Matthew McConaughey, JUST BECAUSE
[0:02]Hi, I'm Zippy Owens, and you're listening to moms don't have time to read books.
[0:06]This 30-minute podcast features a new author interviewed by me every single day, 365 days
[0:12]a year for about 30 minutes.
[0:15]I am also the publisher for Zippy Books, which publishes 12 books a year in fiction
[0:20]and memoir.
[0:21]Our books are already out now.
[0:23]You can check it out on zippybooks.com.
[0:26]And we have a magazine called Zippy Mag where we have lots of wonderful essays and lifestyle
[0:31]features.
[0:32]That's at zippymag.com.
[0:33]We have classes.
[0:34]It's a B-Classist.com.
[0:36]And I recently opened a book store in LA called Zippy's Bookshop at 1113 Montana Avenue
[0:43]at 11th Street in San Monica.
[0:45]I hope that you are able to enjoy some of our other offerings.
[0:49]But this here podcast is the basis of all of it and started in 2018.
[0:54]And no matter what I do, this is basically my favorite thing.
[0:57]Enjoy.
[1:03]Okay.
[1:04]Today's guest is Matthew McConaughey.
[1:08]He's here to talk about his new children's book just because.
[1:11]And now I'm going to read his bio, but let me just say this was a complete and total thrill.
[1:15]I have been a fan for a very long time, as I'm sure many of you are as well.
[1:20]I also listen to olive green lights all summer long on Audible in the car.
[1:26]And I feel like you just drove all over with me.
[1:30]Texas native Matthew McConaughey is one of Hollywood's most sought after leading men.
[1:34]A chance meeting in Austin with casting director and producer Don Phillips led him to director
[1:39]Richard Lanklader, who launched the actor's career in the cult classic, Dazed and Confused.
[1:44]Since then, he has won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Ron Woodruff in Dallas Buyers Club.
[1:51]He's appeared in over 40 feature films that have grossed over a billion dollars and has become
[1:56]an author, producer and philanthropist with his just keep living foundation all the while sticking
[2:02]to his Texas roots and J.K. live in philosophy.
[2:05]He serves his minister of culture slash M.O.C. for the University of Texas Athletic Department
[2:11]and the Austin FC soccer club where he is part owner. In 2020, McConaughey releases first
[2:17]book Green Lights, which became an instant New York Times number one bestseller and has sold
[2:22]over three million copies worldwide. His second book, a children's book titled Just Because,
[2:29]is out now. He currently resides in Austin, Texas with his wife Camilla, who was also on this
[2:34]podcast. So go back and listen to when I interviewed her and there are three kids where he is a
[2:39]professor at the University of Texas in Austin. Welcome, Matthew. Thank you so much for coming on
[2:44]mom's don't have time to read books to discuss just because. Oh, good to be here with you to be.
[2:49]Oh, thank you. Okay, a children's book because you hadn't accomplished enough other things.
[2:54]Why write a children's book at this point? Oh, I mean, I've got three children on my own,
[2:58]so I'm sure that's part of it. And my children are now 10, 13 and 15. As a parent, you know,
[3:05]with children, you see them having first time experiences all the time. It's the first time every
[3:11]time. I mean, I don't know for how many years, but it still lives for them in different ways.
[3:16]And you see, I see pressures. They're under us. They pressure to put themselves on and see
[3:20]pressure. Their peers put on. I see confusion. I see them battling with their own feelings and
[3:26]in trying to feel like they need to be clear about being feeling one way about something. And
[3:31]this book is a little bit about tolerating that we can we have contradictory thought. We can
[3:36]have dueling feelings at the same time. We can feel one way about the same situation today and
[3:42]feel differently about it tomorrow. And that's okay. That's all right. That doesn't mean
[3:46]you don't know who you are. That means, especially in this time as a youngster,
[3:49]let's say you're figuring out who you are. And then you start to measure the consequences and
[3:54]make a choice because you start to know there's an exchange here. If I choose this, I'm going through
[3:59]with my elders right now. He's got three things going on that are very important to him.
[4:04]And all of a sudden for the first time, he's like, wish me had more than 24 hours this day.
[4:08]I'm going on. They aren't given anymore. I know you're going to have to make sacrifices and have to
[4:12]go. Yeah. But if I commit to that, that means I'll be able to do less this. I know. And their feeling
[4:18]is this is a lifetime decision. And I'm trying to say in also with the book, no, it's not a lifetime
[4:26]decision. My daughter wants to take up taking up the sports. She's like, where you tell me I need to
[4:31]be a pro. No, you don't have to be a pro. Don't put that pressure on yourself. Just go play it.
[4:36]Give maximum effort. Have a good time as you can. And if you don't want to do it again next semester,
[4:41]we'll find another sport. But you don't have to be a pro. Don't put that pressure on yourself.
[4:45]In this book, I think allows a proper leniency for children to understand they can have on
[4:50]themselves and hopefully has a conversation between parents and kids about that proper leniency
[4:55]as well as what responsibilities you can take. But that's you don't find your personal style or
[5:00]know what you're about until you go through the liberal arts of life. I mean, that's a liberal arts
[5:05]and college you're about. It's the furniture in the living room. And you figure it's trying a
[5:10]little bit of this and understanding all of the furniture and how it works. That's part of what
[5:14]young people I think need to do even earlier than college is understand there's a lot of different
[5:19]furniture in your in your own living room and try them all out. Now's the time.
[5:24]Although perhaps you wouldn't recommend they go to Australia and stay with the doilies. I don't know
[5:28]just guessing. I would recommend that. I don't know. You're talking to you. If I didn't have that
[5:34]year in Australia. That sounded rough, but very funny. It was. There are a few lines in just because
[5:40]that I particularly liked one is just because you follow doesn't mean you're not a leader. I love
[5:45]that. Yeah. How has that played out in your life? Like when's the time you followed? Well, that came to
[5:51]I think when I was in that walk about in Peru in like 1999, I had in my mind at that time that
[5:59]a leader was always in front. And obviously over there, I think particularly I had a guide who knew
[6:06]the land, you know, and knew the pitfalls and knew what was poisonous and what was not and I sure
[6:13]as heck followed him. And I was like, it hit and I was like, well, you're not in front. But what's
[6:21]how are you being more of a leader to be in front and not know where you're going or to be behind
[6:28]an expert who does? Oh, it's to be a much more leader to be in second line. You know, so who do we
[6:34]follow? And it takes pressure off thinking, oh, it's always got to be in front. I've always
[6:38]got to be first known. Sometimes great leadership in taking doing the best for yourself and being
[6:43]the best leader for yourself and others is following the right person who knows how to navigate
[6:49]or is leading the right way a prosperous way for you and others. And it's, it was just a click
[6:55]in my mind. So there are places where there's places where I let my kids lead today. You know,
[7:02]there's certain Saturdays where I'll go, no plans, Matthew, let's go just do it doesn't have to
[7:10]make them don't forget logic. Let's just go do what they want to do. And let's just follow and
[7:16]let them let them let them lead without going, hey, we only have till so o'clock or why do you want
[7:20]to do that? No, it's just, let's just do it. Whatever. And sometimes those days or their fancy is
[7:25]filled with whatever is in their eye line and they're like, aha, and it's a little one-offs. And
[7:30]that's okay. Sometimes it's a project that we actually build and at the end of the day, it's
[7:35]we've built something that wasn't there in the beginning. So I'm just following on those days. And
[7:39]I think it's that's me being a better father on that day, which is being a better leader
[7:43]for me on that day to them. I feel like this is, there's a fine line between that kind of day
[7:48]and a guest day, which is what I feel like my kids are asking me for often. Yeah, and you'll stretch
[7:54]that. Oh, yes, they won't they? Yes. They start especially, and then I have to bring up that
[7:57]old, that great term that I heard from a friend of mine. Before we get into yes, full yesterday,
[8:03]let's talk about appropriate expectation. Because you know that yes, David, oh, would you say
[8:10]to be yes? Yeah, but that's very inappropriate expectation. I mean, we have there has to be a
[8:15]ability to see them. Yeah, I said it can't like go on forever after the day. It has to be like
[8:20]confined to the day, but you know, still didn't really work. Another one just because you've got
[8:25]the gold doesn't mean that you won. Love that. Tell me about that one. Who wins the gold today?
[8:32]Today's world. What success? Money and faith. And that's not, is that really the gold medal
[8:38]that we should all be pursuing? I don't think so. There's certain gold medals we give out
[8:43]for things that I'm like, we've got to ask yourself, you want to be the best? You'll be number one,
[8:47]you want to be most popular? Ask yourself, you want to be relevant? Ask yourself for what?
[8:53]Before you just go on your first, because if you if you out there getting blue ribbons and everything,
[8:58]you're not necessarily going to be there's a lot of things that we give gold medals for that
[9:05]are not the gold medals for us. And our acts in my opinion shouldn't even be gold medals at
[9:12]all. There's a lot of things. There's a lot of games out there. You don't want to win. There's a lot
[9:16]of there's a lot of scams and cons and and and and ladders that we hadn't told and
[9:22]carrots that are being dangled to go hang up here that no you don't want to uh uh don't don't
[9:27]check you don't want to be the first. You don't want to be the best at that. You don't want to be
[9:32]most popular at that. You don't want to be most relevant for that. Interesting. So just because
[9:37]you've got the gold does not mean you won. You know there's plenty of gold medals out there that
[9:41]I think all of us can say and we can share with our children. You don't you don't want to be
[9:45]you don't want to be that one. I like this is similar to your your red sports car story and green
[9:52]lights. You finally get the shiny car and you realize that you've missed the adventure of the truck
[9:56]all along. Yes I got I got that was my gold medal.
[10:00]Yes, I did it. I won. Okay, so where am I?
[10:04]Oh, geez. No one's really interested me.
[10:08]Friends aren't interested. I'm less social. I'm sitting here.
[10:11]I'm like, I'm like resting on my laurels. I'm leaving and it gets my gold medal going. Hey, like my gold medal.
[10:16]Look at my gold medal. I quit playing the game. I got out of the race. Got rid of that damn medal.
[10:21]That car got back in the race. Got back in the game. It's back of myself.
[10:27]There you go. One thing I was really struck by and a lot of the stories through green lights is
[10:33]all the opportunities that presented themselves. You showed up. You were on time.
[10:37]You were at the place that we were supposed to be and you were willing to do anything to get there,
[10:42]whether it was sweet and we'd mopping the bathroom floor and the nightclub to
[10:47]showing up at an audition to being a hand model to just all these things. There seemed to be
[10:51]nothing you weren't willing to do to get to what the goal was that you wanted to do. So tell me a
[10:56]a little bit more about that and how that served you well. Well, you know, I bring up another
[11:00]line and green lights, but a lot of times it's not what choice we make. It's just make a damn
[11:03]choice we can commit to it. It'll it'll get you in the door. It'll get you in the door of
[11:09]opportunity where maybe you'll find the thing that is the gold medal you're going after and you
[11:13]could chase it, but you wouldn't have seen that opportunity unless you went and said, yeah, I put
[11:18]bite my nails. If you tell me you're going to pay me a little money from a hand model. Yeah,
[11:23]I'll go mop those four times. I'm not looking to be a professional mauper. I don't really
[11:27]did the job. I came all year to talk to you about, but that's what you need right now. Let's go
[11:32]and what did it do? Two minutes later, put that mop down. You want to wait tables? Yes, I do. Okay,
[11:37]this is test to me. Um, so sometimes life throws these in front of us. It can be measured like in that
[11:42]Homer Hill situation where he said mop, of course, he was measuring me. It can be other times where
[11:47]I don't know. I can make a little money off my hands. If I quit by my nails, okay, do I want to
[11:53]be a professional hammer? Not necessarily, but it's in that world of something in front of the camera.
[11:58]I'll be around an ad shoot, which is a world I want to be in. Then I get a PA job and then I go on
[12:06]the right bar and meet the right guy and it casts in a movie. These things lead to places.
[12:11]A lot of times, I think success we find ourselves in it. It's not necessarily something that we
[12:16]wrote the headline and went after. A lot of times it is, but so many times it's like, no,
[12:22]just go take the opportunity. If it's not going to discredit you or go get your character or take
[12:28]you into the debit section or you're not going to get hurt by it and try it out.
[12:33]Sometimes it's why don't it's because you try it. Find out. You may even even when you find out,
[12:40]nope, that's not for me. That's knowledge. That's choice. That got rid of something
[12:46]down the line. It got rid of another variable. It's like, no, I've done that before. That's not for me.
[12:51]How would you know? Unless you tried it.
[12:54]Are you true? These are all very inspiring little snippets in the story. I'm sure there's so many
[12:58]more. I just wanted to touch briefly on your amazing philanthropy and those things that you're doing
[13:02]to really help the world. I know there's so many celebrities and people of influence who
[13:07]adopt different things. But I feel like you are across the board doing things that impact so many
[13:12]different types of people, so many different areas of life, whether it's the plane you just
[13:17]got, which is so amazing going to Maui, to the Green Lights initiative, the Grand Initiative,
[13:23]which is so creative and interesting. Just keep living. All these things. Tell me about your
[13:29]views on philanthropy and what are you trying to do? Even the private public government partnerships?
[13:34]I mean, it's so interesting. How do you think about your philanthropy in general?
[13:38]Prevention before cure and create incentive restore and follow through it. There's so many
[13:46]very valuable places to give time, efforts, monies, to cure. Very valid, need them.
[13:54]My lane that moves me in terms of me on is, well, what about the tools to prevent you before
[14:00]you need to cure? That's why we went to young people in high school, tie to one schools with the
[14:05]just keep living foundation, restore. Now, if I just need restoration, they're not. They need
[14:11]survive right now. There's going to be new plans about how they're going to thrive right now.
[14:15]It's basics. It's called stable lives, necessities, diapers, food, water, power. That's as far as
[14:23]new to think. We don't need to be talking about yoga instructors. You know what I mean? We're going
[14:29]basic needs right now. The green lives grant initiative that's about follow through. It's about
[14:36]first bills passed in 30 years to help make school safer. The money's there. It's there.
[14:41]Oh, it's really hard red tape to get that money. Okay, will we simplify that?
[14:46]And this is not political because the government wants to spend that money and the schools need it.
[14:51]So can we simplify the communication process, the application process, how do you best
[14:55]best chance to get awarded those grants process? Nothing sexy about it. It's very utilitarian.
[15:00]But it is also something else I believe in is the private sector work with the public sector.
[15:06]So the private, if I'm a private citizen and then work with the public government,
[15:11]that that communicate the government are lead to many times our leaders get in position or
[15:15]bills passed and we're like, oh, okay, we did it. And we turn our back and we move on and we
[15:19]look back 30, 50 years later, 10 years later, we go like, whatever happened with that.
[15:24]Oh, it was never utilized. Oh, it was never spent. Oh, there was never any follow-up through it.
[15:29]So in some ways with that bill just symbolic, I want hopefully it to be more than
[15:35]to be as least symbolic as possible. It was passed symbol. Right. Now, let's utilize,
[15:42]let's be constructive with it. How can we then hopefully we could have measurements? Here's how
[15:46]it worked. Here's why let's do it more. And again, let's be affirmative. But we got to,
[15:53]let's get it utilized to see first for it not to be spent and for us to be reallocated in
[15:59]2026 would be like, what are we doing? So that's just that one's follow-through. And an example
[16:07]that I hope I think we need more of is private sector and public sector working together more
[16:13]instead of just saying, no, government, my leaders in position that I want, I'm going to sit back
[16:20]now's the time to get up. We've got to go be soldiers in life and what we want to get done.
[16:27]And on the other side of it is we don't want the government just going, well,
[16:31]but the private sector handle. All right, why don't we work together more on that?
[16:36]Amazing. Well, it's really admirable what you're doing. It's really awesome.
[16:40]Going back to writing for a second. Obviously reading green lights,
[16:44]or actually I listened to it off, but listening to green lights, you talk about when you just
[16:48]discovered your love of story, how it was identified when you really wrote the 15 page letters
[16:54]and like tapped into yourself, which became an entire memoir. And now this children's book,
[16:59]what does it feel like when you're writing? Where do you write your best work? What are the ideal
[17:04]writing conditions for you? What does that look like? Ideal writing conditions are alone and
[17:10]four to seven in the morning. And with nothing planned or no appointments on the backside,
[17:18]meaning if I'm going to write today, and I have an appointment in three hours,
[17:24]because I know in my mind, in three hours, I need to stop. So I have a curfew. No curfew.
[17:30]I can have no curfew. And so I give myself now, I don't say it's limitless, it's lightless,
[17:35]but if I can go away for a week, I go with it for two weeks and no men relax. You have not,
[17:41]you don't care if it's dark. I don't care if it's light. I don't care if you have a drink. I don't
[17:45]care if you don't. I don't care if you exercise. I'm going to sit right here. That's when I'm
[17:50]right now. I do get up moving around and I'll have ideas that I'll come back and try and deconstruct
[17:59]them and fill them out and flush them out. Sometimes it's one line, this book just because
[18:05]it was a diddy. It was a two, 30 in the morning dream I had that was a Bob Dylan point.
[18:11]And I was when I woke up at the beat, you know, I was going, you know, just because I forgive you,
[18:16]don't mean that I still trust. There's what you do. There's what I do and yours is not my must.
[18:22]And just because you're well and don't mean that you're a cryer and just because you lied
[18:27]does not mean that you're a liar. And so I woke up and the hook was there and I just started
[18:33]writing the couplets and I wrote for four hours and wrote about a hundred of them and went back
[18:39]and said, ah, there's about whatever's in the book, about 20 or five or so that I think a really
[18:45]relatable, constructive and helpful for young people and can become a great conversation between
[18:49]parents and the kids and put them into what's in the book. I'm just the cause.
[18:54]All in the morning's work. How about that? Well, it simply comes at sometimes musically.
[18:59]If I can find the rhythm, I mean, I find that with writing even in green lights.
[19:02]If I can get the first line, right, if I can get it, oh, that's it.
[19:08]It's got the swing and it's got the vibe and it's got the sway. It's got the rhythm.
[19:12]The rest of the neck, the rest of it will just write itself. The rest is easy and sometimes
[19:16]I'd be up at 4 a.m. and not get the first line to a story written until 3 p.m.
[19:23]But then I'd have the story written at 7 p.m. because I got off. I got out. Oh, there it is. There it is.
[19:28]I hear it. I hear it. And then once I get the rhythm, it sort of writes itself.
[19:34]Amazing. So do you read it out loud or it's just in your head?
[19:38]It's just in my head. And it goes down and I have to
[19:44]you know, sometimes I'm still learning and it's hard sometimes to slow my mind down
[19:48]because my mind can go faster than my fingers. So I'll get, it'll come in my head and I'll write
[19:55]down a word that represents each sentence. And I'll, because I'll have them.
[20:00]words under each other column.
[20:02]And then I'll go back and I'll fill in
[20:05]where those words fit and how it connected to the,
[20:07]and then I'll have eight sentences
[20:08]and then I'll have a great paragraph.
[20:11]Interesting.
[20:12]So what advice would you have for aspiring authors?
[20:15]Make sure it's personal.
[20:17]I don't want it's a lot more fun than it's personal
[20:18]and it's a lot harder in a way
[20:20]because you kind of have to look in the mirror
[20:22]and go, oh geez, I need to become embarrassing.
[20:27]But the rules are there on the rules,
[20:30]but I say, make sure it's personal.
[20:31]Look, when I first started writing green lights,
[20:34]I found myself after the first 10 days
[20:38]with this little hunch of I wanted to write impressive.
[20:43]And I looked back and I was like, yeah,
[20:45]it is kind of impressive sentence there, Matthew.
[20:48]And then I was like,
[20:50]that's BS, you're writing to impress.
[20:54]And I was like, no, write what's honest and write it well.
[20:58]And if it, maybe that will be impressive.
[21:00]And if that's impressive, instead of writing impressively,
[21:04]there's our place.
[21:05]And when I got more personal, the other irony is this.
[21:09]The more personal you can be,
[21:11]and it's very much like the contradictions
[21:14]and just because the more to humanity
[21:17]you're speaking to everyone.
[21:20]Now the use, it's very important to me
[21:22]and I think it's a clever way of thinking,
[21:25]when do you use first person, second person, or third person?
[21:28]So if I'm writing, I, I, I, I, you I might be,
[21:31]Matthew is saying right subject, we make it personal.
[21:33]So I, I, I, I, I, great.
[21:36]I think that's the place to start, make it personal.
[21:39]But then you look at it and you go,
[21:41]who cares about this?
[21:43]This is like my diary.
[21:44]It's like who, how can someone apply this?
[21:47]But you can look at the same stuff
[21:48]that's in the first, first person I and go,
[21:52]where do I use that you?
[21:54]And it becomes like, oh, I'm sharing things I learned.
[21:57]But you gotta watch you because people take it as advice
[21:59]and no one likes to be told what to do.
[22:01]Then you get to the beautiful spot,
[22:03]which is my favorite to go between the eye
[22:05]and the third person, the royal we.
[22:10]So from the eye and the we is where my favorite place
[22:15]to write from.
[22:16]So you gotta watch all we.
[22:18]If you go all we, you're speaking in platitudes
[22:20]and people are going, what are you, who the hell?
[22:22]Do you think you are speaking for everybody?
[22:25]But if you got enough eye personal in there,
[22:28]no one can judge that.
[22:30]You can judge it.
[22:30]No one can condemn you for that.
[22:32]So you're, you're experienced.
[22:34]If you got too much we in there, it's like, really?
[22:37]So your words are the commandment.
[22:41]No, so it's the mixing of the eye to you and the we
[22:44]and I think you have to watch it
[22:45]because too much you, people back off
[22:47]and go quit telling me what to do.
[22:48]Too much eyes like, well, I can't see myself
[22:51]in your story, man, come on.
[22:54]Too much weeds, like, that's not personal law.
[22:57]It's like, who are you talking to?
[22:58]You're trying to talk about humanity in general.
[23:01]So it's the play with those, the use of those three person.
[23:06]Amazing.
[23:07]More books coming after this.
[23:09]You're writing another memoir?
[23:10]Yes, I mean, right now I'm really excited
[23:13]about going around sharing just because I have a couple
[23:17]of other similar things that I think would be good,
[23:20]children's books and I'm working on another,
[23:22]a follow up to, not now.
[23:25]I don't know if it's necessary to follow up to green lights
[23:27]but it's in the same vein of how do we constructively
[23:32]move forward, you know, personally and collectively?
[23:36]Any secrets and then I'll let you go
[23:38]but any secrets for confronting the blank page.
[23:42]If you don't have a song in mind or rhythm that's ready.
[23:44]Yeah, right.
[23:46]Well, I've had to, sometimes you do have to add into it.
[23:49]Sometimes you do have to just sit there and go,
[23:52]I've got nothing, I'm stuck, but change your,
[23:55]I do, I mean, I try to, when I get stuck like that,
[23:58]I try to change my state of mind, meaning.
[24:02]All right, differently about that.
[24:04]We all think we're right differently
[24:06]about the same subject or have a different look
[24:09]at it in different state of mind.
[24:12]Meaning when you're adored for it to go
[24:14]and right after you've exercised,
[24:15]when you've just come home from church,
[24:18]when you've had a few drinks,
[24:20]when you're tired, that tired,
[24:22]sometimes that being tired is really nice
[24:25]because you're thinking your mind's not too acute yet.
[24:29]You're kind of thinking in baselines
[24:30]and it's kind of low-hanging fruit stuff.
[24:34]It's a baseline and get right those down to it.
[24:36]And then come back to the same subject,
[24:38]go out and change your, you know,
[24:41]do a 360, go change where your state of mind,
[24:43]where your endorphins are, where your energy is,
[24:45]where your soul is, where it's been,
[24:47]and come back and have a look at it.
[24:48]And then again, the no rules thing,
[24:50]sometimes it's just about getting that first sentence.
[24:54]Just get something down and that,
[24:56]and if you can get that first one,
[24:58]it can lead to the second,
[24:58]and all of a sudden it can get in the flow.
[25:00]And there's no, that's what's fun about writing,
[25:02]there's no rules, you can't go try,
[25:03]I mean, not great mentor,
[25:05]Penny Allen, I always said this to me about acting
[25:07]and writing, she was like,
[25:08]try and screw it up, I dare you.
[25:12]So give yourself that leniency, that freedom,
[25:15]try and screw it up, dare you, it's fun.
[25:20]I mean, just go back and either edit it or,
[25:22]and go long, go edit, you know, later if you want to,
[25:25]you know, but go long, don't edit while you're writing,
[25:29]go long, and then come back and go,
[25:31]yeah, I got that point, you know,
[25:32]that could be, that those two paragraphs say
[25:35]a similar thing in different ways.
[25:36]Do I amalgamize the two or do I use one
[25:38]because it really gets the point across?
[25:40]Yeah.
[25:41]Amazing.
[25:42]First time I've heard the word amalgamized today,
[25:44]so there's that.
[25:45]Yeah.
[25:46]Yeah.
[25:47]On passport forms, what do you put actor?
[25:51]Do you put author?
[25:52]Do you put storyteller?
[25:53]What do you put down?
[25:54]On passport?
[25:55]Yep.
[25:56]I haven't had my passport right here just a minute ago.
[25:58]Like on this board, when you travel occupation.
[26:01]And teller's on there.
[26:02]Yeah, I usually tell a story, storyteller.
[26:06]Love it, so fun.
[26:07]Okay, just because it's just awesome.
[26:10]Thank you so much for coming on.
[26:11]This is really fun.
[26:12]I love green lights and this book and all of it.
[26:15]And I'm a big fan.
[26:17]Congratulations.
[26:18]And especially on your philanthropy.
[26:20]Well, thank you.
[26:21]Thanks for the time.
[26:22]And thanks for letting me share stories
[26:24]and hope you and others enjoy the book.
[26:27]Thank you, Sam.
[26:28]All right.
[26:29]Take care.
[26:30]Bye-bye.
[26:31]Thanks for listening to this episode of Moms.
[26:33]Don't have time to read books.
[26:35]Don't forget to follow me on Instagram at zebiowens
[26:38]and at Moms.
[26:39]Don't have time to read books.
[26:40]Also sign up for my newsletter at zebiowens.com
[26:43]and sign up for my virtual book club
[26:44]and meet lots of authors on Zoom every other week.
[26:47]Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan.
[26:48]In fact, texture sound for the sound editing.
[26:51]And thank you to Morning Moon Productions
[26:53]for providing this fantastic intro and now trim music.