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0:30
This is Undaunted Life of Man's Podcast, I'm your host Kyle Thompson.
0:53
Let's get into it.
0:54
Hi guys, today I've got a special guest on the podcast and his name is Trent Talbot.
0:57
So Trent is the CEO of Brave Books.
0:59
He's also an entrepreneur and a medical doctor.
1:01
According to his bio, he has a deep love for America and the values it was built upon.
1:06
And he is passionate about reminding Americans of the beauty and responsibility of freedom.
1:10
And he's doing that with Brave Books.
1:11
So Brave Books is a publisher that is dedicated to bringing real American values that endure.
1:16
And he wants to equip parents to have intentional and enjoyable conversations with their kids
1:21
about topics that actually matter.
1:23
Okay, so Brave Books has created its own universe where these stories take place.
1:27
And they basically at this point, they're partnering with prominent conservative guests
1:32
like writers to write the books with them.
1:35
So US Representative Dan Crenshaw, The Hodge Twins, Dana Lash, some of these people, they're
1:39
kind of teaming up with them to help write the books.
1:41
And these books tackle themes that are enormous.
1:45
And guys, I've got this little treasure chest right here.
1:47
If you're not watching this on YouTube, you should be because this was a treasure chest
1:50
of books that they sent me, but these books get into things like the sanctity of human
1:54
life, right?
1:55
So like euthanasia, abortion, the right to bear arms, the dangers of communism, gender
2:00
identity, cancel culture, critical race theory, and there are other topics as well.
2:05
But they do it in a way that's appropriate for children.
2:07
And I've read through all the books in this saga and we get into why they do sagas and
2:11
not stand alone books.
2:12
And I'm like, man, these books are great.
2:14
These books would even be great for adults to like explain things to people as to why they
2:18
feel the way that they do, especially if they're on, you know, right of center, conservative
2:21
side of things.
2:22
But I think this is going to be a great resource for any of you guys that have children that
2:26
you're wanting to talk about these big subjects with them.
2:30
Maybe they're five or six years old.
2:32
And it's just, how do you talk about critical race theory with a six year old, right?
2:36
You know, how do you talk about critical theory, Karl Marx and all these things whenever I'm
2:39
talking to guys that are in their thirties and have no idea how to wrap their minds around
2:42
these things.
2:43
So I think this company is doing an amazing, amazing job of doing that.
2:46
So I'm so glad that we have Trent on today's show to talk through that with us.
2:49
So without further ado, guys, let's get into it.
2:53
Trent Talbot.
2:54
Welcome to indaunted life of man's podcast.
2:56
Thank you so much, Scott.
2:57
Happy beer.
2:58
We're happy to have you here.
2:59
And I just got to tell you, you're, you're a little bit of a unique bird because you're
3:02
a medical doctor.
3:03
You're an entrepreneur and you own a children's book company.
3:07
So how the heck does all that happen in one person, man, I don't know, life's been crazy.
3:13
I wouldn't have anticipated this was going to happen when I said I go to med school,
3:17
but you know, God, God sovereign and, and yeah, has had me on a unique ride and it's
3:22
been a lot of fun.
3:23
Well, I got to say it's, I don't normally talk to people to have that kind of stuff
3:27
on their resume, but it kind of comes from a lot of your, your background, your upbringing,
3:31
but also just your overall way of viewing the world because according to your bio.
3:35
I read this.
3:36
You have a deep love for America and the values that it was built upon and you're passionate
3:40
about reminding Americans of the beauty and responsibility of freedom.
3:44
And I think it's interesting that you use the word reminding because we're assuming
3:47
that these things are here, but I think in our modern context, we've kind of lost sight
3:51
of that.
3:52
So why do you think that's such a, a center point for your life?
3:55
Well, just, I don't really know how it got there, but, but I've just been incredibly gracious
4:03
or I've had, yeah, I've been incredibly grateful that I was born here.
4:10
And, and that I had freedom, just because, you know, it's such a rare thing, you know,
4:16
if you think about the history of people in, in the world, we are just a sliver.
4:21
I mean, it's got to be less than 1% of people that have actually lived in a free country
4:25
and that have been able to have the freedom of religion and freedom of speech and right
4:30
to bear arms to protect themselves and run their family and, and their lives like they
4:35
want.
4:36
And it's a special thing and, and we're, we're the last beacon of freedom on, on the earth
4:42
and, and it's just something that we should all stand up for and fight for.
4:47
And I don't know really how it got there, but it's been there since I was young.
4:53
Well, and you and I haven't had a chance to talk about what I'm about to ask specifically
4:57
before this interview, but I'm assuming, you know, I'm, I'm inferring a lot from, from
5:01
what I know about you and from the stuff that I've read that your personal faith has a lot
5:04
to do about this as well, because I'm not one of those people that thinks, you know, God
5:07
has specifically ordained America to be anything specific.
5:10
I mean, the Roman, you know, that, the Romans, that was a 1500 year reign, right?
5:16
So we're not even 300 years into this American experiment type of a thing.
5:20
But I do think this is a unique place where we're using Judeo Christian principles to
5:24
kind of undergird how we operate as a society.
5:26
So for you, describe your personal faith and how that kind of maybe affects some of the
5:30
things that you're doing.
5:32
Yeah, I was saved about three and a half years ago.
5:37
So I was, I grew up in a home that, you know, we went to church on Sundays, but didn't really
5:42
talk too much about, about God or faith.
5:45
And so the second I left, I was just of the world lost and, but Lord saved me three, three
5:54
years ago and, and, and I got married and my life has sort of just had a radical change
5:59
since then, where you got a wife and kid now and part of an amazing church and, and just
6:05
growing, growing, you know, to be hopefully more like Christ and, and, and so once you,
6:12
once you get exposed to truth and you know the gospel, I mean, it changes everything
6:17
because you know, Kyle and, and, and, you know, I think, I think that you, you see things
6:22
different and you have a deeper under, deeper appreciation for truth and knowing, knowing,
6:30
knowing truth.
6:31
And so, so as far as like that, how brave was started, it's, I'm like freshly saved.
6:40
I, then I had, get married, have a kid and my, within like two weeks of my daughter being
6:46
born Netflix comes out with the film cuties, which specializes young girls, right?
6:52
I race as babies and I'm one book on Amazon and Nancy Drew came out with a trans character.
6:59
And so I just saw this attack on our kids and it's attack on truth.
7:03
And just, this is like this confusion and demoralization that was, that was going after
7:10
our kids and, and so ever since then, you know, I was a practicing ophthalmologist at
7:16
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7:20
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7:56
Well, it's one thing to lament that these things are happening, which I've seen a lot
8:01
of guys do.
8:02
They lament that, you know, things are going on with their school board or that their
8:05
kid comes home with this crazy homework assignment or something like that, but there's not as
8:08
much pushback that's coordinated, I guess.
8:11
And so that's why you started Brave Books, uh, which is going to be the center point
8:15
of our entire conversation today, but, but why try to remind families and teach children
8:20
about the greatness of American values and just teach them kind of basic Judeo Christian
8:24
values using books to begin with.
8:26
Cause some people are like, all right, I'm going to launch podcasts or I'm going to,
8:28
you know, try to do a YouTube channel.
8:30
Like why do it through children's books?
8:33
Well, you think about what's being pushed on our kids, you know, the Swoke agenda.
8:38
Well, these are topics like gender identity, like cancel culture and CRT and all these
8:45
things.
8:46
So these are complex topics to have a conversation with a kid about, you know, so, you know, you've
8:53
got kids, you know, like thinking about talking to your kid, talking to your seven year old
8:57
kid about Second Amendment or CRT, you know, it's like, it's hard, you know, it's, it's
9:03
can be hard for adults to really wrap their heads around if you're just talking about
9:06
concepts and words.
9:08
So it's been well established that kids learn these complex topics through story and story
9:14
allows them a framework to, to understand and to think through things.
9:22
And so the way we've designed our books is, is we, we capture their imagination with this
9:30
fun universe that we build, fun stories, awesome cast of characters.
9:36
And, and that's how we capture their, their imagination.
9:39
And then we have the back of the book, we have these brave challenges, which have games
9:43
and discussion questions that allow the parent, that guide the parents and to use that, that
9:48
story as a framework to, to dig into these topics and get it, get the point across to
9:56
where kids can not only understand it, but also articulate these topics.
10:00
And so like we get emails all the time about, Hey, my, like, I got a funny story to go like
10:05
my, my seven year old, we dropped, we picked him up from school today.
10:09
And the teacher said that he was teaching the class and the importance of the second amendment.
10:13
You know, like, so, and, and you know, like most of the time when you read a story book
10:17
to their kid, the lesson sort of goes over their head because they just want to get lost
10:22
in the entertainment, in the entertainment of the story.
10:25
So we couldn't, the way we viewed it early on when we were sort of envisioning brave
10:30
is we can't just have a story because the topic will go over their heads, but we can't
10:36
just have like a workbook or something like that, where, you know, it's just the lesson
10:44
because that's just not going to grab the kid.
10:46
So you had to combine them in a unique way to really help parents drive home the story.
10:51
And so that's what we came up with and it's worked.
10:54
Well, so the cool thing about in again, guys, if you're not watching this on YouTube, I'm
10:58
holding up this gorgeous like treasure chest box that you guys sent us, it's got all the
11:02
books in there, like it's unique, I guess, to me, because, you know, I have a one and
11:05
a half year old and I've got another baby on the way to see an organization that's created
11:10
an entire universe, as opposed to just stand alone book.
11:13
So I am kind of curious why go through the process of creating this entire backstory.
11:18
And here in a second, we're going to get into each of the individual books that kind of
11:21
like set the stage for the different sagas or all that.
11:24
So why do these sagas that are like eight or nine or 10 stories, you know, within this
11:29
universe?
11:30
Why not just do standalone books that, you know, attached to these big topics that you
11:33
want to cover?
11:34
Yeah.
11:35
Well, there's a lot of topics that parents need to have conversations with their kids
11:40
about.
11:41
You know, like we're, we're just scratching the surface, you know, so far we've done
11:44
gender identity, sanctity of life, dangers of communism, cancer culture, CRT, Second
11:50
Amendment, truth, we're doing freedom, we're doing, you know, there's just way more than
11:54
you originally think.
11:56
And, and so if we just did like nobody, and it's important that parents have conversations
12:03
with all these, on all these topics, because what keeps people together and what keeps
12:09
families together shared values, in my opinion, and, and, you know, you can't, and so there's
12:17
a lot of different topics to cover, a lot of opportunities for parents to get across,
12:22
to communicate to their kids what they believe and why.
12:25
And so, so, but by selling one offs, you know, people may buy a couple, but we wanted to,
12:31
we wanted to build something that would be with families from the age of like five to
12:37
eighteen from the, from whenever they leave.
12:39
And so our plan is to start off with picture books for the younger kids, and to create
12:44
a universe in a subscription model where they get one book a month, and each book can stay,
12:49
can stand alone, and teaches a lesson, but also inches the overarching narrative a little
12:54
bit further to where, to where kids fall in love with the universe, they fall in love
12:59
with the characters, they want to see what happens, and, and so then, once we have their,
13:04
their imagination, their heart, then they are craving the next book, and it really allows
13:09
the parents to, to, to deliver all these important lessons.
13:13
And so, so it's important for us to build the universe, build the overarching narrative,
13:17
build the characters, so it allows us the, the, the opportunity to get a bunch of these
13:24
lessons in.
13:25
I think that's great, and I want to go ahead, I've just been kind of teasing it up this
13:28
entire time.
13:29
You know, I love the fact that it's kind of a subscription model.
13:32
I love that you're not doing, saying a little books.
13:33
I love that you have the stuff that the parents can do, like, whenever I was reading through
13:36
the books myself, it's like, oh, this is like stuff that you do with your kid.
13:39
These activities are all great, but I want to get into the first saga, which is the origins.
13:43
So that's an origin story.
13:44
We're going to go through each one of these.
13:45
We're going to do it very briefly, guys, you're going to have to check out the books for yourself
13:48
so that your kids can enjoy them as well.
13:50
But book zero is a book that you're just releasing as of the release of this podcast.
13:54
It's out now.
13:55
It's called the fight for freedom island.
13:56
And so this is about freedom and this is the one that you wrote because kind of how you
14:00
normally do it.
14:01
And we'll, we'll go through here in a second as you kind of team up with someone that's
14:03
kind of in the conservative scene and you kind of co-write this thing.
14:06
But this is the origin story of the origin saga, right?
14:09
Like, that's essentially what this is.
14:11
It's focus on freedom, but it's really the focus on the fight between good and evil.
14:15
Okay.
14:16
So why was it so important for you specifically to write this, but also to write it talking
14:21
about freedom?
14:22
Why start there?
14:23
Well, you know, you have to have your, your pillar foundational value.
14:29
And we after talking about it, we think freedom is the foundational value that makes America
14:36
what it is.
14:37
And we wanted to start with book zero with that being the focus.
14:42
And, and you know, we just want to get the lesson across the kids that freedom is special
14:48
and it's what makes freedom island and America what they are and sometimes it's worth fighting
14:55
for.
14:56
And it's also very topical today.
14:57
Obviously, our freedoms under attack, everywhere return, whether it's the vaccine mandates,
15:04
whatever it is.
15:05
It's just, it's, it's something that's under attack and, and you know, America is that
15:10
last beacon of freedom.
15:11
I hate to repeat myself, but, but that's, that's what we are and man, we just have to
15:17
fight for it.
15:18
I absolutely agree that we have to fight for it.
15:20
I think these books do a wonderful job if you're wondering why it sounded like I was
15:23
away from the mic because I was opening the box so I could actually pull the books out
15:26
so that we can see them because I want to go and get into the books here.
15:29
So book number one is this it's elephants are not birds.
15:32
And this is one that you teamed up with Ashley St Clair on.
15:35
And this one goes into gender identity.
15:37
So this is a story about a vulture named culture, which I thought was super cute and
15:40
awesome, but they're trying to convince this young elephant named Kevin that he's actually
15:45
a bird.
15:46
And so you get it right from the beginning, what this is going to be about, especially
15:49
if you're a conservative parent, you've been worrying about this.
15:52
But man, right from book one, so you set the stage sets the foundation with book zero talking
15:56
about freedom.
15:57
You go right into gender identity.
15:58
You go right at the LGBTQ plus blah, blah, blah types of things.
16:03
Why go there?
16:04
Why why go straight for the jugular from the beginning?
16:06
Well, truth is what we need to stand on and the whole transgender movement, it's an attack
16:17
on truth and it's attack on God's creation and kids are getting taught that more than
16:27
ever.
16:28
And it's just getting more and more extreme and it seems like every single week, there's
16:32
something new coming out and we wanted to go straight at it and sort of show what we're
16:37
about, what we stand for and just get everything out in the open like this is who we are.
16:43
This is what we stand for and to us, it was sort of an overiner to start there.
16:49
Yeah, it's a great place to start, especially because you talked about it earlier.
16:53
It's hard to get these lessons through the head of a child because it's like, man, their
16:57
brains are not nearly as developed as they need to be, but you need to kind of give them
17:00
the foundations and the words to use to kind of describe that.
17:04
So that's great.
17:05
A great place to start with that book.
17:06
And then we get into book two and it's this one here, Little Lives Matter, and this is
17:09
a one that you teamed up with Elizabeth Johnston.
17:12
This is about the sanctity of life, okay?
17:14
So this is a story of a mother bear and her cub Moby and Moby was born with one arm.
17:18
And so culture, the vulture, you know, makes another appearance and the story kind of tackles
17:23
the sanctity of life because culture, the vultures like, hey, wouldn't life be better?
17:26
If you didn't have this kiddo, this baby cab, that's, you know, maybe gonna have some issues
17:31
because it only has one arm.
17:32
And so this book addresses abortion and euthanasia, right?
17:35
Again, this is a book.
17:36
Maybe you can give us an idea of the typical age range that you would want to give to something
17:40
like this.
17:41
But I guess help me understand how you can talk about abortion and euthanasia to a certain
17:48
segmented age group.
17:49
That seems like a really hard task.
17:51
Yeah.
17:52
So we don't, we don't get into abortion in the story, you know, it's the Moby's already
17:59
born.
18:00
Not been named, certainly.
18:01
Yeah, exactly.
18:02
Exactly.
18:03
And, and what we, what we do is we, we create a story that allows, that, that gives parents
18:10
a framework and then, you know, to have a discussion about the importance of life and
18:15
then in the, in the brave challenge, you know, we have questions that, that allow the parents
18:21
to sort of decide, you know, to, to have the conversation where their kids are at.
18:25
You know, so if you've got one kid that's four, you know, maybe, maybe you approach in
18:29
a whole different way.
18:30
You, you just talk about, you know, in an important that, that babies are allowed to
18:34
live and grow and all that, you know, but if you have some kid that's 11, maybe it is.
18:40
Maybe it's time to go ahead and talk about abortion.
18:42
So, so anyway, we don't, we'll make it obvious on the story.
18:45
We just, we, we create that, that, that foundation that then the parents can take over with
18:50
the help of our great challenge.
18:51
Yeah.
18:52
Yeah.
18:53
That would have been a better way for me to kind of tee that up because again, you're
18:55
not saying gender identity and elephants are not birds, but you're introducing the thing
18:59
to where it's like, if you're an elephant, you're an elephant, that's a great thing.
19:01
And there's so many things that you can do as an elephant that you can't do as a bird,
19:05
but that's why birds are so awesome because they get to be birds, right?
19:07
So the same thing with little lives matter.
19:09
You're just kind of introducing the idea that the sanctity of human life is important.
19:12
And then we get into book three.
19:14
And so this is the island of free ice cream.
19:17
Thought this one was hilarious.
19:18
So this one gets into the dangers of communism and no, it doesn't ever use the word communism.
19:23
That's one that you did with Jack Passobic, I guess is how you would say his last name.
19:27
But this one is where you introduce Asher, the Fox, he's a successful business owner in
19:31
the market and everything's going well until these wolves from Utopia Island come in offering
19:36
free ice cream to the citizens and they're like, Oh yeah, free ice cream.
19:39
This is great.
19:40
I thought it was a great way to introduce the, the ideas of communism without actually
19:45
saying communism.
19:47
But again, with a book like this talking about the ideas of communism, what do you do?
19:51
How do you make that palatable to a younger age group?
19:54
Like, what are some of the things that you try to make sure you do?
19:57
Yeah.
19:58
Yeah.
19:59
Well, I mean, I think that, I think that our story really nails it.
20:02
You know, it gets the point across that, that there is no such thing as free ice cream.
20:07
There's no such thing as a free deal, you know, and, and things that sound too good to be true
20:11
are too good to be true.
20:13
And so we, we, we created that, you know, that story in a way where, you know, early on in
20:19
the story, the kids are probably like, Oh yeah, they should definitely put the wolves, wolves
20:23
in charge.
20:24
That sounds great.
20:25
Free ice cream.
20:26
And they're sort of going along with all the other animals.
20:27
But then, you know, we, we, we make it to where obviously that's not a good decision.
20:32
And then, and we, we sort of symbolize, you know, with Utopia, Utopia is an island just
20:37
off the coast of freedom island.
20:39
It sort of symbolizes those fellow communist states like Cuba, Venezuela, and, you know,
20:44
show, we show, you know, what typically happens in those communist regimes.
20:48
But obviously in a fun way.
20:51
Absolutely.
20:52
I think you guys did a masterful job.
20:53
And then we get into book four.
20:54
This one is called fame, blame, and the raft of shame.
20:57
And this one is the one that you did with podcast alum Dan Crenshaw, and this one goes
21:01
into cancel culture.
21:02
And so obviously he has had several run-ins with cancel culture.
21:05
So he was a good guy to kind of partner with on this.
21:07
It's a story about individuals that were cast out on the raft of shame.
21:11
If they told jokes or had accidents that offended people.
21:14
And here's the thing.
21:16
Part of the thing when I look back on my childhood, Trent, is there were a lot of times where
21:20
I offended people and I was offended, right?
21:24
But I grew up in a very diverse town and a diverse school and, you know, it was one of
21:28
those things that it wasn't that big of a deal.
21:30
But I feel like now, especially in this, this era where everybody is given plot, it's if
21:35
they're a victim.
21:36
It's even more important now for people to understand that just because somebody disagrees
21:40
with you and says it in a way you don't like doesn't mean you get to cancel them.
21:43
Why do you think that's such an important message for kids?
21:46
Well, it's, you know, it's as a country.
21:49
It's how we improve.
21:50
It's as any part of whether it's an organization, a school group of friends, you have to be
21:56
able to speak freely and you have to be able to share ideas, share thoughts and make mistakes.
22:03
You know, like we're all going to make mistakes.
22:05
And so when this, you know, this country was founded on Christian values and one of the
22:11
core Christian values is, is grace and we have to have grace because we're flawed people
22:18
and we're going to make mistakes.
22:20
And so if we create a culture that has no forgiveness and has no grace, it will be a miserable place
22:26
to live.
22:27
Nobody will say what they think and we'll just be living in fear and that's a terrible place
22:33
still, a terrible way to live, it's a terrible way to structure society.
22:37
It cancel cultures.
22:38
In my opinion, you know, probably the biggest threat on to Western civilization.
22:43
Well, and the thing is if you never share your ideas out loud with people, you never
22:47
get to have your ideas challenged.
22:49
So people internalize so they don't want to be the bold person that goes out there and,
22:53
you know, basically it tries to attract the slings and arrows.
22:56
You're just going to internalize all that.
22:57
And that's one of the worst things you can do about your worldview.
22:59
So as a Christian, I constantly want my Christian worldview to be challenged because I want
23:03
to make sure that the foundation is solid.
23:05
Like if you're a conservative, if you're a whatever, whatever your worldview is, you
23:08
shouldn't be scared of people challenging it.
23:09
That's why I think that's a big difference between people that align with the political
23:13
right versus the political left.
23:15
Now we're getting into book number five.
23:16
This one is my personal favorite.
23:18
Okay.
23:19
So this is more than spots and stripes.
23:20
This goes into critical race theory, which I'm just going to tell you, seems impossible.
23:24
Whenever I saw that this book was in there and like, Oh, they're going to tackle critical
23:27
race theory with cheetahs.
23:28
How's that going to work?
23:29
I'm a between spotted cheetahs and striped cheetahs, but I just got to tell you guys,
23:33
and I'm not blowing smoke.
23:34
I think you guys did a masterful job.
23:36
This is one that y'all did with the hodge twins and y'all did as a team, a masterful
23:40
job of explaining the elements of critical race theory through a kid's story.
23:45
Because I got to tell you, even when I talk to adults, I sometimes have trouble explaining
23:49
what critical race theory is.
23:50
You know, a couple of years back during the George Floyd stuff, I released like a three-part
23:54
series, like almost four hours of content trying to talk about that situation and talk
23:59
about critical theory and how we get to critical race theory.
24:02
And even then, you know, people were like, Oh, this is still so hard to understand.
24:05
Like take me through the process of this book writing specifically because they were all
24:08
good.
24:09
But for whatever reason, this one just stood out for me.
24:11
That's awesome.
24:13
So well, to give you a background on how we work with influencer, so it's a collaboration.
24:21
We obviously are writing these stories in our universe with our character.
24:25
So we're heavily involved.
24:26
But these guys take our authors take topics that they're super passionate about.
24:32
And they work with us to make sure that we're nailing the message.
24:35
So for the Hodge twins, for example, they wanted to make sure that we were teaching,
24:41
that we were calling out CRT, but that we were teaching the philosophies that MLK believed.
24:48
And you know, which is that we should all be judged by the content of our character and
24:52
not the color of our skin.
24:54
So they helped us really know what CRT is and be handed out to CRT, which is MLK's teachings.
25:03
And so that's really how we started, you know, I'm like you, you know, the CRT and critical
25:10
theory and all this stuff.
25:11
It gets confusing to me.
25:12
So you know, we started off by researching what is this stuff and what's at CRT, what's
25:18
like at its core, and then we started there and then we work on a storyboard and sort of
25:24
just it comes together.
25:25
We've just got this amazing team of creative people and they work really hard to make sure
25:32
we make sure, you know, the stories are fun and capture their attention.
25:37
And you know, from an entertainment perspective for kids, it's enough to keep their attention
25:43
and have them fall in love with it.
25:44
But also at the same time, really makes sure we know, know the lesson.
25:49
Yeah, it's certainly a challenge.
25:50
But the cool thing about this as well is if you're a mom or a dad and you're going before
25:55
the school board, because you want to talk about why critical race theory shouldn't be
25:58
taught in their kid's classroom.
26:00
And the kid finds out about that they're going to be like critical race theory.
26:03
What is that?
26:04
And then it's going to allow someone that describes it improperly to give them a simplified definition.
26:10
A lot of people are like, oh, people that are against critical race theory, it's a dog whistle,
26:14
because they don't want the real history of slavery to be taught, which nobody that once
26:19
critical race theory not taught in schools believes that.
26:22
Like all of them are like, yeah, teach about slavery, teach about the things that happened
26:25
between the Native American tribes and each other and also the United States government
26:29
teach all that.
26:30
We're not trying to hide that, but put it in its right context.
26:32
So I think that book is a great starting point for a lot of those conversations.
26:36
But we'll keep this train going.
26:37
We got book six.
26:38
Let's just pause off my cannon.
26:40
This is with Dana Lashon.
26:41
So this is about the right to bear arms.
26:43
I thought this was a kind of funny story because it's story about a town that kind of splits
26:47
down the center because some of the people in the town want to be able to defend themselves
26:51
with these coconut cannons while others throughout, they thought coconut cannons were too dangerous
26:56
to even own.
26:57
So they were just going to put up signs saying no coconut cannons and there's these wolves
27:00
that come in and try to like do some stuff in the town.
27:03
So it's a really cute story.
27:04
But the right to bear arms, I know that there are a lot of families, especially a lot of
27:07
families that I know that from a very, very early age, they are Second Amendment people
27:11
and they teach their kids how to be responsible gun owners, how to deal with a gun, you know,
27:16
how to always treat it like it's loaded to never pointed at anybody.
27:19
They're constantly drilling gun safety.
27:21
But then there's a large segment if we're being honest trip, a large segment of the conservative
27:25
Republican population in the United States that is pro second amendment, but they don't
27:29
do that stuff with their kids.
27:30
Like maybe they don't shoot themselves like I grew up in a pro second amendment family.
27:34
I didn't shoot a gun until I was in college, right?
27:36
So it's kind of one of those weird deals.
27:37
So do you feel like a book like this or maybe was the goal with you and Dana to really kind
27:42
of make that a bigger deal for parents like, Hey, let's get this conversation started
27:45
earlier.
27:46
Let's really kind of figure out this whole idea of being able to protect ourselves.
27:49
Yeah.
27:50
Yeah, for sure.
27:51
And, and we actually take took a portion of the brave challenge and dedicated that towards
27:56
gun safety where we talked about the importance of respecting firearms and making sure that,
28:02
you know, keep them locked away and they're treated with great respect.
28:06
And so, so that was, that was a crucial, crucial aspect of why we did the book.
28:12
But, but yeah, you know, I mean, it's just, it's just important.
28:16
It's important, you know, that, that these kids know, you know, about the, about our foundational
28:22
freedoms and our rights and why they're important, you know, before, before they hear from their
28:28
teachers or social media, you know, that, that these rights are, that they don't make
28:33
sense anymore.
28:34
And, and, you know, because the first, typically, you know, the first idea to get into somebody's
28:39
head wins, you know, it's the first, first thing they hear and they make sense and everything
28:43
else is judged against that.
28:44
So, you know, it's like, yes, second amendment may not be something that they hear a ton about,
28:50
but still, you know, it's a foundational American value and it's something that we want to talk
28:55
about, you know, at an early age so that they've, they've at least heard our, our perspective
29:01
on it.
29:02
Yeah, I think that's this great idea.
29:04
And for me, obviously, like I've, I've mentioned, I have young, one young son that's here, one
29:08
that's about to come out of the womb any day now or any week now, and we're, we're so excited
29:12
to be able to teach them about those things so that they can honor a tradition so that we
29:16
need to start a family tradition, but also just understand that there's a lot of responsibility
29:20
that comes with that.
29:21
And the last book we're going to talk about is book seven.
29:22
It's this one son of truth, and this is one that you partner with Graham Allen on.
29:26
And so this is just a story about integrity and truth.
29:29
And so it kind of even goes back to the origin story, but I feel like, you know, the main
29:33
character and son of truth is going to be kind of a, a main character for the rest of
29:36
the saga.
29:37
So there's two more books after this.
29:39
There's book eight because you're my family, which focuses on the family.
29:42
And then there's book nine, which is the saga finale, which really gets into teamwork.
29:46
But why did son of truth show up this late?
29:48
Because again, I might be reading something into this universe.
29:50
I'm still trying to get used to this whole kids, you know, universe thing, sagas and
29:54
all that.
29:55
But, you know, why does the son of truth show up so late in this first saga?
29:58
Um, I don't know, some of these things, they just sort of, it happened like that.
30:03
You know, we, um, books three through seven, some, so that on a free ice cream through
30:11
some truth, we were introducing members of team brave.
30:14
And so some team brave is, is going to sort of as a spoiler alert for, for the finale.
30:19
But team brave is going to be the, the, um, going to be the, the main protagonist of our,
30:27
of our universe.
30:28
And they're going to be sort of the action heroes, the Avengers, if you will, of freedom
30:32
island, help protect freedom island against the villains, um, like people like culture
30:38
vulture or black heart, we've got a lot of fun villains that are going to be coming
30:42
out.
30:43
Um, and so, so it was just sort of the order that it, that came about, um, but, but yeah,
30:49
that, that, that's some truth.
30:51
I, that's my personal favorite.
30:53
I love that book.
30:54
I love, um, we're also, um, setting up, you know, uh, a, a really great character arc.
31:00
You know, he's sort of our Luke Skywalker character.
31:02
He's, he's, he's, right, he's an adopted son of a black heart.
31:06
Well, he is a biological son of black heart adopted son of the legends of freedom island.
31:10
And it's just a, it's, it's a lot of fun, what, what we have in store for valor.
31:14
Yeah.
31:15
He is going to be one of one of our, our main characters, him and Asher, who will probably
31:18
be the two most popular characters we, we think.
31:21
And so we, we plan on doing, doing a, a great big story arc for both of them and, and it's
31:26
just going to be a lot of fun of the next few years.
31:29
I think so as well.
31:30
And that's what I wanted to kind of get into now is like the future of brave books.
31:33
And I know we, we can't always look to the future and be able to project things, you know,
31:37
you're going to have something happen in the next three months is probably going to surprise
31:39
you in terms of what's going on with brave books.
31:41
But where do you want to expand?
31:43
You mentioned earlier, you know, having stories, you're starting to picture books, but you want
31:46
to kind of get more into the team books and, you know, you know, on and to maybe the even
31:50
the adult side of things, or at least pushing them through the end of high school.
31:54
Do you want to do television?
31:55
Are there movies in the off thing?
31:57
Like is there going to be some sort of a digital component like this?
32:00
Are you going to exist in the metaverse, you know, kind of give me an idea as to kind
32:03
of what the future looks like.
32:04
Yeah, so our, we're moving in three, three new directions, and they are to create a biblical
32:11
world view curriculum to go along with each book because we, we anticipate that this would
32:16
be a big hit in the homeschool community.
32:18
And also for parents that have our kids go to public school, you know, we want, we want
32:23
to get, we want to arm parents with a little bit of curriculum so they can teach a worldview
32:28
that may be against what they're hearing at school or to help the kids discern.
32:32
So, so homeschool curriculum, worldview curriculum, that's a part of it of our vision.
32:40
Next is, is getting into middle grade and young adult novels and, and that, that, so,
32:46
so, you know, we, we want, we want kids to start to be exposed to brave with the picture
32:52
book stage like four or five and then just having to be part of their lives for the next,
32:57
for the next 13, you know, 20, 20 years where, where we have something, something for everybody.
33:03
And so, so, you know, young adult, you know, the Harry Potter style novels is a huge part
33:08
of that.
33:09
And, and we have a great idea of where we want to go there.
33:14
It's really fun.
33:16
And so we hope, we hope to have our first novel done by, you know, spring of 2023, we're,
33:23
we're starting, we're starting to start a storyboarded out and all that.
33:26
And the last thing is TV for sure.
33:28
I mean, you know, there's a lot of families that still read, but there's a lot of others
33:31
that don't really read too much anymore, but we'll watch a lot of TV and, you know, and
33:37
we want, we want to be a brand for, for everybody, you know, and, and we see TV as a, as a great
33:43
way to really help this universe and these characters come to life.
33:47
You know, you have 32 pages and 700 words, it's hard to really have the characters come
33:54
to life, you know, like Asher, you know, we've, we've written a pilot script for the TV show
34:00
and the, the, the difference in like what you get from a picture book of Asher versus the,
34:07
the, the character and the personality that comes out in a TV show, it's, it's, it's
34:12
world's different.
34:13
And so, so that's definitely in our future for sure.
34:17
Well, that is very exciting to see all that.
34:19
And you mentioned this is kind of a subscription service.
34:21
So what's the best way for somebody that's interested in seeing all this for them to get
34:25
involved with what you're doing?
34:26
Yeah, go to braidbooks.com.
34:29
And you can get the treasure box and then subscribe on top of that.
34:32
That's probably the best way to get caught up immediately.
34:35
Yeah, that's, that's what I would do.
34:39
Okay.
34:40
Excellent.
34:41
The guys that'll be in the show notes, but before we let you go, I like to do a segment
34:43
towards the end of my interviews, it's called, what would you say to someone that said, and
34:47
so what I'm going to do is I'm going to say, what would you say to someone that said, and
34:50
I'm going to fill in the blank, right?
34:52
But you only have 30 seconds maximum to respond to whatever it is that I ask you about.
34:56
Okay.
34:57
So you have for it.
34:58
Okay.
34:59
Let's get into it.
35:00
Here's the first one.
35:01
What would you say to someone that said, it's impossible for children to understand complicated
35:05
topics like CRT and communism?
35:09
Well, it's not true.
35:11
Start with a story that really grabs their attention, grabs their imagination and gives
35:15
you a framework to talk to your kids about these topics.
35:18
And then, and then, you know, your intuition will take it from there as a parent, you'll
35:24
be able to talk to your kids as long as you have that story to work off of.
35:27
All right.
35:28
Next one here.
35:29
What would you say to someone that said, I don't want my kids to like reading books.
35:33
I don't want them to end up being nerds.
35:36
Well, if you want your kids to earn a living, you know, they need to be able to read.
35:42
They need to be able to think and reading and stories, they're so crucial to developing,
35:48
you know, to developing our brains, you know, that's, that's what, that's, that's so, so
35:53
critical to brain development.
35:55
So, yeah.
35:56
I agree.
35:57
But I can hear the idiots in the background.
35:58
Oh, what about this?
35:59
All right.
36:00
Next one here.
36:01
What would you say to someone that said, why won't brave books co-write a book with
36:04
a liberal influencer?
36:07
We probably would.
36:08
You know, I mean, there's, there's a lot.
36:09
There's, there's some topics that, that, you know, that liberals and conservatives that
36:15
agree with the kids need to hear.
36:17
So, so we would know, is there a liberal that would write a book with brave books?
36:22
That's a whole other conversation, but, but we've actually got some influencers lined
36:27
up for 2022 that it are not your typical conservatives and that are more sort of center, mainstream.
36:34
We've got, anyway, we've got some exciting, I can't, I can't, I want to, I'll just say
36:39
yeah, go ahead.
36:40
You keep going.
36:41
But hey, we got to stay to the strictures of the game.
36:42
It's 30 seconds maximum.
36:43
Sorry.
36:44
You can't go into that.
36:45
Would you say to someone that said, conservatives need to stop trying to fight the culture war.
36:50
The war has already been lost.
36:52
No way.
36:53
You know, we are, we've got truth on our side and, and I don't know if you can feel it,
37:01
but I can feel it and it, we are, we're the cool, we're, we're the cool way of thinking,
37:06
way of acting.
37:07
We're, we're pro, you know, we're pro conversation and we're the counterculture.
37:13
And so we're, we're going to win.
37:15
But you know, brave books is probably going to have to be a part of that because, because
37:19
it starts young, you know, and so, so anyway, absolutely.
37:23
All right.
37:24
Next one here.
37:25
What would you say to someone that said, conservatives trying to force their values
37:28
down the throats of their children is manipulation and thus inappropriate?
37:32
Um, no, it's our, as parents, it's our duty to teach our children, to teach our children
37:38
what we believe and why.
37:43
And so it's not manipulation.
37:45
It's our duty as parents.
37:47
They were given to us by as a gift from God for us to steward and to grow and to foster.
37:53
And no, it's a critical part of our job as parents.
37:57
All right.
37:58
Just a few more left here, Trent.
37:59
What would you say to someone that said you can have morality without God?
38:05
Uh, I don't, I personally don't see it.
38:08
I'm not a philosopher.
38:09
So, you know, um, I won't give you the best answer, but, but no, I, it's hard for me to
38:16
see how that would work if you don't, if you're not thinking of who made this world and, and
38:22
why.
38:23
All right.
38:25
Here's the next one.
38:26
What would you say to someone that said, I don't have time to read to or with my children.
38:31
Make time because, um, if you take a passive approach to parenting in this day and age,
38:38
you know, 30 years ago, you could have got away from it nowadays.
38:42
If you take a passive approach to parenting, your kids will be raised in a doctrine by
38:46
culture and they'll probably grow up to hate, um, their country to hate their parents and
38:51
to hate themselves.
38:52
And that's not what we want.
38:54
Certainly don't want that.
38:55
All right.
38:56
Last question of the day.
38:57
What would you say to someone that said brave books are just as much for parents as they
39:00
are for children?
39:01
Well, parents love them.
39:03
So our emails would sort of back that up.
39:05
Um, I, I mean, they're for families, you know, they're meant to bring families together and
39:10
to create that family time where there's discussion and learning and teaching and sharing of values.
39:17
So they are, they are for parents.
39:18
They are for children.
39:19
They're for families.
39:20
Absolutely.
39:21
Hey, thank you so much for all the time that you've given us today.
39:23
Thank you for all the detail, getting into the stuff with brave books.
39:26
But that's all for me.
39:27
Is there anything else you want to get off your chest?
39:29
No, man.
39:30
I just really appreciate you having me on and let me talk to your, to your listeners.
39:35
Um, yeah, I, I highly encourage your listeners to, to give us a shot, you want to regret
39:41
it.
39:42
Um, bravebooks.com.
39:43
Don't subscribe.
39:44
And, and yeah, appreciate you having me on the call.
39:46
All right.
39:47
We will have all that in the show notes.
39:48
Guys, Trent Talbot.
39:49
Thank you for coming on on Daunton life on man's podcast.
39:52
Thanks.
39:53
There you go.
39:54
Guys.
39:55
I hope you enjoyed my interview with Trent Talbot, but before we let you go, we are going
39:57
to do a quick resilience boost at undaunted life.
40:00
Our mission is equipping men to push back darkness with content that for just spiritual
40:04
mental and physical resilience.
40:05
So today I've just got the link to the brave books website so you can go there, sign up,
40:09
subscribe so that you can check out their books and their resources for kids.
40:12
All right, guys.
40:13
Thanks so much for listening to the show.
40:14
We do appreciate it.
40:15
Wherever you're listening to this, please subscribe, rate and leave us a positive five
40:19
star review.
40:20
If you want to come speak live on your podcast or at your event, just shoot me an email to
40:24
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40:25
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40:34
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40:35
Just go to www.undaunted.life and we want to also thank the band August Brins Red for
40:40
allowing us to use their music for our content.
40:42
The music on this podcast is our song cutting the ties, which is off their 10th anniversary
40:46
re-recording of their album leveler.
40:48
The links are in the description.
40:50
I'm your host Kyle Thompson.
40:53
Remember, keep pushing back darkness, keep forging spiritual, mental and physical resilience.
41:00
Keep seeking the lion of Judah.
41:23
[music]