The Eric Metaxas Show - Mike Nawrocki and Jenn Gotzon

Episode Date: February 26, 2021

Mike Nawrocki, co-creator of VeggieTales, reveals two new projects, "Dead Sea Squirrels" and "Beautiful Mabel"; then, Jenn Gotzon of "The Farmer and The Belle" shares her own connection to "Beautiful Mabel."

Hello, hello. Welcome to the Eric Metaxus radio show, except due to technical difficulties. Today, we're on TV. I get to talk to an old friend of mine. Perhaps you've heard of him. Larry the cucumber, well, that's not his real name. As it happens, the guy who's the talking cucumber, he's not really a cucumber in real life. In real life, he's my friend, Mike Naraki. Mike, welcome to the program. Hello, Eric Metaxus. How you doing? You know, that's not my real voice either. I was just going to say, you are freaking me out. You did that so well. It's almost as though you created the character of Larry the cucumber, but we know because of legal reasons, we can't

say that, right? Absolutely. Isn't that true? Hey, Mike, it's so good to see you. Listen, you are, you have a new book out. It's called Beautiful Mabel. And I just want to say, on the cover of the book, Now, we've known each other for a long time. It says you're the co-creator of Veggie Tales. Mike Naraki. Mike, is that true? Are you the co-creator of Veggie Tales? I am the co-creator of Veggie Tales.

Phil Vischer and I created the show back in the early 90s. 1993 was our very first episode. Where's God when I'm scared? And I've been doing Veggie Tales ever since. Okay. Part of the reason I wanted to say that is a lot of times I'm introduced in, you know, in front of a crowd. I'm about to speak. And they say, and he had something to do with.

Creating Veggie Tales. Here he is, Eric Metaxis. And the first thing I have to do, because I'm a Christian, I have to correct the person who just introduced me and say, listen, I cannot take credit for creating Veggie Tales. And I mentioned you, Mike, Noraki, and Phil Vischer. And I say, I only had the privilege of working for Veggie Tales for a short season. But it was one of the most fun things I have ever done. But part of the reason it was fun, Mike, is because I got to know you and Phil. You guys are the real deal. And I, I I'm thrilled that, you know, Veggie Tales is still happening. But I know that you've been doing other things in the children's genre. So Beautiful Maple, anytime you do anything, I kind of want to laugh because I already know what's coming. So tell those of us who aren't familiar with Beautiful Mabel. Who is Beautiful Mabel? And what is the children's book that you've written about Beautiful Mabel? And why is she beautiful?

Well, Beautiful Mabel. Mabel is a poet. She's a little chicken. A poet? A pullet. Yeah. I thought you said a poet. Chicks. No, no, no, she's a pullet. Yeah, pullet is like a little baby chick, a little baby chicken.

Right. And she is, she gets an invitation to attend an all, all girls school called Henhouse. And, you know, but she doesn't know why because she's not particularly special. Because the category or the criteria for being at Hem House is that you need to be plump, pretty, and productive. And she's not any of those. Pretty and productive. Okay, now before we continue, Mike Naraki, would you move slightly to your right because we want to see your whole face? This is a, they said today it's a TV program. So even a slightly more to the right because perfect, perfect.

We love to look at you. So beautiful Mabel, this sounds like a fable. Is it a fable or do I just think of that because it rhymes with Mabel? No, no, it's a bit of a fable, yes. So it's written in conjunction with a film, The Farmer and the Bell. and with a message. The farmer and the bell? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, farmer in the bell.

Not the farmer in the dell. The farmer in the bell. Which is also a fable, which is also kind of a fable of a movie. So, but the film takes place on a farm. And so they reached out to me, the producers of the movie reached out to me to, and, you know, the film is, you know, takes place with, you know, it's kind of a romance. And they wanted a story with a similar theme that's applicable to children. And so they reached out to me to write this story that takes place on a farm with this chicken. And it's a story about inner beauty.

It's a story about kindness and really what beauty is. But aren't all of these fables and fairy tales, aren't they all about inner beauty? And aren't we sick of that? Don't we want to hear about superficial beauty? Isn't it time that we started extolling superficial beauty? Come on, be honest. Oh, man. No, you know, it's so just, well, you're a dad of a daughter as well. And, you know, and you see kind of what girls are up against in, you know, what society puts on them.

And, you know, I just, to be able to speak to children to say, look, you know, your beauty is not on the outside. God sees the heart. And that's what's the important thing. You had to get serious on me, Mike Naraki, didn't you? They had to get serious. Obviously, there's a reason all these beautiful stories about are about inner beauty. We know that that's the biblical idea, but a lot of people, you know, if you're only reading Grimm's fairy tales or something like that, you need to know, you need to know the truth. So how does, well, tell us the plot again of beautiful Mabel, if you would.

Sure, sure. So she receives an invitation to attend this school, and she shows up at school and is a little bit baffled as to why she's there because, you know, she's not plump. She's a skinny little pullet. She's not particularly pretty in, you know, the eyes of the other girls around her. And she has not laid an egg yet. She's not productive. Chickens lay eggs. I did a lot of chicken research on this.

So chickens lay eggs. Yes, chickens lay eggs. I'm going to have my staff look into that. That doesn't sound right to me. Please continue. At a very early age. And so, but she's kind of in the middle of this environment where she does not feel welcome. She doesn't feel part of it.

because she's not these outward things. But what she is is just very, very kind-hearted. And her kindness becomes contagious within the school. And she ends up changing the school from the inside out as a result of her kindness. That's such a positive, uplifting story. And I know you personally, and I know that you're just not like that in real life. You're a dark, bitter, chain-smoking, agnostic. Aren't you, Mike Naraki?

All right, we got to joke around. Did you feel uncomfortable writing for a kid? character that was not a vegetable. Yes. It was a stretch, man. I tell you what, you know, I've, you know, and a character with legs, no less, you know, that can walk. It's just unbelievable. I mean, legs, arms of a type.

It was just really an artistic stretch for me. Well, you've done a lot of stuff. I want to talk to you also about the Dead Sea Squirrels. Yes. Maybe when we come back, we'll talk about that. I want to focus on Mabel here. Beautiful Mabel, I just want to say, because I tease my friends. That's my love language.

But honestly, this is, even the cover of Beautiful Mabel is so cute. It's illustrated by Sarah Joe Floyd. How do we know Sarah Joe Floyd? Well, she is, she's a blogger, an artist. You know, she lives in Kansas. She's got a great following fan base of her work. And she was also a friend of the producers of the film as well. And so they matched us up to be able to produce this book together.

Her stuff is excellent. A lot of children's books, the illustrations are not at this level. So I want to say to folks interested in a copy of Beautiful Mabel, it is beautiful, and it's so cute. Mike, to be able to communicate cuteness in a cover in this way, it's not easily done. So congratulations to Sarah, Joe Floyd. people want to know where they can get this book. And I still want to know how it's affiliated with the farmer and the bell. So that's the, I've spoken to Jen, I forget a last name, about the film, the farmer and the bell.

How is this affiliated with that? How does that work? Well, so the book is actually within the film. So one of the characters reads it to a young girl in the movie. So, yeah, so there's kind of a crossover into real life in the film. And so that's the intersection. We actually produced the book while the film was being produced and, you know, got the cover done so they could use it within the film itself. And so now the book is available, you know, at thefarmer and the bell.com on their website.

The Farmer and the bell.com. And Bell has an E at the end. Correct? It has an E at the end. That's right. That's right. Yeah, exactly. Beautiful Mabel is in the film.

The book is in the film. That's right. But the book wasn't really written until the film was. was pretty much. Yeah, they both, they both happened concurrently. So, so, uh, so the challenge was to be able to, uh, to, to, to, to nail down enough of the story and for Sarah Joe to be able to produce a cover. And I don't think it actually was, uh, it was printed at the time. The whole, the whole, I don't think the whole book would, had a, had a, had a print run done by the time of the movie. So they had to, they had to do a mock up for the film. We don't want to know how the sausage is made, Mike.

I don't want to know. We just want to, we just want to, we just want to taste it. It's wonderful. Just, it's all a beautiful fable. But it is, it is crazy. But it is crazy. So if people have seen the farmer and the bell, they can go to Farmer and the bell.com, in it, they'll see a copy of Beautiful Mabel. And people will be looking at it and they'll say, beautiful Mabel, I wish that book actually existed. I want that book. Right. You guys thought, you know what we're going to do?

We're going to find a way to make that happen. You made it happen. You wrote the story. Sarah Joe Floyd illustrated the story. I'm going to ask you some hard-hitting journalistic questions. We'll be right back. Let there be no doubt. Big Tech and the far left have joined forces to purge America of conservative views.

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relieffactor.com or call 800, 500, 8384. Relieffactor.com. 800, 500, 8384. I use it. It works. Check it out. Folks, welcome back. This is the Eric Metaxis radio show, but due to technical difficulties, we're appearing to you on television today. I hope you don't mind. I get to talk to fun people on this program. You've witnessed that before. Today, I get to talk to my old friend Mike Naraki. You know him, whether you know him or whether you know that you know him or you don't, doesn't matter. I'm telling you, you know Mike Naraki. He is Larry the cucumber from Veggie Tales, one of the co-creators of Veggie Tales,

and he's done so much, but everybody just wants to hear about Veggie Tales, including me. Mike, welcome. Thanks, Eric. So good to see you again, man. You know, you get this all the time. People are so enamored of Veggie Tales. And when I get introduced, people say,

New York Times, Yale, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Veggie tales. And the crowd goes, who they have heard nothing until then. They lose their minds when they find out that I had the most, you know, incidental relationship with vegetaels because people think that well of it. So I do want to ask you about it. You and Phil created Veggie Tales in the early 90s, correct? That's right. Yep.

Okay. And tell us about how Focus on the Family rejected Veggie Tales because everybody loves focus on the family. Everybody loves Dr. Dobson. So we're not going to hold it against them. But I think it's really important for people to understand how tough it is sometimes to break through, even with the greatest idea in the world? Well, the pitch of, okay, we've got these animated vegetables who tell Bible stories. If you're brand new to that pitch, it kind of sounds a little odd. You know, we thought we had a great idea. We wanted to be able to tell stories that would help parents pass on biblical values to their kids.

Computer animation was just emerging as a new technology. And we needed characters who were simple, who had no limbs, no hair, no clothes to be able to tell stories. And so it was a very practical means to be able to tell stories. But the idea of vegetables telling Bible stories, you know, to an organization like Focus on the Family, you know, was a little weird. And so, and I can't blame them for it, you know, so, but we were, you know, we were fresh out of college. What do you mean you can't blame them for it? Wait a minute. I think you're way too nice.

I think we want to call them on the carpet. I think we want anybody affiliated with folks on the family, I want you to know, you could have destroyed. destroyed veggie tails in the cradle. You could have choked it in the cradle, but by God's grace, that never, that never happened. But come on, that's funny, Mike. It's hilarious. You know, it was just, it was a challenge. I mean, it was a challenge to get people to be excited about it. And so, so we went directly to the consumer. We took out ads in Christian parenting magazines. We raised money to make the first episode. And we, you know, sent out about 500 copies for people that ordered it and one of those orders came from a record label who was launching a new

kids division. They saw the show and they loved it and we got a we got a distribution deal. So it's really tough. I mean, you know, for artists who have a dream who have, you know, a vision of what they want, you know, sometimes it can can be, you know, a little off the, you know, just just off left of center or not, not quite, you know, on target of what people expect of a story. But, you know, Veggie Tales is one of those things, which, which is just, it was a weird. idea, but people really embraced it and it, you know, had a great message.

So it's like, I mean, it's hard for me to even pronounce the words that are going to come out of my mouth now. It's been about 30 years since you created this. Is that, is that possibly true? I know, right? Yeah. So it'll, we're at about 28 years now since 93. And really 30 years, I mean, we, we were talking about the show even earlier and, you know,

and pitching it. So it's, it has been 30 plus years since, you know, since it, you know, the, the, the, the, the, the of its inception, as it were. Hard to believe that it's almost a century since you first thought of this idea, or it will soon be a century. Now, was there any moment when you, because it's been so long now, you know, this is like talking about the death of Napoleon, his relatives are not going to be offended if you say something.

Was there any moment when you or Phil said, ha, ha, focus on the family in your face? Did anybody actually ever say, ha, focus on the family in your face? going to get me, you're not going to get me to say anything about, no, man, I'm telling you. And we've had a great relationship with them. And, you know, obviously, you know, we're, we're all good. We're all good with focus on the family. But it's it. So, so, so you still don't feel the sting of that rejection. Is that what you're saying, Mike Garaki? Come on. This is so funny to me. This is one of the great stories, you know, the idea that because every, you, you hear this all the time, right? Like Hemingway's first manuscript was rejected, you know, 41 times. And

if you read Hemingway, you'd realize it should have been rejected more often and it wasn't. But in this case, we're talking about some great stuff. At least now we know it's so great. But I just think it's amazing that, you know, you had this idea. You have to admit, you've already admitted it, that if you go to an established Christian group and you say we have talking vegetables, if they don't, you know, like, why would they get that? You know what I'm saying? Like, it is so out there.

Right. Yeah, absolutely. Well, and, you know, and anybody who's watched cartoons, you know, will eventually realize that, that you forget the character, you know, you forget the form of the character after a while, and you start to imagine that character as human because you give them human attributes. You know, Bugs Bunny is not a bunny for very long, you know, when you're watching, when you're watching, you know, one of his shows. But, but, but, but, yeah, it was, it was a wild idea. And, you know, but at the heart of it was, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're. great lessons. We're fun stories and, you know, parents and kids love it. And so it works. Do you still do the voice for Larry, the cucumber? Like, I'm not really up on this. I assume so. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Well, in fact, we're on TVN on the Yippie streaming platform, the new

VeggieTales show. So we're right there. You're on TBN and I, and I didn't remember that. The new YIPP. What do you say? The new Yippie, what? The new Yippie streaming service. which is from TBN. Who can forget the new Yippie streaming service? Actually, I'm really glad you brought that up because I want TBN viewers to know about that. I want to talk to you about coming up with the character of Larry the cucumber.

When you came up with the character, how did that evolve? How did that happen? The voice, how did that happen? Well, Phil and I met doing puppetry. So we were both huge Jim Henson fans growing up, you know, Muppet fans. and we were both into puppetry.

We met at a student ministry at a small Bible college in the Minneapolis, in the Minneapolis area, performing puppets. And so Larry began for me as a puppet voice. So it was a voice that I was comfortable performing in, started to kind of form the personality of that character. As a grown man, you were comfortable in the voice of Larry the cucumber. That makes me uncomfortable right now. I was all the way grown. I was probably 18. You were eight, all right, I feel better. I feel better.

So I was on the, I was on the verge. But the early Larry voice was very low and dopey and had a lisp. And the voice really developed over time. I sort of went, I'd say I went through reverse puberty with Larry because my voice got higher over time. And really, you know, became a character that I was comfortable acting in over time. But it took a couple years. So early Larry, like the first four or five shows, of Larry. It sounds very different from what Larry sounds like now. Now, at some point,

it's sound, he sounded exactly like Mike Tyson, right? Well, he was, he was a little low and dopey like that. If you watch the first show, you know, you know, and it drives me crazy to hear that voice now. I, you know, but, but, but yeah, now he goes, you know, now he goes way up here. So the, you know, so the voice sort of traveled from the back of my throat up into my nose. I love it. I mean, most people, you know, we think of Larry as a, as a friend. And we, It's hard for us to imagine that he's not. No, it's hard for us to imagine that you came up with him. And I just, I love this kind of stuff.

I want to talk, we just got a moment left, Mike. But we've been talking about Mabel. I want to talk about the Dead Sea Squirrels. You just always come up with these fantastic names. When I heard that, I just died. The Dead Sea Squirrels, not squirrels, squirrels. Tell us briefly about that. We've just got a minute or two.

Well, so it's a book. series of the same name. So currently there are six books out, two more release in April. But it stars Michael, who's a 10-year-old kid on summer vacation with his dad in Israel. His dad's an archaeologist. In a cave, he stumbles across two dehydrated, salt-encrusted squirrels. And he thinks they're, they'll make the two coolest souvenirs he's ever had. So he stuffs him in his backpack, takes him back home with him to Tennessee, sets him up on his, on his dresser under a window, it rains that night, they rehydrate and come back to life. They're a Jewish couple, Merle and Pearl Squirrel, who grew up in the first century in Galilee, took an ill-advised

vacation to the Dead Sea and just got frozen in time for millennia. But they were alive during the time of Christ and the apostles, and so they've got a great, they've got a lot of great wisdom and stories to share from their olden days. You're talking, you're talking about Merle and Pearl Squirrel are you? Merle and Pearl Squirrel. Okay, Merle and Pearl Squirrel. Yeah. First century squirrels.

And they can be found in the series The Dead Sea Squirrels. Mike, you're a sick person. That is my highest compliment. Your sense of humor and Phil Vischer. You guys are absolutely nuts, which is why I love you. Beautiful Mabel is the new book. So where can people find that? They can find that at the farmer and the bell with an e.com.

The farmer and the bell.com. Mike Naraki, my friend, just terrific to see you. God bless you. Congrats on beautiful Mabel. Eric, thank you so much. Great to see you again, my friend. Let there be no doubt, big tech and the far left have joined forces to purge America of conservative views. But even if you keep your accounts, you don't have to give big tech websites.

access to your data. That's why I choose to protect my online activity by using ExpressVPN. Ever wondered how free to access social media companies make all their money? Well, by tracking your searches, video history, and everything you click on, and then selling your valuable data. When you use ExpressVPN, you anonymize much of your online presence by hiding your IP address. That makes your activity more difficult to trace and sell to advertisers.

What's more, ExpressVPN and create. 100% of your data to protect you from eavesdroppers on your network. And the ExpressVPN app couldn't be easier to use. You just tap one button on your phone or computer and you're protected. Take back your online privacy with the VPN I trust at ExpressVPN.com slash Metaxus. By visiting my link, you'll get an extra three months of ExpressVPN service for free on a one-year package. Again, that's ExpressVPN.com slash Metaxus, E-XP-R-E-E-P-R-E-E-E-S-P-R-E. E-S-S-V-P-N.com slash metaxis express.com slash metaxus to protect your data today.

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See us at nria.net. Hey there, folks. How many years have I been telling you about relief factor? What, like four? The truth is, I know there are millions of people. In fact, some say over 100 million people struggling with some kind of pain, maybe from exercise, just getting older. That could do it, getting older, which is why I am so impressed with Pete and Seth Talbot.

They are on a mission. You rarely see this kind of focus and commas. commitment. Seriously, they recently shared with me that they are doubling down and want to literally double their total number of happy customers in the next year. And I believe they'll do it. So here's the deal. If you're struggling with back, neck, shoulder, hip, or knee pain, even general muscle, aches and pains, then I'm suggesting you order their three week quick start, still discounted to only 1995, about a dollar a day to see if we can get you out of pain too. And then after that, less than the cost of a cup of coffee a day to stay at a pain. Go to relief factor.com. Relieffactor.com.

or call 800, 500, 800, 8384. Relieffactor.com, 800, 500, 8384. I use it. It works. Check it out. That old wheel is going to roll around once more when it does. It will even up the score. Don't be weak. As they so, they will read. Hey there, folks. Welcome to the program. You may remember that I, uh, I, interviewed Jen Gottson on this program a few months ago. I was trying to remember when it was, and I couldn't remember, but she's behind the film that Mike Naraki has referred to called

The Farmer and the Bell, not to be confused with the farmer in the Dell, different farmer. Jen Gottson, welcome on the program. Hey, hey, Eric, I love being here with you. You're the best. It's fun to talk to you. Thank you. I was going to say, I, if I'm having fun, that's like the arbiter of everything for me. I don't want to forget this because the last time I don't think that I knew this. I mean, I know you're an actress. We talked about that. But I didn't know that you were in Frost Nixon, the film Frost Nixon,

and that you played, I was just going to say Julie Nixon Eisenhower. No, you played Trisha Nixon Cox, correct? That's correct. That is absolutely. It was my first big film I'd ever done and working with Ron Howard to depict history. It was a dream come true for an actress. I remember being on stage,

reenacting the resignation speech, and holding back tears. And as soon as Ron yelled, cut, I blinked and my contact flew out of my eye, and I caught it. And I was so grateful. Otherwise, I would not be able to see because I was legally blind.

Then I was blonde. And you didn't get fired? You didn't find out that Ron Howard's a monster and he was like, out. No? It worked. It all worked out? No. He is probably one of the greatest directors that so many of us love.

But he relies on the community and the creativity of his team. And he just paints cinematically with the camera. So many good memories working on that set and with the cast as well. And what year did that come out now? I can't even remember. Frost Nixon. Yeah. It's been a moment.

I believe it came out in 2010 when it was nominated for five Oscars. Just five? Unbelievable. Five. Seriously. What a cool thing to get to work on a film like that. Well, I want to talk to you about what you're working on right now. When you were last on, we were talking about the film, the farmer, and the Bell, B-E-L-L-L-E.

So if people want to see that film before we forget, how can they? they see the film. Great. It's on demand. If you have Roku, just type in The Farmer and the Bell, B-E-L-L-E, and Amazon Prime, everywhere that you can watch movies, you'll be able to see it. And I love the story. It inspires your heart. It makes you laugh. It's great for the family for all ages. And you follow my character looking for this bracelet that she lost in a pig farm. In a pig farm. In a pig farm. And then she falls in love with her true love played by my husband. And the rest is history. That's right.

Your husband, now your husband was on the program the last time you were on talking about The Farmer and the Bell. He was on the program. But he's taking care of your child at this point, is he not? That's right. He is on baby duty. He's like off. I know he's off stage.

He's in the room or he's right off. He's right there. So we're going to get, we're going to get him or at least your baby on the camera when we, when we, when we come back from the break. But I was going to say, so the book is called Beautiful Mabel. How did you,

whose idea was it? Because I love this kind of, this is very meta, to have a book in a film and then to say, but we're going to actually create a book and we're going to make it available. Whose idea was that? Because that's nuts. That's the kind of idea that I like.

I love it. Well, there's three of us that own the farmer in the bell, myself, my husband, Jim Chandler, and Joel Bunkowski. We came up with this concept of what can we create as a tool for all ages. And this is for ages 10 and under that really talks about the psychology

in a fun, loving, awesome, godly way to be able to help our mission encourage people with their value. And so we wanted to create a book that was not about the feature film, but in the movie where my character snuggles up and reads the book to Adele, who is the farmer's daughter. And in doing so as my character reads the book, she starts to learn about the messaging of the book and it starts to touch her heart and it starts to transform and inspire her that, you know, her appearance isn't what makes her beautiful. It's how you love someone. And, and hence that's what inspired the idea behind beautiful Mabel. So what is the plot briefly just so people can remember it? Absolutely. So it follows this lovely little chick, beautiful Mabel, who gets invited to Henhouse, this fancy like Yale-like college, like Eric, like where you went.

Of course. And she goes, she goes, and all the other chicks are either pretty, plump, or productive. But Mabel's neither of them. And she doesn't fit in. But she was invited because she had a kind heart. And so she makes friends and she teaches the rest of the school about kindness and serving others. And they end up changing the school motto to always kind. Always kind. And what was it before? An egg a day?

Pretty plump and productive. Pretty plump and productive. Always be kind. The three peas. Mike Noraki came up with it. It's brilliant. Yeah, I was going to say. Well, Mike is, he is brilliant.

But the book is, I like the illustrations, because, a lot of times children's books, the illustrations aren't as good as the writing. But in this case, they're fantastic. We're going to be right back, folks. I'm talking to, I was going to say the author, the illustrator. No, no, no, no, no. The woman behind the whole thing. Jen Gotson, the farmer in the bell, is the film.

The book is Beautiful, Mabel. We'll be right back. Take this song to my love. Let there be no doubt. Big Tech and the far left have joined. forces to purge America of conservative views. But even if you keep your accounts, you don't have to give big tech websites access to your data. That's why I choose to protect my online activity by using ExpressVPN. Ever wondered how free to access social media companies make all their money? Well,

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Hey there, folks. How many years have I been telling you about relief factor? What, like four? The truth is, I know there are millions of people. In fact, some say over 100 million people struggling with some kind of pain, maybe from exercise, just getting older. that could do it, getting older, which is why I am so impressed with Pete and Seth Talbot. They are on a mission.

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You had a pain too, and then after that, less than the cost of a cup of coffee a day to stay at a pain. Go to relieffactor.com, relief factor.com or call 800, 500, 8384. Relieffactor.com, 800, 500, 8384. I use it. It works. Check it out. Hey there, folks. You know that we've been talking about a children's book, and I thought, it feels uncomfortable. I'm not a child. A Jen Gotson is not a child. You might be younger than me, but still not a child. I thought, can we get a real live child? And then somebody said, maybe we could look at Jen's new baby. And I thought, you know, if there's a new baby, I don't want an old baby, okay?

Because nobody likes an old baby. But a new baby, wouldn't that be exciting? Jen, can you help us out with this? You know, I think I might. Hey, cutie pie. Come fly on in. Oh, my gosh. It's levitating.

No, that's daddy is carrying it. Is that the five-month-old that I heard about? Is that the five-month-old that is in your life? Oh, my gosh. If people are listening on the radio, they think we're making this up. Folks, there's a real live baby. Say hi, honey. Oh, look at this.

Oh, my gosh. Now, I think at five months old, I know that is the age when they really appreciate fine literature. So what is baby James reading these days? Anything besides beautiful Mabel? Well, you know, his favorite Christmas book is this lovely book called Uncle Mugsy. And we just had so, wait a second. Uncle Mugsy. Eric, isn't that by you?

I believe Eric Mataxas, there aren't too many of us in the world. Yes, that happens to be by me. The illustrations, which are the star of the show, are by my friend Tim Raglan. But I still can't get over this. The last time you were on the show, you said that someone had given you, I don't know if it was a baby shower or whatever it was, but they gave you a copy of Uncle Mugsy and Temple Twins of Christmas. And you didn't realize until that night that it happened to be by me.

The night we spoke on the air and talked about Farmer and the Bell. And that freaked me out. Yeah, it was incredible. It literally felt like a godson. We were sitting on the bed and he was three months old. And I started reading it. And then I said, oh, this writing is so much fun. I love it because we're creating another book.

And we were looking for a writer with that similar. style and then I looked at the name and I was like Eric Mettaxas. Yeah. Get the heck out of here. That guy doesn't have no time anymore. That's, it's a big book, isn't it? It's like a big, beautiful, sumptuous book. And I don't even know if you know there's a, there's a, there's a sequel to it.

Did you know that? No, I didn't know there is a sequel. There's a sequel to it. Everybody dies. It's sad. It's not really for kids. Oh, no. Just kidding.

Just kidding, Jen. Muggy. No. No. The sequel is a Fourth of July book. It's sort of like Uncle Mugsy, Troubleton's Christmas, but it's all about the Fourth of July, and they want to celebrate the Fourth of July.

And it rhymes just like Uncle Mugsy. But listen, enough about my books. I want to talk about your books. No, it is. The illustrations, listen, I can brag on it because the illustrations are done by my friend Tim Raglan. The guy, when you look at those illustrations, you realize this guy's a genius.

Like, there is nobody illustrating like that today. It looks like something from another universe, like Arthur Rackham, or way better than Arthur Rackham. But anyway, I want to talk to this. We're talking about children's books. I want to go back to your children's book. Beautiful Mabel. It's written by Veggie Tales co-creator Mike Naraki.

Now, that's really Larry Boy. That's Larry the cucumber for people who didn't know it. It's illustrated beautifully by Sarah Joe Floyd. But the whole idea comes from you, Jen Gotson. I mean, what a crazy idea. Oh, it's just really neat. We wanted to be able to work with, Mike Naraki, who has such a youthful voice.

He's such creative talent to be able to take a lot of that inspiration and to be able to make it relatable to little girls and little boys. It's good for everyone under age of 10. And we just really wanted something to be special. I think being that it's around chickens, it's kind of fun for the spring, but it crosses through all seasons. So you start in the school season in the autumn and you go through Christmas and then you end in spring and then graduation. It doesn't have Fourth of July like yours. Well, if people on Fourth of July, they can just buy my book, right? It doesn't have to be in your book.

We can't we? We can share the holidays, can we? We need the tag team. I think I should put an excerpt in the book and we give it out about getting Mugsy at Fourth of July. Yeah, it's important. It's important. No, honestly, the illustrations really. are beautiful. Look, it's written by co-creator Veggie Tales. I mean, Larry, the cucumber,

wrote a children's book. How bad could it be, folks? I think it's going to be pretty good if Larry wrote it. But the illustrations are beautiful. They are honestly. They really are. They're just, I guess. Sarah Joe Floyd is an Instagram sensation and she watercolored each one. And it was so much fun because she and I, we worked together. We prayed. We said, what should the illustration be on this page? And then she lives on a farm. And she actually, has a cleft lips. So she struggled with bullying growing up. And so she took that emotion and poured it into the development at each one of these characters. And if you look really close, there's a little, where's Waldo? There's a bracelet on here. And that's the same bracelet from the movie The Farmer and the

Bell that the story is on. And so we, oh, I'm James is calling to Daddy. Yeah, go to Dadda. Get rid of that kid. Thanks, sweetheart. I was only kidding. Oh, no, that, I don't think we've had a baby on this program in all these years. Albin, have we ever had any children on the program? We hate kids, don't we, Albin? Yeah, we never would have a kid on it. But now we've changed. We've changed.

We're older now. We're mellower. So we love kids now. Now you're a kid friendly. That's right. This is my favorite illustration. Do you see there's a pig with Santa hat on? Yes.

It's a foreign exchange student. Yeah, honestly. In the farmer in the bell, my character throws Santa hats on pigs and gets in and rolls in the mud with them. Lots of laughter, lots of fun, but this storybook is all about the importance of being kind. Well, honestly, it is beautiful. The title is beautiful, Mabel. How bad could it be with a title like that? Even if Mike Naraki had not. It's really, it's beautiful. It's cute. And it has an important message, but not a heavy-handed message. And the film, now, people want to get this. How can they get beautiful Mabel? Is there a website, Jen? Easy. It's best to be able to get it from us. We literally

have our home studio right behind us. And our website is the farmer and the bell, B-E-L-L-E dot net. And we would personally ship it directly to you. It's also on Amazon and on Christian bookstores. Okay, the farmer and the bell. dot com. So if, if you-

I'm sorry, dot net, the farmer and the bell. dot net, the farmer and the bell. Dot net, the farmer and the bell. The book is beautiful, Mabel. It is, it would make a great, like Easter type gift, Easter type gift, because maybe you want to give it away for Purim or maybe St. Patty's Day. Nobody cares. As long as you give them something, they're not going to care,

you know, when you give it to them. It's a wonderful thing. Jen, wonderful to see you again. Congratulations on the new book, folks. It's Beautiful Mabel by Mike Naraki, Mr. Veggie Tales himself. Check it out. Oh, hello. I didn't see you come in. Alvin, I did see you. I did see you. I'm talking about the guests. I didn't see the people who are listening to the program. They crept up on me. And okay. Yeah. Why to start? Listen, a couple of things to communicate right now. Number one, people are asking how they can get my book, right? I believe Amazon is shadow banning my book. They really can hurt you because they're a huge, huge, huge seller of books. And normally, they would discount the book dramatically. It's like a $32 book and they normally would discount it to $20 or $19 or something. They've not done that. The New York Times is involved in this, right? Like they don't, I don't want to get into that. But if you want to get my fish at a water book at a good price right now, you can get it at Christian book distributors. I've seen their prices. They have the best prices. I think it's $23.99 or something like that. That's a really good price for a hardcover book of this length with color photos and all this different stuff. So I'm thrilled that Christian Book Distributors has the book.

They actually have most of my books. So you can go to Christian Book Distributors, CBD. I would recommend that right now. That's the best place to go. And Albin, we've also got to remind people that if they want any kind of swag related to this show, they can go to Metaxus Talk.com. and they can get the hat you're wearing. Yes.

They can get the mug. Yes. You've drunk from. That's right. Actually, it's not the one you drank from, but it's... I take a sip. I put it on the shelf. I take a sip, I put it on the shelf,

and then they could sell it as sipped by Albin Seder. Really? Yeah. We should do that. We should see what that would be worth. But seriously... I saw my beard hair. Why don't I got rid of my beard hair?

Did that happen or did we dream that? No, you know what? Some people did, they sent it back. Yeah. That's really sad. I'd kill for that beard hair. Okay, so we should tell people that if they go to MetaxistalkisTalk.com, they can get mugs, they can get hats, they can get t-shirts, they can get Albin books, they can get Eric books. Folks, go to Metaxistalk.com.

You'll see the link. We also should tell people about our YouTube channel. when when youtube canceled us we suffered uh financially because we get ads from youtube they really hit us hard and i want to say folks uh we'd appreciate it if you'd subscribe to our youtube channel obviously it's free but we were going up like crazy the numbers were increasing increasing and then suddenly youtube canceled us and because we had the temerity to speak our minds on the air in America. Can you even imagine that we did that? Because we're just crazy. And we spoke our minds and they canceled us. So the numbers went down and they haven't really gone back up. So if you want to

subscribe to our YouTube channel, all you have to do is go to YouTube, Eric Matakst's show. We're stuck at 199,000 subscribers. You could be the 200,000th subscriber. And Albin, tell them what they win. They win a congratulations from Eric and Elbin and Chris. Congratulations. And James, our engineer, too. The 200,000 subscriber to the Eric McIntaxis show on YouTube. We're also on Rumble.

And I should say we are on Twitter. I am on Twitter and on Facebook and on Gab. And on there's a new one called Tell, T-E-L-L, that I'm on that right now. That's affiliated with the Epic Times, is obviously fantastic. So you might want to check them out. Tell is another one of these things, like a Twitter-like thing, Gab.

I know Parlor's coming back. If you're on these places or if you're on my Amazon page, you know, please reveal yourself, leave a review, like the reviews that you think are good. Anyway, I think that's it. Are those the instructions?

That's it. All right. I'm afraid we're out of time. Thank you very. much.