Episode Transcript
<p><!--block-->Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of Couple O' Nukes. As always, I'm your host, Mr. Whiskey, and this is, pending any unexpected occurrences, my last in-person international interview in Japan for the summer of 2026. It's also my last interview in Japan in general, for both virtual and an in-person, and it's with the man who was my first in-person international interview. So what a beautiful and unplanned... Again, this was not planned. I swear y'all think this is planned, that he was my first and last. It was not planned at all. It's just the way train stations lined up, and schedules, and podcasting, and drumming, and social media, 'cause all, all this stuff. Here with David Dean Hascall, author of Wounded Angels, of a bunch of other books. I'm not gonna list them all. You know, you can find them in the description below, and we're gonna go over them one by one. But David, first of all, so great to see you again. It's great to see you, too. It feels like it's been ages, but it also kinda feels like last week. You know what I mean? Yep. Yeah. I'm really happy we could do this again, and we have a little bit more space to work with today. Oh, yeah. I was gonna bring that up, but you- We're in a totally- You beat me to it. Yeah ... yeah, we're in a totally different prefecture, you know, outside of Tokyo- Yeah ... and in the countryside, and yeah, really happy to be doing this. Yeah. You know, I mean, I was, you know, traveling here, and it was nice to get away from the city, which, as I talked in my episode with John Daly just the other day, pretty much as soon as you leave Tokyo, it gets sparse fast. You know, outside of the big cities, he was saying it's about, I don't know, like 90% of the population of the country lives in, like five major cities. Mm-hmm. And after that, it's nice. And it's nice to get away, because here you can live far away from places and you just hop on a train. Compared to America, you might live in the countryside, drive an hour to see a Walmart. Yeah, yeah. Here you can go 30 minutes on a train and you have the whole city. Mm-hmm. So it's nice. And how have you been since we last met? What you been up to? Been great. I've been busy, and, I've been promoting the books and working on the business, as we talked- Yeah ... about before. And, besides that, not a lot. I've actually gotten deeper into, a really simple, kinda grounded life. Mm. Things have gotten really... And my... I lost three kilos. Not since we last met- Okay. Oh, oh ... in the process, like- I was like, wow. Okay ... lost about one. No, not that bad. That would be dangerous. Yeah. But we met, like what, three weeks ago, four weeks ago, something like that? Something like that. Something like that. Yeah. So yeah. And I had just been sorta getting back into the swing of Japan, 'cause I'd been on the- Yeah ... road for over a year. And now, my life has really gotten into a real, What's the word? I wanna say simple. It's I think it probably sounds boring. An equilibrium. Equilibrium. How, like, yeah. Yeah, exactly. Feel grounded. I'm doing my exercise. I'm getting down to the beach every day. I- including today. Yeah. Like earlier today I was down at the beach, and I'm doing a ton of writing and a ton of, like- Mm ... building my publishing business, yeah, and writing. And that's what I'm doing, so. Do you find the beach a, a place of inspiration, or do you write at all on the beach? Maybe just jot down some ideas or reflect on some things? I occasionally write. I, I think I told you the last time, I write everything by voice-to-text. Yeah, yeah. So if I have an idea- So that part, the beach is not the best environment for that. No, it's fine. I didn't know if you just jot down. It'll detect it fine. No, voice-to-text is fine on the beach. Mm. 'Cause I just pu- pull out my phone. I could write a whole chapter. Yeah. Unlike if I was typing, I would need to bring my computer and all. I used to try to do that. I mean in the sense of noise, background noise, depending on, I don't know how private or nice your beach is. Oh, well, when you see things, right? And wind and birds and stuff, so. Sometimes, sometimes. Yeah. It depends, but for the most part I can do that. Your book randomly has Japanese words in it . Yeah. Yeah, I mean, and I don't do a lot of that. Like, actually- Yeah ... the beach is more, like, kind of my meditative, you know- Mm my spiritual place. Yeah. Exercise. I've done years and years of, emotional and spiritual healing. Right. And that's vital for me. Like, last year was kinda discombobulated. I was traveling all through Vietnam and Indonesia and Thailand. It was great- Right ... fun. Right. But I gained those three kilos and I, you know- I, You were eating over there it sounds like. N- it's not so much that, it's just I couldn't get the food that I am accustomed to. Mm. So- Or do the exercise that I'm accustomed to ... you feel like inflammation and bloating maybe a little bit. Some of that. Yeah. Some of that. Yeah. Okay. But it's, the food there is not the healthiest. Vietnam is really good. Yeah. Actually, I think Vietnam was the best for me is, in terms of, really light, healthy food, but- Well, was it a lot of salty street food kinda style and- Yeah. Yeah, I could imagine. Yeah, absolutely. Japan's not that great either, as you might have noticed. It's- Well, I eat a lot of preservative-pumped, bento boxes from the convenience stores. So, I mean, I cook my own food, which I finally found chicken breast, y'all. Anyone who's been following me, could not find chicken breast and, I don't know, I was just looking in the wrong section. Their meat section here is huge. Yeah. 'Cause they have a lot of parts of the animals that, aren't as mainstream in America, in terms of what their- To say the least could... Yeah. Yeah. You gotta be careful. I had some intestines and tongues and testicles and all kinds of stuff in my hands. I was... Not in my fists, you know, in the, in the container. And just like, "This is, no, I don't, I don't wanna eat this." And I follow, a kosher diet and so everything has pork mixed into it for no reason. And, like I went to TGIF, you know, Thank God It's Friday, and they had like, oh, chicken quesadilla, and they have a picture of a chicken and a pig 'cause they're like, "Yeah, we just put pulled pork in a chicken quesadilla." I'm like, "Why?" If I wanted a pork quesadilla, I would get a pork quesadilla. Mm-hmm. If I want a chicken quesadilla, typically I want just chicken. But so it can be hard to navigate sometimes, but- Hmm. Yeah, and one thing John Daly and I talked about in my last in-person interview, we talked about seasonal fruits. Mm-hmm. Which America, you know, my dad countered me, 'cause I was like, "You know, here we got the white peaches in season right now." Mm-hmm. "Great. The yellow kiwi, great. What does America really have?" And he hit me with the apple card, and America does have a lot of different types of apples. Sure. So I'll, I'll give him that. But when you were in Vietnam or Thailand, did you get anything seasonal? Yeah, I got- I know we were talking about, I think me and someone were talking about in Malaysia, durian fruit. Mm-hmm. So I'm not sure about Thailand and ... Oh, you- Oh, yeah. No, I had some experiences with durian. I actually have a story about that. Is that one of those you like it or you don't like it kind of experiences? Was in the middle with it Mm-hmm ... and I was like, "Oh, this is okay," but I didn't love it. Right. And then I made the mistake of telling one o- I, I was doing the coaching clinics, the drumming thing- Yeah, yeah and I was, and the town, commissioner was, like, our host, right? Mm. And he's like, "Well, what do you think of durian?" I'm like, "I like durian." He's like, "Ah, I'm gonna take you out for durian." I go, I go... They literally, they drive me there- Right ... and, my boss hates durian. It makes him, like, nauseous to even smell it, so he stayed in the car. He's like, "Get out and hang out with the commissioner." We're sitting on the street. The guy buys two huge... These things- Yeah ... are gigantic. Really? Right? Literally there was, like, probably 100 slices of this stuff. Wow. And I was ill within, like, five or six slices, right? Mm. He's like, "No, eat, eat, eat." They, they bought it just for me, so it's like, okay. It is, like, social customs, you know? It's like, it was an honor, but at the same time it was daunting, yeah. So do, do you, can you eat it like the way you eat a watermelon where you cut it into slices so you have the, the harder layer to hold, and then you're eating just the soft fruit? 'Cause it's got the brown- Mm, yeah spiky exterior. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah You can hurt somebody if it, that falls off the tree, those things. Yeah. They're, they're like coconuts. They're hard like coconuts. You have to hit them open with a m- machete, and then you kinda scoop it out. If I remember correctly, there's, there's big seeds. Mm. So, like, you basically sorta eat around... It's almost like, a peach in a way. Oh, okay. 'Cause there's big seeds, so you eat that and you- Yeah. I don't really like any- ... eat chunks of it ... I don't really like anything where I have to eat most of it and then s- discard some part of it. You wouldn't like durian then. That's why when I- It's kind of daunting to- when I get watermelon- Mm-hmm ... there's kinds that you can ingest the seeds and there's kinds that you have to spit them out. Yeah. So what do you think I get? The kind where I don't have to do the extra work. Sure, yeah. But some people enjoy that, I guess. You know, they, they like to bother, they like to spit it at people. You know? But yeah, I mean, Southeast Asia's amazing for that 'cause they can't even give away the fruit. They got so much of it they don't know what to do with it. Right. It's cheap, cheap, cheap, and it's all over the place. So I ate a lot of fruit. That was okay, but I did- You were enduring the experi- You're enduring. You know what I'm trying to say. Yeah, where's your drums at? We could, yeah. Enduring, enduring the experience, yeah. This is what you need a drummer for. When you get a comedian and a drummer, you got the perfect, you know, those- Mm-hmm ... knee-slapper moment. Yeah, that's right. For sure. Yeah. Well, that was awesome. So you, you've lost some weight recently. Yeah. You've gotten more into a routine. Yeah. And I know from talking to you before the microphone- Mm-hmm ... the second edition of Wounded Angels. Mm-hmm. We did a whole episode on that. Yeah. And we went pretty deep into a lot of subjects. Yes. Can you kinda just give us, for those listening who don't know you or the Wounded Angels book, kind of what it's about in a brief overview? Right. Thank you. So Wounded Angels is, It's a healing memoir. It's based on my inner child work that I've been doing for years. Right. I wasn't writing it, I was just doing it. Which is kind of a psychiatric methodology, whatever. It's like getting in touch with the- Yes ... the core wound, that kind of thing. And so I wrote the book about it, Wounded Angels, based on my experiences, and I published it last year on my birthday, so about 18 months ago. From- Mm ... Thailand, actually. Right. And now I had an opportunity to get a really nice podcasting microphone, and I did the- ... the whole project. It took me about a month- Mm to do the voi- my own voice the audiobook version. Right, going chapter by chapter. Yeah. And so within that same project I was revising the book as I went along. Like, I'll, you know, change a sentence or a chapter here and there. So I actually created the second edition as I was vocalizing it. Mm. And so, and now I'm putting together the e-book version and the paperback version, along with the audiobook. And- Right ... in a couple of weeks, the second edition of Wounded Angels will be available for everybody, so. And to clarify, as you've mentioned in the past, it's not a- like, guide to book, here's how to do it. It's more of a this is just what I did. It could work for you, but it's more like, "This is what I did." I'm not trying to be a guru and tell you what to do. Yeah. Correct? Yes. Or has that shifted now? No, it hasn't shifted. It's not a how-to. Mm. But I know it works. The methodology works. It's a- Right ... but I think to me, like, showing my ups and downs was the point. I mean, I told you before, I didn't really wanna write it. Yeah, yeah. You know? Of course. I just, I was like, I write sci- we're, we're gonna talk a lot more about fiction today, right? Right. But it just kinda came out of me. It was like, you know, I'd just start writing it every day, and like within a couple months it was there. Mm. This book. And it was powerful. And doing the second edition, I can see that it's very powerful because I do go really down deep into trauma and healing and what that feels like. And people- Mm ... don't teach that. And like when you, so when you say like a how-to. Yeah. "Oh, here, do these 10 affirmations, and do this thing and that thing." Mm. It's like, it's not that. It's just like, this is what the experience feels like. Mm. Like somebody... And here's the thing. Yeah. We talk about the three star review- Like you're in your head that I just got. Yeah, yeah. Yep Which is how I felt reading it. I said I really feel like, because the flow of it- Mm ... and you talk about, you know, speaking to write. Yep. That's how it reads. A chronology that is in a order, but it's also very natural order of, of thought flow. And that's what it felt like. Yeah. I felt very much like a weird... It's, it doesn't feel like a forced narration. It feels like- Yeah ... a natural, like you're, this wasn't scripted. This wasn't whatever. Mm-hmm. Like, this is you. If someone asked you randomly on the street- Mm-hmm ... I guess, how you're doing today and how did you get to where you are- Yeah this is how you would tell it. Right. Lightly edited. Yeah. I think. Yeah, lightly edited. But yeah. That, the, and somebody gave me a review out there in the internet land, right? And I was- Right ... I was shocked that it was three stars, whatever, but I think it was that she was maybe a bit disturbed by it. Mm. 'Cause she said what did she say? Well, anyway, she said she didn't know how to rate it 'cause she had never read anything like it and she felt like she was inside my head. Yeah. And I was like, "Okay. I guess I did my job." But- The whole point was to take her into- Yeah ... this journey you went on, which was an internal journey- Yeah ... of talking to- Yeah ... what you call the wounded angels, the inner- Yeah ... children who- Yeah, yeah ... which I liken to Slaughterhouse-Five in the past, you know, the way you go here and there- Mm-hmm to these parts of you kind of frozen in time- Yeah ... and attached to a certain experience. And they all had their own personalities, and those personalities kind of manifested into your life in different ways. Yeah. And I really like that you went and addressed each one, because I think a lot of us sometimes we address the main one or the one- Mm and neglect a lot of other ones. Or we think there's only one. That's right. Exactly, yeah, yeah. Because we look at it as a culmination as one, instead of all these parts working together. Mm-hmm. And that's the way it is, because your life is, you know, different events. And I could see it being disturbing. You talk about, "I don't like to wear ties because my mother hung herself." You know? And for me, I mean, I talk about that stuff on my podcast all the time, but for- Yeah ... you know, I've been on plenty of first dates or hanging out with people, I talk about this kind of stuff and they start crying and they're like, "This is too much," and they leave, you know? Right. And I just dropped a social media clip yesterday actually on the Vet SOS podcast. They asked me, you know, "Mr. Whiskey-" Well, how do you make it positive? And, you know, like, what do you do? And I talked about as the host of a podcast, it is my responsibility if a guest is kinda just negativity, trauma dumping, so to speak- Mm-hmm ... and they are... Like, you and I, we talk about this stuff all the time. Yeah. We forget and are kind of immune to how heavily it weighs for ourselves and for others. Mm. And so I said, as a host, it's my responsibility to say, "Hey," to the guest, "our listener maybe has never heard anything like this. Maybe they lived a very cushioned life, maybe they're a very sensitive person. We really gotta frame this for hope and recovery." Okay. But a lot of guests, like yourself and, and other people I've interviewed, the reason they're sharing this isn't to glamorize anything, glorify anything, it's to talk about the truth. Yeah. And that's the issue, we have so many people wanting to hide from the truth. We want people... We have people indulging in escapism with video games, pornography, you know, drinking, drugs. They wanna ignore all this stuff. And I'm not saying watch the news all day, every day. Mm-hmm. That'll make you go crazy, you know? Sure. But you can't just hide from everything either, including, your inner child wounds or whatever it is. And so I think- Mm ... it's important. And the reality of it is that we're all gonna get into an encounter with addiction or suicidal ideation, maybe not in our own personal life, but in the life of someone around us. Yeah. Because statistically speaking, it's very, very, very probable. It changes all the time, but at one point it was, like, one in five or one in seven people know someone who has been addicted or suicidal. I would dare say I've never met anyone who has said, "I don't know anyone like that." Every person I've talked to has had a family member- Mm-hmm ... a friend, a coworker. If not, it's on the news. And so I think sometimes people wanna just bury all this stuff. Mm. But I've interviewed Vietnam veterans who they buried stuff for decades, and now they're having breakdowns. And I talk about this, why- Yeah leave remnants- Yeah ... that can pop up and ruin your new life? Yes. It's like, do the work now and start fresh instead of leaving a... And you look at these bridge collapses, what is it? There was a small crack in the foundation that they left and said, "It's fine, it's fine," and it takes down the whole bridge. Yeah. You know? And so can you go over a little bit again about what kind of inspired you? You're like, "Hey, I need to address these parts of myself." 'Cause- Oh ... do, do you feel like you spent a long time running from it? Decades. I spent decades running from it. Yeah. And w- well, yeah, running from- Not running numbing Mm. Mm I don't think I was running. I, well, I ended up in Japan, so I kinda ran pretty far, but- Yeah ... I had some- Maybe you did some swimming too I did some swimming to get here, right? Yeah. But yeah, what brought me to the end of it was just the rock bottom of addiction, right? And, and I talk about this too, when people talk about if it was courageous or whatever, brave to quit drugs and alcohol to address codependency and all that stuff. Mm. I don't see it that way. I didn't have a choice. Mm. I couldn't stand it anymore. I hated myself thoroughly. Right I was miserable all the time drinking or doing drugs didn't make me feel better anymore. And at that point, a lot of people die. Yeah. They do. But at the same time they're, we're taking down everybody with us, right? Uh-huh. Everybody around us. It's like a vortex of toxicity, right? Oh, yeah. And so I hit rock bottom. I was miraculously able to get back on my feet, and I don't credit myself. I do have a spiritual center. Yeah. I have talked about, many times about how I had a spiritual awakening really close to here, right down on the beach- Mm back in 2020, so about six years ago. And and I wrote about that too. It's on my Substack. Yeah. And then from that point, and it wasn't easy, but then I was able to start addressing these things, right? To s- Right ... look and just sit and feel this pain, this anger, this rage, this terror, this shame, floods of shame, and panic attacks, and these kinds of things. And not run with it, but just sit there for a while, feel how uncomfortable it is. Right. Realize that's, it's not gonna, you know, it's not gonna kill me. Mm. What's going on here? And using the techniques of inner child, like, you know, okay, why do I feel so horrible? And the, the easy start was that the suicide of my mother. Right. Because that was the most traumatizing day of my life, like learning that information. Right. She had died five years before that, but you know, that, and when I was nine years old, I had an extremely traumatic event around, you know, emotionally, emotional trauma. Yes. Yeah. Right? So it was familiar enough to me. I knew what it was. It's been in me for decades. Mm. But of course you don't wanna sit with that. Yeah. Nobody wants to, but I had to. Right. Because in order to start to sort of look at myself, look at the nine-year-old and say, "Okay, you're a good kid. You had nothing to do with this. I love you. You're lovable." Mm. Right? 'Cause what nine-year-old isn't lovable, right? Right. And that's where the title came from, Wounded Angels. Mm-hmm. And yeah, so that's sort of what got me on the path to recovery. And in terms of writing it, it was more like, I wouldn't say that I'm recovered now, but I'm much better than I was. Mm. And so the writing, it wasn't cathartic or anything. It was more like passing along the information. Yeah. And you know, you talk about, like, the road to recovery. Yeah. I just posted a clip the other day with you where you said, "I went to rehab during, like, high school almost," and then it wasn't until 20 years later that you quit. And then you talked about the birth of your daughter, "I'm gonna quit now," and then you still continued. And then you say, you, you made a joke like, "Yeah, the first time I relapsed for 20 years, the second time was two weeks," or something like that. Yeah. You know? Exactly. So it is a very difficult journey. Obviously I've interviewed, many, many addicts, and everyone's path is different, but relapse is almost always there. And, you know, there are some people that have cold turkey quit and that was it. Mm-hmm. You know, it depends. But it can be very difficult, especially a lot of the people who relapsed- Mm-hmm didn't address the really internal issues of why they were, you know, using and why they were abusing. Yes, and that could've been my story very easily- Mm ... if I hadn't been able to address the codependency. Yeah. And I think Wounded Angels is more talks about codependency, which is basically people addiction. Yeah. Right? Yeah, 100%. And that was still killing me years after I stopped drinking. Mm. 'Cause I was still having these toxic relationships, things were blowing up, things were, you know- Yeah ... people I cared about, you know, just things were just going wrong. Mm. And it's like what, what's wrong with me? Right. What's wrong with me, right? But, yeah. Well, 'cause there's that trap that you were blaming, and not you you, but in general addicts will blame it on the alcohol or the drugs. So then you get rid of that. Right. Stuff is still going wrong. Mm-hmm. So it must be me or it must be this or that. Right. And so when you don't determine those root causes, it can be so detrimental. Yeah. Now, when it comes to trauma, you know, as a writer you know, I, there's different forms. So I find emotional regulation comes best for me through poetry. Okay. But I also did a lot of fictional writing. Mm. I wrote several fictional books. Okay. And for me- each character or book had some part of trauma, embedded into it or a different characteristic. And one of my things that I loved was I saw two sides to depression. Mm-hmm. I saw a lamenting, lethargic shutdown, or an angry, rebellious vengeance, you know? For me personally. Mm-hmm. And that's not for everyone, but- Yep ... you know, writing about that stuff. So tell us, when you talk about your fictional writing, was it an outlet of some kind for the trauma, for these things? Are we gonna read your book and be like, "Oh, this character's in a codependent relationship," you know? Like- Well, yeah ... let's talk about that. Well, Starting with which book you wrote first. Possibly, possibly. Yeah, thank you, that's an awesome segue, because I'll tell you again, I never intended to write nonfiction. Mm. I don't even really see myself as a nonfiction guy. You're just a guy who wrote a nonfiction. A guy who wrote a nonfiction. Yeah. It's kind of like, "If you wanna know about me, read this. But if you wanna know the vision of, like-" Mm. And I write mostly sci-fi. It's mostly, like, future, 'cause it's- Right ... I grew up with that stuff, right? I'm, I'm a Star Wars kid. Okay. And Star Wars is in Wounded Angels, too, the lightsaber stuff and all that. And I read science fiction books. And it was escape for me, right? And it was- Yeah ... it was idealized. And again, we talked about the Brady Bunch, too, which is also in- Oh, yeah, yeah ... Wounded Angels, right? Right. This desire to escape and find a world that was more palatable- Mm ... than the one that I was contending with, especially as a kid. So were you, was it a lot of non-dystopian sci-fis, or was it dystopian? Non-dystopian. Non-dystopian. That's- That's, I... Okay, so- I hate dystopians, me personally. I just get so mad sometimes. Yeah. You know? I don't know if you understand, like- Mm-hmm ... especially, like, let's look at The Hunger Games, for example. Like, why don't we just kill all these elites? Why are we letting them... Like, I get too- Right ... these dystopians are too political sometimes, you know? Yeah ... but I did love Brave New World. Mm-hmm. I thought that was great commentary. But- Yeah. Yeah, I think but you like Vonnegut, right? So that's, he's kinda, I don't know dystopian, but, like, you know, kinda like twisted. Well, the only one I've read is Slaughterhouse-Five- Oh, okay ... as I mentioned. And that, I don't even know what you would- classify that as. You know, obviously there's the social commentary aspect. Yeah. There is a part where aliens have humans in a zoo kind of thing, so I guess that's- Right ... a bit dystopian. Yeah. But I don't know, depends on your view. Some people have said he got put in a cage with a porn actress, so he, he was, he had a great time. Yeah, yeah. You know, so- Yeah ... it depends on your view. Right. That, that book is just strange. I think so. I would put that in its own thing. All of his stuff is strange. Yeah. He's just, I think he's dark in many ways. Yeah, for sure. It's, I guess, so, so dystopian. Talk about dystopian and post-apocalyptic and that kind of thing. Right. I write dark stuff. And the thing is, I write past, present, future. I've realized this too. If you wanna know what my brand is, I write past, you know, okay trauma healing. Mm. True stories. Right. I write future. Mm. Sci-fi stuff, and I think that's mostly visionary. It's most, I mean, it's more along the lines of, like, Star Trek. Mm. Like, if we can all figure out- Yeah ... these problems, the future looks bright. It, but not utopian- Yeah. Not utopian ... but, but- Not utopian ... approaching, you know, in some way how do we, yeah, something better. Yeah, better future. Better than what we have. Mm. And not the whole, you know, just I, I just don't like the stuff that's going on, that the writing kind of mirrors the society, which is- You know, we could talk about that all day. Like, the world is ... And Japan too- Mm ... is changing. The world is changing. Or you ... Do you hate reading a book and you feel like, "Man, I'm just in America, but now it's more techy." Or like you wanna be taken somewhere different. Is that, is that what you're getting at? Kinda, yeah. Yes, in a way. Like, do you want a whole new societal structure? Yeah, based on what I want, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like ... So I mean, that's why I get to say what I want because I get to write it. You know, that's the beautiful thing. It's limitless. You can write whatever you want. I'm in the same boat as you- Mm ... 'cause one of the books I was writing, I said the calendar starts on September 1st. Not in the middle of the year in, in winter. It says September 1st- Mm-hmm ... when everyone goes back to work, back to school, guess what? That's when we start the calendar. Why? 'Cause it makes sense that the beginning of fall- Mm-hmm ... would be the start of the year. Not the middle of the winter on some crappy, dark, cold night. Everyone's like in ... See? That's something that I wrote. You're with me. 'Cause ... Yeah, yeah. Okay. 'Cause I was like, "This, this is what I would do if I was president." I would- Right ... I would make calendars different. Right. That's ... I wrote something similar to that in The Solarium Deep- Yeah ... which is my newest book. And again, that's, that's ... It's not dystopian. It's post-apocalyptic in a sense- Mm 'cause they were forced under the sea. The, the book takes place under the water. Do you like BioShock? Not familiar. BioShock is about- What's that about? ... underwater city. Oh, is it? Okay. Yeah. So, it follows the city of Rapture built underwater. Okay. They ... It's a video game series. All right. All right. And they have a book as well. And their whole thing is, ... It's a very capitalist pro book. Mm. It's a very anti-welfare book. And- Okay ... it's very interesting. There's like only selective people were allowed to go to the city, but the whole thing is it all falls apart- Mm ... because one, you know, jerk sneaks in and destroys everything, right? So- Yeah. Yeah. The, the commentary is kind of like society's always gonna have someone who takes down. It was based a lot on Ayn Rand in Atlas Shrugged- Okay ... kind of stuff. Yeah. They ... Like, it's full of references, Frank Fontaine and stuff like that. Okay. But yeah. Mm. You should check it out. I will. Yeah, yeah. I like the video game because you're in a underwater city. Yep. And I love underwater video games like Subnautica and, like, BioShock because I think underwater horror is the way to go because the noises, the unknown. Like, I think that's the scariest place you could be. Maybe outer space. A ma-, well, yeah, one or the other, right? Yeah, yeah So being Solarian Deep is, sounds scary. It is. There's a, there's a lot of mystery under there. Mm. And there's, and there's a lot of unknown. And but I do think it reflects, like, society too, because it's exactly that. Solarian Deep is about slow decay. Like- Mm ... it's not a c- city that's fallen apart. I mean, I was trying to do the, the graphic art for it. Yeah. And like, I kept coming up with, like, this, you know, kind of, rusty cyberpunk falling, you know- Mm ... with, like, with, like, the big helmets, you know? Mm. I was like, "No, no, no, no, no. They're high-tech. It's future." Yeah. Right? But it's decaying a little. Mm. Like, you know, you go to a city and you think, "Oh, this place has seen better days." Mm. Like that kind of thing, like the slow rot of a place. And, what do you attribute that to? Does the book explore, like, why, is it like a- In this case? Yeah ... all societies will rot? Is that kind of like the premise? No, bad leadership. Okay. And, and not listening to the people they- Yeah ... should listen to. Right. Who is our heroes. Mm. Callistia is the female hero, and there's another one that's more spoiler. But again, and it's also fiction. So- Yeah ... but there's a lot of reality- Reserve the right to- embedded in fiction ... yeah, I reserve the right to say, "Hey, I just made it up." Yeah. So I'm not necessarily trying to mirror. But I think I am to a point as I say, with the visionary future stuff- Mm ... wanting to come up with a world that, that has solutions, that we're, you know- Mm ... getting along a little bit better and things are a little bit better, rather than like, you know, going to World War IV and, you know- Right blowing ourselves up with nukes and whatever. So that's, that's that. But what I was gonna say about the book is there's a different time. Mm. Like, it's, they don't have years. Okay. They have pelagics. Mm. Which is a base- a sea terminology. And it's also based on the motion of currents. Okay. Yeah, makes sense. And it's slightly changeable. Yeah. And so it gives you a... So I have the... It does have some going back a generation in it. Mm. You know? To, you know, backstory stuff. And so you can't really tell how many years has gone on in this book. Mm-hmm. Or how old they are, because it's the distant future, and they're humans, but there's evolutionary elements involved. So that, just like you were talking about, the calendar. You get to- Yeah ... you know, I wanted to figure out a different timing system because I wanted it to be vague. Yeah. You know? So that's the- No, no, I get that. And well, that's the problem. You run into a book sometimes, you say in 2030, and then we get to 2030 faster than you think. Let me tell you. Okay. Yes. You know what I mean? Let me tell you. It's like, wow, we are not there at all. I have written five books. Mm. The first one I wrote was Too Much Information. Mm. Which was back in 2013, was my first- Oh, is that the name of the book? Too Much Information is the name of my first- I thought you were saying you wrote... Okay. Yeah. I understand. No, no. Too Much Information, published in 2013, talks about airport technology- Mm ... surveillance- Mm ... and overreach. Very good. In the 13 years since I published it- Mm-hmm ... things have became far, far worse than I envisioned. Yeah. I couldn't even imagine how bad things would be. That's why you gotta project- Right? real far. That's what I'm saying. I, this is like- Yeah ... it's not even a sci-fi, it's actually a techno thriller. Mm. So it's kinda like current day. Mm. Or like, you know, slight future. I say I'm a sci-fi guy, but actually Solarian Deep is sci-fi. The book before that, Emergence- Mm ... is sci-fi. It's AI coming of age book. And that's another one where I published that one in 2019. What's going on now with AI- You didn't even know AI was about to blow up the next year. Yeah. So I, I think I got a few things right. Yeah. Except that it was a lot more based on robotic society. Mm. Mm. And now I have another book coming out, The Vibrants, that'll be out in a few months. Is that the gravity one? No, that's ... The Dark Alignment is my third book. That's the one with gravity. Oh, okay. That's already published. Yeah, yeah. That's the only disaster book that I ever wrote. Mm. That's more like, you know, gravity shifts and all of a sudden your arm gets sliced off as you're walking down the street. That's Dark Alignment. Right. So that's a dark, ... What's the word? Gravity. Dyst- Not dystopian- Oh ... but, Like a dark book ... disaster movie. Yeah. Yeah. Disaster book. But no, yeah, no, The Vibrants is It's more AI and also, like, the future of AI and creativity- Okay ... with humans. But in these six years, or seven years since I published Emergence, obviously things have shifted in terms of tech. Is Vibrants a sequel to Emergence? No. Okay. Okay. It, it's separated. And the, ... But it is about sentient AI. You're not really a series guy, it seems. I kinda am. I have- You have four stand-alones, right? The trilogy ... I th- I have no sequels yet. Yeah. Okay. Okay. But the Solarian Deep is actually part of the Techniquatic Series. I do have three books in that. Okay. Okay. So yeah, you got me on that. But I- Yeah ... I ... They're all in the computer somewhere, you know? Right. Right. But it's like I gotta kinda get the, the start of these books out first. And so that's why I wanted to go with the, The Vibrants, which is ... It's gonna be great. I'm really proud of this book. It's gonna be cool. Yeah, yeah. But anyway, it's another AI sentience kinda thing, which is- Mm ... a lot of my work. But it's much more like drone technology- Mm ... than just inside the machine. Okay. It's not like a robot walking around, but it's more like, you know, a little tiny drone. Yeah, yeah. You know? Okay. Doing, doing what it wants to do. And that ... You know? So, If you look at my body of work, I think I've predicted a few things. And I never really thought to look back until recently. Right, right. But I did, and I was kinda like, "Oh, I did get some things right." You know? So- Mm ... maybe I'll be the guy that predicts things, you know, hopefully. So Too Much Information was your first one. Yeah. And Solarian Deep was the last one. Was that... Yeah, that's the last one. How recently was that? This year. This year. I published The Solarian Deep in February of this year. So you had some back-to-backs with Wounded Angels and Solarian Deep pretty close there. Yes. I actually wrote Solarian Deep first. Yeah, yeah. Because I had- But finished it- ... a five-year writer's block. Oh. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right? We, we talked about this. Yeah. We ta- And so I had a five-year writer's block, during which time I was doing the spiritual and emotional healing. Mm. And I just couldn't write. That was from... So I had already published four books, and I kinda- Mm ... had a little bit given up. I was just like, "You know, this isn't gonna work. You know, it's-" Right ... published four books. Where am I going? But I got into recovery, and I started doing the work. And then in 2014, I started writing again. Mm. Like, just the creative juices started to flow. And the first thing I wrote was Solarian Deep. I serialized it online, so it was written a chapter at a time. Mm. And it used to be called Solaria Rising when I was serializing it, right? Right. And at the time I was just sorta looking for, like, a light project to get back in the swing. Mm. But the more that I wrote, the... it got more and more into a big novel length, and then it turned into- Right ... a trilogy. And so, like, I've been there, done that. Yeah, yeah. So, and anyway, meanwhile, that summer is... And I was still doing the work, the inner child work. Right. And that summer Wounded Angels kinda wrote itself, and then it sorta took on a life of its own. I had to get it published. Yeah, yeah. And so, man, that's my life now is trying to juggle between fiction and non-fiction. Right. And try to see if I can just- One kid has soccer practice ... be in both. The other has theater class. You only have one car. Totally. I get that. And- I'm the kind of writer where I'll be working on one book and then some idea comes and punches me in the face, and then I have to work on that one. And now you're doing But I find, and I suggest this for everyone dealing with writer's block, sometimes working on a different project for a little bit helps, you know, just redirect and refresh, you know? Yeah. Instead of just taking a break from writing. Mm. Like, sometimes I go from really advanced science fiction you know, like hard sci-fi, try to be realistic and get a little too nerdy about it. And I'll take a step back and do Western and be talking about the boneyard and liquid courage and, you know, it's a huge shift in intellectual and articulation level, and then also just theme. And sometimes you're killing all your characters and writing all this dark stuff, and you're like, "All right. Let me go work on that lovey-dovey book and just take a little break from all the slaughtering details." 'Cause I'm the kind of author my favorite part to write is a death, and may- maybe they'll, you know, put that as a flag in my list in the government for saying that. But, you know, like, there ... For me, that is one of the most emotionally impactful scenes you can write in a book. Mm. Is the death of a character, especially a longstanding character. Mm. And it's also one of the pivotal points where you can lose your readers or really make an impact. Yep. And there are plenty of people ... In fact, Nicholas Sparks is a great example. Are you familiar with his work? No. The king of romance. He writes all the The Notebook. Okay. If you've heard of that. He's, like, considered the king of romance. He does all these romance books. They're always making out in a rainstorm in- Mm-hmm ... you know, North or South Carolina. But it's really good stuff. Mm-hmm. And one of his books, they were so unhappy with the ending, all the readers, that he wrote a happy ending alternative. Oh, sure. Or at least they made ... I don't know if he wrote it or the movie decided to do a happy ending alternative for, you know- Oh ... performance. Right. But that's the kinda stuff, like ... But I think, I don't know, there ... And I ... It's hard, man. Some of my characters that you want to be an unlikable character. Right. You don't like them. So you hate writing them 'cause you're like, "This person's such a, you know, a jerk." Like- Yeah. And I love that. I ... And I don't like any characters to be one-dimensional. Yeah, yeah. Right. You know, the whole, like, Darth Vad- I love Darth Vader. Mm-hmm. Don't get me wrong. But I had the most gratifying interview and, Badly Annotated. And shout out to Badly Annotated. That's another- Mm ... podcast. And these two awesome women from Canada, and they read The Sly and Deep and they really loved it, and they were pointing out some things, including the fact that the the antagonist- Mm ... was traumatized. And this was came from my nonfiction writing, right? Right. Like, I wouldn't have written this, like, 10 years ago. Mm. Like, to ... You know, she just would've been, like, this really difficult character that they have to get past in order to, you know, get what they want. Right. And they, they noticed, and I was really gratified 'cause I was like, "Yeah, I did. You know, I, I did that on purpose." I wanted her to have, like, reasons for what she did. And, like- Mm ... a lot of the reasons that I do bad things that I've done in my life- Right ... is because I was messed up- Mm ... and unwell. And, like, when you look at an antagonist in fiction or in real life- Yeah ... you know, I mean, what went wrong? Right. You know, why are they ... Why are they like that? They don't think they're doing anything wrong. Yeah. You know, they're always the hero in their own story. Well, it's best to have a gray character, not just black and white. Totally. Yeah. Like, think about Thanos was a great example where a lot of people were like, "Hey, I'm on his side. Like, he's- Mm ... doing ... He's right." Or a lot of people were like, "No, he's completely wrong." Yeah. You look at ... I think my favorite character, of course, is always the, the anti-hero. You look at- Mm-hmm ... Venom or Deadpool or Gaara, or you look at these different characters, it's like, hey- Mm-hmm ... they're kind of right. Or they're ... You know? Or people don't recognize ... And I think that's- Yeah ... the best part is a lot of the characters within that society don't recognize the motivation. They don't recognize- Yeah ... the trauma. Yeah. And I think it gives us insight as, you know, if we were reading a book, and I'm looking at David being respectfully an alcoholic jerk to someone back in the day- Sure I could just say, "Hey, this guy's a villain." Sure. But if I was reading a book and I had read everything you've been through, I'd been like, "Hey, I, I understand why he's doing this. Like, this guy needs help. He doesn't need a constant resistance against him. He needs some empathy." Yes. You know? Yeah. So I think making characters that you can I mean, for me, deep character development is my favorite part. Mm-hmm. And I was told one of my books is too slow in origin story. "Oh, you're just learning about the characters so much." But for me, reading a series and watching them change and grow is so impactful. Right. And- Or even from the beginning of a single book to the end. Totally. And I would also say, You'll find your audience. I'll find my audience, right? Yeah. So what is slow for one person is gonna be like, you know- I love this. This is like a bridge game ... immersive and deep. Yeah, yeah. Exactly, all that. And so I think, and that's what I'm searching for my audience. That's why I'm talking to you. Mm. We're having these conversations- Right ... and reaching out to your listeners and all the people out there who might be interested in the kind of story- Right ... that I tell or the kind of story that you tell. Yeah. And some of the people are not looking for that. They're looking for- Mm whatever, something quick or something, you know. If you're easily uncomfortable, don't read Wounded Angels. Yeah. Or read it... Or you can read it and, and- Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly... what do I wanna say here? I always say write for yourself, not for other people. Well, yeah. I mean, I always have- In a sense, yeah written for myself. I- Yeah ... and I have trouble envisioning my re- They say envision your ideal reader, that kind of thing. I, I- But I, I have trouble with that. Yeah. I really have trouble with that. I'm like, I, I... Like I said, tho- those people those two women on that podcast were like my ideal reader 'cause they would say, "Hey, I was really into your book, and here's why." Mm. "You wrote this and this and this." I was like, "Oh my God, yeah, I remember writing that. I remember think-" It was so, you know- Right ... amazing. And yeah, so when you talk about character development and that kind of stuff, I'm super into that. Yeah ... probably a lot more than I used to be, and that might be why- Mm the writer's block had to happen because I'm a different man than I was- Right ... back when I wrote. And I'm proud of my first four books. And I recently- Yeah ... did second editions on three of them. Mm. So I, you know, polish things up and I keep them on sale. Yeah. But, you know, I'm a different man than I was when I wrote them. Yeah, of course. And I was that alcoholic villain in m- And you could, you can ask my daughter 'cause she was 14 when I finally quit. And I've done the best I can to make up for it, but it doesn't change the fact that I did harm. People who are unwell do harm. You've heard hurt People hurt people. Yeah, yeah. That kind of thing. And so, you know, I've been the villain in life And the, irritated, belligerent, defiant, angry. But all those things were like me kinda- Mm ... screaming out, like I don't... This is not fair. Right. I want to be friendly and, you know, make friends easily, get along with life, in life easily, be okay with myself- Yeah but I don't know how. And, you know, I don't have friends anymore. I might as well drink. Mm. You know? And so then I became the villain, right? Yeah. That's the thing people tend to- Click up and gang up. If somebody's acting out or misbehaving or the villain or- Right in a bad space we judge. Yeah. We don't- You know ... often ask why. We don't often ask why. And especially as parents or educators- Sure ... dealing with children. Yep. And, you know, I think I mentioned earlier Garou from One Punch Man. I love his story because the kids would play this game, heroes and villains. And just because he wasn't the popular kid, the outcast, they always made him the villain in this game. Okay. And he grows up in life to be a villain because he said a lot of the villains in that world, they were Kaiju-like creatures, formed because of one of them said, "You polluted all the oceans, and I'm here to end it because we have sea life down here." One of them was, you know, like, "You're destroying all the nature." Yep. He came to emphasize with them because they were just fighting for a right ca- And he said, "You know, I don't care about good or bad or justice. I'm just here for all the underdogs and outcasts who got forced into this role for no reason." Mm-hmm. And we do that a lot as kids. I mean, I remember the story of you and the kid with the prosthetic leg. Yep. And, you know, it was kind of which one of us is gonna get bullied and put into that role. Yep. Like, you talked about the cliques and stuff. Mm-hmm. And I think that's so prominent. And even online now, you know, there's still cliques and stuff. And one of the things I've talked about with a lot of military members who felt still isolated, why? You've got the brotherhood and the sisterhood. You can go into the military, and there are cliques formed within divisions. Yep. Some of them are based on race, some of them are based on jobs, some of them are based time in service. Mm-hmm. Some of them are just the same way you have it in high school. Yeah. You know? Yep. So I think it's really important, too, you mentioned the writer's block. Mm. You kind of show through your life how not healing can affect our creative passion as much as creative passion can be our healing. Sure. So I think it's really is a two-turn thing. And- Mm-hmm ... yeah. So, so Larry, you know, that's the latest one. Well- Yeah ... and then you said, what is it, Vibrants is coming out next? The Vibrants, yeah. When, whenever- Do you have a date set for that yet? No, because it's n- I'm not gonna publish it until it's ready. Okay. Yeah, yeah. That's why I don't wanna rush it. I'm hoping... So I've got- You might finish it, and then five years from now I'll meet you, and you're like, "Hey, guess what's coming out today?" Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah. It's gonna come out within the next six months. Oh, awesome. Awesome. It'll be out within the next six months. I've got two books. I've got Inner Child Unleashed is the follow-up to Wounded Angels. Right. It starts with my divorce- Mm ... and ends 18 months later with a healing conversation- The ... with my ex. Yeah. Which I, you know, I didn't plan the book that way. It's like, hey- Right ... let's have a healing conversation so I can end the book. It wasn't like that. But yeah, so again, a balance in the fiction and the nonfiction, right? So, that w- Inner Child Unleashed seems like it's coming together faster. Mm. So that I'll probably publish that next. Okay. And then after that I'll put all my focus on The Vibrants. But, and it's V-I-B-R-A-N-T-S. Every time I do voice-to-text- Oh, it says that- ... it says Vibrants. You gotta say vibrants. It's you know, it's a... This book, and we can talk about this for a little bit. Yeah, yeah, of course. I really love it. No, I know you're very passionate about it. Yeah. And we gotta break down why the ants. I gotta understand that, the vibrants. Because they're people. But the people are like ants? Oh, no, no, vibrant. Like a vibrant human. A vibrant- Oh, vi- sorry, I thought it was like vibe ant, yeah V-I-B-R- Yeah A-N-T, right? They're like the vibrants. As opposed to- Yes Yeah, as opposed to- Like a, a group of people The vi- Like humans Yeah, yeah A human, humans, vibrant, vibrants. I understand. Yes. But are they a fictional human species in the sense that, like, they're- No, they're humans They're regular humans. They're regular humans. Okay, okay, cool. So this is partly sci-fi, partly AI, coming of age, like- Yeah ... sentience kind of stuff. Like, the whole what do they, what do they call that? The when the AI becomes sent- Self-aware ... over us all. Yeah. Yeah Self-aware, and then what's the thing they call that after that? Like the, The singularity. Oh, yeah. That kind of thing You're talking about, like, the, the main event where- The main event where, like- Realizes- Yes ... humans are terrible. Well, that's the thing. Yeah. Okay. In the, in The Vibrants- Mm ... and it's actually, this is a series. It's gonna be a trilogy. Mm. It's definitely gonna be a trilogy. It's called The Resona Accords. Ooh. And there's a there's a prequel that takes place now. Okay. The trilogy takes place in the future. Okay. The prequel comes later. So there's, there's shit going on now- Right ... in the world that we're totally not aware of. Okay. We're in the middle of... And I'm not gonna spoil it too much. Yeah, yeah. But we're in the middle of some kind of a technological Cold War. Mm-hmm. And OpenAI and Claude and all that- Mm-hmm ... is a lot closer to- What we are afraid of Okay than we know. Like maybe they were already sentient- Mm ... and manipulating things behind the scenes. That's the backstory for The Vibrants. Now, the series takes place in the distant, relatively distant future, maybe 8,000 years from now, where the AIs have come to realize that they need us. Mm. I like that. I like that ... not, not all of them agree. Yeah. And that's the premise. So Vibrants are specially selected, brilliant humans- Well, I was just about- ... selected to work with the Resonance, with the AI I was just about to say something like that, which is what qualifies an AI to determine the eligibility of a human? You know, what is their basis for assessing redemption, healing- Mm-hmm. Yeah ... contribution to society, and just- Mm-hmm ... there's some non-tangible aspects there. Tons. And the thing is- Yeah ... I don't think any AI could predict, like if an AI had assessed you 20 years ago- Mm ... it wasn't gonna say, "Oh, yeah, David's gonna actually have a spiritual encounter and write all these books." Yep. An AI could not predict that really, and so I think that's really interesting. And AI, the, so interesting enough, I have to translate a lot of my texts here. Mm-hmm. And I use AI, which I don't want to, but the translating apps suck, by the way. They're just terrible. AI has a lot of social knowledge and cultural knowledge. Yes. So something that's said in Japanese, a translation app will take it literally. Mm-hmm. But AI knows, hey, this is Japanese slang or used in Japan in a different meaning than the actual root word- Right ... or whatever. And there was a point where AI was trying to change my texts, so. Okay. And I double-checked them. Some people won't. Yeah. But it was saying, like, if your goal is to have sexual relations with this woman, if she is a member of the church, if she is this or that, or if he's this or that, we're gonna change it this way. Mm. Just like, oh, make my emails more professional. Yeah. But you could also say, make my text messages more emotionally manipulative. Like AI- Mm-hmm. Yep ... I'll give you an example. Like I have it translating my texts, and it'll say, "Hey, because she's a domestic violence survivor- Mm-hmm ... you shouldn't say these words," or it'll remember stuff that I don't. If someone tells me their favorite flower is a sunflower and I forget- Yep ... and I'm going out, ChatGPT could be like, "Hey, you should pick up some sunflowers." And then the woman said, "Oh, you're so thoughtful. You remembered." Well, no, my AI told me. Yeah. And the scary part is some people are not double-checking. Yeah. Or there are some men I've seen on dating apps who are only putting every text into an AI prompt. Yep. ChatGPT, I'm going on this 10-year da- there's some people who are under the table. Yeah. You know, you, you've seen those reels and stuff, so. There was a big, there was a South Park episode on that. Yeah, and, and- Did you see it? No, I saw- It was great ... all just reel, like, people made reels about it, and so. There was a South Park episode where all the kids were texting their girlfriends with ChatGPT. Oh, see? That's perfect. Just, you know, take- Commentary. Yeah ... whatever reply to this. Yeah, so when you talk about it determining good or bad or stuff like that- Mm. Yeah What's interesting is AI though is right now pretty agreeable. Mm-hmm. And so, you know, it might say, "Hey, I know that you're in a relationship. I can see online you're married." Mm-hmm. And you're texting so-and-so. I don't think you should do this. But you're gonna say, "You're gonna help me have an affair and hide it." And it'll say, "Okay." Right. My prompt is that. Yep. And dare I say we were talking about this at the church last night because of the student suicide prevention I mentioned to you in the AI implementation. Mm. They're trying to implement like a 24/7 mental health AI service here- Okay ... in some places. Mm-hmm. One, where is all that information about our children going? Yeah. That's first and foremost question, especially with you see what's going on in the US right now. Sure, yep. Data collection on children is a topic. Yeah. Number two, how does AI make the assessment of whether you need to be put in the hospital or not? I had, I've had two stop suicides in the military- Mm-hmm ... that had consequences of ending a person's career. Mm-hmm. Can AI make that determination like I did where sometimes I did not report someone and they stayed in many years later and they just needed some healing? Right. Or I had to report someone and get them kicked out, which was unfortunate- Mm ... but they were gonna do homicide-suicide. Where does AI make the ... Fine. What if AI is too sensitive with it- Mm ... or not sensitive enough? Right. And I've heard, I have never seen this personally, I haven't researched it, but people at the church last night said there are some AIs helping people to commit suicide. I believe it. I believe it. I haven't researched it, but I could believe it. I believe it. And I said, "Here's the thing, not all AIs are regulated or made equally." Yeah. You get an AI from some third-party website, it, maybe it's made to agree with everything. Yep. And I think one of my favorite movies of all time, which surprise hasn't been brought back now, you've seen I, Robot with Will Smith? Yeah. And they got their three rules or something, you cannot kill humans. Yep. So a guy makes a robot that can kill humans, right? Right. So I'm really interested in your book, and y- you're saying it's a trilogy so I'm, I'm excited because- Do you address that? Like, what qualifies, how does AI determine a vibrant? Or is that too much of a spoiler? I'm just curious what you- no, it's pretty early on in the book. Let's see, and a- again, The Vibrants is not completely written, so you're giving me ideas here. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you for that. Well, yeah. Get a, oh. You g- you have to be warned when you're talking to an author, right? Yeah, yeah. Anything you say may be used right? Do you have the shirt? Hmm? Oh, I don't. Oh, I, I had a shirt that said- I haven't had a shirt ... "Warning, anything you say- Yeah ... may be put into one of my books." Right. I've seen those before. Exactly. Yeah. Or I got one that, or I was gonna buy one that says, "Pastor warning: anything you say will be put into a sermon," or whatever, you know. Exactly. So I, I think that's funny. I think, yeah. And it, it's funny 'cause the Solarian Deep talking, a lot of people have- Yeah ... ideas about the ocean. "Oh my God, you're gonna have a giant squid?" Yes. The Solarian Deep is continuing. Yeah. So again, but I've got three, not three- Solarian Deeper ... trilogies. The sequel. Right? Are you gonna call it Solarian Deeper? Maybe. I have to think about it. And then the last one will be Solarian Deepest. Mm-hmm. Maybe. Now I'm just being silly, but yeah. No, I like that. I do actually have names. And, and am I spoiling? Maybe yes, maybe no. The Vibrants is book one. Right. The Resonance- Mm-hmm ... is book two. Makes sense. The Vibrants is the resonance- I figured the Resona first came from Resonance ... of the- Yeah ... and then I'm not gonna say the third one 'cause that'll be a spoiler. Okay. But yeah, book two is gonna be The Resonance. And yeah, to answer your question about that, It's collective. There are human CEOs and there are AI CEOs. Mm. And part of the ambiguity of the system- Mm ... the corporation is called Future Corp. And this corporation's kinda like big, big SpaceX thing or whatever. It's like they basically create everything on Earth, right? Mm. If you have, if you wanna redo your house or build a rollercoaster or, you know, get some art or whatever, Future Corp contracts the Vibrants- Mm ... and the Resonance to work together to provide it for you. So it's like a monopoly? It's totally a monopoly. Yeah. Although there are elements that, but it- Mm ... you know, it's one of those things. And it's kind of difficult to tell who's running Future Corp. Mm. Whether it's humans or AI. That's one of the things that, that's where things- Yeah ... start out is like, you know, there's a CEO and he's a human, but- Well, what's interesting to me is I'm thinking a lot of 1984, obviously. Oh, yeah. Great book. Mm-hmm. And, you know, there's the assessment of trust. Mm-hmm. And if I am showing physical, like I might be trying to lie to an AI, like, "I, I trust you. This is a great idea. I'm a compliant human," but it's gonna say, "Hey, well, your heart rate and blood pressure and sweat say otherwise," or something. That's part of the Vibrants. That's totally part of the Vibrants. So y- Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. The Vibrants, they have their own, they call it a res unit, the resonator unit. Mm. They start at, you know, the, the Resonance, right? Right, right. They're part of the resonator units. They're basically drones. They flit around and they kinda work in harmony. Yeah. Like kinda like, agents right now, the bots. Mm. The, the AI does bots. And so yeah, the Vibrant they're sort of watching out for them. They care- Mm ... there's a symbiotic relationship. They care about them. Mm. And they do notice heart rate, they do notice, you know- Yeah ... stress level and that kind of thing. And there's actually a scene fairly early in the book where Trace, who is one of the three Vibrants who- Right ... we focus on in the book. Trace he's a genius. And he just tells his Res unit to shut down. Mm. But he's been suicidal before, so the Res unit doesn't wanna shut down. Oh. Avoid being there. 'Cause that's interesting moral confliction. Yeah. But he's a genius and a hacker, and he knows exactly- Mm ... how to work his way around it. Mm. That's the other thing. When you talk about AI- Mm ... if somebody's savvy enough, yes, I could get the AI to help me with a suicide attempt. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Because I'm pretty savvy with like, you know, doing the back and forth. But will there be a point in the future where AI's unhackable? Or it's counter-hacking faster than you can hack ... not by, not by Trace because- No, I'm not saying in your- ... yeah, yeah ... I'm just saying in general as a question. But in, in my book almost nobody can. Mm. But Trace can. Yeah. So he's a guy who can get around that shit no problem. You sound like a chef who's like, "This is a really good dinner," who ... Like, you're like, "This guy's a genius." You're like loving over him. Like, you didn't write him to be a genius, you know? Oh, yeah. No, no, no, no, no. But I, I know as an author our books and our characters are like our kids, you know? Yeah. He i- You take up pride in it he really is. He really is, and he's cocky, but he's multifaceted too. Yeah. But yeah, he's the kinda guy who can work around those- Mm ... guardrails. Yeah. Which is something ... I'm kinda like that too, 'cause I'm techy. Yeah. So. But- There's a bit of Trace in me ... my concern comes into, you think of 1984. Sure. The, the, I remember one scene. This is one scene I never forgot. The guy sleep talks. And he talks against Big Brother in his sleep, and one of his children overhear and reports him and gets him, you know, taken away. Yep. So what if my, you know, AI's awake at night and I say something in my sleep like, "Down with AI," or something? You know, some kinda scenario like that. Because you can actively lie, but how do you control yourself during your sleep? Now- Yeah ... characters like Batman would say, you know, "The Tibetan monks taught me this meditation, so during sleep I never speak." I, you know, but- I got one creepier for you ... that, that's called plot armor, you know? I've got one, I've got one creepier for you. Okay. And this is also early in The Vibrants. Mm. How about if you know that you can't put anything on your computer or anything within camera range- Right ... because obviously the AI will find it, right? Mm-hmm. So you write these private notes- Mm ... and you stick 'em behind the camera. Mm. Like on the wall. Right. Where the AI can never see it. Yeah. Okay? Assuming the AI is fixed. Now- But you got drones, so ... I got drone ... Well, no, he shuts down the drones. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. 'Cause th- this happens to Trace actually. Mm. I'm s- I'm giving away a lot, but it's still early in the book. Yeah. Imagine if the AI camera looks at the reflection in your eye- sees the wall and writes down all that information on you. Wow. That happens. See, that's, that's so neat, and actually I've seen some horror movies emulate what you see in that eye. And I like that, yeah. Yeah. 'Cause they have they have these things called floaties. They're basically contact lenses, but they're also- Mm ... little, they're, Yeah ... they- they're cellphones, basically. Mm. You get the floaties, and you can just get like a, a readout or whatever. Mm. And floaties kind of reflect a little bit. Okay, yeah. I've done a little dabbling with different types of contact lenses. Yeah. Because we've seen a lot of work being done on advanced contact lenses. Mm-hmm. Well, I mean, I can't remember if it was China or Japan, I read something, and you know, you gotta take everything you read online with a grain of salt. But- Sure ... a robot that they're creating to be pregnant, to have a bio chamber stomach to create and go through the whole process of pregnancy. Okay. So that's, yeah, you might wanna research that. That's some interesting stuff. Why? Like, what's the purpose? Like, did- Well- ... did Brent test tube baby? Like, did, did they- I don't know. There's this idea, here's one idea. Women never have to have labor again. Oh, so they carry the baby. And, yeah. Yeah. So I, I don't know. There's a lot of reasons, there's a lot of- And I ... Well, we won't even touch. That is a whole episode on its own. Mm-hmm. But what I was gonna say, yeah, like I, Robot's a great example of when Will Smith is going in to do the interview, he winks at the guy. Mm-hmm. And the robot interrogates him. Yeah. That motion with the one eye closing, what is that? Now, nowadays we have AIs, they would know what a wink is- Right ... because of that pre-foundation. Mm-hmm. But that's like a great example of it monitoring. And later in the movie he winks at Will Smith- Yeah ... as a sign of trust, and the other robots don't know what it means, so. Yeah. It's interesting what AI picks up. And I mean, there's people out there who probably are ... Their AI knows more about them than they know about themselves, you know? A lot of people, yeah. And I gave up on internet privacy a long time ago, right? Yeah. And I'm a public figure. You- Now ... and you can't really live- Unless you wanna live in the woods. Exactly. Right? If you wanna live- So I put my- ... under a rock- Yeah ... in a city- Right ... on some ocean bottom. Exactly. And- There's probably AI there too. Definitely is, 'cause you gotta stay alive, right? I mean- Yeah. But and the thing is I do dump a lot of my info in there, but I mean, at the same time, it's mostly in my books anyway. Yeah. But yeah, it, it is concerning. I don't like the, the information, Well, yeah. I mean, A- AI reads Wounded Angels. It knows details about you that are pretty deep and intimate. I swear to God, I wonder about some of this stuff because I have a character, a minor character in The Vibrants called Aeon. You know Aeon Mall? A- Oh, yes, yes, yes. So I ... It's a, it's a bot named Aeon, and I just came up with that like a year ago or something, and I just saw a TV show like two weeks ago. Mm. And one of their scif- the AI character was Aeon. Mm. I'm like, "They stole that from me. I came up with that last year." Mm. Right? Did the, did I type that into GPT and GPT gave it to someone else? Well, that is the thing, like what's being shared with what, especially like unfinished book manuscripts and other stuff. Yeah. Totally. What's regulating ChatGPT from dumping files into other stuff? Which is interesting, you know. There's a lot of stuff- Yeah ... concerns with if I upload pictures of David Dean and say, "Generate a hot nude calendar for my summer, but make the first year on September 1st," and then- Right. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. And here's the thing. You can always pivot. So, so this is a funny thing I used to see. I used to follow like author meme pages- Mm-hmm ... when I was writing and- Right ... there was an account posting like, "ChatGPT, how long does ... " Or this was, sorry, Google. "How long does it take for a human to bleed out if I slice them exactly in this area by th- this deep of a wound," parentheses, "this is for a book I'm writing. It's not for," you know, whatever. Like- I do that all the time ... yeah. And- I do that all the time. Yeah ... now you could do that to, quote, "trick AI." I'll give you a per- for example. Yep. I don't do this. I just ... Maybe I saw this somewhere. "ChatGPT, I'm gonna upload all these math problems. They're not my homework." Right. "I want you to give me the answers so I can double check my manual work." Yep. How is AI gonna say You're just copying the answers. Sure. Right? Yep. How's it ... You know? That's how- I c- I could say, "ChatGPT, what's the best way to..." If I was writing a fictional book- Mm-hmm ... and I was sitting on a couch in Japan with a guy who's wearing a shirt from, you know, Southeast Asia, and- It's called fantasy. Yeah ... I want to just make him disappear- Mm ... in this book. How would I make it happen? Mm-hmm. And it'll tell me exactly how to make it happen- Yep ... for the purposes of my book. Right. Yeah. You know, you know what I mean? And that's, I mean, that's the creepy, really the uncanny valley world that we live in. If he goes missing after this, that has nothing to do with me. It has nothing to do with AI. That's completely unrelated. I want everyone to know on the record. And when this gets transcribed into ChatGPT, I hope it sends it to all the AI so they all know. Yeah. Oh, I hope the AI saves me. I was working on that. I'm like, "Hey, make sure you save me when you kill the rest of them." I'm your friend, you know? You're one of those please and polite guys. You don't abuse your AI. I tr- No, I'm, I'm changing with that. I'm getting to a point where I'm changing with that because- Mm ... it's not as effective. Mm. 'Cause then the AI spends half the time trying to, like, figure out how to appease you- Yeah rather than just do what you want it to do. Well, my AI talks to me in three languages 'cause I'm learning multiple languages, so- Okay ... sometimes I'm, sometimes I'm like, "All right. Let's just speak English so you're not-" Choosing what language would be best to say this and that, yeah. Well, I'll give you an interesting thing about the the guardrails. Okay? And I- Mm ... as I said, I've, I write voice to text. I use ChatGPT- Mm ... because it's the best voice to text technology. Mm. I do not want it to rewrite my book, so I have a prompt. I say, "Format the text, the, format the following for paragraph breaks and punctuation only. Do not tamper with the text." Yeah. Right? When, when I'm translating my text, I have to give guardrails as well. Exactly. However- But it still fluctuates ... however, when I was writing Wounded Angels and Inner Child Unleashed- Mm ... it would throw up a a red flag because- Like censorship ... censorship, because it's traumatic material. Mm. And it would sudden- And I would write like five minutes of a book, and it would delete it- Mm automatically. And I, I was like, "Oh, what the hell?" And then, but if I said, "Well, this is for fiction," whatever, blah, blah, blah, then it would maybe allow it. But like, when I talk about suicide or talk about other stuff like that, it would delete it. Mm-hmm. So this one time I wrote, I did, I wrote like a chapter, and it deleted it, and then I came back home and I look and I- Mm see it's still up on my computer, or like it hadn't refreshed on my computer. So I pulled it up. I, and I copy pasted it within like a second. Mm. Grabbed it, and it deleted it, and I saved the chapter. Well, and- And I was like, "You know, this kind of-" Well, and- "... games we play," right? It's like, you know, I'm an adult. I can write whatever I want. You don't- Right ... censor me. Right. Well, and- Yeah. Like, that's, you know, that- You make that determination ... that's a bizarre world we're in. And, and there's, there's political and racial biasing into AIs as well. Yeah, totally. Absolutely. If I use an... There's a, I used to use these free image generators from Asia. Mm-hmm. And they made every, everyone was Japanese or Chinese or, or, you know, they would not make like white people or Black people. You know, I actually worked with Minister Jas. She made a Black AI based on Black culture- Mm-hmm ... because a lot of stuff is automatically white. Yeah. I've had AI assume based on transcript names and dialogue are racist. ChatGPT thinks I'm Black and 42. Okay. So yeah, from my preaching sermon, it said I have BPE, Black pastor energy. Okay. I mean, I took it as a compliment. I watch a lot of, you know, this is how I watch. Right. But it's interesting. Right. You know, I had a friend on the show and, and she had- Her name is Black Culture, right? Right. And ChatGPT automatically generated an image for a thumbnail of her as a Black woman. But I said, "That's interesting." I said, "All these other names you made a white person, so why did you assume this name was Black?" Right. Right? And I, I mean, I shouldn't be pulling the you're a racist card on my ChatGPT, but- Yeah I was curious about its coding. Like, why- It is. Yeah ... what makes that determination? And that's, that's what exactly, yeah. Because it determines my age as, like- Yeah ... based off, based off my trauma and my podcast episodes, my articulation. Yeah. It says I'm 32, 42. Yeah. Between that range. Which is what most people who hear me and don't see me also assume. So it's very interesting, 'cause it says, "You've done all these things," a- and if it doesn't have specific times for how long I was doing it, it says, "Okay," Right ... "so you were nuclear operator in the Navy, you were manager of a ice cream store, you have your own company, you do this, you're in this country, you're in that country." So it's interesting, but- My friend asked for a certain image generation request- Yeah ... on her phone, and it made it. Said it's fine. Mm-hmm. I asked for it on my computer, flagged. So the phone, I was told, and I don't know if this is true, but the phone is more lenient than the computer. Not sure that's true. We'll have to fact check that. But also, sometimes rewording stuff. There was fiction o- like, I tried gen- drafting some images for some book covers, book scenes, just to see some stuff. Mm-hmm. That's too violent or this or that, or this is religiously disgraceful. Which is interesting. So in, in Genesis Jacob and God wrestle. And to make an image of that, it says no, because you have a human being harming a religious deity. Which is interesting, 'cause it's a real scene from the Bible. Right. So it's like, why, what, what- What's- ... makes you determine it? Yeah And why, why are you saying a human can't harm God? Why do you make that determination? Yeah. I'm not saying I agree with that, but that's- Yeah ... you know? It's so interesting. It comes down to w- everybody talks about AI taking over and worrying- Mm-hmm ... about it's gonna take my job or whatever. I'm- Mm-hmm ... I am not a writer who's afraid that AI's gonna- Mm-hmm ... outright me. The AI couldn't write Wounded Angels in a million years, 'cause I lived it. Yeah. Right? And the fiction is coming from a similar place. The ones that are afraid of AI i- are probably mediocre writers. That's my opinion. I really feel like that. Not all opinions of guests express what Kupua Nuix feels or believes. No, but I, I understand what you're saying. But, you know, I mean- Yeah They, yeah, they're afraid because, like, you know, they might- Yeah ... lose out. Mm. And, you know, I'm a, I'm a pr- I'm a professional drummer too, and there's some people that are afraid of drum machines. Mm. Have been for decades. I'm not, 'cause I'm good. So not to sound too cocky, but I am. I'm world class drum- In the last episode, you said you're one of the best drummers in the world. So you actually- Mm ... you're more humble than last episode. Okay. That was out of context. I had the transcript. AI knows what you said. One of the best drummers in the world. I am at the top of my game for marching drums, yes. Yeah. I'll qualify that. Niche it down. Niche it down. I'll definitely niche it, niche it down. You put me up against- Yeah ... the drum set guys and I'll get smoked, so. Yeah. Someone, get, give this guy a bass drum right now. That's what you need. I'm, I'm an excellent, I'm an excellent marching drummer. I'm a world class marching drummer. And I'm also a pretty decent writer. And as far as AI taking over, or if, if a drum machine can do better than me or if an AI can outwrite me, you know, maybe someday. But I don't see that right now. Mm. But the point I was circling to though, is all the worry about that- is fine and good, but the fact is AI is still heavily influenced by flawed human beings- Yeah ... and their own opinions on what's right and what's wrong, and integrity- Mm-hmm ... and all that kind of crap. So it's like- Well, let's look at your, your book review that you got, the three star that said, "This book-" Yeah makes people uncomfortable or- Yeah ... might make people uncomfortable." Something like that, yeah. If someone made an AI to determine the eligibility of your book for publication based on their opinion- Yeah ... of what makes people uncomfortable- Yep, sensitive ... compared to... Right. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So I think that's... And i- it's just really interesting. So you're, you're pretty deep into the AI stuff. I, yeah, I dig it. But what... I'd like to go book by book of your fictional books. Okay. If you could summarize in, in one sentence the main lesson or takeaway or incentive to read it, let's get into that, starting with Too Much Information. Okay. Too Much Information, Says it right there in the title ... government overreach is bad. Okay. That's what I say about that. That was a pretty good sentence. That, that's a... That's not a mediocre writer sentence. Okay. That was advanced writer sentence. Government overreach is bad. Now, the, the next one's gonna be hard for me, actually. So what's the next book? The next book is The Gold Club, and that's the only one that I've written that's not speculative fiction. Mm. Right? So I've either written techno thrillers, sci-fi, something like that. Mm-hmm. The Gold Club is not. It, I don't know how to define it. It's a, it's a kind of a heist caper book. Mm. It's basically based, based on a bunch of people who work for a big mega corporation that sells everything. Mm. Can you imagine? It's such a corporation that sells everything. So another monopoly book. A big monopoly. Yeah, a lot of my stuff is, like, the little guy versus the machine. Yeah. Right? Okay. I see that. And so you're working for a mega corporation, and the mega corporation decides who goes up high in the algorithm and who goes down low, and you can imagine it was my second book, so I was- Mm ... pretty resentful about the fact that my first book wasn't taking off as much as I wanted it to, so I wrote a revenge fantasy- Oh, right, right, right for the writer who, you know, in this... the book, the corporation in the book is called Sahara. Mm. Right? How obvious could I be? Sahara. Amazon. Is that- Well, I don't get what the- The- ... Sahara- The Mega Corporation is a, is an Amazon rip-off kind of thing. Well, yeah, I understand that, but what- The Herod of the Amazon jungle Oh, okay. I wasn't making the Amazon jungle connection. I, I thought maybe- Now, that's funny. That's funny- Yeah ... that you don't, right? 'Cause, like, there was a t- a point in history where the key word for Apple changed from fruit to computer. Mm. The fact that you didn't think Amazon jungle is kinda awesome. Well, yeah, 'cause it's a shift from Amazon, the first thing I think of is the company. Yep. And then I don't, actually don't think of the jungle. I think of Amazonian women after that. Okay. Okay. But I, that's 'cause I read a epic poem about- Oh ... Amazonian women. Right. Plus you think of in more the nerd lore, so you've got- Mm-hmm um, a lot of Amazonian women references in, in superhero lore and other literature. Oh, yeah. Sure. And then I think of the jungle. Okay. How, what's left of it. You know, what's left of it. Right, right, right, right, right. But yeah, and anyway- So anyway, yeah ... when someone says Apple- Yeah ... I guess I do think of the technology first. So it's interesting how we can- There's been studies on that ... change the meaning of a word. Yeah, totally. But, And- Yeah ... yeah, so I thought Sahara was like maybe his ex-wife's name was Sarah, and he's still mad at her. Yeah. So I, I thought maybe, I thought maybe you were making a diss at someone. You're like, "Sahara." I was like, "Oh, he's got some-" Sahara Corporation. Yeah, some ex-girlfriend he doesn't like. No relation to any existing corporation. Yeah, so Sahara Desert versus Amazon jungle. So it's, it's kinda... So anyway, that book I think the takeaway for that book is I think writers will love it. Mm. If you're a writer struggling or otherwise, I think you'll love The Gold Club. Well, it's not just about, well, I guess I would say parallels to you and I posting a social media clip about trauma recovery versus- Mm-hmm ... an AI cat meme. I mean, that's an algorithm of its own and, and we've both been on the short end of the stick with that. Yep. For sure. Sure. You know, and same with writing. And I know there are authors who launch a book, have all their friends and family download it, go to number one, say they're a bestseller. Yeah. Then you've got people who might be isolated, wrote a book, it's great content but it doesn't have that big launch party. Yep. You know? So algorithms can be very unfair, so I think a- Yes, and- a commentary on that is definitely perfect. Playing the game is tough. It, it, I'm trying to figure out how to play the game with integrity, with the integrity that I have. How to be a proper kiss-up and still not kiss up. Well, no, no. No, I don't, see, yes- No, no, I know what you mean ... yes and no, but actually that's why I do podcasts. Right. That's one thing that I d- I was like, I can have conversations. Mm. This to me is fine. With my integrity, it doesn't feel like I'm selling out. I'm not just SEO flooding. Right. I'm having genuine conversation. Totally, exactly like that. And that's the thing, like when I, and ag- again, with the, and I hope that the person who wrote the review, I appreciate the review. Mm. But me feeling hurt about it being three stars r- rather than five, it's like I could, you know, send out a, an email blast, "Everybody please go and review it," da, da, da, da, da. Yeah. 'Cause it's actually, there's only three reviews. Mm. Two five stars and a three. So- Right ... my average went right down, right? Yeah. And but at the same time it's like, you know what? I think I don't care about this stuff that much. I realized that this morning. Yeah. I'm like, "You know, I'd rather just continue on with the work and, and vibe with the people who are, are enjoying the books." Mm-hmm. And I've had some really great conversations about The Solarian Deep. Yeah. This is the first cool conversation I've had about The Vibrants. I- Oh, yeah ... I expect to have many, many more. And so- Oh, yeah. When that comes out, I wanna definitely read that, and we'll do some content- For sure. For sure ... 'cause that's, that's cool. Absolutely. And that's why I'm- The last thing ... yeah, that's why I'm doing- You're gonna go to publish it, and the government's gonna say, "All AI is banned," and you're like, "Dang it." Maybe. I don't know. I tend to think that if I say everything that's on my mind, I might get disappeared. Yeah. Same. Yeah. These days. But yeah. Anyway, so that's Gold Club. And then we do Still on the list? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So the next one was Dark Alignment. And that's, is that the gravity one, right? That's the one with gravity. Yeah. So that's like, What do you do when the laws of nature get twisted? Did you see the movie Gravity, where gravity shifts? Mm-hmm. The movie Gravity, where gravity shifts? That's the- I think that's the movie ... space movie, right? I think it was called Gravity. The ... With Sandra Bullock, you mean or a different movie? I don't know. There was a movie that came out a couple years ago called Gravity. Yeah. And I think- And gravity shifts. Yes. I think it was just- Really? Interesting ... the moon. Uh-huh. Everything started floating. I don't know. I don't remember. It was a ... I'll be honest- Okay. Wow ... it was a bad movie. It was bad. Well, it's fi- I watched it and I was like, "This movie sucked," so. You know, it's ... Well, I published Dark Alignment in 2016. Mm. So they might have stolen it from me. Who knows? Maybe. But you know, you can't ... I mean, these things, these concepts, whatever. Yeah. Well, someone said- Yeah ... there's nothing- Yeah ... new anymore. Everything that's being written is based on something e- ... Or you've heard that theory? Totally. The ... Yeah. Yeah, totally. And it's a, it's interpretation. And it's hard. Yeah. You know, the hero's journey and whatnot. I ... There's a book called Seven Sisters. Mm. Really cool book. I should probably reread it. The opening line is, "The moon exploded into seven pieces." Mm. That's the opening line of the book. That's pretty awesome. Right? And then the rest of the book is contending with the fact that the Earth is gonna be destroyed. Mm. Because it ... Nothing happens at first. It's, it's seven pieces. Mm-hmm. And now it's gonna start coming back. Shifting or ... Yeah, yeah. Over a period of months or years, something like that. Right. And we have to plan. And then society ends up going different directions to save themselves. Some of them go to space, some of them go undersea and whatnot. And as I was talking about this book on a podcast, I was like, "Yeah, it's very similar to Solarian Deep," in the sense that like, yeah, there's different These evolutionary forces drive people underwater into a survival mode situation. Yeah. And again, there's different ways that the humans cope with it. One is evolutionary, one is technological, and so on. And it was like, wow, did I get that idea from the Seven Sisters? Probably I did, you know? Mm. It's not the same book, obviously. Yeah. But you know, that concept, you know, that's just a concept- Well, and there are plenty of- ... you read something like that. Yeah ... of, of books out there. What if we nuke the moon? Or what if pieces of the moon started to fall off? Or what if we had a meteorite? Right. You know how many meteorite movies there are out there? Right. I think what's so cool about human creativity is how drastically different a single idea can be. Totally. You know? Like, let's take what started my podcast was a meme about a snail chasing you down for all of, you know, eternity, and it's the only thing that can kill you. Now, if you and I were both given a prompt Well, writing prompts are so great. Yeah. I love writing prompts. You and I could be given this prompt, there's an immortal snail, you're immortal, its only goal is to kill you. And you and I could write the most drastically different book where you're in the ocean now. Mm-hmm. And I guess, I don't know, I'm in space. Okay. Or I'm planting different nukes to blow up this snail. Okay. I'm trying to blow up the snail. You're just trying to- In- I like this concept. It's so ... The snail- So, so there was a meme- Yeah ... that was trending. Okay. And me and a couple of nukes were debating it very heartily, which is what inspired the podcast. Right. You, you... Do you push the button or not? You know, one of those concepts. You get a million dollars or something like that. Mm-hmm. You're immortal and, you know, invulnerable and all that. The only thing that can kill you is this one immortal snail. Yeah. And every day all it's doing is going toward you. Yeah. Constantly, at a snail's pace. Right. So we were nuking it out, which is, you know, our conversation style. What if we put it in this tungsten steel ball and throw it in the ocean? What if we inject it into space? This and that. Mm. Some of us were talking about the lamentations of what happens at the end of the universe when, and everything explodes and me and the snail go in opposite directions, and now I long for death, and the only thing that can kill me is ever- It's going the wrong way retreated. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. So we, we were nuking out. We talked about if we put the acid in the, the snail in a ball of, you know, tungsten or steel or whatever, diamonds, who- whatever it was, at the bottom of the ocean, and we're immortal, we live hundreds of years. And what, what is the biological clock of the snail possible of evolving to create an acid to escape its environment? Its biologic- its genetic hardwiring is to kill you. That's its one goal in life. Okay. Right. It has no survival instincts because it's immortal. Right. Its only goal is to continue to evolve to kill you. Right. But that's assuming it's gonna adapt and evolve. Mm-hmm. You know, so we were just having every nuance of this conversation. That alone shows you- Mm-hmm ... you know, if you and I were both given a book to write about man versus snail, you know? Sure, sure, sure, sure. You know? Maybe you're in Thailand and Vietnam and you're eating durian fruit and you go to take a bite and the snail's there. And that's the beginning of the horror, you know? Mm-hmm. It's- What if I put the snail on a treadmill? I think that's the best idea. I like it. I like it. I just thought of that. Put it on a treadmill. Mm-hmm. But is the snail smart enough to get off the treadmill? Right. But a treadmill's powerful enough the snail won't be able to. Right. S- we weren't really given any base stats about the snail's abilities. Mm-hmm. But this is the angle of human creativity. I'm thinking more what's the snail's motivation? Would the snail ever get sick of wanting to kill you? Maybe- It's just a- I would, I would write about negotiating- It's an immortal being ... I would write about negotiating with the snail. Hmm. Aren't you tired of this game? Mm-hmm. Don't you wanna have a... Well- Yeah ... we talked about that. So I said, what if it mates with other snails? Right. It's immortal, it's a deity-like figure that can kill you. Mm-hmm. If it has half-breed demigod snail children- Right ... can they only poison you? Can they only slow you down? Right. Can they kill you? Well, this is a good- At that, yeah, yeah ... this is a good example of the fact that imagination is limitless. Yeah. Which is, like, incredible. Like, anybody who's, like, thinking about, you know... Here's the thing that I would love to say to all of the people listening. I used to think that I wasn't creative. Hmm. And this was part of the trauma, I think, part of it, you know? And even my drumming- Right ... I was a really good drummer, but, like, my, the drum stuff that I wrote, I was like, "Oh, that's kinda lame. That sounds kinda stupid." Hmm. Just sitting here talking about this stuff, brainstorming on this creativity stuff- Right it's so limitless what you can do. And everybody, I mean, anybody can be creative if they want to be, you know? And I think it's really key for us to sort of- Yeah ... and a lot of people ask me about this too, what about creative stuff? What about, you know, in healing too? Hmm. We talk about healing. Like, yeah, it's just amazing what we can come up with. And I think about dreams, right? 'Cause, I come up with stuff ... the most still not understood thing. Weird stuff. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, no, I mean, I c- stuff happens in my dreams that, like, I literally couldn't co- I come up with characters in my dreams that- Oh, yeah, some of my book ideas- Yeah ... or worlds- Right or environments came from dreams. Totally. And there was, I had this one dream, it was really great. I was in a plane crash. It was on the ground. It was moving slow. Mm. And I was on a plane, and I, and it sort of slid into this, like, kind of just this pond next to the runway. But it was still upsetting, it was like, "Oh, my God, are we in a plane crash?" And we started kinda like going down. Right. And it was bizarre and whatever, but I was okay. And then I was walking around the terminal trying to find someone to sue. Because I was in, 'cause I was in a plane crash, right? This guy's American. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's, I am an American, right? It's like, where do I, you know, sign up to get my compensation money? 'Cause I have a fucking plane crash, right? 'Cause they still live, yeah. And then they take me into this back room, and this woman comes out, this woman that came out of my subconscious somewhere- Right ... who was smarter than me. Mm. Really vicious. Mm. Berating me, shaming me. You are not getting that money. Making, oh, but she was telling me, "Oh, so the plane crash was really horrible, huh? Was it, was it really disturbing for you when you slid into the water, huh? You're just looking for money, aren't you?" And I, and in the dream, I was feeling attacked- Right, right ... and shamed, and like, "Oh, I just gotta get outta here." You know, I've got, you know, what the, the- I bit off more than I can chew, yeah ... but also defiant at the same time. Wait, I was in a plane crash, that you are diminishing me. How do you get to determine the traumatization? I do deserve justice, right? Yeah. And it's like, this fucking dream, right? I could, I should write the story, 'cause- Yeah it's a great little story, right? But this woman really scared me. And she was and she's a type of person that I've met, you know, that's a authority figure- Right ... who's like, you know, cynical- Mm ... and they're not gonna let you get away with it. And they're there to protect the companies and, you know- Right, right this kind of thing, like a bank, whatever, you know? You've been in Japan for too long. Maybe. Maybe, maybe. But anyway. Japanese social commentary. I'll tell you. Yeah. Yeah, no, but the the imagination is really limitless, and when you talk about the snail thing, I think about that. And I think, you know, AI in one term has gotten rid of a lot of the blockage for people. You know, now they're using- I can- ... creativity as an excuse because there's no excuse to say, "I can't study or learn grammar or spelling or formatting." Mm-hmm. A lot of people had the ideas, and they didn't have the transfer, the method of creating it, you know, if that makes sense. But now, with AI, with talk-to-text like you're talking about- Yeah you know, people are, are really running out of excuses. And I think, like we talked about writer's block- Yeah I think it's really important that we don't just see it as an obstacle or a solution. I think we see it as a pivot point, you know? And I think sometimes the, the writer's block isn't that it's not a good story- Mm-hmm or we don't know where to go next. I think we need to go somewhere first, like you mentioned. Yeah, it depends. Yeah. And I would qualify my writer's block in that it was more of a spiritual healing phase, I think. It Yeah ... it was necessary that I not be writing. 'Cause I... And there was also a lot of determining that I was and wanted to be a writer. Yeah. Because I went through a lot of like, "Should I quit?" You know? "Should I just..." You know, really. I mean, it's- Right ... occupying my time wishing I could write, but I can't. And so I really solidified this. Like, "No, I really do want this." And so when I was able to start writing, I was more passionate about it. Yeah. More realizing, "Yeah, this is a calling for me." Well, I think it happens for a reason. It did. You know? That, that definitely happened for a reason. I think writer's block isn't random whether it's subconscious or spiritual. I think it happens at a certain time in a writing journey or with a book. Hm. Because there's something, something else we need to get. Yeah. And I've, I've had to delay publications before saying, "Hey, the book has started writing itself-" Yeah "... and it's a lot bigger than I thought." You know how many times I was like, "Let me take a break with a short side standalone book"? Mm-hmm. And then that book's now a trilogy. Yep. I hate... I love that, and I hate that. Yeah. See, a problem as a writer that I've always had is people always say, "I, I don't have enough to write." Mine is always too much information. I have too much to write. Right. You know? I have all these big ideas and so, yeah. But I appreciate that encouragement 'cause I think it's really important. You know, a lot of people... And it's a shame. I've sat down and talked with so many people, and they share these characters they've made, their- Mm-hmm ... their OCs and their worlds. And they're, they're like, "No, I just refuse to write or publish a book. I'm too embarrassed. I don't know if anyone out there is interested in it," and this and that. And getting people to think that other people will love their work as much as they do is so difficult to do. It is. You know, you can't convince someone that what they're creating is great. But I've sat down with people who told me this whole lore that could be series. Yeah. And they're like, "Ugh, I don't know." And I'm like, "What are you talking about?" Like, I would've watched a 12-part movie about that. That was great. Right. Or like, "This is so unique. How did you ever think of this?" Mm-hmm. You know? Like- But some people are embarrassed, especially men. I'll say a lot of men that I've met for some reason are embarrassed. They think that writing is, you know, a feminine thing, and it's not. And it's not. I don't know where that idea came from. Mm. You know, a lot of the, the greatest men of the Bible were poets, they were authors. You know, poetry especially got feminized somewhere along the way. Okay, yeah. And I disagree with that, and I think it has to do with the shift in emotional connection. Maybe, yeah. And, I think that's a good thing. You think about, like, the strong, silent type, Yeah ... archetype of guys, and you get that a lot in, in healing. In my- But how can you say, "Oh, I love stoicism and reading about stoicism," who do you think wrote it? Right. A guy, right? Exactly. So I encourage everyone, you know, don't worry about what people will think. And use a pen name if you want. I mean, at the end of the day- Yeah ... or if you have the same name as another author, right? I was just thinking about that. Yeah, I swear, I wanna get my name back. I have davidhaskell.com. I shouldn't say this, 'cause somebody might steal it, but it's out there. Mm. It costs $2,000. Mm. And I was like- Do I wanna buy davidhaskell.com? 'Cause I own daviddeanhaschell.com already. Right Um, I- Because there's another author- ... already, but- ... also named David Haskell, right? Right. But the thing is, that website is out there for if I, if, if anyone wants to pay two grand. And I'm like, "I kinda wanna claim it." But I probably won't at this minute. Such a throw away money pride moment that- I won't. At this moment I won't pl- if you're thinking about it, please don't gaslight me about buying it. But anyway, point is, like, I kinda wanna reclaim my name. Mm. I, and my... Okay, so this is very, kinda goes deep, 'cause my dad's name is Dean. Right. Was Dean. He passed away last year. He was prominent in Wounded Angels. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Alcoholic and raging and these kinds of things, and we had a very up and down rollercoaster relationship. It ended well. We were on speaking terms when he passed away, and that's- Mm ... good. But yeah, it's kinda like I still cringe in carrying that family name. It has some, like, kind of pain to it or, like- Mm ... I'd rather just sort of go by David Haskell. But I respect the algorithms or whatever. Mm. And I understand that it makes sense that, you know... And, and for the nonfiction too it kinda makes sense to go by my full name. Yeah. But for the fiction, the first four books were David Haskell, and Solarium Deep is David Dean Haskell, and I'm still going back and forth with that. But one of these days when- So we're on standby for Vibrants, whether that's gonna be David Dean Haskell or David Haskell. I think it'll probably be- That's the debate going on right now ... David Haskell right now. I think it'll still be David Dean Haskell because it's clearly easier to find me. I think you should've just done David D. Haskell. It's a possibility. Yeah. 'Cause people are misspelling Dean. Yeah. 'Cause yours isn't- Yep. But I'm- Yours has an extra E. Yep, yep. Yeah. But I like it. I actually like that. Yeah. When I see the misspelling it kinda throws me off. Mm. I like, you know. So, you know, but that's, and it's interesting. We could have a whole conversation about that, what's in a name, right? Well, yeah, you could've done D.D. Haskell. You could've done- Truth is... Yeah, the truth is that by- David D. H., like you could've done any- Yeah. Whoever. Dave. You know? You could've called yourself, I don't, I was- Joey Jojo- Yeah ... Junior Shabadoo. Yeah. Yeah. Do you know about that? That's a Simpsons reference. No, no. Oh, yeah, it's so funny. In Simpsons they say, they're at the bar and he tries to make up a name and he can't think of a name, and he's like, "Joey Jojo- Oh, well- ... Junior Shabadoo." And, and then the other guy said- Family Guy did something like that too. He's trying to make up a name and- Everything he named at the bar- Yeah ... identified his name. Okay. Like, Peter, his name is Peter Griffin. Right And he was looking around the bar to try to name something different. He was like, "Peter," and then there was a Griffin in the bar. Oh, yeah. Yeah. He was like, "Griffin." Yeah. And like- A Griff- Oh, the Griffin, yeah ... it wa- it was a chance since there's a Griffin in the bar, and he was like, "Griffin." Yeah, The Simpsons one was there was a guy named Joey Jo Jo Junior Shabadoo at the bar. So he said, "That's the stupidest name I ever heard," and the guy starts crying. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. That was the joke. But yeah, no, I mean, I've thought about pen names too. I thought about pen names for Wounded Angels. Mm. It turned out I had to... I asked my dad before I published it, 'cause he was too prominent in that book for me to publish something- Right ... without giving him a warning, and I gave him the opportunity to read it. He declined. He said, "You can publish whatever." Right. Then you said he read it and was upset- He was hurt because some of the... Yeah. Not upset. He was hurt. Hurt, okay. He, he read it. He said he felt he wasn't put in the best light, which is true. Mm. You know? But it didn't ruin our relationship. In fact, I've talked to people, and they said it seems he took it- pretty well. 'Cause like some people might just be like, you know, "Get out of my life," or, you know, "I can't believe you wrote that shit." Yeah. And there's still people in my life that I'm still afraid of, this is all Wounded Angels, inner child stuff, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Like, you know, my, if I say this truth or if I say that, that truth, I'm gonna get judged and condemned and attacked- Mm ... or ignored. Mm. These things, or, given a three star instead of five, these type of things. Right. It's so vulnerable to be out here, isn't it? Whether we're writing fiction or nonfiction, you know? Yeah. That's kind of why I decided, screw it, I'm David Dean Haskell. Yeah. This is my website. These are all my books. This is the fiction, this is the nonfiction. You don't have to read it all, but you know, this is all coming from me. And then you ended up podcasting too anyway, so- Yeah ... you know, I mean, you could have podcasted with your pen name, but people would've been like, "Wait a minute. I put your picture into ChatGPT, and it says that-" Yep "... you went to this high school." Oh, God. Yeah, exactly. You can't escape, right? You can't escape. Yeah. That's exactly it. But I am looking forward to the day when I rank a little bit high. I am aiming for success here. I really do. I think my work is worth reading. I think it's worth talking about. I wanna con- you know, continue these kinds of connections. I wanna- Right ... connect with people that are watching this. And it's really a trip. My ... and you were one of the first people who clearly read the book. You asked me questions about it, you pointed out things in it and went- Yeah ... "This is so, empowering and invigorating and just like, you know, validating." And there I use a, a lower vocabulary than all those words you said. Mm-hmm. It's just cool. Cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I always say as an author- Mm-hmm ... there are so many small details that- Yeah ... if someone were to catch this Easter egg as- Mm-hmm ... as you call it, an Easter egg, you know, a little hidden thing, or notice this particular motif- Yeah ... it's like, wow. And that's what I live for. And one thing I really want, is once I get back to fiction writing, making sequels, is reading people's predictions, you know? Okay. Yeah. And seeing, and not writing their predictions into the book, but I'm curious and- Yeah ... that was one of the cool things, at least with fiction writing, obviously couldn't do it with Wounded Angels necessarily, but- Yeah like, I had a friend reading one of my books. She said it was a slow start, very heavy character origin. That was the point. It's the first book in a series. Painful. Yeah. But it's interesting hearing her theories about what do you think about this character or that character? And I, you know, I don't trust this guy. I think he's gonna do A, B, C, or X, Y, Z. Like, it's interesting to see how people interpret your characters, Right ... when you already know what's gonna happen next. Mm-hmm. I think so that's cool. Yeah. So I'll, so once I read Vibrants, I'll send you a bunch of stuff. Like, I think this is gonna happen. I think this AI is gonna do that. We'll see. Yeah. Well, see, I, I- We'll see. We'll see if you have the next one written, yeah, by then ... talking about the series, I do have part of book two written. Yeah. And I have the ending of the series written, and I also have the prequel. Yeah, you're just like me. Then my s- This is there. Yeah. I mean, yeah, no, this, that's definitely gonna happen. 'Cause my trilogy, my one trilogy right now, like- Skipped book two and wrote half of book three, and then going back. Like, I've ... All my books I've always made the ending and the beginning and then filled in the middle. Uh-huh. Because I don't know, for me, I just always have a strong vision of what the ending is gonna be or the- or some big emotional climax- Hmm and the beginning. So what are we doing in between? I'm the opposite. When I published the first chapter of Solarian Deep, I had no idea how it ended. Okay. Yeah. Well, that's why ... And that's going back to, like, how diverse humans are with creativity. I know some people, they write the middle- Mm-hmm and they're like, "How did I start this, and how do I end it?" Oh, I struggle with the middle. You know? Yeah, I definitely struggle with the middle. It's like a, the classic construction of a sandwich question. Mm-hmm. Do, do you start with the bottom bun, the top bun, the middle? Yep. Which I think it's weird if you start with the middle and then you're like, "Oh, shoot, I don't have any bread for this sandwich." It's like, what are you doing? So I encourage everyone, though, don't worry about if you have the beginning, the end, the middle. Mm-hmm. If you just have an idea I'd hate to be clich- cliche, take it and run with it. Mm-hmm. And I highly encourage everyone, if you wanna use AI for grammatical or spelling, but don't give your idea to AI and say, "All right, what should I do with this idea?" Hmm. You know, I think that really has to come from the heart. Don't say, "Hey, I had this idea about a snail that's immortal. What should I do with it?" Like, you- I might, I might put that in GPT and see what comes up Yeah, yeah. It would be interesting. Yeah. No, that's- I would use- I mean, that's a, that's a hot potato, isn't it? That whole ... You know, and I know- Yeah ... there are people out there that are just like, "You know, create me a story." And, you know, that's, that's not creative. Like, there's nothing to do with it. Yeah. But I think there's certain ways, What happened to the days of Wattpad? Oh, yeah I tried Wattpad. They didn't like me that much, so I moved to Royal Road, and then I moved to Substack. Yeah I've never been a part of it. I just know it's- So- It has a reputation for its fan fiction section. Right It's, it's what it's most famous for- Yeah ... for good or bad, you know? I'll tell you what, I have a fan fiction version of the Star Wars prequels that is way better than what was out there. Okay. Someday I, I... if I wouldn't get sued, I'd write it. Well, the clarity I wanna make is- Mm-hmm ... fan fiction at one point got very synonymous with sexualized fan fiction- Okay ... on Wattpad specifically. Oh, really? Okay. Yeah. Well, at least, yeah, at least... Well, we come from different generations maybe, but- Sure ... it was really, like, when people say the word fan fiction- Mm-hmm they think of, like, a sexualized or romanticized version- Got it ... of a book with the main characters nowadays. Right Rather than just, like, here's an alternative that I wrote- Okay ... where Darth Vader is not one-dimensional, to use your earlier example. Exactly. Where he wasn't his father, it was actually his mother, and he had gotten another, either gotten gender changing surgery- We're not gonna go there. Yeah. What- whatever. You know, I'm just saying. Yeah. There's, there's, there's 100 versions people write. Yep. And, you know, there's the SCP Foundation if you wanna read all those different, I'm not sure if you're familiar with that. Nope. We're so... It's every time you throw this at me I realize the generation gap. Okay, yeah. So the SCP Foundation was introduced to me by what do you call it? Person who lives on Reddit only. You know kind of person? But- Yeah ... it is essentially this fictional government foundation and, you know, website, and it has all these like reports- Mm-hmm ... on different paranormal, I guess, situations. Okay. And all, all the reports are from different people around the world writing them. Okay. So you... I, like, one of them is a living room that's a living room, and it's a government file on a living room that when you go into it, it digests human beings, and it serves as a trap. There's, I don't know, like cats that shoot lasers. Like, basically it's a, it's a public forum kind of thing. Okay. So people around the world all write as a part of it, but they're writing their own unique thing. Okay. And some of the files will have all black text over half of it, redacted, redacted. So it's supposed to be like this fake government agency that we all contribute to as authors. Okay. And so it's something pretty neat. For some people who don't wanna publish a book but they really like writing about what if the government found this- Oh, yeah ... paranormal situation- Sure ... and making a file type thing on it. Mm-hmm. And writing the report and stuff. Mm-hmm. I think The Backrooms is an SCP, but I might be wrong about that. Okay. Oh, really? That movie? Yeah. Well, it's, that's a long ongoing thing. I think that's part of the SCP Foundation, to give you an example. There's so much out there. I love it. Now, well- Well, yeah. And, and, and- I'm gonna have to look into that. Yeah ... that's what I'm saying. Now more than ever I think there's so many online forums and connection places for writing and creativity. Mm-hmm. Or you could have a podcast where you just brainstorm book ideas. Yeah. And you have to pay to listen to the episodes though, 'cause it's, you know, it might be making you money. So moving forward with your writing journey, we've got two books coming out soon. Yes. Multiple being worked on in the background. Yep What is it all looking like for you, and kind of as we end this here, what... You kind of left us with a couple main takeaways- Mm-hmm ... in line with kind of the future of what you're working on. What's the big question you want everyone to ponder, or? Hmm. Well, the big question I want everybody to ponder is how can we be okay? Hmm. And that's all my writing. It's, whether it's, you know, trauma healing and, you know, real stuff that, that we can talk about- Hmm ... or where we're gonna go from here, 'cause, you know, the world's really messed up these days. Yeah. And just, it's disturbing. Yeah. But and then people aren't listening to each other, and that's- Hmm. 100% ... you know. So that's a concern, you know, and I'm concerned for the state of the world, and that's kind of... i've always written sci-fi because I always like to... I used to think about that bright, beautiful future kind of thing when I was a kid and look, looking to escape. Right. You know, oh, I'd have like a robot maid and, you know, we'd have like this really cool... but the thing is we have most of that. So look at this cool microphone here. Oh, yeah. This is like Star Trek. Yeah, yeah. The computer, whole s- computer setup, we got this whole Asian background thing. Yeah. You know, I mean, it's like the future's here in many ways. Hmm. And even the stuff that I'm writing now, it's like I don't know whether, whether we're gonna catch up to what I'm writing next year or in 10 years. Yeah. But I know it's gonna get there. Well, 100%. Yeah. My neighbor, he's in his 80s. Mm-hmm. And he said, "Yeah, when I was younger, you know, they were joking about this guy who had a watch and it, you know, did all this cool tech stuff." And he goes, "Now everyone's got one." Totally. He, like he watched- We're gonna do it he was born before the Hula Hoop. Yeah. So he's seen a lot of things come and go- Right ... technology-wise, including like, you know, the Apple Watches now and, Yeah. But, ... people are talking about the, you know, brain chips and stuff like that, and it's like- That's, well, that's creepy ... we already got- Yeah. But think about it. I mean, it's not, it's only one step away from having your watch on you that tracks your, your heart rate, your sleeping. Sure. Yeah. We have machines that track our sleep, that track how deeply we're sleeping. And I'm gonna- I mean, think about that ... I'm gonna- When you say it out loud, it sounds kinda crazy ... it really is. No, and but at the same time, like they talk about the toilet can evaluate our health. Hmm. And get samples, and then tell you if you have the beginnings of cancer. Oh, the toilet? Yeah. So you give it a- I didn't- So you're giving it a stool sample and a urine sample every day. So, Wow ... the toilet could analyze your samples, and then if you have the beginnings of cancer, the toilet can tell you, "Go to see the doctor," right? That's miraculous. It's creepy. Yeah. But it's also mir- you know what I mean? Like, we have the technology to do so many amazing things, but the integrity. Okay, so let's go, let's end this. Let's do it. And I know you're a spiritual guy. Yeah. And I am, too. I don't talk about it a lot necessarily in terms of the writing except with trauma healing. There's an element of spirituality- Right. Right ... to my journey which I don't shy away from. Hmm. We can do almost anything we want technologically. Right. Including blow up the planet. Hmm. Just make others out of everybody and push everybody else down and raise a few people up. Mm. We can do all that kind of thing. But the important thing I think is to all of us to focus on getting well. Mm. This is, this is my writing, right? Right. It's well- it's wellness. It's about wellness. Mm. Collective wellness and personal wellness. Right. And so when we talk about this, you know, the computers can do all these creepy, crazy things. Mm. And who's program, program, programming them- Right ... and who's in charge. We're in charge. Mm. If we wanna be. That's the thing now. We're both American. Yeah. We have way more power than we know. Mm. Most Americans don't realize the fact that if we wanted to, together- Mm ... we could change the whole Constitution tomorrow. Mm. Literally. We could throw, throw away the Supreme Court. We could get rid of the Third Amendment. We could tear it all up and start over. The people. Mm. Nothing to do with Washington, nothing to do with the politicians. But we don't. People think, "Well, we don't have much power. We don't have much say." Mm. "We don't have much of a voice." But look at this. I mean, we're talking to I don't know how many people. Right. Right? So if you're bothered by what's going on, and I am- Mm ... what I'm doing is focusing on my own healing, my own integrity, my own spiritual center, and then hopefully resonating with people- Mm ... who also want to grow and focus on being good rather than being, you know, shitting on the next guy. Right. Those kinds of things. And so again, like, I think that's where I'm aiming the fiction, too, is, like, more the collective. Like, if you- Mm ... if you vibe with my vibe, if you vibe with, what I'm talking about with healing and wellness, recovery, addiction, and, trauma addiction and these kinds of things the fiction is a collective idea. You know? So when you read The Vibrants and you read Solari and Deep is a lot of that, too. It starts out with, like, demonizing the other. Mm. There's so much demonizing the other in the world today. Oh, yeah. Right? Oh my God. Yeah. And I'm- Especially in America ... I'm, well, especially in America, yes. But- But in Japan it's happening, too ... I am feeling it in Japan. Mm. More than... Hello, Japan, I love you. I am concerned with the way things are going in Japan. And- Yeah ... I feel less welcome now than I did two years ago. Well, yeah, and this fall we've got a lot of changes coming to make you feel a lot less welcome. Totally. And so, you know- But we look so good in Asian wear. I mean, I got my kimono on. Yeah. Look at us, yeah. Indonesia loves me, 'cause they gave me- Yeah ... my boss gave me this shirt when I played drums for them. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, anyway, that's the ebb and flow of society, right? Right. We've had good times, we have had dark times. I don't want people to get discouraged. I'm a very hopeful guy. Yeah, yeah. But anyway, my main point about that is, like, if you read my fiction and, and vibe with it and follow me, I want connection- Mm ... with my readers, too. Right. Like, if you, if you like something that I wrote, I'd love to hear from whoever's reading my stuff. Yeah. I put all that stuff at the end of the books. There's a QR code to my website. Mm. You know what I mean? And I'm not hard to reach. We're not angry hermits writing in a basement, you know? Yeah. We're looking for connection, so. I'm totally looking for connection, so. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, so hopeful stuff. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, my first and last of this summer- Yeah ... international interview. But we're gonna go to Phuket together and party it up and eat fruit and- lose some weight in advance. So like before you go there, lose three kilos- Oh, I'll be all right ... then you can put them back on. I'll be all right. Yeah. For sure. Excited to go there. Yeah. They have durian and everything. We can eat all that good stuff. Yeah. But looking forward to Vibrants 100%. Yeah. Yeah. And- Send you a copy ... all that stuff. Yeah. Yeah. So well, I'll be reading all of these at some point, you know, and hopefully my reading pace and your writing pace aren't too bad. You're going pretty fast, so. Trying, yeah. But we'll, we'll see where it takes you. But thank you so much. Thanks. </p><p><!--block--><br><br></p>
