In this episode of The Joe Rooz Show, Joe introduces the show's first hour guest, Deborah H. Morris, an author with a rich background in theater, music, and law, who has recently published a historical novel titled "The Girl of Many Crowns." Deborah shares her journey of uncovering the fascinating story of Judith, the first princess of France, and Baldwin Iron Arm, a knight of King Charles the Bald, and how she turned this historical tale into a compelling novel.
In the second hour, Joe welcomes Russell Van Brocklen, an expert in teaching students with dyslexia. Russell shares his personal journey with dyslexia and how he developed a unique method to help dyslexic students improve their reading and writing skills by focusing on their strengths and interests. He explains the importance of identifying a child's "specialty" and using it as a foundation for learning. Russell's approach has proven successful in significantly improving students' academic performance, and he offers practical advice for parents and educators to support dyslexic learners. This episode is packed with insights into overcoming learning challenges and turning historical research into engaging storytelling.
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(00:03:47) Introduction and Apologies
(00:07:41) Ezra Healing and Wellness Paradigm
(00:09:43) Interview with Deborah H. Morris
(01:08:50) Introduction to the Second Hour
(01:13:06) Interview with Russell Van Brocklin
(01:59:51) Closing Remarks and Announcements
- Wayne Rankin
- Rosanna Rankin
- Carolina Jimenez
[00:03:48]
Unknown:
Transmitting live from the asylum studios deep in the bowels of Southwest Texas, it's The Joe Ruse Show. The show where we talk about anything and everything. Where nothing is sacred, nothing is watered down, and nothing is PC.
[00:04:09] Unknown:
Alrighty. Hey, folks. This is Joe Roos. It is nineteen o three hours on Tuesday, August 11. I'm sorry. Wednesday, August 12. August 13. Wow. I am way off. Oh, my goodness. What a way to start a show. Well, welcome to the Joe Root Show. It wouldn't be my show if you didn't have something happen. Right? Yes. That's true. That's very true.
[00:04:36] Unknown:
Alright, folks. So I wanna first of all, I wanna apologize.
[00:04:39] Unknown:
We sent out an email yesterday. Didn't send one out today because I wasn't sure what was going on with the studio. But yesterday, we had a show lined up for you for our do no harm segment of the Joe Russo. And, we had our our guest host or our co host, I should say, Svetlana Rylkoff, waiting in the wings to start the show, and there was a problem with the, studio app that we use, and, we were not able to go live to do the show. So I do greatly apologize to you for that. So I know a lot of folks were looking forward to it. I heard a lot of feedback from people that I've been talking to about doing that show and that particular subject we were gonna talk about. So, I apologize.
And, got everything working tonight, so everything seems to be okay at the moment. And, we're gonna go forward from here. That will actual resume our show with, with, Svetlana on Tuesday, next Tuesday. And, we'll pick up where we left off in that, in that discussion. Or not pick up where we left off, but, you know, we'll have that discussion. Alright. So again, apologies folks, and, we are, we're we're moving forward here. Alright. Now, I hope you guys had a a really good day today. I had a okay day. It was it was kind of crazy at the job. It was just off the wall. But, we made it through, and we're here, and we're doing our show. And this is what I look forward to each and every day. Sitting down right here with our tens of listeners, tens of viewers I should say, because we have more on the audio side. But our tens of viewers and our hundreds of listeners to bring you the best quality talk radio we could muster without all the bluster. Alright? And that's what we like to do. That's what we strive to do each and every day. And, of course, I have my my famous, ultra methylene blue here that you can get at the alexjonesstore.com/joe.
Try it out there at the alexjonesstore.com/joe. This stuff is amazing. This is fantastic stuff. Today, I'm, mixed it with some, lime sparkling water, which is absolutely amazing. That's where the power is, folks. Right there. Try it out. And of course, you wouldn't have our show without our beautiful coffee sitting over here and waiting in the wings. But folks, before we get into any of the usual stuff, before we get into the show, we do have a few things we need to do to clear up, our housekeeping, if you would like to say. So, before we do anything, just head over to our website, joeroos.com.
Joeroos.com. Open up that little contact form and send us over any questions, comments, cares, concerns you have, any quest any, issues that you might have, any suggestions for a guest, if you want a particular topic discussed like we were gonna do yesterday, we'd be happy to entertain that and, and try to bring it to you. So, let us know what you think. If you don't wanna use the web form, that's totally fine with me. You can always email me directly at [email protected]. That's [email protected]. Also, if you would, just, head over to the website as well and check out our support page, if you would. And if you can help us out with a donation, if you have the means to do so, you can click on that donate button and you could send over a donation in any amount. You could set up recurring donations. You can join one of our producer tiers. Any number of things to do to help us out. Even send us over cryptos if you like. All of our wallet information is up there on the site as well. And, we look forward to, to to dealing with you guys like that. So, got a lot of things to cover, and, we're gonna go right into this here. Folks, Ezra Healing.
Ezra Healing, who is the sponsor of our show or one of the sponsors of our show, is a substantial part of the new wellness paradigm currently being born in North America and around the globe. The global citizenry are no longer satisfied with the sick care version of so called health care. Band aid medicine, endlessly treating symptoms rather than root causes, must be abandoned as soon as possible. Patient centric care must be the priority. Folks, we need to transition towards the do no harm model of private care that places humanity at the forefront of real health and wellness care. In this new model, your entire lifestyle is examined and analyzed to promote and support the totality of your body's integrated systems.
Ezra Healing is a solutions based health promotion and disease prevention grassroots movement that is always evolving to best serve you and your family. So for more information, just head over to ezrahealing.com. That's ezrahealing.com. And, make sure I should put that little graphic up right. I should. Where is it? There you go. Ezra healing. Make sure you head over to ezrahealing.com. That's ezrahealing.com. Let them know that you heard it here on the Joe Russo, and, let them know that their money is being well spent. Alright. Thanks folks for paying attention. Appreciate that.
Alrighty. Now, let's see. What do we have here? Oh, yes. We have a guest. So, our guest tonight, Deborah h Morris, has lived on four continents, traveled through countless countries, now resides in Kansas City, Missouri. She's the proud mother of, she's the proud mother of four children and grandmother to 11. Wow. 11. I have three, and I can't keep track. Imagine 11. With a bachelor of arts in theater and choral music education from Utah State University, she later pursued graduate studies in English at USU and law at the University of Utah. A published playwright, she has recently turned her passion for history into a novel, The Girl of Many Crowns. Set in the kingdom of Francia in August, the book tells a gripping true story of Judith, the first princess of France, and Baldwin, Iron Arm, a knight of King Charles the Bald. Together, they defy an empire, embarking on a daring journey that will change history.
Deborah uncovered the remarkable tale of Baldwin and Judith while working on a genealogical project. As a descendant of this couple, she was intrigued and dove deep into research about the politics and customs of the ninth century. She's passionate about this remarkable time in history when the European countries we know today were being formed and fighting for their own very existence. Deborah, we'd like to welcome you to the show. Are you out there? Thank you, Joe. Oh, you're very welcome.
[00:11:15] Unknown:
So grateful that you invited me.
[00:11:17] Unknown:
Oh, we're glad to have you. And I was actually expecting you to pop in earlier in the introduction there. Oh, no. That's fine. That's all that's all good. Nope. No problems at all. So, what's something that most people, don't know about you, but should?
[00:11:36] Unknown:
Oh, but should? Yes.
[00:11:41] Unknown:
Or or you can go the other way. You could say, what is a, what is what's a shocking or surprising fact about you that most people don't know?
[00:11:49] Unknown:
Well, I have a 100 nieces and nephews.
[00:11:52] Unknown:
Wow.
[00:11:54] Unknown:
That's a lot to keep track of. That sure is. I don't do very well with that.
[00:11:59] Unknown:
How do you do it with 11 grandchildren? I have three and I have a hard time.
[00:12:03] Unknown:
Well, yeah. It's a it can be a lot, but it's, it's a joy.
[00:12:10] Unknown:
I I I concur. I would definitely concur with that. Absolutely. Alright. So, an easier one. What's your go to beverage to unwind at the end of the day?
[00:12:20] Unknown:
Diet Doctor Pepper.
[00:12:24] Unknown:
Ladies and gentlemen, that is the first specific mention of a beverage on the show by name, Diet Doctor Pepper. So thank you very much for that. Bravo. That's wonderful. Oh, my goodness. That's great. So, let me ask you this. I I kinda wanted to to to kinda go back to what we said about about you in the introduction. I kinda wanna take a moment to kinda just talk about your journey from from earning your bachelor's in arts degree, the the, in theater and and choral music, and, to becoming a published playwright, and then finally, your decision to write a novel. So give us an idea, like a like a brief overview of the experience that led you to where you are now.
[00:13:10] Unknown:
I've always loved writing. I've always loved reading, and I've always loved history, and music. So these are some of my passions. What brought me to write the novel was, and when I went on to, complete my master's degree work in, in English, it was with, I wanted to do a writing emphasis in that. And, they were not accepting any any, I guess you would say original material Okay. For thesis. You had to write about another writer, which was fine, but it was a little disappointing to me. But I love writing. I taught writing as a grad graduate teaching assistant while I was at Utah State. And then later I taught business writing and business law at Salt Lake City Community College for five years.
Okay. And, so writing has been part of my life. When I first received a book of genealogy, and I saw that from my aunt who wanted me to take over and be the next generation genealogist because her kids weren't interested. And I saw the family tree and I saw Judith show up as a 12 year old girl married to about the 50 year old king of Wessex. And then a year and a half later, it appeared that she married year and a half or two. She married his son, who was 24, and she was 14. And then about three years later, it appeared that she married a count, the count of Flanders named Baldwin Iron Arm. And I thought this can't be the same woman on my chart.
And so I thought there's a mistake and I started researching and I, the more I delved, the more fascinating the story began. Mhmm. And throughout the years, I've just compiled more and more research. And I felt like she really wanted me to tell her story, she and Baldwin, and how all of this came about. And then when COVID hit, I had nothing better to do. So I- Like post it. Especially my husband said, Okay, here is all this research that you did before. I still have it. And so I started going through that and just added more to it and just totally focused on doing that.
A year and a half, it took me to write it and get it to the form that it is now. It started out more as a history book. Okay. With all the footnotes and and references and everything, and it was just too cumbersome. And I thought if I want anyone to read this other than my husband, who is willing to read pretty much anything I write. You would hope so. Yes. Then, then I need to make it more novel like. Okay. And take out every single thing that is not absolutely essential to the story and for, for the reader to know. And it covers seven years in the formation of Europe. Okay. And a very a very tumultuous time, I would say.
[00:17:40] Unknown:
Now was was there any part of this project that was, that ended up being more difficult for you than you expected?
[00:17:47] Unknown:
There were little time little places, where I had to put my re or my writing on hold while I did more research. Okay. Because I really knew nothing about the ninth century. And I thought, how do I describe how they how they traveled? How what the palaces look like? What their forts look like? What food, what medicine, how they gave birth, what were their marriage customs. I didn't know any of that. And and then also, as they went from place to place, I needed to be able to describe what Le Mans, for instance, looked like in the ninth century, not in the twenty first century.
Mhmm. And so that's very different.
[00:18:40] Unknown:
Now so so so basically, the writing you weren't writing this really from a point of, you know, already learned information. You were learning as you were writing. Absolutely. Well, that's crazy. Absolutely.
[00:18:52] Unknown:
So I would stop and say, okay, can't go any further till I learn this. Wow. One, one of the biggest challenges was one of the kings in the the king in Brittany, which was a part of, Francia at the time, a suzerain relationship there. But, it was that king is assassinated by his cousin who wants his throne. Okay. But I didn't know how how did he die? All all the annals that were written by the monks said was that he was murdered or he was killed. And I thought I can't make it up if I can find it. Right. So I found an ancient book, not ancient, I guess. It was written in like the 1960s or seventies.
But, but it was
[00:19:56] Unknown:
about Yeah. Let's, let's be careful labeling. Let's be careful labeling anything from the nineteen sixties or seventies as ancient. Exactly. That's me. I'm aging myself. Yeah. You're right here, seventies.
[00:20:07] Unknown:
And, and I had to wait for interlibrary loan because there was only one copy and it was somewhere back east and they had to order it up and then I had to wait for it to come because of course it was out of print and I couldn't find any other books talking about ninth century history of Britney. Wow. And it was fantastic. It laid out the entire scenario for me, so I was able to continue with that chapter.
[00:20:42] Unknown:
So what what sources did you find, to be the most surprising or useful?
[00:20:51] Unknown:
I found a lot of delightful little gems, in surprising places. I used as the outline for the book, I used something called the Annals of Saint Burton and they were written by the monks in the ninth century. And every year at the end of the year, they would write a summary of what had happened during that year. Okay. Now monks weren't usually writing about women. They usually wrote about royalty, the wars, the big stuff, the big events, and mainly the men. But if, if a woman did something that they felt was outrageous, then she got Or notable. Yeah. Yes. Mainly outrageous, I guess.
So they, yeah. Yeah. Notable as well. And so, yeah, that is how Judith got included. And for seven years, I, I, the book covers seven years in the annals. It was amazing that there's a huge collection of records called the MGH, Monumenta Germania historica. And it is all written in Latin. I don't read Latin, but some of it has been translated in English. Some of it is by scholars, mainly in Great Britain. Some of it has been translated into German. And having lived in Germany for twelve years, I learned German. My husband speaks better German. My son spoke fantastic German. And between the three of us, we were able to, get actual conversations that took place between the Kings. Oh, that's interesting.
Yeah. One of them, King Charles, before a battle. Actually, he has he speaks to his troops, and he or maybe it was after battle. Now I I put it in my book before the battle, but it might have been after. Okay. Don't hold me to it. But he says to his troops, if I keep this kingdom, it is only because the Lord Jesus Christ wants me to. And I will give all praise to him. Okay. And so I put I took that little gem and put it into the form of conversation that he has with Baldwin Iron Arm on the night before they go into battle. Just little things like that. I was trying to figure out how do they celebrate Easter in the ninth century.
And of course, all Christians then were Catholic and I wasn't raised Catholic, so I didn't have that background. But even if I had, I wouldn't have had a ninth century feel for it. So I, I looked on a Catholic website that talked about historical, celebrations of, and they had a ninth century French Easter, procession, song, celebration. I was able to pretty much lift all of that and include it in the book. So it was delightful to find all of these little gems, little riddles that were from the ninth century I put in there. The they had a list of, I was researching, merit marriage customs, and they the Catholic church had a list of penitentials, Things you have to repent of. Yeah. If you do them.
And so they had like probably 40 or 50 things that govern intimacy and marriage. You have to repent of all of these. It controlled the days and the times and everything. Gotta love the Catholics. So I used some of that in there And it was, there were just there were so many gems. Every time I found something, it gave me something to write about.
[00:25:36] Unknown:
And how about, it you you I'm sure you came across gaps and some, like, ambiguities in in the historical records when you were researching it. How did you work your way around through those?
[00:25:47] Unknown:
Well, historians don't always agree on everything. Judith was a very polarizing figure in some ways among historians. Some felt that her refusal to marry for a third time at her father's command made her a terrible child. And others saw it as very heroic. So I happen to agree with those who found it rather inspiring. And she was willing to be in prison for the rest of her life if she had to be rather than marry again somebody she didn't love. And, I found that quite inspiring. Well, it is.
[00:26:35] Unknown:
Especially especially at that period of time because any type of, rebellion, I guess you'd say, you know, could could potentially cost you your life.
[00:26:46] Unknown:
It could. It could. And very nearly did. And and, they had to flee for their lives, but it's and, when I had a gap, because it would list main events. And most of those events took place more with what was happening in Francia, less so in Wessex. Because when she went to Wessex for that period of time, for those four years, there's a few important events that we know. And then I had to fill in gaps. And I filled it in kind of the way I was just talking about, I figured, okay, this, it happened in Francia in December. This is, they were celebrating Christmas.
How did they celebrate Christmas at Wessex in the ninth century? Or what did they do in Wessex? Were there other things going on? And I would put her in that setting and just do some fun, sometimes lighter things.
[00:28:04] Unknown:
Well, I'm looking forward to reading it. You you you're really making it sound very fun, like a fun story. Despite, I mean, this the seriousness of of the historical background to it. You know, it sounds like it it's like a fun kind of story to listen to to to read. So let me ask you this. How did it feel to to, I guess, you you first came across this story and discovered that this is also your story. How did that feel?
[00:28:29] Unknown:
It felt I I always knew that we had royalty going back, if you went back far enough. But as a child, I always thought more Disney princess. Right? Of course. As I was researching it, I thought that's the last thing I wanna be this royal. I like my privacy too much. I like my freedom too much. And really their lives were controlled by what they felt their duty was to the country, to the crown. Yeah. Everything. And and even now, it's it is kind of like that
[00:29:12] Unknown:
with royalty today. Oh, yeah. No. Absolutely. You you you watch the royals. Well, the most popular royal family, of course, is over there in England. You know, you watch them, you could see that. I mean, that that's that's obvious. How did you choose to structure the narrative of your book?
[00:29:30] Unknown:
Well, as far as the story went, I started it several times and realized it wasn't working because it really is Baldwin and Judith's story.
[00:29:45] Unknown:
Okay. So so it wasn't just a single protagonist in the whole story. It was It just wasn't working. No matter how
[00:29:53] Unknown:
I tried to do it, it just didn't feel right. So I start off the first two chapters really are Baldwin entering the picture. He's coming in to be, to serve the king.
[00:30:08] Unknown:
Okay.
[00:30:09] Unknown:
And he is made, companion to her younger brother, Louis, who has a stammerer. And he was known later in history as Louis, the stammerer by historians because there's so many Louis, they had to find a way to distinguish him. Just like Charles the Bald, his name was Charles. He didn't know he was called the Bald. It was it was because there were so many different Charles's at that time. The historians had given them all nicknames. Well, you hope he didn't call himself that. I don't think he was bald.
[00:30:46] Unknown:
Okay. Well, if he wasn't, then why would they call him that?
[00:30:49] Unknown:
Well, there are several different theories and one that made the most sense to me, and really that's was one of your questions before is how do you pick? I just, from doing the research, I just had to pick, well, this makes the most sense to me. Okay. And the one that made the most sense to me was that, when the Pope came to bless one of their cathedrals that was, being dedicated. In respect for the Pope, he had his haircut. The Franks at that time, they liked their hair kind of shoulder length And that they felt that was manly. And it was kind of shocking to people Mhmm. That you did that.
So I'm guessing that that theory has legs.
[00:31:54] Unknown:
That makes sense.
[00:31:55] Unknown:
None of the pictures. I've only seen a couple of pictures that you can actually say may have been drawn at the time of him. There are plenty of pictures drawn of these people that were drawn in the fifteen hundreds or the sixteen hundreds, but this that was many years after they were gone. But the one or two that were from that era, usually he's wearing a helmet. But sometimes you can see hair coming out Okay. And a and a and a beard. So
[00:32:28] Unknown:
Gotta rock the beard. Gotta rock the beard. I made a mistake. I trimmed mine down too much. So anyway, so if there was somebody listening tonight that, that's thinking about writing a, I guess, their family's history into into, like, a historical novel, what advice would you give them? Like, is there is there a good place to start the research, or or or is there some other direction to go?
[00:32:53] Unknown:
Well, I happen to think that there are many stories out there that would make wonderful novels and a lot better than some that are just made up out of whole cloth. Because truth really is stranger than fiction. And when you read the book, you'll say that couldn't have happened, but it did. And it's amazing. I think you have to feel passionate about the story. And if you do, then you just research the period of time, everything about. That's how I approach it. I don't like to make anything up if I can put fact in there. For me and then I just try and dramatize it. So I feel more like instead of making up a story, I dramatized
[00:33:53] Unknown:
the history, if that makes sense. No. It does. It it absolutely does. And you are right. Truth is stranger than fiction. I'm I'm as you're telling as you're discussing this, I'm thinking about all these stories that I grew up with, that I heard from my family when they came here, from from from Italy and from Sicily, and and, you know, all the the the the crazy stuff that took place and and the history in the family and back in those days. Like for example, I have, on my grandfather's side, when he came when his family came here, they took they were given the name of the town that they came from. Just like in the Godfather, they changed the guy's name, you know, to Corleone.
My my grandparents name, last name was Nicosia. And there's there's a town in Sicily, called Nicosia. And, I I was always I'm always fascinated. Like, I wanna go there. I wanna see the sun. I wanna see the thing. I wanna take a picture under the, under the under the because there's there's still my my, my aunt and my uncle went recently, and there's still the the portico to the city is still there that has the name emblazoned up there. But but they have connection. There there's actually a family coat of arms that came up after my my my grandparents passed away that, I I think my uncle has. And, I am fascinated to to study the the history of the family coat of arms and learn more about that side of the family, that part of the family, what they were involved in, what what does the coat of arms mean, what does each little symbol on the thing mean. I wish I had a picture of it. I'd put it up there to show it to you. But, it's it's just so I I know. And I'm sure So you hope there's a good book in there. Well, that's what I'm that's what I'm trying to say is that I'm sure that there's a lot of a lot of interesting stories there that that would probably make a good story a good book. And so, I don't know. You know, on this show, like we spoke earlier, I told you this show was was originally started off to be like a mostly a political talk show. And since we started doing the the the guest segments, I have interviewed so many authors.
I I think I've interviewed more authors than I've had that I've interviewed people about politics. And the more I I speak to people who've written books, the more I want to write a book. And, I teased an idea out to to a guy I spoke to a couple of weeks ago. I actually have an outline for a book. It's And I and I have it I have it sealed up. Before, you know, the whole thing with copywriting, before I learned all that stuff, I outlined the story and I stuck it into an envelope and I mailed it to myself. So I still have it. It's sealed. So if somebody tries to steal it, I have it. I got so I I could tell you the name of it. And, I I worked for New York City for twenty twenty five years, really. Twenty three years for one particular agency.
So, and I and I wore many hats through that. I I retired from there in as a in from the management side of it. So yeah. So I can pat myself on the back side. I was I was part of New York City executive management. Big freaking deal. So the name of my book is is gonna be, if I ever write it, it's gonna be, Why I Wake Up Screaming My Years Working for New York City. And and every every section of the book or chapter of the book is gonna be some particular experience that I had or some particular person that I've come into contact with, that impacted my my my career, whether good or bad. So hence, why I wake up screaming.
So yeah. So the more I talk to you to to people who write books, the more I wanna do this. So this is this is like very good for me. So I I I really appreciate. I get so many great ideas in how to go about these things. Now are you self published, or are you are you published through through a a a a a a Justin and I
[00:37:41] Unknown:
decided to start our own small publishing company, and I'll tell you why. When I finished the book, I did work with, someone in New York City Okay. For a short period of time. And he said, well, he gave me some good advice, and I used that. But he also said, cannot publish unless your book is like another book that has been published within the past year or two. And I found that to be the case. That's interesting. I did approach a few agents and a few publishers. The very first question they ask is give me the name of three books that are just like that have been published within the last year or two that became popular that is just like your book.
And I that I don't have any. Right. Yeah. It's, it's frustrating. Also, they did not like the fact that I had a very strong, traditional male character as one of the protagonists. They said, no. He can't be a protagonist. You have to only have Judith. And I said, this is their story. Mhmm. And they and I followed their paths in a parallel fashion until they get together. So you know what's going on in Francia as well as what's going on in England or Wessex so that you get the complete story. It's also a family story. It's about her father. I think it really bothers me that we have to be so politically correct.
[00:39:48] Unknown:
I agree with you. That we have to
[00:39:53] Unknown:
say that men can't be strong and powerful and protective. That somehow that's toxic. Yeah. I really feel that, in fact, when my son read the book, he said, well, this isn't Judith's book. This is Baldwin's book. And I thought, I don't see it that way. And when women read it, they see it as Judith's book. When men read it, they see it as Baldwin's story. But that's great though, because because you're appealing to both sides. Yeah. But it is. It's a story of how this couple joins together and are stronger together, and their faith and their, their belief in miracles and how miracles help them get through the difficult times in their life. Yeah.
And it bothers me that we have only a few, heroes that keep getting recycled over and over again. We have Superman, and we have, you know, Robin Hood, and we have King Arthur. And as I was doing the research, there's so many stories out there of courage and honor and duty and loyalty and strength that are inspirational and could be a real role model for men and women today as they face difficulties in their lives. But we don't, we want to go back to the same stuff over and over and over again. And no matter how much I love Superman,
[00:41:37] Unknown:
I don't wanna see another remake of it. Yeah. It it's getting played out. It's enough. Yeah. It's for sure enough. And you know what? This show is a a a no holds barred. You can say whatever you gotta say. We are not PC here whatsoever. We we just say it as it is, and if you don't like it, don't watch it. It's plain as simple. That's that's our as a matter of fact, that's part of our tagline, for the for the show. It's, you know, there's nothing sacred, nothing watered down, and nothing is PC. So so we don't play the PC game here. We don't play that watered down nonsense. We just say it like it is. You know, if there's nothing wrong with being proud of being a man, there's nothing wrong with proud of being a woman. There's Oh. There's nothing wrong with proud of being black, white, Hispanic, Chinese, whatever. Be proud of who you are. You know, don't let anybody tell you that you are, you know, you you have, you know, your toxic masculinity or or, you know, whatever the other nonsense is. This whole thing We're gonna talk about toxic femininity, which there is. Of course there is. Absolutely there is. It's on all sides. It's like it's like this thing going around now with this, with this model, with the jeans. Sydney Sweeney.
You know, how how all of a sudden now, you know, because she said the word, you know, because she said I have good genes, and she's wearing jeans, and she's advertising jeans, all of a sudden that's Hitler. Never play on words. Get over it. Yeah. Exactly. You know, but, you know, if it if it was if it was some overweight black woman or or or something like that, they'd be praising this the the ad, you know, as as the greatest thing since sliced bread. So
[00:43:15] Unknown:
Sometimes they think that people who look for the bad. Yes. And I prefer to look for the good. Absolutely.
[00:43:23] Unknown:
Abs you know what? I think I took it off my my my playlist here. I don't know. Let me just let me see. I I think I I should have left it. I could have showed it to you. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe it's in here somewhere. Let me see if I can find it. But, while I'm doing that, but but yeah. I I I totally agree with you. We gotta put the PC stuff, you know, beside behind us. Let me see. Where is it? Celebrate. There it is. We celebrate
[00:43:52] Unknown:
all people and their courage and their conviction, their faith.
[00:44:00] Unknown:
Celebrate it. Right. Hey, let me show you something. I found it. I love this. I sent I I I saw this on TikTok, and it's it's only about ten seconds, and I sent it to my sister. She loved it. Because she she's a huge Donald Trump fan. So Isn't that great? That's gotta be an AI thing. Right? Oh, yeah. I'm sure it is. I don't I don't think the president of The United States has time to go do that. And that's another thing too. It's like AI is crazy. You can't you can't tell what's real, what's not. So it's it's it's getting pretty pretty crazy. Just imagine what it would have been what it would have been like if they had AI back in the ninth century.
[00:44:46] Unknown:
You know? We had you know, the interesting thing is I think there are some parallels that, you know, between the political climate then and now. I mean, King Charles was a polarizing figure. He was desperate to make, to hold on to his kingdom, but also to make Francia great again. Mhmm. Because it was great during his grandfather Charlemagne's time, and then it started to deteriorate, especially when, his father, Louis the Pious, his sons inherited the kingdom and started a civil war fighting amongst themselves over the their peace.
And he is desperate to reinstate culture, the culture that Charlemagne had and the education that Charlemagne promoted. And instead, he's gotta deal with people who wanna go to war.
[00:45:54] Unknown:
It's it's really interesting that you went down that track because that I I had some questions for you about the, the parallels between the the political and the social climate of the ninth century, and and and today's, political and sociological issues that we're dealing with. So that that's you read my mind. You read my mind. Now now, now the ninth century is also, most historians look at the ninth century as a very transitional period. How do you see it? How do you see the evolution of Francia during that time?
[00:46:27] Unknown:
Well, if King Charles had not won the war that takes place in this book between him and his brother, Louis the German, there would have been no France. It would have all been Germany. Mhmm. So that's interesting. Yes, it's very tumultuous time. Also another parallel is that King Charles is desperately searching for a solution to all these invaders coming across his border and wreaking havoc on his people. They were called Vikings. And he didn't have a way to keep them out. Eventually, he finds it and you see that in the book. But he also is surrounded by enemies both within his country and without.
Mhmm. And one of his his main advisor, his name is Archbishop Hinckmar, who I had never heard of before this, but amazing person who was one of the most influential clerics of the ninth century and prolific writer. He says to Charles he says, okay. We have all these threats against our kingdom right now. We have Viking invaders. We have Brittany that is in chaos with the, murder of the king and and threatening to attack us. And then we have the rebel lords of Aquitaine. We have your nephew who wants to take Aquitaine. We have your brother Louis the German who wants your kingdom. Mhmm. And so and we have someone named Robert the Strong, who you'll find out when you read the book, who is also leading rebels within the country. And he says, we've kind of dealt with all of these issues separately.
Mhmm. What if they all attack at once? Can we withstand that? And, basically, it takes a miracle, and you see that unfold in the book. And I thought, well, we have North Korea. We've got China. We've got Russia. We've got Iran. Thank heaven Iran has been
[00:49:14] Unknown:
somewhat somewhat neutralized.
[00:49:17] Unknown:
Yes. And and others who do not wish us well. And thankfully, we have at least found a solution for the borders, but we have now still millions of people within our own country who were not vetted, who might very well wish us ill, and be there ready to act in very nefarious ways. Yeah.
[00:49:47] Unknown:
And I I heard a very interesting number today for Oh, really? Yes. For for the illegals in in this country. They they the estimate now is you ready for this? 52,000,000. No. Yes.
[00:50:01] Unknown:
Oh my goodness. That's twice what I thought. Yep.
[00:50:04] Unknown:
52,000,000. And as much as I love this this administration, I love president Trump. I think he's doing a great job. Give him an a plus on the border work. Give him a give him an a on pretty much everything else he's been handling, economy, so on and so forth. That's a big problem, and they need to start, because remember during the during the campaign, again, don't forget my president. I got my got my hat right here, you know. I got my, my I I stand with President Trump flags hanging over there. This is the one thing that I'm concerned about is that, you know, you have you promised during the course of the campaign that thousands will be deported weekly, thousands a day.
[00:50:51] Unknown:
He's trying, but he has a lot of opposition within our country. Oh, no. For sure. For sure.
[00:50:57] Unknown:
There are there are ways to to work it out, I think, anyway. You know, we can agree to disagree on that. But, you know, the latest number that I saw and the amount of that had actually been apprehended and and deported is like 300 a day, You know? Which is which is, you know, substantial number, but it's not enough. Because you're not gonna be able to get rid of 52,000,000 illegal immigrants There's no way. With just doing 300 a day. I knew that. You know? What I think we need to do Even with 10,000,000,
[00:51:27] Unknown:
I that's so many people. Oh, yeah. But we what concerns me is what percentage of those, even if it's 1% who do not wish us well
[00:51:42] Unknown:
And most don't. They
[00:51:44] Unknown:
could light wildfires. They could,
[00:51:48] Unknown:
No. That's just that's climate change. Where plants are like an electric plant. Yeah. No. No. You see, that's where you make a mistake. You see, anytime there's a wildfire that's set by a person, it's climate change. It's not, you know, some nefarious person out there in the woods somewhere setting a fire. It's climate change, you know. Well, because climate change made them do it, that's why. So, but what I think what I think I think what needs to happen is I think that The United States needs to stop being the world's police and defending other people's borders, and they need to bring those troops home, give them some time with their families, and then send them out into the into the inner country, and start looking for these people and get them out. It's been done before.
It can be done again. It's within the president's jurisdiction and and, and legal authority to do so, and I think that's what he should do. But My my my is
[00:52:43] Unknown:
that when he got in and was fully briefed by by the, intelligence community that he may have felt like we were on the brink of war. Oh, for sure. I And so he's doing everything he can to build up our military
[00:53:05] Unknown:
as quickly as possible. Just because you don't hear about it as much, you know, there is that threat of a of a nuclear exchange taking place. I mean, just a couple of weeks ago, we were talking about having nuclear submarines, redirected toward this toward Russia, and they had submarines here, but they always do. I mean, you know, so do we. But but calling it out and putting it out there into into public view. Like, we all know that. We all we all know that that there are Russian submarines out here, you know, cruising around the coastlines, and just like we have submarines over there. But but we know that, but because we're not told that, it doesn't stay in our minds that way. But when you hear it said, well, there you go. Then you gotta really start to worry because the rhetoric is there, and then, you know, you know, I'm glad things have kinda calm down a little bit, but the threat's still there. It just because you don't hear about it, it doesn't mean it's not there.
[00:54:02] Unknown:
And people thought he was absolutely insane to say, well, Canada should become part of America, and so should Greenland. And I don't think he would've ever said that unless he felt like we need to reinforce
[00:54:22] Unknown:
our own capacity. Oh, yeah. Of course. I mean, I can understand Greenland, but I don't want Canada.
[00:54:28] Unknown:
I know.
[00:54:29] Unknown:
I don't want Canada. What the hell do I want Canada for? Vermont has maple syrup. I don't need Canada. You know? And I have Canadian friends. My sponsor actually is she's they're they're from Canada, British Columbia. So I, yeah, I gotta be careful. But it would be stronger. It would be more people.
[00:54:47] Unknown:
More more territory, I guess, if somebody were to attack us. I don't know.
[00:54:54] Unknown:
I gotcha. I gotcha. It's,
[00:54:56] Unknown:
another, another parallel that I wanted to mention was very interesting to me is that there is a side story that of another woman that makes it into the monk's
[00:55:10] Unknown:
annals. Okay.
[00:55:12] Unknown:
Okay. Charles's cousin, who is in the neighboring country, Lotharingia, which is actually Middle Francia, they had it Eastern, Western, And Middle Francia, but really Western Francia, which Charles held, it's kind of like North, South, Central America. When somebody says America, they mean The US. But it but they but technically Eastern Francia was referred to more often as Bavaria. Okay. And so Middle Francia was more often called Lotharingia because it was Lothar who was was the king. He's trying to get rid of his wife, but he does it through making up nasty rumors that he spreads, accusing her of all kinds of things and using lawfare against her to try to get rid of her and destroy her. And so I thought, wow, this sounds familiar. And it's very polarizing to the population. Yeah. Some people believe everything he says about her, and others realize how she's being persecuted.
I thought that was a very interesting parallel
[00:56:38] Unknown:
as well. That that that is very interesting. No. I've said this before, I'll say it again. History is amazing. History can really be exciting. You know, I tell a story all the time. I I love history. I I fell in love with history when I was in my last year of college. I had a I had a history professor who was an absolute psychopath, but I loved him. He was great. He would come into the auditorium. He had no notes, no books, no papers, no briefcase, nothing. And he would march up onto the onto the platform in front of the the the gallery there, and he would say, alright.
Where were we? Oh, yes. Trafalgar. And he would act out everything on the stage. If they were pulling catapults, he was demonstrating how they did the catapults and the swords, and he was jumping off from the stage. And it was a 70 year old man, and he's jumping all over the place like a lunatic making battle sounds, and you know acting the whole thing out. I sat there in class, I was like, this guy's amazing. And I fell in love with history again. And history is very very exciting. The only thing the only problem with history are history teachers, that's the thing. Most history teachers are boring as anything. But you get a good one like I had, and you fall in love with it. And history is so exciting when you really sit down and look at these things, and it's amazing because there is there is something to history that most people don't understand, and that is that the one thing that men don't learn from history is that men don't learn from history.
[00:58:11] Unknown:
So
[00:58:12] Unknown:
Exactly. You know, in other words, history repeats itself. And so you want you you learn you watch these you read these stories, you study these stories, you look at the details of these stories, and and all the circle political circumstances surrounding it, and it all it never changes. It's the same thing we're dealing with today. Nothing ever changes.
[00:58:31] Unknown:
No matter what century.
[00:58:33] Unknown:
They really are. They have the same passions That's right. The same needs. That's right. It was all power grab then. Everybody was out to grab power. Well, it's the same thing today. Sounds familiar. That sure does. Sure does. The the the whole thing is about who's gonna run who, and that's the that's the whole thing. And, you know, in those days, it was a little bit difficult to really track it because you really kind of removed from everything as just the average person in in the fields. But, you know, today with with modern technology, we're more on top of things. We everything's instant. So you know more what's going on around in the world around you. But in those days, no. A lot of stuff was done out in the open. Nobody paid attention to it because nobody knew. It was only a small group of people that were really involved with it. So it was it was so much easier to to to manipulate things. And nobody had a clue.
So it it's great stuff. So let me ask you, outside your own work, are there any books or any authors historical periods that that have that's, inspired you, influenced you on on a on a personal level?
[00:59:36] Unknown:
I have to say I was a very eclectic reader and still am. I love everything from historical fiction, to biography, to mysteries, to, detective stories. I mean, sci fi, fantasy. I'd love it all. If it's well written,
[01:00:02] Unknown:
I love it. I I could agree with that. I I I know exactly where you're coming from with that. I I love to read. I've always loved to read. I love reading classical stuff though. I love I love I could I could sit down and read a Shakespeare play cover to cover in in like a day or two. You know, I just I I love it. So, I And the more you read, you know, it just opens up your mind so much more than sitting there in front of a TV screen and being entertained by whatever you see on the TV. Because you have to think, you have to imagine these things and what's going on. And I think it just really helps your creativity on that. So, so I encourage people to just read, read, read as much as you possibly can.
So, any spin offs, any sequels for The Girl of Many Crowns?
[01:00:45] Unknown:
There won't be any sequels because I don't have the the guy I was working with in New York said, oh, you can just make it up. And I just didn't want to make up stuff. No. I was trying to dramatize history. I am working on a prequel though. Okay. Judith was married, was named for her grandmother, Judith, Charles's mother. And it's a fascinating story. She is chosen to be the second wife of the widowed, Louis the Pious. And, she's chosen through Cinderella like bride show where all the nobles of the kingdom are invited to bring their eligible daughters in.
And then when she has a son, it sparks a civil war because his previous sons already had the kingdom in their mind divided. I gotcha. Interesting. And so she has to go to bat and save her son, as well as his legacy.
[01:01:52] Unknown:
That's great. I'm looking forward to seeing that too. Alright. So where can we go get your book? Where can we find out more about you and your work?
[01:01:59] Unknown:
Amazon is, and Barnes and Noble have the book. You can get it on Audible. You can get it on what is it? Google Books or whatever. I there's just about anywhere. Everywhere.
[01:02:22] Unknown:
Yeah. Well, I have I have the link to your website, so we have that in the show notes already. So folks be able to click on that. I'm sure they can track it all down through there. Deborah Harris, thank you so much for being with us here tonight, spending your evening with us. We really appreciate it. Looking forward to reading the book, so make sure you get it over to us. And, I'll send you the links. I'll send you the email. Well, don't you have it? You have it already. So Yeah. So you can just send that over, and that'll be great. And I'll make sure I share it with our producer, anonymous Angeles. She's looking forward to seeing it, I'm sure. Okay. Thank you so much for having me. Oh, anytime. You're great. Thank you. You have a great night. Bye. Alright.
Alright, folks. We're gonna take a break here. And when we come back from this break, we will, sit down with our next guest who is waiting in the in the wings. And, we'll get to him momentarily. Alright, folks. So this is the Joe Russo. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and share it with your friends, your family, and your followers. Help us spread this thing around. And listen, if you're watching right now, hit that like button. Help us with the algorithm. Alright? So hit that like button. Help spread this thing around, and, we'll, we'll take this little break here, and we'll be right back. Alright.
Again, don't forget, like, subscribe, and share. It's Joe Russo live, weeknights, 07:00. We'll be right back.
[01:06:07] Unknown:
Up and down, counting out, smiling through the taste of blood in my own mouth. I got bruises and broken bones, but they don't know I ain't in this ring alone. I'm a fighter. No one can say that I'm a up. That's what I do. I didn't soldier on this far. Just
[01:08:50] Unknown:
Alrighty. Well, first hour is in the books. Folks, this is the Joe Ruse Show. Welcome back. My name is Joe Ruse. It's great to be with you. Another beautiful, beautiful, beautiful Wednesday evening here on the pimple on the backside of Texas, the beautiful city of Eagle Pass, and we are doing the best we can to bring you the best quality talk radio we we can muster without all the blessing. Great to be with you. Alright, folks. So make sure you drop a comment down below or make some kind of a reference in the live chat. Let us know what you think, how the show is going tonight. If any comments or questions you might have, you can always send them over to us at [email protected].
[email protected], or you could use the web form that's on our website. Alright? Hey, folks. Pod home. If you're a podcaster, if you're looking for, or to be a podcaster, you need a host platform that will host your audio podcast. Alright? Audio podcasts are the foundation of podcasting. Alright? Video stuff is great. It's a lot of fun. Enjoy doing it. Great stuff, especially on a platform like Rumble. We love being on Rumble. It's a fantastic, company. It's a fantastic product. And, really thankful that, I meant to say it earlier, that they were able to resolve the studio issue, which was a a widespread thing. It wasn't just a local thing with us, but, really thankful that they got to it really quickly. But podcasting started audio.
I'm an originalist. I love the audio podcast. So when you have your audio podcast, you need a host platform. And the best host platform you're gonna get is podhome.fm. PodHome is the most modern and easy to use podcast hosting platform in the market today. It's a great platform. You could use Pod Home to publish your episodes, enhance your audio, automatically generate transcripts, chapters, titles, show notes, and more. Podom also gives you the opportunity to broadcast your podcast live across all the modern podcasting two point o platforms, or you can actually live stream your podcast through your own website that Pod Home will provide for you.
No extra charge. And if you have your own domain, you could always bring it over to Pod Home, and they will incorporate it in. And then all of the features that you get that's available to you through the Pod Home website will be yours on your own. So you need to check them out. Everything. Every single thing you get on Pod Home is for one affordable subscription of $15.99 a month. That's $15.99 a month. Now, I've I've been on other host platforms. Pod Home is my third host platform for the audio, and it is the best platform to be on. It is the best. Price wise, feature wise, it is the best. I was paying up almost three times the amount that I'm paying with Pod Home for their service on those other bigger names. I'm not gonna mention their names. All those other bigger name platforms, and I got less in services, customer support, you name it. Pod home is the place to be. Go to podhome.fm.
Try it out for free for thirty days, and then it's just $15.99 a month after that. So try them out. Podhome.fm, podhome.fm. Alright. Well, waiting in the wings, our, our second hour guest is Russell Van Brocklin. He has over ten years of experience in teaching students with dyslexia, the techniques needed to overcome their current struggles and recognize the superpower they've been given. His programs were developed while in graduate school when he combined the Brain Research in Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz with three default writings, Strategies in Strategies for Struggling Writers by James Collins.
As a result, his initial research program was funded by the New York State Senate and is owned by by the SUNY Research Foundation. He found that motivated high school students with dyslexia increased their writing skills by seven to eight grade levels in one academic year, which is huge. His approach is called the writing method. I'd like to welcome Russell to the show. Russell, how you doing, my friend? I'm great. Thanks for having me on. Hey. I'm glad I'm glad you're able to get a date. I'm glad you picked a date. I'm glad you got here. I got so many I have so many folks lined up in pod in PodMatch right now that that are still waiting to set a date. And I'm like, you know, clock's ticking here. Come on. Let's get this going. Yeah. Well, I actually just found something weird last night when I was on a podcast. I was told I was the number one guest on the system. And I thought that was kinda strange because I'm in a very niche area. So, yeah, you you gotta use it and you gotta get on it as fast you can. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. It's great. It's a great platform. I I I love being on it. I've I've met so many great people through this. Our previous guest, Deborah, she was fantastic.
You know, and I and I've said it many many times, you know, on the podcast that, you know, without doing this, I would not have met so many great people. I would not have expanded my own personal knowledge on things, on subjects that, that I I'm learning every day. Every time I have a guest on the show, I'm learning something new. Whether it's from talking to a blue cat, or whether it's talking to paranormal investigator to us, to a, to to to doctors and lawyers, you name it. We've covered it. This is great. It's a great platform. So thank you, my friend, for being here with us tonight. So let's get this thing started. So tell me something about yourself that most people don't know but should.
[01:14:28] Unknown:
Well, for me, it's when I decided to go to college, I had a first grade reading and writing level. That's what it was going through college. And then when I decided to force myself to learn to read and write, I decided to audit, law school after college, couple of classes. Wow. And I solved my reading and writing in law school where it was just forced upon me, and everything clarified very quickly. Wow.
[01:14:54] Unknown:
You see, that's stories like that, I you you would not hear if it was not for podcasts like this. So thank you for that. Let's see. What's, what's your go to beverage to unwind at the end of the day?
[01:15:09] Unknown:
Lemonade.
[01:15:10] Unknown:
You're the first. The stronger, the tartar, the better. That is crazy because just on our last guest was the first one to specifically name diet Doctor Pepper. You're the first person to say lemonade. Everybody's usually water, you know.
[01:15:24] Unknown:
Well, I drink over a gallon a day, but when I want something that's really gonna I don't know. I I just really like lemonade.
[01:15:32] Unknown:
Alright. Well, let's get down to the meat of the subject here. Because this is very interesting. As a matter of fact, our producer, anonymous Angela, who you I don't think you've you've interacted with her yet. So she she's very invest interested in this particular subject to, for a personal matter, and so she was really looking forward to, to hearing us tonight, and she was very key in helping us put together the the subject matter, the the our our questions for you today. So, this is this is gonna hit home. So according to the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity, Dyslexia affects twenty percent of the population, represents eighty to ninety percent of all those with learning disabilities.
It's the most common of all neurocognitive disorders. What made you decide to learn more about this particular learning style?
[01:16:22] Unknown:
Well, I have the worst case of dyslexia people have ever seen. I literally went to college and graduate school with a first grade reading and writing ability. When I was studying in law school, I brought my reading level up to graduate level within a less than a month. Writing took a few more years. And then when I was deciding to figure out how do we solve this, it comes down to something that's so simple. This is the book in my field, as you mentioned, from Yale. Mhmm. Okay? Let me show you dyslexia. This is this one thing will just shatter your mind. That's that's it. Now do you see how the back part of your brain is has all this massive neuroactivity and mine has next to nothing? Yeah.
And you see how the front part of my brain is about two and a half times overactive? Yes. Okay. Got this weird idea. Let dyslexic use that overactive front part of the brain. So when I looked at that initially, Yale said it was it was articulation followed by word analysis. So what I did is said, okay. Graduate record of exam, analytical writing. Analytical articulation, same thing. So we just took highly motivated, highly intelligent, selected juniors and seniors. They they just happen to have middle school writing skills. One class period a day for the school year. At the end, they're writing average of entering graduate school students. Spelling and grammar went from horrible to clean at the graduate level. Cost less than $900 a kid. They all went to college, all graduated. No accommodations.
GPAs between 2.5 to 3.6. Oh. I thought I was done. I thought I did something amazing. I was wrong. The teachers came to me, and they said, what about the typical students? And I said, oh, this won't work for them. So then I had to make some big shifts to work with typical kits. Okay. So the first thing we did is I had to go to to Yale and say, Yale, you're incorrect. The best isn't it's not articulation followed by word analysis. It's word analysis followed by articulation. So let's explain that. You said your producer has an interest in dyslexia? Yes. Okay. Is it because she has a child who's dyslexic? I'm not at liberty to discuss.
Okay. Absolutely fine. So let's just say there's a, child out there. The biggest thing that comes to me when I present at major conferences is they start off, they say, my my kids are writing a bunch of randomly placed misspelled words. I don't even know where to begin. Okay. So I'm gonna show you how to do that really fast. Typical example I like to give is an elementary school girl called Sarah. She's 10 years old, writing randomly placed misspelled words. Favorite thing in the world is swimming. So what we have you do is we have type, not handwrite, type on a real keyboard, not an iPad, not an iPhone, a real keyboard, typically a laptop.
You type out hero plus sign. What are we talking about? She copies it. We switch hero for Sarah. Sarah, plus sign, what are we talking about? Then we switch what are we talking about for swimming. Sarah, plus sign, swimming. See how we got there?
[01:19:39] Unknown:
Wow.
[01:19:41] Unknown:
Okay? Now we got Sarah plus sign swimming. Okay. We need a word to replace the plus sign. Alright? Now I'm going to run you through what I typically do at a major dyslexia conference. You have to follow what I say exactly because most of the teachers don't and they get it wrong. Okay. Do you think I can fool you? Probably, yes.
[01:20:01] Unknown:
Well I'll be honest.
[01:20:03] Unknown:
Remember, Sarah thinks swimming is the favorite thing she has in her life. Right. So here's my we have Sarah plus sign swimming. Right. Here's my question to replace the plus sign. Does Sarah like or dislike swimming?
[01:20:15] Unknown:
Well, she likes swimming.
[01:20:17] Unknown:
Okay. So you would have just said she would Sarah likes swimming. Mhmm. But that's not what I asked. I asked, does Sarah like or dislike? As a typical educated person, you automatically added the s and replace the plus sign with it, but Sarah doesn't know how to add the s. Ah, okay. So that's the problem we're running. So subtle. You don't even realize that. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So if you're if you were a Bill Gates and you had a selected kid, you would have used an Orton Gillingham multi sensory structured language approach. Then you then used since the nineteen twenties.
$75,000 a year, four to five years to solve the problem, typically, after fourth grade. I'm gonna show you how to do it a lot simpler. What we're gonna do is we'll ask Sarah to one assumption I had to make is that the student speaks proper English. I I just have to make that assumption to make this work. Okay. I would ask Sarah to to, read what she wrote out loud. Sarah like swimming. Then I would ask Sarah, does that sound generally correct? And she would say, no. And I would say, fix it. Sarah likes swimming. Okay? Notice that like and dislike is a form of word analysis.
Then we'd go because Sarah, why do you like swimming? Sarah likes swimming because it's fun. Alright. Now we get the spelling issues that drives parents crazy. Here's how you fix it really easily. You tell Sarah before she puts the period down, she can ask any question. But if she asked if she puts the period down and she, there's a misspelled word or major, and I mean major grammatical mistake, she has to retype the entire word. So if she didn't put the period down, she could ask, did I spell fun correctly? And you could say, well, Sarah, not no. You didn't. You type it out. She copies it. But once the period's down, if she misspelled a word or made a grammatical mistake, she has to retype the entire sentence. And you'll notice that they're making the same mistakes over and over again. So what happens is you say, I'm not gonna make that mistake, and she'll retype it. And she will. She'll she'll make the mistake. And it takes between three and twelve times normally for her to get it right. And as she goes further down, keep making that mistake, she gets annoyed with herself.
You can tell her one of two things. Sarah, you made a you made a silly mistake or a silly error. One of those two. Then as she keeps going down, she's gonna start to hyper concentrate. Near the end, ten, twelve times, you might even see sweat coming down her forehead. The concentration is so intense, and that's where the magic happens. Eventually, she gets it right. You keep going until it is correct for 10 likes and 10 dislikes, and then we add reason one and reason two, reason one, reason two, and reason three. This could take anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months. Here's the key thing. The older the child is, the quicker they will pick it up.
[01:23:11] Unknown:
Exact opposite of Borton Gilliland. I was just gonna say that. You would you would think common sense would be the younger the child is they'd pick it up faster because they're developing. The older the child is, the quicker they can pick it up because look what we're doing.
[01:23:24] Unknown:
The like and dislike is a very simple form of word analysis. After because is articulation. We're using that massive overactivity in the front part of the brain, and the older children are more developed, so they pick it up much faster. That which is a huge thing for the older kids. Now what I just showed you, I'd we took a kid from writing at the kindergarten level to the end of second to beginning third grade level. But that is step three of the model. Because remember, we're talking about typical students, not your super motivated kids. So as I'd like to give an example here, have you ever watched the original Fast and Furious movie with Paul Walker? I probably did. Yeah. Sometime ago. Okay. Do you remember the scene where they they pull in a car from the junkyard, and he's sitting down with a super brake kid, and they're redesigning it? He and he says, how are you not at MIT?
He said, I'm really good at this. I can't do the other stuff. So what you're going to find with Dyslexics, as a general rule, we are academic specialists, not journalists. We wanna focus on a very narrow area, but our schools want us to become well rounded, and that really kills us. So if you take if you step outside of a kid's specialty, their area of extreme interest and ability, you're going to find that you're gonna be down 50 to 70% right off the bat. Alright? So what's a kid's specialty? It's their area of extreme interest and ability. Mhmm. So how do you find out? It's a Saturday morning. They can do whatever they want. What do they wanna do? That's usually the best. When I do it privately, this is my most popular book.
It's Walt Disney's biography, all 1,000 pages of it. Okay? And I will give this to 10 year olds. So I want you to imagine, we have a 10 year old who's really interested in Disney because when they go to the Magic Kingdom or Disneyland, they walk into Main Street USA and they feel that Disney magic. Have you ever been to either either place? No. Okay. Well, you go when the kids feel it's magical. It's based on two universal things buried in that thousand page monster. I start the kids off on a 3,500 word section on Marceline, Missouri. If there's a word that they don't know as they they will listen to their audiobook while following along with a finger in their normal book, trying to answer a specific question. What is Walt like? What does he dislike? What does he wanna do?
They come across the word they don't know. I'll have them stop, type out the word, go to Merriam Webster's online dictionary, bind their have them pick a definition, and then type up the definition. Not copy and paste that. You have to type it out. And I hear this from parents all the time. My kid won't do it. Well, if you take their speciality, like in this case, Disney's big old biography, they will do it because it's what they're really interested in. Parents are shocked at how interested they are. So here's my question for you. How many times you need to type out a word and a definition until you know it?
[01:26:41] Unknown:
Probably once.
[01:26:43] Unknown:
Okay. Well, these kids might have to do a ten, fifteen, 20 times. So I will literally keep them on that 3,500 word section, sometimes for a couple of months. Mhmm. But once they get it, then we move on to the next section. By the time you're done with chapters four or five, they're reading that book, and that's at the eleventh grade level. And just to show you how powerful this is, there are two universal themes to the Disney magic. The first one is easy to find. It's about 10% of the value. The second one, I've never had a parent find it. And a great example I like to give, 12 year old girl, started with this when she was 10. Her mom has a master's degree. I asked her mom what's the second universal thing. She can't find it. And her 12 year old daughter as 12 year old girls go will do. She'll say, mom, it's right there.
And her mom just literally hits her forehead with her palm of her hand. I can't believe it. I went through that so many times. I said your 12 year old daughter can now comprehend better than you can. Wow. Have I done my job? So we have to start off with their speciality. Okay. And then the next one, step two of the model, this this shocks a lot of people. And I got it with these extensive, conversations with senior dyslexic professors. They would tell me, most of them were STEM, science, technology, engineering, or math. And they would say that when they're an undergrad, they would take like, art history, philosophy. I say, well, good for you. And some of them would tell me, but we don't like the courses. I was like, why did you take it? And they said because the teacher taught not from the general to the specific, but the specific to the general.
So here's a very key question to ask a dyslexic kid. In your specialty, in your area of extreme interest and ability, do you have ideas flying around your head at light speed but with little to no organization? They're gonna say yes. So then what we say is we have to force your brain to organize itself by using using writing as a measurable output. So if you ask you to select a kid a typical question in school, what effect did Martin Luther King's I have a dream speech have in the nineteen sixty civil rights movement? It's like asking a dyslexic to grab fog. Nothing there. Mhmm. But if you ask what personally a specific to general, what personally compelled Martin Luther King to wanna give his famous speech, they can go and look up the answer and find it. And then their next question will present itself, and that forces you in a to organize your thinking in a in a a line of linear questions.
So it's speciality first. Right. Specific to the general. Word analysis followed by articulation. You do that, you'll be golden. What do our schools do? The exact opposite.
[01:29:26] Unknown:
Wow. That's it sounds it sounds complex,
[01:29:31] Unknown:
but at the core of it, it really isn't. It's just changing the way they think, the way they see it. Yeah. It's it's really simple. People well, everybody would like to study what they like. I was like, yeah. But dyslexics is much more. You gotta teach it through the general. And I I always get, what's this word analysis followed by articulation? I said, well, when I'm dealing with the super motivated kids, I can do articulation and a little bit of word analysis. But typical students, I gotta flip that over to word analysis followed by articulation because they just don't have the motivation to go through that much harder but more efficient process that Yale came up with. I see. And, no, Yale doesn't really understand this.
I've been trying to tell them for ten years, but they don't really understand it. One of these days, they'll get it.
[01:30:19] Unknown:
One of these days. Yes. So let me ask you. What what what are some of the common fears and obstacles that parents face when they first learn the child's dyslexic?
[01:30:28] Unknown:
They're terrified. Because typically, they don't find out until later. So this is one of the stupidest things out there. If you call contact Yale, just Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creative Studies, and say, how do I test for dyslexia in kindergarten? They'll tell you. It's cheap. It's effective. Alright? You can test everybody. And if you find out in kindergarten the kid's dyslexic, they have programs, million bucks apiece, half a million bucks apiece to develop those, follow them. And by the end of third grade, the kid will be at or close to grade level. Why is that so important? Because k through three, we learn to read. Fourth and above, we read to learn.
Once you hit fourth grade, now you're I'm just gonna give you an example. Imagine the Windward School in in the Upper East Side Of Manhattan. Ninety eight percent success rate of getting a kid in. They're there for four to five years, and then they send them back, and they are extraordinarily prepared. But it's 75 k a year. Could have been handled easily in kindergarten. For me, we typically don't start working with kids until fourth grade, usually fifth, and work and then we work with them past that, and we go way beyond what anybody else does. When I presented in New York City, the professors came to me and said, oh, wow. You got some kids hitting the seventieth percentile of entering grad school students. We don't care.
We want the craft of research. I was like, the craft of what? The craft of research. It's a book designed from University of Chicago, 1995 because their PhD students didn't know how to write research papers. It's context, problem, solution. And I've taken that to reduce context to the elementary school problem to middle school and solution to high school. And it's so powerful. You have students writing on Romeo and Juliet for for English class. The teacher will learn something very substantially original for each paper done.
[01:32:30] Unknown:
That's I'm blown away by this. This is amazing stuff. Now, for well, for a parent that's watching a dyslexic a dyslexic child shut down and absolutely dread to read, what's one step they could take right now to to kinda, you know, rekindle that child's interest and their confidence in learning?
[01:32:52] Unknown:
Take the book that they're not interested in and in front of the child, throw it in the trash. Rip it up, and then ask them what their specialty is. Mhmm. For most kids, it's Harry Potter. Okay. And for most young ladies, it's they wanna study Hermione for this very painful reason. They said Hermione is not stupid, and they don't wanna be stupid anymore. Interesting. Wow. So we literally go through the process that I described, but we start off with, you know, chapters on on Hermione. What does she like? What does she dislike? What does she wanna do? And we go through that until she's until you're literally reading those chapters and reading that book.
[01:33:32] Unknown:
Now you said on you you said on PodMatch, that that you that you could speak to a mother's dyslexia journey. Parents of dyslexia dyslexic students can feel lost or unprepared for the challenges. What would you suggest that, the parents do first when they suspect their child is dyslexic?
[01:33:52] Unknown:
First thing that you need to do is, we can ask them two questions. First question, find out what that specialty is. Okay. And then you ask them, in your specialty, do you have ideas flying around your head at light speed but with little to no organization? If they say yes, you're looking at ADD, ADHD, or mild dyslexia. Then the next question, find out what their specialty is. They wanna write on it. Fingers, keyboard, fingers, keyboard. Ideas in your head, take your fingers, put it on the keyboard. When that happens, does the idea fly out of your head leaving you with an empty brain? If the answer is yes to that, that's severe dyslexia.
Alright? I just saved you $5,000
[01:34:37] Unknown:
on neuropsych. There you go.
[01:34:40] Unknown:
So the treatment's the same. The dyslexics would just take longer, but go a lot deeper.
[01:34:45] Unknown:
So I guess the the the the one thing that I'm getting out of this is that the the the the main place to start is to finding out what the child's specialty is.
[01:34:55] Unknown:
Absolutely. Because if you step out of that and people say, well, they won't do the work. Okay. Let me give you this is my most crazy, successful case. I never saw it before. I will never see it again. This was Casey's book. All 900 pages of it won the Pulitzer. She was extraordinarily in her Theodore Roosevelt. 10 years old, near the end of fifth grade. She turned 11 over the summer. Six months later, she she's reading at the second grade level. Six months later, she knew every word in that book. She was spending hours a night in her room. Finally, her mother gets a call.
Your daughter was in silent reading. The other kids came over, picked up the book. None of them could get past the first paragraph. I thought your daughter had reading problems. She's the best reader in the class. What's going on? So her mother asked me, what what's going on? I said, what do you think she's been doing locked in her room three hours a night for six months? Most of the days during, you know, in the summer. I gave her a very simple process because she wanted to do reading first. Typically, that would take students more like at least a year, usually eighteen months to two years to go through a book that size. She did in six months. Wow. Then people say, it can't be done.
Yeah. Well, a 10 year old did it on her own. I worked with her for fifteen minutes a week. Last I talked to Casey, she was in college doing well saying she was applying for her first big girl job, which was not quite sure what that was, but I knew she was ready for college at the end of eighth grade. Wow. That's amazing. That's an amazing story. Now,
[01:36:33] Unknown:
typically though, it takes about a year or so to to get through this program and and to get where, Casey was? Well, when we're talking about very motivated kids, remember,
[01:36:43] Unknown:
I'm talking about books like a thousand pages. Okay? Mhmm. That can take a year or two to get through that. Right. And I typically do work with kids starting at 10 with that. I'm just saying Disney is by far the most popular one that I do. The kids wanna understand the Disney magic. So, overall, as I said, the older kids go through it a lot quicker. It can take about two to three years to get through everything, typically. Okay. But that's part time, usually a couple of sessions a week, and my competition's full time for four to five years at a price for house. Jeez.
[01:37:24] Unknown:
Jeez. Yeah. I train parents to do this. And that's great. That that that's great that you do that. You know? But a but a lot of parents, of dyslexic of dyslexic kids feel exhausted. You know? I'm sure I'm sure you come across that.
[01:37:37] Unknown:
I I I fully and I'm just gonna tell you what happens. You send your your kid away to, let's say, the best private school. I call it Gowell, g0w.org. It's been doing this for ninety nine years. Okay. Alright? If you get the $26,000 scholarship, it's $60 a year to live on campus. Jeez. Yeah. Or it is typically a mom thing. The mom will take two years off, spend $11,000 and become certified in Wharton Gillingham, and then they'll be with their kid through college. Mhmm. Alright? Or the problem just keeps getting worse. And there are a few kids like me who figure it out on their own, and that usually takes us into grad school.
Or I can show the parents, yes. You do work with the kids a couple of sessions a week. After they get going and especially as they get older, a lot of times they're doing most of this on their own. Alright? You're setting them up. You're telling them when to stop. Right. But we try to make it as efficiently as possible. We work with families on a yearly basis so they have time to see things develop. But it it it literally is a huge problem unless if you actually call up Yale, get the kid diagnosed in in class for a couple of bucks, in kindergarten, and then have the school actually implement what Yale recommends through third grade. If they don't, I'll tell you what federal judges tell them.
They call them grossly negligent.
[01:39:02] Unknown:
That's a great point. Now, you said a little bit ago, you you you were talk we're talking about, Harry Potter. You mentioned, I can't pronounce her name right. The Hermione? Hermione. Yeah. I'm dumb. Right? Now, I imagine a lot of parents struggle to build up self esteem of their kids, especially when other kids make reading look a lot easy look look so easy. What would you suggest to parents say to their child about dyslexia and and the style of learning required that's different in the way of processing information?
[01:39:35] Unknown:
Well, tell them the truth. Here's the book. This is Yale. This is the book. Here's there's the brain image. Just show them. Yeah. See, the back part of your brain has next to nothing. If you look at it from a different angle, there's a little bit of activity. The front part of the brain is two and a half times overactive. What do you say we actually use that part of the brain? Alright? And then they go through the model step by step. Alright? Yeah. Easiest thing to do in that case is just go to my website dyslexiaclasses.com. That's plural dyslexiaclasses.com.
It says download the free guide. Fill out the brief form. You get a document that tells you the three reasons your child's having trouble in school due to dyslexia and how to get around it. Mhmm. And you set up a fifteen to thirty minute appointment with me where I talk to your kid with you there, and I discuss this with them. And I tell them and I and I ask the questions, and they're like, they're very tough. I mean, I I can tell you, I I work with these kids all the time, have this conversation all the time, and they look at me and go, why should I listen to you? Well, I'm like you. I ask them those two questions. And they're they're like, how do I know? How did you know? What's going on? I said, you don't think other people haven't had this before you? Mhmm. And we have a long and painful discussion sometimes. And then at the end, I ask, is this how you'd like to overcome your learning concerns?
Mostly, it's yes. If if it's no, then I'm not your person to go to. Mostly, it's yes, then it's just a matter of talking to parents to show them how they can do this with their kid at home. It's not difficult to do. I've had 14 year olds teach this effectively.
[01:41:12] Unknown:
Now I wanna go back to, a little earlier, we were talking about, about the whole process here. So in in your bio, you mentioned that, middle middle school students, in your initial study made a jump, seven to eight grade levels.
[01:41:30] Unknown:
Right? No. These were high school juniors and seniors. Sorry about that. High school juniors and seniors, highly intelligent, highly motivated. They had middle school writing skills. Okay. Then and then And then with a public school teacher, one class per day for the school year, they jumped to average of earning grad students.
[01:41:49] Unknown:
Okay. Now when we were we were messaging back and forth, you you sent me, some information in there. You mentioned being able to to turn homework wars into wins by channeling a kid's obsession in into a calm ten minute nightly loop. And I know you touched on it briefly a little bit earlier in the conversation here, but can you just kinda go back to that and and re explain that to me like I'm an idiot?
[01:42:10] Unknown:
Oh, no. There's there's nothing being an idiot about it. What you typically do is teachers tend to be very receptive if the parents are willing to to help out. Remember, the teacher has, like, 30 kids a class, and they got five classes a day, and there's only so much they can put in. So what you ask for teachers, can we focus on their specialty for a while? Can we can we do some homework on this? I will take on the burden. Mhmm. Alright? And you find out what the teacher's doing, and it's it's very simple to integrate that with what the kid's speciality is. Alright. So what you do is you find out, like, for example, when a lot of times I use history as an example.
Kids will tell me they they they're interested in historical figures. So for example, a big a very popular one is Martin Luther King. Mhmm. So instead of doing some really simple basic homework assignment on some, you know, really simplistic grade level book, I would go and have the parents go and get a big biography of Martin Luther King. Alright? They would go to a very specific section. Now as you go through your education, you go from general to much more specific. I would find a very specific scene, a very specific event, and focus on that.
Alright? And then go through the go through because now we're in the kids' speciality. Ask the questions that are specific to the general, and that'll start the process. I see. Alright? And as you're going through that, what I like to do is to focus on following three steps. You have a hero. Hero wants to do something. From what they wanna do, you come up with a universal theme. Okay. Alright. Wait. One word universal theme to represent what the hero wants. And you you type out that word, find the definition, then go into the thesaurus, and just pick five synonyms.
Typically, when you look at base universal theme, alright, it's very broad. But when you look at the synonyms, you wanna find the word and the definition that best matches what's in the student's head. So you go and you type out five words and their definitions. Now as you're doing this, over the course of about three to six months, you're gonna develop initially dozens of words as an evolved vocabulary, then hundreds of words. Okay. Then the final thing you do is who's the ultimate villain that can prevent the hero from accomplishing their goal? It's a person or a concept. Have them write that out. And then just turn it you got the hero, the universal theme, and the optimum villain. And then just ask them to fill in some words so it sounds generally correct.
And now what you have and with practice, you can get that down to about ten minutes. Now the student can go in and have an adult conversation, an adult argument with their teacher. And on numerous occasions, the teacher said, yeah. The student can argue with me. I'll I'll just politely put them down. Well, the student actually beat the teacher in a number of cases because they thought this through so well. Wow.
[01:45:19] Unknown:
That's amazing. So what does lasting confidence look like for a dyslexic dyslexic? Well I'll get caught up because my my English will get caught up with me. A dyslexic child, and and how do your methods help build that kind of self assurance?
[01:45:35] Unknown:
Well, let me give you an example. Once we get through, in elementary school, we do context, then we state a problem in middle school, come up with something original in high school. I had a student who contact me beginning of last summer after he graduated from college, and he was paranoid. He hates artificial intelligence, but his new boss loved it. He said, I'm not going to allow you to take the time you normally take to write when you have have the AI drafted out so much better. He said, I don't know what to do. I said, you've been trained in the craft of research. So I said, go and fill figure out the context. Talk to the AI, type it, figure it out. He tried a bunch of stuff. Most of it didn't work, then he came back. I made it work. I said, go to the problem. He comes back. I hate this.
Said, welcome to the adult world. So then go through the solution. His boss is flipping through the assignments. I can't use this, can't use this, comes to his, I can use that. That we can use this. Great idea. Within a week, he was training his colleagues in how to use artificial intelligence. Because as he said, he found out what worked by trial and error very rapidly. This is what dyslexics do. And he's he called me back. He said, this is so weird. I don't know anything about artificial intelligence, and now I'm training people in it. I said, I showed you how to prompt engineer your brain Mhmm. So you don't have to come up with something new with your new model. This is what the craft of research was about. It's to provide solutions that matter. You've been trained in this in high school. You practice through college.
This is what I expect to happen when you graduated. Wow. He was very confident after that.
[01:47:25] Unknown:
That's great. That that's amazing. Now and so what can you do to turn a student that that's kind of lost hope already, that just completely gave up, and to someone who's motivated to learn?
[01:47:36] Unknown:
That's I I deal with that all the time. Very few kids become hypermotivated. Mhmm. Most become just shattered as a person. So what you need to do is, again, start off with those two questions. Okay? Do you have ideas flying or you had a light speed but with little to an organization in your specialty? Yes. How do you know? Fingers keyboard question I gave you before. Right. And and the kids are like, oh, you understand me. Okay. What's your specialty? What are you really interested in? Alright. In in some extreme cases, I I and a few times, I had a kid who was just so broken. I mean, we're talking clinically dangerous. They were literally seeing a mental health professional.
And I said, okay. What we're gonna do is we're gonna pull you from school, and we're gonna go down to your local community college, and we're gonna sign you up for two for two classes in your specialty. Okay. You know, one kid, I'm I'm just gonna tell you about his story. His name was David. He was 14, and I did that. He went down and he took American history and European history at a community college, and I showed him a process of of how to study ahead of time. He goes in. He got two ways. Now I said, do you think when you go back to school, you might be able to do well?
What do you think? And he said, well, I can read I can read now. I can write now. We're gonna do things that I don't like. I can kinda push it, but, yeah, that gave him all the confidence in the world. Well, that's great. That's great. Yeah. It's a rather extreme case, but you can usually do something similar in the public schools or private schools with private schools give you a lot more room to do that sort of thing, but I call it just focus for a semester just on your specialty. And that's normally what you need to give them that confidence.
[01:49:26] Unknown:
Would you say that that's one of the most memorable moments in your career?
[01:49:31] Unknown:
I've had so so many. That not particularly the ones that really hit me is the second kid that I worked with with my original program. His name was Adam. He was a 19 year old senior, and his teachers all said, this kid is a bona fide genius. Okay? Way past Mensa. He failed his New York State, Regents exam for English with a 47 and a 52. Nobody know what to do with him. So I started working with him. Halfway through the program, he scored a 72. At the end, he scored in the seventieth percentile. Went on to college. He was a b student. Wow. No accommodations. That's one that I really remember. Wow. That's some story.
[01:50:15] Unknown:
So who's someone that you deeply respect right now, and what are they doing that we should be paying attention to?
[01:50:21] Unknown:
The person that I deeply respect right now, it's gonna seem kind of odd. His and and I I I never get his name right. His name is Peter Zion. He's a geopolitical analyst. Okay. And what I admire about him is he'll come back a lot of time saying, this is what's going to happen. He'll come back and say I was wrong, but he told us the data points of why he thought it was going to happen and then where he messed up. But unlike anybody else, he floods you with data. Okay. And it it just helps me to get an idea of where where the world's going and why.
[01:50:55] Unknown:
Yeah. I'm not from I'm not too familiar with him, so I got I'm gonna check him out. But, it but I I I like that too about commentators, especially, you know, that that they'll or some prognosticators. They'll they'll make some some statements along the way, but very very few actually come back and say, hey, you know what? I made a mistake. So when you come across someone like that, it gives a lot of credibility to to what they do, And, and and and it makes you really trust them when they do when they do tell you some stuff. So that's that's, so I'm gonna check him out for sure. I'm not I don't really know him too well. Alright. So if you could, speak one sentence into the minds of everyone listening right now, what would it be?
[01:51:37] Unknown:
I would be telling them to find the kids' speciality and just focus on that. Outstanding. I I want you to think about what the schools are doing. Our brains are completely different. Alright? They're teaching us to be well rounded. The dyslexics can't do that. That we were horrible at it. They're teaching us from the general to the specific. Mhmm. We we don't work well with that. But just out of curiosity, would you like me to turn you dyslexic?
[01:52:11] Unknown:
Turn me dyslexic?
[01:52:12] Unknown:
Dyslexic? Yes. Would you like to see what it's like? Sure. Go ahead. Okay. Give it a try. This is the book. Do you know much about postwar Japanese history? No. Not too much, but,
[01:52:24] Unknown:
just just Godzilla.
[01:52:26] Unknown:
Here's why I was studying this in Japan. I the first article was was professor Dower. He won the Pulitzer for the National Book Award, and I thought this was the easiest thing I ever read in my life. Nobody else could read it. Completely illiterate. Okay. And I was just like, what the heck? So I'm just gonna read you the first sentence. Alright? And just tell me in general what's going on. Are you ready? Sure. Ever since Japan's seclusion was ruptured by western nations in 1853. Domestic and international politics have been interwoven for the Japanese.
[01:53:07] Unknown:
What does that mean? Well, basically, it means once Japan opened itself up to Western civilization, everything went downhill.
[01:53:15] Unknown:
Okay. Now I want you to think I read the rest of that paragraph into a room of reading specialist. Okay. Most of them can't understand what it says.
[01:53:28] Unknown:
Really? Really. I I didn't find that too difficult.
[01:53:32] Unknown:
Well, the guy as I said, he won the Pulitzer National Book Award. What he does is in that first paragraph, there are, like, 17 points he's making. It's so dense that for a lot of nondyslectics, they're they go off the rails. Mhmm. Okay? And then I can get really nasty. I can say, tell me what it means, or we're gonna take your job away, make you work at McDonald's with with corresponding pay. Okay? You can forget you'll lose your house, you'll lose your car. And then I'll keep saying, tell me what it means. And they say, I can't. Tell me what it means. And then they get really frustrated and said, welcome to dyslexia. Wow. That that
[01:54:10] Unknown:
that's a good point.
[01:54:12] Unknown:
For those who can do what you just did, I wanna point out see how we got both there? Mhmm. Imagine taking the overactive front part and putting it in with the overactive back part. I call that a full brained. They're gen ed people who can think like a dyslexic and still read and write like a gen ed specialist. Relatively rare. Okay? You're one of them. And you look around when people can't do it and you scratch your head like, what's going on?
[01:54:43] Unknown:
Oh, wow. Learned something about myself tonight.
[01:54:46] Unknown:
Well, I'm just saying That's what I that paragraph, I'll continue reading. Most people can't read it. A lot of special a lot of reading specialists can't do it. Half the kids at Harvard I talked to are scratching their heads. They don't know what to do. Now that's a form of reading, but people think dyslexia is a reading problem. It's not. I can show dyslexic kids. That's where I end the reading program. Alright? That is, it's not it that it's not a it's not a reading problem. That's a symptom. It's like when you have a cold. The cold is in your chest. Mhmm. The stuffy nose, it's a symptom. Right. Everybody else is focusing on the symptom. I'm focusing on the underlying cause.
[01:55:33] Unknown:
That makes a hell of a lot of sense. Yeah. It it really does. It's it's it's it's a great program you have. And and you know what? It's I'm blown away by it. I'll be honest with you. I I I'm very rarely speechless. You know, listening to these stories. So, I appreciate this. This this was this was fantastic. So where where what part of New York are you in?
[01:55:53] Unknown:
Up near Albany, New York. Okay. Right outside rent in West Sand Lake, but I wanna just go over the money issue because New York State tried to redo k through five. Mhmm. We have the highest taxes, the highest cost of spending per pupil in the country, and they just found out they can't afford it. Mhmm. So that original program I told you about, I'm gonna compare it to Landmark Colony at the time. Remember, this is 02/2006.
[01:56:17] Unknown:
Okay. Alright?
[01:56:19] Unknown:
My program was less than 1% of the cost of Landmark College with three x the the efficiency, three x the result. Alright? So it's not only a heck of a lot cheaper, it's a lot more effective than anything else you're gonna find on the market.
[01:56:42] Unknown:
Yeah. You you've you've blown me away with this. This is this stuff is great information, and and I'm really thankful, really appreciate the fact that you took the time out tonight to come on to the show. So where can, where can folks go to find out more about you and and, about your work? Well, the simplest thing is just go to dyslexiaclasses.com.
[01:56:58] Unknown:
Okay. Dyslexia classes, plural. And then just go download free reports. Fill out that short serve form, and we'll set up a time, and I can speak directly with you and your child. And I ask them those two questions, and they get they just get mesmerized. Like, how did you know this? Well, I kinda went through it, so I know.
[01:57:19] Unknown:
That's I I think that's the best way to to to the the fact that you did experience this, you did work your way through this. I mean, that gives you a unique advantage when it comes to trying to work with people who are still going through it, as opposed to someone who's never experienced it, and they're they're trying to trying to correct a problem just by stud from from their studying the the the condition, and and and not actually dealing with it, and living through it, and understanding it, and the frustration that comes with it. It gets kinda hard, I think, to to to to help people that way. I mean, you can't it can be done, but like you said earlier, it takes a longer period of time. You know exactly where to go. You know exactly what to hit. You know exactly where, the issues lay. And, you can address it directly one on one. And you have a common frame of reference. So that that's huge.
[01:58:06] Unknown:
Yeah. And and and I have this weird idea. Again, for parents thinking about, you know, how they wanna handle this, when you're looking at how to do this, again, I'm just gonna point to the science. Let's use that over at different part of the brain. Why are we trying to improve the back part? K. Got a weird idea. Imagine Michael Jordan just graduated from college. Why don't we give him a basketball instead of a hockey stick? Why don't we focus on his strengths instead of something he's never done? I mean, it it just
[01:58:42] Unknown:
It makes sense. Schools
[01:58:44] Unknown:
focus on on making us well rounded. We we hate that. We're specific people. They teach us from the general to the specific. We don't learn that way. And then they call us learning disabled. I I I just find that absolutely fascinating. Yeah. And with Casey, for example, with Theodore Roosevelt, how she learned that in just six months on her own. Remember, I worked with her fifteen minutes a week or that post war Japanese history material. Right. I'll teach kids to read that entire 30 page article. They're reading better than a lot of the valedictorians.
[01:59:18] Unknown:
Amazing.
[01:59:19] Unknown:
Dyslexia is a reading problem, please. Yeah.
[01:59:22] Unknown:
It's an organizational issue. I think, I think you're absolutely you're you're a 100% right on that, and and I and I really do appreciate you again, you know, taking the time out to be with us tonight on the show. So, Russell, thank you again. I appreciate it. We're gonna go to our, closing segment of the show here and, get ready to to go feed the kids. They're waiting by the door. I hear them. Okay. Thanks for having me. Hey. No problem, Ant. I really appreciate it. I'm gonna send you a message, in a little bit, through PodMatch. Alright? Okay. Thank you very much. Alright, my friend. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Alright, folks. Russell Van Brocklin. Thanks for being with us here tonight. Alright, folks. Let's see. We're not gonna shut down for a break here. We're just gonna go right on through, because we are already at the 09:00 hour. So don't forget to head over to our website joeroos.com, and, go to the website, go to the contact section, send us how many questions, comments, cares, or concerns that you might have. Also has Charlie barking in the background, letting me know he's hungry. He's time for dinner. So we gotta run through this quick.
Also, don't forget to sign up for the programming announcements email list that we have. We'd love to get you on that thing so we can stay in contact with you. And then also, don't forget to check out our socials at, at, x, truth social, minds, and get her. We are at Joe Ruse on Facebook. It's Joe Ruse podcast. Instagram is not Joe Ruse. TikTok is joe dot ruse. I'll be honest with you. I really don't post a lot on the social media stuff, but, if you if you catch up with us there, that'd be great. We'd love to, to connect with you that way. Alright. So our shout outs tonight to our executive producers, Wayne Wayne Rankin, Rosanna Rankin, Carolina Jimenez, Marissa Lee, and of course, our Inestimable producer, anonymous Angela.
So thank you guys for all that you do. You guys do tremendous work, and I really do appreciate all the effort that you guys put into it. And, really couldn't ask for any couldn't ask for a better team. Alright. Now if you wanna get part of this team, you could sign up for one of our pro our producer tiers. You could do that by setting up a monthly recurring donation of $17.76 for associate producer. Producer, you get $18.36 a month, and executive producers is $25 a month and up. Now all those come with a shout out on every show like you just heard. It also comes with the inclusion in all of our show notes. Yeah. Charlie's barking like crazy out there. Comes with the inclusion in all the show notes and emails. Anything that we send out, your name is splashed all upon there. Why? Because your donations help us do what we're doing. Your donations help us pay the bills. Your donations do all the stuff that help us produce the show, which is why we call you producers. So thank you so much for all of that. And if you're interested in doing it, just click that donation button, set up that recurring donation, and, we will, really, really appreciate that. And, also, the executive producers get thirty minutes live on the show with us.
So, you know, that's a lot of fun always, plus swag. You get some T shirts and and all that mess. Alright. If you wanna help us out with cryptocurrencies, our Ethereum wallets up there, Tether, Bitcoin, TEXECOIN, all that stuff is up on the website on the support page. So, you can always help us that out that way. Also, we have folks that are streaming stats to us, which are just micropayments of Bitcoin, all across those modern podcast apps, which you can find at modernpodcastapps.com or podcastindex.org. Alright, folks. As you hear, Charlie is yelling at me in the background there, so we're gonna have to, wrap this thing up here. So with all of that said, folks, thanks for taking the time to be with us tonight. Thank you to our two great guests tonight.
We really appreciate the time they took to be with us. Head over to the website, don't forget, check out all of our links. And folks, listen, make Texas independent again. Go podcasting, keep a steady stride, and keep talking. Good night, folks. Who cares about the clouds if we're together?
[02:03:31] Unknown:
Just sing a song and bring the sunny weather. Happy trails to you.
Transmitting live from the asylum studios deep in the bowels of Southwest Texas, it's The Joe Ruse Show. The show where we talk about anything and everything. Where nothing is sacred, nothing is watered down, and nothing is PC.
[00:04:09] Unknown:
Alrighty. Hey, folks. This is Joe Roos. It is nineteen o three hours on Tuesday, August 11. I'm sorry. Wednesday, August 12. August 13. Wow. I am way off. Oh, my goodness. What a way to start a show. Well, welcome to the Joe Root Show. It wouldn't be my show if you didn't have something happen. Right? Yes. That's true. That's very true.
[00:04:36] Unknown:
Alright, folks. So I wanna first of all, I wanna apologize.
[00:04:39] Unknown:
We sent out an email yesterday. Didn't send one out today because I wasn't sure what was going on with the studio. But yesterday, we had a show lined up for you for our do no harm segment of the Joe Russo. And, we had our our guest host or our co host, I should say, Svetlana Rylkoff, waiting in the wings to start the show, and there was a problem with the, studio app that we use, and, we were not able to go live to do the show. So I do greatly apologize to you for that. So I know a lot of folks were looking forward to it. I heard a lot of feedback from people that I've been talking to about doing that show and that particular subject we were gonna talk about. So, I apologize.
And, got everything working tonight, so everything seems to be okay at the moment. And, we're gonna go forward from here. That will actual resume our show with, with, Svetlana on Tuesday, next Tuesday. And, we'll pick up where we left off in that, in that discussion. Or not pick up where we left off, but, you know, we'll have that discussion. Alright. So again, apologies folks, and, we are, we're we're moving forward here. Alright. Now, I hope you guys had a a really good day today. I had a okay day. It was it was kind of crazy at the job. It was just off the wall. But, we made it through, and we're here, and we're doing our show. And this is what I look forward to each and every day. Sitting down right here with our tens of listeners, tens of viewers I should say, because we have more on the audio side. But our tens of viewers and our hundreds of listeners to bring you the best quality talk radio we could muster without all the bluster. Alright? And that's what we like to do. That's what we strive to do each and every day. And, of course, I have my my famous, ultra methylene blue here that you can get at the alexjonesstore.com/joe.
Try it out there at the alexjonesstore.com/joe. This stuff is amazing. This is fantastic stuff. Today, I'm, mixed it with some, lime sparkling water, which is absolutely amazing. That's where the power is, folks. Right there. Try it out. And of course, you wouldn't have our show without our beautiful coffee sitting over here and waiting in the wings. But folks, before we get into any of the usual stuff, before we get into the show, we do have a few things we need to do to clear up, our housekeeping, if you would like to say. So, before we do anything, just head over to our website, joeroos.com.
Joeroos.com. Open up that little contact form and send us over any questions, comments, cares, concerns you have, any quest any, issues that you might have, any suggestions for a guest, if you want a particular topic discussed like we were gonna do yesterday, we'd be happy to entertain that and, and try to bring it to you. So, let us know what you think. If you don't wanna use the web form, that's totally fine with me. You can always email me directly at [email protected]. That's [email protected]. Also, if you would, just, head over to the website as well and check out our support page, if you would. And if you can help us out with a donation, if you have the means to do so, you can click on that donate button and you could send over a donation in any amount. You could set up recurring donations. You can join one of our producer tiers. Any number of things to do to help us out. Even send us over cryptos if you like. All of our wallet information is up there on the site as well. And, we look forward to, to to dealing with you guys like that. So, got a lot of things to cover, and, we're gonna go right into this here. Folks, Ezra Healing.
Ezra Healing, who is the sponsor of our show or one of the sponsors of our show, is a substantial part of the new wellness paradigm currently being born in North America and around the globe. The global citizenry are no longer satisfied with the sick care version of so called health care. Band aid medicine, endlessly treating symptoms rather than root causes, must be abandoned as soon as possible. Patient centric care must be the priority. Folks, we need to transition towards the do no harm model of private care that places humanity at the forefront of real health and wellness care. In this new model, your entire lifestyle is examined and analyzed to promote and support the totality of your body's integrated systems.
Ezra Healing is a solutions based health promotion and disease prevention grassroots movement that is always evolving to best serve you and your family. So for more information, just head over to ezrahealing.com. That's ezrahealing.com. And, make sure I should put that little graphic up right. I should. Where is it? There you go. Ezra healing. Make sure you head over to ezrahealing.com. That's ezrahealing.com. Let them know that you heard it here on the Joe Russo, and, let them know that their money is being well spent. Alright. Thanks folks for paying attention. Appreciate that.
Alrighty. Now, let's see. What do we have here? Oh, yes. We have a guest. So, our guest tonight, Deborah h Morris, has lived on four continents, traveled through countless countries, now resides in Kansas City, Missouri. She's the proud mother of, she's the proud mother of four children and grandmother to 11. Wow. 11. I have three, and I can't keep track. Imagine 11. With a bachelor of arts in theater and choral music education from Utah State University, she later pursued graduate studies in English at USU and law at the University of Utah. A published playwright, she has recently turned her passion for history into a novel, The Girl of Many Crowns. Set in the kingdom of Francia in August, the book tells a gripping true story of Judith, the first princess of France, and Baldwin, Iron Arm, a knight of King Charles the Bald. Together, they defy an empire, embarking on a daring journey that will change history.
Deborah uncovered the remarkable tale of Baldwin and Judith while working on a genealogical project. As a descendant of this couple, she was intrigued and dove deep into research about the politics and customs of the ninth century. She's passionate about this remarkable time in history when the European countries we know today were being formed and fighting for their own very existence. Deborah, we'd like to welcome you to the show. Are you out there? Thank you, Joe. Oh, you're very welcome.
[00:11:15] Unknown:
So grateful that you invited me.
[00:11:17] Unknown:
Oh, we're glad to have you. And I was actually expecting you to pop in earlier in the introduction there. Oh, no. That's fine. That's all that's all good. Nope. No problems at all. So, what's something that most people, don't know about you, but should?
[00:11:36] Unknown:
Oh, but should? Yes.
[00:11:41] Unknown:
Or or you can go the other way. You could say, what is a, what is what's a shocking or surprising fact about you that most people don't know?
[00:11:49] Unknown:
Well, I have a 100 nieces and nephews.
[00:11:52] Unknown:
Wow.
[00:11:54] Unknown:
That's a lot to keep track of. That sure is. I don't do very well with that.
[00:11:59] Unknown:
How do you do it with 11 grandchildren? I have three and I have a hard time.
[00:12:03] Unknown:
Well, yeah. It's a it can be a lot, but it's, it's a joy.
[00:12:10] Unknown:
I I I concur. I would definitely concur with that. Absolutely. Alright. So, an easier one. What's your go to beverage to unwind at the end of the day?
[00:12:20] Unknown:
Diet Doctor Pepper.
[00:12:24] Unknown:
Ladies and gentlemen, that is the first specific mention of a beverage on the show by name, Diet Doctor Pepper. So thank you very much for that. Bravo. That's wonderful. Oh, my goodness. That's great. So, let me ask you this. I I kinda wanted to to to kinda go back to what we said about about you in the introduction. I kinda wanna take a moment to kinda just talk about your journey from from earning your bachelor's in arts degree, the the, in theater and and choral music, and, to becoming a published playwright, and then finally, your decision to write a novel. So give us an idea, like a like a brief overview of the experience that led you to where you are now.
[00:13:10] Unknown:
I've always loved writing. I've always loved reading, and I've always loved history, and music. So these are some of my passions. What brought me to write the novel was, and when I went on to, complete my master's degree work in, in English, it was with, I wanted to do a writing emphasis in that. And, they were not accepting any any, I guess you would say original material Okay. For thesis. You had to write about another writer, which was fine, but it was a little disappointing to me. But I love writing. I taught writing as a grad graduate teaching assistant while I was at Utah State. And then later I taught business writing and business law at Salt Lake City Community College for five years.
Okay. And, so writing has been part of my life. When I first received a book of genealogy, and I saw that from my aunt who wanted me to take over and be the next generation genealogist because her kids weren't interested. And I saw the family tree and I saw Judith show up as a 12 year old girl married to about the 50 year old king of Wessex. And then a year and a half later, it appeared that she married year and a half or two. She married his son, who was 24, and she was 14. And then about three years later, it appeared that she married a count, the count of Flanders named Baldwin Iron Arm. And I thought this can't be the same woman on my chart.
And so I thought there's a mistake and I started researching and I, the more I delved, the more fascinating the story began. Mhmm. And throughout the years, I've just compiled more and more research. And I felt like she really wanted me to tell her story, she and Baldwin, and how all of this came about. And then when COVID hit, I had nothing better to do. So I- Like post it. Especially my husband said, Okay, here is all this research that you did before. I still have it. And so I started going through that and just added more to it and just totally focused on doing that.
A year and a half, it took me to write it and get it to the form that it is now. It started out more as a history book. Okay. With all the footnotes and and references and everything, and it was just too cumbersome. And I thought if I want anyone to read this other than my husband, who is willing to read pretty much anything I write. You would hope so. Yes. Then, then I need to make it more novel like. Okay. And take out every single thing that is not absolutely essential to the story and for, for the reader to know. And it covers seven years in the formation of Europe. Okay. And a very a very tumultuous time, I would say.
[00:17:40] Unknown:
Now was was there any part of this project that was, that ended up being more difficult for you than you expected?
[00:17:47] Unknown:
There were little time little places, where I had to put my re or my writing on hold while I did more research. Okay. Because I really knew nothing about the ninth century. And I thought, how do I describe how they how they traveled? How what the palaces look like? What their forts look like? What food, what medicine, how they gave birth, what were their marriage customs. I didn't know any of that. And and then also, as they went from place to place, I needed to be able to describe what Le Mans, for instance, looked like in the ninth century, not in the twenty first century.
Mhmm. And so that's very different.
[00:18:40] Unknown:
Now so so so basically, the writing you weren't writing this really from a point of, you know, already learned information. You were learning as you were writing. Absolutely. Well, that's crazy. Absolutely.
[00:18:52] Unknown:
So I would stop and say, okay, can't go any further till I learn this. Wow. One, one of the biggest challenges was one of the kings in the the king in Brittany, which was a part of, Francia at the time, a suzerain relationship there. But, it was that king is assassinated by his cousin who wants his throne. Okay. But I didn't know how how did he die? All all the annals that were written by the monks said was that he was murdered or he was killed. And I thought I can't make it up if I can find it. Right. So I found an ancient book, not ancient, I guess. It was written in like the 1960s or seventies.
But, but it was
[00:19:56] Unknown:
about Yeah. Let's, let's be careful labeling. Let's be careful labeling anything from the nineteen sixties or seventies as ancient. Exactly. That's me. I'm aging myself. Yeah. You're right here, seventies.
[00:20:07] Unknown:
And, and I had to wait for interlibrary loan because there was only one copy and it was somewhere back east and they had to order it up and then I had to wait for it to come because of course it was out of print and I couldn't find any other books talking about ninth century history of Britney. Wow. And it was fantastic. It laid out the entire scenario for me, so I was able to continue with that chapter.
[00:20:42] Unknown:
So what what sources did you find, to be the most surprising or useful?
[00:20:51] Unknown:
I found a lot of delightful little gems, in surprising places. I used as the outline for the book, I used something called the Annals of Saint Burton and they were written by the monks in the ninth century. And every year at the end of the year, they would write a summary of what had happened during that year. Okay. Now monks weren't usually writing about women. They usually wrote about royalty, the wars, the big stuff, the big events, and mainly the men. But if, if a woman did something that they felt was outrageous, then she got Or notable. Yeah. Yes. Mainly outrageous, I guess.
So they, yeah. Yeah. Notable as well. And so, yeah, that is how Judith got included. And for seven years, I, I, the book covers seven years in the annals. It was amazing that there's a huge collection of records called the MGH, Monumenta Germania historica. And it is all written in Latin. I don't read Latin, but some of it has been translated in English. Some of it is by scholars, mainly in Great Britain. Some of it has been translated into German. And having lived in Germany for twelve years, I learned German. My husband speaks better German. My son spoke fantastic German. And between the three of us, we were able to, get actual conversations that took place between the Kings. Oh, that's interesting.
Yeah. One of them, King Charles, before a battle. Actually, he has he speaks to his troops, and he or maybe it was after battle. Now I I put it in my book before the battle, but it might have been after. Okay. Don't hold me to it. But he says to his troops, if I keep this kingdom, it is only because the Lord Jesus Christ wants me to. And I will give all praise to him. Okay. And so I put I took that little gem and put it into the form of conversation that he has with Baldwin Iron Arm on the night before they go into battle. Just little things like that. I was trying to figure out how do they celebrate Easter in the ninth century.
And of course, all Christians then were Catholic and I wasn't raised Catholic, so I didn't have that background. But even if I had, I wouldn't have had a ninth century feel for it. So I, I looked on a Catholic website that talked about historical, celebrations of, and they had a ninth century French Easter, procession, song, celebration. I was able to pretty much lift all of that and include it in the book. So it was delightful to find all of these little gems, little riddles that were from the ninth century I put in there. The they had a list of, I was researching, merit marriage customs, and they the Catholic church had a list of penitentials, Things you have to repent of. Yeah. If you do them.
And so they had like probably 40 or 50 things that govern intimacy and marriage. You have to repent of all of these. It controlled the days and the times and everything. Gotta love the Catholics. So I used some of that in there And it was, there were just there were so many gems. Every time I found something, it gave me something to write about.
[00:25:36] Unknown:
And how about, it you you I'm sure you came across gaps and some, like, ambiguities in in the historical records when you were researching it. How did you work your way around through those?
[00:25:47] Unknown:
Well, historians don't always agree on everything. Judith was a very polarizing figure in some ways among historians. Some felt that her refusal to marry for a third time at her father's command made her a terrible child. And others saw it as very heroic. So I happen to agree with those who found it rather inspiring. And she was willing to be in prison for the rest of her life if she had to be rather than marry again somebody she didn't love. And, I found that quite inspiring. Well, it is.
[00:26:35] Unknown:
Especially especially at that period of time because any type of, rebellion, I guess you'd say, you know, could could potentially cost you your life.
[00:26:46] Unknown:
It could. It could. And very nearly did. And and, they had to flee for their lives, but it's and, when I had a gap, because it would list main events. And most of those events took place more with what was happening in Francia, less so in Wessex. Because when she went to Wessex for that period of time, for those four years, there's a few important events that we know. And then I had to fill in gaps. And I filled it in kind of the way I was just talking about, I figured, okay, this, it happened in Francia in December. This is, they were celebrating Christmas.
How did they celebrate Christmas at Wessex in the ninth century? Or what did they do in Wessex? Were there other things going on? And I would put her in that setting and just do some fun, sometimes lighter things.
[00:28:04] Unknown:
Well, I'm looking forward to reading it. You you you're really making it sound very fun, like a fun story. Despite, I mean, this the seriousness of of the historical background to it. You know, it sounds like it it's like a fun kind of story to listen to to to read. So let me ask you this. How did it feel to to, I guess, you you first came across this story and discovered that this is also your story. How did that feel?
[00:28:29] Unknown:
It felt I I always knew that we had royalty going back, if you went back far enough. But as a child, I always thought more Disney princess. Right? Of course. As I was researching it, I thought that's the last thing I wanna be this royal. I like my privacy too much. I like my freedom too much. And really their lives were controlled by what they felt their duty was to the country, to the crown. Yeah. Everything. And and even now, it's it is kind of like that
[00:29:12] Unknown:
with royalty today. Oh, yeah. No. Absolutely. You you you watch the royals. Well, the most popular royal family, of course, is over there in England. You know, you watch them, you could see that. I mean, that that's that's obvious. How did you choose to structure the narrative of your book?
[00:29:30] Unknown:
Well, as far as the story went, I started it several times and realized it wasn't working because it really is Baldwin and Judith's story.
[00:29:45] Unknown:
Okay. So so it wasn't just a single protagonist in the whole story. It was It just wasn't working. No matter how
[00:29:53] Unknown:
I tried to do it, it just didn't feel right. So I start off the first two chapters really are Baldwin entering the picture. He's coming in to be, to serve the king.
[00:30:08] Unknown:
Okay.
[00:30:09] Unknown:
And he is made, companion to her younger brother, Louis, who has a stammerer. And he was known later in history as Louis, the stammerer by historians because there's so many Louis, they had to find a way to distinguish him. Just like Charles the Bald, his name was Charles. He didn't know he was called the Bald. It was it was because there were so many different Charles's at that time. The historians had given them all nicknames. Well, you hope he didn't call himself that. I don't think he was bald.
[00:30:46] Unknown:
Okay. Well, if he wasn't, then why would they call him that?
[00:30:49] Unknown:
Well, there are several different theories and one that made the most sense to me, and really that's was one of your questions before is how do you pick? I just, from doing the research, I just had to pick, well, this makes the most sense to me. Okay. And the one that made the most sense to me was that, when the Pope came to bless one of their cathedrals that was, being dedicated. In respect for the Pope, he had his haircut. The Franks at that time, they liked their hair kind of shoulder length And that they felt that was manly. And it was kind of shocking to people Mhmm. That you did that.
So I'm guessing that that theory has legs.
[00:31:54] Unknown:
That makes sense.
[00:31:55] Unknown:
None of the pictures. I've only seen a couple of pictures that you can actually say may have been drawn at the time of him. There are plenty of pictures drawn of these people that were drawn in the fifteen hundreds or the sixteen hundreds, but this that was many years after they were gone. But the one or two that were from that era, usually he's wearing a helmet. But sometimes you can see hair coming out Okay. And a and a and a beard. So
[00:32:28] Unknown:
Gotta rock the beard. Gotta rock the beard. I made a mistake. I trimmed mine down too much. So anyway, so if there was somebody listening tonight that, that's thinking about writing a, I guess, their family's history into into, like, a historical novel, what advice would you give them? Like, is there is there a good place to start the research, or or or is there some other direction to go?
[00:32:53] Unknown:
Well, I happen to think that there are many stories out there that would make wonderful novels and a lot better than some that are just made up out of whole cloth. Because truth really is stranger than fiction. And when you read the book, you'll say that couldn't have happened, but it did. And it's amazing. I think you have to feel passionate about the story. And if you do, then you just research the period of time, everything about. That's how I approach it. I don't like to make anything up if I can put fact in there. For me and then I just try and dramatize it. So I feel more like instead of making up a story, I dramatized
[00:33:53] Unknown:
the history, if that makes sense. No. It does. It it absolutely does. And you are right. Truth is stranger than fiction. I'm I'm as you're telling as you're discussing this, I'm thinking about all these stories that I grew up with, that I heard from my family when they came here, from from from Italy and from Sicily, and and, you know, all the the the the crazy stuff that took place and and the history in the family and back in those days. Like for example, I have, on my grandfather's side, when he came when his family came here, they took they were given the name of the town that they came from. Just like in the Godfather, they changed the guy's name, you know, to Corleone.
My my grandparents name, last name was Nicosia. And there's there's a town in Sicily, called Nicosia. And, I I was always I'm always fascinated. Like, I wanna go there. I wanna see the sun. I wanna see the thing. I wanna take a picture under the, under the under the because there's there's still my my, my aunt and my uncle went recently, and there's still the the portico to the city is still there that has the name emblazoned up there. But but they have connection. There there's actually a family coat of arms that came up after my my my grandparents passed away that, I I think my uncle has. And, I am fascinated to to study the the history of the family coat of arms and learn more about that side of the family, that part of the family, what they were involved in, what what does the coat of arms mean, what does each little symbol on the thing mean. I wish I had a picture of it. I'd put it up there to show it to you. But, it's it's just so I I know. And I'm sure So you hope there's a good book in there. Well, that's what I'm that's what I'm trying to say is that I'm sure that there's a lot of a lot of interesting stories there that that would probably make a good story a good book. And so, I don't know. You know, on this show, like we spoke earlier, I told you this show was was originally started off to be like a mostly a political talk show. And since we started doing the the the guest segments, I have interviewed so many authors.
I I think I've interviewed more authors than I've had that I've interviewed people about politics. And the more I I speak to people who've written books, the more I want to write a book. And, I teased an idea out to to a guy I spoke to a couple of weeks ago. I actually have an outline for a book. It's And I and I have it I have it sealed up. Before, you know, the whole thing with copywriting, before I learned all that stuff, I outlined the story and I stuck it into an envelope and I mailed it to myself. So I still have it. It's sealed. So if somebody tries to steal it, I have it. I got so I I could tell you the name of it. And, I I worked for New York City for twenty twenty five years, really. Twenty three years for one particular agency.
So, and I and I wore many hats through that. I I retired from there in as a in from the management side of it. So yeah. So I can pat myself on the back side. I was I was part of New York City executive management. Big freaking deal. So the name of my book is is gonna be, if I ever write it, it's gonna be, Why I Wake Up Screaming My Years Working for New York City. And and every every section of the book or chapter of the book is gonna be some particular experience that I had or some particular person that I've come into contact with, that impacted my my my career, whether good or bad. So hence, why I wake up screaming.
So yeah. So the more I talk to you to to people who write books, the more I wanna do this. So this is this is like very good for me. So I I I really appreciate. I get so many great ideas in how to go about these things. Now are you self published, or are you are you published through through a a a a a a Justin and I
[00:37:41] Unknown:
decided to start our own small publishing company, and I'll tell you why. When I finished the book, I did work with, someone in New York City Okay. For a short period of time. And he said, well, he gave me some good advice, and I used that. But he also said, cannot publish unless your book is like another book that has been published within the past year or two. And I found that to be the case. That's interesting. I did approach a few agents and a few publishers. The very first question they ask is give me the name of three books that are just like that have been published within the last year or two that became popular that is just like your book.
And I that I don't have any. Right. Yeah. It's, it's frustrating. Also, they did not like the fact that I had a very strong, traditional male character as one of the protagonists. They said, no. He can't be a protagonist. You have to only have Judith. And I said, this is their story. Mhmm. And they and I followed their paths in a parallel fashion until they get together. So you know what's going on in Francia as well as what's going on in England or Wessex so that you get the complete story. It's also a family story. It's about her father. I think it really bothers me that we have to be so politically correct.
[00:39:48] Unknown:
I agree with you. That we have to
[00:39:53] Unknown:
say that men can't be strong and powerful and protective. That somehow that's toxic. Yeah. I really feel that, in fact, when my son read the book, he said, well, this isn't Judith's book. This is Baldwin's book. And I thought, I don't see it that way. And when women read it, they see it as Judith's book. When men read it, they see it as Baldwin's story. But that's great though, because because you're appealing to both sides. Yeah. But it is. It's a story of how this couple joins together and are stronger together, and their faith and their, their belief in miracles and how miracles help them get through the difficult times in their life. Yeah.
And it bothers me that we have only a few, heroes that keep getting recycled over and over again. We have Superman, and we have, you know, Robin Hood, and we have King Arthur. And as I was doing the research, there's so many stories out there of courage and honor and duty and loyalty and strength that are inspirational and could be a real role model for men and women today as they face difficulties in their lives. But we don't, we want to go back to the same stuff over and over and over again. And no matter how much I love Superman,
[00:41:37] Unknown:
I don't wanna see another remake of it. Yeah. It it's getting played out. It's enough. Yeah. It's for sure enough. And you know what? This show is a a a no holds barred. You can say whatever you gotta say. We are not PC here whatsoever. We we just say it as it is, and if you don't like it, don't watch it. It's plain as simple. That's that's our as a matter of fact, that's part of our tagline, for the for the show. It's, you know, there's nothing sacred, nothing watered down, and nothing is PC. So so we don't play the PC game here. We don't play that watered down nonsense. We just say it like it is. You know, if there's nothing wrong with being proud of being a man, there's nothing wrong with proud of being a woman. There's Oh. There's nothing wrong with proud of being black, white, Hispanic, Chinese, whatever. Be proud of who you are. You know, don't let anybody tell you that you are, you know, you you have, you know, your toxic masculinity or or, you know, whatever the other nonsense is. This whole thing We're gonna talk about toxic femininity, which there is. Of course there is. Absolutely there is. It's on all sides. It's like it's like this thing going around now with this, with this model, with the jeans. Sydney Sweeney.
You know, how how all of a sudden now, you know, because she said the word, you know, because she said I have good genes, and she's wearing jeans, and she's advertising jeans, all of a sudden that's Hitler. Never play on words. Get over it. Yeah. Exactly. You know, but, you know, if it if it was if it was some overweight black woman or or or something like that, they'd be praising this the the ad, you know, as as the greatest thing since sliced bread. So
[00:43:15] Unknown:
Sometimes they think that people who look for the bad. Yes. And I prefer to look for the good. Absolutely.
[00:43:23] Unknown:
Abs you know what? I think I took it off my my my playlist here. I don't know. Let me just let me see. I I think I I should have left it. I could have showed it to you. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe it's in here somewhere. Let me see if I can find it. But, while I'm doing that, but but yeah. I I I totally agree with you. We gotta put the PC stuff, you know, beside behind us. Let me see. Where is it? Celebrate. There it is. We celebrate
[00:43:52] Unknown:
all people and their courage and their conviction, their faith.
[00:44:00] Unknown:
Celebrate it. Right. Hey, let me show you something. I found it. I love this. I sent I I I saw this on TikTok, and it's it's only about ten seconds, and I sent it to my sister. She loved it. Because she she's a huge Donald Trump fan. So Isn't that great? That's gotta be an AI thing. Right? Oh, yeah. I'm sure it is. I don't I don't think the president of The United States has time to go do that. And that's another thing too. It's like AI is crazy. You can't you can't tell what's real, what's not. So it's it's it's getting pretty pretty crazy. Just imagine what it would have been what it would have been like if they had AI back in the ninth century.
[00:44:46] Unknown:
You know? We had you know, the interesting thing is I think there are some parallels that, you know, between the political climate then and now. I mean, King Charles was a polarizing figure. He was desperate to make, to hold on to his kingdom, but also to make Francia great again. Mhmm. Because it was great during his grandfather Charlemagne's time, and then it started to deteriorate, especially when, his father, Louis the Pious, his sons inherited the kingdom and started a civil war fighting amongst themselves over the their peace.
And he is desperate to reinstate culture, the culture that Charlemagne had and the education that Charlemagne promoted. And instead, he's gotta deal with people who wanna go to war.
[00:45:54] Unknown:
It's it's really interesting that you went down that track because that I I had some questions for you about the, the parallels between the the political and the social climate of the ninth century, and and and today's, political and sociological issues that we're dealing with. So that that's you read my mind. You read my mind. Now now, now the ninth century is also, most historians look at the ninth century as a very transitional period. How do you see it? How do you see the evolution of Francia during that time?
[00:46:27] Unknown:
Well, if King Charles had not won the war that takes place in this book between him and his brother, Louis the German, there would have been no France. It would have all been Germany. Mhmm. So that's interesting. Yes, it's very tumultuous time. Also another parallel is that King Charles is desperately searching for a solution to all these invaders coming across his border and wreaking havoc on his people. They were called Vikings. And he didn't have a way to keep them out. Eventually, he finds it and you see that in the book. But he also is surrounded by enemies both within his country and without.
Mhmm. And one of his his main advisor, his name is Archbishop Hinckmar, who I had never heard of before this, but amazing person who was one of the most influential clerics of the ninth century and prolific writer. He says to Charles he says, okay. We have all these threats against our kingdom right now. We have Viking invaders. We have Brittany that is in chaos with the, murder of the king and and threatening to attack us. And then we have the rebel lords of Aquitaine. We have your nephew who wants to take Aquitaine. We have your brother Louis the German who wants your kingdom. Mhmm. And so and we have someone named Robert the Strong, who you'll find out when you read the book, who is also leading rebels within the country. And he says, we've kind of dealt with all of these issues separately.
Mhmm. What if they all attack at once? Can we withstand that? And, basically, it takes a miracle, and you see that unfold in the book. And I thought, well, we have North Korea. We've got China. We've got Russia. We've got Iran. Thank heaven Iran has been
[00:49:14] Unknown:
somewhat somewhat neutralized.
[00:49:17] Unknown:
Yes. And and others who do not wish us well. And thankfully, we have at least found a solution for the borders, but we have now still millions of people within our own country who were not vetted, who might very well wish us ill, and be there ready to act in very nefarious ways. Yeah.
[00:49:47] Unknown:
And I I heard a very interesting number today for Oh, really? Yes. For for the illegals in in this country. They they the estimate now is you ready for this? 52,000,000. No. Yes.
[00:50:01] Unknown:
Oh my goodness. That's twice what I thought. Yep.
[00:50:04] Unknown:
52,000,000. And as much as I love this this administration, I love president Trump. I think he's doing a great job. Give him an a plus on the border work. Give him a give him an a on pretty much everything else he's been handling, economy, so on and so forth. That's a big problem, and they need to start, because remember during the during the campaign, again, don't forget my president. I got my got my hat right here, you know. I got my, my I I stand with President Trump flags hanging over there. This is the one thing that I'm concerned about is that, you know, you have you promised during the course of the campaign that thousands will be deported weekly, thousands a day.
[00:50:51] Unknown:
He's trying, but he has a lot of opposition within our country. Oh, no. For sure. For sure.
[00:50:57] Unknown:
There are there are ways to to work it out, I think, anyway. You know, we can agree to disagree on that. But, you know, the latest number that I saw and the amount of that had actually been apprehended and and deported is like 300 a day, You know? Which is which is, you know, substantial number, but it's not enough. Because you're not gonna be able to get rid of 52,000,000 illegal immigrants There's no way. With just doing 300 a day. I knew that. You know? What I think we need to do Even with 10,000,000,
[00:51:27] Unknown:
I that's so many people. Oh, yeah. But we what concerns me is what percentage of those, even if it's 1% who do not wish us well
[00:51:42] Unknown:
And most don't. They
[00:51:44] Unknown:
could light wildfires. They could,
[00:51:48] Unknown:
No. That's just that's climate change. Where plants are like an electric plant. Yeah. No. No. You see, that's where you make a mistake. You see, anytime there's a wildfire that's set by a person, it's climate change. It's not, you know, some nefarious person out there in the woods somewhere setting a fire. It's climate change, you know. Well, because climate change made them do it, that's why. So, but what I think what I think I think what needs to happen is I think that The United States needs to stop being the world's police and defending other people's borders, and they need to bring those troops home, give them some time with their families, and then send them out into the into the inner country, and start looking for these people and get them out. It's been done before.
It can be done again. It's within the president's jurisdiction and and, and legal authority to do so, and I think that's what he should do. But My my my is
[00:52:43] Unknown:
that when he got in and was fully briefed by by the, intelligence community that he may have felt like we were on the brink of war. Oh, for sure. I And so he's doing everything he can to build up our military
[00:53:05] Unknown:
as quickly as possible. Just because you don't hear about it as much, you know, there is that threat of a of a nuclear exchange taking place. I mean, just a couple of weeks ago, we were talking about having nuclear submarines, redirected toward this toward Russia, and they had submarines here, but they always do. I mean, you know, so do we. But but calling it out and putting it out there into into public view. Like, we all know that. We all we all know that that there are Russian submarines out here, you know, cruising around the coastlines, and just like we have submarines over there. But but we know that, but because we're not told that, it doesn't stay in our minds that way. But when you hear it said, well, there you go. Then you gotta really start to worry because the rhetoric is there, and then, you know, you know, I'm glad things have kinda calm down a little bit, but the threat's still there. It just because you don't hear about it, it doesn't mean it's not there.
[00:54:02] Unknown:
And people thought he was absolutely insane to say, well, Canada should become part of America, and so should Greenland. And I don't think he would've ever said that unless he felt like we need to reinforce
[00:54:22] Unknown:
our own capacity. Oh, yeah. Of course. I mean, I can understand Greenland, but I don't want Canada.
[00:54:28] Unknown:
I know.
[00:54:29] Unknown:
I don't want Canada. What the hell do I want Canada for? Vermont has maple syrup. I don't need Canada. You know? And I have Canadian friends. My sponsor actually is she's they're they're from Canada, British Columbia. So I, yeah, I gotta be careful. But it would be stronger. It would be more people.
[00:54:47] Unknown:
More more territory, I guess, if somebody were to attack us. I don't know.
[00:54:54] Unknown:
I gotcha. I gotcha. It's,
[00:54:56] Unknown:
another, another parallel that I wanted to mention was very interesting to me is that there is a side story that of another woman that makes it into the monk's
[00:55:10] Unknown:
annals. Okay.
[00:55:12] Unknown:
Okay. Charles's cousin, who is in the neighboring country, Lotharingia, which is actually Middle Francia, they had it Eastern, Western, And Middle Francia, but really Western Francia, which Charles held, it's kind of like North, South, Central America. When somebody says America, they mean The US. But it but they but technically Eastern Francia was referred to more often as Bavaria. Okay. And so Middle Francia was more often called Lotharingia because it was Lothar who was was the king. He's trying to get rid of his wife, but he does it through making up nasty rumors that he spreads, accusing her of all kinds of things and using lawfare against her to try to get rid of her and destroy her. And so I thought, wow, this sounds familiar. And it's very polarizing to the population. Yeah. Some people believe everything he says about her, and others realize how she's being persecuted.
I thought that was a very interesting parallel
[00:56:38] Unknown:
as well. That that that is very interesting. No. I've said this before, I'll say it again. History is amazing. History can really be exciting. You know, I tell a story all the time. I I love history. I I fell in love with history when I was in my last year of college. I had a I had a history professor who was an absolute psychopath, but I loved him. He was great. He would come into the auditorium. He had no notes, no books, no papers, no briefcase, nothing. And he would march up onto the onto the platform in front of the the the gallery there, and he would say, alright.
Where were we? Oh, yes. Trafalgar. And he would act out everything on the stage. If they were pulling catapults, he was demonstrating how they did the catapults and the swords, and he was jumping off from the stage. And it was a 70 year old man, and he's jumping all over the place like a lunatic making battle sounds, and you know acting the whole thing out. I sat there in class, I was like, this guy's amazing. And I fell in love with history again. And history is very very exciting. The only thing the only problem with history are history teachers, that's the thing. Most history teachers are boring as anything. But you get a good one like I had, and you fall in love with it. And history is so exciting when you really sit down and look at these things, and it's amazing because there is there is something to history that most people don't understand, and that is that the one thing that men don't learn from history is that men don't learn from history.
[00:58:11] Unknown:
So
[00:58:12] Unknown:
Exactly. You know, in other words, history repeats itself. And so you want you you learn you watch these you read these stories, you study these stories, you look at the details of these stories, and and all the circle political circumstances surrounding it, and it all it never changes. It's the same thing we're dealing with today. Nothing ever changes.
[00:58:31] Unknown:
No matter what century.
[00:58:33] Unknown:
They really are. They have the same passions That's right. The same needs. That's right. It was all power grab then. Everybody was out to grab power. Well, it's the same thing today. Sounds familiar. That sure does. Sure does. The the the whole thing is about who's gonna run who, and that's the that's the whole thing. And, you know, in those days, it was a little bit difficult to really track it because you really kind of removed from everything as just the average person in in the fields. But, you know, today with with modern technology, we're more on top of things. We everything's instant. So you know more what's going on around in the world around you. But in those days, no. A lot of stuff was done out in the open. Nobody paid attention to it because nobody knew. It was only a small group of people that were really involved with it. So it was it was so much easier to to to manipulate things. And nobody had a clue.
So it it's great stuff. So let me ask you, outside your own work, are there any books or any authors historical periods that that have that's, inspired you, influenced you on on a on a personal level?
[00:59:36] Unknown:
I have to say I was a very eclectic reader and still am. I love everything from historical fiction, to biography, to mysteries, to, detective stories. I mean, sci fi, fantasy. I'd love it all. If it's well written,
[01:00:02] Unknown:
I love it. I I could agree with that. I I I know exactly where you're coming from with that. I I love to read. I've always loved to read. I love reading classical stuff though. I love I love I could I could sit down and read a Shakespeare play cover to cover in in like a day or two. You know, I just I I love it. So, I And the more you read, you know, it just opens up your mind so much more than sitting there in front of a TV screen and being entertained by whatever you see on the TV. Because you have to think, you have to imagine these things and what's going on. And I think it just really helps your creativity on that. So, so I encourage people to just read, read, read as much as you possibly can.
So, any spin offs, any sequels for The Girl of Many Crowns?
[01:00:45] Unknown:
There won't be any sequels because I don't have the the guy I was working with in New York said, oh, you can just make it up. And I just didn't want to make up stuff. No. I was trying to dramatize history. I am working on a prequel though. Okay. Judith was married, was named for her grandmother, Judith, Charles's mother. And it's a fascinating story. She is chosen to be the second wife of the widowed, Louis the Pious. And, she's chosen through Cinderella like bride show where all the nobles of the kingdom are invited to bring their eligible daughters in.
And then when she has a son, it sparks a civil war because his previous sons already had the kingdom in their mind divided. I gotcha. Interesting. And so she has to go to bat and save her son, as well as his legacy.
[01:01:52] Unknown:
That's great. I'm looking forward to seeing that too. Alright. So where can we go get your book? Where can we find out more about you and your work?
[01:01:59] Unknown:
Amazon is, and Barnes and Noble have the book. You can get it on Audible. You can get it on what is it? Google Books or whatever. I there's just about anywhere. Everywhere.
[01:02:22] Unknown:
Yeah. Well, I have I have the link to your website, so we have that in the show notes already. So folks be able to click on that. I'm sure they can track it all down through there. Deborah Harris, thank you so much for being with us here tonight, spending your evening with us. We really appreciate it. Looking forward to reading the book, so make sure you get it over to us. And, I'll send you the links. I'll send you the email. Well, don't you have it? You have it already. So Yeah. So you can just send that over, and that'll be great. And I'll make sure I share it with our producer, anonymous Angeles. She's looking forward to seeing it, I'm sure. Okay. Thank you so much for having me. Oh, anytime. You're great. Thank you. You have a great night. Bye. Alright.
Alright, folks. We're gonna take a break here. And when we come back from this break, we will, sit down with our next guest who is waiting in the in the wings. And, we'll get to him momentarily. Alright, folks. So this is the Joe Russo. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and share it with your friends, your family, and your followers. Help us spread this thing around. And listen, if you're watching right now, hit that like button. Help us with the algorithm. Alright? So hit that like button. Help spread this thing around, and, we'll, we'll take this little break here, and we'll be right back. Alright.
Again, don't forget, like, subscribe, and share. It's Joe Russo live, weeknights, 07:00. We'll be right back.
[01:06:07] Unknown:
Up and down, counting out, smiling through the taste of blood in my own mouth. I got bruises and broken bones, but they don't know I ain't in this ring alone. I'm a fighter. No one can say that I'm a up. That's what I do. I didn't soldier on this far. Just
[01:08:50] Unknown:
Alrighty. Well, first hour is in the books. Folks, this is the Joe Ruse Show. Welcome back. My name is Joe Ruse. It's great to be with you. Another beautiful, beautiful, beautiful Wednesday evening here on the pimple on the backside of Texas, the beautiful city of Eagle Pass, and we are doing the best we can to bring you the best quality talk radio we we can muster without all the blessing. Great to be with you. Alright, folks. So make sure you drop a comment down below or make some kind of a reference in the live chat. Let us know what you think, how the show is going tonight. If any comments or questions you might have, you can always send them over to us at [email protected].
[email protected], or you could use the web form that's on our website. Alright? Hey, folks. Pod home. If you're a podcaster, if you're looking for, or to be a podcaster, you need a host platform that will host your audio podcast. Alright? Audio podcasts are the foundation of podcasting. Alright? Video stuff is great. It's a lot of fun. Enjoy doing it. Great stuff, especially on a platform like Rumble. We love being on Rumble. It's a fantastic, company. It's a fantastic product. And, really thankful that, I meant to say it earlier, that they were able to resolve the studio issue, which was a a widespread thing. It wasn't just a local thing with us, but, really thankful that they got to it really quickly. But podcasting started audio.
I'm an originalist. I love the audio podcast. So when you have your audio podcast, you need a host platform. And the best host platform you're gonna get is podhome.fm. PodHome is the most modern and easy to use podcast hosting platform in the market today. It's a great platform. You could use Pod Home to publish your episodes, enhance your audio, automatically generate transcripts, chapters, titles, show notes, and more. Podom also gives you the opportunity to broadcast your podcast live across all the modern podcasting two point o platforms, or you can actually live stream your podcast through your own website that Pod Home will provide for you.
No extra charge. And if you have your own domain, you could always bring it over to Pod Home, and they will incorporate it in. And then all of the features that you get that's available to you through the Pod Home website will be yours on your own. So you need to check them out. Everything. Every single thing you get on Pod Home is for one affordable subscription of $15.99 a month. That's $15.99 a month. Now, I've I've been on other host platforms. Pod Home is my third host platform for the audio, and it is the best platform to be on. It is the best. Price wise, feature wise, it is the best. I was paying up almost three times the amount that I'm paying with Pod Home for their service on those other bigger names. I'm not gonna mention their names. All those other bigger name platforms, and I got less in services, customer support, you name it. Pod home is the place to be. Go to podhome.fm.
Try it out for free for thirty days, and then it's just $15.99 a month after that. So try them out. Podhome.fm, podhome.fm. Alright. Well, waiting in the wings, our, our second hour guest is Russell Van Brocklin. He has over ten years of experience in teaching students with dyslexia, the techniques needed to overcome their current struggles and recognize the superpower they've been given. His programs were developed while in graduate school when he combined the Brain Research in Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz with three default writings, Strategies in Strategies for Struggling Writers by James Collins.
As a result, his initial research program was funded by the New York State Senate and is owned by by the SUNY Research Foundation. He found that motivated high school students with dyslexia increased their writing skills by seven to eight grade levels in one academic year, which is huge. His approach is called the writing method. I'd like to welcome Russell to the show. Russell, how you doing, my friend? I'm great. Thanks for having me on. Hey. I'm glad I'm glad you're able to get a date. I'm glad you picked a date. I'm glad you got here. I got so many I have so many folks lined up in pod in PodMatch right now that that are still waiting to set a date. And I'm like, you know, clock's ticking here. Come on. Let's get this going. Yeah. Well, I actually just found something weird last night when I was on a podcast. I was told I was the number one guest on the system. And I thought that was kinda strange because I'm in a very niche area. So, yeah, you you gotta use it and you gotta get on it as fast you can. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. It's great. It's a great platform. I I I love being on it. I've I've met so many great people through this. Our previous guest, Deborah, she was fantastic.
You know, and I and I've said it many many times, you know, on the podcast that, you know, without doing this, I would not have met so many great people. I would not have expanded my own personal knowledge on things, on subjects that, that I I'm learning every day. Every time I have a guest on the show, I'm learning something new. Whether it's from talking to a blue cat, or whether it's talking to paranormal investigator to us, to a, to to to doctors and lawyers, you name it. We've covered it. This is great. It's a great platform. So thank you, my friend, for being here with us tonight. So let's get this thing started. So tell me something about yourself that most people don't know but should.
[01:14:28] Unknown:
Well, for me, it's when I decided to go to college, I had a first grade reading and writing level. That's what it was going through college. And then when I decided to force myself to learn to read and write, I decided to audit, law school after college, couple of classes. Wow. And I solved my reading and writing in law school where it was just forced upon me, and everything clarified very quickly. Wow.
[01:14:54] Unknown:
You see, that's stories like that, I you you would not hear if it was not for podcasts like this. So thank you for that. Let's see. What's, what's your go to beverage to unwind at the end of the day?
[01:15:09] Unknown:
Lemonade.
[01:15:10] Unknown:
You're the first. The stronger, the tartar, the better. That is crazy because just on our last guest was the first one to specifically name diet Doctor Pepper. You're the first person to say lemonade. Everybody's usually water, you know.
[01:15:24] Unknown:
Well, I drink over a gallon a day, but when I want something that's really gonna I don't know. I I just really like lemonade.
[01:15:32] Unknown:
Alright. Well, let's get down to the meat of the subject here. Because this is very interesting. As a matter of fact, our producer, anonymous Angela, who you I don't think you've you've interacted with her yet. So she she's very invest interested in this particular subject to, for a personal matter, and so she was really looking forward to, to hearing us tonight, and she was very key in helping us put together the the subject matter, the the our our questions for you today. So, this is this is gonna hit home. So according to the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity, Dyslexia affects twenty percent of the population, represents eighty to ninety percent of all those with learning disabilities.
It's the most common of all neurocognitive disorders. What made you decide to learn more about this particular learning style?
[01:16:22] Unknown:
Well, I have the worst case of dyslexia people have ever seen. I literally went to college and graduate school with a first grade reading and writing ability. When I was studying in law school, I brought my reading level up to graduate level within a less than a month. Writing took a few more years. And then when I was deciding to figure out how do we solve this, it comes down to something that's so simple. This is the book in my field, as you mentioned, from Yale. Mhmm. Okay? Let me show you dyslexia. This is this one thing will just shatter your mind. That's that's it. Now do you see how the back part of your brain is has all this massive neuroactivity and mine has next to nothing? Yeah.
And you see how the front part of my brain is about two and a half times overactive? Yes. Okay. Got this weird idea. Let dyslexic use that overactive front part of the brain. So when I looked at that initially, Yale said it was it was articulation followed by word analysis. So what I did is said, okay. Graduate record of exam, analytical writing. Analytical articulation, same thing. So we just took highly motivated, highly intelligent, selected juniors and seniors. They they just happen to have middle school writing skills. One class period a day for the school year. At the end, they're writing average of entering graduate school students. Spelling and grammar went from horrible to clean at the graduate level. Cost less than $900 a kid. They all went to college, all graduated. No accommodations.
GPAs between 2.5 to 3.6. Oh. I thought I was done. I thought I did something amazing. I was wrong. The teachers came to me, and they said, what about the typical students? And I said, oh, this won't work for them. So then I had to make some big shifts to work with typical kits. Okay. So the first thing we did is I had to go to to Yale and say, Yale, you're incorrect. The best isn't it's not articulation followed by word analysis. It's word analysis followed by articulation. So let's explain that. You said your producer has an interest in dyslexia? Yes. Okay. Is it because she has a child who's dyslexic? I'm not at liberty to discuss.
Okay. Absolutely fine. So let's just say there's a, child out there. The biggest thing that comes to me when I present at major conferences is they start off, they say, my my kids are writing a bunch of randomly placed misspelled words. I don't even know where to begin. Okay. So I'm gonna show you how to do that really fast. Typical example I like to give is an elementary school girl called Sarah. She's 10 years old, writing randomly placed misspelled words. Favorite thing in the world is swimming. So what we have you do is we have type, not handwrite, type on a real keyboard, not an iPad, not an iPhone, a real keyboard, typically a laptop.
You type out hero plus sign. What are we talking about? She copies it. We switch hero for Sarah. Sarah, plus sign, what are we talking about? Then we switch what are we talking about for swimming. Sarah, plus sign, swimming. See how we got there?
[01:19:39] Unknown:
Wow.
[01:19:41] Unknown:
Okay? Now we got Sarah plus sign swimming. Okay. We need a word to replace the plus sign. Alright? Now I'm going to run you through what I typically do at a major dyslexia conference. You have to follow what I say exactly because most of the teachers don't and they get it wrong. Okay. Do you think I can fool you? Probably, yes.
[01:20:01] Unknown:
Well I'll be honest.
[01:20:03] Unknown:
Remember, Sarah thinks swimming is the favorite thing she has in her life. Right. So here's my we have Sarah plus sign swimming. Right. Here's my question to replace the plus sign. Does Sarah like or dislike swimming?
[01:20:15] Unknown:
Well, she likes swimming.
[01:20:17] Unknown:
Okay. So you would have just said she would Sarah likes swimming. Mhmm. But that's not what I asked. I asked, does Sarah like or dislike? As a typical educated person, you automatically added the s and replace the plus sign with it, but Sarah doesn't know how to add the s. Ah, okay. So that's the problem we're running. So subtle. You don't even realize that. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So if you're if you were a Bill Gates and you had a selected kid, you would have used an Orton Gillingham multi sensory structured language approach. Then you then used since the nineteen twenties.
$75,000 a year, four to five years to solve the problem, typically, after fourth grade. I'm gonna show you how to do it a lot simpler. What we're gonna do is we'll ask Sarah to one assumption I had to make is that the student speaks proper English. I I just have to make that assumption to make this work. Okay. I would ask Sarah to to, read what she wrote out loud. Sarah like swimming. Then I would ask Sarah, does that sound generally correct? And she would say, no. And I would say, fix it. Sarah likes swimming. Okay? Notice that like and dislike is a form of word analysis.
Then we'd go because Sarah, why do you like swimming? Sarah likes swimming because it's fun. Alright. Now we get the spelling issues that drives parents crazy. Here's how you fix it really easily. You tell Sarah before she puts the period down, she can ask any question. But if she asked if she puts the period down and she, there's a misspelled word or major, and I mean major grammatical mistake, she has to retype the entire word. So if she didn't put the period down, she could ask, did I spell fun correctly? And you could say, well, Sarah, not no. You didn't. You type it out. She copies it. But once the period's down, if she misspelled a word or made a grammatical mistake, she has to retype the entire sentence. And you'll notice that they're making the same mistakes over and over again. So what happens is you say, I'm not gonna make that mistake, and she'll retype it. And she will. She'll she'll make the mistake. And it takes between three and twelve times normally for her to get it right. And as she goes further down, keep making that mistake, she gets annoyed with herself.
You can tell her one of two things. Sarah, you made a you made a silly mistake or a silly error. One of those two. Then as she keeps going down, she's gonna start to hyper concentrate. Near the end, ten, twelve times, you might even see sweat coming down her forehead. The concentration is so intense, and that's where the magic happens. Eventually, she gets it right. You keep going until it is correct for 10 likes and 10 dislikes, and then we add reason one and reason two, reason one, reason two, and reason three. This could take anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months. Here's the key thing. The older the child is, the quicker they will pick it up.
[01:23:11] Unknown:
Exact opposite of Borton Gilliland. I was just gonna say that. You would you would think common sense would be the younger the child is they'd pick it up faster because they're developing. The older the child is, the quicker they can pick it up because look what we're doing.
[01:23:24] Unknown:
The like and dislike is a very simple form of word analysis. After because is articulation. We're using that massive overactivity in the front part of the brain, and the older children are more developed, so they pick it up much faster. That which is a huge thing for the older kids. Now what I just showed you, I'd we took a kid from writing at the kindergarten level to the end of second to beginning third grade level. But that is step three of the model. Because remember, we're talking about typical students, not your super motivated kids. So as I'd like to give an example here, have you ever watched the original Fast and Furious movie with Paul Walker? I probably did. Yeah. Sometime ago. Okay. Do you remember the scene where they they pull in a car from the junkyard, and he's sitting down with a super brake kid, and they're redesigning it? He and he says, how are you not at MIT?
He said, I'm really good at this. I can't do the other stuff. So what you're going to find with Dyslexics, as a general rule, we are academic specialists, not journalists. We wanna focus on a very narrow area, but our schools want us to become well rounded, and that really kills us. So if you take if you step outside of a kid's specialty, their area of extreme interest and ability, you're going to find that you're gonna be down 50 to 70% right off the bat. Alright? So what's a kid's specialty? It's their area of extreme interest and ability. Mhmm. So how do you find out? It's a Saturday morning. They can do whatever they want. What do they wanna do? That's usually the best. When I do it privately, this is my most popular book.
It's Walt Disney's biography, all 1,000 pages of it. Okay? And I will give this to 10 year olds. So I want you to imagine, we have a 10 year old who's really interested in Disney because when they go to the Magic Kingdom or Disneyland, they walk into Main Street USA and they feel that Disney magic. Have you ever been to either either place? No. Okay. Well, you go when the kids feel it's magical. It's based on two universal things buried in that thousand page monster. I start the kids off on a 3,500 word section on Marceline, Missouri. If there's a word that they don't know as they they will listen to their audiobook while following along with a finger in their normal book, trying to answer a specific question. What is Walt like? What does he dislike? What does he wanna do?
They come across the word they don't know. I'll have them stop, type out the word, go to Merriam Webster's online dictionary, bind their have them pick a definition, and then type up the definition. Not copy and paste that. You have to type it out. And I hear this from parents all the time. My kid won't do it. Well, if you take their speciality, like in this case, Disney's big old biography, they will do it because it's what they're really interested in. Parents are shocked at how interested they are. So here's my question for you. How many times you need to type out a word and a definition until you know it?
[01:26:41] Unknown:
Probably once.
[01:26:43] Unknown:
Okay. Well, these kids might have to do a ten, fifteen, 20 times. So I will literally keep them on that 3,500 word section, sometimes for a couple of months. Mhmm. But once they get it, then we move on to the next section. By the time you're done with chapters four or five, they're reading that book, and that's at the eleventh grade level. And just to show you how powerful this is, there are two universal themes to the Disney magic. The first one is easy to find. It's about 10% of the value. The second one, I've never had a parent find it. And a great example I like to give, 12 year old girl, started with this when she was 10. Her mom has a master's degree. I asked her mom what's the second universal thing. She can't find it. And her 12 year old daughter as 12 year old girls go will do. She'll say, mom, it's right there.
And her mom just literally hits her forehead with her palm of her hand. I can't believe it. I went through that so many times. I said your 12 year old daughter can now comprehend better than you can. Wow. Have I done my job? So we have to start off with their speciality. Okay. And then the next one, step two of the model, this this shocks a lot of people. And I got it with these extensive, conversations with senior dyslexic professors. They would tell me, most of them were STEM, science, technology, engineering, or math. And they would say that when they're an undergrad, they would take like, art history, philosophy. I say, well, good for you. And some of them would tell me, but we don't like the courses. I was like, why did you take it? And they said because the teacher taught not from the general to the specific, but the specific to the general.
So here's a very key question to ask a dyslexic kid. In your specialty, in your area of extreme interest and ability, do you have ideas flying around your head at light speed but with little to no organization? They're gonna say yes. So then what we say is we have to force your brain to organize itself by using using writing as a measurable output. So if you ask you to select a kid a typical question in school, what effect did Martin Luther King's I have a dream speech have in the nineteen sixty civil rights movement? It's like asking a dyslexic to grab fog. Nothing there. Mhmm. But if you ask what personally a specific to general, what personally compelled Martin Luther King to wanna give his famous speech, they can go and look up the answer and find it. And then their next question will present itself, and that forces you in a to organize your thinking in a in a a line of linear questions.
So it's speciality first. Right. Specific to the general. Word analysis followed by articulation. You do that, you'll be golden. What do our schools do? The exact opposite.
[01:29:26] Unknown:
Wow. That's it sounds it sounds complex,
[01:29:31] Unknown:
but at the core of it, it really isn't. It's just changing the way they think, the way they see it. Yeah. It's it's really simple. People well, everybody would like to study what they like. I was like, yeah. But dyslexics is much more. You gotta teach it through the general. And I I always get, what's this word analysis followed by articulation? I said, well, when I'm dealing with the super motivated kids, I can do articulation and a little bit of word analysis. But typical students, I gotta flip that over to word analysis followed by articulation because they just don't have the motivation to go through that much harder but more efficient process that Yale came up with. I see. And, no, Yale doesn't really understand this.
I've been trying to tell them for ten years, but they don't really understand it. One of these days, they'll get it.
[01:30:19] Unknown:
One of these days. Yes. So let me ask you. What what what are some of the common fears and obstacles that parents face when they first learn the child's dyslexic?
[01:30:28] Unknown:
They're terrified. Because typically, they don't find out until later. So this is one of the stupidest things out there. If you call contact Yale, just Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creative Studies, and say, how do I test for dyslexia in kindergarten? They'll tell you. It's cheap. It's effective. Alright? You can test everybody. And if you find out in kindergarten the kid's dyslexic, they have programs, million bucks apiece, half a million bucks apiece to develop those, follow them. And by the end of third grade, the kid will be at or close to grade level. Why is that so important? Because k through three, we learn to read. Fourth and above, we read to learn.
Once you hit fourth grade, now you're I'm just gonna give you an example. Imagine the Windward School in in the Upper East Side Of Manhattan. Ninety eight percent success rate of getting a kid in. They're there for four to five years, and then they send them back, and they are extraordinarily prepared. But it's 75 k a year. Could have been handled easily in kindergarten. For me, we typically don't start working with kids until fourth grade, usually fifth, and work and then we work with them past that, and we go way beyond what anybody else does. When I presented in New York City, the professors came to me and said, oh, wow. You got some kids hitting the seventieth percentile of entering grad school students. We don't care.
We want the craft of research. I was like, the craft of what? The craft of research. It's a book designed from University of Chicago, 1995 because their PhD students didn't know how to write research papers. It's context, problem, solution. And I've taken that to reduce context to the elementary school problem to middle school and solution to high school. And it's so powerful. You have students writing on Romeo and Juliet for for English class. The teacher will learn something very substantially original for each paper done.
[01:32:30] Unknown:
That's I'm blown away by this. This is amazing stuff. Now, for well, for a parent that's watching a dyslexic a dyslexic child shut down and absolutely dread to read, what's one step they could take right now to to kinda, you know, rekindle that child's interest and their confidence in learning?
[01:32:52] Unknown:
Take the book that they're not interested in and in front of the child, throw it in the trash. Rip it up, and then ask them what their specialty is. Mhmm. For most kids, it's Harry Potter. Okay. And for most young ladies, it's they wanna study Hermione for this very painful reason. They said Hermione is not stupid, and they don't wanna be stupid anymore. Interesting. Wow. So we literally go through the process that I described, but we start off with, you know, chapters on on Hermione. What does she like? What does she dislike? What does she wanna do? And we go through that until she's until you're literally reading those chapters and reading that book.
[01:33:32] Unknown:
Now you said on you you said on PodMatch, that that you that you could speak to a mother's dyslexia journey. Parents of dyslexia dyslexic students can feel lost or unprepared for the challenges. What would you suggest that, the parents do first when they suspect their child is dyslexic?
[01:33:52] Unknown:
First thing that you need to do is, we can ask them two questions. First question, find out what that specialty is. Okay. And then you ask them, in your specialty, do you have ideas flying around your head at light speed but with little to no organization? If they say yes, you're looking at ADD, ADHD, or mild dyslexia. Then the next question, find out what their specialty is. They wanna write on it. Fingers, keyboard, fingers, keyboard. Ideas in your head, take your fingers, put it on the keyboard. When that happens, does the idea fly out of your head leaving you with an empty brain? If the answer is yes to that, that's severe dyslexia.
Alright? I just saved you $5,000
[01:34:37] Unknown:
on neuropsych. There you go.
[01:34:40] Unknown:
So the treatment's the same. The dyslexics would just take longer, but go a lot deeper.
[01:34:45] Unknown:
So I guess the the the the one thing that I'm getting out of this is that the the the the main place to start is to finding out what the child's specialty is.
[01:34:55] Unknown:
Absolutely. Because if you step out of that and people say, well, they won't do the work. Okay. Let me give you this is my most crazy, successful case. I never saw it before. I will never see it again. This was Casey's book. All 900 pages of it won the Pulitzer. She was extraordinarily in her Theodore Roosevelt. 10 years old, near the end of fifth grade. She turned 11 over the summer. Six months later, she she's reading at the second grade level. Six months later, she knew every word in that book. She was spending hours a night in her room. Finally, her mother gets a call.
Your daughter was in silent reading. The other kids came over, picked up the book. None of them could get past the first paragraph. I thought your daughter had reading problems. She's the best reader in the class. What's going on? So her mother asked me, what what's going on? I said, what do you think she's been doing locked in her room three hours a night for six months? Most of the days during, you know, in the summer. I gave her a very simple process because she wanted to do reading first. Typically, that would take students more like at least a year, usually eighteen months to two years to go through a book that size. She did in six months. Wow. Then people say, it can't be done.
Yeah. Well, a 10 year old did it on her own. I worked with her for fifteen minutes a week. Last I talked to Casey, she was in college doing well saying she was applying for her first big girl job, which was not quite sure what that was, but I knew she was ready for college at the end of eighth grade. Wow. That's amazing. That's an amazing story. Now,
[01:36:33] Unknown:
typically though, it takes about a year or so to to get through this program and and to get where, Casey was? Well, when we're talking about very motivated kids, remember,
[01:36:43] Unknown:
I'm talking about books like a thousand pages. Okay? Mhmm. That can take a year or two to get through that. Right. And I typically do work with kids starting at 10 with that. I'm just saying Disney is by far the most popular one that I do. The kids wanna understand the Disney magic. So, overall, as I said, the older kids go through it a lot quicker. It can take about two to three years to get through everything, typically. Okay. But that's part time, usually a couple of sessions a week, and my competition's full time for four to five years at a price for house. Jeez.
[01:37:24] Unknown:
Jeez. Yeah. I train parents to do this. And that's great. That that that's great that you do that. You know? But a but a lot of parents, of dyslexic of dyslexic kids feel exhausted. You know? I'm sure I'm sure you come across that.
[01:37:37] Unknown:
I I I fully and I'm just gonna tell you what happens. You send your your kid away to, let's say, the best private school. I call it Gowell, g0w.org. It's been doing this for ninety nine years. Okay. Alright? If you get the $26,000 scholarship, it's $60 a year to live on campus. Jeez. Yeah. Or it is typically a mom thing. The mom will take two years off, spend $11,000 and become certified in Wharton Gillingham, and then they'll be with their kid through college. Mhmm. Alright? Or the problem just keeps getting worse. And there are a few kids like me who figure it out on their own, and that usually takes us into grad school.
Or I can show the parents, yes. You do work with the kids a couple of sessions a week. After they get going and especially as they get older, a lot of times they're doing most of this on their own. Alright? You're setting them up. You're telling them when to stop. Right. But we try to make it as efficiently as possible. We work with families on a yearly basis so they have time to see things develop. But it it it literally is a huge problem unless if you actually call up Yale, get the kid diagnosed in in class for a couple of bucks, in kindergarten, and then have the school actually implement what Yale recommends through third grade. If they don't, I'll tell you what federal judges tell them.
They call them grossly negligent.
[01:39:02] Unknown:
That's a great point. Now, you said a little bit ago, you you you were talk we're talking about, Harry Potter. You mentioned, I can't pronounce her name right. The Hermione? Hermione. Yeah. I'm dumb. Right? Now, I imagine a lot of parents struggle to build up self esteem of their kids, especially when other kids make reading look a lot easy look look so easy. What would you suggest to parents say to their child about dyslexia and and the style of learning required that's different in the way of processing information?
[01:39:35] Unknown:
Well, tell them the truth. Here's the book. This is Yale. This is the book. Here's there's the brain image. Just show them. Yeah. See, the back part of your brain has next to nothing. If you look at it from a different angle, there's a little bit of activity. The front part of the brain is two and a half times overactive. What do you say we actually use that part of the brain? Alright? And then they go through the model step by step. Alright? Yeah. Easiest thing to do in that case is just go to my website dyslexiaclasses.com. That's plural dyslexiaclasses.com.
It says download the free guide. Fill out the brief form. You get a document that tells you the three reasons your child's having trouble in school due to dyslexia and how to get around it. Mhmm. And you set up a fifteen to thirty minute appointment with me where I talk to your kid with you there, and I discuss this with them. And I tell them and I and I ask the questions, and they're like, they're very tough. I mean, I I can tell you, I I work with these kids all the time, have this conversation all the time, and they look at me and go, why should I listen to you? Well, I'm like you. I ask them those two questions. And they're they're like, how do I know? How did you know? What's going on? I said, you don't think other people haven't had this before you? Mhmm. And we have a long and painful discussion sometimes. And then at the end, I ask, is this how you'd like to overcome your learning concerns?
Mostly, it's yes. If if it's no, then I'm not your person to go to. Mostly, it's yes, then it's just a matter of talking to parents to show them how they can do this with their kid at home. It's not difficult to do. I've had 14 year olds teach this effectively.
[01:41:12] Unknown:
Now I wanna go back to, a little earlier, we were talking about, about the whole process here. So in in your bio, you mentioned that, middle middle school students, in your initial study made a jump, seven to eight grade levels.
[01:41:30] Unknown:
Right? No. These were high school juniors and seniors. Sorry about that. High school juniors and seniors, highly intelligent, highly motivated. They had middle school writing skills. Okay. Then and then And then with a public school teacher, one class per day for the school year, they jumped to average of earning grad students.
[01:41:49] Unknown:
Okay. Now when we were we were messaging back and forth, you you sent me, some information in there. You mentioned being able to to turn homework wars into wins by channeling a kid's obsession in into a calm ten minute nightly loop. And I know you touched on it briefly a little bit earlier in the conversation here, but can you just kinda go back to that and and re explain that to me like I'm an idiot?
[01:42:10] Unknown:
Oh, no. There's there's nothing being an idiot about it. What you typically do is teachers tend to be very receptive if the parents are willing to to help out. Remember, the teacher has, like, 30 kids a class, and they got five classes a day, and there's only so much they can put in. So what you ask for teachers, can we focus on their specialty for a while? Can we can we do some homework on this? I will take on the burden. Mhmm. Alright? And you find out what the teacher's doing, and it's it's very simple to integrate that with what the kid's speciality is. Alright. So what you do is you find out, like, for example, when a lot of times I use history as an example.
Kids will tell me they they they're interested in historical figures. So for example, a big a very popular one is Martin Luther King. Mhmm. So instead of doing some really simple basic homework assignment on some, you know, really simplistic grade level book, I would go and have the parents go and get a big biography of Martin Luther King. Alright? They would go to a very specific section. Now as you go through your education, you go from general to much more specific. I would find a very specific scene, a very specific event, and focus on that.
Alright? And then go through the go through because now we're in the kids' speciality. Ask the questions that are specific to the general, and that'll start the process. I see. Alright? And as you're going through that, what I like to do is to focus on following three steps. You have a hero. Hero wants to do something. From what they wanna do, you come up with a universal theme. Okay. Alright. Wait. One word universal theme to represent what the hero wants. And you you type out that word, find the definition, then go into the thesaurus, and just pick five synonyms.
Typically, when you look at base universal theme, alright, it's very broad. But when you look at the synonyms, you wanna find the word and the definition that best matches what's in the student's head. So you go and you type out five words and their definitions. Now as you're doing this, over the course of about three to six months, you're gonna develop initially dozens of words as an evolved vocabulary, then hundreds of words. Okay. Then the final thing you do is who's the ultimate villain that can prevent the hero from accomplishing their goal? It's a person or a concept. Have them write that out. And then just turn it you got the hero, the universal theme, and the optimum villain. And then just ask them to fill in some words so it sounds generally correct.
And now what you have and with practice, you can get that down to about ten minutes. Now the student can go in and have an adult conversation, an adult argument with their teacher. And on numerous occasions, the teacher said, yeah. The student can argue with me. I'll I'll just politely put them down. Well, the student actually beat the teacher in a number of cases because they thought this through so well. Wow.
[01:45:19] Unknown:
That's amazing. So what does lasting confidence look like for a dyslexic dyslexic? Well I'll get caught up because my my English will get caught up with me. A dyslexic child, and and how do your methods help build that kind of self assurance?
[01:45:35] Unknown:
Well, let me give you an example. Once we get through, in elementary school, we do context, then we state a problem in middle school, come up with something original in high school. I had a student who contact me beginning of last summer after he graduated from college, and he was paranoid. He hates artificial intelligence, but his new boss loved it. He said, I'm not going to allow you to take the time you normally take to write when you have have the AI drafted out so much better. He said, I don't know what to do. I said, you've been trained in the craft of research. So I said, go and fill figure out the context. Talk to the AI, type it, figure it out. He tried a bunch of stuff. Most of it didn't work, then he came back. I made it work. I said, go to the problem. He comes back. I hate this.
Said, welcome to the adult world. So then go through the solution. His boss is flipping through the assignments. I can't use this, can't use this, comes to his, I can use that. That we can use this. Great idea. Within a week, he was training his colleagues in how to use artificial intelligence. Because as he said, he found out what worked by trial and error very rapidly. This is what dyslexics do. And he's he called me back. He said, this is so weird. I don't know anything about artificial intelligence, and now I'm training people in it. I said, I showed you how to prompt engineer your brain Mhmm. So you don't have to come up with something new with your new model. This is what the craft of research was about. It's to provide solutions that matter. You've been trained in this in high school. You practice through college.
This is what I expect to happen when you graduated. Wow. He was very confident after that.
[01:47:25] Unknown:
That's great. That that's amazing. Now and so what can you do to turn a student that that's kind of lost hope already, that just completely gave up, and to someone who's motivated to learn?
[01:47:36] Unknown:
That's I I deal with that all the time. Very few kids become hypermotivated. Mhmm. Most become just shattered as a person. So what you need to do is, again, start off with those two questions. Okay? Do you have ideas flying or you had a light speed but with little to an organization in your specialty? Yes. How do you know? Fingers keyboard question I gave you before. Right. And and the kids are like, oh, you understand me. Okay. What's your specialty? What are you really interested in? Alright. In in some extreme cases, I I and a few times, I had a kid who was just so broken. I mean, we're talking clinically dangerous. They were literally seeing a mental health professional.
And I said, okay. What we're gonna do is we're gonna pull you from school, and we're gonna go down to your local community college, and we're gonna sign you up for two for two classes in your specialty. Okay. You know, one kid, I'm I'm just gonna tell you about his story. His name was David. He was 14, and I did that. He went down and he took American history and European history at a community college, and I showed him a process of of how to study ahead of time. He goes in. He got two ways. Now I said, do you think when you go back to school, you might be able to do well?
What do you think? And he said, well, I can read I can read now. I can write now. We're gonna do things that I don't like. I can kinda push it, but, yeah, that gave him all the confidence in the world. Well, that's great. That's great. Yeah. It's a rather extreme case, but you can usually do something similar in the public schools or private schools with private schools give you a lot more room to do that sort of thing, but I call it just focus for a semester just on your specialty. And that's normally what you need to give them that confidence.
[01:49:26] Unknown:
Would you say that that's one of the most memorable moments in your career?
[01:49:31] Unknown:
I've had so so many. That not particularly the ones that really hit me is the second kid that I worked with with my original program. His name was Adam. He was a 19 year old senior, and his teachers all said, this kid is a bona fide genius. Okay? Way past Mensa. He failed his New York State, Regents exam for English with a 47 and a 52. Nobody know what to do with him. So I started working with him. Halfway through the program, he scored a 72. At the end, he scored in the seventieth percentile. Went on to college. He was a b student. Wow. No accommodations. That's one that I really remember. Wow. That's some story.
[01:50:15] Unknown:
So who's someone that you deeply respect right now, and what are they doing that we should be paying attention to?
[01:50:21] Unknown:
The person that I deeply respect right now, it's gonna seem kind of odd. His and and I I I never get his name right. His name is Peter Zion. He's a geopolitical analyst. Okay. And what I admire about him is he'll come back a lot of time saying, this is what's going to happen. He'll come back and say I was wrong, but he told us the data points of why he thought it was going to happen and then where he messed up. But unlike anybody else, he floods you with data. Okay. And it it just helps me to get an idea of where where the world's going and why.
[01:50:55] Unknown:
Yeah. I'm not from I'm not too familiar with him, so I got I'm gonna check him out. But, it but I I I like that too about commentators, especially, you know, that that they'll or some prognosticators. They'll they'll make some some statements along the way, but very very few actually come back and say, hey, you know what? I made a mistake. So when you come across someone like that, it gives a lot of credibility to to what they do, And, and and and it makes you really trust them when they do when they do tell you some stuff. So that's that's, so I'm gonna check him out for sure. I'm not I don't really know him too well. Alright. So if you could, speak one sentence into the minds of everyone listening right now, what would it be?
[01:51:37] Unknown:
I would be telling them to find the kids' speciality and just focus on that. Outstanding. I I want you to think about what the schools are doing. Our brains are completely different. Alright? They're teaching us to be well rounded. The dyslexics can't do that. That we were horrible at it. They're teaching us from the general to the specific. Mhmm. We we don't work well with that. But just out of curiosity, would you like me to turn you dyslexic?
[01:52:11] Unknown:
Turn me dyslexic?
[01:52:12] Unknown:
Dyslexic? Yes. Would you like to see what it's like? Sure. Go ahead. Okay. Give it a try. This is the book. Do you know much about postwar Japanese history? No. Not too much, but,
[01:52:24] Unknown:
just just Godzilla.
[01:52:26] Unknown:
Here's why I was studying this in Japan. I the first article was was professor Dower. He won the Pulitzer for the National Book Award, and I thought this was the easiest thing I ever read in my life. Nobody else could read it. Completely illiterate. Okay. And I was just like, what the heck? So I'm just gonna read you the first sentence. Alright? And just tell me in general what's going on. Are you ready? Sure. Ever since Japan's seclusion was ruptured by western nations in 1853. Domestic and international politics have been interwoven for the Japanese.
[01:53:07] Unknown:
What does that mean? Well, basically, it means once Japan opened itself up to Western civilization, everything went downhill.
[01:53:15] Unknown:
Okay. Now I want you to think I read the rest of that paragraph into a room of reading specialist. Okay. Most of them can't understand what it says.
[01:53:28] Unknown:
Really? Really. I I didn't find that too difficult.
[01:53:32] Unknown:
Well, the guy as I said, he won the Pulitzer National Book Award. What he does is in that first paragraph, there are, like, 17 points he's making. It's so dense that for a lot of nondyslectics, they're they go off the rails. Mhmm. Okay? And then I can get really nasty. I can say, tell me what it means, or we're gonna take your job away, make you work at McDonald's with with corresponding pay. Okay? You can forget you'll lose your house, you'll lose your car. And then I'll keep saying, tell me what it means. And they say, I can't. Tell me what it means. And then they get really frustrated and said, welcome to dyslexia. Wow. That that
[01:54:10] Unknown:
that's a good point.
[01:54:12] Unknown:
For those who can do what you just did, I wanna point out see how we got both there? Mhmm. Imagine taking the overactive front part and putting it in with the overactive back part. I call that a full brained. They're gen ed people who can think like a dyslexic and still read and write like a gen ed specialist. Relatively rare. Okay? You're one of them. And you look around when people can't do it and you scratch your head like, what's going on?
[01:54:43] Unknown:
Oh, wow. Learned something about myself tonight.
[01:54:46] Unknown:
Well, I'm just saying That's what I that paragraph, I'll continue reading. Most people can't read it. A lot of special a lot of reading specialists can't do it. Half the kids at Harvard I talked to are scratching their heads. They don't know what to do. Now that's a form of reading, but people think dyslexia is a reading problem. It's not. I can show dyslexic kids. That's where I end the reading program. Alright? That is, it's not it that it's not a it's not a reading problem. That's a symptom. It's like when you have a cold. The cold is in your chest. Mhmm. The stuffy nose, it's a symptom. Right. Everybody else is focusing on the symptom. I'm focusing on the underlying cause.
[01:55:33] Unknown:
That makes a hell of a lot of sense. Yeah. It it really does. It's it's it's it's a great program you have. And and you know what? It's I'm blown away by it. I'll be honest with you. I I I'm very rarely speechless. You know, listening to these stories. So, I appreciate this. This this was this was fantastic. So where where what part of New York are you in?
[01:55:53] Unknown:
Up near Albany, New York. Okay. Right outside rent in West Sand Lake, but I wanna just go over the money issue because New York State tried to redo k through five. Mhmm. We have the highest taxes, the highest cost of spending per pupil in the country, and they just found out they can't afford it. Mhmm. So that original program I told you about, I'm gonna compare it to Landmark Colony at the time. Remember, this is 02/2006.
[01:56:17] Unknown:
Okay. Alright?
[01:56:19] Unknown:
My program was less than 1% of the cost of Landmark College with three x the the efficiency, three x the result. Alright? So it's not only a heck of a lot cheaper, it's a lot more effective than anything else you're gonna find on the market.
[01:56:42] Unknown:
Yeah. You you've you've blown me away with this. This is this stuff is great information, and and I'm really thankful, really appreciate the fact that you took the time out tonight to come on to the show. So where can, where can folks go to find out more about you and and, about your work? Well, the simplest thing is just go to dyslexiaclasses.com.
[01:56:58] Unknown:
Okay. Dyslexia classes, plural. And then just go download free reports. Fill out that short serve form, and we'll set up a time, and I can speak directly with you and your child. And I ask them those two questions, and they get they just get mesmerized. Like, how did you know this? Well, I kinda went through it, so I know.
[01:57:19] Unknown:
That's I I think that's the best way to to to the the fact that you did experience this, you did work your way through this. I mean, that gives you a unique advantage when it comes to trying to work with people who are still going through it, as opposed to someone who's never experienced it, and they're they're trying to trying to correct a problem just by stud from from their studying the the the condition, and and and not actually dealing with it, and living through it, and understanding it, and the frustration that comes with it. It gets kinda hard, I think, to to to to help people that way. I mean, you can't it can be done, but like you said earlier, it takes a longer period of time. You know exactly where to go. You know exactly what to hit. You know exactly where, the issues lay. And, you can address it directly one on one. And you have a common frame of reference. So that that's huge.
[01:58:06] Unknown:
Yeah. And and and I have this weird idea. Again, for parents thinking about, you know, how they wanna handle this, when you're looking at how to do this, again, I'm just gonna point to the science. Let's use that over at different part of the brain. Why are we trying to improve the back part? K. Got a weird idea. Imagine Michael Jordan just graduated from college. Why don't we give him a basketball instead of a hockey stick? Why don't we focus on his strengths instead of something he's never done? I mean, it it just
[01:58:42] Unknown:
It makes sense. Schools
[01:58:44] Unknown:
focus on on making us well rounded. We we hate that. We're specific people. They teach us from the general to the specific. We don't learn that way. And then they call us learning disabled. I I I just find that absolutely fascinating. Yeah. And with Casey, for example, with Theodore Roosevelt, how she learned that in just six months on her own. Remember, I worked with her fifteen minutes a week or that post war Japanese history material. Right. I'll teach kids to read that entire 30 page article. They're reading better than a lot of the valedictorians.
[01:59:18] Unknown:
Amazing.
[01:59:19] Unknown:
Dyslexia is a reading problem, please. Yeah.
[01:59:22] Unknown:
It's an organizational issue. I think, I think you're absolutely you're you're a 100% right on that, and and I and I really do appreciate you again, you know, taking the time out to be with us tonight on the show. So, Russell, thank you again. I appreciate it. We're gonna go to our, closing segment of the show here and, get ready to to go feed the kids. They're waiting by the door. I hear them. Okay. Thanks for having me. Hey. No problem, Ant. I really appreciate it. I'm gonna send you a message, in a little bit, through PodMatch. Alright? Okay. Thank you very much. Alright, my friend. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Alright, folks. Russell Van Brocklin. Thanks for being with us here tonight. Alright, folks. Let's see. We're not gonna shut down for a break here. We're just gonna go right on through, because we are already at the 09:00 hour. So don't forget to head over to our website joeroos.com, and, go to the website, go to the contact section, send us how many questions, comments, cares, or concerns that you might have. Also has Charlie barking in the background, letting me know he's hungry. He's time for dinner. So we gotta run through this quick.
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We really appreciate the time they took to be with us. Head over to the website, don't forget, check out all of our links. And folks, listen, make Texas independent again. Go podcasting, keep a steady stride, and keep talking. Good night, folks. Who cares about the clouds if we're together?
[02:03:31] Unknown:
Just sing a song and bring the sunny weather. Happy trails to you.
