Goosebumps

My name is Hi, Roosevelt. How are you doing? Look, I'm so sorry that I made a promise I'd pick up, and then I didn't. Yeah, we've been having, look, for those people lucky enough to be listened to this podcast for a long time, they'll know that recently we've had some communication difficulties because you put your phone and do not disturb mode 24/7. But in the past, when you've called me, it comes through. And now it doesn't even, like, it wasn't even coming up for me to answer the phone call. I think you see Apple Update. If anyone out there can help, please save for our friendship. Now, to lead into the big question about this week's episode, I'd sort of like to bring lessons up to speed that don't know. You are a bit of a literary bookworm. Is that a fair assessment? I'd say a little bit, but I don't read that much. I'm nervous. You certainly have a lot of books on your shelf that I've seen. That's just for sure. That's just to try and convince people that I can read. Today's episode is about the hit series in American Goosebumps. Ah, I love that. I love Goosebumps. Is it still going? So, yeah, it's still going. It's still going strong. Did you read them going up? Yeah, Goosebumps. They were, like, these horror, like, teenage high school books. I love sweet, early high, like all those big American series, big hip for me. Did you, is there any particular Goosebumps book that stood out to you that you recall now? Yeah, I don't know why this is the one that's standing out to me because I know it wasn't my favourite one, but it had a really good cover, say cheese and dye. And I think it was about the camera that would kill people. I'm David Farrier, New Zealander accidentally marooned in America, and I want to figure out what makes this country tick. Now, I think most of us have a book that we remember that really got us excited about reading for some it might have been Harry Potter. Maybe if you're a bit older, it was Lord of the Rings. For me, and probably millions of other kids, it was Aarostine's Goosebumps books. I have so many of those book covers etched into my brain, bright and vibrant, and also scary and unsettling and funny. Books like Night of the Living Dummy, Monster Blood, A Night in Terror Castle, and The Haunted Mask. The books did very little as far as education went, but that was kind of the point. They were pure entertainment, and I credit them for making me understand that reading could be really, really fun. So, prepare to be chased, possessed, haunted, and freaked out with nostalgia, because this is the Goosebumps episode. Hey, Rob. Lou. Do you read? Can you read? I can read. Can you read? Who taught you how to read? School? Mum. Probably a combination of both my school and mother. Do you think your kids is reading a bigger part of their life as it was when you were a kid? Because kids have so much more stuff they can use to fill their brains now. Yes, we're on panic that we're losing the ability. No, Natalie's a big bookworm. So Calvin's gotten really into reading, and he's writing horror stories. No, he's working on one right now. What is the process? Is it pictures and notes? Pictures, and it's him and two of his friends from school all kind of collaborate on it. So they have one friend that likes to draw, and then him and his other friend that like to write the stories. This is incredible. They've got two that they just finished this week. The new idea of the plot or kind of the mechanics of what this thing's about. Not yet. He wants to borrow my computer to type it up. This is really cute. Is that is he going to actually type it up, or is it employed to get dad's computer and to like go on the internet? He's going to, I think he wants to type it up. He's, yeah, it's not appointed on the internet. This is so good. I'm not sure his typing skills. This could be his way for it to improve to get that typing up to speed. Allegedly RRstein types just with his index fingers, which is insane. Do we have any house keeping before we get too deep into goosebumps? I have a request for people. I was thinking, I would like our listeners. This is optional. You don't have to do this. But I would like you to find an episode of Flightless Bro that you like. Where say you listen on Apple, you listen on Spotify, YouTube, find it using Google or the search thing within the app. Find the episode and copy the URL, the universal resource locator. Is that what it stands for? I don't know. I think it does. And share it on your meeting of choice. Because I keep forgetting to sort of, it's so helpful. Because if you're listening, a lot of people are out listening. And if you share it with your friends, whether you've got ten or a hundred or a thousand, it's just such a handy way to spread the show around. Yeah, well, I feel like maybe curate a topic for a friend. Because it's a good idea. Because different episodes are for different people. I would say. Nickelodeon is for a different person to Space Man Barry. Correct. For example, vastly different. Scientology. Yeah, I like this. But, you know, I know it's funny. I'm trying to do that more with my friends' podcasts. Because I will listen to my friends' podcasts and love them. I will completely forget. Can anyone mind? Yeah, you are. Well, not my other podcasts. Yeah. Ah, ah, ah. Look, let's not get specific about it. But, for instance, I feel like I've been listening to one for like 10 years now, the film cast. I forget to tell people about it all the time. Yep. And that's like the best thing I could do for that show is to spread the word. Anyway, I've rambled on about this too much. Well, right now too, we are in Texas. We are. Yeah, and not to be trippy, but like right now as you record it, we're not. We're not. But when it is, this is not, this gets trippy. We are going to win this ears when this is in your ears. Unless it's leaked somehow, someone's torrents the episode illegally. Yeah. We will be in Texas currently. And we will be having a show in Austin this Thursday. You should be able to buy tickets at the door if you haven't gotten them yet. If you want to show up. Austin's going to be fun. It's a good, it's a good lineup. And Dallas after that. Yes, Dallas is on Saturday the second. Yeah, holy shit. I'm very excited about music in both of these places too. Because I've got, oh my god. I've got a lot of Texas musician friends. One of the favorite things for me about these live shows is you organizing bands and musicians to play. And I get to turn up to Sound chick and just meet these people. And they're amazing. And yeah, and they do our theme song. We've got full bands for both Texas shows too. So that's the thing with you. I feel like you'll sit a bar and then you'll always try and outdo the bar. Yeah, we're going to have an orchestra. It's sure one of these days. You're going to show a jazz band. And then there's going to be a 50 piece. Honestly, Rob with you wouldn't surprise me at all. I mean, that'd be a, that's a dream. But it feels like, yeah, I think we both have the same idea about live shows. We don't want it just to be us to yapping on a stage. We want to give people their money's worth. And so music and guests and other elements come in. And some special, oh, some special elements. So I'm especially in these Texas ones. So you don't want to miss it if you're nearby. Okay. Now trippy. Now we're now transporting ourselves back in time to this room. We're recording now. We're not, I'm freaking out. We're not in Texas. As we talk, we're in Los Angeles. Yes, we are. It is March the 22nd currently. We're doing dates. Just in case I want to do the date. Just in case something insane. I mean, more insane is taking part in the news. And be like, why aren't they referring to this Nuke that went off or something? You know, that's why, because it's March 22nd. I lost time speaking of horror, Nuke's all the rest of it. Do you have any kind of relationship with him as a kid? Were you into his stuff? Yeah, I have like vivid memories of like the library at my elementary school. How he is going through the covers. Like the cut, I feel like for me the most iconic thing about goosebumps was the covers. I could not agree more. Like they are itched into the brain. I was looking it up for this episode. And I mean, you three of them have been mentioned already. Yeah. The haunted mask, which you're wearing a t-shirt of right now. I'm rich. That one, I remember vividly. Night of the living dummy. Hell yes. That cover. The scarecrow walks at midnight. That one, it's back in my mind now, I'd forgotten. The scarecrow? Yeah. They jeez and die, which Rosabel mentions. That was her favorite. About a camera that kills people. I believe the cover was a bunch of skeletons, right? Yep. Yeah. The curse of camp cold lake. Mmm. And then this was a fun one. A night and terror tower. Oh, I remember that. But my favorite part of it was there was a night pond in the castle. It was a night with a night on the cover, but night as an evening. Is this like, was that like patient zero? Is that where it started? A night event. Why have you now ruined that cover for me? It's like, 'cause it was scary. It's like the hooded guy, right? It was a night down the stairs. It was a night. It was a night. I hate that you have done that now. And then stay out of the basement. Stay out of the basement was another good one. We had a thing in New Zealand called the Scholastic Book Fair. And you had that? Yeah, and I just remember book fairies. It was amazing. And I just remember goose bumps with the books that I would look for. And they would jump. And I just remember visceral excitement about a book, which is kind of an incredible thing because of all the things books If you've seen his boring or dry, but those books got you excited in a way that was extraordinary Well, it was something with like the horror genre because I've I We also had like an accelerated reading program. We had to do an elementary school where we had to each book had like a Level and then like points for it. I vaguely remember something and you had to take like a 10 to 15 question test Yeah, at the end and you'd get points for it and then you had a goal that you would set Mm-hmm for your year or month or yeah, just to get you into it. Yeah, yeah, but the horror ones I remember Sticking out quite a bit because there was another one. Did you ever read Benicula? No, but please You've just triggered another memory though, but you go first Nicula was about a bunny a vampire bunny They like find this bunny at a movie theater. Yeah screening of Dracula Uh-huh, and the bunny is a vampire. This is great This is like an evil right, but it's like a pet bunny that like playing the pet But then like at night they're finding like Bite marks. Yeah. Okay. This is good. I just when you said you started doing animals I will say just remember any morphs animorphs. Yes, which was iconic. Yeah again All about the cover. I couldn't tell you about any of the stories, but the covers, of course. There's amazing I would prefer to shop. I don't know who designed them. I want to find out now But obviously you got an animal and a human and the the morphing from one to the other the illustration of that Absolutely iconic. You got it like a fucking fish turning into a man, you know really really good. Yeah I was curious about the covers and so I did a little bit of like digging aka googling Tim Jacobus did the covers. He did all of them for goosebumps. He did all of them except for one Which I think was the second one stay out of the basement Stay out of the basement. So basically, I think how it went is they were like scholastic was trying to find who would do the art They gave it came down to two artists. Yeah He did the first book. This other artist of the second book other artists didn't get the job. So he redid the second book as well But he Created yeah all the covers except for the second he said and in view recently it was the use of overly saturated colors That one in the job fit with the now notable six years B movie style title font and his favorites To design slapy the dummy from night of the living dummy and the giant praying mantis which I've forgotten about I remember you know like call memories. Yeah, just live and thought about it in Yeah, but it's crystal clear in your mind right yeah from a shocker on shock street And he just sounds like the loveliest man and he's just he's responsible for all of that stuff So yeah, I I guess it's fair to say we're both big fans Yes, and probably one of the most exciting things I've ever done for this particular show is I Got to interview our outside which is something I never thought would happen in my entire life This man is a man that's still writing. He's a quote. You just summed him up. That's his bio He's I think 82 he's still going yeah, and I don't know I find sometimes the idea of enduring these people I almost feel guilty because I'm like you should be writing that I'm taking your time Well, they're talking to me. I should be doing your thing The like Laura Varel Stein though was just that like he did it because he loved writing there wasn't like He's still just pumping out books. He probably doesn't need to be writing books still I'd say he's I didn't ask him about his network But I imagine he's worth a decent amount of money to find out goose bumps is like the highest after a Harry Potter He's um he's the best so this is my chat with RL Stein There's almost an immediate panic when I started the zoom interview when I realized I didn't know what to call RL Stein Like what even was his first name for decades? He's just being the full thing RL Stein Thankfully, I noticed his name had come up on his zoom screen and that saved the day Robert how are you? I'm good. I'm hanging out now. How are you doing? I was doing good good because I was about to interview my literary hero now 82 years old I'm curious for you as a kid What got you into storytelling whether it was reading or other types of storytelling? I don't know I was a comic book freak when I was a kid People always ask me what were your favorite children's books? I didn't read books. I only read comic books Hey, my friends and I we carried around big stacks of comics We would trade them and we would read them under the tree in my front yard I grew up in Columbus, Ohio And When I was a kid there were these scary comic books Tales from the crypt and the vault of horror. I just loved them They were just bloody gruesome comics, but they all had funny twist endings So you see these were very influential on me When you started writing decades before goosebumps was every even a thing He was writing stuff that was funny under the name jovial bob stein And when you started writing you were you lent into the humor like you weren't a horror guy initially I'm wondering where that transition took place I can tell you exactly where it took place, but it's sort of an embarrassing story You know, and I never planned to be scary And now I always I liked horror. I mean, I think horror is funny. I don't really get scared by it but I was liked horror And but I never planned to write it I was a jovial bob stein. I was a joke book writer. I wrote maybe 40 joke books for kids And I did a humor magazine for 10 years called bananas Which I edited and wrote most of I just planned to be funny And then one day I was having lunch with a woman named Gene Fywell Who was a editorial director. It's scholastic And she had just had a fight with a teen horror writer Who show remain remain nameless Christopher Pike And she came to lunch Right and she said I'm never working with him again You could write a good teen horror novel go home write a book called blind date she gave me the title I didn't know what a teen horror novel was I had no idea But I was at that point in my career where you don't say no to anything You just say yes to everything and I went running to the bookstore to find out what a teen horror novel was And I bought books by Christopher Pike and Lois Duncan and Diane Hoel and all these richy tankers Lee Q'sic all these people who were writing Teen horror so I could find out what it was and then I wrote this book It came out. It was a number one bestseller. I just wanted to interject and say I remember blind date well I read that out for I'd gotten into goose bumps. It was a little bit scarier Number one on the publisher's weekly like I couldn't what the funny stuff never made it anywhere near and then a year later I wrote another thriller For her called twisted Number one bestseller and I thought forget the funny stuff I've been scary ever since And that's exactly how it happened But it's embarrassing because it was an accident wasn't my idea I think some of the best things in life unplanned and accidental answer. I can fully get behind that Yeah, I always tell kids that don't make plans Just say yes to everything You don't know where you're gonna end up I came to New York after college to write humorous novels for adults That was my ambition and of course nobody wants humorous novels for adults Nobody by right nobody buys humorous not no adults by humorous novels And that was my ambition. I had never planned to write for kids And then I needed a job. I was in New York. I needed work Answered an ad for scholastic magazines ended up its scholastic and ended up writing for kids I always tell people don't I was at this meeting of 300 top high school students And a kid got up these were the top very nervous nervous kids there top high school students And the kid said well after I graduate I'm going to start my own company And then after five years I'm going to sell it I'm now going to go public Then I'll sell my company and I thought oh it's just kid in trouble I said you're in trouble you can't don't make plans You never know where you're gonna end up You mentioned Christopher Pike earlier and I remember when I was a kid your name and I shouldn't I shouldn't have let's leave that out of it But you know early early um in your career I imagine um the landscape for Children's books young adult books certainly horror was in an entirely different place You have somehow been this constant that has just continued to do what you do and continue to sell Incredibly well whilst the landscape is changed around you. I'm wondering if you could talk to that at all or if you don't even notice what's happening around you and you just do what you do. Well, I don't know if I could do anything else. I don't know. But no, I notice things are changing. I know what's going on and publishing and everything. But everyone's so pessimistic about publishing and about children's publishing. Everyone's so gloom and doom. Kids aren't reading in this. When I started out in children's publishing, the children's division was two women in the back of the office. That was it. That was the children's department. And now it's like a two billion dollar industry. Seriously. So someone is reading those books, right? They are. And they're certainly reading his stuff. And you've got new goosebumps on the way as well, right? Yeah, goosebumps continues. 33 years of goosebumps. That's why I look like this. I'm writing this stuff. 33 years. I tell David, I tell you honest truth. When we started out, I said, let's do two or three of them. Goosebumps have now sold over 400 million copies around the planet, published in over 30 languages. Robert has a whole other series called Fear Street, 80 million copies sold. Not to mention the various TV show adaptations and films. I don't try to teach anything except, you know, if there's something scary, you should run. That's the only thing you can learn. Which is good life advice. Oh, David, I don't have any hard vocabulary words. The sentences are all short. It's easy to read. It's all just reading motivation, really. I like kids. I have it. Kassan, I have grandkids. I like kids a lot. And I'm very happy that the way things have worked out with them. And people are always saying, well, kids have changed so much. Kids have changed. It must be hard for you. And kids haven't changed. They're the same. Especially with what I do, the fears haven't changed at all. Afraid of the dark. Afraid something's hiding in your closet or under your bed. Afraid to go down in the basement. Afraid of getting lost. That never changes. Goosebumps could have been written when I was a kid back in the 50s. Really, you know, it's changed. It's just the technology. That's what's changed. Cell phones. Cell phones ruin every story. They ruin everything. Your kid has his cell phone. And they're in horrible trouble. And they're being chased by a monster. It's terrible. They pick up their phone. They call for help. And then your brook is over. Aral Stein has somehow struck upon this perfect formula, pure entertainment. And the knowledge that kids will always be scared of the same stuff. So Goosebumps will always be a hit. I guess he's doing the kids what Stephen King does for adults. People have tattoos of me on their legs. There are people walking or don't laugh. There are people who have my face tattooed on their legs. Now, how are you supposed to react to that? Hey, I mean, yeah, it's incredible. It's a good face. Oh, you're very kind. You obviously need new glasses. But you're very kind. I mean, I'm just back from a big teen book festival in Dallas last weekend, 15,000 teenagers. Can you picture that? It's the biggest book festival anywhere. And now, of course, I also, if I did a bookstore in Dallas, and now I get 30-year-olds and 40-year-olds, well, I get people your age. You know, you're my son's age. And so I've got, I have like generations that I get to scare. Here's when I quit. So I said, this is what I'm done, right? Somebody comes up to the table and they say, "My grandmother loves your books." That's what I'm done. That's the end of it. Look, you probably get a lot of annoying questions from journalists like myself. I'm curious when you get kids asking you questions. I'm curious what kind of stuff they're wanting to know from you, typically. Now I get horrible questions. The questions I never got before. Are you going to retire? When are you going to retire? When you die, who will write your book? I did not use to get that question, right? A letter, it said, "When you die, can a family member take over for you?" I hate this. I hate this. Most of my mail in the questions are "Dear RL Stein, our teacher is forcing us to write to an author, and I chose you. Where do you get your ideas?" This is the most asked and most horrible question that everyone at journalists ask it, kids ask it. I'm sure every author gets asked, "Where do you get your ideas?" And it's the one question that you can't answer that. I always say, "We all have ideas. Where do you get your ideas?" We all have ideas, right? It can't honestly be answered. There are a lot of authors who say, "Well, I start with the question, what if?" And I ask myself, "What if this has garbage?" It's total garbage. It's not how you get an idea. As for his ideas, he keeps having them. He writes at least every other day. He can't help it. Do you write when the idea takes you, or do you set aside a set number of hours each day? I'm a machine. It's factory work. But look, I do it. I'm still doing it. I've never been this busy. I'm old. And I should be on a beach somewhere. He should. I'm doing seven books a year pretty much. And comic books. I'm writing comic books for adults now. And so I, you know, I'm in this adult book. I've really put in seven days a week. I really, really worked on it. I still write maybe six days a week. But for like three or four hours a day, but I enjoy it. I'm weird. I like it. I love what I do. I enjoy my writing. Actually, I just finished today. I just finished the first draft of a novel for adults. So I am doing something different. I just today, just this morning, I finished page 402. How was it? It was quite an experience for me to spend four months on one book. How was that? Was that was a good like stretching things out in that way? It was a challenge. As long as you say that, it's a challenge. You're writing for adults is the exact opposite of what I do for kids. When I write a goose bumps book, the most important thing as far as I'm concerned is that the kids have to know it's not real. It couldn't really happen. And if I establish that it's just a fantasy, then I can get pretty go pretty far with the scares. But in an adult book, it's the opposite. Everything has to be real. You have to believe everything that's happening, or adults aren't going to buy your story. So it's a challenge. I'm happy to have it done. I mean, I have to go read it now, see what language it's in. Right? I should go back and read it. But this book is called Let's All Kill Rosalie. I'm guessing it's Ahara? Yeah, it's Thriller. Five people are trying to kill Rosalie. One thing I really liked about my conversation with them is that I got the feeling he's grateful for all of this. Like he gets how lucky he is. His ego hasn't taken over. When Goosebumps came out in 1992, there were three of them. They sat on the shelf for months. If it was today with the computers, the bookstores would have just yanked them away. They just sat there and then suddenly kids discovered them and told brought them into school and kids all over the world suddenly. And suddenly we were selling four million books a month. Just out of nowhere. You can't predict that. I sat there. I'm amazed. I've been writing 20 years. Nobody noticed. And then suddenly there's this incredible thing. It's luck. It's all luck. I knew this fact already, but I hadn't really clocked it. He'd been writing for over 20 years before he had it big. 20 years. I mean, I was already old when Goosebumps came out. I was old. I was 49 when we started Goosebumps. I was already old. I love these stories of, you know, maybe it's just thinking about myself as well as a 43-year-old. You kind of think in your 40s. kind of sort of done what you're always going to do, but then I come across stories like yours and people, even like Ricky Javace, who didn't have the office and get fame until he was in his 40s as well. I think it's a really neat thing to remember. I'm an inspiration to old people, right? Which I wish you got to stay. I was not going to phrase it in that way. I so appreciate your time. I almost feel guilty talking to you because I feel like it's time you could be writing more books. I'm curious what you're writing. Great. I just finished one. That's true. Yeah, let me take 10 minutes off. Come on, Dave. Stay tuned for more Flightless Bird. We'll be right back after a word from our sponsors. Support for Flightless Bird comes from Wild Alaskan. Now, one of the things I'm not particularly confident about buying in the soup market is fish. I'm just, I don't know a lot about fish. I love eating fish. I love cooking fish. 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I did, I did talk to him about it, and then I went to put it into what you just heard. Yeah, I got self-conscious. I'm like, I bought it up on a previous episode. I'm talking about myself too much. But then I've got, we're on a podcast. I'm always talking about myself. Yeah, I mean, and that was the whole point of you talking to him. Was because you wanted to ask him. Yeah, you're right. So I did confirm that. No, I don't mean to put you on the spot, but your book that I have here, you may recognize the cover. You make a reference in there to a movie about competitive tickling that a character watches on Netflix. I made a movie called Tickled, which I think this book is referencing, so just purely in a self-interested way. You did, you made that film. I made tickled in you 10 years ago and somehow made a tickling in it. There was a lot of tickling in it. Yeah, you're definitely reference. Now you're going to sue me, right? No, it's the biggest compliment I could possibly in my mind. So yeah, there it was. So yeah, as far as, yeah, I mean, imagine, yeah, my favorite author from when I was a kid ends up referencing this weird doc I made in his goosebumps book. Like, there's so many, like, just the fact he's still writing is surreal and he can do that this far on. Well, that's, yeah, I can't. The fact that he wrote his first one at 49 is also kind of mind blowing. I had no idea that he pulled that out. Such a long career of writing these. Such a prolific career of writing these of like hundreds and hundreds of books. It's also, it's that thing of, I think, there's this idea almost if you haven't, I don't know, I feel like if you haven't done your big thing by 30, there's this idea that you're kind of done. Yeah, at least that's how I kind of see that. I definitely feel that like, yeah, I've peaked in that. Like, I'm not going to do anything better than I've done already. You've done all this, you've worked your butt off. You've done all this cool shit. Yeah. It's like, what else is going to happen? And no, it's like, you've got, you're not just going to rot away. All sorts of shit can happen. And I think it's like, when you think of him, it's just really encouraging to remember that. And the fact he didn't stop writing. He wasn't like, he just loves doing it and kept doing it. And happened to like, meet that person that's like, write this book, he did it and it worked. And the most impressive thing is just the fact that he enjoys doing it. Yeah, and is doing it just for the love of writing books. Because it's the perfect balance as well. If you've got something you love and it is an income and it makes you. It's probably pretty lucrative. I was insane. My God. And yeah, it's the same with, I think Ricky Gervais, and it currently is a mess of our soul, but I think like the office is one of my favorite comedies, British office. And to think that he did that when he was in his 40s. Before that, he would, he'd tried being a musician. He had a radio show, which was cool. But he didn't create this thing that made him this guy. They would go on to host the Oscars and his films and other TV shows until he was in his 40s. It's encouraging. It's encouraging for old people like me. There was another thing I remember hearing about Arles Stein was that he had a water park that he built at his house for his children. You told me about this while ago, and I kicked myself because I forgot to bring it up with them. Explain? I just. that's it. He has a water park and apparently he built a water park in his backyard. Really good for his kids. That's the best. Which to like also putting together the facts that he was in his 50s, then when he had all the success. He built that in his 50s, probably couldn't. I mean, I guess he probably. Yeah, no, but he's not like into extreme sports. Completely. Decides to build in his backyard. It's freaking amazing. Makes him a pretty cool dad. He also, if you're watching this on YouTube or on Spotify, you'll see what he looks like. But he does look kind of what you'd expect. He's like this lovely old man, you know, like very cheeky smile, great little sparkly eyes. He's just very, very lovable. He's everything I want him to be, to be honest. Maybe if we ever do, if we're still doing this podcast and like a decade, we can do a part two when you'll be 92. And we'll go to his water park. Yeah, can you get us an invite? I'll try and get us an invite there, and we can all like slide down together. Well, I hope it's like haunted now. I would have to be haunted. Like falling apart and it's a cover of a book. Surely they've also, they've made movies as well. Jack Black has started in the goosebumps. Calvin's gotten into the movies. Of course he has not the books. He had a phase of nightmares. So I think giving in this. four books. Probably isn't a thing to do. I've been reluctant to, but last time I was back in New Zealand, I went to a secondhand bookstore and they had all of the original run pretty much there for sale of like a dollar each. I bought them all, gave them to my nieces. One niece in particular has just powered through. And it's right. It's like what he said, the same fears persist. What's under the bed? What's in the dark? All that stuff. Well, I like the like nostalgic time capsule of it, too, of like this was a time before phones. And it feels just like a pure time that all these stories are taking place. And like he said that if those were to take place today, it's just came up all of my cell phone and solved this right. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to record this on my phone and prove that this it's Scooby Doo-esque too. It's like timeless and like pure somehow. Wait, when you're a kid, did you have fears as a kid? Like what was your main thing? I watched it when I was very young of the Tim Curry. One like big smiley face. The clown. Yeah, Jesus. So like I didn't, I didn't love the bathtub drain. At one and like the sink drain. Yeah, drains in general. That freaked me out. And then there was I think it was from are you afraid of the dark like the under the bed stuff. It didn't didn't love when it was dark. And I'd like jump into bed. Yeah. I wanted the the under the bed fear is such a I'm curious like where that core idea comes from. Does is every kid reading a book or seeing an image of something in there or is it just the idea where you sleep? You've got a gap and something in your primordial mind goes there could be a creature under there. Where does that come from? I still don't love it. No, I'm the same. I'm a friend. My bed frame at home does not have an under the bed. It is like and that is something you were absolutely like born on purpose. I don't know how it was subconsciously probably. I'm thrilled that I don't have under the bed in that it's just a solid box mattress and I I used to be until my early mid 20s used to still be like afraid of the dark. I didn't like being in the dark. That just eventually just stopped and I don't know why it stopped. But I guess I just grew out of it eventually. He developed the dark. He developed new for new fears. Yeah. There's new ones that are right. There's enough of them around now. Because when I was a kid I didn't mind flying either. Yeah. You become more of a wimp as you become more aware of your motel and motel at the right. That thing. I think that's really what it is is that you're concerned about all the ways that you can die. But I love that the end of the bed thinks sticks. They're like original one. There might be something under there. Check under your bed. We love Arostine. He has, I think, a new kid's book out like when this episode drops he's got one either out or out very soon. He's just seven a year. He's going to like every other month. More than that. Can't stop. Can't stop won't stop. Arostine. We love him. Goosebumps. I can't. Should we do some feedback? Do some feedback. Now because we're recording this episode a little bit early so we can go on tour. We have not yet got feedback from the food trucks episode. But just really briefly the train crash feedback keeps coming in. I've just got three emails I want to read. This seems to have resonated. So many Americans, so many listeners have had interactions with trains. It's not like a rarity. D was really insightful. I'm keeping their name anonymous. I'm actually a locomotive engineer for one of the big six in Rob's hometown of Chicago. As an operator of locomotives and freight trains for the last a large number of years and again, keep me anonymous. This was a very informative episode but there is some misinformation in there. First off, right on about the big six as a whole. They are 100% completely all about profits 100% of the time. The thing you want to clear up and the system that was talked about positive train control PTC is actually installed in all locomotives that I operate on a daily basis. This is federally regulated and mandatory. The system's in place to enforce speeding controls and prevent trains from violating stop indication restrictions. It does not control the actual operation of the train. In addition, we're trained to notice and report any defects we see with railroad crossings, broken gates, lights missing, etc. If we see it, we report it. And he had one other thing he wanted to talk on, putting a train into emergency break is a very dangerous practice. Over the last few decades, freight trains have gradually become much larger and much heavier. The average train runs upwards of 8,000 feet and over 10,000 tons, which is mind-boggling. I've operated trains in excess of 11,000 feet and 20,000 tons. Again, insane. That being said, trains still use air powers, pneumatic braking systems. A conventional train is controlled with engines on the front of the train, and unlike a motor vehicle, the brake system takes a long time to start working effectively. So a train that is over 10,000 tons can take well over a mile to stop, especially its speeds over around 50 to 60 miles per hour. Now an emergency break application will be a bad practice for the fact that the brake set up on the front to back, meaning that the weight from the back will stand into the front as locomotive engineers primary job function is to control train forces between rail cars applying the brake frequency, can cause severe jackknifeing, and cause the trains to derail. His main point being, not an easy thing, he wanted to clarify to hit the emergency break. It can set up a whole lot of other crazy shit. I'm curious about the great work, and if you have any train questions, I'll be happy to try and help. Thank you, D. Two, two, two, two, two, genie shit. 40 years ago, when I was a little kid, my parents had a Volkswagen bus vanne gone with a camper top. My family had often drove from Park City, Utah to Southern California, where most of our relatives were. We would sleep in the van along the way. On one of the trips late at night, somewhere in the Nevada desert, my dad was getting tired and decided it was time to pull off road to get some rest. After getting the kids settled below, my parents climbed to the camper van bed. At one point, after falling asleep, my parents were working by lights shining through the canvas. Soon after realizing it was a train, they heard the train horn blasting. My mum screamed, "Did you park on the train tracks?" I loved this dad move, eh? As my dad was scrambling to find the car keys. With the train greeting closer, the horn getting louder and the lights getting brighter, they knew they didn't have time to climb down, start the car and move it, nor do they have enough time to get everyone out. Without speaking, but knowing exactly what each of them thought, they grabbed and held onto each other, racing for impact. This isn't as soon as they're going to die. At this point, I'm very stressed already in the email. Yeah, I don't like this. And reading it, I know at least someone, someone survived. At the moment, they thought they were about to be hit, the train swirved and missed them as wind rocked the van. They couldn't believe it, but thank you, my dad hadn't parked on the track and it curved just before reaching them. Okay, so he'd parked on the edge of a track, yeah. Training towards them curved round at the end. Finally, Leila, love the episode. It immediately brought back my time. My family was actually re-ended by a freight train in the middle of a blizzard. We were on an Amtrak train from Denver, to San Francisco, not San Fran. When we got stranded for 12 hours in a total whiteout, while we were sitting ducks on the tracks, a freight train slammed into the back of our stationary passenger car. Luckily, the freight train had started braking, only a few seconds too late, and only going a few miles an hour on impact, no one is seriously injured, but it knocked a few people out of the seats. The best part of this idea was that we were dead center in the Donapass. I'm not sure how much you know about Donapass. I drove through this last December. Did you? Topical. I sent you information about it. I didn't read it. But the gist is that some pioneers got trapped in the past in the mid-1800s, ran out of food, and ate each other. This is Ring some bells. On our trip, the dining car ran out of food, and the crew started handing out emergency rations of crackers and beef jerky. Of our passengers. Of our passengers. The irony was not lost on us. I thought that was a great story. Donapass is a good maybe history teacher story. In that email that you said this would be good for your history teacher as well. On the same page. Did you like it? You liked being there? It was pretty. It was also kind of scary. Is it like I'm picturing big cliffs either side kind of thing? Yeah, and it was also snowed a ton. Luckily, it was not snowing, but it was like hundreds of trucks lined up, putting snow chains on their tires. All right. Oh, like prepping just to get through. It was just me and Calvin driving through it too. Did Calvin take the wheel for a little bit? Just knowing the history of it. It's just this big mountainous snowy kind of area that you're going through. People ate each other in there. I don't think I told them that part. Left that out. But I told him I was telling him the history of it. Yeah. Yeah. - Yes, we were driving through it. - Holy shit. - If you have any stories about cannibalism? Goosebumps, horror, R.O. Stein. Diaries come up. - Oh, many of those things. Flight this bread chat at gmail.com. Join us on our Patreon for weekly bonus episodes at patreon.com/flightthisbird. We are on YouTube. We are on Instagram. - We are in Austin and Dallas this week. - Come and see us. We too, we don't tour often and when we tour, it's funny. I've been saying to some friends, we're going on tour. When we're going on tour, it sounds like, "Oh, on the road for months." As I know, we're doing three shows. So is that a tour? I'm like, "Yeah, it's a tour." More than one show is a tour. - It happened. Someone reached out about doing a nass session and I was like, "Yeah, we're about to go tour." - We're going to do a tour and they're like, "Oh, we'll be back in May." - Yeah. - That was like an awakening. - We'll be back in a week, a week and a half. (laughing) - That's really good. - Yeah, fly to the [email protected] and please share this show on wherever you are, maybe you're on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. I don't know, share it, tell people about it. Send someone an email, write your mom a letter and tell them about the show. - And then hand right out the URL. - Hand right out the URL? - Maybe draw a cookie? - Draw a bunch of cover art? - I like that a lot. - Yeah, whatever way you can communicate that the show exists would absolutely love you to do that. - Maybe flyers for your neighbors. - Flyers is good. If you've got a lot of cash, maybe rent a billboard and put it up on the way to Vegas, flight this bird. Great podcast, you know, you could put a photo up there. We will let you do that. We will not see you if you do that for us. - Absolutely, you can use David's likeness on it. - You can use my likeness can be used in any way you want. - As long as it's promoting the show. - It's not over in the show, graffiti on a wall. Do whatever you want. I will appreciate it a lot. We'll see you at the live show, alternatively. We'll see you on Patreon, alternatively. We'll see you in a week's time. (upbeat music)