← The Alisa Childers Podcast
The Alisa Childers Podcast
#374 Michael Jackson Movie Review + The Best Resources for Kids | Ethan Nicolle
00:48:41
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- [00:00]
Ethan Nicole
Are you really buying a car online on Autotrader right now?
- [00:03]
Alisa
Really? At a playground? Yeah, really? Look at these listings from dealers.
- [00:08]
Ethan Nicole
Wow, your search can really get that specific.
- [00:10]
Alisa
Really?
- [00:11]
Ethan Nicole
And you just put in your info and boom, car's in your budget.
- [00:14]
Alisa
Mom needs a second. Honey, you can really have it delivered. Really? Or I can pick it up at the dealership. One sec, sweetie. Mommy's buying a car. Mommy, look.
- [00:24]
Ethan Nicole
I think kid is walking up the slide again.
- [00:27]
Alisa
Really? Autotrader, buy your car online. Really? Hey everyone. Welcome to the show. Today's episode is all about Worldview and our kids. So if you're a mom or a dad, you're an auntie, an uncle, a grandparent, this episode is going to be jam packed with Worldview takeaways. We're going to be talking about recommendations. I have a couple of really great recommendations for you today. I'm going to be giving my honest review of the new Michael Jackson movie which we took our kids to see this past weekend. I actually think there are a lot of really important Worldview takeaways that we can discuss with our kids. If you choose to take your kids to see that movie. And then a bit later, we're going to be talking with Ethan Nicole, who has come out with you guys. The most amazing resource for kids. If you're a parent who is struggling to keep your kids off the screens, this is something you're gonna want to check out. It's called explodyworld.com that's just a little preview, but we're gonna talk more about the resources they have available there in just a moment. But I wanna start by sharing with you about a recent event I was at at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. It's called the COVID If you've never been to the COVID it is a very special place. It is located in the mountains of North Carolina. It's like a retreat. And they do lots of different retreats and I was teach retreat a couple weekends ago and it was just so special because there were a lot of older couples that have adult children who have deconstructed. And it was just so sweet watching them over the course of three days find one another, connect with one another, learn a bit more about what's going on with their, their loved one or their grown adult child who is in deconstruction. And of course this is why my co author Tim Barnett and I actually wrote our book called the Deconstruction of Christian. We wanted to help the church understand what's happening in this phenomenon that's sweeping up so many of our loved ones. So the deconstruction of Christianity is not the book you would give to the person who is in deconstruction. It's actually the person the book you would give to their mom and dad, you would give it to their pastors. It's really a resource for the church. And so it was so sweet to be with all of these couples and get to share some of this information to hopefully help them to know how to interact with their adult child. But even more than that, to just encourage them. There is such a dark shadow that can hover when you're going through something like that. So it was so sweet to watch them encourage one another and then me get to encourage them as well. But one of the ladies that I met handed me a book. Now, I've never done this before where somebody just gives me something in a book signing line. But I was so impressed with this resource that I wanted to share this with you because I think that every parent with a young child or if you're expecting, you need to get this book. And I'm going to explain why. It's called Zoom Zoom out the Womb. And it's written by Carrie and Gary Setterberg, illustrated by Alexander Jasinski. And it is one of the most beautiful pro life children's books that I've ever seen. And the premise of the book, as you read through it, is it's from the perspective of the baby in the womb. And look at these illustrations. They are just absolutely beautiful. Beautiful. And all throughout the book, you see the baby there, there in the womb and having all of these experiences. And the mom and dad are saying, we want you to come out. It's time to play. It's time to, to do all that. And the baby's like, I'm not sure the time is right. I, I like it in here. This is a good, this is a safe place. And then they bring in the scripture of Psalm 139. He sees me in this secret place, knit my body, formed my face. And I don't think this is a race. I think I'll stay in this safe place. And of course, then you see the baby in the. And then what I love about this, oh, look at all the adventures they're having with the baby in the womb there. And then at the very end, whatever child you're reading this to can share their zoom story. So there's a little place for them to put a picture, maybe their ultrasound picture or their baby picture, their birthday, their Name their height and their weight and who their parents are. And I just think this is such a beautiful book. In fact, I'm going to be sending this to someone in my life who is expecting their second child and they have a toddler and I think this would be a great book to get two copies of that you can share with your toddler to help them understand what's about to happen. But also they can write down and understand that they were in the womb too. And I think what this is going to do for young kids is just really add visuals to what's really going on when the baby is in the womb, that this is a human being that's been made in the image and likeness of God. This is a fully human being. And they get to see that from, from that perspective. And I think what a great foundation for the biblical view of life. So I wanna encourage you to pick this book up. You can go to zoomzoombooks.com let me make sure I got that right. Zoom zoom. Yes, zoomzoombooks.com to pick up that. And I think there's more on that website. But I just really recommend this book. I read every word of it and I just think this is so beautiful and I can't wait to send it to people in my life that have young kids or maybe expecting young kids I'm gonna be ordering more copies for. So definitely check that out. Quick pause to tell you about our first sponsor. And that is Range Leather. American made craftsmanship from Wyoming. Now, I don't know if you're anything like me, but I just can't bring myself to buy a bag or a purse made of that fake leather, that real cheap material because it wears out, it tears easily. And so if I'm going to invest in a bag, I want it to be something that's going to last and wear in and not out. And this is why I love Range Leather. I have a tote bag that fits my computer and all of things I need to carry around in a day. And it's so beautiful. It's just my style. I have a clutch that I carry absolutely every single day because it's the perfect size if I don't want to carry a big bag. It fits my phone and some credit cards, cash receipts, all that sort of stuff. But if you want to check out Range Leather, who by the way is a Christian owned company, they have all sorts of smaller items that you could try to begin with, like full grain horween leather, apple watch bands, they have trucker hats with little leather patches, all sorts of different things. And they have a forever guarantee, that is for the lifetime of, of the product. And they are just wonderful. So go to rangeleather.com today and you'll get 15% off if you use the code ALISA. Again, that's rangeleather.com use the code ALISA. All right, the next thing I want to talk to you about is my review of the movie Michael. Now, I know I don't do a lot of movie reviews on this podcast, but I can't stop thinking about this movie. We saw it a few days ago and I've just been thinking about it. There are so many worldview takeaways, I think, also because it echoes my. In the San Fernando Valley, of course, Michael's house was in Encino. I still have a niece who lives in Encino, and so it's kind of my old stomping grounds. There was a lot of nostalgia for me. And I'll just read you the official description. It says, Michael is the cinematic portrayal of the life and legacy of one of the most influential artists the world has ever known. The film tells the story of Michael Jackson's life beyond the music, tracing his journey from the discovery of his extraordinary talent as the lead of the Jackson 5 to the visionary artist whose creative ambition fueled a relentless pursuit to become the biggest entertainer in the world. Highlighting both his life offstage and some of the most iconic performances from his early solo career, the film gives audiences a front row seat to Michael Jackson as never before. This is where his story begins. And so one of the reasons I decided to go ahead and review this is because this movie, for the most part, is clean. There's not, as far as I remember, any bad language. There's no sex, of course, you know, some of his songs had innuendo in his dancing, of course, but it was generally kind of a feel good, I would say, family film. That really got me thinking about so many things. And even thinking about how I used to think about Michael Jackson growing up because he was so famous. Like, my friends all had Michael Jackson posters in their room. And it's just hard to deny the raw and absolutely once in a lifetime talent that Michael Jackson had and just the person, the Persona that he was. And so some positives about the movie. My goodness, the acting in this movie, from the little boy that plays him as a little boy in the Jackson 5 to Jafar Jackson, who is actually his nephew. His father is Jermaine Jackson, who played Michael. Jafar Jackson. Incredible. Absolutely incredible. I mean, everybody's talking about Jafar Jackson and he really was. I mean, at times you're thinking, who is this? Is this Michael or is this Jafar? I mean, he really just embodied Michael, from the dancing to the singing. However much of that was his voice to just the voice and how he acted was incredible. But this little boy who played Michael as a young boy was also just absolutely incredible. It just kind of left me in awe of the talent and my whole family really, really enjoyed the movie. There were things that I remembered and my kids kept looking at me going, did that really, did that really happen? Like, for example, when Michael was doing the Pepsi commercial and got his scalp burned. Like, I remember that iconic photo so clearly. So it was kind of fun to share some things about my childhood with my kids. And so we talked in the car and everybody shared their favorite moments. And as always, I always encourage Christian parents. Don't just let opportunities slip by. When you engage with a movie or a song or a TV show, talk about it with your kids. Ask them questions like, what are the worldview takeaways? What's the worldview of the movie? What do they want you to believe about the world? What are the heroes like? What are the villains like? Do heroes really act like heroes? Do villains really act like villains? What are some biblical principles that we can appeal to, to process through the messages that are being promoted in this movie? Now, this movie was produced, I believe, by Michael Jackson's family. So this is not like a nitty gritty expose on the dark side of Michael Jackson. This is very much a feel good movie that portrays him almost sinless. And this is one of the points I brought up with the kids. This is actually my first worldview takeaway about the movie. While I'm glad that it was the kind of movie I could take my kids to, we also have to pause and go, okay, nobody is this perfect, right? The way that they portrayed Michael is almost like this sinless savior. He had no negative qualities at all, no negative personality traits. Even the more quirky things that we all know about, like his monkey that he bought, all of that is kind of portrayed as cute and a little bit quirky. I mean, there's. There's not really a dark side to Michael Jackson. And so one of the things that I brought up to my kids and I, and again, I want to do this in a way that doesn't trash the movie because we all really enjoyed it, but just to point out to them, I just said, hey, guys, I. I just want to Keep in the back of our minds though that movies like this are meant to portray him in the best possible light. This is portraying him as just this really, really wonderful person. And I don't doubt that he had many, many wonderful qualities. But everyone is a sinner. Everybody has sinned against a holy God. And Michael Jackson is no different. And so I think that was one of the worldviewpoints that I was able to bring out to them. Another world viewpoint that I took away, and actually I think this is more of a positive one, is that I felt like this movie was very unifying. We have lived through the past several years of a lot of race tensions, race baiting, where everything has become about race. Everything is seen through the lens of race. Everybody's an oppressor or they're oppressed. And this movie just didn't have that. It didn't have that perspective. In fact, what I think it did highlight was something I actually felt as a child and that was how unifying music like Michael Jackson's music really was. Now I was a bit more on the legalistic side, just self imposed legalism. I tried really hard not to listen to secular music when I was a kid and yet I really did enjoy Michael Jackson's music. Like when I would hear it in the mall and I would linger and I would go into stores and I felt like, and this was just my legalism, but I felt like if I wasn't initiating listening to it, then I could just hear it. And I do also have this vivid memory of when the Thriller video came out. We were at small group at someone's house and after the small group, this Thriller video premiered and the whole small group stopped to watch it. And of course I was horrified and scandalized because it was zombies and you know, had to work that out. But it was just so many of these iconic moments from my childhood. But I just felt like the movie was really unifying. It wasn't pitting whites against blacks. It was actually demonstrating how there's so much that we can come together around. And so it was very uplifting in that sense. That was my second worldview takeaway. My third one was another positive one I think is just recognizing how different humans are from animals. Humans being made in the image and likeness of God and then just being in awe of the talent, in awe of the creativity. We were made by the creator, so because we're made in his image, we are naturally going to be people who want to create and be creative. And I think that was one of the takeaways for me is just going. It's incredible the talent that humans have. Even now, when you see some of these even younger kids that are amazing singers and musicians and dancers. And it's just, it really highlights the fact that humans are not evolved primates. Humans are special creation made in the image and likeness of God. And so it's neat to appreciate the talent of human beings. Now, I think number four, my fourth worldview takeaway that I talked with my kids about is maybe the most important one, and that is that human beings were not created to be worshiped. That is not our purpose. In fact, our purpose is to worship God. It's to actually reflect his glory. And when you have someone who is on the stage with lights and the applause and all of these things, that is always going to be corruptive, both for the person and for the audience, for the observer. I actually found myself throughout the movie feeling uncomfortable with all of the almost worship that you saw from the crowd toward Michael Jackson, almost deifying him as if he is a God and humans are just not created to be worshiped. And so what I shared with my children was, look, it's one thing to appreciate talent and even be in awe of what someone can accomplish with their voice and with their body, with dancing and with songwriting and all of those things put together. It's okay to appreciate that. But we were not created to receive worship or to give worship to other humans. And when that is taking place, we will be outside of the true bullseye of our purpose for this life. And we won't be able to find the deep abiding joy that can only be found with living within our purpose, which is to glorify God. And so that was one of the, I think, most important takeaways that I shared with my kids. And so I hope that's helpful to you as parents if you choose to take your kids to go see Michael, Jack. And those were my four takeaways. Number one, everyone is a sinner. Number two, it was refreshing how unifying it was. Number three, humans are made in the image of God. And number four, man was not created to be worshiped. All right, with that, we're going to go to our next sponsor, which is Good Ranchers, which is a home meat delivery service where better than organic chicken, grass fed beef, heritage breed pork and wild caught seafood comes to your door on dry ice, ready to be put in the freezer to use whenever you're ready to cook a good meal for your family. And I love Good Ranchers. I love to just Pull out a whole bunch of steaks and chicken, thaw it out, cook it up and then keep it in the fridge so that when I need a snack or maybe some protein with my lunch, I just pull it out, warm it up. It's easy, good to go. And it's so good for me. And one of my favorite things that I'm so excited that Good Ranchers has just launched is custom boxes. I actually right when I heard about this, I went into my Good Ranchers account and I, I switched my current box to a custom box and I got to choose all the things I want in it and it was just perfect. So if you've never tried Good Ranchers, now is a great time because you can customize your own box. So if you go to GoodRanchers.com, you'll get $25 off your first order with my code ALISA and one free meat add on for life. Again, go to GoodRanchers.Com and use my code Alisa Good Ranchers American Meat delivered. And with that, I'm going to take you to a conversation I had with Ethan Nicole, who has, along with Eric Branscomb, just come out with the coolest kids resource called Explodeworld.com this I wish existed when I was a kid because I would have been all over this. But I'll tell you a little bit about Ethan before we get to that conversation. So Ethan and Eric have worked together for over 12 years. They started out as head writers on Veggie Tales in the House and VeggieTales in the City at DreamWorks. They worked on Babylon B skits. They have developed projects together at studios like Disney and Warner Brothers. Very, very cool and creative stuff. And what I love so much about exploding kids is that it really fosters our kids creativity. If you're looking for something that you can put in your kids hands instead of a screen, I want to introduce you to Explode World. This is the coolest resource. We're going to tell you all about it. Here's Ethan. Nic. Well, Ethan, great to have you back on the show. We first met years ago. The first time I was on the Babylon Bee podcast, you were one of the people who interviewed me. But you've been up to a lot of stuff since then. So just fill us in about what you've been up to and tell us a little bit about your new project, which I think is just absolutely amazing and an answer, I truly mean this. An answer to prayer for so many Christian parents. I really mean that. I want to dive more into that. But just let us know what you've been up to in the last few years.
- [19:48]
Ethan Nicole
Thank you. I mean, yeah, it's been a wild ride. I went from the Babylon Bee to Daily Wire because previously, before the Bat Bon Bee, I had worked on veggie tales at DreamWorks and had written close to 100 episodes of VeggieTales with my buddy Eric, who was working at Babylon Bee with me at the time. We both went on to Daily Wire together. I don't know if you saw that Daily Wire had some kids content going on for a while. We created their sort of flagship TV show, Chip Chilla, which is about a homeschooling group of chinchilla family of chinchillas. And I felt good about it. We worked really hard on it. It was. I mean, it was a tough show to write because we're trying to write, you know, very small there. This family of chinchillas that lives in a house and kind of finds a lesson too. But it has to be fun and funny and silly and not feel really super over. Like we really didn't want to feel like educational in the sense that, like you're doing a lesson we wanted anyway, so we had to learn that in Veggie Tales too. But. And so going through all this kids entertainment stuff, kind of seeing what works, what doesn't. Me and Eric became very passionate about making our own kids entertainment. And we have so many friends along the way. Another thing you run into a lot working for studios like Warner Brothers, Netflix, DreamWorks. There's a bunch of Christians. There's a bunch of guys that are like solid Christians. They're just working on My Little Pony reboots and my Strawberry Shortcake reboots and whatever the next reboot is. They're layers down, but all these guys, they have their stories they want to tell. Most creators have these great pitches that they have ready to go. They've always create art. All this great stories they come up with, they're passionate about. It's real good stuff. It's not all this reboot stuff. It's not all this over politicized, politicized stuff. And it's just buried and it's never going to get made because it has to go through this process of all these executives and the kind of, you know, and the paranoia of the market. And just there's so many factors that I was like, man, I would love for all these projects of these really good creator guys that I know and girls, when it harder to find girls in the industry. But that Then just get it straight to parents and kids, like let that be the pitch process. Get, get all these like executives and stuff out of the way. There's some great executives, there's some that are give really good notes, but in general, no they don't. And over bloated over, you know, it's so expensive. So many people are getting paid that don't really, you know, need to be part of the process and just simplifying it. So I, me and Eric, when we kind of were back on our own, trying to figure out what to do next, you know, besides just looking for work, we're like, like I've had this book idea in my head for a long time. And so we came with a name. This book might explode. And it's not just one book. It's a book that comes out every other month. And it's a big, huge, full color book that has all kinds of different stories and comics and there you go, you have it there. I should have had mine. I don't have mine.
- [22:52]
Alisa
No. Okay. So Ethan, I'm seriously not just blowing smoke. I can't believe how much I love this. I love this book.
- [23:00]
Ethan Nicole
Thank you.
- [23:01]
Alisa
So, yeah, I love it.
- [23:02]
Ethan Nicole
I'm so passionate about it.
- [23:03]
Alisa
You should be. Because I'm thinking about as a parent, like, I wish that something like this would have existed when my kids were younger, especially my son. Well, they both would have just loved it when, when, you know, they're older teens now, but I mean, they just would have loved this. And here's the thing that I'm thinking about, so maybe we can dive into, you know, what you're accomplishing with this book in a moment. But as I'm looking through it, I'm think the first thing I thought was this is a great way to get your kid off of an iPad. I know every parent, and especially I think Christian parents, because we know a lot of the stuff coming in through the iPad is to have a biblical worldview. Or even if it doesn't, you know, it doesn't necessarily even have to be like a Bible story. But so much of what's coming in through the streaming platforms for our kids and even a lot of the books that are kind of similarly styled, like, you know, the ones you see in Costco and things, they're just crass. They're just kind of, you know, lowest common denominator type books. But this one is incredible because you have, not only do you have like graphic novel type stories, but you have activities. My favorite one is how to use this page as a projectile and you just tear out the page, crumple it up and throw it at something. So like these books are designed to be used and colored. And I even love how there's pages where you assign for the child to finish the story and then draw a picture of it. So maybe talk a little bit about more in detail about these books because I honestly, I want every Christian parent to get these for their kids. Because not only is it not going to be importing this kind of, like you said, overly politicized, secular leftist ideology, it's not like overtly Christian either. It's not like gonna be like, you know, David and Goliath, but it's like it fosters creativity, it awakens the imagination. It's like what we're looking for. It's what we wanna hand our kids instead of an iPad.
- [24:57]
Ethan Nicole
Had.
- [25:00]
Alisa
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- [26:17]
Ethan Nicole
Yeah, and that's, that's really what I care about with this project. I mean, I want, I want kids to engage with creativity and wonder and fun and laughter. These are all Things that God created for man as a gift to us. And I feel like we get a little bit, a little bit too holy sometimes and we think that everything is only theology and history and is it left brain? So I was confused which side of the brain it is, but the super logical. Yeah, we want results. You know, we want kind of like if you're going to be a Christian rock band, you need to do a. You need to do a altar call at the end to make sure he knows why you're doing this music or whatever. And it. And. And so it's a tough uphill battle for us because I'm really trying to convince homeschool Christian parents, like, we live in a world of passive entertainment where kids just take in their entertainment. And now AI is creeping in. If you're sitting here with your kid watching, you're realizing a ton of the videos. If you're letting them watch any kind of streaming platforms, a ton of the videos being made, like, I'll watch. I'm a little more of a lax parent, but I'll let my son watch YouTube with me. I'll sit there and just watch it with him because there's stuff he just wants to click and check it out and I can stop him, we can talk about it. You know, I just would rather not totally shelter him. And so many of the videos are made with AI. It's AI voice, it's AI script, and they're just taking it in. And I really want my work, work, this work to be a work where so every single thing that's created in this book might explode. You get to know who the creator is. And that's actually, that's the main spot that any speak of God and theology might come out. So we'll talk about like, you know, what, what would you tell yourself when you were younger and you say, you know, trust the Lord, things like that. Because a lot of our creators are Christians. But my main goal for this book is just, I want, I want guys who love making kids content. In Hollywood, there's so many guys and girls who work in kids entertainment who wish they weren't in it. They could despise it. They wish they were doing something where they were expressing themselves a little more about the things they care about, the politics they care about. You know, this is one of the reasons you get some of these things happening and some of these kids properties. You're like, what are they thinking? You know, it's because this person wishes they were working on like, you know, the next David Lynch Style movie. Not interesting. Yeah, not My Little Pony or whatever. And so imagine if every piece of content your kids take in, you know, who made it, you can look them up, there's an interview with them in the book, and then they know across. I want to teach kids to follow creators across works because that's one thing we don't tend to learn. And then also the creators are inviting them. Most of the pieces that are in the book have an activity. They have an invitation to try to draw the character or finish a story or send in your ideas. Like we have it all over the book. Like send in your ideas is. And so we're not just passive entertainment. We're entertainment that's inviting kids to be a part of it. And then we're printing kids content with our content in the book. So it's. It's more like a big playtime among professional Hollywood animators and comic book artists and kids. And if you know anything about my background, if you know anything about my background with Axe Cop, it's very fitting.
- [29:31]
Alisa
Well, yeah.
- [29:32]
Ethan Nicole
Are you familiar with Axe Cop?
- [29:33]
Alisa
I. I am not familiar with Axe Cop. Tell me about Axe Copy.
- [29:37]
Ethan Nicole
It's like a forgotten thing now, but it's what kind of launched me. I went viral for a webcomic that I made with my five year old brother when I was 29 and it became a sensation comic that I did six volumes of Dark Horse comics and a TV show on Fox. Nick Offerman, who plays Ron Swanson, did the Voice.
- [29:54]
Alisa
There it is.
- [29:54]
Ethan Nicole
I met all kinds of. Worked with all kinds of celebrities and everybody loved me for a while. So they found out I was. Until they saw that I worked for the Babylon Bee. Later. Later.
- [30:04]
Alisa
Well, and everybody liked Babylon B at first too. Like, I remember even the progressives were like, oh, this is so funny. Until they realized, oh, no. Yeah, not anymore.
- [30:11]
Ethan Nicole
When I switched my job to a Daily Wire, the amount of people that were fine with Babylon B and angry about Daily Wire.
- [30:19]
Alisa
Oh, yeah.
- [30:20]
Ethan Nicole
You realize they're like almost the exact same values and everything, right? Like, it's the same. They're all friends.
- [30:24]
Alisa
I think that's kind of obvious.
- [30:24]
Ethan Nicole
You don't realize it. Yeah, comedy is sneaky.
- [30:28]
Alisa
You. Yeah, well, it disarms you. Right. And you know, I think so. Okay. I. One of the things I'm thinking about is you brought up AI and I think that the whole. I mean, I think there's some good things about AI. I'm not one of those people that is like, you know.
- [30:43]
Ethan Nicole
Yeah, I'm not a hardcore Anti.
- [30:44]
Alisa
Yeah, me neither. But when it comes to the world of art, though, it's terrifying to me what's in store for the future, especially when you think about. So, like, you know, they talk about Gen Z being digital native. In other words, like, you and I grew up in a world that didn't have social media, that didn't have. Well, I'm guessing that I think I'm maybe a little older than you. But you didn't have Internet when you were a little kid, right? Little. Little kid.
- [31:08]
Ethan Nicole
Oh, yeah. High school. Yeah. Came out of school.
- [31:10]
Alisa
Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so Gen Z is like growing up as a digital native. They've always had it. But now you're thinking about the kids that are being born now, they're going to be AI natives, meaning they don't know a world that's not completely inundated by AI. I don't know what that's going to mean. I don't know if that's going to mean that this new generation isn't going to know the difference between reality and AI. Or maybe they'll be better at it. I don't know. But that's where I think content like this book and the enterprise that you're working on, it's real art by real people with real human personality. And so much of it is funny. I love that you mentioned they can send in their ideas. There's actually a QR code in there that they can send their ideas, and it says, like, it might make it into the next book. So there's like this ongoing kind of creative process happening with the kids, which I just love. But also, it got me thinking when I was looking through this book, you know how they call it the sacred secular divide? I think when I was growing up in evangelical culture, like, everything was either secular or it was sacred. In other words, you have, you know, church meetings, youth group, your Christian music, you have the. You know, all the stuff that was just Christian. And then everything else you did was secular. That was just not in the realm of Christianity, which is really not biblical, because as Christians, everything we do, we do for the glory of God. Everything we do is sacred, really, if you think about it, because if you work in a business, you're gonna do ministry there, you're gonna be a light for the Lord there, you're gonna glorify God there. And so I love that this book, you know, it's not like it's like we said, it's not like Bible stories, but it fosters that creativity and the art. Ethan, this is like, the level of excellence of the art is.
- [32:57]
Ethan Nicole
Thank you.
- [32:58]
Alisa
It's competitive or better than anything you see on the streaming platforms and even in animated features. I mean, this artwork is incredible. Talk about some of the people involved. You know, you've got a shout out here from the Fonz on the back. Henry Winkler. That's amazing. Talk about some of the artists and some of their background.
- [33:20]
Ethan Nicole
Yeah, I mean, like I said, we're not trying to get exclusively. We're not trying to make it a club for certain worldviews. We're only going to allow certain content to get out through the book. But just like with Hollywood, like, one of my complaints about it is this sort of the gatekeeping there. Political gatekeeping. And if somebody's just a great artist who makes great content, who really loves making stuff that makes kids smile, then, like, you know, great. Like, for instance, we got Rich Werner in the book. Book. I don't even know his worldview, but he. He's the guy that created Plants vs. Zombies, the artwork. He designed that whole game. And he's just such a good guy. We've been friends for a long time. He makes this fun artwork. And so he's done. He does stuff in there. We got Doug Tenapel, who you might know is Doug in exile from YouTube. He's got. He did a. He did one in there. He's a good friend of mine, Mike Nelson from Mystery Science Theater 3000. And then we randomly got Jack Handy. If you know Jack Handy.
- [34:13]
Alisa
I was very impressed. Yes. Because growing up, I remember I would. I can't remember if I would. Like, sometimes I admit, I would sneak out of my room and like, watch Saturday Night Live if my. Was on the TV in the living room. And I loved Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy. I thought that stuff was so funny. And so when I saw that he was a part of it, I thought that was pretty cool.
- [34:36]
Ethan Nicole
Yeah. Yeah. Henry Winkler. He has an ending for the book, but he gave us a shout out because I did his artwork on his last books. His last book series called Alien Superstar. It's like three book series. I did the artwork on it.
- [34:48]
Alisa
Very cool. Very cool.
- [34:50]
Ethan Nicole
Yeah. A lot of great people.
- [34:52]
Alisa
That is so cool. So talk about what it's like in the animation industry, because one of the things you pointed out in your email to me is that a lot of Christian families pay basically secular companies to generate the content for their kids, and just a really small amount goes to other Christian creators to create Christian content. Right. And honestly, I've been encouraged to see Some of that Christian content get better in quality, you know, over time and more recently. But is that, like, one of the things you're trying to change is to, you know, again, that kind of second sacred secular divide that we tend to kind of settle into?
- [35:30]
Ethan Nicole
Yeah, I mean, I guess I'm going with my gut on this. And I think that the younger generations. I think even my generation and younger aren't quite as bought in by that. I'm not sure. I could be wrong. I could. You know, I. I'm not from a totally. You know, I grew up with hippie parents, and so I'm not. I didn't grow up in, like, a really sheltered sort of, like, Midwest family structure or, like, different, you know, So I could be wrong about certain parts of the country. I've never not been a part of every part of this country. But I do get the sense that I think we're ready to kind of like, throw away that sort of. That. That divide, which still feels very late 90s, early 2000s. Yeah, the secular sacred divide. Having the. You have to be blatantly Christian hardcore band or whatever to be cool, to be okay. To listen to. And the other ones have to be burned in a barrel.
- [36:21]
Alisa
Satanic panic.
- [36:23]
Ethan Nicole
Yeah. And to kind of recognize that. Yeah, like, we tend to. We sort of compartmentalize. We buy our Christian stuff from the Christian creators, and they have to make really blatant stuff with blatant messages to let you know and signal to you that this is very Christian and it's okay. And then I think parents kind of sneak in and be like, oh, we can watch Minions tonight. Or, okay, you can watch this show on Netflix or whatever. And like, like, we hand that whole part of the industry to the mainstream kind of industry. And like, I don't see why we can't have. And then most of the Christians I know are working behind the scenes on those things because they, you know, I would love to see some of these Christian creators getting the chance to just make great stuff rather than just divide where, like, if you want to make anything as an out. An outed Christian, it has to be some kind of Bible story. It has to be some kind of thing like that. And, you know, God created this entire world. He created every animal. The amount of creativity that went into this creation that he. That he built for us, like, creativity is an inherent part of God and of what he put in us. It's what makes man. You know, Chesterton said that art is the. Oh, my gosh, I lost my quote. This is the signature of man, Something like that. It's the. You know, because he points out that, you know, man was there in the cave when there's cave drawings, because no other animal draws unless you train them to mimic, you know. But like, no. No other creature looks out at something and wants to observe its beauty and imitate it through artwork. That kind of thing is something that is only a. It's. It's lets you know. It's. It's man. It's a miniature God.
- [38:05]
Alisa
Yeah. So what's it like to be a Christian in that industry? You know, you mentioned there are Christians kind of working behind the scenes with some of those more secular shows. I mean, I can imagine what it would be like. Is it the kind of thing where you have to almost kind of keep your worldview to yourself? Because obviously the secular world isn't too crazy about a truly biblical worldview these days. But what is that like, navigating that?
- [38:32]
Ethan Nicole
I mean, I think that it depends on who you work for and where you're at and how good you are at, you know? Cause my buddy Adam Yenzer, he's a comedian, and he never hit his views at all. And he did great. You know, he was a writer on Ellen and stuff, and he did. He's done great, though. He hasn't had a writing job in a while. But that's the thing. You never quite know. But it is just scary. Like, you're just scared. Like, about the thing is, like, people with the other side, the other way point of view, like, they have no fear to say what they think. Like, in the writer's room or wherever you are, they're all talking about it and they're all. So you're just sitting there quietly. Like, you start to catch on that all the quiet people probably are conservatives.
- [39:14]
Alisa
Right. That should not be the way it is, though. Yeah, I hate that it's that way. But do you feel like it's changing a little bit? It seems like with the whole vibe shift everyone's talking about, it's maybe not as strong as a vibe shift as it was a year or so ago, but I don't know. Do you feel that at all?
- [39:31]
Ethan Nicole
I think they're trying to figure out what to do. Yeah. The shift is because it all moves slow. So stuff that started getting worked on however many years ago is coming out now. So there's a delay. You kind of see stuff out the pills now because things have changed so fast. I haven't worked in, like, really in Hollywood pretty much probably ever since I became the creative director at the Babylon Bee that went on to Daily Wire. And now I don't know if from my resume if I would ever get working in Hollywood again, but we'll see.
- [39:58]
Alisa
Yeah. Well, tell us about how this book works. So I know there's a website. There are even. I think there were. I saw that there's interactive sessions with some of the authors, maybe. I'm not saying that right. But this is a subscription. So you get a new one of these. So like this, if anyone's watching on YouTube, let me go to full screen here. This is like the volume one. And then you get a new volume every couple of months. I think you said every other month. It's just amazing. It's filled with activities. There's all kinds of. Geez, it's just incredible. Absolutely incredible. So talk a little bit about how it works, how people can sign up up and what they're going to get and what is available to them through the website and all of that.
- [40:42]
Ethan Nicole
So right now we're running two separate deals. I can give you the links to those. One is either you want to get a bundle of the first three and just try them out. You can get a bundle. It's basically like you're getting two for the price of three, three for the price of two, other way around. Or you can do a subscription, which you save a ton of money on cover price through the subscription. You get one every other month. Every book comes with a print pack that's you scan and you get a print pack that's a digital file if you want to. It has all the files in the book that are interactive. So if you don't want to write in your book or cut your book up, you can print them out that way. And it also has a bunch of bonus content in the print pack. So most of the print packs have around 60, 70 pages of. There's like around 20 pages of extra stuff. So I'll give you the links to those two things. And the book is partially continuous. So there's like four or five stories in there that continue from book to book.
- [41:37]
Alisa
I noticed that in volume two, it was like started with chapter four, and I was like, oh, I bet you the first three chapters are in volume one.
- [41:45]
Ethan Nicole
Yeah, so it's part of the fun of it. I mean, my kids, the funny thing is my kids are dead honest. I've had content that I've made before and they won't fake that they like it.
- [41:53]
Alisa
Oh yeah.
- [41:54]
Ethan Nicole
And my kids, all my two youngest, they love this book. It Shows up and it lasts us a good couple of weeks at bedtime, just story time wise. Because my goal with this is I think a lot of content in kids content is either activities or story. And mine really is a big mix of both. Like, you get a bunch of characters and content and worlds building and you get activities mixed in with it. It's not really an either or.
- [42:20]
Alisa
It's.
- [42:21]
Ethan Nicole
It's really mixed together.
- [42:23]
Alisa
Very good. And then what age group? Yeah, that was great. What, what age group is this mainly aimed at?
- [42:30]
Ethan Nicole
We say, because I think that a lot of times things are aged too narrowly in kids content because especially younger kids, they take in all kinds of stuff. So as long as it's not bad for them, it might go over their head, but, you know. So I think anywhere from picture book age, whatever, three, four years old, where they understand words. Because we actually have picture book content in the book too. We have a couple of actual, actual picture books as part of the book. My kids who are older, like 8 and 11, like reading that book too. That's really funny. But yeah, up to like, I'd say around 11.
- [43:01]
Alisa
Okay, sounds good. And then so what if there's a kid that's not particularly into art? I mean, is there still something for them? Like if they're not necessarily kids that like to draw? I mean, I feel like it would inspire them to try, but what do you think about that?
- [43:18]
Ethan Nicole
No, I think there's all kinds of stuff in there that they don't have to wanna draw. I think it's a lot of. It's like fun games. It's like, finish this drawing and do something funnier. They're exercising like their humor muscles. But there's plenty of content just to read. Like it's the majority of the book. A large chunk of it is just content to take in and read and enjoy. And. Yeah, so there's plenty of that. For anybody who just likes good stories and there's a good variety. We have everything from. We have like kind of a medieval adventure story called Away in the Last, about a boy who, who has mysterious past. He lives in some fantasy world. We got kind of this kind of medieval fairy tale style thing called Timber Myth. My book Legion of Fluff is about a kid with a bunch of stuffed animals that come to life to fight an army of goblins in his apartment complex. We have Fish Can Talk. It's a fun sort of Roald Dahl style story. So we had a lot of different fun stuff in there.
- [44:09]
Alisa
And you know what I like too?
- [44:11]
Ethan Nicole
Everyone's favorite character is Corn Doug.
- [44:12]
Alisa
Corn Doug. Yeah, I saw that. That looks good too. And what I like about it too is that in the same book you can have different reading levels. So, you know, I noticed that some of them are more simple and then there's some that have more words. So that actually challenges. It's always better to read up, you know, like I read books that I don't fully understand because it's just better for my brain to have to challenge myself to try to read that. So even if maybe the kid isn't like the greatest reader yet, there's going to be lots in there that they can read, but also get challenged a little bit to read up a little bit. And then it's just, you know, honestly, I think about a kid that I know that has some learning disabilities with reading. Like, I feel like a book like this would be excellent because it's engaging with the pictures. It's not too much. You know, I think like big old thick chapter books get really intimidating for some kids, but because there's different, every
- [45:04]
Ethan Nicole
page has images, artwork on it. There's no walls of text to the book.
- [45:09]
Alisa
Yeah, exactly. So good. All right. Anything else that you want to let parents know about explodia kids? I will definitely link all of the places for them to subscribe and look@explodeworld.com is there anything else you want to let our parents know about?
- [45:28]
Ethan Nicole
Yeah, just if it sounds good. Please check it out if you're loving it. We're looking for ways to market a that that are unnormal. Like we're looking into if you, if there's bookstores in your area or any, you know, other families or co ops or whatever. I really believe in getting homeschoolers into this. I think homeschoolers tend to, you know, obviously it's education, but like trying to get more of just like creative exercises for homeschoolers. And then I would like to say just to your audience, because last time I was on it was for my Chesterton book. I have been doing a Chesterton podcast, also called Chesterton's Gateway. It's my labor of love. But if you like Chesterton or struggle with Chesterton, me and my very, very smart college professor buddy, who is like a medieval expert and everything expert and Tolkien expert, we actually go paragraph by paragraph. First we went through all the essays in my book, which are a good introduction at Chesterton. And now we're going through Orthodoxy, which is his most famous book about why he's a Christian or a Catholic. And it goes. We're almost done with it. So it's a great resource for if you just want to go back and read through it. And you got one dumb guy, that's me, and then you get like a really smart guy, that's Mike, and we go through it.
- [46:45]
Alisa
I'm not sure that you're the dumb guy, but I, you know, I read Orthodoxy in that group.
- [46:49]
Ethan Nicole
I am.
- [46:50]
Alisa
Yeah, well, I guess we're all the dumb guy in some group, but yeah, Orthodoxy. What a fantastic. That was back way maybe almost 15, maybe 12, 13 years ago when I was coming out of my faith crisis. It was one of the first books that I read. And I just, I was so thrilled by that book. I loved that book. I loved Chesterton. And I will just say this too, as I'm looking through these books. As a mom, you know, when my kids were younger, I remember every time we had to go on a long trip, like in an airplane, I would try, not always successfully, but I would try to keep them off the iPad. And so I was always looking for activity books or something that, that I could give them that would keep their attention. I wish that this book would have existed back then because this is perfect for an airplane. But I also want to encourage, like, any pastors or children's ministers. These are great books to have in your. In your children's ministry. Just available for kids, just to, you know, spurn that. What's the word I'm looking for, that creativity and something that's going to be not indoctrinating them with all of the crazy that's in our culture right now. So I'm so thrilled you've made this book. I really hope to see this succeed. So well. So I just want to encourage every pastor and parent who's listening to this. Go to explodyworld.com and subscribe. You get a big discount if you do the annual version and otherwise you can do your monthly. So check all of that out. Out. And Ethan, thanks so much for joining us today. And I would just wish you the best with this book and let me know if there's anything else I can do to. To help promote it, because I think it's just. I truly mean it. It's just so cool.
- [48:32]
Ethan Nicole
Thank you. I'm so glad you like it and get it because it's. That's been the challenges. I think once you hold it in your hand, you go, oh, yeah, okay, I get this.
- [48:38]
Alisa
Oh, yeah, for sure, for sure. All right, thank you.
- [48:42]
Ethan Nicole
Thanks. Thanks for having me on.
- [48:46]
Alisa
And I will pray for you. No turning right or left will make it through the road that's narrow and the gate that small. Don't give up. It's gonna be worth it all.
- [49:11]
Ethan Nicole
Are you really buying a car online on Autotrader right now?
- [49:14]
Alisa
Really? I can get super specific with dealer listings and see cars based on my budget. You can really have it delivered or pick it up.
- [49:21]
Ethan Nicole
I think kid is walking up the slide.
- [49:23]
Alisa
Really? Autotrader, Buy your car online? Really?