The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Retro by Sofía Lapuente, Jarrod Shusterman

Episode Date: October 30, 2022

Retro by Sofía Lapuente, Jarrod Shusterman What starts off as a light-hearted competition to live without modern technology for a year turns into a fight for survival in this unputdownable young adult thriller by New York Times bestselling author Jarrod Shusterman and debut author Sofía Lapuente. It was never meant to happen this way. Things were never supposed to get this out of hand. After a cyberbullying incident at her school goes viral, Luna Iglesias finds herself at the heart of a brewing controversy. When the social media company Limbo—who are also implicated in the scandal—sweeps in with an offer that sounds like an opportunity to turn over a new leaf and receive a scholarship to the college of her dreams, she’s happy to jump on the new trend. It’s called the Retro Challenge, where contestants live without modern technology, wear vintage clothes, party as if the future weren’t already written, and fall in love as if they were living in a movie. At first, the challenge is fun. But then things get dangerous. Kids start disappearing, including Luna’s friends. There are voices in the woods. Bloodred markings on the trees. And Luna increasingly begins to wonder if all these strange happenings are connected with the Retro Challenge. Secrets. Lies. Betrayal. The weight of her family on her shoulders. There’s so much on the line for Luna, not to mention she’s falling in love with the last guy she expected. Unless she can figure out the truth behind who’s sabotaging the challenge, the next person to disappear may be Luna herself.

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries, and motivators. Get ready, get ready, strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi, folks. It's Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com, thechrisvossshow.com. Hey, we're coming to you with another great podcast we certainly as always appreciate you guys tuning in we've got a new york times best-selling author on the show

that's amazing authors have been part of the gleanings book that we had on with neil schusterman earlier this month you can catch that i think it was october 9th 2022 their new book out with these two new authors is called retro and it's going to be out January 24th, 2023. We're already at 2023. Oh my gosh, it's two days before my birthday. So that'll be a wonderful birthday gift. You guys can pre-order now wherever fine books are sold and be sure to send it out to me. Retro is the name of the book. It's by Sophia La Puente and Jared Shusterman, who is the son of Neil Shusterman, who was on the show earlier this month, if I have that correct. And we're going to be talking to them about their amazing new book that will be coming out.

Sofia is an author, screenwriter, and avid world traveler who immigrated from Spain to the United States to realize her dream of storytelling. Since then, she's received a master's degree in fine arts at UCLA, works as a producer and casting director on the Emmy-nominated show, on an Emmy-nominated show, I should mention, and received co-author credits in Gleanings, the book that we mentioned before earlier. Jared is the New York Times bestselling co-author of the novel Dry, which he is adapting for a major Hollywood film studio with Neil Shusterman. He's also the co-author of the acclaimed novel Roxy. His books have received critical acclaim and multiple star reviews. Welcome to the show, Sophia and Jared. How are you? Hey, thank you.

We are doing fantastic. We're super excited and stoked to be here. We're super excited to have you. So give us your dot coms, wherever you want people to find you on the interwebs to just get to know you better. Yeah. I mean, best place to start is social media. We are at Sophie and Jared, which is at S-O-F-I-A-N-D-J-A-R-R-O-D. And you can find us on TikTok, on Instagram, making fun, stupid, awesome, educational, crazy videos. It's the social media thing to do these yeah yeah yeah we even announced your guys's book on tiktok we're trying to get the coolness of

tiktok over there with the show so there you go so we've got everybody's.com do we we got all that in the can so what motivation why guys want to get together and write this book? Well, yeah, I'll start. I mean, for us, it was like whenever we're writing a novel, it's first starting with what is the thing and the kind of story that the world needs to hear that we think the world needs to hear. And what is that person? Because then when you start from that passion, then all the rest of the story starts to come. But it comes in an organic way that's really, you know, coming with a purpose. So for us, it was we sought technology. We saw how people treat each other on technology, things that happen online with cyber. And we just wanted to talk about technology,

how it relates to us, how to use it responsibly, how it's changing the world, how this is the first time in all of human evolution, we have this thing in our hands that has access to the entire world wide web and we're like i know as elon musk said we're like technically cyborgs now right we have we have computers in our hands it's just a little bit external so yeah what are we like and we wanted to we wanted to talk about that what were you saying i was looking at my phone i was checking my notes i wasn't doing that but no i mean, you see people nowadays are just walking around and working on their phone. I remember when I first started going out to dinner and seeing, I mean, I was going out to dinner a long time before that. But when I first started going out to dinner, I would see like whole families, just every family member was looking at their phone.

Like no one's talking to you. They're sitting there eating. And I'm just like, let's go to Oregon here. Sideworks. one's talking to you they're sitting there eating i'm just like cyborgs corgan here cyborgs you know i kind of have a rule when i go out to dinner or go out to eat with people or hang out and stuff put the cell phones down you know and you know have a human interaction experience but i come from the old world before cell phones you know where you just have to dial the phone and the screens are horrible on those phones i must say but. But it's kind of an interesting world. So give us an overview of Retro, your new book, and kind of some teasers of what's inside.

Yeah, yeah. So Retro is essentially, imagine if there was a cyberbullying incident that happened at a high school. So the platform in which that cyberbullying incident happened is called Limbo in our story. So imagine it like a TikTok. And they come to the school and they say, you know what? We want to make things right. If anybody can survive, you guys can survive one year without your modern technology, your phones, your smart technology, then we'll give you a scholarship for whatever school you want. You can make it the whole year. So it's called the retro challenge. And it becomes fun. People are listening to old music, driving old cars, dressing, going to the thrift shop.

It's this fun thing, and they're learning how the mall is becoming cool again. And then students start, new contestants start to disappear. And being character, Luna realizes that if she doesn't solve this and figure out why people are disappearing, then maybe she might be next. And it becomes a thrill. And it's just fun. The whole point of it is to be fun. You want to have a message, but it's got to be fun first.

It's got to be entertainment first. We know the world needs happy endings. So we're here to give you all the fun and good retro vibes. There you go. Well, usually stuff from the retro world disappears, but that's because it's old and dying like me. 20 years old is technically retro.

So we are definitely retro. There are down retro there you go there you go so did you guys decide to kind of frame the story around cyber bullying there's a lot of that sort of stuff going on nowadays yeah we totally framed it around the beginning is the reason why the whole book happens and exists like the first we get a you will see an attack of cyber bullying and from there is why the main protagonist that's what he what he does limbo the company come to the school that's when they choose that school to offer the challenge because it's happening in their platform it's the emphasis of the whole challenge so yeah the whole point was to talk about it. There you go.

There you go. So it creates an impetus, then turns it. Would we call this a murder mystery? Well, that's fine. We are mystery. I'm not going to talk more. Yeah. We can't, of course, tell everything when it comes to these novels and books and stuff like that. But do you think this is a book that's going to appeal to younger readers maybe young teens young adults i think so because it's not about teaching them

like oh don't use your phone like to be clear i use my phone the whole day actually our protagonists all the time like can't wait to get my phone back yeah let's be clear like i think phones are amazing i mean right now we're you, using a laptop to talk with you. Like, it's stupid to go against that and send everyone to a cave. But I think many young people have suffered bullying or they have judged themselves or feel illiterate after seeing whatever video image. And it's to appeal that. And to talk about technology is amazing. Just let's not forget that there is a human being behind every screen.

That's the message. The message is not stop to use your phone alarm, wake up for high school. And it's good. Something that was really important to us was that everybody realizes, yeah, that there's a person with a beating heart behind every single screen. And I feel like we forget that all the time. Yeah.

And the profile is human. On the profile. That's human. Yeah. You know, I've dealt with cyberbullying forever. I mean, I've had a YouTube channel for 13 years. I mean, the things that people will say on there is extraordinary. And you do get used to it. But I'm old enough to, you know, by the time I became good at YouTube and we got viewership, you know, I was

in my, I think forties or something. And so, you know, I'm mature enough to be able to go, you know, whatever, dude. But, you know, I can't imagine trying to take it on when you're 12 or 10 or, you know, a kid and, you know, suddenly you've got all this hate coming at you from random people on the internet and, you know, you're still forming your self-esteem and stuff. I can't imagine going through that, um, and stuff, you know, especially, I mean, for me, you know, when, when people write hateful comments on YouTube, I say I get paid, that helps me get paid. So I'm like, write as many hateful comments as you can. I mean, every time you do, you have the viewership and I get some more money. So it's kind of like, it's kind of like paying to insult me. So I'm just like, go ahead and have fun, knock yourself out. But you know,

I mean, when you're young and you know, you get all this hate, I imagine young women when they grow up, you know, they're already dealing with a lot of self-esteem issues and that looks. And then of course on the internet, you have the fear of missing out and you have the, you have these people that post these, you know, these Instagram posts, it looks like they're living in opulence and luxury. And you know they're just i don't know sneaking on the planes and taking pictures and stuff and that's crazy stuff well how did you guys pick some of the characters in it and would you base some of them on what were some of you some a lot is based a lot of our main product is based on i would would say Sophie, Sophie's culture. Yeah.

Well, me and my friends. Very good friends. Yeah. Like the protagonist, Luna, she's born in America, in the United States, but her mother is from Spain, like my mom, and her father is Mexican. So she has all this Hispanic culture at home, but then she's in a, you know, her day-to-day is in an American high school, right? And they speak English. And so you have all that where I belong to, right? Like I'm all this mix, but I don't, I don't feel represent, but I have these things and

you need to find your school. And it's kind of mastering the way in the sense of I have an accent, I'm here, but I'm from Spain, but the difference in culture, I have friends from different parts of the world, so it totally matches. And then, I mean, I'm a girl, I've been a teenager, so when I was thinking in the characters, I'm thinking in me, my friends, my crushes,

I've got, like, the whole thing, you know? And, you know, sometimes I'll write something and Sophie's like, teenage girls don't think like that. I'm like, oh. You, if you think that's how a teenage girl will think. So, and there's many moments where, you know, I'm learning a lot from Sophie and a lot from this culture. And I go, let's do research. Let me play you a couple of Netflix moments you need to watch to understand this.

Well, that probably was a good collaboration for the book to have both the female and male perspective, you know, especially these young people growing up. Hi, Voxers. Voss here with a little station break. Hope you're enjoying the show so far. We'll resume here in a second. I'd like to invite you to come to my coaching,

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We certainly appreciate you listening to the show. And be sure to check out chrisfossleadershipinstitute.com. Now back to the show and be sure to check out chrisfossleadershipinstitute.com now back to the show and it's like when you're being there because i was there i don't know 10 years ago it's like i know what's going through their brain more or less yeah i can see millennia whatever but it's like i know how much it affects the things and society and the way that it's put. And that's what we talked to about mental health in the book. Because honestly, cyberbullying or the pressure is

absolutely connected with mental health. So 100%, right? So I was like, as a teenager, and anxiety or feeling judged or crying or being overwhelmed is all connected with technology. That's what we show about technology. We never say technology is bad don't, we don't,

we never say technology is bad. No, by no means. By no means. And it's like, and you don't believe it's bad at all. And if you were just taking this challenge by yourself, like, let's be honest, it would really suck.

Like what, you live in a world and you're just a lot when you're on your phone. Because everybody does it together. Everyone does it together. You're doing it with your whole school. You're doing it with your friends. It's cool. It's cool. It's fun.

And I would totally love if like me and a group of people could just go retro. We're actually going to plan. We're going to do it. That would, but it would be easier because at least you'd have someone to talk to. Cause you know, when you try and talk to people, they don't answer their phones.

You know, you got to leave a message or they're like, Hey, contact me or text me over on Facebook or something or Instagram. You know, you can to leave a message or they're like, hey, contact me or text me over on Facebook or something or Instagram. You know, you can't reach people like like a lot of times we're trying to get authors on the show. You know, we're trying to hunt them down. And it's amazing how many authors don't have emails or websites. You're just like, apparently 2022 people.

But I imagine I know a lot of journals that we have on the show. The reason they do is because they want to go to the New York Times, whoever their job is. But it's funny because you're just like, really? It's really hard to find you. And, you know, I can't imagine trying to find people. Like, back in the day, we had, what was it, the Yellow Pages, you know? Yeah, we had the Yellow Pages. I don't know how I'd find anything anymore without my phone.

Like, even like the temperature and the the weather I'm like, you know, what's the temperature today? I have to go. I don't know where I go without a computer to look up that stuff. I have to drive by a bank, I guess, to find the temperature and time. I have to go outside and like seal it. Give me a sundial and I don't know some sort of way to figure out what time it is and all that good stuff

anything else you want to tease out about the book? I know we can't tell the course giveaway and the ending and the main plot and the thickness in between but anything else you want to tease out on the book? There are some things that are different about this book that I will say one is that every chapter is a song.

What? A song? Song, yeah. It's a whole soundtrack. Oh, wow. Yeah, so the index is actually a playlist. And there's a QR code in that playlist. So you can listen to the Spotify playlist while you read.

Every single chapter is about three or four pages. And, you know, if you're reading at the same pace, you can totally listen to the soundtrack of her life, of all these awesome retro songs that are kind of on her playlist that totally correlate to each chapter. So you can get some, so you can hype up a chapter

or you can realize that something terrible is gonna happen, something fun is gonna happen. It keeps you in zone. That's pretty innovative, man. Yeah, it's new. We never saw it done before. We came up with the idea and we're like, let's do that. Let's pretty innovative, man. Yeah, it's new. We never saw it done before. We came up with the idea, and we're like, let's do that. Let's make it really super interactive.

So you scan that QR, it goes right to our Spotify, and everyone's welcome to listen to all of it. That's pretty brilliant. I like that. And, of course, the kids like that stuff. They're into all the music and stuff. And Chris Walsh shows over there on Spotify, too, if you want to listen to that at all.

You know, that's pretty awesome. And people can jam to it. Is it mostly like older tunes then? All retro. So the rule was before year 2000. But you will be surprised in how old you feel. We felt very old when you're listening at some times.

No, because it's like, you're like, oh, this Britney Spears song, that couldn't have been that long ago. You know, my nephew is really funny. He's a Gen Z-er. I think he's like 22 now. And I game with him, you know, and so he comes on the Discord and I have a whole gaming group of friends. And yesterday he came on and he was singing one of the hits from The Outfield.

Josie's on a vacation far away. Oh, yeah. You know, and like two or three songs off that album, if not all the songs off that album, if you hear them once, they're stuck in your brain for like three days. And so he's singing it. And he does this a lot. He'll sing like Hit Me With Your Best Shot or The Queen Song, Another One Bites The Dust. And I'll tell him lot he'll sing like hit me with your best shot or the queen song another one

bites the dust and i'll tell him i'll be like jeffrey when i was in high school in junior high that that song was like the hit on the radio and i you know i'm i'm happy that he's that he's listening and enjoying this music and because it beats some of the crap i hear today that's my opinion but last night he was night he was singing that song, and I said to him, I says, do you know, I saw them at concert. He goes, really? When was that?

Was that recently? And I go, I think it was in 1987 when they opened for Journey on the Raised on Radio tour, and I think both albums came out in 1985. And he was like, no way, you're that old? No, no, no. And I haven't counted how long ago that was, but 1987

is a far ways from here, which is I don't know what to say about that. But yeah, it's kind of funny how his younger generation, they kind of like some of our things. Yeah, there's a huge throwback culture, right? And I feel like the style today like that's part of the inspiration for us or the styles today are really all inspired by

things you know pieces of clothes from 15 years ago 30 years ago the windbreakers the the retro vibes so cassettes are by cassettes you can go buy a drake album in urban outfitters on cassette yeah it's like that just came came out. It's like, really? So it's happening. Yeah, it's crazy. And you know, you're right. A lot of music nowadays samples music from that age. And, you know, ACDC, the music from ACDC.

It's just crazy. But yeah, the outfield, I mean, those songs are still played so heavily. I'll hear them everywhere. I mean, they must be making a mint off the royalties. Oh, yeah. Something that we did, we were trying to find songs. We're like, what songs are going to connect with everybody?

So we actually went on YouTube and we're like, which songs have 1.5 billion views? Oh, really? That everyone's liking. And we were able to kind of see and sample which songs fit with our chapters based on things that are still really relevant. Yeah. Well, I'm pretty proud of kids that, you know, subscribe to our old music because it makes me able to rub in their face that we were the greatest generation of all. Mainly Jack's generation. We had the greatest music of all.

So it's ever gone downhill ever since, in my opinion. Well, there was a little spike with the millennial generation kind of went up and then went down yeah yeah and yeah it's it's just it's it's you know i don't know they say you can never go home but the some of the oldest music is the best people i i used to have gals that i dated come up and see my music collection my cd collection back then it was like 4 000 cds and they go you're an old butt rocker and i was like what the hell is a butt rocker that sounds awful they're like you know you like those cer. And I was like, what the hell is a butt rocker? That sounds awful. They're like, you know, you like the Cinderella metal bands with the long hair and all this stuff and the Metallica and stuff.

And I'm like, well, at least you know the names of the bands, I guess, I don't know. Well, this has been awesome, man. It'll be great to see your stuff. I guess you're working with Neil on doing something for a film. Do you want to tease a little bit about that? Yeah, I mean, the most recent thing that we have is Dry. And that was the first film I wrote with my dad.

We're at Center Development right now. Things are looking pretty good. You never know. With the film world, it can take time, get traded hands between different studios, but that's really exciting. And then we are talking with many producers right now about Retro as well,

to see if that can be a motion picture or a series. We think it'd be better as a series. But yeah, it's all in the grind. I think Retro would, yeah, make a great movie. I mean, you know, there's a lot of these younger kid movies that are coming out that are kind of dealing around the world. There was that horror movie that came out with Peteete what's his face from snl and it it was it was basically you know stuff that's kind of more the gen z genre and it was about social media influencers and fomo and them getting together and partying in these houses like they

do you see a lot of these house setups they do like with youtube stars and stuff and uh and you're just like okay well that how could that go bad and i could probably think of some ways and everything they document in the movie sofia anything else you want to plug before we go out any future projects or current projects you're working on we're working in another two hopes get this book out and get a get it promoted and hopefully maybe a movie deal out of it. There you go. Projects. There you go. Always projects. Always the projects. So give us your dot coms wherever you want people to find you guys

in the interwebs. Great. Right now, everybody goes straight to social media. You'll find everything you need. We have our website as well. Sophie and Jared, just to reiterate, S-O-F-I A-N-D J-A-R-R-O-D for TikTok and Instagram. And then you go to sophieandjared.com.

There you go. Well, it's been wonderful to have you both on the show. Thank you very much for coming on. Thank you so much. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Lots of fun. Retro, the new book, it'll come out January 24th, 2023.

You can order it today. Get it on pre-order. That way you can be the first one on your block and your book club to say you read it and to pick that baby up. And plus you make sure you get that QR code. So you can check out Spotify playlists as well. Thanks for tuning into my audience. Be good to each other.

Stay safe. And we'll see you guys next time. Thank you. Bye. Bye. All right. That should have us out.