Is that a number one? What are you going to be? I know. Okay. You know, you've got to be the good one.

I have my driver's license where I have hair, which is. I've seen a couple pictures of those. Stay bald. Yeah, they exist. Yeah, stay bald. I think they're there. And then wait, I'm going through this two pilots. In fact, I keep so much as two pilots.

Now the second pile, let's what we get. Oh, my first business card ever. Nice. And then this is actually a prayer that I keep in here that I always love from college. I love this prayer here. And then let me find. I'm going to end on something funny because it's definitely always funny in here. I'm going through because no one cares about.

My Writers Guild of America card. My mystery writer's card. Here it is. If we have this Superman theme to play, this is crazy that I kept this. You know how we used to get baseball cards? If you were a real nerd, what you got is you said,

you know, mom and dad, don't buy me baseball cards. Buy me Superman the movie cards with Christopher Reeve. Wow. And I actually have card number 77 conversing with the elders. It's when Superman goes and they put them in the phantom zone,

and I kept that card because I loved it so much. That is sweet. That is sweet. That shows you how pathetically... Well, I mean, today, that's great. Then, oh, my gosh. Yeah, then. Then that's a sign for I have no friends.

Then it's like, do you think we should get Brad checked? Oh, and then here's one of the things I found. This is two things that are awesome in here. One of them is a picture of our friend who passed away, Michelle Heidenberger from 9-11, one of the flight attendants on the Pentagon flight. I always keep her thing on my desk. But here's the other thing I just found in my desk is, well, my mom passed away. My mom was obsessed.

No one knows this. My mom was obsessed with moons. And you'll see sometimes in the books I'll hide references to moons. She used to wear little crescent moon pins. And in my desk right here, when my mom passed and, you know, you kind of split up jewelry with my family. Yeah, you find stuff. It was no jewelry. It was basically like whatever fake stuff my mom bought.

Of course, but it's still your mom's stuff. It's right. It's my mom. Right. It's worth nothing, but it's worth everything. Right. And so here is one of the same thing. of my mom's moons. It's the one thing I took. I was like, I want one of moms moons. So that's

one of my best. That's fantastic. And then here, last thing is also right here to my left, is a superhero action figure from the Justice League of America, the bad guy, the super villain that I made up and they made an action figure from. And as far as I was going to, I could be on the, we just found out that I am Martin Luther King Jr. made the bestseller list, right? That's a big deal in our house. Yeah, that's great. Not as big as having our own action figure. Oh, no way. Everybody wants their own action figure. I mean, right, it's your own action figure.

You know, I was like, my son comes and he's like, why do you have this out? I'm like, why do I not? Get your own action figure. Right. You can't have mine. This is mine to play with. Don't touch Daddy's action figure. Then get back to me.

I get out of here. All right, so we can catch your little reads on Facebook. I see you're doing that once or twice a week. You're reading stories to us on Facebook. I love that. And you can find all that out at Brad Meltzer. dot com. Brad, I'll talk to you later. Thank you very much. Okay, love you, you know that.

All right, peace. Brad Meltzer. Don't forget, Brad Meltzer.com. This is the Blaze Radio Network. This is the Jeff Fisher Show on the Blaze Radio Network. When our water heater broke down last month, it was a nightmare. It took five hours for the plumber to show up, and he charged us a couple of hundred bucks just to come out. Then it cost another $1,800 to put in the new water heater.

By the time it was all said, and done, I felt like I'd been taken. But what else could I do? The smartest thing you can do is get a home warranty from American residential warranty. Their home warranties pay to repair or replace all your major appliances when they break, and they will break. And at the worst possible time, call American Residential Warranty right now. For free information on home warranties starting at just pennies a day.

Don't wait for your refrigerator to stop running or your ceiling fans to stop turning. Call American Residential Warranty right now. Ask how you can save up to 50% on washer and dryer coverage. Just call 1,8006-39-10. That's 1,800-6-86-39-10. Again, 1-800-6-6-8-6-39-10. Call now.