[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to this special edition of The Learning Bridge, brought to you as part of the National Literacy Month campaign, a partnership between the BE Podcast Network and Reading is Fundamental. We're hosting a number of conversations across our network of podcasts about developing kids reading and lifelong literacy skills.
And as some regular subscribers might know, my name is Richard Gerver. I've worked in education, in human development, and leadership for the last three decades. And I keep saying this on my episodes, I know just from listening to my voice, none of you will believe I could be that old. But there you go.
In this podcast series, I'm chatting to a number of different and diverse people from a whole range of different [00:01:00] fields, from business, sport, the arts, education, philanthropy, to explore what our young people and organizations really need in order to thrive, not just survive, in times of increasing change.
and Uncertainty. And boy are we living in some complex times right now. So welcome to this special episode of The Learning Bridge, and a particular and very special welcome. I'm a bit I'm a bit awestruck today, a bit starstruck. I've never actually interviewed a bona fide star before, so I'm hoping this goes okay, because my guest today is Sheetal Sheth.
Shetal, thank you so, so much for taking the time to join us today. Well, thank you for having me and the feeling is mutual. I am in awe of anybody working in education in any capacity. You are my heroes. You are my angels. So I am really delighted to be here talking to you. Well, thank [00:02:00] you, because I'm hoping that that simple message has just boosted our subscriber numbers tenfold.
I mean, what I'd love to do, and I do this on my series, is rather than kind of read out a CV or, you know, because what you've achieved in your life is extraordinary as an actress, producer, as an author, as a campaigner, as a cancer graduate, you know, in every facet of your life. I think you must have shown such desire, resilience, commitment.
What I'd love to do is, rather than me shoot my mouth off about you, is ask you to tell our audience a little bit about you and a little bit about your, your own journey to what you've been doing over the last few years. Thank you. Yes, you know, I, Not to get into all the weeds of all the things, right?
And I'm glad you do that because I think these resumes can get a little long and a little self important. The things that I think about myself that I think are relevant [00:03:00] and what I'm proud of is from a very young age, I've always remembered myself as someone who had an acute sense of fairness. And since I was a kid, my parents tell me this all the time, my family around the world tell me that all the time, I've always been someone to be like, Wait, why?
That's not fair. That would come out of my mouth all the time. And so, I think that is something that has grown with me as I've gotten older, how that, Obviously lives in my life, has been evolving and continues to evolve now that I have children and they ask me all the questions that I don't have answers to a lot of the time.
And I think the way that I present myself into the world is that of a storyteller. And I think of myself as someone who loves to tell stories, I just do it in lots of different ways. Whether that be an actress, whether that be a producer, whether that be an artist. Author, whether that be an activist, I am telling stories that I hope will allow someone to connect [00:04:00] and see something a little bit differently and hopefully leave the world a little bit kinder and a little bit more open.
Brilliant, thank you. And if I can, I'd love to just take you back to your childhood. It always fascinates me when we kind of unpick guests childhoods because I think for so many of our listeners, many of whom are of course educators, you know, and they're Touching the lives of hundreds of young people year in, year out.
And I think one of the great talents of a great educator, and I count you in that by the way, I don't think you have to have that label to be that is, is really understanding the young people you're working with, their backgrounds and where they come from. And one of the really important things to me is the more we can expose that in the people we're talking to, the more we can help educators be cognizant of the diversity of lives and backgrounds.
The young people they're working with. I mean, I remember years ago [00:05:00] somebody once remarking to me, I, I had the privilege years ago of interviewing Steve Wozniak, the co founder of Apple. And it was when somebody said to me, can you imagine what he was like as a six year old in somebody's first class?
Who would have known they had Steve Wozniak in their classroom? Right. Right, and so it would be great just to hear a little bit about your own childhood, the things that you think had a, you know, you've already touched on your parents and that sense of fairness, the things as a child that had a profound impact on you, you know, do you think that sense of fairness, for example, was something you were born with or something?
Something that, you know, you were surrounded by in terms of your, your familial culture, your home and also the storytelling, you know, that fascinates me because storyt I remember my grandfather used to spend hours when I was a young child telling me stories. Stories about his life, you know, they came from a Jewish immigrant background.
He, of course, was a child during the war, so we heard [00:06:00] about the escape from, from some of the worst aspects of that. I, I wonder if you could tell me just a little bit about your childhood and some of the influences you had as a kid growing up. Sure, and you know, to your point, I think that is It's the most common theme I hear, I love talking to people, and teachers I think are the singular most kind of influential person, people, hopefully, in people's lives.
And my husband and I talk about this all the time with our own kids. I have a 10 year old. If they can have at least two or three teachers that change their course. I would feel so lucky for them, and I will say that I think they've at least had one so far, and I hope that they have it every year, you know, you always hope that every year they have the teacher, but I have seen it, and similarly, My husband has stories, I have stories, and they're not necessarily always the positive story.
There's sometimes something that happens that challenges you [00:07:00] to step out of your comfort zone, speak up, speak out, whatever that may be to kind of bring the other side of yourself out, because it's not something that necessarily is always supportive. But to your point of, Whether you think I was born a certain way, you know, I think it's a little bit of both.
I think that for me, because my parents are immigrants, they're from India, and I'm the first generation born in America, and we would go back to India every couple years and spend months at a time. So I had a very, kind of clear sense of the privilege I had of being born in America at a very young age. I knew that I had won the lottery very young.
And so I've always had a sense of gratitude in that because I would go to India and I saw what the alternative was. And I love India, by the way, I have a very large family there, but the freedoms that I am allowed here in the U. S. were very different than [00:08:00] especially what I saw when I was a kid. And so I think I've always felt Especially going back to India and seeing my cousins.
I mean, my parents come from 14 brothers and sisters between the two of them. So we have a very large family. I have 60 some plus first cousins and you can imagine, and I'm very close to them and very dear to them. But there was a very different way of life, especially for women. I have, I had, I have so many stories.
One of my cousins is brilliant woman who was at the top of her class. It was a big deal that she wanted to go to college. It was a big deal that one of my cousins wanted to not. get married. It was a big deal that when one of my cousins, you know, went off to do a non traditional career, because in India, generally, you've got two choices.
So, seeing that, from a very young age and asking the why. You know, my parents always felt I should be a lawyer because I was always arguing and say asking why, and so they're like, you should be a lawyer. I think really you can't help but let that kind of seep into you. [00:09:00] And also I would say my parents were really involved with our community when I was very young.
My parents, my dad, you know, was one of the founding members of the very first temple in our community that is still one of the only that. has many faiths under the same roof. Back in the eighties, it was a really big deal to have Hindus Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, you know, everybody welcome under one roof and we're very proud of that.
And my dad was one of the founders who fundraised for having kind of this, what a temple usually is, a temple, church, mosque, whatever, which is a place for community to gather. And so we would spend every weekend there. I remember when we moved closer to the temple, it was because we wanted to be closer to the temple.
We were five minutes by car. You know, my dad was there all the time. Every weekend was spent there. And so, and then I became very involved with the youth version of what my dad was doing. So that was very much part of it. [00:10:00] My upbringing and so I'm very connected to my culture and also the gap between being the child of immigrants and so we had a lot of kind of challenges growing up.
We had some tragedy in our community and to my parents credit and their generation, they brought us together and started having conversations very young so that. certain tragedies would never happen again. And so I think I just grew up in an environment where we were allowed to have conversations. Some places were safer than others, but my point is I found my people.
I mean, it's two things you, you raised there that I'd love to just pick on a little bit further. The first is the power of contextualizing our lives as young people. You know, I think One of the lucky streaks for you was being able to go back to India, as you describe, and being able to contextualize, if you like, your good fortune to be in the situation you were.
And I worry sometimes that for [00:11:00] some of our children that are trapped in a community they've never seen out of, that actually their lives can become incredibly amplified in one way. And also, you know, for so many young people, I mean, I look, when I look back on my own childhood, although I was born into a, you know, a middle class, aspirational family, second, third generation immigrant, so we still had that kind of hunger and desire to be part of the new society we'd, we'd come into.
We were, we were quite, you know, middle class, but my, my challenges came early because my family, my parents went through very messy divorce. It was a really very challenging situation for us all and it's funny because in my life as I've grown up people have often said to me Where does your resilience come from?
And I'm not sure whether it's not part of that context setting early in our lives where you go, well, actually, I've always been able to contextualize challenges. I've always been able to see what [00:12:00] life could be like in more challenging situations, in different situations. So somehow that helps me turn that into, into something positive and constructive.
And I, obviously, I'm not going to ask you, I'm not going to pry into those early tragedies you were part of in your community, but do you think? It's, and I suppose this speaks to literacy, access to books and reading, and particularly diversity of books and reading that truly represent and mirror children in their communities and their history.
I think we'll come on to that in much more detail in a minute. Do you think that that is one of the reasons why children's access to really good quality literature and literacy can make a huge difference to help them contextualize their world and make sense of the lives they lead? A thousand percent.
Quite simply, books save lives. And I really believe that. I think that the power of a book cannot be under, cannot be overstated. I [00:13:00] mean, I think something that my husband and I struggle with all the time is making sure our kids, and I'm going to curse a little bit, I don't know if we're allowed to, but aren't assholes.
Like my job, I, I, I really take it is obviously that my kids are safe and healthy. But that they're not assholes. And we talk about it all the time. I am tough on my kids because I grew up middle class and. We are too, but my point is my kids have a lot more than I did growing up. How do you make them realize that?
How do you get them to be grateful? How do you get them to, I mean, my kids are empaths, thank God, but I'm, I will say it to them if I think they're being an asshole, you know? And so, that is, I think, all of our jobs, you know, to not raise assholes. But also, you know, it's funny, my daughter, who is 10 years old, has been a reader for all her life.
She loves, loves, loves books and she came into my room a few months ago and just gave me a [00:14:00] hug. And said, Mom, I really love you. And I said, I love you too. Why are you saying that? Like what, what, what prompted this? She said, you know, there's a mom in my book that is not that not very nice. And I didn't know moms couldn't be nice.
You know, again, this idea of, you know what you know, and thankfully, hopefully she believes she lives in a very loving family, and most of the people around her are from loving families, and, you know, so I think it's our job to tell, I talk to my kids about everything. Because I do think that is the way for them to appreciate and grow empathy, and I tell them so and so has this situation, this has that, or if we're on this, I mean we live in New York City, so there's constantly things to talk about.
I don't shy away from it, I'm not trying to shield them from it, I think it's the only way they do become old souls. And so the fact that she made that Kind of connection on her own. Really, I was really happy that she, that she saw that because then we had a conversation. Yeah, not everyone is lucky enough to have two parents or [00:15:00] not everyone has lucky enough to have a parent that loves them as much as we both love you, you know.
And so I do think that contextualizing and giving opportunities for our kids to connect and find empathy is at the core of our job as parents or educators. Thank you. And I, thank you. And I think, you know, that, that kind of speaks to the second point I was going to raise, but I think we've kind of touched on it.
And that is that thing about resilience, you know, resilience fascinates me. And how we help young people to become more resilient. And it was really, as you were talking, I was really quite touched because my kids are older now, and actually we've faced up over the last few years to that, that huge challenge.
Our kids have left home, and that's kind of, you know, Oh my goodness me. You know, I think by that time, my wife and I have often said to each other as parents, look, as long as our kids have the confidence to plow their own furrow, and know that we're there if they need us, then we've pretty much done it.
Done our jobs. It's a, [00:16:00] an interesting time, but I, I think back to when our kids were similar age to yours and very similarly, you know, my wife and I had not had, our children had, had a much better up rate upbringing than we had. You know, from my point of view, my children were born into a, a stable, loving.
Really, you know, where both parents, I hope we were role models in the way we led our lives, did, you know, worked, worked hard and were loving and all of those things. And my wife, similarly. And we had exactly the same concern as you. I remember when we took them on their first foreign holiday, you know, their first beach holiday.
And it's something that for my wife and I were really rare, actually. And we were sat there thinking, we said to it, Do you think they will ever realise how lucky they are to have this? And I, you know, I think it, I think that's a really interesting thing. So talk to me if you can because you're, where did your [00:17:00] resilience come from?
You know, you are a very strong human being with huge levels of self confidence to be able to vocalize, to break the ceilings you've broken, to challenge the convention, convention. Were you born with that or you think it's something that you've grown into? I think, I think I've grown into it. I don't think I've always been, I don't think I've always present.
I think I present confidence and I know people say that to me, but I don't, I wasn't always like this. And certainly there's a lot of fake it till you make it even now, you know? I'm definitely an introverted extrovert. I love being alone. I love quiet, but I also really love talking to people. And so.
But I think it came from having no other choice. I mean, there's always a choice, but with my struggles, very young, with my community, with my family, with my health, with the work that I chose to do, [00:18:00] with the industry telling me what I couldn't do I had to make choices and decide if it was worth it to me.
And I think I would say in the last 10 years, my health challenges have only personified my resilience in the idea of what's the alternative. I don't accept that. Now, I do think that there's a part of that because I meet so many other people, especially women who are struggling with the same health issues as me.
And I don't know why some of them have a harder time maybe saying, I don't accept this. And I don't fault anyone who, everyone's in their own journey on this, but I do think that I, I will, I will, I will do what I need to do, not that other people wouldn't, but I think my, my level of going deep and digging deeper, I mean, that's why, you know, we have Olympic, the Olympics just ended, right?
Why is Simone Biles, Simone Biles? [00:19:00] Why is, you know, I'm forgetting all the names of everybody right now, but anyway, why are they who they are? That is, I don't know if that's nature or nurture, it could just be nature. But that is what I'm thinking about with my own kids and I want to see that in them.
I do remember moments in my life when I'm a kid and when I think back, of where I chose a different way and I was scared shitless and I still feel that way but I did it anyway and so I don't know, I don't have the answer to that in the sense of like knowing for sure. Do you think in a way that's, that's actually part of the secret?
I mean I, I, Although it's a slightly different path for you, I'm very envious. When I was 18, I wanted to be an actor and actually realised I left school, didn't go to college, went into repertory theatre in London, thought I was going to be, thought I was going to be the next Laurence Olivier. Amazing.
Until The master plan was really scuppered by my lack of talent and actually, joking apart, it was more the professional craft, you know, because I hadn't gone and studied [00:20:00] and, and learnt my professional craft, and that speaks a little bit, I think, to my, my ultimate desire. If I'd really wanted it, I would have done those things.
I was very lucky to have a supportive mother. But, you know, that, that thing, in a way, one of the things that fascinates me about your life. the parallels because as a professional speaker, you know that the bit people don't see in me is I have to deal with rejection like you do. In fact, I would suggest that for every golden moment, there's three or four rejections at least behind them.
Oh more, more than three or four. So, One of the things that fascinates me is, is that coping mechanism. How do you maintain that sense of self worth, self value? You know, when, when so much of your life, like mine, is built on, and do you think that strength has, was one of the things that helped you contextualize your illness in the way it did to say, this isn't going to beat me in the same way that a [00:21:00] rejection for something you, I mean, it's a clumsy parallel, but in a, you know, the rejection for something you were passionate about and you, you know, you feel that sickness when it there, but you somehow wake up the next morning and go again.
Do you think there's a link there? I think it takes practice. I think it's a muscle you develop. It's something, you know, I tell. Educators and parents, when they're talking to their children, there's often this thing, I don't want my child to be the only one, XYZ fill in the rest. And of course, you don't want your kid to be the only one with fill in the rest.
But I say, exercise that muscle as much as possible. Let them have practice at being the only one in the room, not doing the thing that everybody else is doing. You have to practice that. It's not a bad thing to be the only one, but they need practice. And so just like our kids who, like, who don't feel comfortable in those instances, give them opportunities to practice that.
Be a parent or an educator that is not removing the obstacles in front of our kids. That is, I think, one of the biggest mistakes and something I, as a parent, am very conscious of. [00:22:00] You have to let them fall. You have to give them opportunities to get up. That is how you build resilience. And so I think for me growing up, I didn't have options.
You know, my parents worked really hard. They were just trying to get through the day. I say this all the time. They do not have, they did not have the EQ that me or my husband have cultivated and worked on. Because they didn't have the privilege to even think about that. They came here in the 60s and 70s.
They were not welcomed by the open arms. and had to do what they had to do to get foot on the table. It is not what it is now in any means. I look back at what they did to kind of raise us. I'm in awe. So I, I think developed my kind of skills out of literally no other choice because I wanted more. But my kids, I could very easily shield them from lots of things, but I have to actively choose not to.
Because I know that is the, like, the only way to make sure they're not assholes. The only way to make sure that they, [00:23:00] hopefully, that they're resilient, right? I mean, what you said about the beach with your, with your, with your wife. My husband and I, we both had similar backgrounds. We never went anywhere except for India.
I mean, I was shocked when I went to college. I mean, we had a passport because we went to India. The amount of kids I met that never even had passports, so I was lucky to go to India and leave the country. My kids have been around the world a million times in so many countries because we love to travel.
And we think there is an education to getting out of our country and seeing, right, again, contextualizing, finding great, finding empathy, what you're grateful for, look at what you have, look at what they do better, all of the things. So we make a point to travel. My kids have been a million places. I don't think they realize for a second how unnormal that is.
And that is not the average person. So it is my job to figure out how to do that, right? Not to take away the opportunities that we're giving them. But to make sure that we contextualize it. But I did not grow up going anywhere other [00:24:00] than getting in a car and driving to either Washington, D. C. or Niagara Falls or getting on a plane to India.
Those were the places the Indians went when I was growing up. Just so you know, by the way, I'm only laughing because I only recently, I was in I went to Niagara Falls. I was there for a work trip. Honestly, between you and me, I've never been so disappointed by a place in my entire life, ever. I was so excited, and I was on the Canadian side, and I have never been so disappointed by a place in my life.
Sorry, but there it is. I'm laying it out there for all our American listeners. That, I mean, that's a, so, and as you're talking again, you know, framing this in the structure of, of the importance of access to reading, the ability to read, the confidence to read, and then the access, access to a diversity of reading.
You know, there are Still so many children in our own countries, but even more so around the world who will [00:25:00] likely never have access to the kind of adventures and opportunities some of our children have been privileged enough to have. And again, it brings me back, I think, to how important reading and books are.
You know, they are the gateways, aren't they? They can be the, they can be the furnace of aspiration. They can Well, you can travel without leaving your home. Yeah. I mean, that is the way to do it. And so I'm gonna get a bit political now here. Okay. You know, we're getting to a point now where we luckily had our national election, it's over, and to put no finer point on it, from my perspective, it went well.
It went better than I thought it was going to go, so I'm quite relieved right now. And obviously, you know, I don't want to put you on any form of spot, but we know that we're now getting to quite a hot period in American politics. Yes, we're in it. We're, we're, you know, we're building into that busy, what, 70 odd, as we record this, about 75 days, 74 days to the election.
The DNC is in full [00:26:00] flow. You know, what, what, If you can do it objectively, if you could, so with taking the personalities either Democrat or Republican out, if you had a magic wand, and we're talking here about the links between education and politics, and I know there's been some very challenging times in the states in education and with books.
If you had a magic wand, what would be the wish list for you moving forward that a politician would get serious about protecting or reinstating or dealing with in terms of books, access to books, and, and, and literacy for young people? If you were Minister of State for Education, where would you go? I would, I would tell you one thing that I would do immediately is I would make education for teachers free.
They should absolutely, just like people who give themselves to our country and fight for our country and then they get education for [00:27:00] that, I think anyone who goes into the service of teaching our children should have their education paid for. I think it should be a job that people are fighting to be a part of.
I think it should be a job that is respected and revered, and not just with the words, but with our policies around it. I think our teachers are paid like crap. I think they're treated like crap. I think they're asked to do the jobs of many, and that they don't give the resources to even do them effectively.
There is one side of the country that wants to demolish the Department of Education and not give access to books and have created and manufactured culture wars that I know don't exist. I go to schools. I've been to over a hundred schools. I can immediately tell which one's private, which one's charter, which one's public.
I shouldn't be able to, but I do. There are schools that don't even have libraries and it has been, I mean, there's common sense. I always say there's common sense that you can figure certain things out, but there is data that is directly correlated to the amount of books people have access to and their [00:28:00] reading and writing literacy.
It is completely connected. And then the most singular, I think, easy thing any educator or parent can do outside of giving our kids access to books is pick, first of all, whatever they want to read. I would say like, if they don't want to read, if they like sharks, give them a book about sharks. If they like rocks, give them a book about rocks.
They exist. Figure out what they like and then put a book in front of them because they'll start reading about it. But what I would challenge is put a book in front of that child with the main character not looking like them. Take one of my books, put it in front of a white kid. Take a book with a black character, put it in front of a Latina kid.
Put the character with the Latino kid, just, and tell them why, what they have in common with that kid. You don't need to just see, read books with you at the center of it. These books are for everyone. So say, I think this book would be awesome for you because, and not talk about the color of the skin, but what is the narrative of the book, so they [00:29:00] don't relate.
identity with why they would read something. I think that act alone in the first week of school could set our kids up for a very different trajectory. I think that has enormous, enormous power. I think that, you know, when we, I get, I get why we need to, we, we need to represent every culture, every background, every societal norm in our, in our books.
And I think sometimes people make the mistake of thinking, you know, If there's a book about a South Asian, then it's for the South Asian community to read, right? Now, I'm not saying it isn't, because we all need to feel represented. 100%. We all need to be the heroes of our own stories. But those books are only not for them.
I mean, I always say this all the time. I grew up consuming predominantly white media. I liked it. It was like, I didn't enjoy the books. Of course, I wanted to see myself. Of course, I need to see myself as the hero of my own story, and books have the power to do that, but that doesn't mean I don't connect and watch movies and shows and read books [00:30:00] that have characters that are not the same color skin as I.
I mean, it's ridiculous. It almost, I think it trivializes and puts too small of a, of a, of a lens on what we're experiencing from the things that we're reading. Yeah, and I think that's the point, you know, that power, that actually it's about giving access and windows into the world that we, that aren't ours.
So if we're in an insular community, and that can be any form of community, those kinds, any type, that diversity of book gives us a window and access. And I think also what's really important that you said, is actually the power of using that book as a tool for education. Now, again, your kids are lucky, my kids are lucky.
There'll be many people listening to this who will have similar kind of views to parenting as we do. And as parents, our reflex is to work with our children on that reading material, you know, to question, to challenge, to push, to provoke. But of course there are so many hundreds of thousands, millions of kids that won't have [00:31:00] the access to the kind of parenting that our children are lucky enough to have.
And I suppose then it becomes really incumbent on us as educators, A, to be aware, that there is going to be that differential in our, in, in kids coming into our classrooms and B, to make sure we find a way to replicate those conversations. So those children aren't doubly disadvantaged. You know, well, and that's why we need more libraries.
I think so. I grew up in the library. That was my babysitter growing up. My parents didn't have the money for anything else. They would just drop me off at the library and I would spend my afternoons after school there. It is the great equalizer. I found my, my people at the library. I had no option. My mom's like, just stay here.
I'll pick you up in a few hours. And so I find, and I still see that, you know, this, this summer, we were out of town for a few weeks and I had to work. And so I found the local library, and I took my kids, I would sit in the corner and work, and just like that, they figured it out, they read for hours, they talked to people, there was an activity sometimes, and [00:32:00] we need that funding, we need to make sure our libraries are not getting the money that they need, they're not getting the books that they need to do the programs.
It is the greatest equalizer that we can put out there. So to even question the money we give them. In fact, we should be giving them more to me. And that also brings the community together. I mean, it's amazing. By the end of the two weeks that we were in this one town that my kids went every day to the library there on a first name basis with the people there.
And it was really sweet because at that particular library, it was run by mostly older volunteers, retirees, You know, kind of grandparent type people and it was really sweet seeing my kids and them connect and that's the beauty of what these community kind of standards can really give our kids. It's really interesting you mention that.
It just sparked a memory for me in a conversation years ago I had with my, my dear friend and mentor who's no longer with us, Sir Ken Robinson and Ken once told me about something he'd seen in Oklahoma where, and I think I, I might not be getting this 100 [00:33:00] percent right, but the basis of the story is right.
So there was an old folks home next to a, an elementary school. And there was a building between the two that was empty, and both of them could use the building to expand, but neither had the money on their own to purchase the building. So they collaborated, right? They got together, both organizations bought the building between them, and what they did was they created a library.
So the library could be used by the people in the old folks home, the library could be used by the young readers, emerging readers in the elementary school, but here's the thing. Of course, naturally what started to happen was the two would meet, and so the young kids would be reading to the, the old folk, the old folk would start reading and reminiscing with the young folk.
Now, two things happened, one which is not surprising, the other thing I love. So, the thing that wasn't so surprising was the kids reading scores went up. Right, they all, they all went way above average. But the thing that nobody had really considered was the amount of medication the [00:34:00] old folks needed dropped dramatically because they had a sense of purpose and reason to.
Oh my god, that's amazing. Isn't that stunning? Isn't that? Oh, I love that so much. That kind of cross generational, you know, and that benefit, which, again, I can't think of another analogy for me that's a story that speaks better to the power of a library as a place that can be of benefit and power beyond the expected, not just.
You know for reading and immersion, but actually for health for a sense of well being for a sense of purpose and we're coming to the end now because I mustn't keep you too long and I could talk that makes me want to cry I Want to look that up because that is the most beautiful story, isn't it?
Staggering? Honestly staggering, oklahoma i'm sure you if we'll i'll try and find the connection to to link it for you later, too but before we end a couple of things of thoughts. The first is, is just a personal reflection. So as an [00:35:00] author, one of the things I'd love to know is where does the stimulus for your ideas come from?
And can you share with the audience both the insecurities and excitement of what it takes to write a book or to start writing a book? Well, writing is hard for me. That is one thing I tell the kids when I do visit the schools because I think that there is this misnomer that It comes easy and I frankly don't know any author that thinks it comes easy.
I think it takes practice and I, I particularly find the first draft to be the hardest thing ever to write. And I have to force myself to just get that first draft really badly done, because then the fun begins and not that it's always fun, but the revising and the editing is much more something I enjoy than just getting that first idea down.
Mm hmm. So, again, it takes practice. I tell my, the kids that I work with all the time, just like anyone, any athlete who wants to be good at what they do, have to train every day. [00:36:00] You have to write every day if you want to do this. You need to fi even if it's five minutes, even if it's ten minutes, even if it's one word one day.
One day you'll write a paragraph, one day you'll write a sentence, and one day you may write two pages. So, in terms of my ideas, it all comes from real life. I write the books that I feel like I always wanted and needed. I love Jason Reynolds. If you know him, he's an amazing author, kind of literature, you know, someone who's someone we all love.
And he says he writes books. for everybody but two black kids. That is how I feel my books are. I write all my books for everyone, but I know that there's a lot of brown kids out there that need my books for other reasons. And so, I also feel like when I started writing, it was out of a necessity of wanting books for my own children that reflected the slice of life stories that I was not seeing.
I felt like All I was finding were books on religion, mythology, cultural holidays, or kind of [00:37:00] extraordinary things. And I would say, I would scream out loud, do they know that we go to school and play sports and have dinner with our parents and also do, did all the same things? So to my earlier point of, when you put that book in front of a kid, find the similarity, you know, that kid also goes and plays baseball.
That kid also has dinner with their parents. That kid also celebrates X, Y, Z, just like you do. What do we have in common? And so all of my books are slice of life stories that have the culture folded in, but is not the narrative of the story. And so that is where I come from, but then I take stories from my real life because I know these things are happening and there's a plethora of stories.
But I also, you know, am working on and want to write books that are about the mundane. You know, we deserve to have all of the things. And I say this as an actress all the time, you I want to get to a point where we have really shitty movies by brown people because right now you have to be amazing. And all of our movies in order to be able to [00:38:00] keep doing movies and to get the money to do it again, you have to be at a certain level.
We're not allowed to make crappy stuff when everybody else is. So when we get to the point where we can make that crappy piece of TV show or that crappy movie, then I know we've gotten there. I'll be watching IMDb really carefully. You know what I mean? You know exactly what I mean. No, I I just Trust me, I've sat through enough mundane rubbish.
Yes, yes, we're not allowed to do that. We have to be far better than the rest to get anything close to the same opportunity. I think that's a really, actually I think that's a really powerful message, not just in terms of movie making, but in terms of, of society, right? Yes. That, that, you know, somehow that need to have to be, to excel, is not right.
It's not fair, you know? It's not fair. You're not able to feel that you'd A member of, an active member of any, of any society. I think that's a, I've never heard that before, but I really like that. So, thank you. This has been amazing. [00:39:00] Honestly, I knew it would be. One more question from me. What are you working on at the moment?
And the second part of that question is if people have been inspired like I have by you and your work, how can people connect and find out more about you? Yes, thank you. And by the way, this has been a pleasure for me as well. I love talking about all of these things. I could talk forever. I am online.
Sheetalchef. com. I'm on Instagram. I'm on X. I am on, you know, all of the things you can find me very easy. My handle is at beneath the sheets with a Z because I couldn't get my name because I refused to join for a very long time. And then it was too late. My name was taken. So here we are. But you can find me if you put my name and it'll come up and yes, I have, so I just had a new book come out this past month called Rashi's Rockies and it is my kind of ode to kids asking questions.
It's about this girl, Rashi, who loves celebrating a traditional festival. called Rakshabandhan, which is all [00:40:00] about sisters tying bracelets onto their brother as a sign of protection and she's been doing it for years and then realizes, wait, why don't I get one back? And again, getting the kind of empowerment to ask the question and then change the tradition so it connects with your values.
How many things do we do in our lives that we have conditioned to believe are the only way? And in the book, her mom says just because it's been done one way, just because it's always been done one way, doesn't mean it's the only way. And that is the message I want all kids to take. Keep asking questions, challenge the status quo.
So that book is about that. And then I have the third Anjali book, which has been much anticipated, finally coming out in January, Anjali Kan. We're very excited about that. And I think it will speak to all of us because it's all about how she saves her community center when it's about to be turned down.
And it's how the power of one can really ripple through, through the world. And I have movies, I have movies coming out next year I just [00:41:00] finished the new James Brooks movie with Jamie Lee Curtis and Woody Harrelson and Kumail Nanjiani, that's supposed to be out next year. I have a movie that I produced called Hummingbird that I'm also in that will hopefully be out next year.
And I have many TV projects in development and I'm writing always. And so hopefully things slated for, for all of the years to come. Wow. Wow. I'm just, as you were talking then, going back to what we were saying before, I just hope one of those isn't the first one to be the shitty one. That's all I'm saying.
I'm not saying I want to be that person. I just want to make sure that we're allowed to not be, and by the way, this is through the lens of other people. So that's another conversation, right? Like who's in charge, who gets to decide what's great. Well, listen, honestly, It has been an absolute privilege and a thrill to speak to you.
Thank you so much. Good luck with all of that and continuing to be an inspirational parent at the same time. Congratulations. Thank you. I'm just trying to get through [00:42:00] the day too in a different way, but I find community in us being able to share, talk, all the resources. There's, I'm like here, I'm here to just talk and hopefully if anything I said helps, great, because I'm taking from all of you as well.
Oh boy, it will do. And thank you again so much for your time. And thank you all so much for joining us. If you'd like to find out more, please check out my website, richardgerver. com, and subscribe to this podcast so that you don't miss any future episodes. It really helps. And also, during this National Literacy Month, look up the other podcasts on the Be Podcast network.
And and get clicking on those as well. So until next time, here's to the future. [00:43:00]