265- The Intersection of History and Hope
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Welcome everyone to Politically High Tech with your host Elias. I have a guest here today and I'm going to say three times it's the charm. And I know some of you are going to say, oh, another story based on anti-Semitism.

Let me tell you something. The fact that some of you cannot grasp this, I feel compelled to do another story. And I will do even a solo one if I have to. Even on Islamophobia, I have Muslim perspectives in this podcast and I am seeking more as well.

Because at the end of the day, I want unity. I want you to understand as many perspectives as possible. This is not going to be an extension of CNN, Fox News, or whatever other propaganda crap you love to drink, all right? Drink their Kool-Aid. No. If you're not an adult that wants to be exposed to different perspectives, then I don't need your listenership. I really do not. And I'm going to say this as brutally as I honestly can. You're dead to me.

I need people who cares about unity of this country. I want people who could challenge even this podcast intellectually and with common sense and with great thinking that I didn't even think of because I'm sure there's some blind spots to what I'm doing. You know, there's a few guests that point out a few things. I didn't think of it that way. That's why we have these conversations. We learn how to be better people. If you can't have that.

then you're just a tribalistic monster. Yeah, I will call you out. And I don't mind doing that. Because I have this calm and nice side. I also have an aggressive side as well. But I'm going to leave it at that. I don't want this to be a long monologue about being open-minded. I cannot change your mind at the end of the day. You want to leave, go to your echo chamber, you do that. But this is for people who want to be exposed for different perspectives. Okay? This is going to be another...

Another anti-Semitism theme. Another lessons learned from the past because we need to. We are losing our way. We are certainly losing our way. And you could come up with a counter argument, but I doubt it's going to be successful. You can. You can argue. You can put in the comment section. But don't be surprised if it's going to get scrutinized or even countered. OK, just don't be surprised. So with that out of the way.

Let's introduce, and let me be a little nicer now, so they give me the stern warning, because I only want the strong, intellectually strong, strong in unity. Those are the people I want. I don't want tribalistic people who are just going to say, oh, all Jews are evil, all Islam is evil, all Christians are evil. Nah, then you're the problem. You need help. If you're open to talk, I could do that. But if you're not open to talk, then I'm just going to leave you alone. You're far gone.

Let's introduce this gets here before the monologue gets too long, because I could ramble on if I don't catch myself. Let's welcome Ronnie Robbins, and she has a book, because we need to read more literacies down the drain. Yes, it is. This could be an antidote.

to fight against illiteracy. Some people don't even know basic history. Some people don't even know the Holocaust. Even a few people have said the Holocaust doesn't exist. There's a fact that's at 25% is already alarming. I don't want to wait that to be 50. That's enough to generate a civil war. We already have a fraction of people that don't believe in the Holocaust, which is insane. It's well-documented.

I don't know how much more proof you need. You think everything is doctored and AI generated? You're the problem. No, go get help, really. Any tragedies that you want to deny? You're the problem. Okay, calm down, Elias. I'm about to go on the tangent here. Let's have a more lovely voice in this conversation. Just, uh,

balance my more masculine stern energy that i'm putting right now because this one thing i'm just not going to tolerate crap we did the tolerated crap things have gone worse okay that has nothing to do with tolerance of different people and all that it's just ideas and stupidity has to flourish and this is why we need more stories like this okay so let's welcome ronnie robbins

I'm going to finally be quiet and just start with this very simple question. What do you want the listeners and viewers to know about you? I'm an award-winning, multi-award-winning author and journalist, and I've been writing for different publications right now, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Medscape WebMD, where I was an editor. So I come with a very strong writing background, and about 20 years ago or so, my

Mom gave me cassette tapes and I used them to I transcribe them They were my grandfather left his life story and his adventures and near-death Experiences in Europe and America now. It's not totally about anti-semitism and the Holocaust it's broader than that because it's about Jewish immigrants Jew it's about Jewish culture

It's about families. It's really anyone's ethnic family story because we, despite anything you might feel either way, many of us are descendants from immigrants. Now, not to comment about what's going on now, but America was founded on immigrants. So my grandfather was one of them about 100 years ago because it was 1925 that he came here.

to find a better life for his family. And he contracted tuberculosis. And so he battled that for much of his life. He was a clinical trial patient for streptomycin, which is still used today and paved the way for other medications because TB is still

the largest infectious killer in the world, despite what we think about COVID. And so there's a lot to the story. It's a romance. It's a committed relationship. And what you have to do when in sickness and health, I mean, those words are, we say them when we get married. But what do they really mean? They mean when somebody gets sick of your, one of the

members of the couple get sick, you are there for them because life doesn't always roll you the best life. You have struggles, you have obstacles to overcome. And so they were married for 65 years and they died. My grandparents died on the same exact date of each other a year apart. So that was the initial spark of the novel was just this romance and all they went through together.

They did lose most of their family in the Holocaust. What was that like? Not because they went through the Holocaust, but because they lost their whole family. So they had the guilt of, what could I have done differently? Why didn't they listen to the signs of the time to get out? Why didn't they follow me and some other siblings to America? But he came here for a better life and to escape being

conscripted into the Czechoslovakian army. And despite everything, despite all of his struggles, they lost a grown son to leukemia, and he was involved in a workplace shooting spree. Despite all of that, the end goal was that he was able to provide an American life for his family, a life of blessing, a life of family,

a faith, a life of family values, all the good things that are important in the world to fall back on. So it is a story of persistence and survival against the odds. Like I said, it's more than just anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. It was published by a Holocaust publisher from Europe, the largest publisher.

publisher of Holocaust memoirs. This is a fiction because I made up a lot of stuff and played with the facts. So I couldn't, as a journalist, feel right about saying it was nonfiction, especially the dialogue I made up. So I think that pretty much tells you who I am and what my goals of life are to just share my writing with the world.

No, that's one of the things. Let me just be clear. I know anti-Semitism is not the central theme here. I had to just bring it up there because it's still a big, big issue. I should have brought up the immigrant thing, too, because immigrant is also a very big issue as well. I'm sure you know, Donald Trump's been elected. Whether you love him or hate him, things are going to change with the border. For better or worse, well, time will tell. That's all I'm going to say is to keep it short and neutral.

Okay, yeah, look, my brief opinion on immigrants, they're necessary. They're the fabric of America, whether you like it or not. Removing them out of the American DNA is like removing wheels of a bike. It won't be able to move. It's needed, okay? It is well needed. And...

Look, I am a pro-migrant person, but I do got to admit the immigrant system needs fixing. It needs fixing. And it needs to balance humanity to those who want to come and have a better life and being tough on those who wants to do harm to this country. That's the balance that needs to be striking. That's the one that America just, in my honest opinion, have not figured out yet.

Yes, I want the right wing wrath on criminals, but I also want the Democrat compassion to those who want to come and do right. And they need help. Let's help them because most immigrants are coming here for a better life. I would say, oh, I mean, worse estimates is like 95 percent. Right. Overwhelmingly, it's not even it's not up for debate. Only half the immigrants. No, no, no. It's like overwhelmingly.

majority but it's a mess and it needs fixing did they want to do harm then yes i agree with the republican wrath on that one but people want to do the right thing let's use the more democrat compassion in the system that's we need to we need to balance those two things out okay and that's what i'm going to say about that um because yeah you're right immigrant is you know even better it's like a connecting to the heart about we cut that off i don't think america's gonna survive much longer

You know, we all immigrant. I'm immigrant. It's needed. It's needed. And, you know, it's, you know, they and they should be encouraged to come. You know, I think we're still a good country, but we got to get our act together in some areas. I'm not going to say we like the Holy Grail because some things are not going right. Rather, you know, we could go on this for hours about what America is declining in. But I think the story could touch on some of that. You know, if possible, not expecting much.

um you know just just deal with tribalism in america which is a very big issue we need to we need to know what's right or wrong and some things should not even be debated some things shouldn't be debated you know so you should you know it's all should we be mean to this person goes a jew or muslim or christian just should be based on character what they've done not about you know the gender or the background all that right is right or wrong is wrong okay but

All right. Let me stop yammering. I could go on for a while. So based on the tapes you got for Grandfather, what inspired you to write this book? It just kept us to ourselves. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, I could have done that. But I saw something in the story and I knew I was a writer, a good writer, a published writer.

It wasn't just my grandfather. There were bits and pieces of his life. You talked about the immigrant, and he did bring TB here. I get that. I'm not trying to be political. I just want to say that if it wasn't for him, if it wasn't for people like him,

who experimented with streptomycin. I just wrote a story about this, so I know I've talked to doctors about this, and they said that was really the game changer for this infectious disease that it's the largest killer worldwide. So if it wasn't for him playing his part, he saved himself, yes.

by taking this experimental treatment that was a forerunner of other medications that are saving lives today. But he also saved a lot of other people by being that guinea pig or clinical trial patient and taking that chance that it may or may not help him, but it definitely helped a lot of other people since then.

And he stood up, he was courageous enough to stand up to a gunman with, obviously with a gun, trying to kill people at a workplace, a rehabilitation center for tuberculosis. That was a newspaper article in 1958, New York Daily News. I ended up freelancing for them years later. So history repeats itself even in my personal life.

But he had what we say chutzpah. He had, or I don't know if I'm allowed to say it, but balls, courage, bravery. And not many people put themselves out there. And, you know, even 9-11, when the plane was going and people knew that they were saving other lives by giving up their own. There's individual cases of this. So,

I saw a love story that I thought needed to be told. We have so much divorce in the world. I'm inspired by the romance and the care that one has for another being after, in marriage, that committed relationship that you do whatever it takes so that your loved one

survives and prospers. And my grandmother was a breadwinner at a time when other women were not. They also probably worked sort of, I don't want to say slave labor, but they were poorly paid in labor.

in New York in the garment district. They were cheap labor and my grandmother did that. She worked in the Manhattan garment district and she had to support her family, five children on that. And so she was on welfare a little bit, but, you know, and then the tables turned and my grandfather was there for her at the end. When I grew up, it was always my grandmother

who had bad legs, and my grandfather was the strong one. So tables turned. And she did for him, he did for her. And the fact that they died on the same date a year apart, and they actually were the same age when they died because she was a year older, she went first.

Those cassette tapes, when I was listening to them, at first I just wrote a column about it, but I thought there might be something more. Now, I was afraid to put it out there. I had never written fiction before, and putting yourself out there for 200 and something pages, and I didn't want it to bomb. I wanted it to be accepted, so I pushed for a promotion.

professional publisher, I figured I, as a journalist, I ought to get that. Um, I didn't want to subject people to it by self-publishing. So I held out, it worked out. I've won six awards for the novel. It's in the Holocaust, the U S Holocaust museum gift shop in New York. I've been, I was in a big book festival here with somebody called Nikki Haley. If you've heard her name and a bunch of other Andrew young, um, big in Atlanta politics and, um,

John Meacham, Robert Oren, Jody Picoult, a bunch of other big names. Let's just say Benjamin Netanyahu. I think he was live streamed. So I felt good about the achievement in that way. So it was probably worth it. And

you can't be afraid of putting yourself out there, I think. And there's a lot of lessons to be learned from the past that I wanted to share. The strength of family, surviving the odds. He was told he was terminal at 26. He lived till 86. So what was all that like? I think we have the capacity to endure a lot more than we think we do. And

Despite everything, he had a great outlook on life. You know, he was just happy to have provided a good life for his family to bring, to know that he was here. He survived. He had a beautiful family life. They were allowed to practice their religion. He wouldn't have been able to have that as easily, obviously, with what happened in Europe had he stayed. So he was thankful. He understood.

the blessings of life, the simple blessings of life, and that some days are bad and some days are good. And you just hope you have more good days than bad days. But there's really nothing else you can do but keep surviving. So I wanted to share that. I thought there was a message. And from reader response, it did resonate. It does resonate with folks that read the book. So

um it does resonate with a lot of stories love there's love resilience i think it's a big word i mean i think i was putting even mildly six decades of enduring that disease and just like you said it it unlocked the knowledge and how to deal with that because if you didn't counter the disease how would we be able to cure it i mean i could always and i could bring in

the Latino history about not ever encountering diseases. Look what happened to them. They were nearly wiped out. You know, you talk like cold or things like that. Some of that we could, you know, have medications or that take care of that. But centuries ago, that was deadly. And a lot of people died from it because Europeans already got the exposure to it. The natives didn't. Some of them were wiped out, killed just based on diseases. So there. So I'm the reason why I'm saying this because I,

Yes, it's bad being exposed to disease, but silver lining is how you can discover cures and treatments against that. I mean, ideal world, I wish no disease exists, but they do. So, you know, they're not the only migrant group that brought diseases. A lot of them has, and some bring it even to this day, but it's just not being talked about because they don't, you know, they have a lack of access to medical care for where they're at.

You know, and we got overabundance. I mean, the only thing I got to criticize this country is we had so much abundance of the vaccine that we threw them out because they was tired, which was wasteful. You know, yes, disease is bad. I'm not saying disease is good, but the silver lining is if you encounter it, how else are you going to create the treatment and the cure? And I'll give you a great example. If you don't have exposure to it, no knowledge of it, you're as good as dead. So...

A little graphic, a little morbid, but you get the point. But let's focus more on happiness. Because look, he endured with such a deadly disease for six decades. That's resilience. I even put that in my tag. I'll put resilience. That's another big theme there. And I want to put bravery. Because staying up to a gunman, practically unarmed, where you could have just blow his brains out. And it's an inspirational story. And you could dump in, you know, other people that have been through similar things, you know.

And the migrant thing, well, not as much, but there's a lot of migrants here. Mama from migrants, maybe one, two, three, four generations ago, a migrant came to this country and altered the trajectory of the family tree significantly. Listeners, I'm just going to say one thing before I continue. I'll be getting inspired by this. I'll be getting inspired because a lot of us complain just over a scrape at the knee. Yeah.

we act like we're going to die. This man endured six decades of tuberculosis. Okay. I, I, I'm laughing. I can't even say the word right. He endured a very deadly, the disease is still deadly today for six decades. I think his optimism was a big key to it because optimism does help, but it's been scientific proof on that. Finally. Um, that's why I'm decided to be more happier. Um, instead of being cynical and just, well, it happens. It happens.

You know, and stories like that could definitely alter the way I look at life. So I don't have it as bad as him for sure. I was born right here. I had to, I don't know, run away from, let's just use alternative history, Puerto Rico being bombed from invading enemies that come to America. I didn't have to deal with that. So...

And immigrants do have it very hard, even to today. Crossing rivers and all that, some of them died along the way. So there is relevance to today, the story. A lot of relevance. Even though, yeah, it happened during World War II. There's some reoccurring themes here. That's what I'm trying to get you. I'm trying to connect history to today. Yeah, it's a different group of people, but there's some similar. And some of them lost relatives along the way. Sadly, he was lost to those crazy Nazis that killed off the family.

And the migrants, they've lost that because they try to swim across. The heat killed them. The rivers killed them. And Lord knows what else once that's been uncovered. Still a dangerous journey. That's a similarity right there. Some of the details are different. And, you know, I love that you said that the dollar was made up so you cannot accuse her of being a revisionist history. No, you cannot. No, you cannot. Right.

You can say that all you want, but she already debunked it preemptively. Okay? So you want to put that in the comment? I will pin it, and I'm going to label it stupid. Let everybody see it. No, I'm serious. I will. Because some people just say, oh, it's a lie. It's a lie. Prove it. You're saying it. You got to prove it. I have some comments that say, oh, that's a lie. That's a lie. Give me the proof. Excellent. Maybe you're right. Where's the proof? Articulate. People shut down.

Stop yelling. Think before you speak. OK, think before you speak, because the Internet, even though such a great tool, but sometimes it's used so stupidly, even pisses me off. Sometimes they can be doing better. But all right. My hyper masculinity is popping up again. Calm down. Calm down. Let's let's focus on Ronnie Roberts here. We're a happy story. I'm going to reward this question here. I think that's a little too basic.

What do you learn about your family's transcripts and documentation that you were shocked? So my grandparents didn't really talk about the Holocaust. So very little. So, um,

I didn't realize, I knew my grandparents had big families. I didn't realize how many of them died or where they died. There was a family tree that was kept and was developed and it showed that most of them died in Auschwitz. I might not have known that. It wasn't that far from where my grandfather grew up in Czechoslovakia, which was

Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and then it became the Ukraine. Didn't know when I was writing this novel, this is a little twist on your question, but I didn't know when I was writing this that history would repeat itself in so many ways. And that is

Back then, my grandfather actually said in the tapes or in my book, it does say that that

that Russia likes to fight everyone. It was fighting everyone then. It likes to war. It likes to make trouble. So Russia is fighting Ukraine. The Holocaust is repeating itself in a small way in Israel. It's been related to the Holocaust. This is a smaller scale, but the same philosophy of not valuing life. And I must say,

For those who don't believe it happened, the Nazis and Hamas love to record what they did. They have records. They kept records. They want to brag about it. They were proud of it, of what they did. So I'm talking about October 7th massacre in Israel. And again, I am not trying to be political. This is just my side of what, you know, I'm

very connected. I think Jews in America are very connected with what's going on in Israel because they're but for the grace of God go I. Those are my people. That could be me. Just as my grandfather

knew that there but for the grace of God go I in terms of what he lost in the Holocaust. So there was there are records kept and not by Jews, by the perpetrators, you know, by the Nazis, by Hamas. They recorded it now. And I don't know what they had back then, but they they had lots of records. There are lots of records.

that they kept on all the experiments that they did at the time in Nazi Germany and other details. So, you know, make your own decisions, I guess, but I'm sticking with the facts. I am a journalist. I base my information on facts.

what you want about that, too. But I feel like that was the biggest thing that I learned was how much history has repeated itself. I think we live in a bubble and don't think that what we're experiencing ever happened before. You know, we've got COVID. They had TB. We have these wars that are raging yet again. We have anti-Semitism building, you know, right

rising anti-Semitism on college campuses and elsewhere. We have shootings. We have mass shootings. We have shootings in workplaces. We are still dealing with many of the issues that people back when were dealing with. So while we have a lot of, while we benefit from the

challenges that went before us. We are also dealing with our own challenges that are very similar to what was going on at the time. I would argue that they had it a lot rougher than we did. My grandparents lived through the Great Depression. They weren't paid well. They were poor.

I am not poor. I am middle class. So I am benefiting from all the obstacles that they had to go through so that I could have a better life.

And I am having a better life maybe than they did in a lot of different ways. Thankfully, I'm also healthy, but it's the luck of the draw in life, what hand you are dealt and how you deal with it, how you deal with it. So, and your whole perspective on life. So that's the long answer to your question. I learned much more than just

one individual piece of information. I learned almost everything that I didn't know about my grandfather beyond, like I said, I thought my grandmother was sick when I knew her. She was always having trouble with her legs and complaining. And I knew that he had been sick, but I

I didn't know all the facts until I wouldn't have ever known that he was, I might have heard that he was a test case for streptomycin, but I didn't even know what that meant. I didn't even know what all that was about back then. Basically, they were just my grandparents and they weren't as valued as I should have valued them because they came with a lot of history and a lot of struggle and they were interesting people.

I wish I would have taken more time to get to know them, but they might not have told me these details. They wouldn't have told me anything that was about the Holocaust because they didn't want to talk about that. And they, even my mom, she, you know, everything's fine. I've got COVID. I've got, I was, I had poison ivy. I had COVID at the same time. Oh, and I got bit in the face and now I've got a rash, but everything is perfectly fine and stop worrying about me. She really doesn't,

She just downplays it. She doesn't try to dwell on it. I say, Mom, that's a lot to go through. And she goes, what are you going to do? What are you going to do? That's what happened. I got to deal with it. So I think there was a lot to learn in my research for this book.

Yeah, I think outlook is very important. I'm not sure downplaying it. I mean, that's just me. That's just personally me, if I'm going to be honest. But it works out, works out. I got to try it instead of just weighing the facts and all that, because let's go back to the COVID thing real quick.

I think mainstream media has done such a terrible job with mental health. That's why I stopped saying spread like virus. I stopped using that analogy because of the COVID. Let's try like wildfire. That's the only analogy I'll stick to that, even though I like to have options. But spread like a virus, I stopped saying that because of the pandemic. I said, no, no, no. I think that's too soon. Too soon. Maybe 30 years later, we'll be less sensitive to it. Who knows? I'm not going to get it. I'm not going to go there.

It's like wildfire. And I think listening to mainstream sources was not helpful to a lot of execs, especially reporting the death toll, death toll, death toll. It makes you want to dwell on it, makes you want to go crazy, especially being locked in. I mean, more people could use that perspective, really. You're right. And I mean, and just real quick, it exposes that America has a real health. I mean, it exposes why the American health care system is not that great.

A lot of people were sick. A lot of people were already obese. This disease could have killed less people if we would have taken care of ourselves and been healthy. America is probably the most unhealthiest nation in the world. Maybe as dramatic. I don't know. I think so. That's why so many people die. I mean, I'm overweight. I'm working on shedding this weight.

Extra abundance, I'm going to call it. Just for a lack of a better word. Well, I don't want to use a negative word. I'm just lack of the abundance. Let it go away. Give it to someone who's underweight or something that could use the pounds. But me, no, I got enough. I'm probably like 50 pounds overweight, but still. It's just...

People who eat. We got to change our outlook. That's one thing. That's a big thing. And forget about the lesson question. There's already a lot of lessons in here we already talked about. Resilience. Love. We already talked about divorce rates, outpacing marriage rates. Yet that's been going on for decades. That's inspiration right there. Love. Stable marriages still exist, despite it being rarer and rarer and rarer, unfortunately.

for so many reasons. I think social media is a big thing to play and mainstream and TVs and all of that. We absorb subconsciously these bad ideas and then we act out and we don't understand why. People could debate that, but there's more proof popping up with that. I'm happy finally it could be done in a scientific way that even people who don't

speak spiritual or experience spiritual they can at least have some understanding of it or if they want to dismiss it go right ahead it's your life your funeral um yeah so there's a lot of a lot of lessons here i'm not gonna ask a lesson question i think there's so many that they could just take away from it and yeah so you learn quite a lot i'm

I am not, I'm surprised. I've, you know, and one day once I uncovered my, once I've done my research, I'll tell some genealogy story about what they can learn from my, from, from my interesting family. I'm just going to say it like that. I'm not ready to reveal the good, the bad and the ugly. It's a little bit of all. That's what I'm going to say. Listeners. I hope you're getting this. So should we think if you think life is bad now, we can look back on world war two. We can look back at civil war.

That's... Those were pretty dark times and scary times, to be quite honest. I don't know if I'll be able to deal with if I was born in those times. I don't know. Maybe yes, maybe no. I don't know. I wasn't born, so... In those times. So I will never know the answer to that. I could be imagined to use the fiction element. What would it last to a young man during World War II? Would he be a coward? Would he be a great hero? I don't know. I don't know. But...

The reason I'm saying this is because I'm going to get to the other question. How do you balance a nonfiction and a fiction? You already talked a little bit about the fiction part. You made up the dialogue. And nonfiction is you incorporate historical events and all that into it. How do you balance that? I know it should be tough. I know it's tough because you're a journalist. You're also a writer. So you got the best of both worlds. And balancing two great tools can be difficult.

How do you do that? So the story is based on fact. And then I changed all the names and I played around with some of the facts.

And I made things much more dramatic than they were. To give an example, the workplace shooting spree, he talked to the gunman. He didn't stop him from shooting. Well, the truth is he still shot somebody. And he still, but my, and my, my grandfather went, that was what the truth was. But my grandfather went a step further than just talking to the gunman and he stopped.

it from becoming worse. So he saved people that way too. So I base it on the facts and then

Like I said, play with them, expand upon them, and I make up dialogue because I don't know what they said to each other. Now, this story could have easily been biography. It might have actually done better if it's biography, literary, nonfiction, it could be called.

But I was fearful of that some would come back and say, well, that's not exactly how it happened. So I gave it fiction and then I covered myself because I knew that I had I had some dirty laundry in there for the family and that I that I didn't want to offend anyone. So if I say it's fiction, then you'll be like, well, that didn't happen because she says it's fiction.

So, um, even though it was, you know, it might be very close to reality. So that's how I balance it. Um, I am a journalist, but this is, this is different. This is a challenging branch of my, of my writing. Um, have I worked for mainstream media? You mentioned mainstream media. So I cringe a little bit when anyone talks badly about the media. Um, but everyone does talk badly about the media. Um,

But I feel like that there still are real strong journalists who have ethics. I hope that I try to have strong ethics. I try to keep my personal opinions out of my journalism. I keep them out. I kept them out of my novel, too, to some extent. I mean, if I did, it was in my grandfather's voice or his opinions.

but there really wasn't that much of it, except that he was, couldn't, you know, they couldn't believe at the time that things could get that bad in Europe. But,

I do balance things by labeling one fiction so that I don't get into trouble. I do blur the lines of fact and fiction in the novel, but enough so that it has historical reference. But I do keep separate hats from the fiction and the nonfiction. And the other thing is interviews.

the cassette tapes were a type of interview. I did interview my uncle, who plays a big role in the novel, and my cousin for the book. So there is some interviews. But otherwise, when I write a story for publication for media, which is very healthcare-related right now, because both of my publications are that I write for, so that's developed into a specialty for me lately.

It's based on interviews, facts and interviews. Facts and interviews went into the novel, too. But I can't make up. I made up interviews, basically, to keep the story flowing and hear the voices of the people involved. So certainly a big challenge for me. You know, yep. I'm sure there's a chance because, you know,

I think probably your channel just correct me if I'm wrong here because now I'm going out of the lens.

This is Bouncer. You're a great writer. You probably had more. Probably the challenge is like options, right? Probably options in the sense that, okay, I want to do Bouncer. I could go with a nonfiction route here. I could go fiction route there. You probably have so many ideas. It's not because, oh, I'm stumped. I got a writer's block. I think personally it's the opposite. You have a strong writing background. Some authors have said, I still get a writer's block where I can't come up with anything.

Me, I'm not going to guess that in your case. You got so much reference materials and all that. It's just what ideas you want to execute, I guess. Me, I don't know if I could relate to that. I probably wrote short stories at most. Personally, I think I'm happy that you shared it. I mean, look, you have even big names even sharing it.

you know, your story or even being at the event. So that's incredible, you know, that shows like the level of receptability that we still have despite the rise of anti-Semitism in a global scale. So there's still hope. Thank God for that. There's still hope. Because if the whole world goes the anti-Semitism route,

pre-World War II, going with the Adolf Hitler slash Hamas narrative. It'll be a lot of scary plays. And that's just a starting point. Who's going to be next once they're done with the Jews? Maybe the Christians. Maybe a few others. But, you know, I said, no, just because they start with one group. No, no, no. It's not going to end there. They're not going to be done until...

They wipe them out, and maybe even then they'll start killing each other. Who knows? You know, the bloodlust of a psychopath is probably insatiable. So that's all I'm going to say about that. So now that's a starting point. I mean, you know, the Holocaust focused on the Jews, but Jews weren't the only ones killed. There were so many non-Jews that were killed as well. I'm sure Germans that tried to fight Adolf Hitler openly. Right in there.

All right. And they're Jew sympathizers. Go in there, you filth. Kill them off. You know, disabled because they were weak and useless. Now let let the gas chamber clean them out. So it's it's it's sad. So it's not just a Jew thing. That's the starting point. That's the tip of the iceberg. And once you go deeper, it'll be other groups of people that they consider apostate or evil to their ideology.

Okay, I didn't say, you know, Muslim people or Palestinian people. There's no distinction. I just criticized only groups. Nazis, I didn't say Germans, because there were, you know, German people who would agree with this. Palestinian people, I'm sure Palestinian people don't agree with this either. But sadly, they're the ones that, you know, they deal with the genocide right now as we speak. A lot of women and children killed. More than the intended target. Much more. Astronomically more.

I cannot exaggerate that, which is sad. And I did ask one person, one person who was very smart, and he's a very smart man in general. One of my, I guess, DW Duke, he didn't really answer the question. Can the IDF go to a more precise strike? Like with the U.S. they will solve the latter. We just went to, we sneaked to his house instead of just bombing the tunnels, bombing everything.

You know, I said, no, Israel got a right to defend itself. I never criticized that. You know, and I think more countries could practice that warfare too. You know, in America, we are not blameless on this either. We've done reckless things as well, bombing, killing many innocent people. So we should not have the moral high ground. I think most countries can't. The reason why I'm saying this is because, look,

War is getting ugly. And recently I've learned that Syria has gotten real ugly again with the war. You know, people's not talking about that as much. And America is involved with that. Russia. The war is getting hot. And if you already said the Ukraine war, let's see what Donald Trump is going to do with that because it's going to go on different trajectories. Is he going to capitulate to Putin or would it compromise that, OK, Ukraine loses these territories, but they will gain NATO membership?

huh he's he's a tough spot whether you like him or not that's irrelevant i don't care about that i hate trump i oh i love trump that doesn't matter okay stop yeah stop this love hate thing let's see what he's gonna do as a leader okay let's see if it's gonna be you know what because it's a tough one i really and let's see if he's gonna even solve the israeli hamas war

And China's watching. They want to invade Taiwan very badly. They want to. And they're seeing, okay, if aggressors can be awarded, tell me to jump in. Take that little island. Okay? These are things to think about, people. I wish I didn't have to talk about this. I wish I didn't. But I have to think about the war. The war thing is very, very important. And that relates to our book. It's not just anti-Semitism and all that. That is a part of it. Also the war.

immigrants there's a lot of themes here even love which i don't really talk about a lot the reason i talk about it now because the divorce rates and back then it was me i was also part of i was too cynical and negative i just saw the worst in everything you know no matter what you do every solution you have i come up with a new problem you know part of it was me too um which you know it's not easy to admit but you want to move forward growth is painful

Grove is painful, especially if you want to grow. Grove is sometimes very painful. All right. So I'm just going to say it like that. So I'm already kind of answering the lessons thing because viewers, I want you to grasp what's important. All right. And this could be applied to a lot of people. Really? This is not exclusively a Jewish thing. You know, this person could have been a Latino immigrant.

I could have done that. Maybe even I may my life at that one. Maybe scoff that one off, you know, or, you know, the yeah, it's gonna be some cultural differences, geographical differences. But I'm talking about the big themes here. The big themes are and we are losing track of America's lost track because we we are not as decisive at fighting for freedom like we used to be. I'm going to say this right now. There's one thing and I'm going to let Ron you talk. I think I'm talking a lot here.

My opinion of the Ukraine war has changed. I was more skeptical about it. But Abilene, maybe it's too late. I understand why. I'm more sympathetic towards it now. Because General debunked my misunderstandings and my lack of information. A very credible general. So, okay, that makes sense. Finally, someone will make sense of this war. Instead of just, oh, we're just going to keep giving money, money, money without a tangible goal. I don't like that part.

The corruption of the military-industrial complex, I don't like that part. That's what made me skeptical. But, you know, we should not be awarding bullies. Hitler, World War II, a very big bully. That's just putting him out. He was just an evil, sadistic dictator. That's more of a proper term. Now we got Putin to a small degree trying to restore, you know, the Soviet Union. I believe that now more than ever. He was continuing to attack countries that are not part of NATO.

And who knows, maybe we conquer all that. You might have to go after NATO. We'll see. I don't know. I'm just predicting here. But this is what caused these stories to happen, these wars. It's not just her story, even the other two guests. They had wars as well. World War II, I had to look, I had to study Hungary because I had lack of knowledge about Hungary's perspective of that war. I looked at it. It was very bloody. It was horrendous.

People would be fighting among each other. It was, ugh. They had it hard, too. But the American perspective is only like these big countries, only the big players. Hungary is a small player, but the impact of World War II has affected them just as much, if not probably even more. Czech Republic, great impact. Just because we don't know or we don't pay attention doesn't mean they haven't suffered. Or it's not true. They have suffered.

Okay, I know I like to be joking, throwing, you know, smart-ass jokes, even say something crazy just for cheap laughs. But this is a serious, serious topic. And I have to be a little more reserved and be not careful, respectful, respectful of this. Because otherwise, you know, you could rightfully say I'm a psychopath and all that. You'll be correct. I'm mentally ill. I need help. You'll be correct. I'll say, yeah. So,

Anything you want to add for the lessons before we do the shameless plug-in and all that good stuff?

Wow, that was a lot. I don't want to comment on the wars and why people fight. Some of it is land, and some of it is just to gain power, and some of it is just the other and not accepting the other. And it is a sad situation that people...

that the innocents have to be, um, that the innocents are in the way that are the innocents are either used as shields or, um, they hadn't, they can't find a way out. Um, as they, they had struggles in Europe finding a way out. It was too late. It was too late. Or, um, they, they, they were stopped. They, they, um,

they couldn't get to freedom because they were persecuted. So there was no way out. So I think there's no way out in some situations. Even if you want to flee, you'll be stopped by those in power. So that's all I can say about that. But the lessons of the book are that, of course, history repeats itself. But

The simple pleasures of life to appreciate everything, to appreciate the small blessings that you're given and to learn to conquer the obstacles in your way. Health, financial, you know, loss of family. How do you move on?

How can you still find the silver lining in misfortune? My book is Hands of Gold, How to Find One Man's Quest for Silver Lining in Misfortune. When you get dealt a bad hand, you've got two options. You can let it destroy you, or you can fight to...

destroy it, to overcome the obstacle and figure out a way to move beyond. We had COVID. Yes, we did. We did have COVID. But we have survived COVID.

We lost a lot of people along the way. Um, it is unfortunate. Uh, but we, we did, um, gain some perspective on vaccines. Um, however you might feel about that. Um, and, um,

We learned a lot of lessons. I think at one point we didn't talk to people. We were afraid to even almost look at people. But yet and we were we spent time indoors with our families and we learned to appreciate the simple pleasures of having a nice house, of being, you know, having four walls over you, which other people don't have.

good health, being able to survive this. If you had COVID, being able to get yourself through it, experience it, come out on the other side and appreciate your health a little bit more. So I think that despite everything, it really comes back to love, family, commitment, and like what...

your options are to wither away or to survive. And, and I hope that people, um, that read the book, readers of the book, walk away inspired, walk away with new perspectives on their own life. Um, find a way to make it relevant to their own life. Cause there are a lot of characters in the book that people relate to regardless of where they're from. Um,

And like you said, other people have been persecuted. You know, blacks right now, the immigration is targeting those who come from different countries and, you know, LGBTQ and other. So if you are different, maybe my feeling is if you're different.

Congratulations. You stand out from the crowd. You don't have to be like everyone else. You can have your own personality. You don't have to be a minion. You don't have to follow the cows.

You can be somebody different. So figure out what it is that you're going to leave to the world. Figure out whatever lessons you want to impart to the world. And I hope you find all of that in hands of gold. I hope you find a little bit of yourself and your own motivation to live your best life and value the important things in the world.

That was a very, very beautiful message. I give credit where credit is due. That's the most inclusive, you know, you know, like using quote unquote woke terminologies. It doesn't get any more inclusive than that. So don't feel ashamed. And she used it.

your initials. I just call it LGBTQ+. I'm not giving them any more letters than that because it gets crazy from there and you're going to lose me. You're going to lose me. Just LGBTQ+. For me, personally, just me personally, everybody can have their own standard. You can put the 20 trillion letters that they got. It's grown by the day. I just put plus, plus or include all the other stuff that can't be mentioned. I agree with that. Yep, being different. Your individuality

is your power. And I'm proud to say that because I'm anti-normy. I'm almost going to be an odd supremacist. No, I'm kidding. If they're not going to go there. No, that's just me turning evil right there. See? Got to be careful right there. Got to be self-aware. I am radically anti-normal. Let's just say that. I like your normal people. You keep being normal. Keep making me shine, okay? Stay normal. Stay normal for my benefit. All right?

But, but no, but all seriousness, embrace your individuality is what makes you different is what makes you shine. See, now my little bit of humor, weird humor is kicking in that because look, you matter. You were born for a reason. Figure it out. Figure it out. Don't let social media tell you. Don't let mainstream media tell you.

Just go with your spirit. You figure it out. Okay. Because I think if you do introspection, you will get some answers. I was to walking exercise, meditate something or something that catches your intuition. Find it. And your life can change. I could can change. Catch myself right there. Your life can change. Okay. I said this all the podcasts. You matter.

is the reason why you're here. You are not an accident, no matter what anybody else tells you. You have a purpose. Purpose, I would say, is one key to significantly lowering depression and loneliness. Find what that is. Okay? That's what she's saying. And you know what? I agree. If you get 100%, get 1,000%, probably infinity percent.

Because I remember, I personally remember what life was like without purpose and all that. And it was not pretty. And I came, and I overcame depression. Not as rough as that man with the six decades of enduring tuberculosis. But these people are still living in depression for almost as long as that. Because they keep going through the same cycle of stagnation, negativity, just to put it simple.

Find your purpose. Pursue it bravely. Even make sure you're uncomfortable. I know the uncomfortability pushes you away, but you know what? That's a hurdle you're going to have to overcome if you want a level up in your life. Okay? That's all I'm going to say. All right. So I don't need to talk about the lessons because there's a lot. You already gave a lot of examples of that, unless you want to add one more. I think I covered it. Okay.

Just love each other and avoid all the hatred. But also, when you see an opportunity to make a difference, take a chance, I guess, on it. Don't let the...

voices in your head hold you back from achieving whatever dreams it is that you want to achieve. I certainly understand being depressed. When I lost my first publisher after 20 years of searching for a professional publisher, I was pretty depressed. And I also lost my job about more than a year ago, a full-time job. But I overcame it. And in terms of the book,

um, I had worked with a publisher for two years, uh, after trying so hard to find one. And, um, I, six months later, I got another publisher who took me to the finish line and has been very supportive and even more supportive than the first publisher. So, um, you gotta be patient in life to get what you want a little, but you know, just don't

Throw away your dream. Don't be too afraid to just put yourself out there and keep trying. Keep trying. And in terms of my job, six months later, no, probably less than that, but let's just say four or six months later,

I'm writing again for publication and I'm actually being asked to interview for the same publication again in a different form. So it wasn't me. I could be depressed about the sock in the stomach from feeling like it was me or that what did I do wrong? How come I was cut?

versus somebody else. A lot of times it's just for financial. But I would say that I found my way back. I found what worked for me. And right now I'm in so much demand that I'm having a hard time keeping up. So many people, I'm very proud of it. It's hard to see it exactly, but I was at a low and now I'm at a high. And you can find your way out of the tunnel that...

that exists

I can't speak to everyone about everyone's situation, but I will tell you that it was very depressing and I was very down on myself and I still get very down on myself. But I need to remind myself that I am good at what I do and keep pushing towards the finish line. Keep pushing towards my goals. Figure out what my goals are. Keep pushing towards them and never give up. Never give up on your dreams.

Yeah, you hear that? This is coming from an award-winning journalist, accomplished person, big events, rejection. It's going to happen to all of us, no matter what level of success you are. The key is what I learned, and I learned this late because I used to be successful at everything my first shot. I think it was a bad thing for me. Once I started getting rejection and failure, I took it hard. I took it very personal. How you handle rejection is key. Rejection is not the end. It just means go in another direction.

And in some cases, certain cases like Ronnie, they'll ask you back. That was not guaranteed disclaimer. But rejection just means just move to the next direction. It could be next chapter. It's not the end. It's not, you know, your failure. It didn't work out. It wasn't meant to be. And that's why we can't stop having this mindset that, oh, I want success to look like this certain way.

You're sending yourself up for failure. Okay. That's all I'm going to say about that. You know, I want to look like this, you know, nice house and all that. No, it probably could be better than what you're imagining. The oven, trust the process is something I'm currently learning, by the way. I'm not going to be, I'm not going to pretend to have all the answers that have my head high. Like I know everything. No, no, I could do that, but you'll know I'll be lying. You just go to my previous episode and that's why I want to be held to account. I might be held to account, be called out. It's okay.

But remember, rejection just means another direction. And you'd be accepted to somewhere that's even better. And, you know, you got to learn how to expect the unexpected because life will throw some curveballs. It will throw some curveballs. And to prepare for it, handling rejection is key. Try not to take it personally. I know it's easier said than done. Just go in another direction. All right? You matter. You're going to get it because you got to go through obstacles and hurdles.

It's like her grandfather. He went through a hell of a lot. He had a very positive mindset. Me, I think I would have been a miserable, grumpy person by now. I said, I don't want to deal with this crap anymore. Leave me alone. Why do I got to suffer more? That would be average person, really. Why me? Why me?

No, he kept that. I understand him being negative. I would say, you know, I sympathize with him if he would have been a negative person. But no, he kept the bright outlook. He had a lot of reasons to be legitimately depressed a lot.

But the fact they choose to have a positive outlook just speaks volumes of his character and resilience. And we need more stories. Let's do that shameless plug. She's been advertising that lovely book right behind her. That Hands of Gold. Now I get what she means by that. There was a lot of gold quality lessons. It ain't just literal. Okay.

Golden perspective, golden resilience. OK, that's just to name a few. Despite the chaos. OK, that's that was happening in his time and the chaos that we are going through in our time. Look, I know it's stop. Just stop listening to social media algorithm. If you think so, just keep the algorithm.

You like negative chaos and drama. It's going to keep giving you negative chaos and drama. That's what algorithm does. So be mindful of your algorithm. You look more at positive educational things. It's going to give you more positive educational things. You have some influence over the algorithm. And algorithms can throw some curveballs from time to time. Be careful of that as well. This is for you hyper social media users, especially.

I'm kind of one of them. I use social media, so I know from experience. I have more positive, productive things because I use the algorithm to my advantage. It's going by based on what you're like in your search history, your like history. That's what it's going by.

So if you change that, it's going to slowly change. It's not just, I don't know. This is going to sound a little offensive. You have a bunch of men and women showing off their parts in a very suggestive manner. You start watching more positive things. You're going to get more positive things. And those kind of stuff is going to be withering away. Just give it time. It depends on the algorithm. Probably a couple of days, you're going to notice a change.

OK, and similar thing to whatever you watch on TV or smart TV at this case, pay attention to what you watch. Does it make you paranoid because you watch too much horror films or you don't trust people because you watch too much drama? But that does impact us in the subconscious level. That's why we act the way we act. We all know why. And when it comes to smartphone, don't have it near you during the very early and the very end of the days. This is being fried, especially the dopamine receptors fried.

Okay. And I was one of them. I know I'm talking about here, but that aside, I'm not saying that's a habit. It's a good tool. Just there's certain parts of Dave, just put time away from it. It will change. You know, you can feel free to interrupt me, Ron. Feel free to interrupt me. I,

I want to give you your moments as you're giving me mine. I don't want to interrupt. I interrupt too much. But I already said enough. I already said enough for sure. I don't feel like I want to say enough, but this time I definitely did. So let's just get that book. And as a goal, I'm just going to put a link to it, our website, the social medias, that standard practice here.

All those links is going to be in the description. Okay. And let's see. The website is RonnieRobbins.com. Simple. If you know her name, you type that. Anything else you want to add before I wrap this up?

Just the book is available on Amazon and everywhere you buy your books. Um, I hope that you, um, support me. It's, it makes a great holiday gift, um, or, or, uh,

gift for anyone on your shopping list now or birthdays and you know give some inspiration to people um and uh the and write me a review and reach out to me if you want to about what you think about the book or the podcast or um anything else um i'm available all over social media and also um

My email should probably be on, in my, on my website. Everything that you can possibly want to know about the book, about me, um, about the background, uh, and, um, uh, books, book, uh, club questions. I am available for zooming and, um, and, and coming to your book club, um, different, uh, women's clubs, sometimes, um, men's clubs. I, I do it all. Um,

And so I invite you to reach out to me and I hope that you'll... I'm trying to get more hands of gold in golden hands. So whatever you can do to pass that along, I think that you'll enjoy the book. And it's written by a professional journalist for some 37 years now. So the writing should be...

inspirational, move you along, but read the reviews. Don't take my word for it. So, but maybe tell somebody about the book. I appreciate any support and I like to hear from readers. So, you know, it's, it's the nicest thing to, to talk to readers and to know that I didn't just put this out there, but there are real people that are enjoying and being inspired by my

my words that I studied so hard to do and worked so hard on this book for so long. I hope that that's my fulfillment is hearing from the readers. So I welcome comments and I would hope that you might take a look and decide whether it's for you or for gifts for your family too.

And love one another. That's the important thing. Regardless, just stop hating. Just love. It would make the world a much better place. Yeah, for sure. Love is very important. Even as a man, we need more men to say that as well, because I don't think I hear that enough for that gender. I hear, yeah, I hear for some guys. But, man, we could pick it up. Come on, we could pick it up. We could pick up the pace on that one. I can say that confidently.

Women, they've been saying that for since old days. There's a lot of documents on that. Men, we could pick that up a bit. You could pick that up a bit. Besides the preachers and social media influencers, we could pick that up. All right, guys. That's what I'm going to say about that. So from whenever you listen to this podcast, because I know my audience is somewhat international, especially I thank you, India.

You have a blessed day, afternoon, or night.