#223: This Dad Reads | Star Wars Week

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome back to the Capes and Tights podcast right here on Capesandtights.com I'm your host, Justin Soderbergh. Once again, this episode is brought to you by our friends over at Galactic Comics and Collectibles. At galactic comics and collectibles.com we welcome Jason from this dad Reads to celebrate Star Wars Week here at the podcast. Jason runs a social media platform and a podcast as well as a website called this dad Reads, where he discusses books, mystery novels, things like that, but focuses a lot on Star Wars. So we talked Star wars books, fandom, being a dad and growing up and having your kids grow up and having them teach them Star wars and so much more. So, yeah, check out this episode with Jason from this dad Reads. And before you do that, though, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, bluesky, threads, all those places. Rate, review, subscribe over on Spotify, Apple, wherever you find your podcasts, as well as you can find us on YouTube. And as always, you can visit keepsandtaste.com for so much more reviews, content, and all that stuff there, there. So check out. This is Jason from this dad Reads on the Capes and Tights podcast. Enjoy, everyone. Welcome to the podcast. Jason, how are you? [00:01:15] Speaker B: Hey. I'm good. Thanks so much for having me. [00:01:17] Speaker A: Absolutely. I'm glad you were able to. To take the time to do this. It's Star Wars Week here on our podcast, and it's actually kind of funny. Before we get into that, I didn't realize there was a Star wars podcast day. How did I not know that was a thing? I was just, like, going through, like, previous episodes of yours and things like that, and I'm like, wait a second. This is February 7th. I didn't know anything about this. I mean, that's crazy. [00:01:37] Speaker B: I think I stumbled upon it last year just on social media and a little bit late. So I jumped and participated. This year, I wasn't able to make the cut and make. Make a, you know, contribution, but still try to support all those folks who are celebrating. But, yeah, there is. So maybe if we can both plan better, maybe we can try to plan. [00:01:53] Speaker A: On something for next year. I was just thinking, I'm like, oh, wait. Oh, it is an act. And I'm like, I've. This is my third year doing Star Wars Week, and it's. It's. It's been a, you know, a changing, evolving thing where I wanted to do, like, I'm gonna do five episodes in a week, and it's gonna be Monday through Friday. It's Gonna be five different things. And there was written interviews, and there was all kinds of stuff to the point where now I'm like, there's three episodes this week. That's all I'm doing for Star wars coverage. And I'm just gonna live with that. I've got two kids. I'm moving. I bought a house. There's all this stuff going on. I'm like, I don't have time to do too much on here, but I thought of you following you on Instagram as a person who reads a lot of books as well as comics and other things. You know, over the. Over the past year or so, I followed your journey in reading and things like that. So I thought. You know what? I originally thought I had a second podcast called we did it for a little while. I started it twice and ended it twice because I just didn't have time. And it was called Rocking the Dad Pod. [00:02:50] Speaker B: Oh, nice. [00:02:51] Speaker A: And so what we did was we just talked about being dads and things that happened. And one of the things I thought about was like, oh, right around, you know, May 4th, I was like, maybe one day we will get Jason on so we can talk about being a dad and being into Star Wars. And it just never happened because we've literally started. I think we did like two episodes twice with two different dads, and it just fizzled out because we're like, I can't find time to do really on. [00:03:16] Speaker B: Brand for being a parent. [00:03:17] Speaker A: Basically don't have enough time. I'm like, maybe we could revisit it with my parent. My kids are like teenagers or. Yeah, they're almost out of the house. Then we can be like, this is what it was like being a dad. Not actually physically living in it, but. Yeah. [00:03:28] Speaker B: Or just, you know, the Rocking the Dad Pod is just like a once a year episode you put out because that's all you have time for. [00:03:33] Speaker A: And it comes randomly. It could be four hours long. It could be 30 minutes long. It doesn't really. Yeah, you never really have any idea what it is. [00:03:38] Speaker B: That's a great name, though. I mean, you got to capitalize. You got to lock that down. [00:03:41] Speaker A: Here's the deal. It's. I'm keeping the URL. I'm keeping the. Keeping it all alive. Just one day I will be able to just pop on there and do things and sell it. Yes, exactly. But we. We're here to talk some stuff, but I think, you know, so this. This dad reads. Where did that come from? That's the first thing I want to really kind of discuss is like, how did you obviously have you been like a longtime reader and this just spun out of that or what made you want to do something like this, A podcast, you know, social media presence and things like that? [00:04:12] Speaker B: Yeah, I have been a lifetime reader so ever since a young age, just really into books and reading and you know, like a lot of probably readers and I don't want to speak for all nerdom but you know, kind of introverted and just, you know, you know, just stuff like that. And so I was always into reading at from a young age and. And so it was actually, you know, cut to me at young adulthood, you know, just figuring out how what your life's going to look like in terms of a job. And I got married relatively young. I was like early 20s when I got married. So just, you know, kind of fell off reading, especially post college and. But then really got back into it into like kind of crime fiction, crime fillers. And then I've always been into Star Wars. So Star wars was something that I was always passionate about from probably an early preteen. I was, I'm about the age of when the, the re release of the original trilogies are hitting theaters. I'd already seen them but like big into that with my, you know, relatives, my brother, my cousin, and then obviously the prequels. So I was in high school when the prequels came out, so a lot of like new Star wars content finally hitting. I had never gotten into the Star wars books though, and probably around 10 or so I tried to read one from the library and I was so confused. I wasn't. I didn't really know what the lore was. I didn't understand some of the terminology. And so I was like, no, this isn't for me. Cut to though, early you when they announced the higher Public Publishing initiative, probably in late 2019, I want to say 2020. And then as the pandemic was kind of lining up, I was like so stoked for that because it was like a publishing initiative that was new stories totally told via books and that type of medium. So I made a commitment in 2020 to basically read all of canon. I wanted to catch up on all Star wars canon before the High Republic came out, just because I wanted to know everything. And I was like, okay, I'm. I have the time now because it's a pandemic and I'm loving, I do love reading. And so I just set myself a goal and I didn't have in mind to talk about it or publicize it at all. It was just something I wanted to do on my own. And then cut to towards the end of 2020, I was like, okay, Bookstagram kind of, like, was on my radar. I was seeing that there was accounts out there, and I was going back and forth between doing one. And I was just like, no, like, social media. I'm in my early 40s. I'm like, social media, to me is, like, a young person's thing. Like. But I was like, you know what? No. Finally made a decision. There was just one weekend. I forgot what it was. I'm like, you know what? And I feel like late 2020, 2021, things were not getting better. Things were still not changing. And I was like, you know what? I'm going to do this just for me. Like, I'm just going to jump in if it's a way that I can kind of share my love of reading across all types of genres, but especially with the higher public about to come out. In early 2021, I just kind of ripped off the band aid and just went for it. And so that was it. It kind of grew from there. And it really grew from, like, a desire to just, like, get free books. Like, I was paying for all these Star wars books, and I was like, if I can get, you know, Disney or Lucasfilm even, that was like, ultimate, right? Like the Grail. But if I could, like, work with publishers and get free books, like, that would be awesome. Like, if I could just, like, not have to pay for this and, like, write a review. So that's where I was like, I launched the website right alongside with my, like, social media to, like, publish my reviews. And then the podcast came, like, a year later because that was just kind of, like, another kind of extension of it. And that's been wild to me. That's been, like, two years of doing the podcast. And so I only do a monthly podcast because that's all I can pull off. So, yeah, it just. It was just kind of spilled out, out of my, like, passions and my nerd dom. Really thankful, too, that, like, I wasn't thinking about branding really that much. I was just trying to think of, like, a name that was. I was trying to really be myself. Like, I didn't want to be something that wasn't me. Like, I'm. I'm a dad. I have two kids as well, and I have this passion for reading. So, like, what does that look like? How do I do it? How can I engage with other adults who might be in the same phase of life as Me. And so thankfully, kind of I didn't really like niche myself too much into Star Wars. So like, I really do a lot of Star wars, but because of this dad read, I can read anything. So I'm really thankful that I can kind of pivot and read whatever I want. Sometimes my non Star wars content doesn't do as good, but like at the end of the day, like, I don't care. Like I'm doing it for me and my passion. So it's really just been a passion hobby and something that's been super fun and really been able to connect with like people like you and people in the reading and Star wars community. Like that was the biggest surprise to me was just making friends and it's been so much fun. [00:08:31] Speaker A: It's a collaborative kind of like place on the Internet too, where social media can be so negative and just gross sometimes that this bookstagram community is really like, it's not like, oh, you got like a lot of people. There's like a, like a sadness when someone doesn't get approved for an arc. Like if they submitted something and they don't get it, like, oh, I didn't get one. And you look at it, you're like, you didn't get one, but I got one. Like, there's certain times where I'm just like, I don't understand it. But again, when you said, you know, whether or not it does well or not, like you, a post doesn't do as well as another one. The publisher who sent you the book or sent you the E. ARC or whatever knows your social media. Like, they see that kind of stuff. Like a lot of times you have to add that in there. So they're aware of it. So if it doesn't do as well. Oh well, it's one of those things, you know. And again, we're here talking Star Wars a little bit and that's where I see the focus. It's like my site is capes and tights and we do a lot of comic book and pop culture related things. But I also review books and things like that too. And so it's kind of funny. We've gotten some poll quotes over the years on books that it's just a funny thing to see that like, you know, a book about heads will roll by Josh Winning has a quote on the back and it says capes and tights. And I'm just like, it doesn't kind of fit. So I like the fact that yours is this dad reads it because at least it does have a Conquering overall arching thing. Whereas awesome. Like, that's definitely a comic book reference. And this is a horror book. And so this is not something that kind of crosses over, but it doesn't really matter in the end. You know, it works for you and that's. It's awesome. But, like, for us, I can review movies or anything. I can do anything. Pop culture. [00:10:03] Speaker B: Exactly. That is the thing where it's like, okay, reads books is in my thing. But I have. I do review, like, I talk about shows and other media as well. So that's a little bit harder sometimes to be like, hey, I have a bookish podcast, but can I, like, I would love to, like, screen this show or, like, but sometimes, a lot of the times there's still a bookish connection. So that's like my big. That's why I was. I went to the Acolyte premiere last year, which was wild. And basically, I think it was because I was the High Republic and all of that. I think that's why they invited more bookish creators. So there's still. There's still connections out there. But sometimes when I'm like, either pitching or trying to do something new, I'm like, this is bookish, but I want to. This is for a movie or a show. So I love Tabletop games, too. So I've been like, diving into Tabletop. I'm like, you have to read the instructions to play a game. Right? [00:10:48] Speaker A: So, like, well, I was thinking, I started my journey really in the media realm as a sports reporter in Massachusetts. And so I used to go. I covered the broad Boston Bruins. I went to some Red Sox games and all that stuff. In a similar vein to you, where it was like, I got free access to the game. Okay. So I have to write a little recap of the game, do some interviews, whatever it may be. I got free access to see a sporting event that caused hundreds of dollars for a normal person to go to. And so, yeah, in the same vein with this, when I started covering comics and books and things like that, I was like, I get access to these. And I started the podcast of I don't care if anybody ever listens. I get a chance to talk to a bunch of cool people and have a conversation. Cool if someone listens, awesome if they don't, whatever, you know? And it's grown from there. Yeah, it's a. You know, maybe I can do this as a thing where I'm like, oh, it's a Star wars day at the local minor league baseball stadium, and I can do a Star wars coverage thing for our website. [00:11:40] Speaker B: There you go. [00:11:40] Speaker A: They go to get a free access to the game. They get to go see a sporting event. [00:11:43] Speaker B: Exactly. You can make anything work. Yeah. [00:11:46] Speaker A: You can cross it over somehow, somewhere. Yeah, it's a thing. And you focus a lot of your similar in mindset. Mystery thrillers are really a big thing for you as well as the Star wars stuff, obviously. I also read and reviewed Head Cases, which I thought was a really good book from John McMahon. I think that was a wonderful book. It made me want to read. That's the other thing with these. Reading these new books for free, like you mentioned, like, you get these like E. Arcs or netgalley or whatever it may be, is you want to go back and read the other person's like, sometimes their back catalog too. [00:12:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:12:16] Speaker A: It's kind of cool. And then maybe you'll get a purchase from you of a back book that is no longer, you know, that's not the one they're promoting. [00:12:22] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:12:23] Speaker A: And I will be, you know, pretty straight. I'm a collector, too. So a lot of times if I really like the book, I'm gonna go buy the book anyway. I just get to read it before anybody else gets to read it. Yeah. [00:12:31] Speaker B: And multiple editions, which is really dangerous. So, like, I. Yeah, I'm a collector too, and I have that in all of my headings of things. Like, that's where it can get real dangerous. [00:12:39] Speaker A: Yes. [00:12:40] Speaker B: Because I don't know if you've read Red Rising. Red Rising is a big one that I'm into. And I think I have four versions of some of those novel. It's wild. And they keep announcing more editions and more covers. And I will buy them all because they're all beautiful. [00:12:53] Speaker A: My wife thought it was crazy because I went out. One of my favorite books of all time is Adam Caesar's Clown in a Cornfield, which is actually being made into a feature film, which comes out on May 9, which is pretty cool. And I have the German edition and the. I want to say it's either a French edition, that book. And she's like, you can't read either of those languages. I'm like, I know, but still, look. [00:13:14] Speaker B: At the cool cover. Look at the COVID Yes, look at the COVID I have Japanese editions of some of the young adult. Like, if the COVID I love art too. Like, I'm at the heart of it. I'm an artist. Like, I grew up with doing art and music. Like, I'm an artist. Like, that's my heart. And so, like anything like that's why I love collecting. Because the way that anything that I love, any way that it's like manifests in like a collectible or in art. Like, I want it because I love it and I want to see it. So it's really hard that I just got to like really temper myself. And I only have so much space. [00:13:45] Speaker A: And my, my buddy who owns the local comic book shop in my area is not. It collects things, but he's like, when someone gets. Brings a comic book in and he buys it, someone's like, this must be hard to not put that in your own collection. He goes, dude, I don't collect a lot of the stuff that I sell. There's a specific niche comic book that he collects. It's artists and he does variant covers. He goes, that's what I collect. So if that comes in, yes. Anything else, first appearance of this, do that. It does. It's cool. He likes to have it in his shop and he likes to sell it. [00:14:11] Speaker B: But other people have it. [00:14:13] Speaker A: Yes. He's lucky enough that he's like, I'm not really into collecting all of these things. So it's very helpful to me because if not, I wouldn't make any money as a comic book store owner. I would just keep it. Right? [00:14:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:14:23] Speaker A: Yes. [00:14:24] Speaker B: I'm the same. There are certain artists that I gravitate to, like, that have. Are nostalgic to me, a certain art style that I really like. But if a certain variant, like, I can't get into the variant, I have comics I've had to really pull back on. But if there's a really nice variant or like a convention exclusive, like an exclusive will get me a limited thing. Especially if it's in High Republic or Star Wars. That's really going to be something I want. Like, I have very few grails when it comes to comics these days, which is probably good. But sometimes if a certain cover just pops off that I think looks really cool, I'm going to want to get it. [00:14:55] Speaker A: And that's, that's where I basically am now. Like I mentioned, I'm moving into a new house. I bought a new house and we're going to have to move this studio area to a new studio area at the new house. And I'm looking at moving stuff and I'm like, I have all these comics that I need to move and like, I'm. I'm this close to just like looking at my buddy and be like, what will you give me for these? Like, do you want them pennies for the Dollar man, like pennies. Like, just give me something so I can have some money back for what I'm giving you. But in the same sense, like, you just do what you want with them. [00:15:24] Speaker B: I'm paying you to take it off. [00:15:25] Speaker A: My hands because I'm now into that more along the lines of like specific artists or whatever. And I'm like, first appearance, that first appearance that I'm like, that's cool to have, but like, I'm never going to have the real big, humongous first appearances. I don't. To me, I love the industry, I love the world we live in, but like, I can't, I don't have the money for that. [00:15:42] Speaker B: And you're doing a good job. I like your display back there. Like, I've, I still struggle with displaying comics. I just have mine in like a box because I, I don't have that much wall space either. So I'm, I've been toying with a couple of different ways to display some of the ones I want to, but I'm still figuring that out. Good. Good for you. [00:15:58] Speaker A: Well, so it's hard to see. So from above this, I'm in a converted garage and above this it's like like 12 foot ceilings and it had, as you can't see it now, but there's rows of comics that are displayed and all the ones behind me on the wall are previous guests of the podcast. And so they signed comics and we put it on the wall. So it's kind of cool from this point on up there. There's nothing up there right now because I'm moving. And so like, I basically moved with everything that's not in the background of my space, plus a couple things on the desk because I still want to feel like I, I'm not. And yeah, so it's. A lot of that stuff is like, yeah, it's previous guests that have signed things. That's why they just put it like that. But like, and then back here is more like current. Like, as I'm collecting current issues, I'm trying to pull boxes out. I have to like, it's, it's. There's a method to my madness in that sense. [00:16:42] Speaker B: Yeah, I get it. We all have our ways. The good thing with me with comics is I, as long as I can keep up on the story, like, I'll read digital totally fine and then buy the paper, like the collected paperback later, like for my shelf. Right. [00:16:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:52] Speaker B: Or an omnibus. So that's, that's my thing. [00:16:58] Speaker A: It's a world that and the Cool thing on the cool thing. But also the downside is the eclectic side of it is the High Republic you mentioned. So High Republic was such a badass thing when they announced that High Republic was gonna be what it was gonna be. And then it was a multi medium kind of thing where it's comics and books and potentially shows of the future and all this other stuff and movies potentially. And it was such a cool thing to see. And when they kicked it off with one of my favorite authors and comic book writers, Charles Soule, that was even more getting me into this whole thing. But then the downside was I was talking to Alyssa Wong earlier for the earlier week episode of this thing, and I was like, there's just too many. Now I have to buy all of them. Now I'm like, geez, there's one of those things where I was buying this. Star wars books used to come out every once in a while. Do you know what I mean? It was a book here and there. Then there was like, all of a sudden I know where I'm like, there's like 40 High Republic books and I'm like, geez, now there's a ton. And I need them all. Like, if I don't have time to read them all, I need them all. I need to have them all on my desk here somewhere. [00:17:53] Speaker B: Yes. [00:17:53] Speaker A: Yeah. But then there's the comic books that go with it too. There's a whole rain realm of comic books. The High Republic of it all to me was great because it was a starting point for people. Yes. You didn't really need to know. Having knowledge of the future Star wars universe is nice to have. It adds filler in your brain to what's going on in this prequels era. But you didn't need it. And I think that's what was really cool about the beginning of all this. You can grab the first light. First Jedi. What's the first Jedi? [00:18:26] Speaker B: Light of the Jedi. [00:18:27] Speaker A: Light of the Jedi. [00:18:27] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:18:29] Speaker A: You can buy that one and start reading that and not really have to worry about what happens around it. [00:18:34] Speaker B: Everybody's starting off fresh. Yeah. And it's so cool because people can continue to jump in. Like, I know it's overwhelming. Like there's so many. It's been four years of content. Right. But I think at any point you can jump in and just start. And it's. I actually am jealous of people who would want to start over again because you don't have to wait. Like everything as of, you know, a month from now, a couple months, everything will be out and you can read it from start to finish at your own pace. You just have to avoid spoilers, obviously, and the passionate fandom who love the characters. And so you might have to plug your ears a little bit online. But other than that, like, you get to start fresh and read it from start to finish, which is so amazing. [00:19:13] Speaker A: Do you find yourself, when you go to read a Star wars book, is it more. Do you find that High Republican stuff right now more intriguing and more pulling you in than something like, you know, the Mask of Fear that just came out, you know, rain the Empire. [00:19:27] Speaker B: You know, I. I get jazzed about High Republic just because I love it so much. Like, to me, it's honestly turned into kind of like, my Star Wars. Like, I have nostalgic Star wars, but, like, to me, the higher public is so dear to me. And, like, I think just because I feel like I've been there from the start and like, the people I've met and like, the authors I've been able to engage with, like, so I am probably. I always try to temper my expectations. First of all, because I have been surprised by Star wars books. I've been disappointed by Star wars books, and High Republic has been in that mix. So I would say anything. I think it's fun when I'm surprised, regardless. So I have been very surprised by, like, especially Rise of the Red Blade by Delilah Dawson. That came out last year. Yeah, super surprised by that. Like, I loved it. I wasn't. I was excited. I'm excited about any Star wars book. I'm excited about any Star wars content, period. Like, I'm not. I'm never, like, hating on a Star wars release. Like, I will watch it, I will engage with it, I will read it, whatever. But I love when I'm surprised. Same thing with Crimson Climb that came out by E.K. johnston maybe two years ago. Now it's a YA novel. I was like, okay, it's about Kira. Like, I'll read it. I loved it. Like, it was. I love being surprised. It's harder to be surprised in Higher Public because my expectations are so high and I'm, like, theorizing and I'm, like, hoping and so. But I don't know. Like I said, higher public is always going to be special to me. And it's hard to, like, temper your expectations, though, with those books because you're so excited and you want to know so bad. So. But I love, like I said, I love a Star wars release like Reign of the Empire, which I have, like, three editions behind Me, not actually one of my favorites ever. Like, I thought it was really good, but I'm always going to read a Star wars book and I'm always going to have an opinion and I'm always going to like. I feel like I try to review them critically and so if people want to pick it up, they'll hear my thoughts. It's really hard to review High Republic books because they're so chronological and like sequential that like, it's hard to almost at all. The end of all my reviews, I think I just reviewed the latest YA that came out by Claudia Gray. I'm like, you need to read everything before you read this book. So like, here's my review. But until you caught up, like, don't read this. [00:21:37] Speaker A: Well, in the world of comics, I've always felt it very difficult to review issues 2, 3, 4, 5 and a 5 issue miniseries because I'm like, I've always been like, oh, review issue one, let you know what's going on, excited about this new series and then I'll review the trade. Because it's like, yes. Like, yeah, like it'd be like reviewing in the middle of the middle of a season of a TV show. I, I never understood how someone you could review maybe the content structure in the actual thing, but the overall story is like, how do you, how do you fault someone for being like, you didn't finish this comic book up correctly? Like, well, there, there's two more issues. [00:22:12] Speaker B: Like the middle of it. Yeah. I used to review comics for a site called Tatooine Times that has now gone. Gone by the wayside. The owner and I were friends and he had to close it, but we were reviewing single issues and it was so hard. Like, those are the hardest reviews I had to do. And I was like trying to figure out different ways to like talk about, you know, whether the art or the whatever. But yeah, I hear you on that. [00:22:34] Speaker A: Well, I mean, over the years I've become friends and acquaintances with a lot of these creators and these authors and these writers and illustrators. And I've always, now I'm like, guys, I apologize if you send me something. Hey, there's issue two. I'm like, don't take offense if I don't review it. I don't read it immediately, but I'm not gonna likely jump on it because timing is a thing I have no time to do all of. If I did every issue of every series, I wouldn't have any time to do anything. I have a few people that are writing for me. But it's like, it's hit or miss on them. And if they didn't reach issue one, they're not gonna review the issue two kind of thing. And then I was like, but. So don't take offense to it. It's literally nothing. I will probably review the trade at the time. Or yes, prior to the trade coming out, I'll review the series so that people potentially pick up the trade if I like it kind of thing. [00:23:17] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:23:17] Speaker A: But I'm like, do not take offense to me. Please don't take offense to me. [00:23:20] Speaker B: If I do, I'll help promote it. Like, I'll talk about when the release comes out. I'll share the thing. Yeah. [00:23:24] Speaker A: But don't take offense that I didn't read it because it's just a time thing right now, honestly. But yeah. But yeah, it's the High Republic part of it was. It's so cool. It's so awesome. But yeah, these. One shot. Not one shot. I hate to say one shot, but these individual books that come out too are also with it. Like, you know, the Mace Windu book by Stephen Barnes is a really cool book to read and focus around a character that has gotten some fan love and some fan hate. And so it's nice to see that kind of stuff. And Steven's a phenomenal writer as well. And so, you know, Steven's take on the whole thing was pretty cool. And then we got. What's the new one coming out next year? Was just announced. [00:23:59] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, the new Vader one. [00:24:01] Speaker A: Yeah. Master of Evil. Yeah. That cover alone will bring me. [00:24:06] Speaker B: I know. And if they. Again, if they do any more special editions, I'm all over that. But yeah, I'm stoked for that. Like, Adam Christopher, he wrote that sequel trilogy novel. What do I think? Shadow of the Empire. Wait, it's behind me. You gotta edit this. Where is. Oh, Shadow of the Sith. I'm sorry? Shadow of the Sith, which is so good. I don't know if you read that. [00:24:27] Speaker A: One, but no, I did not. [00:24:28] Speaker B: Yeah, it's really good. It's like it delves into, like, Rey's parents and, like, I feel like it does a lot of things that a lot of the sequel people need to read if they aren't fans. But he did a really good job with that, so I'm stoked. [00:24:42] Speaker A: And so, as I said, I said the COVID alone, as someone who's also into art and stuff like that, I was like, yes. Oh, my God. This cover, like, you know, I hate to say it, but books do sell cover covers, do sell books. I always say that, I always hate saying that because my trait, my, my job by, by trade is, is a graphic designer. And so I designed beer can labels for a brewery. And so it was part of my job is doing that. And so I'm always like, yes, I understand that the content in the. What you're trying to do is sell the contents that are in the can. But let's be honest, if someone goes into a store and there's a bunch of stuff in the display window, they're going to gravitate towards what they like the look of best first. So guys, if we have good sales, it's probably because of me. No, it's all me. [00:25:21] Speaker B: My full time gigs in marketing too. I'm like a marketing director. So I hear you. And it's all about how it sounds and looks and how you got to make it. Yeah, package it up. I understand. [00:25:28] Speaker A: So judging a book by its color. Yes. Don't say it's a good book or a bad book by its cover, but judging a book when you're inside of a store at Barnes and Noble looking for a book, the COVID is going to sell. Do a lot for you, I'll tell you that. [00:25:39] Speaker B: A thousand percent. [00:25:40] Speaker A: Yes. But yeah, so there's this, there's this cool thing. I mean, do we know. I mean, obviously you probably don't know and we all don't know. I mean, do you think that there's a Next thing that's similar to the High Republic coming from Lucasfilm? I think that this was a big endeavor and this is a big thing and obviously we're getting towards the end of what their planned stuff here. You had your architects, you had your people that were heavily involved. It was a big undertaking. It wasn't this three book here, you know, two books here. It was like a big thing. And I think that, you know, if we. I haven't heard anything I. That I don't know. I'm not like a huge into the Star wars like fandom pages and things like that, but is there a next thing you think? [00:26:21] Speaker B: I don't. If there is, I think we're going to be maybe a couple years out. Like, I think that the High Republic as it, as it stands, as this initial publishing initiative I think is going to be over. And I do, like you said, it was a huge endeavor and there has been other works coming out at the same time. So it's not like they don't have authors busy doing stuff. I think in my mind, I'M treating it kind of like, okay, the first nine movies are done and that we're going to. Who knows where we're going to go next. But there's now an established era of storytelling that we can pop in and out of that they can. I think that we're going to still get. We're going to still get stories in the High Republic timeline. If you go and look at the official timeline on, you know, Star wars website, the High Republic's there like it's established now. So I think that. I think, think just like movies are kind of jumping forward a little bit, I think that they're going to now have the option to jump backwards and there are still gaps in storytelling in the High Republic that will remain. So I think the intent is to pop in and out. I think throughout the course of a calendar month. We're going to have a sequel era comic book series, miniseries set in the High Republic. I don't know. And Young Jedi Adventures just announced, it got renewed. That's in the High Republic era. So I think it's just. They established the era for the IP and I think that's just going to be what it is. I don't know if they're going to be able to pull off something of this caliber and this scope again anytime soon. I have a feeling that the publishing folks might be a little bit, like, I don't want to say burned out, but I think they're probably ready to move on. And again, these authors are doing different. They have different works coming out all over the place. So even Claudia Gray, she didn't write hardly anything for Phase Two. So it's not like just because you were in the higher public, you had to everything like they were. Not every single author was as involved the whole time. So I. That's my answer. I don't have the official word. Next time I see Mike Siglaine from Lucasfilm Publishing, I will try to get it out of him, but he likely won't tell me. So that's. That's my thought. That's my thought. [00:28:23] Speaker A: And I think that it would be years, I think too. I think the next thing would be. Would be awesome just to go like many years in the future and have like a bookend kind of thing where it's like, oh, that'd be so reference like all these things back there. And it's helps to have this knowledge but gap it out so far in advance that you don't really need to know the specifics of what happened during this time. [00:28:42] Speaker B: Right. [00:28:42] Speaker A: Something that happens way out in the future. And I think that would be kind of a cool way of like High Republic's way back here and this is wave up here and then have, like I said. That does make sense though, to be able to be like, okay, we're going to write a book. It's going to be based in the High Republic era, but it's not part of this whole initiative that's going on. That's this thing. It's like they're going to be. I know those High Republic Adventures comics coming out at Dark Horse. And then there's the High Republic books that are coming at Marvel. I mean, Marvel's gonna do like a regular series again and there's gonna be the adventure series. And so there's like a, there's options for them now. They, they put themselves in a position where they can make these things. And next is probably things that are gonna be on screen outside of things like Young Generator Adventures. There's, there's, there's this place now they have this material to use. [00:29:24] Speaker B: Yes. [00:29:24] Speaker A: They have the people that can be like consulting producers on these shows that say, okay, you wrote the book. Come on the show or the movie and help us write the movie. It's gonna be cool. [00:29:35] Speaker B: And so many great characters that I feel, I don't think they're gonna just say like, we're never gonna hear from them again because they're so beloved. Like, I feel like the higher public little corner of, you know, it's a book centric community, but then it's also like a higher public center. Like it's a. There's a lot of people that love it. I've been to conventions and I've been at, in High Republic panels. They're packed like people are loving it, but so I don't think they're just going to abandon these characters of this timeline because people love it. That's been made very clear to them. [00:30:04] Speaker A: We're done now. It's over. If we've known from the Star wars universe, there's never a really time where they just. No, I guess this one character basically, they basically not touched again ever since they came out when that was Jar Jar Binks. Other than that, it's pretty much like every character's open for storylines. [00:30:20] Speaker B: I mean, he made his way back into that Lego. [00:30:23] Speaker A: Yeah, he did. He did. I'm all for it. I mean, there used to be characters on these shelves in front of it and one of them was a Jar Jar Rings character. I have no issue with Jojo Rings like you touched on before. I'm a big fan of the idea. Something comes out that has the word Star wars on it. I am going to watch it, read it, view it, whatever it may be, listen to it. Because there could be a world we live in, Jason, that doesn't have anything coming out a thousand percent. [00:30:45] Speaker B: And there was a time when that was happening. We are living in such a great. And hear me say, say, like, I'm not gonna harp on, you know, the media, but their, their job is to make money. Like, their job is to create stuff that's going to get butts and seats. So I'm like. But. So I'm like, I'm not gonna complain about that. Like, I'm not gonna complain if there's going to be something in this era that I love and that is so fun. Like, to me, I feel like people forget how to have fun. And if, if you're not having fun, then watch it and move on and go watch something else. And I don't know. And not everything's for everyone. And I don't think that's the intent of every single piece of Star War Adventures is a great example. Like, that is made for kids. Like, and if. So if you're not the target demo for a book or a whatever, and if that's. If you don't want to read YA books, don't read the YA book. But you might, you might be missing out on something that you might enjoy. But I feel like, especially as a parent, like, having options for my younger kids to engage in something Star wars, like, that's so cool to me because I want, I want to show them everything, but I can't. Like, I'm not going to do that. That's not responsible thing to do. So I just love that there's options. And people like my wife who like Star wars but aren't like, Star Wars, Star wars. Like, she loves Mandalorian, like, so that's a show that we can watch together. Like, I'm not. She's not going to be into. She's not into Andor, like, so I'm gonna watch that and enjoy it myself. So I. Star wars really is for everyone, but everything, it's not meant. Everything isn't really meant for everyone either. So. [00:32:11] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree with you. It's one of those things that, like, you know, I'm. I'm almost 40. I'll be 39 next month and. Or this month when this episode comes out. I should say I was born in May, so I'll be 39. So this. Hopefully I live longer than half my life. My kids are 4 and 1. And so I waited a little while to have kids, which is fine. And to me, I've always wondered what that next thing. I can't wait to have my kids experience certain things for the first time. The thought process for them to see the original trilogy for the first time is going to be such an amazing thing. To watch Indiana Jones Back to the Future, honestly, when they're old enough to watch Jaws for the first time, like, those are the kind of things that I cannot wait for it to happen. And what Star wars and Lucasfilm has been able to do for us is give us the ability to give us the stopgap between that viewing and the idea that you don't have to jump right into a new Hope. You can touch young Jedi adventures. My son likes to watch the Lego Star wars thing, so Lego holiday specials and things like that. And I actually did put on. I have a recording of the holiday special for Star Wars. We did put that on. And it's fine because it's just a bunch of wookies for the first 15 minutes making noise. So there's some pretty questionable things in them. Not just the content, not just the actual special itself, but some things that happen in that special year. [00:33:35] Speaker B: It's not all as weird as this, buddy. Yeah. [00:33:38] Speaker A: And so, yeah, my buddy, who's not a huge Star wars fan, he's like, yeah, I'll just watch Spaceballs instead. I'm like, okay, that's different. But I'm also not showing Spaceballs to my kids either. [00:33:48] Speaker B: He goes, it's pretty inside. You got to get the jokes. [00:33:50] Speaker A: Well, the one thing you never do is you never show someone Spaceballs and then Star wars for the first time. [00:33:55] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:33:55] Speaker A: Because Star wars just becomes an unfunny version of Spaceballs. And that's it for them. You have to always see Star wars first. And the same thing with, I think with the Family Guy, the specials. The Family Guy specials, it's like, you have to watch Star wars first. Don't watch those first because you won't get none of the jokes at all. I covered for my buddy at the comic book shop a couple weeks ago, and he's not the one. He's the one that's into a bunch of pop culture. He's just Star Wars. He likes it. But he's not like a. People always assume he likes Star wars because he owns a comic book shop. And so that's what he always gets. It rubs him the wrong way. He's like, just because I own a comic book shop does not mean I have to, like, love Star Wars. I can like the movies. It's not, you know, whatever. And so when he was gone, I put on the TV in the background on, On. On very low volume, that Star Wars Family Guy specials. Because I feel like I was like, okay, this is like, close enough to watch Star wars in here. But he's not going to be upset. And I forgot how funny they were. Like, the jokes, the fun part about how much they can make fun of themselves, in a sense, because Fox obviously owned both properties at the time. And to be able to make those jokes back and forth with each other, like the plot holes or the things that happen in these movies. As a Star wars fan, I could laugh because I'm like, you're right. You are not wrong about that. [00:35:01] Speaker B: I don't think Star wars is perfect. Like, I don't. Yeah. And I don't love every single thing they put out. But I'm also not gonna, like, hate publicly. I'm not gonna, like, hate on something that someone else might love. Like, that's not. Not again, as a father, Like, I'm not teaching my kids to do that. Like, if don't, like, hate on something that someone else might love, if it's not for you, like, you can be critical. Like, yeah. And to me, I'm like, at least you at least, at least just read it or watch it so you have an informed opinion. Like, then you can just move on, you know, and find something that does make you happy. I will say, though, as a parent, like, the golden books and some of the young kids books that they put out for Star wars will spoil stuff for your kids. So, like, I will say my son knew everything and knows he hasn't watched the sequel trilogy yet, but he already knows what happens with Han Solo. And I'm like, okay. I was a little bummed about that because he's like, oh, yeah. And the Lego video games, like the Switch Video, they go through all the stories. And so he's like, oh, I saw this in my video game. I'm like, this is the original, but this is the movie. Like, you can't. [00:35:59] Speaker A: This one's not as good. The graphics aren't as good, dad. Like, with the special effects. That's what my wife. My wife's younger than I am, and so what she doesn't get sometimes. Is she the same thing? Huge fan of the Mandalorian. Like, when that song plays now, like, anywhere, if it's the soundtrack's on or whatever, she's like, what? Mandalorian? Like, she loves the Mandalorian. All the rest of the stuff she really can't, you know, go with. And to her, the big thing is, is that when she watches a movie, she wants it to be more modern because she wants the special effects to look good and things like that. So, I mean, so to her, it's more of a putting yourself and grabbing yourself and being entrenched in the movie you're watching and then being pulled out by some bad special effects or some bad modeling or not bad, but just not current. The timing of it was really good at the time, but nowadays, like, watching it. So. Yeah, so when she goes to watch like the. A New Hope or Empire or something like that, she's like, ah, it's just old. [00:36:45] Speaker B: Feels like. [00:36:45] Speaker A: You're right, you're right. If you watch it in chronological order, you're right. Because it's all the special effects that are cgi, and then you watch this old practical and so on. So it does make sense to you. [00:36:54] Speaker B: But. [00:36:54] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And you're right. One of the things I wanted to touch on really quickly was being a dad and teaching your kids about some sort of not just Star wars, but your passions as an adult, as something that you grew up on and the fine line that as parents, we have to walk behind. This is my. One of my favorite things of all time. And the possibility that your kids are not gonna like it. And it's just one of those heartbreaking things sometimes where I'm like, I put it on Star wars, whatever it may be, or whatever I put on, that's something that I loved as a kid. And my son watches it for 30 seconds. It was like, oh, can we watch Blippi? And I'm like, no, seriously, like, you could watch anything else, and you wanted to go that far down the peg there. But it's. I cannot wait. And now that there is so much more stuff out there for me, to the video games, the LEGO things, the younger TV shows, the young adult books, things like that, that my son and my daughter, 4 and 1, I'm gonna be able to do this for. And my son does have some of the golden books, but again, he's four, so he's like. He reads them and looks at them, things like that. And he honestly counts them like trading cards more than he actually likes the book and looks at them. [00:38:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:38:04] Speaker A: The funny thing about that is, though, I made a big mistake. And I made a joke one night we were reading through it, and he's a big person of wanting to turn the page. When he does read the book, he's like, I want to read the book. Even though he's obviously not reading the book yet. Is it pointing at Jabba the Hutt and said, hey, there's Mom? And. [00:38:23] Speaker B: Oh, no. [00:38:25] Speaker A: And it's never been forgotten. [00:38:28] Speaker B: No. [00:38:31] Speaker A: Yeah, she was. It was. That was the point. It was like, the whole thing. It was like a gag at the time where she was in the room. My wife is also, like, as thin as a board, so it's even more funny because it's like. It's like the opposite side of what she is. And it's literally. He has not remembered anything from the Star wars universe at all, except for the fact that, yeah, Jabba the Hutt is my wife. And so now he comes on the tv, whatever. He sees a sticker. He sees something at Target. He's like, oh, it's Mama. I'm like, oh, my God. [00:38:57] Speaker B: Oh, gosh. You gotta stop, buddy. That's so funny. That's so funny. [00:39:01] Speaker A: You can't remember anything else. This is literally what you have to remember is that Mama is Jabba the Hutt. But, yeah, so there is a lot for me. I cannot wait for more of that. I guess your kids are a little bit older. Is that. [00:39:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:39:13] Speaker A: So have you had this. Obviously, you mentioned a little bit about your son doing this. Have you had this ability to really, like, share this passion with them? [00:39:20] Speaker B: Yeah, my son will be 11 in a couple months, and my daughter is 7. She'll be 8 in the fall. So, yeah, different. A little bit aged up. And thankfully with my son. And my son, he's kind of like me when I was his age. Like, wants to, like, watch all adult stuff and be an adult. Like, and so the. The desire is there for sure. Like, he wants to watch everything. And so I think only in the last year, we started letting him watch some of the series, like the Disney plus series. So he's caught up on My wife is kind of like, are we sure you know Mandalorian? I'm like, there's no blood. Like, yeah, and he can handle it. Like, he. Anyway, so he watched all the Mandalorian. A lot of times, he. It's a bummer to me is that we don't watch more stuff together because they get. They get to watch more TV than I do. So, like. And I only watch the TV I want to watch, like, when they're in bed. So he watched a lot of it on his own, like, screen time, which was fun, but we still got to talk about it. And he was, like, so excited about all the parts and, like, the action. So for my. For him, the desire is definitely there. And so. But the thing that growing up, I feel like I've just kind of had to. Oh, sorry. Raising them, not me growing up, them growing up. I've had to really just kind of hold back and be like, okay, what are they? What's appropriate for right now? And, like, what are they actually into? Like, I don't want to discourage them or like, like, if they really want to watch, like, he's really into spongebob right now. Like, I'm not going to be like, no, you need to watch Star Wars. Like, I want to encourage them in whatever their things are. And if they're not the things that I love, then that's fine. And, like, I think something that I've also come to realize is that, like, these things are. They're important to me because it's nostalgic for me. And so, like, they're building their own nostalgia, like, right now. So, like, whatever. The blippies, they didn't. Thankfully, we missed that wave. That was. My kids were too old for that, so I thought I did that. But, you know, the blueies of the world, which is great. And like, even he's discovering the things he's discovering, like spongebob, he got really into some of these terrible Nickelodeon, like, sitcoms, you know, And I'm like, go for it. Like, whatever. Obviously, as long as it's appropriate, content wise, do what you want. But thankfully, again, like, my son really loves Star wars and my daughter doesn't dislike it. She loves Young Jedi adventures. She loves nubs. And so as she knows that, I think the most important thing is that they know that I have things that I am passionate about. And so I just want to encourage them to, like, find their own passions. And it doesn't even have to be in pop culture. It doesn't have to be books. But I just want to nurture a love for, like, stories and especially just reading. Like, thankfully, both of them love reading and love, you know, books and stories that way. And graphic novels. Like, my son loves Captain Underpants, like, all the silly stuff. So I'm like, go for it. Like, if I can just nurture nerd readers, nerds in that way, like, that's really all I want to do. [00:42:04] Speaker A: In a world that it's a lot hard, I would say is going to be a lot harder for our kids moving forward. With just the climate of everything and just the things, how much different it is. You know, I was born in the 80s, so like the 90s were what it was in 2000s. And there was some struggles and things like that. But like right now it just seems like the world is such upheaval that they're going to deal with a lot of stuff. To have all this stuff available for them and have places for them to have outlets to do things and love things and things like that. It's really what I'm looking forward to the most. You know, when you get in with. I just. I personally, for the first time ever read the Harry Potter series. I've seen all this stuff. I personally just read them all after I finished it. I was like, I can't wait till I have the ability to do it. May not be Harry Potter, but it may be something. Yes, it's a five book series, a four book series where we can actually sit down, read a couple chapters a night or have them read it while I reread it. That kind of thing. [00:42:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:42:49] Speaker A: And so I'm looking forward to that kind of stuff in the future as well. But yeah, you're right, it's hard. It's such a thing where you're like, I'm scrolling through the TV and all of a sudden something that I really want to watch. And I'm like, oh my God, that was huge. I loved it when I was a kid. There's so much nostalgia going on right now. And he's like, I want to watch that thing that like, I'm like, oh my God, it's so bad. But I'm like, okay, yeah, cool. You want to watch? It's great. It's a. They get their screen time, it's great. And so on and so forth that I, you know, my, my daughter's one, so obviously she's not really into anything yet. But like he's recently got into Pokemon, but not like playing Pokemon, things like that. They just talk about it a lot at school. [00:43:25] Speaker B: School. [00:43:26] Speaker A: And so like, it's just this whole thing. So now he has random cards and luckily I think Pokemon is going to push out Paw Patrol, which there's nothing wrong in my opinion with Paw Patrol. It's just, I'm ready for the next phase of. [00:43:39] Speaker B: Yeah, you're ready to age out. Yeah. [00:43:41] Speaker A: Yes. [00:43:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:43:41] Speaker A: And so Pokemon, he's got like Pokemon Pikachu headphones now and like T shirts and stuff like that. But I feel like we're gonna push things I should say to him, like Your brain only has so much space in it, but yeah, exactly. You need to push out something to put something in. It's exciting. It's exciting for the future. It's giving me, you know, the stressful moments of raising kids. And. And when they're. When they're maybe being, you know, not listening or something like that. It has that moment. We sit in bed at night. It's like, I can't wait for them. There will be time where I'm gonna have so much excitement for the thing where they're like, oh, cool, dad, can we watch this or play this video game that. That is something that you're passionate about. I just can't wait. [00:44:18] Speaker B: It is really fun when you can experience it in real time together. I feel like with my son, finally. Well, not finally, but every age. Age has its own challenges and joys or whatever. But like, at the. We watched him and we let him stay up late. He and my wife and I, we all watched like, the Skeleton Crew finale together because same thing. My wife and I were watching it when the kids go to bed, and then he would watch it on his screen time. We were. That was the first Star wars thing that we were basically all experiencing in real time together. Like, we would watch the new episode and he would watch it like a day or two later, but then we let him stay up and watch the finale. Like, to me, that was really special because we got to all experience it together. And so, like, even future movies like the Mandalorian and Grogu movie, like, that'll be a family movie, movie outing for us, like, and to me, that's fun because then I don't have to. There's not a lot of, like, waiting for any of us. Like, we can experience it together. And that, to me, is going to. [00:45:05] Speaker A: Be so exciting, you know, and obviously with the Disney and Lucasfilm are smart. So creating something like Grogu has, has fostered a ton of young generation of Star wars fans who love this one character. And the Mandalorian is a, like a side character to that character. Being that, like, most likely you're going to become a fan of the Mandalorian if you're a fan of. Of Grogu in that sense. And so, yeah, so it's that one thing. And so like, my son has a stuffed animal of Grogu. He has that kind of stuff because it's just. That's a kid's toy now at this point, right? A kid's toy. We all. I would love to have my own. [00:45:36] Speaker B: Yeah, I Know, I know. Yeah. Like that one. Yeah, they were doing that one sale. I forgot at Star Wars Celebration. There was like the life size ones. I forgot what brand it was. [00:45:45] Speaker A: But yeah, hot toys. Hot toys. [00:45:47] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:45:48] Speaker A: It's like, oh, yeah, I want one. But the problem is, like, a lot of the stuff that I buy that I want that like, in here, I'm like, I have to debate whether or not I give it to my kid or I put her here in my office. And I'm like, luckily, like this little plush. It's a genie from Charles Soul. Yeah, there was two of them that I bought and there was like one that. They're different facial expressions or whatever. And they came in and my son's like, oh my gosh, I really want that. And I'm like, okay, cool, you can have one. I'll just carry. I'll hang this one up in here. But yeah, it was. It's a funny thing. I was sharing those things and a lot of times I've actually bought two things. I've gone to the store and bought a little like old school retro Ninja Turtles figure, and there was two. And I was like, I gotta buy two so I can put one in here and one in there. And then he's like, cool, dad, you have one in your office. You should put this one in your office too. I'm like, oh, it's awesome, buddy, for you. And then there's other times where he's just stolen things and I've just seen him as a room. I'm like, oh, cool. That's awesome. [00:46:36] Speaker B: Yeah, thanks, buddy. Yeah, I've trained my. My kids are pretty good. Like, I try not to be so like sacred with all my stuff in here. Like, they can touch everything. But most stuff on, like, this is its home, it goes back where it is. And he'll ask to like, play with stuff. And sometimes I say yes and sometimes I say no. Like, I have some. The nice, like Batman animated. Like, the nice figures that like, I forgot if McFarlane, whoever did. I'm like, they're not really meant to be played with. So I'm like, no, you can't play with those. Like, you can play with my ones from the 90s that are up there that have been open, like. [00:47:03] Speaker A: And that's what it was. And so like a lot of this stuff, like, I'd have them up higher shelves. I'm like, if you can't reach it, you can't play with it. [00:47:07] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. [00:47:08] Speaker A: Anything lower than that, it's like one of those things, the one thing please ask me before you touch the comic books, because that's a little. Obviously they're lower and all that stuff. My daughter doesn't care, obviously. She just rips things apart. [00:47:17] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, she's climbing up the shelves. [00:47:19] Speaker A: To get the stuff. [00:47:21] Speaker B: Don't miss that phase. [00:47:24] Speaker A: No, but it's a cool thing. And I think it's one of those things that I was so excited and we mentioned multiple times, is that there's something for anyone out there. There's so much more to it now that after the third movie came out, the first original trilogy, I think that everybody thought that was it for the rest of our lives. We're never going to get new Star wars stuff. I mean, we haven't gotten until more recently. We had Indiana Jones gap of stuff, and we had a Back to the future gap. We have a back to the future gap. Like, these are these classic movies that I used to love watching these trilogies of movies. There hasn't been anything else after that. So we could be living in a world where Star wars is in that spot where Back to the Future got like a really weird animated show on tv and that's it, you know? I mean, like, there hasn't been anything else since then. So we could live in that world. And I don't want to live in that world. I want to live in a world that has mediocre Star wars stuff. Amazing Star wars stuff. Like classic stuff, new stuff. I agree. And one of the things Alyssa brought up. Listen, Wong. Was that not only is this great because there's something for everyone in the Star wars universe, but there's also now places for every person to create. So all walks of life, gender, race, age, all that stuff, there's a place for everybody. Because Star wars is so inclusive as a universe now with different creatures and characters and straight people and gay people. There's just so much stuff going on that there's a place for everybody. And so not only now is there a place for you to read everything, but now your kids and my kids could work in the Star wars universe way easier. I say way easier. It's still hard to do. But, like, there's actually a percentage that they could. Whereas when Star wars originally came out, and even up until the prequels started coming out, there was a very slim chance that they could ever even touch anything from the Star wars universe in a creative way without being like, fan fiction or anything like that. Like, now it's like one of those things. If my kid wants to write he could write a Star wars book likely at some point in his life if he worked hard enough and got to touch the wrong great people and stuff like that. That's cool to me too. Like, that to me is like one of those things that I didn't. We obviously growing up, we didn't have that opportunity. But if I was born a little later, I might be these people that are working on the High Republic because there's this chance that there's this initiative that had so many people working on it that, that there's an opportunity for them to potentially create in the universe of Star wars as well, or even. [00:49:39] Speaker B: For people like us. Like, I mean, this isn't my full time gig. Like, I have. I have a full time gig and this is something that I do for fun. So, like, you can still create and creatively output something that has to do with something that you're passionate about. And that's really what I want to show and model for them is that like, look, you might not be living your dream or getting paid to live your dreams, but you can still do things that bring you joy outside of that. It just takes a little creativity and, you know, time and. But when it's something that you're passionate about, usually you'll, you'll find a way. So. Yeah. [00:50:17] Speaker A: And when you don't get paid to do it, it's a lot less stress to it too. [00:50:19] Speaker B: Oh my gosh. [00:50:21] Speaker A: There's no requirement. I have put my own requirements on things. Like I put an episode out every Wednesday. And so there's some times where I record two days. Two days, two episodes in a day to try to like, take a day off in the future and plan ahead and a lot of stuff. But like, I don't have to. I can just text out what or put out on Instagram one day and be like, hey, there's no episode today. Yeah, in the end of the world. Hopefully the regular listeners will come back the following week and whatever. But if I was getting paid to do it in a different sense, I feel have way more obligation and way more pressure and more stress to do that. So there is money that comes in for advertising and things like that, but like, there's no bigger company saying you need to do this on this thing. This is a passion. [00:50:56] Speaker B: The minute it becomes a job. Yeah, things definitely change. [00:50:59] Speaker A: They change. It change completely on that. And so it's, it's a pretty cool to do this. Yeah, you're right. And we just mentioned Star wars podcast day at the top of this episode. Like, yeah, there's there was like 60 podcasts that participated in. In 2025. And that's like crazy to think about that. That. Yes. You could just start a Star wars podcast and talk about Star wars with your friends. [00:51:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:51:16] Speaker A: Or whatever. If it's it Pokemon or whatever. [00:51:19] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly, exactly. [00:51:22] Speaker A: I don't know. Does anybody start with the Blippi podcast? Because maybe there's the place right there. [00:51:26] Speaker B: I bet it's out there. [00:51:27] Speaker A: I haven't looked it up. I mean, you know how there's like, like different age groups for different, like younger things, like the Bronies or whatever they were that watch. Like, is there like an adult group that loves watching Blippi? Like, is there like a. I don't want to know. I don't want to know either. I watched some of that stuff and I'm like, I'm looking at him and going, how do you. You do this? Like, how do you. Yeah, get in front of the camera and act that way. [00:51:51] Speaker B: That guy, he's gonna be. I'm going to. We're recording this on a Monday next, sorry, the last weekend of April, I'm gonna be at the LA Times Book Fair in Los Angeles. He's gonna be there and he was on their social the other day. He's like, hey, I'm Blippi. Can't wait to see. I was like, oh, I will. [00:52:06] Speaker A: For some reason in my mind, I just like picture him like sneaking out back and smoking a cigarette, you know, like, you know, like the clown on a kids party. Yeah. He's like, just not really there. He's just like, I'll keep my eyes out. [00:52:16] Speaker B: I'll keep my eyes out for that. [00:52:18] Speaker A: Hey, man. He turns into a multi million dollar franchise. [00:52:22] Speaker B: Hitting his, hitting his, you know. Yeah, his. What am I trying to say? His alcohol. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. [00:52:29] Speaker A: He's got like an estra in his thing. Like I said, he did it. He. He made his thing. And, and where I live in Maine and here in Maine we have Ms. Rachel who, who's from Maine. She did her thing and Netflix deal and all that stuff. [00:52:43] Speaker B: So. So hey, good for them. [00:52:45] Speaker A: Power to them. But I just like watching it and going, it's hard for me to watch it. I can't imagine recording. I can't imagine being the person having me like I have to act this way. I'm like, well, maybe he acts like that all the time. Maybe he's like Brian Griffin in Seth MacFarlane. Like that's his voice. [00:52:56] Speaker B: Maybe it's just. [00:52:57] Speaker A: Maybe he actually is like that. I don't know. You'll see. You'll hear him talk. I will. [00:53:02] Speaker B: I'll let you know. [00:53:02] Speaker A: I'll let you know what's cool. We'll wrap it up here in a second. But so Star Wars Celebration was, was, was this past week too. And there's a lot of cool things happen and so on and so forth there. And next year it's going to be in Los. Our next time it's going to be in Los Angeles. List. Yes. Are you, are you putting it on the calendar? [00:53:18] Speaker B: Oh, I'm there. [00:53:19] Speaker A: Okay. [00:53:20] Speaker B: It's in my state, so, like, I'm gonna go. The last time I was at Celebration, which is my first time, was in Anaheim in 2022. [00:53:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:53:26] Speaker B: So I will definitely be there. I hope as many of my Star wars mutuals online will be there as well. I know a lot of people are wanting to. I know a lot of people probably can't or won't for whatever reason, but I'm so stoked. Like, I haven't been able to go in a couple years. So selfishly, like, I'm excited because it's a car drive for me and so it's in my state and I have time to like, save up and plan. [00:53:49] Speaker A: Like, I mean, yeah, I'm across the country, but I'm like, this is like one of those. [00:53:53] Speaker B: Please come. [00:53:54] Speaker A: The tentative dates circling the calendar. Because I'm like, it's three or two years from now. We can plan that far. [00:53:59] Speaker B: Yes. [00:53:59] Speaker A: We're buying the house this year. Kids will be a little older. We have some money. We'll be able to save up some money between now and then, we'll be like, we need to take a vacation at some point. [00:54:06] Speaker B: Dude, please come out. I would love to. I want to meet as many my Star wars friends as possible. And like, I, I'm so excited. Like, I have a friend who lives in Australia who we're already like, yeah, blasting him in a group. DMs, like, you gotta come, like, make your way to LA. Like, and my wife even, she's like, wants to meet him so bad because I've interviewed him and talked to him a couple times. She's like, it's my goal to, like, meet Mitch from Australia someday. [00:54:26] Speaker A: Like, I would love to. I. There's creators that I've had interviewed on the podcast and things like that. They're all live in that area, so it's not like. And they're. A lot of them have worked on the property, so it's like it's not. They'll probably be there. Like, I talked to two people, Alyssa Wong and Liana Kang Angus, who were going to Japan for Stone Celebration. I had Ethan Saxon, who's in Japan for celebration. So it's like, yeah. And then I had a buddy of mine who's in my book club who was in Japan during celebration. Not connected. No, he was. He just happened to be. I'm like, where's Sky? He's like, oh, he's in Japan. I'm like, oh, he went to Celebration. He's like, no, he's just in Japan. I'm like, is he a Star wars person? Yes, he is. [00:55:02] Speaker B: What? Oh, my gosh. [00:55:03] Speaker A: I'm, like, wondering if I thought he was, like, so focused on his vacation to Japan and even, like, wasn't even on his radar. [00:55:08] Speaker B: That was so funny. [00:55:08] Speaker A: But I could see it. My wife and I went to New York City on a vacation a couple years ago. One of my favorite groups is Run Run the Jewels, or rap group, and they were performing with Rage against the Machine in New York City while we were there. And I was like, oh, my gosh, we can go. But it was, like, gonna take a night of our time in your time, you know, like, so I could see that part of it. Maybe it was like, you're gonna be in Japan for the first time. Maybe you shouldn't, like, spend it all talking about Star Wars. Just do it when they come. And LA in this year when you come here. [00:55:35] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:55:35] Speaker A: Yeah. So I'm like, maybe that's what his plan is. Maybe we'll get a big group of people to come from Maine, across the country there to do it. Take over. Take over California. [00:55:42] Speaker B: Please do. [00:55:44] Speaker A: But. So Star wars is. Is a big passion of yours, but reading is. Is a passion in general, too. And so, you know, you have this dad reads. You have. You're on Instagram, you're on threads, Twitter, Facebook, Blue sky, all that places. Luckily enough, you got this dad reads at all of the places, which is great. Is your thing. You also the podcast, and I'm guessing it's available on most platforms. [00:56:08] Speaker B: It's available everywhere. Yep. [00:56:10] Speaker A: Okay. It's pretty easy nowadays to do that where the pass is exactly. Only on this thing or. [00:56:14] Speaker B: Oh, no, no, no. [00:56:15] Speaker A: We're not big enough to have exclusive contracts yet either, so. They're right. [00:56:18] Speaker B: I know. [00:56:20] Speaker A: Why can't you find that guy on Spotify? Because he has an exclusive contract with Apple. Okay. That's right. [00:56:24] Speaker B: Right. [00:56:24] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. But yeah. And you do monthly podcasts, which you have like, some of the guests, like, you have. You have some guests that I've had on some of that. There's also some. Some guests on there that. That are not bucket list kind of people, but, like, people that I've been like, oh, I'd love to talk to that person. So it's pretty cool to listen to. So there's some gaps, some crossover between my podcast and yours that. There's some gaps that also people can listen to on both sides that. [00:56:46] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And then after we record, we can trade inside info, so. Because, yeah, you've talked to some people I haven't talked to yet either. [00:56:53] Speaker A: It's a. It's a. It's a crazy world. It's one of those things that, like, I. You know, sometimes it's knowing people and then it snowballs from there, and it's kind of cool. It's a thing that I get now randomly sent. I don't like it, honestly. I hate to say, you know, it sounds so bad, but I randomly get boxes in the mail for publishers nowadays with books. [00:57:09] Speaker B: That's so fun. [00:57:10] Speaker A: Yeah, it's so fun. And then I'm like, now I feel obligated to read and review this, but in the same sense, this is like a third book in a trilogy in some sort of fantasy novel that I don't read. And I'm like, yeah, I don't know what you expect me to do about this. Do you want me to go read the first two and then revisit? Like, I know there's a lot of books that I've been like, I just got one the other day. I'm like, it's the same publisher, I think, too. They just send them to me. I'm like, is there, like, a quota? If they get them out of. This is how they get them out of the warehouse. They're just sending people. [00:57:35] Speaker B: It is weird. Like, you. I've had. I would never think that I would be at a point in doing this fun thing that I would, like, say no to stuff. But, like, I'm legitimately at. I turn. I get. I have to, like, turn people down and email sometimes. And so this sounds really fun. And I've learned it the hard way because I was just saying yes to everything because I didn't want to, like, yep. You know, be that I didn't want to not have a relationship or not do something. And I. But then I was like, oh, I didn't like this book. This wasn't for me. So I've learned. I've Learned the hard way. So sometimes some. I very. If star. I'll never say no to Star Wars. I'll likely never say no to Disney. But if it's like, yeah, he said, like you said, if it's a fantasy series, I've never heard of an author I've never heard of. I have to just be very selective. So. But I never thought I'd have to be in that position, you know, so it's a good thing, I guess. [00:58:21] Speaker A: I get cold. Called or whatever I say is Blackstone, me Publishing publisher reached out to me about the Bloodshot book that Fred van Lente put out, and I said, you know what? Fred Van Lente is a comic book writer, too. I'd love to read this. I'm not a big Bloodshot fan. I never really read anything Bloodshot. But this is supposed to his son, and so on and so forth. I'll read it. This is great. It was phenomenal. It was amazing. Loved it. [00:58:41] Speaker B: That's awesome. [00:58:41] Speaker A: But then they started sending me an email because there's, like, four more books that are in the Bloodshot universe that are connected. They're not like sequels, but they're, like, connected in a way. They're like, hey, if you like them, you like this. I'm like, I have. I read that one. Okay. You got me on that one. It was probably good. I'll tell you right now, the chance of it being as good as that is probably lower. So I. I just can't right now. I'm sorry. I'll be like, thank you for thinking of me. But I'm like, of course. I wasn't a big fan of Bloodshot in the first place. So now I'm like, I. It's gonna be hard for me. And it is when you're. When you're trying to read something for review with someone that you have to be pulled into it because, yeah, you could just give up and be like, no, I want to read the thing that I know I'm gonna like, you know, the next. Or you get a Star wars book and you're in the middle of another book, you're like, I really want to read this Star wars book. But, you know, you have to refinish this book. So it's like, it's. [00:59:25] Speaker B: I can't handle when I don't know the. The e arcs for Star wars especially come out. There's no set schedule. [00:59:32] Speaker A: No. [00:59:32] Speaker B: So I, you know, I know Trials of the Jedi, the last book by Charles Soul. It's probably going to hit at any moment. But I'm like, I can't not, I can't just hold and wait. I have to read other stuff. Like I have a schedule. Like I gotta. So sometimes it stresses me out. I'm like, okay, the minute this thing drops and I have to drop everything and like read this other book. [00:59:48] Speaker A: And I've also a stupid thing where I'm like, if I'm in the middle of the book, I could just stop reading that book to start the other book. I don't understand why. [00:59:53] Speaker B: I guess, yeah, I've had like six books going at a time before, so that's. [00:59:57] Speaker A: Well, I usually read about two at a time because I like to do a hybrid reading. I do audiobook audio. But like I've got to that point where now I'm reading the Stand right now from Stephen King because I just wanted, I never read it and I wanted to read it and it's like I'm listening to an audiobook. It's a 47 hour audiobook. [01:00:12] Speaker B: Oh goodness. Yeah. [01:00:14] Speaker A: And I do, I'm able to read it like 1.2, 1.3. So I am able to listen a little bit faster. So it's still about 30, 35 hours, something like that. So what I plan to do is read like 10 days of it or like basically half the book and then stop and read another book and then go back and read that book. Because I'm like, there's no review. I want to review it, but like there's no like deadline or anything like that. So I can take my time on it. But I'm like, I feel like if I tried to go all the way through, I would get so frustrated. Even if it was really good, I'd get so, so, you know, bored halfway through. [01:00:43] Speaker B: So, yeah, I'm in the zone right now where I know we're trying to wrap it up, but I'm in a zone where like there's multiple books that I want to read or have committed to read that are coming out like literally on the same day or within weeks of each other. So I have certain reading quotas. Like if I don't read a certain amount of pages of this book on today and then tomorrow, I'm not gonna do it. And like, they're all things that I want to commit to myself, but if I don't read, read also if I don't read them on a schedule, I'm not, I'm never going to get to the books that I like, want to read. [01:01:12] Speaker A: Yes. [01:01:12] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, it's, it's some Days. It's hard because I hate to say. [01:01:17] Speaker A: This, I feel like anybody listening is like, oh, look at them. Like, they, like, complain about. Yes, exactly. It's true. It is true. And there is that. You have to pick and choose. But in the same thing with. If you didn't have these advanced copies of things, you still would have to pick and choose what you're reading. This is not like, it's like, so, like, it is. The benefit you have is there is some sort of a schedule. Like you mentioned, Star wars doesn't really have one. But like, like, like there is a schedule where I'm like, okay, if a book comes out in July, a lot of times I'll basically be able to get it around March to be able to get, you know, so I could start to plan and. And move things around. And I have like, a little spreadsheet where I can say, okay, yeah, where they should go, and then I can figure it out. So if I read this in this time, I can actually get to that, and so on and so forth. And I'm a big person. The second I get it, I want to read it. So, like, a lot of times people are like, you're the first review. I'm like, I know. I just. I got it in the mail and I want to read it. [01:02:00] Speaker B: Sorry, I've done that before, too. But then I. But then what's happened is if I read something super fast and review it, by the time it actually comes out and people are talking about it, I don't remember it. So, like, I've also, like, had to hold off sometimes because I want to be part of the conversation when it comes out. So, like, I've really had to balance that out. [01:02:17] Speaker A: I've read. So, like, I might have been part of a horror book club, and I've read a book six months ago that they're reading now in the horror book club. And I'm like, oh, okay, I remembered it, but I don't. Like, it was good. I can read my own review again. I can do that. What I did was like, oh, this is the opportunity to listen to the audiobook. Because I read it so I can listen to it and when I'm driving to work or whatever. And so I was able to get, like, I get that aspect of, like, I get to read it twice. And so that was kind of cool on that side of it. But, yeah, it's fun. And like I said, it drives me to read, I'll tell you that much. I love reading, but it forces me to When I'm like, I could just scroll through Instagram, no read. You know what I mean? Like, it actually gives that thing that takes you out of that weird world of the social media we talked about a little bit at the beginning. But yeah, idea. It's a fun thing. And I recommend that anybody follows not just this dad reads, but any of these bookstagrammer out there. Because all these people, yes, there are some people who are going to give reviews that are positive to hopefully get more arcs in the mail and things like that. But these people are reading things that you're interested in. They're not just reading things because they're sent things, they are reading things that are like, if I'm into mysteries, I'm going to read a lot of mysteries. If I'm into romance, I'm going to read a lot of romance. And these people, they, A lot of these people, they do it for free. So they get the book for free and they review for free. So it's worth the follow the, like the comments, all that stuff to help grow their platform because they work a lot of hard on it. And Jason here does work hard on it. So hopefully people go out there and do that. So give them a follow the stat reads on all the Instagram stuff and all that stuff, as well as check the podcast out over there too. But you also have a website. You can just honestly, if you just google this dad reads, all your stuff comes up. It's pretty simple. You know, it's not, it's not rocket science here, Jason. But I mean, outside of that, I mean, it's Star Wars. I mean, we're gonna get more and more and more and more coming in the future and I'm just so excited about it. We have, we just got announced a new solo. A solo. I hate the word solo. In Star Wars, a standalone movie coming out in the future, which is amazing. And so all that stuff celebration announced a bunch of stuff coming out, which is so exciting. [01:04:19] Speaker B: Yep. And May the fourth day is coming up. So I don't know when is your Star wars week? Sorry, you might have to. [01:04:25] Speaker A: It starts the fourth before, so it's fine. So yes, it starts the fourth and goes to the ninth. So it is in this episode, I think below, in the middle of that week. [01:04:32] Speaker B: Okay, no problem. [01:04:33] Speaker A: But yeah, May the fourth, it's great. And so you just. I'll point that out while we close up here. You did put something out there for holiday gift guide, which is kind of cool too. So May the fourth is a holiday that a Lot of people celebrate as Star wars fans, but if you're looking for that person and for Star wars gifts, you can check out your gift guide on your website because it's pretty cool on that, too. [01:04:51] Speaker B: Yeah. Thank you. And by the time this episode airs, myself and Chelsea, who runs the Space Wizard Book Club, she's also another Bookstagram person, we hosted a May 4 kind of nerd hangout live stream with some Star wars authors. We gave away some cool prizes from a couple retailers, so that was a really good time. So I love doing stuff like that, being able to engage and have people on and chat live and answer questions. So hopefully we'll be doing some more of those in the future, too. [01:05:18] Speaker A: That's awesome. That's so cool. And we're actually. My wife and I was awesome. By the time this airs, we've already been doing it, but we're actually. I get free tickets to go see in Orono, Maine, at the University of Maine to see a New Hope with. Is it a New Hope? Yes, it's a New Hope with John Williams score being played. [01:05:37] Speaker B: Oh, the live, like, live orchestra. [01:05:39] Speaker A: But it's not John Williams playing it, but it's the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, which is the orchestra here in Maine that's playing that. So it's pretty cool. I'm excited for that. The way they worded it, though, Jason, it was like something about they used the word Phantom Menace in the description. It was like, set years after the Phantom Men. Something along the lines where I'm like, whoever in the world would ever use the Phantom. I love the Phantom Menace, I'll tell you that right now. But I'm saying, who uses like, that seems such a weird way to explain something. If you like talking about, like, Indiana Jones, like, years before the Crystal Skull. [01:06:11] Speaker B: Yeah, that was weird. [01:06:13] Speaker A: It was a weird way of putting it. I'm like, this is the original film. Like, I understand it's not in order for most people, but, like, this is Star Wars. It was. [01:06:20] Speaker B: The marketing team probably just weren't really into Star Wars. They didn't know. [01:06:23] Speaker A: There was probably someone in there like us intern going, I'm against people. Or they were actually born in their. Their first Star wars movie. Was the Phantom Menace. [01:06:30] Speaker B: Was Phantom Menace. [01:06:30] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was good. If I was like, this is a weird way of explaining. [01:06:34] Speaker B: That's funny. [01:06:34] Speaker A: Yeah. So, yeah. So check out this dad reads. I really appreciate you, Jason, taking some time out to talk to us. Star Wars Week here. And we'll definitely have you back on in the future. Sound good. [01:06:43] Speaker B: Appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah, it's been a great time. May the force be with you. Thanks, man.