The Doug Stanhope Podcast - Book By Its Cover (pt1)

Episode Date: September 14, 2026

Doug gets a lot of emails. A lot of them are scams trying to get him to pay to appear on other podcasts or hand over access to his social media. Recently, though, he found himself on a different kind of list: the one print-on-demand publishers use to spam podcasts with interview requests for their authors. So, for one week, Doug decided to say yes to every single one. Armed with whatever audiobooks he could listen to, the promotional blurbs, and—most importantly—the covers, Doug sat down with author after author and did his best to give each of them the thoughtful literary interview they deserved. This is Book By Its Cover. Video version will be made free over on Patreon. Consider subscribing for more video content. For free shipping on your order & 365-day returns go to https://www.Quince.com/STANHOPE  Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/STANHOPE & use code STANHOPE to get $150 if you win your first $5 lineup! Thanks to our author guests: Matthew Cossolotto — Harness Your PromisePower: Change Your Life, Transform the World Ken Lloyd, Ph.D. — Performance Appraisals & Phrases For Dummies Nick Greenberg — Buried Treasure Daniel Cubillo — The Creative Mastermind Mind: From Roadrunner to Showrunner. How to Make It in Showbusiness and Content Creation Joel Steele — Life Switch: How to Experience the Power of Living ON by Discovering Your Potential, Passion, and Purpose J.P. McMurphy — Free Doug D. Earl Johnston — Choosing Emotions: Thinking With Your Head and Acting With Your Heart James Chesterton — Ashes of the Republic

So is it we get a notification or four minutes. All right. Okay. So, but we're filming. We can tell you. This is a first book of our segment, a book by its cover. And we have 15 interviews set up today. And we're going to switch out with Chad and Bingo and Derek's even going to do one or maybe.

We don't know. We're just winging this. At some point, a public. got a hold of, I'm sure everyone who has a podcast on a list and they're just flooding my email with interview opportunity. And it's mostly authors. They have one documentary that was the fucking worst. So anyway, so we go, why don't we just do like the old Jack and Rod from Howard Stern? And yeah, they had a fake radio station to fuck with them.

And this is an actual podcast. So first up, first up, first up. First author is Matthew Cazelado probably has some kind of a mob ties, but he has a self-help book called Harness Your Promise Power, Change Your Life, and Transform the World. Now, that sounds pretty lofty. I think we're going to have to burrow into his head. I understand the power of a promise, right? I promise you, I'm going to quit smoking. And then I know I let you down. It puts pressure on me, but how the fuck is that going to change? the world. It seems like an awfully big goal. Well, I mean, for people who clearly have problems with self-discipline already. I'm already struggling enough that I need to read your book. Right. I'm just trying to brush my teeth more regularly. You want me to change the world?

Right. Flossing, just to floss. There's so many improvements to be made before I start focusing. Right. Yeah. When I, I get this thing burned off my fucking head. They go, you wear sunblock? And I go, the dentist asks me if I floss? No, I don't wear sunblocking. It's going to be my book. Cut your weeds.

Change the world. My lifeguard? Cut the weeds and change the world. I'm going to try my best not to laugh on these. Unless it's... Oh, he's going to be like Judas style. with Stan Hovo I'm just going to try to make you laugh

And I was like Oh fuck Oh my only defense was Fuck you I'm gonna try to make you laugh Go for Oh that looks funny I'm gonna do that on every

Yeah save that Save that for sure I should I should be trying to follow you And do it the same thing After I see you do it All right one minutes Why is this fucking making

noise. I fucking silence this shit and they still get notification noises. Matthew Coselado is our guest, author of Harness Your Promise Power and Change Your Life, transform the world. And we're coming up on May 4th. Tell us what May 4th is. May 4th is a holiday that I'm creating. It's called Make a Promise Day. And I'm encouraging jurisdictions and institutions and individuals around the world to celebrate Make a Promise Day. So make a promise, basically the idea is turn a goal, an important goal, into a heartfelt promise, and you're more likely to follow through. That's the basic idea.

Promises are very powerful. They are. I know that from childhood where you would say, you'd make a promise, stick a needle in my eye. Yeah, cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye. Yeah, we must have been pretty morbid children, right? Yeah, but what, yes, but you know, it, it sticks in your mind, too, and it stays with you for your lifetime. You know that a promise matters, so that a lot of people set goals, and a lot of people have New Year's resolutions, but a lot of resolutions go by the wayside about two weeks into the year, right? Yeah. There's something called Quidders Day. Now, the catalyst to you

writing this book was you made a promise to your mother. Exactly. Yes, I made a promise to my mother on her deathbed, literally. Last time we spoke, I had this idea I should make a promise to her. She had been encouraging me to write a book. I was a self-help book. I had the idea, but I wasn't convinced I was a self-help author at that time. And I was dragging my feet. But I, there's something about the idea I was still intrigued by. So I made her a promise that I would finish writing the book that she was encouraging me to write. And I would dedicate it to her memory. And of course, tears were welling up. And she looked up with me and shook her finger. You do that, Matthew. You do that. This makes me very happy. And I knew right away that failure was not an option.

that I had crossed the Rubicon, that I had to write that book. That is not the book, but this book is rooted in that promise. The book I wrote a couple years later was called Habit Force. And I wrote a dedication to my mother in that book. Basically, and I read the dedication a few years later, and it just grabbed me. Their dedication said, basically, I would not have written this book had I not made that promise to my mother. This demonstrates the power of making a promise, especially dear mother. So I had this epiphany at that moment that there's something uniquely powerful about making a promise that held me to it, that I knew the failure was not an option.

So now I'm trying to spread the word. I had a similar situation where my mother, I was at her deathbed, and I promised her I'd try to get. people to find a cure and donate to the research for what she died of. But I didn't actually, I guess I did

write a book about it. Anyway, so what... You kept your promise. What compelled you? Like, how, you had to have times where you go, listen, I just don't feel like writing. I've written

books. He's written. Everyone that off camera has written. This is a show to give a minute with an author. Right. When you found yourself just finding any excuse not to write, as we all do, what was your go-to distraction where you go, I know I promised mother, but she's dead. I can take a little while and watch YouTube videos. What's your go-to distraction?

Well, what I kept telling myself was I didn't make the promise, so I have to do it. And it took me a few years. And I liked the idea of habit force. The basic idea was that two powerful words in our language, failure and success, both have seven letters. And I don't have time really to go into all of that. But the idea was to put these two side-by-side acronyms or acrostics. Every failure habit, for every failure habit, there's an equal but obvious. opposite success habit. So these two powerful seven-letter words in our culture happen to have

these powerful words opposites, right? Failure and success. And my mother loved the idea. So I, because of the promise, I kept kind of almost forced myself to finish out, what would the F stand for, what would the S stand for, what would the U stand for? And I know, I know an F and S word that are four-letter words that are all so powerful. And feel free to use. those on this show. This is not some kind of a safe space, you know, a freedom of speech joint. This is not where you can't. That's why

podcasts exist. And I promise you, sometimes an F-bomb is going to drop on this podcast. So feel free. Just unload. Sometimes here's right down that path. I often say that failure is the real

F-word in our culture. That's true. Yeah. That's that's true. So So what, now that we're going to make May 4th Promise Day, an actual holiday, we're going to need, what are we going to drink? Like, what do we put on the barbecue? What, if we're going to make it a full-on holiday, what kind of hat do I wear? What's an outfit? Cinco de Mayo is the day after.

So you don't want to do Mexican or wear a sombrero because it's going to be redundant. Well, Doug, you're really way ahead of me. I haven't thought about the costumes, but the idea is to encourage people to make a promise on Make a Promise Day. Also, really important, even on Mother's Day, which comes a few days later. You can make a promise to your mother on Mother's Day, which is part of the reason we're even having this conversation. We both made promises to our mothers. You guys are lucky. I wish now I would have made a promise to my mom before she died.

Well, I guess if I had a wish, I'd probably wish she didn't die instead. I guess that's kind of a waste of a wish if I just wish I would have made a promise to her. It's possible to make a promise to your mother and just do it without her being here. You can still do that because she's still a power. The whole idea about making a promise is that it comes from the heart. And because it comes from the heart and there's a lot of emotion behind it, It's really powerful, much more powerful than a traditional goal or, like I said, a resolution. It gets forgotten.

Even goals might have, people might have really strong goals. Just turn it into a promise, do a little jujitsu on the goal. Turn it into a promise. Well, hey, I think you have another word for that, jujitsu. Do you not? How do you mean? Joy Jitsu? Joy Jitsu.

Joy Jitsu. We're getting there. Listen. Enjoy your public speaking. You are part of the fun house lexicon now with Joy Jitsu ever since we read that. Yeah, that's going around. So you're in our head, living there rent free. Oh, great.

I love being in your head. That's great. I love that. I promise it'll probably last until I have a few more cocktails. A few more cocktails. Well, at least I was in there. Listen, I wish we had more time. This is a new segment on our podcast.

So I'm realizing, I don't think. that these short blocks are enough because we haven't gotten into this is this is not just three pages about making promises you go into some some deep work some great stories you know real stories from real people some celebrities some you know famous not so famous and jacques chanfield wrote your uh your intro jack canfield of chicken soup for the soul right he's uh I really want to thank Jack for, he's one of the reasons I actually finished this book because he liked the idea so much that, and I knew he was doing the forward. I really had to follow through because Jack Canfield was involved.

So, you know, I made a promise to myself I would get this book done. And I promised myself, I didn't tell Jack, I promised, but it was a promise to Jack Canfield as well. Did Jack Canfield promise he'd kick the shit out of you if it wasn't a good product? No, he's a very decent fellow. I'm working on a book called Epicac for the soul. Sometimes you're just going to throw all that stuff up. Oh, yeah.

I love it. I tell you, well, you said we don't have a lot of time, but there is, tell me when we, if I can go on for a minute. Go, please. One of the reasons I made the promise, and I've thought about it over the years. Why did I make this promise? Well, I had this idea that I think you'll enjoy, Doug.

I had an idea to start something called Comedy TV way back in the 80s before Comedy Central. And I would have been John Stewart's boss had I followed through this. It would have been nice. But I had this idea. I was working on Capitol Hill. I didn't make a promise. I talked myself out of it. I said, who am I to do this?

I was, again, sort of dragging my feet a little bit. And I thought, I don't know anything about starting their cable. TV channel. So I blew it because I didn't pursue it. You know, about three or four years after I had this idea, I heard about Comedy Central. There was a story about it. I thought it was about my idea. I read the article. I thought, somebody got my idea. And so when I had this idea for the book on habits of success and failure, my mother had been encouraging me. Something told me I should make a promise, to hold myself to it, to give myself a little more power behind it. And I didn't know it at the time, but I think that experience of dropping the ball on comedy TV propelled me to make this

promise. I get that. Do you ever, do you wait for someone to be on their deathbed now before you make a promise, or do you try to do it earlier? Yeah, it's always a good idea to do it earlier. But it is, it's a powerful time to do it. But I only have one mother, so I don't have that opportunity again. I think if I, me, and I'm known for sloth at sometimes, but if I only promised terminally ill people, then I wouldn't feel bad if they flaked because I don't believe in an afterlife. Right. It's a tough.

But you still make the promise. If you're sincere about the promise, you don't have to, you would know that they would feel bad. I mean, the whole thing, big thing about promises is if you make it to someone, a promise to someone you care about, you know, they're like an accountability buddy, even if they're not there anymore. You know that it's something you need to do. Most people want to keep their promises. Even though we hear all this talk about broken promises, most people want to keep promises because they grew up knowing that was a value. It's an old-fashioned value, but I like to think of promise making in the context of personal empowerment promises, turning a goal into a

promise. I'd like to think of that as the new frontier in personal change and achievement. Chad Shank is known for always saying, that's not a threat. That's a promise. And then someone gets hurt. I have to let you go. I have one coming in in one minute. It was a pleasure. Matthew Cossolado, get the book. Harness your promise power. the link will be in the show notes and we appreciate your time sir we appreciate it we'll think of you on may 4th may 4th may 4th may the 4th be with you cheers thank you all right we get some technical glitches out of the way yeah and the expectation of them to take up most of the time talking now we'll have to interject more yeah that's one thing

I learned. Way of them on. Yeah, I'll redo that on someone else, the whole say what you want. Shit, fuck, cunt. I thought,

I thought you were going to go to remember when he said to ju-jitsu. Like, a Jew, I'm like, Jesus, he really took what you said.

Dude, hard. Quince, pronounced like Queen and Wince or Quincy. All right, that's not a really good pronunciation key.

Is it quince or is it Quincy? I say it's quince and what I say, it's quince and what I say. It goes, it's my podcast. Your closet should be full of things you love wearing. That's what Quince does best. Quince focuses on high-quality staples built with premium materials with everything you need to get dressed for any occasion.

A jail, an abortion. They have the pants for it. Quince keeps you looking good season after season, even football season. I got some blue pants from sky blue, light blue. I don't know what kind of blue they call it. But if I said I'm a Chargers fan, people will. go, I could tell by the pants. Titans fan. I could tell by the pants. Dolphins, it doesn't matter. I'm a fan of all of them. I'm a fan of those pants. Check out some great pieces and quinces fall

lineup like Mongolian cashmere sweaters for just 60 bucks. I look out in the audience. I can't see enough Mongolian cashmere sweaters. That's right up my demographic. Lightweight down puffer jackets and vest when the weather turns even Italian leather shoes when you need to look your best. If there wasn't OJ wearing some premium Italian leather shoes, I can't get enough of the quince stuff and they gave me some free stuff like those light blue pants. And then I find out they also have amazing household staples,

hotel quality, bedding and bath essentials. And that's nice hotels, not the shit holes I stay in. Premium cookware and Japanese steel knife sets. Maybe I should have got that instead of the pants. Or maybe I should just buy some because For Christ's sake, I won't you cheat motherfucker? Buy something. Because they partnered directly with ethical factories and top artists.

And I will have nothing but the most ethical person sending me ginsu knives. Quince has priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands with no middleman driving up costs. You know what? We get rid of the middleman to pass the savings on to you. But what about the middleman? You know, he's out of work. We're trying to create jobs, right? Now there's middlemen out in soup lines.

Find the next fall favorites at Quince. Download the Quince app for app exclusive offers. Or go to quince.com slash Stanhope for free shipping and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK too. That's quince, quunc.com slash Stanhope. For free shipping and 365 day returns, Quince.com slash Stanhope. All right. let's just get into it.

Andrew Ragevich, welcome to the show. Psychic Firefighter. Thanks for coming on. And this is a, we usually talk to authors on this. It's a segment that we've been doing, a book by its cover. And when I got the promo from your PR person,

I just glossed over it, assumed it was another book. And then I said, send a hard copy. And they go, it's a psychic he doesn't have a book but you are working on a book correct yeah yeah yeah yep how's that coming along yeah good good so i was in new york city firefighter for 13 years then i moved to australia i worked as an embalmer a mortician for four years and then since 2021 i've been working full-time as a psychic medium always did that always did that as a like a thing on the side but around COVID is when I went into business just doing that.

So that's all I do now is just readings. First of all, our producers here are Australian. So what part of Australia are you in? Oh, nice. I'm in Melbourne. All right. They're Brisbane, cunts. Oh, cool, cool.

But I've got so many questions that that's why I wanted more time. But let's set up your story a little bit more. First of all, you joined the fire department. your dad was a firefighter in the city and then after 9-11 you were obviously greatly affected as were people around you people you grew up with

your dad's friends at the station and you decided you were going to join the fire department yeah so my father was actually working that day he was actually down at ground zero right when it happened so I remember when I saw that on TV what was going on I didn't know where he was or what was happening I just knew he was at work I had this feeling I called the firehouse.

I said, hey, is Richie there? They're relocated to Manhattan. I'm like, oh, shit. So I just knew, oh, man, something's down there. He didn't have a cell phone at the time. So I'm waiting there by the phone for hours, me and my mom. And then at like one in the afternoon, we get a call. And she's like, he's okay.

I talk to him. And then later on, I talked to him and found it in detail what happened. But basically, they saw a plane hit the Trade Center. They hopped in the truck from Dead Stye as they're going down there. They get to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. They had to walk two miles on foot to the World Trade Center through the tunnel. They get out of the tunnel. The engine company and the latter company in my dad, Touse,

a ladder one or two, engine 209. They get out. The engine's walking down and a guy jumps out of a window, a civilian jumped out of a window and hit a fireman. A guy, Danny, sir, from engine 216 and killed him instantly. So they started trying to revive him. And as they were reviving him, the first tower fell. So if that one guy didn't get hit, the whole company would have got killed that day.

And everyone in the company was, that was the only company that was unscathed, right? Your dad's? Yeah. So the whole area in Bedstai, my dad's company, is the only house that everyone just happened to live that day. Every single guy in the area in Bedstai from the whole company, literally in the area, every company, every guy got lost that day. Do you ever talk to that guy and tell him thanks? what the guy that which guy that jumped the guy that jumped

and saved everybody no he's dead yeah yeah but you talk to the dead is what I'm saying like have you we're making light on something right right right but you do

no because I I've researched and I saw where you said that you've you still get readings from other people and you go all right how does it work being a psychic being a

no dude that wasn't that bad what I said was it did I fuck it out I'm sorry I fucked it up I thought that was good I mean how do you not think of that the first thing yeah I mean

yeah wow he wasn't gonna be fun no no no he's a fucking complete fraud the fucking when when God gives you I'm just gonna keep doing the goddamn thing he's still there

Who just lost him? He's still there. Talking to him in the after hang-up. When God gives you a gift like this, you have a responsibility to share it with the world. How much does God tell you to charge for that service? Do you find Australians to be more gullible? And that's why you lived there? Your dad was FDNY, and then you joined the squad. Then you quit to be a psychic.

Was he embarrassed for you? Buy you? Of you? What is it? When you talk to your grandma still? And what's it like to have an old dead woman for a best friend? How do you deal with skepticism? Not psychic.

Not psychic. I mean 9-11 inside job. Fuck. You know, I feel like maybe I should have made fun of his New York Australian accent sooner to fuck with him if I would have known he was going to be that sensitive. Like, what do you just adopt the accent of everywhere you fucking live? What time is it over there? Because it looked like it was night and he was fucking waiting up for us.

Yeah, it would be like 4 a.m. Oh, geez. Well, I'm sorry I fucked that up. I should have kept my mouth shut. No, fuck him. I thought it was a good fucking question. A psychic firefighter. What a fucking cut.

I wanted to ask them, like, seriously, if you can talk to the dead, how long are we supposed to keep their phone number in our cell phone after they die? I just, like, what's it for, like, three months, a year? You know, at least I feel better knowing you would not have made it through one of your questions. If you didn't get through mine, there's no way. I just, I just pre-screened that guy for you. Fuck, I didn't fuck up the whole fucking segment. I just, I pre-screamed it.

I had so many. God damn it What time are we at? Hello, Dr. Ken. Hey, Doug, how are you? Good, how are you? This is Chad. Chad Shank,

co-host here, and welcome to the program. First of all, do people ever, when you get called Dr. Ken, assume they're going to get the Asian guy from the hangover? Maybe.

That's a scary thought. I just prefer... Your book here, performance appraisal, and phrases for dummies. You might be wondering why how this works into a comedy podcast, but a podcast for most people

is an industry now. It's not just like a goofy thing you do in your basement. I think we all know more podcasters than radio personalities anymore. And so this is not just about me being funny. What you can't see here is a bunch of employees that I have that I have to at some point stop being funny and start going hey who's pulling their weight this is not my performance review is it not yes this is a horrible way

to do that you're you're a bad man I do your performance of appraisals from a distance you'll get an email Doug asked me to come on today uh Chad we need to talk about a few things There's witnesses and figures. All right. So because of the title, we picked the dumbest guy on our podcast, works for us, and said, hey, Derek, why don't you break this down for us? What's this book about? And he had some kind of clever notes. He said it's, and if you can see this handwriting,

He writes like it's a note from summer camp, and he's seven. He said it's like a cheat sheet. There's a lot of typos that you're missing. Cheat sheet for people who want to sound like they know what they're talking about in a professional world. Here's the fun part. Where is it? I wrote it down where I don't have... We don't have...

his errors. Yeah, exactly. He said it's 385 pages of how to tell your employees they suck without getting HR involved. Is that kind of accurate? Uh, no. All right. It's funny. He also questioned how you could even become a manager without already knowing all of this. Yeah, well, that's very interesting because it is rather remarkable. that a lot of managers know or know about some of this, but their organizations in a big picture are still using approaches, techniques, and strategies that go back to the 1970s.

And some managers will go, you know, this is not how we're supposed to do it. This is not effective, but this is not generating the kinds of results that we want. So in some cases, as you mentioned, managers will know about it, but companies still have this archaic annual review, that drives people crazy.

Yeah, Jane, I asked for a phone number, and you just went into a roll of decks. I think we have a problem. Let me get my typewriter and I'll see. Are people even with the same company for multiple years anymore? I thought that was a thing of the past. I thought people hopped around.

That's interesting. There is a good amount of mobility. People typically leave, though. people think they leave for the money. Actually, the studies show that they're more likely to leave because of the way they're being, if you will, manage, because of their manager, the leadership in the company, the environment. Is this a toxic environment? Those kinds of factors that are pushing people out.

If we're really managing effectively and productive and, if you will, I hate the word modern, but modern way, there's less of that. It does impact turnover. But in this economy, people are also a little reluctant to be jumping. around. It's kind of tricky right now. We have a good friend. Sorry, we have a good friend that just left a company

our friends with the pool, I'll say. I don't want to throw her into more problems, but she just had to leave a place at a person of a certain age, getting close to retirement but management was so shitty that she, I

can't do this anymore. I've never been in the corporate world, but as a manager one of the things I had to do was tell a grown woman who was older than myself we don't look at Facebook on the company computer while we're at work and that's what inspired me to quit working have you ever had to fire people Ken I've ever had to fire people Oh, yeah, I spent, in addition to consulting and teaching, I had worked also 18 years as a senior VP of employee planning and development, what is that, at a major manufacturer of medical apparel. And I have been involved in the firing termination of employees.

I haven't strictly fired someone. My approach really is to work with people to try to see if we can figure out a way to develop their skills, abilities, focus, make things align better for them. But yeah, there are cases, for example, when an employee engaged in active and awful sexual harassment. And our policies are very clear. You can be terminated on the spot if the actions are egregious. And this was way, way, way over the top. And so the manager wanted this individual terminated. And I work with that manager to terminate this individual.

So, so yes. But to me, the idea of, hey, get this job done, chat, or you're fired. that's not motivation. That's not anything at all. Let's work and see if we can work together to help you in terms of possible skills, additional training you might need. How does this align with your career goals where you want to go and what you want to do? Instead of just being this appraiser and say, hey, you did this wrong,

and I know it happened six months ago, but too bad I'm giving this feedback. All of that is out with these newer approaches to performance appraisals. Dr. Kenhouse, one of the other things I had as it managed, I would think is the most difficult thing I faced. And I don't know if you covered in here, but I had an employee who stunk. And it was... Literally or figuratively.

Literally in a small office environment and had already been counseled on it prior to me becoming manager. Is that something you cover in this book? Because I'll be honest, we didn't read it cover to cover. The topic of body odor is not. But there are regulations out there, interestingly enough, about fragrances in the wordplace. And if someone's wearing, if you will, fragrance that is so powerful that people in cubicles or work areas on the other side of the office are getting headaches.

I think she was wearing no bath. Sorry? I think she was wearing no bath is what she was wearing. I know. I read stories all the time about people being thrown off airplanes for stinking so much. I had to look it up. there's, you know, like what if it's a medical thing? You know, what if, what if her teeth are rotting and she just stinks?

But, you know, there was a lot of angles to it. I just wondered if that was something that you would address. I'm pretty dumb. That's pretty narrow topic there, Chad, but important nonetheless. And in managing individuals, if you come across something like that, what do I do? I don't see what I do if there's an employee that smells. I would, if you're not in HR, ask HR. and they typically will say, all right, look, we can do something about this.

Or what they would probably do is talk to corporate counsel, say, look, we have an employee, corporate counsel, let's say, just what you're saying, Chad, is it a medical issue? Because suddenly you're discriminating against this individual because he or she has a medical problem that generates these odors. What can we do to accommodate? In other words, I can't take a shower that often because of X, Y, and Z. All right, what can we do so it's not creating a difficulty in the workplace for your fellow employees. We want to do it. We can, particularly if the employees are good employee. What's that? So maybe like barf bags around strategically around the office? Yeah, well,

well placed. Yeah, why not? Listen, I have you written other books? Yeah, I have. This is book number 11 for me. Wow. Whoa. This is a work that of, I wouldn't, I would bet this is not. a work of passion. This was a work that needs to be out there, perhaps, but you weren't jumping out of bed going, ooh, ooh, I forgot. And I only bring this up, Ken, because I've written three books, and it was grueling. But they were works of passion. Yeah.

So this is not, I'm asking you this, because this is not the first time you've written this book. This is, you wrote this 15 years ago. first copy and then you had to redo it. What kind of hell was it where you go, all right, I need the money. Kidney's braces. The grandkids are coming for this summer. How hard could it be? But to revisit this. Yeah, what would have me? I wrote the first edition 15 years ago for W. W.W.'s book for Wiley Publishing. And they came back to me and said, would you be interested in writing a second edition? And my attitude in a broader sense was that, yeah, this is really necessary.

So much has happened in 15 years in this area. And it's not just a narrow topic that impacts employee communication, collaboration, development, career satisfaction, turnover. It affects all these aspects of work. I'm interested in, if you will, people at work. That's always been the theme of my career. So, yeah, and I've enjoyed writing. So once I got into it, I do put a lot of passion into it.

It's an important topic, and it can help people. Right. And in 15 years, how much did you have to actually relearn about the workplace that you didn't know? Like 15 years ago, there weren't slews of people working from home at, what do you call? Yeah, kind of kind of two ways. approach that one during many of those 15 years I was serving as a senior VP in an organization dealing directly with every aspect of people matters you can imagine HR reported to me I was at HR but they they reported to me at the same time we got into COVID and people working remotely and

all of that and the same time as part of my training I do a lot of research I do a lot of reading in the area to see what the newest themes are and then the psychology association the and organizational psychology association. I get a lot of that. I like to stay current on what's going on. All right. My apologies, but I assumed perhaps wrongly, but I assumed that you're at a place in your career

where you're a VP on this or sitting on the board of that, but that means you just have a lot of lunches. No, no, I actually probably have more indigestion, but that's a separate matter. No, really it's, it is more, hands on and certainly when you write a book like this, it's not fiction, you really have to do research as you're writing it. What are the key themes and trends? What's going on in organizations? What are the real benefits that accrue to an individual and to a company by using more modern

appraisals by having what's called continuous feedback, which is really focusing every week or two with a formal sit-down session that each manager has individually with his or her employees to talk about work, progress, goals, complaints, even their outside questions, even into mental health, which turns out to be quite important to the millennials at work. They want to know that a company is concerned about how they're feeling about things, how's it going, how the stress levels, anything getting in the way, what more resources do you instead of, you sit down six months or a year after the employment and I say, you know, Chad, when you worked on the XYZ project now back in October, I really thought you would have

cover these points. You're going to go, what project was that? I don't remember. Why didn't you tell me that? That's not how people learn. People learn with feedback as close to the behavior in question as possible. The old reviews don't do that at all. I give acostic feedback. Like Derek here who did break down your book, our dumb. My wife is over there. She was going to be the co-host, but I told her, wear something that covers your knees. We had to switch the whole setup because she's wearing a short skirt and we can't have that face in the camera. So I give them immediate feedback. Like, you're out.

You're stupid. You guys are... We usually have to wait until he's pretty drunk. Then he just tells us how he really feels. That's his standard, so... That's one of the things that we... Well, hey, you were... It's okay to be drunk on the show, but not too drunk.

And we have to draw lines, barriers. One of the things I wondered about the book, Dr. Ken, was... Is there, like, a double-edged sword? Like, if I go to my man... manager's office and I see a book on there like something for dummies. And I'm like, that's just really confirms what I thought already. My manager is a moron. And like, it's like Derek said, how do you become a manager and not understand this stuff already? What are they, you know, so I guess the dummies is kind of a double-edged sword. Well, yes and no, on the other side, if, if I wrote a book

into managing for dummies, and it's not part of the dummy series. Wow, that's really kind of insulting. The dummy's brand is really a marketing brand. It's really for people to say, you know, I don't know that much about this. I'd like to learn more, but it's not really meant to the majority sense. Speaking of dummies, I didn't even notice the time. We have one guy coming in in one minute. Dr. Ken, it was a pleasure.

That's why it ran long. Please, if you're out, if you're in that line of work, get this and give it to someone. It's a backhanded insult If nothing else The Lake will be in the notes Thank you. You've been a pleasure. Right back at both of you.

Have a great day. Thanks again. Really enjoyed this. Be well guys. Bye now. That was fun. Yeah, it was fun. Yeah.

It wasn't hilarious, but he was a good sport so it made it fun. We could do. Yeah, we'll fuck it with the ones. We can test the waters a little bit. I tested him vanilla. I was afraid of, I was afraid of scaring him away,

but I was afraid of scaring him away, but Three out of 15 to keep you in the majors. That's patent 200. That's Bob Euker numbers. You know what? We have the, yeah, this is the one about mushrooms. Oh, okay, all right. We're winging it.

I'm ready. I'm ready. Hello there. Hello. Why the long face? How are you? Nick Greenberg is with us. This is Chad Shank and I'm Doug Stanhope and you are the author of Buried Treasure.

That would be me, yeah. This is a book. You're going to explain it to us. We are starting a segment here. We're calling a book by its cover that we've, where I've written three books. He's an author. My wife has authored a book. So this is more about the process than the actual product book.

but we will definitely push your product. So first of all, I'm going to tell you the truth. I thought this was a book about mushrooms because of my intern who fields this shit told me, oh, it's about mushrooms, which are kind of fans of hallucinogenic mushrooms. This is a fiction book, but you do not stray. I did skim through it, and you do talk about magic mushrooms in there a bit.

Tell us the story. Actually, it's maybe some people would call it magic mushrooms. but truffles are basically fungi and so it's more about finding I mean a lot of people think of truffles as just being chocolate but these are very high-end food product and the best best ones grow in like France and Italy and so that was sort of the the crux of this story is based on this guy who finds truffles growing in his backyard in Cincinnati Ohio and that's where this is somewhat autobiographical, at least in the struggling musician from Cincinnati. And I see your instruments

behind you? Yes. Yeah, guilty as charge, yes. Yeah, I mean, the truffle part, as a struggling musician, if you will, I can't really afford to eat many truffles, but I do, I have enjoyed them on occasion, and I would call them magical, maybe not in the illicit sense. And so the dog, this guy gets a dog. From what I gleaned, and I do, I swear I skimmed over a part where some guy like me was confused that you were talking about magic mushrooms where, but your dog, the guy's dog, can find these truffles and it turns into a problem because there's this mushroom mafia out there, right?

Yes, exactly. Dogs have sort of become more popular than pigs. You know, everybody thinks of pigs sniffing it up. But they tend to eat the things and dogs are better, are more trainable as far as I thought you meant like people were starting to eat dogs instead of pigs. I got so confused for a second. Wait, what was that bacon? Well, oh, wait, that's popular?

Not in Cincinnati anyway. I've gotten very, very high on mushrooms in Cincinnati coming from Go ahead. bananas comedy club there up in Montgomery and a limo ride to the airport where I was trying to pay the guy to just leave his limo job and jump on a plane with me. We'll go anywhere in the world. That was that high. But anyway. Have you ever eaten a truffle? No. Mushrooms disgust me and that's why I don't do their psychedelic ones more often. It's just so awful. Are you a truffle fan? How did you I am? How did you get this idea? That's the worst fucking question in the world. Where do you get your ideas. I just said it. Like, what was there, was there a catalyst or you go, ah, fuck, okay,

truffles dog. Yeah, I mean, it's weird how ideas, and you're both right as you understand, they just kind of pop out of nowhere. Like, you're driving in the car, you know, maybe taking a four-hour trip to a gig, as I might be. And I'm thinking about the weirdest shit you can think of. And somehow I'm thinking about, I haven't eaten enough truffles in my life. What would that be like? And what if I could grow him in my yard and what if my dog could be trained to find him? You know what? I'm going to use that as an answer to every shitty interviewer that asked me where do I get my ideas. That's a seven-hour road trip where you're staring at the yellow line for the back roads out west. Yeah, that's where I get a lot of my ideas. So that's a

better answer than you suck. So, so, this goes on. Yeah. Well, I'm not going to give away the ending because I don't know it yet. I will read this. I just, what, what's your, as an author, what is your favorite distraction when you know you should be working, but you're going to fuck off and just do this? Is it housework?

Is it YouTube? You know, that is the ultimate question because it's like, oh, I'm going to sit down. I've got three hours to do some serious writing. But first, I'm going to get a drink of water. Wait, my dog wants to go out. I need a cracker. You know, there's all this stuff. Yeah.

My friends I haven't talked to for years, they'll never hear from me more than when I'm writing a book. What are you up to? Right. How am I doing an Instagram? And you're looking at that. And then, yeah, that's a, I'm glad you have to. that. It is a very difficult thing. But I think I've sort of learned that discipline from being a musician where I have to practice a lot. I have to learn music and I have to sit down and I can't be,

you know, can't be fucking around all the time. You've got to just shut out everything except, you know, focus on your writing or your music or whatever. Yeah. I have a question about your your book here. There's some truth to the, the underground mushroom mafia. Did you, did you get threatened by actual

mushroom hitmen? They were going to cut your cello strings or put a puff ball under your pillow or anything like that? Don't discount what they're capable of. I'm just telling you that right now. It's like a lot

of things I didn't know a lot about them and I just started reading and you know got a bunch of books on at week Wikipedia there were some movies like documentaries about truffle hunters and there's some crazy shit that goes down where people are stealing their other people's truffle dogs they're poisoning other people's truffle dogs they're breaking into warehouses filled with you know millions of dollars worth of product there's some crazy shit going on well anything anytime there's money involved Yeah, there's going to be a deceit and theft and a skullduggery, trickery. A lot of words. How many times do you use Thesaurus.com when you're writing a book?

Because I think most of my books were written, Thesaurus.com more than my own vocabulary. It was responsible for anything. I'm working on my vocab every day. I'm working on myself and my vocab for sure. What pays less? Author or Cincinnati musician? You know, somebody asked me recently, so wait, you weren't successful enough as a musician

and then you wanted to find another money-making venture and you became a what? Yeah, I can't explain it. I can't explain. What profession? Are you, you're a married man? I am. Yes.

And what does she do to pay all the bills? Bill's. Fair question. Medical field. Exactly. Benefits. It's kind of like the cliché of stripper when you're younger, but now as we're older, all our friends that the wife's paying the bills, she's always in the medical profession, like Sam Talon's old lady.

Mine. Oh yeah, yours. Sorry. Sorry. Forced for the trees. for the trees here. We can get good at this. If we actually did these,

sorry, this is the first day. This is the first day that we're doing that. We're doing these in blocks of 15 minutes. Like, let's just see how it goes. And if they suck, we'll just turn them into like prank calls live. You know? But I've been enjoying it. Yeah, I want to read the book for sure.

That's the end result of, book by the cover is I want to read it. Yeah. Have you ever played the Bell and the Bear that used to be Sneaky Peets? I don't know Sneaky Peets. It's right beside Go Bananas Comedy Club. Okay, I know where Go Bananas is. Yeah, it's that bar that's kind of connected that's co-owned. Yeah, no.

There's a cello in the background, and you're asking if he's playing sneaky Pete's? That's a bass. Stand-up bass. Well, I can only see the neck. So how much touring do you do as a musician versus how much writing do you do at home? Is that the same question? I can't tell. Do you do more music than you are you constantly on the typewriter and occasionally go out and gig? Kind of the other way. I would say music's my day job, even though technically it's a night job.

All right. So it kind of varies from the week to week because I'm a freelance musician. For the last four weeks in the next four weeks, I'm doing seven shows a week at Cincinnati Playhouse in the park. And it's just a musical about Rosemary Clooney. Oh, wow. And then when that'll end, and in the midst of that, I'm throwing in a couple of trio gigs and some weddings and what have you, and some book talks and some book signings and wherever I can find time. And how many books have you done now?

So we've got this. Oh, yeah, that's right. Yeah. Here's my notes on you. It's very treasure and it's, yeah, I was a little bit behind. No worries. So that one, the culinary caper was written as a one-off. And I swear it was, but my agent kept pushing me to turn it into a trilogy.

And I kept saying no. My friends kept saying turn it into trilogy. and I said no. And eventually I broke down and agreed to do that. And I have book two coming out this summer. So somebody was running away. I know you say this facetiously in your bio somewhere, but about your culinary past as a dishwasher that worked his way up to a busboy

that worked your way up. Where it was how much of an influence was our late friend, God damn, Kitchen Confidential. Anthony. Anthony Bourdain. Bourdain, yeah. Was he an influence at all? He, I'm a huge fan or was a huge fan, and I still kind of pull up old shows of his.

I love to eat. And just, I love to cook and I love to eat. And so even though I had a brief career in the restaurant industry, including my, my restaurant had a, sorry, my uncle had a restaurant in town for a while I worked at, The music was just taken up too much time for that. And I couldn't, I can juggle somehow music in writing, but not music in cooking. Or maybe I can't. I don't know. You have a bit of a, he's got a Bordainish look.

It does. Although I feel like if I tell people, I love to eat, people are going to go, I see that. And then if you tell people, I love to eat, it's like, do you? Yeah, well, it's because he's being starved. Yeah. I desperately want to eat. It's truffles. That's the thing.

It's one of those little tiny culinary dishes. Anthony Bourdain, and you're a musician. Have you tried heroin? Is this being broadcast? We're not sure. I'm not. I've not yet. When I'm terminally ill, probably.

You know, yeah. But when you're terminally ill, they give you all those drugs that they, they say are 50 times more potent than heroin. In a warning, fentanyl is 50 times. And I'm like, why would I try heroin now when I got fentanyl? It's kind of killing my whole thing about doing heroin. Wow, I just burst one of my own bucketless dreams and my own head live on this podcast.

Wait, which was that? Oh. Like planning on doing heroin and then I just realized now, wow, that doesn't make any sense. So that's a yes from you. Well, you say, you save Nick from having to answer the question is what I was going to say. So good job, sir. I thought you do well. You're welcome.

What drug works best in theory, if you're imagining this for a novel, what drug would work best in theory for writing and what would work best in theory for being on stage playing music? I'm going to wrap it up. Oh, yeah. We have a, all right. Go ahead. We're not in a hurry now. Wow. See, you're putting me out.

there by having to answer a question. All right, then I'll answer while you think. Okay. I would say for stage, cocaine is the best drug for being rapid fire. That's why, you know, Robin Williams didn't go to a lot of rehabs for nothing.

It did fuel the 80s comedy boom. And for writing, I would say cigarettes. Cigarettes. Yeah, absolutely. cigarettes. Wait, bourbon? Yeah, no, what's the old adage is right drunk, edit sober? Or is it the other way around? I don't know, yeah. Pretty sure it's that way. Okay. You don't want to edit drunk. That would be terrible. And you throw all those horrible ideas back in.

Yeah, no. Oh, you'd see what a dip shit you sound like when you're sober. You're quiet. Well, this has been a pleasure for having absolutely no notes and not a chance to skim this one. You saved this, sir. Good job, thank you. Happy to help. Got good reviews.

Nick Greenberg, the title is buried treasure and the links will be in the show notes. Hopefully next time we're out, Cincinnati Way. you come up north and come to a show and we'll come down and watch you play a stand-up base in the park. Sounds like a great idea. I'm all down for that.

It's nice to talk to you. We'll see you on the road. All right, take care. Nice to talk to you, both. Thanks, thank you. That was fun. All right. Hello?

Yes, Danielle. I can kind of hear you and not see you. there you are now you're handsome man Daniel just up front I want you to know I did all of the

the promo explained the book who you are what you've done everything that was in the press ahead of time so we can just jump to the fun shit

and with that all right and welcome here is Mr. Cabrio Danielle welcome to the show or the segment

of our podcast called a book by its cover and pleasure to have you. Gosh, where do we start? Where are you? Are you in Los Angeles?

Not today. I'm out of town. I'm actually in Madrid in this very moment. Oh, no. Oh, so it's like 9.30 over there? 9.30 over here. On Friday. On Friday. Well, thanks for staying awake. Shouldn't you be out? You're a young man. You should be out tearing

up that town. It's springtime. I'll be. I'll be in a few minutes. All right. Well, we won't keep you long. I love the book. Again, we create content. Do you find that expression to be somewhat demeaning when you take it, like creating content? Like, you're not an artist. You're just creating content. You say you've created over 2,000 hours of content. And a lot of that, well, a lot of it. Maybe art, maybe sometimes just for the money, big brother. I love exploitive TV, so that's art to me. Anytime there's somebody having a worse day than me or they're fatter than me or their house is dirtier than me. I love all of it. So I'm a big fan of the exploitive aspect of human beings.

I'm so glad you just have to lay out the real secret about. That's reality TV. That's the secret, man. Well, we... We do it on our podcast. I've done my fair share of exploitative television, and yeah,

sometimes it's really satisfying. Have you ever done it? Have you ever created content that you're after it's go, yeah, that was a little too much. I'm guilty. Yeah, I'm guilty. I did, I did this show.

It was a test for couples that they have to kind of like make the latest, the final decision. Okay. So testing their love, we separate three couples. Guys in an amazing resort, girls in an amazing resort like half a mile away. Yeah. And that they were co-living with a bunch of. Ladies in the guy's case and men in the girl's case. So after two weeks of test, no one of the couples survived.

And in the very first, so the thing is we tell them both, okay, the only thing you're going to know about your partner is going to be in this room, in a monitor, in a screen with me, and I'm telling you it could be true but it could be not true. It's up to you. It's a test to your faith. It was called blind faith, okay? Confianza Tierra-Chairg, in Spanish. So we did all kind of dirty things in those videos, you know. We used. And the first time I was in the control room, the first time that one of the lady in this case believed that her boyfriend was in a jacuzzi with two ladies doing all

all the way, you know. It was just starting crying and I felt at the beginning, we just stood up in the control room, you know, and you want, like, yeah, yes. And then 30 seconds later, it was like, I'm having chills now, I promise. I felt so dirty. I felt so.

That laughter that you just had, that there's a specific type of laughter that you get where you go, if I'm laughing like a hyena, where, you go, oh, this is not a good thing. I know by the laugh. So is there anywhere we can watch these test pilots of Fuck Island?

Well, kind of, kind of. You know, like, it's still a classic. It's still a classic. Like, it's one of those cool shows, you know? Is it on YouTube? It was to remember the sentences. It's like it was in a broadcast network in Spain, and we still hold the record of the most view it,

non-scripted show in the, network in history, you know, the network history. So yeah, it must be around. I'm sure you can find it in YouTube. You couldn't have made it worse if it was actual blind people. And you don't even have to stage the issue. You can just tell them it happened. I'm starting to think that it's 9.30 over there, too, on Friday.

It's always Friday here. We don't work. What are you working on now, Daniel? Good content creation. What are you working on? What's your latest project? My latest project. Okay, I'm part of the mechanism.

I don't have any editorial decision in this platform, which is called the Zeus network, Zeus as the Greek god. Zeus, yes. Yeah. And it's so freaking wild. It's like, I'm lucky. I never imagine the things that I'm working on, that I'm building.

I never in my mind imagine, not impossible to cross my mind that I would have seen that in a screen. It's what they call raw content, raw reality. I've seen things in my current project that never in my entire life would have imagined to see on a screen. Let me tell you one, okay? dating show classic four five girls four five guys

first first task so the host which was Ray J the host arrived and the first task for the lady is like you're going to tell me

the size from from the smallest to the one of those guys first first one and she started like one after the other that was the first challenge in the day so yeah i'm like i'm amazed i feel like

privileged doing this but i've been doing dating shows for 30 years and never cross my mind you have come a long way from filming weddings which i understand is your other passion yeah how much of all right how much of these stories that you're you're giggling about how many Are you in this? Because I haven't had a chance to read this yet. But is this mostly about how to create content or is any of the dirt in here? And if not, when are you going to write that book?

There are cases of study. No, no. There are stories, but there are cases of study. They are samples of situations that anyone that aspires to be a story-teller is going to find in their career. It doesn't matter if that person choose the solo way or the cooperative way, you're going to find certain walls.

And I'm talking about those walls, and I'm giving samples about my own career or some others, mostly my own. But yeah, it's a field guide for creative people, not only for storytellers, anyone which is creative. And again, we are supposed to be in this creative industry and creativity is not the currency anymore. Yeah, it's absolutely not.

Or Wall Street or, you know, not creativity. So I think it's a guide for creative people. I would say it's like the 48 laws of power for content creators. Maybe, maybe. Maybe. Amazon has qualified like creative leadership. Isn't that in Amazon, creative leadership. That's the thing.

And the stories are real. And there's this thing that I call the Uncertainty factor, which is part of the show business. There's only this god. We have two gods or three. Or three. Like the real one, whatever it is, if you believe or not. And then the uncertainty factor. Something is going to happen always that you cannot control.

Usually it's coming. Do you find that working outside of the country, is there a lot more? Because I've done television both in the United States and in the UK and as well as Netherlands. Do you find that there's so much more freedom to work in Europe than there is in the States? Not my experience. I've worked with the powerhouses, the European, you know, the Dutch powerhouses and the UK, the British one, all these big companies. And also in the small companies, the problem in our side is like, we don't have the budget. We are doing the same shows.

You watch the voice in the States and the voice in Belgium or in, in Europe. or in Madrid and it's the same show, but we do it with 20% of the budget. So every project that I've worked on as a small project, but in the states, they make it huge. Why do we need 20 PAs to do a hidden camera shoot that's guerrilla style?

This doesn't make sense. Over there, they know how to work. They have very little money so they know how to spend it correctly. Yeah, I think that's the biggest difference. In terms of freedom, you know the call in the network is happening everywhere let's go back to dick size you're not going to get away with that in Los Angeles right now you can still like who's got the smallest dick you

get that plays in Greece yeah but that's the thing now because of the democracy that technology brought us you are your content and and people that I work with the Zeus network, they are doing the content, and they have their own platform, and you want to see that, you download, you pay your subscription, you're free. So, you know, that's the difference. We didn't have that in the past. We have the five and the satellites around. Now we can watch whatever someone is able to put that out there. Yes. I got, we're going to, we're doing this in a block. So we're short on time. I'm going to three questions. we always like to ask,

how do you get yourself out of a bad mood? I cannot deal. I don't deal with bad mood very well. Okay. What's your go-to karaoke song? Oh my God. I hate karaoke. My entire life I've done it once.

And I did the macarena because I was overseas. International event? Yeah. Yeah. What's your favorite? spot where you, I know in Los Angeles it's the ocean, Santa Monica, to Venice. Yeah, well, I, I, but in Madrid, if I've never been to Madrid and I want to go to Spain, where do I go? What's your favorite spot in Madrid? Like, bar, restaurant, anything.

Retiro Park. Retiro is, is a park in, like, in, like, right in the center of the city, which is a mix between high park and central park, actually. It's a mix. those two. All right. And it's less my case. So I didn't read your book, but I did a little research and I copied some other podcast ladies' questions. Here's where it's going to, here it might end on a sour note.

We call this segment a book by its cover. But have you seen the problem with your cover? Do you know about the problem with your cover? Okay. Here we go. Let's say, here's, here's four books. That cover, your cover, this cover. Oh, yeah.

That cover. No problem. right? But if you look at them on the side, see, I need to get that in the camera. See, your binder's upside down. So it can be right looking this way, but then it's wrong this way. But if you were to turn it the right way, so all the, that would be that way. Then the back of the book is in the front. This, bingo, my wife is OCD.

This would make her absolutely crazy. Come here, take a look at this. I called it a Rubik's cube of wrong. Right. See, even if you had it this way, because you'd have the thing this way, but then this, okay, that would be, but you'd have to stack your books this way.

How crazy would that make you with OCD? My only thought is his spine seems a little upside down too. Oh, and it goes on the inside. Like now, are you going to obsess about this now that I'm, pointed it out to you guys your camera is out of frame your cameras your camera is out of frame I don't know what you're doing oh no yeah how does the camera get out of frame I don't know but it's completely I don't know he's doing that on purpose he's part of I can see it we are hey you're back all right

I don't know what happened there anyway okay let me take you something We did judge your book by its cover, but I'm going to look at the inside too. Did you do that on purpose? No, he can't control our cameras. No, not the book made. If you rewind in your mind and you think about the late 70s close to the 80s, there was this album, famous album called Never Mind the Bullocks by the Sex Pistols. that's pretty much that cover in my book. So I guess the designer did a little reference to the punk movement.

Sir, it was a pleasure. I hope you have a fantastic Friday night. Thanks for doing this at this hour on your weekend. And it's a pleasure to have you. It was a pleasure to be with you, guys. Thank you very much. Good time. Thank you, sir.

And my best. And thank you for your storytelling, guys. Thank you. Thank you for joining us. By the book, everybody. Yes, the book, the link will be in the show notes for where you can pick up this book. Because everyone out there needs to create content. And I'm tired of you filming yourself getting thrown off planes.

All right. I'm going to go. Bravo. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Derek, did you want some jumbaya? I don't know if you ate. I'm hungry.

I have jumbly. I have spaghetti sauce, but I don't have time to cook spaghetti. So jumbalai, you can just throw in a bowl in microwave. Or you can, there's turkey sandwiches in there. You can figure out how to feed yourself. Okay, here. Oh, shit. Just down there.

And I have a life switch. The little boy that can fly. What do we got? All right. Yes. Hello. Joel. How are you?

Good. Pleasure. Just to let you know, I did all the promo up front explaining who you are, all the press that you gave me, so you don't have to do the shit you're tired of talking about. How we can get right to the fun stuff. Sure. All right, great. Ad show with that, welcome Joel Steele, Life Switch, and I have your card. So if I ever find my life switch not working,

I can get a hold of you right away. keeping that's correct yes you got a direct line that's a good looking book you got there i'm doug this is chad shank and uh this is life switch uh or as i call the book the little boy who could fly now in the beginning i don't i don't think this is a spoiler alert but you you reminisce about a time where you were a child and you thought if you ran as fast as you could and if you to this day you swear you're feet came off the ground a bit and you said you didn't you said you never told that story until this book yeah yeah 100 percent you know it sounds crazy but it was not so much about the fact that at the

time i did feel that i was starting to fly it was the fact that i came across at an early age unlimited possibilities and i believe that i could do anything i could make anything happen and And that early seed that was planted really changed the trajectory of my whole life. And I've heard other similar stories. Their famous basketball player, Alan Iverson, said when he was nine, his mom told him that you can do anything you want, and he believed her. And he went out there and created a Hall of Fame career. And everyone always viewed him as a small player, a man amongst giants.

And he viewed it the opposite. He viewed it as all the other players were like David, and he was Goliath. Why do you think it's so hard to hold on to that youth, the innocence of youth where you do believe that and that gets chipped away at? Yeah, well, when you're an adult, you think of a million reasons why something shouldn't happen, won't happen, can happen, is unlikely. It can't happen to me. Things like that don't happen to me. I mean, you've heard people say that, right? You might have said it yourself.

Things like that happen to people who believe in themselves and believe in these possibilities, that they can do anything. It's a secret that's literally been documented in books going back to the 40s and 50s. Well, there's a, Dr. Andy Andrist has a book in a theory that that's why special needs people, everyone, like, wants to be special needs because they retain that belief system. They don't grow out of it. And where special needs people are developmentally disabled, however, you say it, are happier than us, and they're always going to be happy, because they don't suck in, soak up the negativity that we do that's everywhere now.

Yeah, it's an interesting phenomenon because, you know, it's like someone who lost their sight might have better hearing. And so someone like you just mentioned in that situation lacks some things, but gains other areas. Everybody has strengths and weaknesses, no matter what the situation is. But that belief in yourself is a secret weapon, a magical tool that people can use. problem is people forget about it. They don't utilize that power as they get older. They believe what the world's throwing at them and telling them. And they need to say, you know what, stop, that's enough.

Don't tell me what's going to happen. I'm going to make something happen. I believe I can do that and I will do that. And when you believe things that way, you start to actually make progress and then you build true momentum. Slow it down, like you're saying. Right. You want to slow it down.

And I made a note of this because it's funny. and that's kind of what we strive for. But you said you never told anyone about flying as a kid because they think you're crazy. But at that time, I did the math. You already had a wife and kids before you told them you might possibly be out of your mind. How did your wife react to that?

Did she go, oh, my God, you're crazy, Joel? Yeah, no, she wasn't surprised. She wasn't surprised by that. But I never told anybody because I didn't know what it would do, right? It wasn't, hey, when I was a kid, I could fly. Right. Okay. Let me go talk to somebody else. But when I, when I tell it as the story, it's the foundation for me as a kid to an adult in building everything that I've built. And, you know, the book was written on the premise that I was sitting there one day around Thanksgiving,

being very grateful for how my life has turned out. And I thought, you know, there's got to be more to this than just soaking it up to myself. You know, have you ever made dinner and had all this, like, you know, meet or something. I thought, boy, it'd be really great if I could share this with other people. It's all for me. I don't need all this. Right. And so that was the concept.

Every football Sunday. Every football Sunday, I got all these leftovers going, I wish I had more friends. Yeah. Yeah. So same idea. I wanted to just share the wealth, share the knowledge, share the experience that people can have their own life switch moments. And that's another note that I have is if everyone, I mean, I think between the three of us

speaking, we all have kind of our own life switch. but for you to put this book out there, ultimately, if everyone, at one point you say that no one, human beings weren't made to be sitting in a cubicle, but if everyone turns on their light switch, Mr. Steele, who's going to pump our gas? Who's going to sit in the cubicle? It's kind of like you're letting the cat out of the bag here. Yeah, that's a great question, Doug. No one's asking that yet. It's like if you had the powerball numbers and you gave them to everyone so everyone just got their money back. Come on. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So look, here's a deal. Here's a deal. Not everybody is going to flip their switch. Not everybody's going to

buy the book. Not everyone's going to read it. Not everyone's going to internalize it and live that way. I'm trying to help the people that want the help that are saying, you know what? I think I can live better than this. I think I have more potential. Those people I'm trying to reach through the book you grab them and say, you're right. There is more to your life than what it is so far. But it's not going to be everybody, unfortunately. I have a serious question, Joel. You talk about like an epiphany. My problem specifically involves epiphanies. I say I have had more life-changing epiphanies than anybody else alive and not one of them has changed my life. Somehow my mind manages to just drill right through the epiphany that I just.

just had and tell me that it's pretty stupid and then the evidence is there and I have to go, you know, you're right. Negative mind, it is pretty stupid. How do you get past something like that? That's a... Yeah, so that's a really good question, really good. So a life switch moment is a spark of clarity, urgency, and energy. So it's like this light bulb goes off, but then if you don't do something with it, then it starts to dim and then go away and go back off. So it has to do be something that's so clear, so passionate that you feel about it, so excited that you just can't wait to start making and shipping away at progress every day, every minute. And that's what we'll keep it going. That's what we'll be like rubbing two sticks together to create a raging fire ultimately.

No, I have that. I have the epiphany and I have the passion and I follow it through and I research. Like you would not believe, my powers of research are unbelievable. And what I find every time is it's kind of just bullshit that somebody made up. And it gets really hard when that's a pattern every single time. Give me an example. Give me an example of something that you thought was the greatest idea ever and it didn't work out. Every idea that I've ever had, every fucking religion.

I studied Buddhism for a year until I realized, oh, that's just Eastern Catholicism. I didn't realize, it's just a lot of rituals, but none of it, you know, there's a lot of good ideas, but none of it means anything. I got a question because you talk about, you have to put in the work. My main ambition in life as I push 60 is sloth, which I've never, like, that's what I want to achieve, is a peaceful ultimate sloth where I can just sit in bed and binge garbage YouTube rabbit holes. Did we lose it? No, I'm here. Okay, sorry.

he went off the screen but I always feel guilty about it like I can't achieve doing nothing I have friends my age that have never done a squat in their life James Inman he's like 65 he's done nothing but play video games for the last 40 years like how do you do that and still feel good about yourself that's a great question but you just said you feel bad you feel guilty so that that can't be the only thing you do you've got to balance that with something that does make you feel not guilty. That makes you feel fulfilled. And so if you're taking a break and getting that sloth time and you enjoy that, you should look, part of this life is to enjoy it. The other part of it is to make something else happen to contribute back, be productive, help people in some way, shape, or form.

Something that makes you feel like you, you know, got your money's worth while you were here. It feels like I would have my priorities backwards where, yeah, I got to go feed the homeless so I can finish this series without feeling bad about myself, you stupid homeless. You always say, first of all, exercise is big for you, which I don't do. Oh, you were an athlete. This is a question I have because you, when you were a weightlifter as a kid, you joined the football team. And you said you chose wide receiver as a position where your bulk was not, that didn't line up with the wide receiver position. but the fact that you phrased it that you chose wide receiver.

I played one year of football and he didn't choose your positions. What kind of school did you go to where it was all quarterbacks and no offensive line? That's the power of his mind. He chooses what he's going to do. That's right. Well, that in freshman football, you do get to pick your position. And that's where I started as a wide receiver. But then as a sophomore and beyond, there was less wide.

wide receiver being played and ultimately i got hunter hunter the water boy yeah that kid from belgium the student exchange kid yeah yeah but but to answer your but to answer your question i just was not i was seeing myself differently than how i actually was i did not have things lined up i was i was really slow trying to play receiver and then i became strong uh you know and then it wasn't really working out but i went to the line i got really fast i was a fast offensive sense of alignment. It just wasn't really a line for me. I was not on track yet. All right. And you did have the troubles. I don't know if this is before. And I guess I should have done this in order. But you did. And I don't know if I missed something where you had

some problems, legal problems when you were a kid that you overcame and you got out. Was it like it was something with electronics. You had to swipe some electronics and they, they almost busted your brother. I only say. Because this kid, this kid right here, you can tell by looking at, also had a bit of a troubled past. It makes for a better before part of our self-help book. I'm still working on the after part. Joel's nailed it. Yeah, yeah.

Well, look, yeah, so I found myself really close to facing jail time because, right, we did get into some petty theft, petty crime. But it wasn't so petty because it was enough to be a felony. But I was fortunate. I was not 18 yet. So I didn't get put in jail. but it was really close to getting sent off to juvenile detention, losing my license for years, paying massive fines. And I got to earn myself a trip on the garbage truck in the middle of winter

and literally hanging on to a garbage truck asking myself, how the heck did I get here? And it was, again, that was another point for me that got me to realize that if I want to see my life take shape for what I want, I need to start changing my activity. I also start needing to changing the channel up here. for what my expectations are. And that was one of those parts of the process of getting myself totally off the

truck I was on and back on the truck I wanted to be on. And I feel bad for people that don't get that second chance because there's people all over the place that are probably brilliant, successful, but they're not because they're in a bad spot or they didn't get a second chance. I did complete this book. I actually listened to The Audible. And that's my last question is the OECISN. How horrible was your I've done three books and the audible part is my not my strong skill is reading.

What was where is writing it or reading it? I actually enjoyed doing the audiobook because it felt like I was in Hollywood doing a voiceover for an animated movie. It felt like it was almost like an out-of-body experience where it was I can't believe I'm doing this. but it was well worth it in the end, other than sweating in the summer, recording it in my bedroom with no air conditioning. I really enjoyed it. Now, would I do it again?

I don't know. But writing the book was incredibly difficult. It was way harder than I thought it was going to be. If anyone can write a book and publish it, but I think to write a really good book, you're going to have to really struggle and challenge yourself to put in as much work as you can and then do that about 10 times more.

Joel's got a really good audio book voice. So I'd recommend the audio book. Absolutely. It was fantastic. I got another one coming in, Joel. It was a pleasure to have you. Life Switch, you go into the link. We'll be in the show notes.

It's a pleasure to see you. And thanks for being on. Thank you, guys. Take care. Take care, Joel. Turn on your life switch. Let it shine wherever you are. Directly into choosing your emotion.

Oh. I'm out. PICS football's finally back and prize picks is bringing out their best offer yet new users who sign up will get $150 in the lineups and price picks is now available nationwide what are you waiting for lock in for kickoff because everyone and everything is on prize picks I use prize picks and because I love to win win win prize is going crazy for with the deals to start football season giving users a new promo every day during stack September. Sign up for guaranteed picks every Sunday with profit boosts of daily discounts throughout

the month. Make all the picks you want across any sport all in the same app. Download the prize picks app today and use code Stanhope to get $150 instantly in lineups if you win your first $5 lineup. That's code Stanhope to get $150 instantly in lineups if you win your first $5 lineup. Prize picks, run your game. You want to come in on this, bingo? This is me and Derek? No, no, you'll be next, but you can... This is me and you, right?

Yep. This is choosing your emotion. What is it about? Hey, it's free Doug. Oh, shit, no, okay. Yeah, come on in. This is free Doug. Come on, this is a fan.

But just tell me what it's about. It's a fan. Don't worry. We don't have notes. Oh, I'll get in the back, either. Yeah, yeah. Me too. Yeah.

We're all going to hear you. Excellent. What is it? JP. Howdy. So I've been getting all these, I'm on some like the PR people's mailing list for a podcast. So all these people who have books they want to promote are like, if here's an interview opportunity, so we just said yes to all of them. So we're doing like 15 interviews of authors today.

So then you happen to email me. randomly and I go, oh, I'll throw him in one of his, one of the slots. Cool. I appreciate it. Yeah. Are you just now explaining this to him, not in the email? No, I just sent it to Mizzy and she set it up. Oh, can I get one of those waters?

I think that's mine right there. So what do you tell us about your book? Yeah, I, um, I just, uh, well, first of all, I, uh, loved running the light by Sam talent and that was how I, um, um, Yeah, that was how I found out what a big champion you were for his book. And I love that style of literature, and it's hard to find these days. So anyway, this book is based on this trip I took around the States. When I was 28, I was having a tough time, and I just said, fuck it.

And I ended my lease, packed a backpack full of stuff and set out on the road. And my original plan was to go hike the John Muir Trail, just get out in wilderness and just walk and try to figure it out. About two weeks into that, I ended up getting rescued by a helicopter. Everything went wrong got rescued by a helicopter, and they flew me to South Lake Tahoe. Spent 10 days in the ICU there, and they let me out, and I couldn't hike anymore. My heart, I had a heart issue. And so I said, fuck it. I had no place to go, and so I just started hitchhiking north.

And three days into the hitchhike, I was in Reading, California, and I got picked up by this obliterated windowless cargo van by this guy named Doug who was driving it and back was just packed cardboard and I was not going to get in but there was these two college kids that he picked up in in Oakland and they were getting up to Portland so I was like fuck it I'm getting in so he starts driving north up by Mount Shasta and we get three four hours north into grants pass Oregon and he said he's got to pull over to gas station so we think he's filling gas parking spot parks and says he's got to take a nap. So we're like, all right, it's like 3 o'clock in the afternoon at this point.

So like, okay, all right, well, we'll just go get some tacos and wait for him to take a nap and keep going north. So, okay. So we eat and we still sleeping when we get back to the gas station. So we go and just sit in the lawn and we're sitting there in the lawn. And all of a sudden about a half hour goes by and six squad cars and two blacked out suburbans come and surround him on all sides. and approach his van, guns drawn the whole nine, and they end up arresting him right there. They pull him out of the thing.

He's on the ground. Doug is 300 pounds, and they're trying to arrest. They're trying to get him into the squad car, and he just goes dead weight. Just doesn't, will not. Hang on. First of all,

if I'm watching a trailer for a movie, if it goes too long, then I don't rent the movie. So I don't want you to give away the whole book. How long did this trip last? I already want to read this book more than anyone we've talked about today. Yeah, leave them wanting more. So, yeah.

Okay, sorry. One's very short thing. Yeah, Doug got arrested and we end up just going back out on the I-5 and hitchhiking north. And it's just story after story. How long did your road trip last? The whole road trip was about four months. And it started in New York City and ended in Seattle.

And I met, you know, I met people in New York that I ended up staying with in San Francisco. I just met strangers along the way that basically took me in. And, you know, it's every, every walk of life. In New York, I was with, you know, people, like, like Broadway people. And when I was in, when I was, you know, Doug was homeless, he was living in his van, you know. And when I was. Well, that's the difference between you and Doug aside from a few pounds. Age is a, like you can go out and go, I'm going to go see the world.

I'm going to hit check when your 20s, fine. You do that shit in your 20s, fine. 60s, people can't keep their kids away from you, fast enough. Get that fucking creep away from me. What, he's finding his dream now? Fuck that guy. He's probably a pedophile. He couldn't find his dream in a van that had windows.

Fuck that guy. Yeah. Yeah, so anyways, and then over the year, it took me about five years to write the book, and I started selling it. I hitchhike up and down from the ski hill. I live in up in Montana and I hitchhiked back and forth from the ski hill every day in the winter. And I started selling the book hitchhiking and it caught on locally. And I've sold about a thousand copies locally, but I'm just trying to have a copy with you.

I want to look at the cover. Yeah. Yeah. And I love to send you a copy too. Here's a cover. That's a good cover. All right. And, uh, yeah, I've got, uh, my editor is a absolute wizard with the computer.

So everything is, I just, I write and she makes it look really, really good. If you don't know my address to 12 Van Dyke Street, Bisbee, Arizona, 85603, you can Google search Doug Stand-Hoop's address and it comes up first. Hey, for those of us who don't get to read the copy, you send it Doug Stanhope, where do I get the book? Is there a Kindle version? Is there, what is there? How do I do this? You can get it from Storymill Press. That's the little publisher. I'm running out of my closet. And I'll send you a sand copy. Otherwise, you can get them on Amazon. That's what I'm using to print my books right now. That's great. And by the way,

J.P. Mc Murphy is his name. I didn't say your name. And all the, everything will be in the show notes with links and whatnot. I'm glad you, I'm glad you get to wedge your way in here.

We needed some, some friendlies. Everyone else has no idea who we are. Oh, all right. Well, no, I love you.

I've seen you, seeing you on Rogan a couple times. And I just got into starting to watch your podcast. And, uh, well, that was, that was Derek, that he left, but this is Chad Shank

and my wife Bingo and the Australians are behind the cameras and it's a pleasure of having you on. We're going to go, I don't know who's next. Choosing your emotions. Some of these are really fucking bad, J.P. All right. Well, hey, I appreciate you having me on and...

Where are you now? Where do you live now? I've lived in Bozeman, Montana for 18 years. Oh, shit. We were just up. We couldn't, we were on a Monday. What's that town? It's just north of Bozeman and Butte. If you go north from both, it would make a tent.

Helena. God damn. Is it Helena or Whitehall? No, this is a tiny town. 30 miles north from Bozeman, northwest of you. Yeah, Butte. Helena is right up there. Oh, 30 miles.

Oh, 30 miles. Tiny. 2,000 people maybe. That must be Whitehall. No, Whitehall's way to fuck up. Anyway, we just played there this summer, just north of Butte and Bozeman equal distances. Oh, I'm spacing.

What a fantastic way to end the interview. Yeah, what's right? This is why we look forward to JP so we can fuck off for a minute. Right. Yeah, and I'll be honest, I didn't even know, I didn't even know. Am I, like, I'm on the podcast right now? No, we're recording all day. We're recording interviews with authors that we don't know what we're going to do with.

Oh, got you. Okay. It doesn't matter to me. Whatever. But, no, I was just like, am I on the podcast right now? If not, next time we're in Bozeman, come on. Yeah, absolutely. We tried to get a hooker to get on the podcast.

This is years ago, back when they had, like, the city pages and we're calling hookers off the back page to try to get them on the podcast. And they'd come and suck your dick for $200. But they were not going to. And this was when it was audio only. We could not pay a hooker to talk to us for fucking 20 minutes. None of us were willing to get our dick suck to trick them in there either. Yeah, we love Bozeman, and we'll hopefully be back, not this summer, but next.

We'll talk to you soon, JP. We'll try to wedge this into something. Thanks for having me on. Thanks. Good to meet you, Doug. And I'll read the book. I will read that book. All right, have a good one, guys.

See ya. All right. J.P. McMurphy is fucking Jack Nicholson's name. Oh, yeah. One flew over the Cougarsness. Isn't it? What's the next one? We have six minutes.

This, I think, is choosing your emotion. Can I get the choosing? My emotions. Funny. Hey, hello. Hello. How are you? Hey, guys.

Hey, just before we go, just want to let you know, I did all of the promo for you set up beforehand. All the press that you sent me, I told them so you don't have to say the boring parts over again. We get right to the fun stuff. Well, God bless you. How long do you want to go? About 12 minutes. Okay. We're going in blocks of 15 minute blocks.

so we need a little bit of time in between. But with that, welcome. It's D. Earl Johnston, and I'll tell you, anytime someone has the first initial, I don't know if I go with D, do I go with Earl, Mr. Johnston? I'm Doug. I pick D. Earl because there are six Douglas Johnstons who are successfully published in various fields. Oh, wow. And so I pick my middle name to differentiate.

But I go by Doug. So do I. Actually, I go by Stan. but I'm happy to be with another Doug. Rings a bell. All right. How much does it bother you that Doug and Limu, Emu, and Doug commercials? It bothers your shit out of me because no one's named Doug anymore.

It's not especially flattering, no. All right. And what that emotion gives me is anger. Thank you for looking at the book. I had so much fun putting it together. It took nine years. I'll explain the book, I explained the book, but here's a quote on anger. Benjamin Franklin, whatever has begun in anger ends in shame.

All right, there we go. Maybe don't watch so much TV where you're watching Lehmu-Emu commercials. Got it. That sums it up. The right off the bat, first page into the book, it's praise for choosing emotions. And the Honorable Susan Patterson, a magistrate judge, writes, It is Really Good. How do you keep a head on your shoulders that's not inflating like a balloon and a carnival under a water pistol with that kind of praise?

He is a unique person. I've gotten to know her a bit. Obviously, she endorsed the book, but she's a Magistrate Judge, U.S. judge, and she's also a champion race car driver on the SVRA circuit and rookie of the year. So she's one of those polymath type of people who can keep various plates spending at one time. She's a very intelligent lady. Before you even get into the book, the meat of the book, there's a cup under the just under praise alone. There's a lot of judges and medical people and you go, does this guy get into a lot of trouble?

he's getting out of a hospital and going to appear in front of a judge and says, hey, can I get a blurb while I'm here? Oh, how funny. One of the doctors is the former chief learning officer for HCA Healthcare, which is the largest hospital company in America. And I sent him the book thinking, you know, gee, well, he squeezed it in. He called me, picked up the phone. He said, I just wrote you an endorsement.

I said, well, I guess that means you've read the book. He said, I love it. It's really well done. So it was a nice endorsement. Did you say, hey, he wrote an endorsement. Ben Franklin wrote half my book. Scott Hamilton, Einstein, you have quotes from Michael Landon. You have, and I love reading quotes like Twain.

I could read Twain quotes all day. And you have all of these, and they're all corollary. Is that a big word that I know? Anyway, they're a good word. Whatever the, you. pick an emotion. Go ahead. Bingo. Give me an emotion. What are you feeling right now? Ask Derek. That's how I feel. How do you feel right now, Derek? Because you have a, you have an interview coming up soon. Go to humor. Humor, got it. Good. Go to humor. You know, there's some, there's some

remarkable voices. 1800 different people contributed to the book. Humor. A few go. Yeah, I got it. And you also give the definition of humor. So this is like if the dictionary met Google and you go, okay, humor and give me Mark Twain, here we go. Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please. Love it. Irma Bombbek, one of Mother's favorites. Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the Titanic who waved off the dessert cart?

There you go. Love that. Love that. I love the book. This is, forgive my language, and I'm not demeaning the book at all. This is perfect shitter material. Like, this is when you're taking a nice cillium husk dump and you want to take your time with it. And you're just going, all right, how do I feel right now?

At first, pensive. And then violated and finally relieved. Oh, yeah, plenty. A friend of mine shared your view. He said it's the best bathroom book in history. It's the best five-minute read of all time. See, they said bathroom book. That's why keeping me down is my potty mouth.

You, it says you're a world champion sailor. Tell us about winning the championship and some of the emotions it brought out of you. Thank you. I was raised in a rough and tumble of household, the youngest of four boys. So whatever they wanted was what I did. And my oldest brother became quite a good sailor. And accordingly, on down the line, I was dragged to, to, to, crew with him. And over time, I finally got tired of crewing and I decided to do it myself. So I was

able with a couple of other guys who were really, really quite good to win a world championship and sailing. It was a really fun time. Really fun time. Sailing against boats from 10 or 12 different countries, the best of the best. And we won in the last race of a seven race series. And you just won the race. And I'm Bob Kott. or any dishbagged sports reporter that gives you this question. How do you feel right now? Speechless. That's not the motion.

I can look up. Yeah, is that in there. Modest. Is not one in there. Modest, no. Excitement, enthusiasm, joy. Uphoriasm, okay. I think euphoria was a pretty good descriptor for how I felt in that moment.

Uforia, finish line. experiencing peak joys after success, et cetera. Here we go. Venus Williams says, but at the end, when it's done, I feel euphoric. I'm like, yes, the work is done. You just feel like a glowing feeling inside. That one kind of sucked.

Warren Buffett said, that's why Doug gives you choices. You have pages of quotes, Tori Amos. Tori Amos has never felt euphoria. She's the most sad, depressing song. Come on, Tori Amos, give it to us. Yeah.

Being in your 40s, any woman who isn't there yet, I just have to say to you, euphoria is coming to you. Wow, see, but it's still cloaked in negativity. Give us one more. One more. One more. Tesla, Nikola Tesla.

I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the, human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success such emotions make a man forget food sleep friends love everything that's how i imagine tesla spoke he would know he would know so as you have gleaned the this is the first time in history that anybody has ever put together a book about emotions from the viewpoint of what it's like to experience it. So not what it looks like, but what it feels like. And nobody's ever done that before. And when I fed the, after I completed the book after 10 years or nine and a half years, in early January,

a friend said, why don't you submit it to Claude A.I. And I thought, well, I'm not so sure I want to do that. I mean, you know, it's a lovely book. I'm very proud of it. But why would I do that? He said, well, just do it. So imagine me, Doug, with my finger poised on sending 130,000, and word manuscript to Claude A.I., do I really want to do this or not? And I thought, what the heck? I'll go ahead. I press send. And three minutes later, Claude A.I.

And Chat, GPT, both responded, this is the most comprehensive reference book on emotions in the English language. And that really shocked me. I did not expect that. That wasn't what my goal was. But for a variety of reasons, the scientific disciplines underlap each other. They haven't put in all one place what it feels like to experience emotions. And I've done that through 8,000 quotes from 1,800 people across all of history,

including the latest scientific advances. So it's comprehensive. It's a joy to read. It's fun. As you say, there's some really funny lines. There's some really insightful lines from people from all walks of life. I had notes about artificial intelligence because this seems like the kind of book that would be vulnerable to that, where every author is scared that, okay, you're going to steal my job, but the amount of work you had to put into this. Speaking of euphoria, after the amount of work you put into that, when this finally landed in your lap in a tactile form,

How much joy did you feel? Was this your first work of this measure? It is my third book, but it's the magnum opus. So to answer your question, somewhere between 8,000 and 9,000 hours of time with my cute little dog curled at my feet, researching emotion after emotion and what the greatest minds in history. This includes Nobel laureates, but it also includes the wise men at the corner store. Whoever had a really insight.

quote to capture in words what they were feeling. That was really what went into the book. And I started with the word depression because my daughter was suffering from depression. I found some really great quotes about depression, one of which was from a self-help writer from the 1950s by the name of Rallow May. He was arguably one of the first self-help writers before they even knew the word self-help. He had survived depression himself. And his quote, about it was depression is the inability to construct a future. And the minute I read that sentence, I thought, wow, that is so much more helpful than an extended period of sadness, which you might find in a dictionary. It's what it's like to experience it. In researching you, I did,

I did hear you say that on another podcast. And that has stuck with me since that just that quote alone about depression is the inability to construct a future. Well, how much more meaningful is that? What it's like to experience it as opposed to what it looks like. So just to add a tiny bit of color to that, if you're a scientist and you're looking across a room at somebody sitting like you are at this moment, hands folded, quiet, you would say that person is calm. They're not speaking.

They're not bothering anybody. You'd say they're calm. that's what it looks like but that person might actually be boiling mad inside so emotions emotions have never been addressed by what it feels like and that's what we've done here Doug I'm getting that exact same look

from my producer because we have 40 seconds till our next interview so I'm getting the look of a guy that you don't think he's about to murder me I appreciate to be on everyone the book is called Choose a your emotions. Thank you.

It's also a perfect gift. Any kind of a book that's good in a bathroom, as good as a gift. The links are in the show notes. Thank you. Mr. Johnston. Mr. Stando, God bless you both. Thank you for having me.

Wonderful to be on your show. A pleasure. Thanks. Pleasure. Bye-bye. Oh, wait. This is Derek. Oh, this is bingo at Derek.

Okay. Derek, you take the reins on this one. I'll just pipe in just randomly. But here's your notes. Here's your book. Remind Derek of his directions. You're gonna read. You're watching me enough.

Where's the book? Are there supposed to be? But where's Derek's notes, guys? In my pocket. Okay, good. Oh, that's what I was into. Yeah. My pocket.

Okay, you do this. I'm just gonna, you're in charge. A.I. The, uh, the, uh, information bias, his name is James. His question book was fantastic. Cut. Listen, man, I told me it was great. You know, there's a yes man, but like, uh, digital.

Okay, guys. Uh, well, they're, they're waiting. So whenever, whenever we're, I'm gonna find my fucking notes for that guy. There are, Is Derek going to say that Stamps in the bathroom or on tour? I'm Derek, the intern. I'm sitting in for Doug Stano.

Let me welcome my guest. Go ahead. Hi, James. How are you? Hi, I'm good. You're on with Derek. Doug is a little busy right now, so he had me sit in for this interview

and I wanted to talk to you about your book, Ashes of the Republic. Absolutely. Oh, good. They sent a copy to. Oh, yeah. I checked it out and Hi. How are you?

Good. The year is 2046. The United States has devolved from a thriving democracy into a Christian national surveillance state where the elections are theater, dissent is erased, and women's bodies are monitored by the government? It's the attempt here is to sort of show a United States

that has been overrun by the far, far right, that we're there, and that's starting to happen now. So it's really an attempt to show what the world could look like if we get up it. So the intent is to be as highly realistic as possible. It is not about calling out. It's really, look, the pace that the current government is on continues to divide us. We continue to be very angry with each other.

And there are influences from the government into our interpersonal lives that affect us over the long term. And it's really just, it's an attempt to show, very realistically, even with the technology, It's only 20 years out. So the attempt is to show what we could become if we keep up with a very far-right power structure, how it trickles down. Right now we're seeing this sort of thing at the highest levels. I want to show what it looks like to people who are my kids' age and how it affects their lives on a daily basis. Well, yeah, it's about a lady named Lily Osborne in the year, 2046. That's correct. She's the protagonist. She essentially is trying to find where she was signed up as she trained to be a psychologist, but there's no, all the psychology of work has gone to the AI. So it's hard for her to find a job. She takes jobs as a stewardess because that's really the only work she can find, which is something that is of great concern for anybody who is currently in their 20s, like my daughter, who in 20 years, who in 20,

is who knows what jobs are going to be taken away by AI and ultimately by robotics, which factor significantly in the plot of the book as the robots start to take over the blue-collar jobs along with the white-collar jobs. Well, yeah, James, how much does it cost? The paperback that you have is $14.99. The e-book is $499, but will be $2.99. It's a really hefty book. The Kind of book.

It's really hefty. Yeah, unfortunately, I got a little wordy. It got pretty, so I had to read it so many times in the last three months you have no idea. But you've read the physical copy of this monster. It's really, really sick. Yeah, we added it quite a bit. It's a little, I think the pages are a little bit bigger because the size of the books. What's your favorite part?

I'm sorry? We've read it a bunch of times. What's your favorite part? Have you read it? have you read it so many many times oh what's it about i'm not the i'm not the i'm not the publisher oh oh well what is your favorite part uh it there is a confrontation in what is i'm not sure familiar with i know you guys are out in arizona but yeah shiom mountain in colorado springs uh it's where the norad used to be the missile command center and there's a confrontation where

the villain in the novel reveals her intention to take over the presidency and implement her version of what the world should look like. Okay. All right, James. Is this your first book? Technically, it's the first one that's being published. Yes, I've written another one, but when you write your first book, you realize how much you suck at it. Oh. I tried to get...

Oh. We're having some... Sorry, technical issues. Is that what happens when I say the word suck? No, I wanted to know what your first book was about. The first book was actually a little less political. It was actually a lot less political. It was a less political?

Yeah, I mean, this has a political bent only because of the fact that it's, it's. So perfect example, right? So when I first wrote this book in 2023, the first draft, I had an image of the president as Jesus Christ. And if we're paying attention, that happened a week ago. I am paying attention. They just saw that. And look, I would much rather be wrong, but that happened.

And when I sent the picture of what was posted in the real world, I said to my editor. And she said, oh, did you make this for the book? I'm like, no, he did it. And it's a big part of this. This book ends. and that's a big part of the ending of this book, which is the use of religion to convince people to do things that they wouldn't necessarily do. And so that's why when that came up,

unfortunately, it was one of those examples of the big challenge when I started this in 2023 was I worried I might have gone too far and now I'm worried I didn't go far enough. Okay. Well, yeah, we wanted to get to. here today on the book, but sorry Doug couldn't make it in, and I appreciate you talking to me. Ashes of the Republic here, a book by James Chesterton. A great read. I read it, and it's quite a log of a book, if you ask me. I really got interested in the story of the future of MAGA. Well, it's really, honestly, less about MAGA and more about the people behind MAGA, right?

So what's going on today is part of a plan that's been in place since the 60s and 70s. The plan is ultimately to keep us divided as a nation, to particularly keep the 90% of us who aren't the wealthy class. And this is just the latest version, but this has been going on for years, and this has nothing. And in other words, yes, is it about what's going, what these people are doing? Yes. But they're just the messengers. Yeah, James, I have another interview coming up real quick, so I have to go. But it was great to talk to you.

And I really wanted to get to learn more about your book from you. And I appreciate your time. Thank you. Thanks, sir. I'm hoping that Derek do all the rest. He's fucking fantastic sir Gary Mingol, you guys just sitting there You guys fucking ruled

That was fucking great He said do what he did on the other ones Oh dude Oh, that was You did this fucking Bid my nipple over here Couple of hearts over here That poor bastard.

He was disappointed right away. He happened to show. I told the first thing I told Santa why you go, he's matching Derek's energy. Hey. Hey. Yeah, I know this one. You holding it up in the end.

Thank you, Mika. We did it. That was fun. That was fun. Oh man, how funny.