Andrea Beaty Episode Transcript

 Andrea Beaty: [00:00:01] I like the idea of exploring just the everyday view of what is success and what is what is creativity, what is what is important and how do you change the world because people have these weird ideas. [00:00:14][12.1]

Monte Barnard: [00:00:14] Welcome to Live Rich. Have Fun. Save the World, a podcast focused on reimagining how we define success, cohosted by myself, Monty Bernard and the CEO of Expensify, David Barrett. So today on Live Rich, have fun, Save the World. We have critically acclaimed children's author, activist and all around lovely person Andrea Beedie. Thank you so much for joining us here today. [00:00:37][22.4]

Andrea Beaty: [00:00:38] Thank you. I'm pleased to be here. [00:00:39][1.4]

[00:00:40] We are pleased to have you on. I'm a huge fan of your work and diving right into it, reading your work, reading edits with scientist Rosie the Riveter, engineer, expec architect, all amazing, inspiring tales for youngsters to really get their minds fired up for stem fired up for aspects of society that we really need more great minds in. We want to know what aspects, what elements, what themes enrich your life day to day that inspired you to write these kinds of stories? [00:01:10][30.4]

Andrea Beaty: [00:01:12] Oh, gosh. You know, it's funny because people think that I write books about STEM, and I don't think I really do. It's true that Rosie is a book about engineering ostensibly, but it's really a book about perseverance and it is a book about curiosity. And even though that maps directly to science and EGI is about passion. So I think what happens in my work is that I just kind of go and follow things that interest me. And that's always been my M.O., which is sort of how I started off studying biology and then ended up now writing kids books. I don't even know weird curvy path, as I think many people take. But if you look and see interesting pathways to this side or that side and you go, I don't know what that is, looks like a neat road, let's go that way, which is also how we vacation, which means that we literally never know where we're going to end up, where we're driving on vacation, like what we've got here. It's an island and we're in a car. This is bad for us. So I think what happens is that I come up with something that I'm thinking about, something that I'm trying to mull over in my head and make sense of. And in doing that, then I kind of map that to the artwork from David's illustrations where he created when we wrote Ixtepec was step back into history. But I wrote a jetpack and David did the illustrations for that just based on the text of the book. But in the process, he came back with this beautiful classroom of kids. It's just stunning, diverse, beautiful classroom of kids. And each of the kids that he drew, he really created them as complete real characters in his mind. Some of them have back stories, some of them don't, but they kind of knows who they are. But he doesn't tell me any of that. So he keeps that to himself. But there are little clues hidden in those illustrations. And as I'm looking at those kids in the picture and I'm trying to puzzle out like, you know, who who are you and what's your story, I may see a little clue about something they have with them or something they do or away. They're looking at somebody else. And so at the same time that that's going on, I'm ruling out whatever it is I'm trying to make sense of in my own life in the world and, you know, just being a person. And sometimes those pair up and sometimes they match. And so it really becomes me trying to figure out something about curiosity or passion or whatever, and then also trying to crack myself up with jokes or amuse myself, because at the end of the day, it sounds terrible, but I really kind of write my books for me. And it has just been a miracle and wonderful that kids also kind of connect, which tells you I'm about a second grader. You know, it's the best place in the world. So, yeah, [00:04:11][178.9]

Monte Barnard: [00:04:11] we we all got it in there. We all got that in there. [00:04:13][2.0]

DB: [00:04:14] That's pretty interesting how you're saying that. And I think you can see those in the books, every character in the book and even the back characters who are unexplained. They all are very distinct. And there's a tremendous amount of diversity to all of Blue River Creek and the streets and every picture. And I also like how in some of the illustrations there were hints of the other books as well. Like if you look in the background of an image and you'll see the the Sphinx or something like this from the other books and so forth, or and so I think that it's especially interesting to hear that there are mysteries to blue. Even you don't know that. Even your illustrator does. [00:04:50][36.3]

Andrea Beaty: [00:04:51] Oh yeah. I mean, David sticks little Easter eggs in there that I've been reading EGI for over a decade and I still find hidden things in there and I'll I'll contact him. I say, David, is this whatever the thing, he always he's so sweet and so charming. He always says, oh, he's British too. And he says, oh, I hope you don't mind that I might stop being so crazy. Awesome. David, just cut it out. [00:05:14][23.0]

Monte Barnard: [00:05:15] I love the I love the Bush aspect of the shared Andrea Beatty universe of these characters teaming up for hopefully in the future they'll be able to solve problems together, you know, with different facets of their of their own response skills. That would be cool. [00:05:26][10.9]

Andrea Beaty: [00:05:26] Well, that's kind of the thing that's unfolding now as we do chapter books as well. So we started with picture books. And as these these characters sort of reveal themselves to me and, you know, through David's art and also as a just the timing is right where I'm trying to riddel things out. So they're very slow to write because it's sort of like the perfect atmosphere as to happen. But as far as those as we create the picture books, then now we're also adding chapter books. And that's kind of what's happening is we get a chance to see meet more people in Blue River Creek. And what I'm finding is that all the adults are just sort of zany and weird and, you know, have their own idiosyncrasies. I always say that we're weirdly, but they they're all these funky. Who are just like the little kids grown up. So my my favorite is Aunt Great Aunt Bernice, who is I have a lot of old people in my books. I like that intergenerational thing, which I think so. [00:06:25][58.9]

DB: [00:06:25] And now she's got the cool house. So she's all set. [00:06:27][1.8]

Andrea Beaty: [00:06:28] She is. She does have the good Coalhouse after the mysterious mansion with Iggy. But the what I love about her, she has she's all about digging things out of the ground. So she has a shop where it's called Can You Dig at Shop? And anything you can dig out of the ground is going to be in there. So suddenly we've got this wide world of paleontology and history and archeology and pretty much anything I want to explore. I'm going to find ways to get in there, you know. [00:06:54][26.6]

DB: [00:06:55] Well, that's interesting. So how you say that you read in the books to explore your own kind of curiosities. When did you start working on Sofia Valdes for Future Press? [00:07:08][13.0]

DB: [00:07:10] Yeah, I'm curious. Like, what was going on that made you think about like about elections and about teaching kids about elections and especially with the mysterious vote in the last vote and things like this. And so like what was going into your mind? Like, I want to prepare kids to understand this in the future. [00:07:23][13.6]

Andrea Beaty: [00:07:24] Yeah. So Sofia is kind of the one exception where I did write a book more geared towards kids thinking with having them as the audience in mind, because usually it's just sort of was amusing me. But also Sofia moves me too. But after that election, we had this odd election back. And what was it, two thousand years ago? [00:07:46][21.5]

Monte Barnard: [00:07:46] Saying I blacked out of my memory, had a bit of a blur. [00:07:49][3.6]

Andrea Beaty: [00:07:50] Yeah. Twenty sixteen. That was a big deal, as you well know. But the thing that happened after the election is that I started hearing so many stories from teachers and I know a lot of educators and I have a lot of friends with kids. But I started hearing so many stories of kids who were really scared. They were either scared that their their parents or grandparents or aunts and uncles were going to be deported or maybe they were kids of color. And all of a sudden these friends that they'd had their whole lives were kind of calling them names. And there was this sudden just real fear from kids and an anxiety about what's going on, because kids kids know when big things are going on, you try to protect them from them. We try to shield them from it as we should, as gatekeepers of their worlds. But they know when when seismic shifts are going on and they need to know that they can be OK and also that they can have a role to play, have some agency in figuring out what's going on and making things better in the world. So the the topic they came to me really was I wanted to look at fear, but also bravery, like what does it mean to be brave? And I think I have been really blessed that I've had great editors. And the editor who began the series, Susan VanMeter, who's now gone from Abrams Books for young readers. And they're fabulous, fabulous publishers. But she was also the editor on Sofia Valdes. That was her last book we did together. And so I wrote the first draft of Sofia. And in it, you know, Sofia goes out there, she's just this little tyke and she goes and rescues a dog from a tree or some, you know, boy, how she does a super brave thing. And Susan so wisely said, well, what about other acts of bravery that are quiet? Because every day that's the stuff that life is made of. It's those those decisions, the small decisions that are magnificent and enormous. So the small acts of kindness. So she really sent me down the path of thinking, what does it mean to be brave? And so that's kind of the story of Sophia comes out of this girl who has to do something. She you know, there's the back story is there's a big landfill in her abuelo gets hurt one day. That's when she's like, yeah, it seems like we should get rid of that and get a make a park. And so she's like, do a park. And everyone's like, yeah, it's a great idea. Let us know when it's done as people are wont to do. Good idea. Sophia, go get her. OK, but she's just a kid. How is she going to do this? But she decides, you know what, she's going to have to try. And the being brave means doing the thing that you must do your heart. Quix with fear though you're just in grade two, you know. So it's all in mind by the way. Yeah but the witch gets hard to believe. [00:10:57][186.8]

Monte Barnard: [00:10:58] Yeah. It's impressive. [00:10:58][0.4]

Andrea Beaty: [00:10:58] It's a little one that is killing me but so that idea like that was the most recent example of thinking about. Well not the most recent example because I'll tell you about the next one but. Thinking about what is bravery, and I really thought I spent a lot of time thinking about it because I think it was one of the things of the last few years and always I mean, throughout history is every moment of every day you have choices to make and you can choose to do the kind thing or you can choose to do nothing. But there really is no such thing as doing nothing. Not doing something is doing something. Yeah. So you can choose to speak up when you see something wrong. You can choose to be silent, but if your silence has volume and people need to know that. But every time you have an act of kindness, I liken it to throwing a rock in a pond and you, you make a splash and where the that splash will go out and out and somewhere it will hit the shore. And you don't know what impact that's going to have. You don't know what as that travels out from you, what the repercussions of your your kindness or your lack of kindness or your indifference or your hostility, you know, where that goes and what it does. So those are the kind of things that I think about as I usually am sitting on my porch staring blankly into space. [00:12:23][84.4]

Monte Barnard: [00:12:25] You hit the nail on the head of living, enriching life by acts of kindness and courage and bravery, and by just that, not only, you know, we like to talk about on this show that living rich is just having cool gadgets and having a cool house, but it's enriching the lives of others and giving back in other ways so that I can't think of a better way to live rich than to throw those stones of empathy and caring and courage and bravery. [00:12:48][22.3]

Andrea Beaty: [00:12:48] Yeah. You know, and sometimes those can be big things. I mean, I'm incredibly blessed and, you know, very lucky that my books have found an audience. I could I've certainly books that that have five people who think were the best books ever written that will be. So I have this lovely platform. But, you know, at the end of the day, I don't know if that that's the thing that will go on and make the biggest difference or if it's just being kind to somebody, you know, like, oh my gosh, the other day I was a, I don't know, Costco, I guess, or someplace. And they have those you know, they have a little deli thing where you can get the really obnoxiously large piece of pizza, which I'm opposed to having just standing in line. And I talked to the woman and I said, how's your day going, guys? I thought she was going to cry. It was like no one had ever asked her that. And she just like she stopped and will. It's it's I'm having a good day, thank you, and I thought, oh, my gosh, people be nicer to this lady. [00:13:52][63.1]

Monte Barnard: [00:13:53] Elements of human connection, right, that are just overlooked in this day and age. [00:13:56][3.2]

Andrea Beaty: [00:13:57] And I don't know, maybe that maybe she'll go out and then pass that on or somehow that will make a difference. We don't know. It makes that ripple. [00:14:04][6.8]

DB: [00:14:04] And so you you hinted very briefly there that you have a new idea for a new book. And I'd be curious for like before talking about that, like, what is the genesis of that? Like what was going on in your life that caused you to think like this is this is a good one. [00:14:18][13.7]

Andrea Beaty: [00:14:19] So the next book is coming out in November, and it's called Aaron Slater Illustrator. And actually, this is a book that has been kind of brewing for a very long time. And it's born from the character that David Drew is a little African-American kid with a white t shirt and the jeans and bright yellow socks. And it's just this little, tiny, tiny detail that David stuck into this book, into the into all these illustrations, like this kid who's just kind of just hanging out. But he always has flowers with them. He's always got like in in a twist when they're looking at in the jars and they're doing an experiment, every kid has something that you're trying to tell smells of has a flower. And in Sofia Valdés, when they're marching around with their picket signs, his just has a flower. It doesn't have any words. And so I got a chance to spend a lot of time with David in England a couple of years ago and learned a lot about him. He's a lovely guy, but I learned really more about his childhood and David's dyslexic, so he struggled mightily in school as a kid mightly. And so for him, though, art was the way that he could let himself be free and he could find ways to really excel through art and make his, you know, tell stories and all kinds of things. And I thought I wanted to take a look at at that at the beauty of the power of beauty, the power of art, and also innately in that, I think is hope so, because when you look at something beautiful, we recognize that. And it I think that's hope that that comes out of that. If there can be this beauty in the world, then things can always get better. And so this ends up being a story of a little boy who is dyslexic and he wants to know how to read even from a tiny tot. He's raised in this wonderful family where they're all sort of musicians and they have lots of flowers and sort of an artsy fartsy family. I think of a lovely family. And he really wants to learn to read, but he just struggles and he just can't get it. And he thinks, OK, well, when I get to school, then I'll figure it out. And he gets to school there in kindergarten. And boy, he shows up with his fancy red jacket with flowers all over it, ready to go and his bright yellow socks. And it just doesn't work for him. And it doesn't work and it doesn't work. And we see as he gets older and tries and tries that he just starts sort of fading away. And David, just through his illustrations and I've only seen the first sketches of it, but you just physically see through subtle things like his jacket, the flowers kind of start disappearing from his jacket so that by the time Aaron gets through first grade and by the time he makes it to second grade, he is kind of now like he's sort of given up. He's he's like, well, I'm just I'm not going to stand out, so I'm just going to blend in. I'm not going to be one of the kids and I'm just going to try to hunker down and keep my head low and just get through. But then he gets in his Greers class and, you know, you can't you can only kind of fake it through so far. And when she asked them to do some writing, then, you know, the crisis point arises, but his art brings him through and then sort of reveals, you know, not shocking that that would be the case since he is an illustrator and put it right there in the title spoiler. They're so bad at keeping secrets. [00:18:10][231.5]

Monte Barnard: [00:18:12] I just love that that that thoroughfare through all of your work is the overcoming of adversity. And using those those themes and those skills that you incorporate into it like are a big concept of the show is is the concept of fun. But as David has mentioned before, hard fun, the fun of learning new skills and overcoming adversity and having that fulfillment, like you mentioned it is about curiosity. Rosie is about perseverance and there finding those fun skills day to day, writing these books. Obviously, there's. Got to be a challenge to it obviously doesn't just, you know, maybe you do, maybe you do to write it all out one day and it's all it's all there. And there you go. And the universe is your muse, you know, who knows. But I am curious your [00:18:56][44.3]

Andrea Beaty: [00:18:57] story and I'm sticking to that. [00:18:58][1.2]

Monte Barnard: [00:19:01] What's your favorite part about the process, though, about the day in the life of your job? What's your favorite part about these challenges and all? [00:19:08][6.7]

Andrea Beaty: [00:19:09] That's really hard, and you guys probably experience the same thing for me. Boy really goes book by book, but I love that that moment when you get a new idea and it's just rattling around in your head and it becomes sort of this obsession and you're thinking about it all the time and it's a bit like falling in love. You know, you're just sort of carry that with you everywhere you go, no matter what you should be doing, you're sitting there thinking about it mean right. It's like when you get an idea, David, for your a new aspect to your business or a new adventure, don't you just kind of go, [00:19:44][35.1]

DB: [00:19:45] oh yeah, it's the best I know that I kind of like Rosie's approach towards it's like, oh yeah. You know, the design part's my favorite and then the construction is also my favorite and the testing is the best. I and I agree every part of it is great, but but the greatest of the great is that the stars when it's just an idea and just trying to like grapple with it. And I find that most of my time, like the most important programing I do is on paper sitting in a coffee shop or drinking a cup of tea with a pen and a blank piece of paper. And that's where the best work happens and everything else flows in there. And when you're in that zone, there's nothing better than that. [00:20:23][38.0]

Andrea Beaty: [00:20:24] Yeah, I agree with that. I mean, do you have things to that that your. [00:20:28][3.7]

Monte Barnard: [00:20:28] Yeah, I mean, I'm a musician and writing music. Writing songs when, you know, you'll be you know, there's songs that you'll be working at tirelessly for a week and you'll be like, is this any good after I've stared at it for a week long. And then there are riffs that you somebody will play something and everyone will just go that that again. Do that again and then and then 20 minutes later, you have a full song done. You know, it's. Yeah. That's the [00:20:49][21.1]

Andrea Beaty: [00:20:49] best. Yeah. And I guess I'm always curious and I don't know, I mean I guess at the end of the race you get to look back and say, is there a difference between those two things? Like are the books that came easily or the songs that came easily? The projects, are those the ones that are better or are they not better? Or are they just different than the ones that you had to literally like, you know, scrapyards crave to get through them? I don't know. But it is that is the joy of being creative is so much fun. It's never lonely either. I mean, in one sense, you spend an enormous amount of time alone, but you're you know, your head's crowded with people. I've got hometowns and fairs and [00:21:29][39.6]

DB: [00:21:29] plus the jobs got to be pretty cool. So we talk about the space station. How did your book get what was that all about? [00:21:36][6.3]

Andrea Beaty: [00:21:36] Yeah, that groovy. Yeah. So there is this wonderful festival. I think it's still going in DC every year or every other year, maybe every two years. And it's the US Science and Engineering Festival. When Rosie was coming out, I went to DC and I took like I mean literally fifty thousand stickers or something. For Rosie, the book wasn't known brand spanking new, and I just went around pretty much every booth and said, hey, you know, doing those I'm an author, which I have learned about. Yes. Forefingers the whole nine yards and just trod through the place for the weekend. And it was great fun. I mean, just the coolest of everything. Storm everything, tech, everything science. And I was walking along and I had a couple of copies of the book with me, and there was a man, am I going to blank my brain? I'm not going to remember his name. Now, there's an astronaut there who is because NASA had a big presence and oh, shoot, I'm really going to be angry at myself for not remembering his name. But I, I gave him a copy of the book just because I think, my gosh, you know, if you dedicate your life to going out into space, given the incredible dedication that has, I can't even imagine and you do that and the benefits that brings back to all of us people here, most of us never even knowing the sacrifices you make. I think that's that's brilliant. And it's always I'm a big believer in saying thank you. When people do things like that. I don't always follow through in my mind. I've written a million thank you notes, so I'm going to have to work on that. But anyway, I gave him a copy of Rosie and then went on my way and he went on his way. And about six months later I got an email that said, this is we're starting a program called Story Time from Space. Would would you mind if we would you mind if we put mind. Yeah. Would you mind if we send Rosie Revere to the International Space Station to be read by an astronaut? And I'm like, oh, I'm busy that day. I'm sure I have a question mark here. I understand that. Yeah, please. Oh, and thank you. And so they did. And it's this wonderful program. It's a nonprofit program. They work with the International Space Station and the Center for Advancement of Science and Space. And the idea is just to sort of connect reading and STEM and space exploration and. So they send books up to the space station, the astronauts read them and they download the videos. And so story time from space is the the website. It's absolutely fabulous. And then you've got to go up as well and different. Wow, that's awesome. So I know [00:24:27][171.3]

DB: [00:24:28] this becomes a thing. You've got to have them all. I mean, like maybe some [00:24:31][2.5]

Andrea Beaty: [00:24:31] of [00:24:31][0.0]

Monte Barnard: [00:24:33] it will be a subscription service, a subscription to space for your for your books or just like Netflix. [00:24:38][4.9]

Andrea Beaty: [00:24:38] There you have you have to afternoon about, however, how many hours of the take 13. I forget what it is very fast. [00:24:44][5.9]

Monte Barnard: [00:24:45] Talk about a grassroots success though, literally going to it and snickering and you know, very punk rock of you going out there and now it's in space. [00:24:53][7.9]

Andrea Beaty: [00:24:54] And I thought, why does it get me better off? My feet have never heard so much it. But you know, what I [00:25:01][7.0]

DB: [00:25:01] love about that is it really talks about just how much hustle it takes to be a writer. Like, yes, you have to write, definitely. But it's not just about that as you have to like anything in life. If it's if it's interesting, the the fun part is the hard work. And then the other 90 percent of the effort is just all this grinding emotion and just the hustle to make it happen. And so I think that's a good reminder that having an amazing book have an amazing story is just the start. That's like the table stakes. Everything else is actually just hard work after it. [00:25:35][34.1]

Andrea Beaty: [00:25:36] That's right, that's right, and it's one of those things I mean, early on I remember talking with my editor and we were working on my first novel and she said, boy, you're really easy to work with. And I'm like, oh, I kind of thing, thank you. But I kind of think also that world is full of talented people. The world is full of great books and great manuscripts and deserving books. So at the end of the day, you know, as an editor, you have maybe three books in front of you and there's the or two books in front of you. And there's the author who's a real pain in the Batiuk. And then there's the one who is like, kind of pleasant, but the books are equally good. I don't know which one it's been. [00:26:14][38.0]

DB: [00:26:15] Yeah, it's a good strategy right there. So it's going along with that. Tell me about Netflix and this show coming up. [00:26:24][9.0]

Andrea Beaty: [00:26:25] Yeah, yeah, oh, this is so much fun, guys, I'll tell you so, yes, in the fall, I think September I've not I've not seen a release date yet, but I think somewhere in September there will be a date with a scientist as a Netflix show. And that happened when a producer named Mark Burton from Worldwide or Wunder Worldwide came to us and said, we'd like to do a show and this is my mind on it. And we had a lot of people who were interested in doing that. He had just had the vision that I think fit the that really fit the world. And he seemed to understand innately this sort of the view of the world from the River Creek. And so we decided to go with him and then they they signed up with Netflix and then the higher ground production from the Obamas have joined in. And so it's like. Kind of groovy, not going to [00:27:24][58.4]

Monte Barnard: [00:27:24] seem quite to [00:27:25][0.8]

Andrea Beaty: [00:27:25] enjoy, quite the same. [00:27:27][1.3]

DB: [00:27:27] Yeah, yeah, that's a powerhouse. And so I imagine there's there must be some anxiety for like, how do you maintain a degree of creative control while still enabling others to get the best out of that? How do you manage that tension? [00:27:38][11.1]

Andrea Beaty: [00:27:40] You know, that's that's not a big deal. I mean, I think everyone they're working on this project from the writers and the producers and the show runners and everyone, everyone is really in love with this world and these these kids. And they want to make it right. They want to do it the right way. And so they'll bring their own ideas on how to go about it. But they've all really been accurate. They've been really good interpretations of the world. And they're you know, there's some few tweaky changes in family structure and things that I gather, you know, they need to to to work for their audiences and things. And the audience is younger. It's sort of a preschool show. So that's a bit different than, say, their chapter books. But they've just everyone has just come to it with this desire to do really good work. And I I think it's been less difficult because it's not unlike the process of writing a picture book where I write the words. And in my mind, I have this fantastic view of exactly how it's going to be. And then it goes out into the world and they find an illustrator who makes something that is nothing like that. And always my instant reaction is, no, that's wrong. And that lasts about 30 seconds. And then I go, oh, you know what? That's exactly right. And it's perfect. And it goes on from there. And I mean, I finally now with David and I, we've worked together a long time. And I can kind of I never imagine exactly what he's going to do, but I just know he's going to do something amazing. So there's no stress with that. But I decided a long time ago, I mean, early on, I can write books all day and I can keep them in my desk drawer and enjoy them and take mountain out of them. I do have a lot of them there. I feed them regularly. I love them and I adore them. But that doesn't mean they're ever going to actually go out and be published and see the light of day. So if you want to be a published author, there's you send it out and it's a bit like sending your kid off to college and you don't know if they're coming back with tongue studs, oxfords or both or what's going to happen. And it's all great if they do, they come back and they're different. But if you've entrusted people who are talented and then you trust those talented people, they always just make the books better. And I've just really always had great have a great publisher and everybody there, I've got to I'll go visit them in New York and everybody knows the books and loves and cares about them, no matter how tangentially they may touch those those stories. They really they care. And that's the kind of you can hope for, you know, trust talented people and they'll surprise you and bring in ideas that you never thought of. And so it's kind of how things grow. And I'm sure that's probably maybe that's your experience as well with. [00:30:35][175.3]

Monte Barnard: [00:30:36] I was just going to say that that's a very interesting parallel between kind of how we hired Expensify, the kind of people we hire and our and our criteria for hiring humble, driven, ambitious people. We can speak to this a lot more than I can, but it's definitely a fantastic workforce to work with other people that are creative and trusting other people to come up with these ideas. We hire people who are all across the diverse spectrum of different ideas and backgrounds. I use the tour playing heavy metal and now I talk about expense reports and living rich, having fun and saving the world makes sense. Again, talking about that, that parallel, a little detour we take in the buffet of life. And here we are so trusting creative people. I mean, that's that's just does it all right there? [00:31:18][42.3]

DB: [00:31:19] Yeah. I really love how you put that. And I think that you're right. This idea of you can have total perfect control of your ideas and they stay in your shelf and no one ever sees them and they never see the light of day. And so I think there is about a degree of recognizing that the idea is its own thing. And it's you can influence it, you can launch it, but you have to create an environment for it to survive and flourish. And that environment consists of a whole bunch of other people who aren't you that will bring their own influences. And what ends up is so much better. Like I've I think of Expensify kind of like a garden where it's like this very rich and verdant garden and everyone is always planting and curating and sometimes a trim. Sometimes we plant and every day something new blooms and it's like, wow, I didn't know that. I didn't even know we planted that flower. That's an amazing flower. And so every day is always miraculous because there's so much going on and no one is in control. It's basically this beautiful chaos. And I think so long that as everyone there has the right intentions and as long as as Monty mentioned, we we hire for a talent, ambition and humility. And if you got those three things, the combination of those two makes a person, which is just an incredibly powerful and fantastic person to be with. And if you get enough of those people together, you create an amazing group. And so I think this idea of letting ideas flourish on their own in the right environ. And surrounded and supported by the right people, I couldn't agree more. [00:32:42][83.0]

Andrea Beaty: [00:32:43] Yeah, that's fascinating to mention humility in that, because that would seem to me like the absolutely most important bit, because otherwise you end up with a lot of people who are very talented, but also so many egos, they can't play together very well. And then, you know, OK, so we're all going to battle each other and being generous and thinking of what else we can do. [00:33:05][21.8]

DB: [00:33:05] And I kind of think of it like, you know, you fight like Angry Birds or one of these games where you are shooting stuff over. And I think that's like the three components of that. Or it's like, first, there's this talent and that's kind of the angle of what you're going to launch. And then there's ambition, which is how hard you pull back, basically. But the most important thing that determines how far you go is humility, which is kind of like gravity. And basically the the more humble you are, the less gravity there is. There's less just pushing is pulling everything down. And if you have a group that basically is just committed to everyone's going to pull back really hard and aim really high and we're all going to support each other. So things would just come crashing to the ground. You can get great places. [00:33:44][38.1]

Andrea Beaty: [00:33:46] Well, absolutely, I like that that's the angry mob. I'm going to [00:33:49][3.4]

DB: [00:33:51] the anger management, you know, [00:33:52][1.6]

Andrea Beaty: [00:33:56] it's true. I use a phrase sometimes where I like whenever we're trying to figure things out, how is this work out as a deal, work out or whatever? My guiding principle is, I try to say everyone has to come out whole, because if everyone's putting their hearts into it and their time and their effort and their vision and their their life resources, which none of which are limitless, you know, they needs to be in something in it for them as well. And and it's only just comes back in leaps and bounds for the whole project and for everything when that happens. So so I think that's the great fun of of making the books together because it is a collaborative thing. I don't illustrate my own books, and that's not a bad thing. It's good. It's good to know have bipolar, you know, to everyone. Yeah. I do think everyone has an artistic talent. They just haven't maybe found the right medium yet. So for me, it's worth it's not so much drawing, although I do like drawing. But, you know, I don't have a lot of [00:34:59][62.5]

Monte Barnard: [00:35:00] my own [00:35:01][0.7]

DB: [00:35:01] expense reports, you know, the most artistic of all mediums. [00:35:03][2.0]

Andrea Beaty: [00:35:05] But I will tell you what that does change the world because the amount of time you can save people. Holy cow. I just. [00:35:12][6.7]

Monte Barnard: [00:35:12] She gets it, David. She gets it, I believe are perfect. [00:35:15][3.1]

Andrea Beaty: [00:35:17] Oh, man. I do not miss the days of having to do that sort of thing. And I remember like, oh, so now you've got your angry bird things working out for the people who have to deal expense reports. [00:35:30][12.4]

Monte Barnard: [00:35:30] I've definitely been on calls getting getting companies on board with us. And, you know, we're accountants are on the verge of tears. They're so happy they don't have to work at Excel Sheet. So that makes it all worth it at the end of the day. [00:35:40][10.0]

Andrea Beaty: [00:35:41] I know I use Excel just often enough to vaguely remember it's going to get in there and I don't remember it at all. [00:35:48][7.4]

Monte Barnard: [00:35:49] And then I love that. Speaking to just the universal appeal of your books, think you said that the ultimate punk rock grassroots movement of going to DC and spreading the message. And now and you have a show with the production company of the Obamas, you have your books being read in space and space. [00:36:10][21.4]

Andrea Beaty: [00:36:12] No one can hear you turn pages. Yes, they can. They can hear you have microphones. [00:36:17][4.6]

Monte Barnard: [00:36:19] Curious. I'm curious. Why do you think the subject matter of all of your books resonates so well with kids? Obviously, the themes we talked about earlier are, of course, universal, and I love that you bring that into STEM fields in different fields of creativity, in different fields of learning. Traditionally, you know, it's not really been a riveting demographic for under 10 year olds to get into engineering or get into science. I think you you know, you guys you guys do with those themes that are universal to kids. Do you think that's why it's caught on so much? I'm curious your opinion on why your success is so universal. [00:36:52][33.6]

Andrea Beaty: [00:36:53] No, absolutely. And it's because at a very fundamental level, like thinking about a twist, every kid is curious. I mean, every kid is curious. So when they see ADA, who is just obsessed with questions, she's consumed with finding out why, how, what, when, where they are like that. I mean, any four year old in the course of a day, they'll ask you a thousand questions is the greatest thing ever. So kids can look at her and say, I'm curious, she's a scientist. Maybe I'm a scientist. Yeah. With Rosalie, every kid has had frustrations. They have tried to make something. It has not worked and they don't know how to handle it. So they go, oh, I'm frustrated and and I don't know what to do that Rosie was like that, too. Maybe I'm an engineer and every kid has passions for something. Whatever it is, they they will go out and they are so consumed with creating something or something that just catches there and changes maybe every day or two days or weeks or. Yeah, five minutes. But it's one hundred percent when they're in there, they're, they're like thinking about I'm going to build things so every kid has passion. So to them they, they see themselves. And I think it's fascinating and this is a very small distinction, but something that I'm extremely proud of and something that I think tells me that that works is that and I didn't set out to do that, by the way. I didn't set out to say I'm going to write a book about engineering. It sort of happened to be like Rosie could have been doing something else. But but actually, it did make her an engineer because I wanted to see what David would do with the art after he did. I thought he is going to slay this. And but the fascinating thing is that when kids read these books and they come back out and they don't say, I'm going to be a scientist. I'm going to be an engineer, I'm going to be an architect, they say I am a scientist. I am an engineer. I am. [00:38:53][119.4]

DB: [00:38:53] That's interesting. It's not as future like, what are you going to be when you grow up? It's basically like looking like a rosy engineer right now. [00:38:59][5.2]

Monte Barnard: [00:39:00] So am I. [00:39:00][0.7]

Andrea Beaty: [00:39:01] I like I I'm curious. I'm a scientist and that is actually true. One of the things I try to convey to parents, parents, like we somehow managed to have so many adults that are so scared of science, so scared of math, so scared of engineering and things that they may not have technically and purposely studied or maybe that were so far in their rearview mirror now that they've kind of forgotten about them. But is the idea that everybody is a scientist? And so for especially parents of little kids, if you have a kid when your kid comes to you, as they will do and say, why is the blue sky blue? And the parent does not remember that day is a pretty sight. And boy, it's like, nah. Oh, here. Think someone's at the door. I got a Flintstone it out of here. I heard that mix my metaphors there. But but the idea that they get so freaked out about it when the answer is so easy is just I don't know. Let's find out. Why is this. I don't know. Let's find out. And then you have kids who become the leaders. They are they are taking their adults into the world of exploration and looking for answers or maybe just more questions, which is even more exciting. And that's that's what science is. So I hope that through these books then that parents can kind of loosen up a little bit. And that's actually one of the things that has been fun about the project books we do where I look at the topics of science or the most recent one, which is Sophia's book of what is the Oh, the big project book for Awesome Activists is the new. And it comes out this week. This week, I should say that with less of a question mark that comes out this week, [00:40:49][108.1]

Monte Barnard: [00:40:49] next week, the May 4th, May 4th. [00:40:51][1.7]

Andrea Beaty: [00:40:54] But the idea there is kind of the same. It's like that. What things do kids already? How do they think about things? And in the project book for activists, it's about just civics. How does how does a city run? How does my town run? How is my family run? Like who? Who makes the rules? How does that happen? What you know, how thinking about things in terms of the kids, their lives and how they live and then mapping that to bigger, bigger topics. And for like science, science is about curiosity. It's about getting frustrated. It's about sticking to things. It's about, I don't know, just learning stuff. So tackling big topics. But in terms of very personal traits, the kids have kids. Science scientists are creative, so to create a picture, make a picture out of these things. Well, kids can do that and they're like, oh, well, I am a scientist. And it's just the different aspects of whatever the job is, whatever the field is, rather than sort of mapping it to this kind of flipping backwards from what people usually do, they say you're a scientist, therefore do science things, whatever. Well, that [00:42:06][72.4]

Monte Barnard: [00:42:07] that that ties perfectly. The SPEARVILLE does big project book for Awesome Activists is such a novel and fantastic book idea that you're coming out with. And it really ties into the third theme of the show, Save the World and Saving the World. Sounds like this lofty, giant goal, just like becoming a scientist sounds like a giant goal, but it's just those kernels of individual acts of whether it be bravery, courage, kindness, empathy, and in this case, activism and understanding how your world works and teaching those children in the next generation on how they can get that start early on before they take civics in high school if they even still teach civics in high school. Boy, I feel old saying that just now, but, you know, who knows? But, you know, and that's what we love about about your work so much. [00:42:51][44.6]

Andrea Beaty: [00:42:52] Thank you. Yeah, but that's that's the thing. Why is that left to high school? Every kid and there is social studies, I assume still, you know, I mean but I think we have somehow as a society and, you know, I don't know how global this is, but I think it probably varies from where you are. But I think we have sort of gotten into this area where we expect other people to do the things they expect other people to take care of running our town. And, yeah, we may vote for, but we need to know how things work. We need to know how our city is structured and how our towns and our our states and what pays for things like so so in this book, we look things starting sort of. The idea sort of starting with a person and then what is your community, your community starts with your family, then it's your neighbors and then it's your school, that's your town. Maybe it's your neighborhood, then your town, your city, your state, your country, your planet. And as a person, just like in that pond, you know, you're at the center of this. But what you do goes out and affects, you know, wider and wider and you have agency to make change even if you are a kid. Kids, I want them to know that they have power. And that was a kind of long way back to why I wrote Sophia at all. But it was back in that time when so many kids were being scared that I wanted them to know that they had agency, they had power, that they there are things in the world they can control and that there are always people to help them. There are helpers out there. And I think that's a big thing [00:44:27][95.7]

DB: [00:44:28] when they find kind of interesting. So I have a six year old daughter and it's been. Interesting looking at how popular media has changed from when I was a kid, and there's this book I really love, I read about all the time called and to get the name wrong, I think it's everything that is good for you. And it's basically talking about how there's this. It starts off with a series of quotes from Aristotle, Descartes and like in major thinkers throughout time. And basically every one of these quotes is the world's going to hell and kids are to blame. And so the one thing that everyone can agree on throughout all of time is that basically the world things are getting worse. But in fact, according to the broad strokes of time, it's like actually by every measure, humanity is getting better. Climate is a little bit different as not humanity. So there's like, you know, we can interpret this data, like all other data to tell the story you want. But basically it's like on the broad strokes of things like humanity is like getting its act together. And I think that and one reason that the sort of the thesis of the book is that popular media, even though it's continuously demonized and talks in the book, it's like how when books first came out, it was like, oh, no one's going to remember anything. And then like the printing press as I go now. Now everyone gets books and everyone knows only smart people get books. Now everyone's got and then the radio comes as, oh, no one's going to read anymore than TV, but no one's gonna listen to radio anymore and internet. No one's going to and whatever it is. [00:45:51][82.6]

Andrea Beaty: [00:45:51] And and so everyone, our podcast [00:45:53][2.1]

DB: [00:45:54] and everybody podcast. Exactly. And so I think that it's interesting how popular media is always to blame, but at the same time, it gets so sophisticated. And like when I'm watching cartoons with Heysel or whatever it is, I'm amazed how basically every cartoon is awesome anymore. Like I was watching, like Barbie Dreamhouse or something like this. What seems like the most vapid possible cartoon. It's amazing. I like how their presentation of Barbie is incredible. Yeah. Like Barbie is presented as like savant and I love the episode of their birthday. And all of her friends are like, how how old is Barbie is. I don't know. Well, she was president. You have to be forty for that then. She was an astronaut. That takes about twenty three years of training. She's also a surgeon and basically she spends the entire time, like every episode comes down to like Barbie being some genius and saving the day and like how do they spin Barbie to be this very positive message. It's wild. And like I could go on about My Little Pony, I could go to the spirit. I got a million different cartoons. And everything is very is telling very positive messages about diversity and inclusion and about courage and bravery and fortitude and all this. And so I think when I read your books, I see so much of that is I guess there they're fantastic stories. They rhyme. There's so much about it that that is so fun for me to read for his children. But also it's like we don't have to. And it kind of goes back to this idea. I think there's like living rich, having fun and saving the world. These are not. Contradictory ideas. It's not a zero sum game where you have to choose one of the other, I think the best and most successful things are when you're doing all three together. And I think your books really represent that. It's like, yeah, these are books about people who are living rich and diverse and interesting lifestyles. They're having fun, exciting adventures. But the consequence of it all is that they're making the world a better place. And that's the story that I think so many people need to hear. [00:47:47][112.7]

Andrea Beaty: [00:47:49] Yeah, I agree with that entirely. I think that the Babi show is quite a sleeper, though, because I would I had low expectations. I brought my own biases into that. I'm not going to lie. I did. But that was a surprise. Yeah, I have no I mean, I think. I don't know it, kids are amazing and deserve. They deserve honesty, I think, at the end of the day, and that's that's the thing to me, what makes a good TV show, a good book or whatever is that there has to be truth in it. And so those great shows are the ones or books where you have truth. And I think that is where my books have worked with the things I was discussing about how do you you know, looking at curiosity, there's truth in that, because if you look at it and think you really examine it, honestly, that's what connects to kids. They kids are like the best B.S. detectors in the world. Nothing gets passed on, right. They they deserve honesty and they demand it and they smell it a million miles away. If you're coming at them with something that's not real and true. And I think kids can take and understand a lot more than we give them credit for so that, you know, sometimes you have to write something in and it may not be all pretty and happy, but it's real. And they respect that so that they understand things. Yeah, kids are the best. [00:49:16][86.4]

Monte Barnard: [00:49:18] Kids are the best in speaking truth to power and speaking to that wellspring of curiosity that all kids are. Your books not only go there, but they go the step beyond and really teaching kids the concept of how failure can teach you to move forward and you can learn from it, whereas curiosity obviously is an infinite resource when it comes to children. But failure, if perceived the wrong way, can stunt that curiosity. And we find that I mean, that's probably been the case for millions of people who maybe would have gone into that direction of STEM or in any of these different fields. But that failure didn't have that pushed that understanding that, no, this is a good thing and you can learn from that. That empowers them. I love that about your books. [00:49:58][39.9]

Andrea Beaty: [00:49:59] Yeah. Oh, thank you. I think we do. We all have a very and each person is different, obviously, but we we do have this sense of expectations and what what being good at something is. Well, back to the thing of going to NASA and I got to go see the launch when they took so cool. So cool. But this was the cool thing though. So I went the first day and they were going to launch it and they get down to the timing, you know, ten, nine, eight. Oh, and they called it off because of these massive like thunder boomers up. And there is some something that was too much danger for lightings like rats, scientist and people. They're just like, yeah, OK, we'll come back tomorrow. Oh, this is tragic. The next day [00:50:39][40.6]

DB: [00:50:40] it's just weather. [00:50:40][0.3]

Andrea Beaty: [00:50:42] Yeah. They get down to the next day and they get down to the countdown and they call it off for wind. And then the third day I think it got called off for wind. So I finally had to fly back to Chicago and seeing that no longer has [00:50:55][12.7]

DB: [00:50:55] the call me when the rocket goes up [00:50:57][1.6]

Andrea Beaty: [00:50:59] happens. Well, this is the most beautiful thing, though. I'm on the airplane heading back to Chicago and I'm watching, like, on my clock the time. And I have no what, like Southwest wi fi. Come on, Southwest, get your Wi-Fi together. I was trying to watch, like, ten. Throughout the day or night, if you're not doing it right, but I looked out the window at the time and I could see the vapor trail going up into the sky, into space. And I was like, you know what? That failure after day after day after day. And for me, it was like there was so much excitement and tension and like and I hadn't even spent my life's work making the thing that was doing this, sending these incredibly intricate rockets and things. But all these people had and they were just like, yeah, OK, well, that just didn't happen. That was a failure. No, it was just the thing that happened next. Yeah. I mean, there was a success. [00:51:53][54.3]

DB: [00:51:53] I thought that was. Success is just built on the platform of endless failure, and I think that that rocket launch was the culmination of a tremendous number of failures to get there. And I think that Rosie was very proud to be in that rocket. [00:52:07][13.8]

Andrea Beaty: [00:52:09] And I think that was just sort of the most rosy way to witness this event was sort of like, yeah, didn't didn't like the thought, but it happened and it was just amazing. But but that was and I think just transforming the idea of a failure is just the next thing that it's not a big deal. And that to me, when I do see I do get letters from parents who, you know, will read Rosie to the kids, little tiny kids who have had a lot of issues with just failing and just losing. It just melted down because because they want to please. And so they have this sense of sometimes us internally driven, sometimes it's external, but they want to be, you know, help and make it do right and make it perfect. And then it doesn't they don't know how to plan that. And then they'll be Rosie. And they're like, oh, yeah, well, you know, it failed. We'll do it again. What would Rosie do? It was a fantastic failure. Yeah, it was yeah, it was fabulous. [00:53:02][53.7]

Monte Barnard: [00:53:03] And David can speak to that, too. I mean, David, you started coding at a really young age and started this direction. And obviously Expensify wasn't your first job. You didn't start this company when you were 18. Yeah, there's been a whole a long story behind that. [00:53:15][12.3]

Andrea Beaty: [00:53:16] How did you like voting, [00:53:17][0.8]

DB: [00:53:20] so I started program when I was six and then my dad traded a trailer hitch for a VIC 20 and and I like to computer games. And so I started doing that. They would take me to the mall and they would go shopping and just like dump me into a RadioShack, which had the Tandy computers. And so I stayed there for like an hour or whatever, and then they'd come back. Yeah, I know they'd come back and I would have like this program of, like a little bat flying around the screen. But I did, like, cool you just an hour's time while I went shopping was awesome. And so what I was doing it like computers weren't the cool thing. It was like, what is this weird novelty? Like, no one realized that computers were going to take over the world at the time. There was just this thing that some weird people did. And like I didn't know anyone who programed any friends and programed. And so it was until a high school actually, I didn't actually know really any like any good. I have no idea until I went to a computer class. And that's why I learned an amazing lesson in college, is that you don't have to go to the classes in college. You can skip the classes and not get in trouble. And as amazing. So I just took the test and like I said, I know a thing or two about this. But so I think as a kid, there's such a beauty in the ignorance of what's possible and what's not. And I think that, yeah, for me it was just like computers weren't too high. They weren't seen as like a amazing thing, an important skill. They also weren't scary. There was just like it was just this fun toy. And I feel like the idea that was I love that the spirit of the books that you have, it's like, sure, she's an engineer, but she's building a machine to keep snakes away or a helicopter powered by cheese or whatever it is. And so as a result, it is so uplifting and so fun. It just makes it brings the fun out of creation for its own sake. And that's what I love. [00:55:04][104.7]

Andrea Beaty: [00:55:07] Thank you. Yeah, it's true. Can we talk about cheese spray, because I just think there's more power there than people have really [00:55:13][6.2]

Monte Barnard: [00:55:14] an untapped [00:55:14][0.1]

Andrea Beaty: [00:55:15] resource. Elon Musk, he's trying to give up on the sun. She's great. [00:55:22][7.1]

Monte Barnard: [00:55:24] Well, Adria, thank you so much for joining us here today on the show. The new book, Sofia Valdes Big Project Book for Awesome Activists is out now. Also, look on your local Netflix station or wherever you watch Netflix or edit to a scientist, hopefully coming in the fall. I just went with the old school approach there. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm looking forward to reading more of your work in the near future. [00:55:51][26.8]

Andrea Beaty: [00:55:52] Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you both. And thanks for this podcast. I mean, what a great idea just to look at. I like the idea of exploring just the everyday view of what is success and what is what is creativity, what is what is important and how do you change the world, because people have these weird ideas, weird ideas [00:56:12][19.8]

Monte Barnard: [00:56:13] that makes the world go round because again, we'll talk to you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Live Rich. Have fun. Save the World is brought to you by Expensify, hosted by David Barrett and Monty Bernard, engineered and produced by Monty Bernard. Theme song by DJ MC. Please rate review and subscribe to leverage. Have fun. Save the World on Spotify, Apple podcasts or wherever you happen to be listening. [00:56:13][0.0]

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