Journey Through Storytelling: Teresa Robeson on Bruce Lee, Science Wonders, and Diverse Narratives

What do starry nebula, Bruce Lee, and disgustingly cool science facts have in common? They are all products of the creative mind of author Teresa Robeson. 

In this episode, we welcome back Teresa Robeson, a busy author with a rich background in science and storytelling. Teresa unveils her upcoming books, including Clear and Bright: A Ching Ming Festival Story; Disgustology: The Science of Gross; and a graphic biography, Who Smashed Hollywood Barriers with Gung Fu?: Bruce Lee. 

Teresa shares insights into the art of storytelling through visuals and the collaborative process of bringing science and historical moments to life. Our discussion ventures into the mesmerizing realms of astronomy and science literature, with highlights from NASA's stunning imagery that fueled her recent book, Clouds in Space: Nebulae, Stardust, and Us.

 We also delve into the importance of diverse narratives, cultural acceptance, and the role of literature in building empathy. Plus there's a fun lightning fill in the break taken from listener questions (What language does Teresa speak to her chickens? What are the most disgusting facts she hasn't written about yet?) This episode celebrates diverse narratives, cultural tales, building our empathy muscles, and the transformative power of storytelling.

Timestamps and Chapters:

1:13- Bruce Lee and Clear and Bright 

15:13: Smithsonian honors, Clouds in Space, and Quirky Science Storytelling in Disgustology

20:13: Lightning Fill in the Blank

26:03: Building Our Empathy Muscles Through Diverse Children's Literature

32:37: Finding Hope in Empathy and Youth 

Links:

• Teresa Robeson's Website: https://www.teresarobeson.com
• Teresa's previous appearance on the Adventures in Learning podcast
• Follow Teresa Robeson on Instagram, LinkedIn, and BlueSky

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Transcript

00:03 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
So welcome to the Adventures in Learning podcast. I am so thrilled to welcome back Teresa Robeson. You can go to part one to get to know her, learn about her science background and the books. I've got behind me, the Queen of Physics and Two Bicycles in Beijing. This lady is a busy lady. There are three books coming out this year, and so we're going to do a little preview of those three books and then we're going to play a little lightning fill in the blank to get to know where she is right now and what she's working on. So, teresa, welcome back. 

00:38 - Teresa Robeson (Guest)
Thanks, diane, you are so sweet to have me back. It's a joy always talking to you. 

00:44 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Oh, I am so excited to have you back, and I should have said in my introduction you're also one of my mentors and I'm so grateful to you for sharing your expertise as I've embarked on my own writing career, so that's another thing you all should know about her is this is a person who is incredibly generous with her gifts and her time. 

01:03 - Teresa Robeson (Guest)
Well, thank you. 

01:05 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
So let's talk books. You've got three of them coming out this year. There's Clear and Bright Disgustology. I've got to make sure I say that correctly. That's a tongue twister. And then you've got a. Is it a graphic format biography about Bruce Lee as well? 

01:23 - Teresa Robeson (Guest)
Yes, yes. So I had one come out previous year about the Dalai Lama, and in fact I should have brought it up with me. 

01:31 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
But I read it and I'll make sure that we include pictures and links in the in the chat. It was so much fun. 

01:38 - Teresa Robeson (Guest)
Well, thank you. So it's. It's with the same publisher, penguin Workshop, who does the who HQ series. You know who is who was and also events, what is what was. So I have been really lucky to work with them on the series on First the Dalai Lama and Bruce Lee. I'm so excited because he and I share a Hong Kong background and you know martial arts. My dad had actually, in passing, met up with Bruce Lee before because they're approximately the same age my dad's a bit older so and he knew Bruce Lee's old Sifu from you know Hong Kong and so, yeah, so it was a fun one for me to work on. 

02:19 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Oh, that's a really cool connection. Yeah, and writing about Bruce Lee. That's a little different than some of the other books you've done in the past. What kind of research did you have to do? What went into creating something that would go into a graphic format? 

02:34 - Teresa Robeson (Guest)
Well, pretty much the research is about the same. So you know, I tried to read the definitive guides and just looked into various sources. In fact it was kind of fun digging into the archives of the man who produced, who created and produced the Green Hornet TV show that really launched Bruce into stardom. So because those biographical graphic novels are very, very short like just 64 pages you kind of have to like focus in on one defining moment of the character's life. So for the Dalai Lama it was escaping from Tibet during the Chinese occupation, and for Bruce Lee it was his launch into stardom on American television with being a co-star in the Green Hornet show. 

03:34 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
I was going to say and how do you pick, sort of? When you've got a life as rich and varied as somebody like Bruce Lee or the Dalai Lama, how do you decide what event is going to be the one that gets the magnifying lens attached to it? 

03:47 - Teresa Robeson (Guest)
Well, I had some ideas for them and then of course I have to run it by the editors and cause. I had different editors for each one and they pretty much, you know, talk to their team and had a final say. So, but I think for Bruce Lee it was pretty easy in terms of, you know, that was his biggest moment, honestly, so it was kind of a no brainer for him. The Dalai Lama, we kind of went back and forth a little bit, but I think the moment we ended up agreeing on when he you know, had his harrowing escape from Tibet, that was a good moment. So yeah, it's a combination of a little bit my thoughts and decisions, but the final okay goes with the, you know, editor and publisher. 

04:30 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
And in a graphic format because the illustrations and the words are so connected. Do you work with the artist at all in that format? Because you're not doing the art? Is that correct? 

04:42 - Teresa Robeson (Guest)
Yeah, I'm not doing the art, but interestingly enough, it's really pretty much the same processes with picture books. So you write all the words and then hand it off to your editor, and the editor hands it off to the art director who communicates to the illustrator. And for graphic novels you have to write a script which is pretty much like a you know screen or movie script or play script. Yeah, so you put everything you need the illustrator to know in there and in fact, because this has such a tight turnaround for the who HQ series, I had to put like even more information than I normally would writing a regular graphic novel, because you know, kind of like with a picture book, you want to give the illustrator a little bit of leeway to interpret things. But no, with these historical graphic formats I had to like very precisely tell them exactly what I picture, what you know due to my research, because you know, I know. 

05:42 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
I'm doing all this. The stage directions are important here. 

05:44 - Teresa Robeson (Guest)
Yes, exactly, exactly. Yeah, everything has to set up to be just so. According to, you know, historical facts and and in fact they requested that I have, like I want to call it a morgue file, but it's actually just like Google Doc with all the pictures that I've found, you know, in my research online and stuff, and you know in my research online and stuff, and you know, put them in there so that the illustrator can easily just like go there and look up a particular photo of a character or a setting Makes sense. So they've got the inspiration that's accurate. 

06:18
Yep, yep, exactly Yep, yep. And of course they did some research on their own too, to, you know, fill things out. But, and just you know, telling them as much info as possible helps them to do it quicker, because they had like just a year or a year and a half to do and illustrate. I mean, I say it's a short book but, you know, on each page is about, you know, five to seven panels. That's, like you know, a picture book. 

06:43 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
There's a lot of illustrations on each page. 

06:47 - Teresa Robeson (Guest)
Exactly so, honestly, I had the easy part of writing Easy. 

06:54 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Fair, and when is this one coming out? 

06:57 - Teresa Robeson (Guest)
The Bruce Lee one is coming out March 18th. Excellent, so make sure you all get it. 

07:03 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
It will be in the links. Um, you're going to want to share that with your students. Um, it's so nice to have picture books about people that you might not find on your normal library shelves. Um, I think that's inspiring for kids to be able to look up and to see how different people that might be heroes or people they'd heard about in their families had their success or addressed a problem or were able to sort of overcome adversity. 

07:31 - Teresa Robeson (Guest)
Yes, and he overcame a lot of adversity because back then it just you know they they had white people. You know, don makeup to play. 

07:42 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Asian. I remember, you know, don makeup to play asian. 

07:46 - Teresa Robeson (Guest)
I remember, yeah, I remember those days yeah, so his becoming a pretty much a leading man you know, a co-star was a huge, huge thing, just and it broke so many barriers in the television world exactly exactly so yeah, yeah, that was pretty awesome, but the only problem is it's out in the same month as my Clear and Bright book. 

08:12
So Clear and Bright Qingming Festival story that is coming out March 4. And Bruce Lee is coming out March 18. So there's just a lot of, you know, promotional stuff that I have to get around to Absolutely and Clear and Bright. 

08:27 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Let's talk about that one, because that looks beautiful and it's in a very different style and vein than the Bruce Lee book. So tell us about Clear and Bright. 

08:36 - Teresa Robeson (Guest)
So Clear and Bright it is something very near and dear to my heart, because it's about the Tsing Ming Festival, which is one of the most important I mean next to New Year's, I would say it's a second most important thing for Chinese people and it's basically been practiced for thousands of years and it's basically ancestor worship, because in the Chinese tradition and I imagine in a lot of old world cultures, your ancestors and your elders are integral like vital, important you know, here we're like older people, like, yeah, you've done your stuff, go away. 

09:20
But in Chinese tradition you revere your elders and so, even the ones that are gone. For Qingming you would go to their tombs and you would, you know, clean it all up and you would have a feast, because, so I don't know about other cultures, but in Chinese culture you offer food like actual food, in spirit, you know for the spirit, and then you eat the food yourself. And I'm a huge foodie, so any holiday that involves a lot of good food is my kind of holiday. So, yeah, just, and the whole family gathered together. 

09:54
So I have fond memories in Hong Kong of, you know, just being with all my family and then all the good food. So it's just, you know, uh, I have fond memories of it and it's just very important to me. So I, I wrote a story about it. But because it's kind of obscure, like everybody's always like, okay, new years, lunar new year and um, the moon festival, like, oh, my gosh, that's been like written to death, you know. And and it's not even that important to me because, okay, this is heresy, but I do not like moon cakes. 

10:29
It really like make kind of makes me gay fair enough this is not not really my thing, but um yeah, so it's like you know people, more people should know about this holiday and it. It has a long, long story, which I will tell you privately, but not here on the program about everything that went up to. 

10:53
you know this point before it was finally picked up as a book and it it won the Astra International Picture Book Contest a few years ago, like three years years ago, and that's when then Astro Young Readers said that they would publish it. And I owe all my thanks to Leonard Marcus, who is just the most amazing human being, and I think it was thanks to him and his enthusiasm for it that it, you know, won. Silver didn't even go, it was once over. 

11:27 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
That's so exciting, though, and so when is this holiday normally celebrated? 

11:32 - Teresa Robeson (Guest)
In the spring. 

11:34
I think the date varies just because you know it's kind of like new year varies with our calendar, so it's in the spring and, yeah, it's usually kind of like misty and rainy, which I mentioned in the book itself. But oh, let me tell you the illustrator, william Lowe, his art is just gorgeous. I thank you to my editor for whom she found him. He's a fine artist living in New York but he also illustrates children's books and he just did the most incredible job. I can't wait for everybody to look at the illustrations because they're just stunning. 

12:20 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Oh, I'm so excited about that. You know, one of the things I've realized, especially in working with early childhood and elementary teachers, is often we begin our explorations of multiculturalism and diversity by exploring holidays. That seems to be sort of that common theme that teachers are able to tap into when they start exploring the things that make us different and the things that make us the same, into when they start exploring the things that make us different and the things that make us the same. And you're right, there are certain holidays that get lots and lots of attention. But this sounds like it's a beautiful one to add into the canon, to provide those windows and mirrors for kids and just to open worlds up a little bit. So I can't wait to see it and it sounds like it's one that every teacher ought to immediately put into their classroom library rotation. I hope so. I hope so. 

13:09
And before we get to disgustology, you had an amazing year last year with Clouds in Space and that had come out between our first interview and now and that book. I know you had been so excited about it and I know that it was a 2024 Smithsonian Scholars winner. They had mentioned it. Tell me about the reception for that book and sort of how people embrace that, because science is your jam and you really, and I know you're also an amateur astronomer and so you kind of combined all of that in this book. So tell us about it. 

13:48 - Teresa Robeson (Guest)
So, like you said, I was really excited about this coming out and I think it got pretty good reception. I mean, I'm probably more excited than anybody else. The Smithsonian thing was I mean it checked off a bucket list item I didn't even know I had and I was like, wow, the Smithsonian put it on there. And I think I need to thank my. I hired Blue Slip Media to help me do some you know, promotional stuff and I think they helped me put it on their radar. 

14:22
Honestly, I don't know that it was something that you know, the marketing team from my publisher actually, you know, did I mean they did a lot of other things, um, wonderful things, but, um, I think it was media that approach on thinking that it would actually be a good pairing with, say, maybe doing something for the air and space museum or something. Um, that hasn't happened yet. So please, please, please make it happen. But but, yes, that that was just really pretty darn exciting. And, um, librarian extraordinaire Betsy Bird also picked it for a couple of her different you know, christmas 31 days lists. So that's exciting too, because she's great and for our teachers and families listening. 

15:13 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Tell them a little bit about what the book is about, because clouds in space that sounds intriguing, but you don't generally think about clouds in space, so give them a little bit of the science content that you were hitting there. 

15:27 - Teresa Robeson (Guest)
Yeah, absolutely so. Clouds in space are nebulae, so nebulae is just, you know, latin for cloud and it's just. I'm a very visual person, so I think I fell in love with astronomy by seeing astronomy pictures first, and I just love you know, things like pictures Like Hubble was awesome because it started sending all these you know great pictures like this, and then all these lovely telescopes and things. But anyway, so I love space photos and the inspiration for this was I also love just looking at clouds. We homeschool our kids, we spend a lot of time outside, we're looking at clouds and, of course, you know, one of the games that people like to play is like what does that cloud look like? I think it looks like a dragon or something, and so one day it just like kind of clicked. It was like wow, there, and also the beautiful clouds that I have in my astronomy books in space. So I thought, oh, oh, I should tell kids about clouds in space. 

16:29
And the first few drafts of the book had more like it starts out on Earth more and it talks about you know different nebulae, and then it talks about you know what they're composed of and how they are connected to us and you know why you should like them? Because we're like Carl Sagan says, we're all made of stardust. Nebulae are made of stardust, we're made of stardust and it's just like we're all the same elements in this universe. So, um and the I I was really insistent that they would use um, you know the glorious photos from nasa, because they're just jaw-droppingly stunning. They, they are so beautiful they don't even look real at times captured a lot of the you know earth part of it. So I think her strong suit is earth illustrations and then, combined with the space photos, I think it just makes a really gorgeous package. So I'm very proud of it and and I I think it's gorgeous. So I'm really glad that Smithsonian scholars like to do because yay. 

18:11 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
I love that. All right, we've got to talk disgustology. I am so excited about this book. It feels like it's the ultimate in icky, ooey, gooey stuff, and the eight-year-old in me is like this is the book I would have needed. So tell us about this book. You have me hooked on the title. I want to hear more. 

18:38 - Teresa Robeson (Guest)
All right. So shout out to my not my shout out to the illustrator for the book, because it was actually her pitch to Odd Dot, which is an imprint of Macmillan, and she had this idea about talking about you know gross things, disgusting things, and so she just had, you know, the overall idea. And I'm not really sure if they approached my agent about me or how it works, but my agent emailed me and said, hey, here's this project from Macmillan, are you interested in doing it? Here's this project from Macmillan, are you interested in doing. And I'm like, oh yeah, gross thing. I still like, you know fart jokes and stuff. I'm kind of like you, the, you know eight to ten year old, and we're like, yeah, oh. 

19:26
So then I was able to flush it out. Um, I had free reign as to whether you know, like how I want to arrange it and stuff. So I, I had different sections, so there's like on the body, in the body, in the air, and you know various different, you know larger topics, and then I was able to, you know, take that and go into. You know more specific things, like the little spidery mites, things that live in your eyelashes. Oh my, yeah, it's lovely, gross, gross and yeah, so I had so much fun just like researching what are all the gross things out there, and one of them I don't know if you'll be able to see, but we have a scale insect infestation on one of our lemon trees and this is really, really disgusting. That's what they look like. 

20:22 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Oh my gosh. 

20:23 - Teresa Robeson (Guest)
Yeah, I use scotch tape to get them off. 

20:29 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Wow. So what was the most disgusting thing that you researched that made it into the book? 

20:36 - Teresa Robeson (Guest)
Well, there are a good number of them, but I think one of it's not so much disgusting as really creepy. So there's a fungus that gets into ants, into their brains, and it turns them into zombies. It turns them into zombies and they, like, march up to us as the fungus matures inside the ant. It makes the ant then march up to a certain like, higher you know plant, and the ant sits there and then it bursts out of the ant's head and spreads the spores so that it's now on the you know jungle floor, and then more ants pick it up, ingest it and go through the entire cycle, which, to me, is just like oh my. 

21:21 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
That sounds kind of like the zombie infestation that the cicadas had, where the back ends of the cicadas were white. In this most recent cicada convergence it was a virus that also got spread, I think, through cicada sex and through kind of a little bit of the same thing you just called on. But yes, oh, that's cool. Were there any super gross things that didn't make it into the book? 

21:47 - Teresa Robeson (Guest)
Oh goodness, I can't remember now because it's been like a bit over a year since. You know I finished, you finished your part, yeah. And so I mean I have like way too many projects going on, some under contract and some not. And so you know, once you finish writing about something, you pretty much have to put it out on your mind because it's time to go on to the next thing. 

22:10 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
So what you're telling us is we have to wait until is it July, and then we can find out all the gross things. 

22:15 - Teresa Robeson (Guest)
Yes, yes, and I would love for people to go to my website and I have a contact form and tell me about things that I have left out, that they think should have been in there. 

22:27 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Oh, I love that because there might be a book too. 

22:30 - Teresa Robeson (Guest)
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. 

22:37 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
So, anyway, I just want to hear about your own gross ideas. I love that. We're going to take a quick break and when we come back we're going to play a little lightning, fill in the blanks Awesome. That'll be my stop and then we're going to come back and for me again. So welcome back. We have Teresa Robison here with us, and we've been hearing about the brand new books clear and bright, uh, the Bruce Lee picture book, biography and disgustology. You need to find all of them. The links are in the show notes. But now it's time to play a little game with Teresa, and we're going to use this as a way to get to know her better. Some of these questions came from your ideas, and so we're just going to dive right into it. So part of this, teresa, is inspired by the fact that you live on 27 acres in rural Indiana, so I'm going to give you a sentence starter and you're going to finish it. My favorite bird is Ooh, okay, eastern tohi. 

23:44 - Teresa Robeson (Guest)
It's one of them I love, but I love so many of them because we also have purple finches, and that's another favorite, and also palliated woodpeckers and also yellow belly sapsucker. Okay, those are my top four, sorry. 

24:00 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
I can't pick one. The best jelly flavor is Ooh lemon, and you grow your own lemons. 

24:10 - Teresa Robeson (Guest)
Yeah, we have a couple of. We can't grow them outdoors, sadly, but we have a couple of Meyer lemon plants that we move outdoors in the summer and then bring back in the winter and then I have to like, pick scale insects off. 

24:22 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
I have a pomegranate tree that gets the same treatment. It like goes out and in. So I totally get where you're coming from from Pomegranate, oh my husband would love that. 

24:41 - Teresa Robeson (Guest)
All right To relax, I, oh gosh Knit bake read I used to make soaps, but not anymore. Those main things. And why don't we make soaps anymore? Just much work, and yeah, it's just too much work my chickens like it when I bring food, I mean chickens, have like two thoughts. I won't mention the other one, but one of them what language are you trying to teach your chickens? I well, I speak Cantonese, so I don't know if they care. They probably don't even understand English, let alone Cantonese. 

25:28 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
The weirdest topic you'd like to tackle in your writing. 

25:33 - Teresa Robeson (Guest)
Ooh, that's a good one, that's a tough one? I don't know, because normally I talk about science and my culture and you know things that I have studied, yeah, so, oh wait, I really don't know. I you stumped me. 

25:55 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
I think we've given you something to think about, right right, right, and of course I I have. 

26:01 - Teresa Robeson (Guest)
right now I have too many things going on. So I have like um, four early reader non-fiction books that I'm doing for a publisher and with the same editor I'm also working on another nonfiction middle grade book and besides that I have a bunch of picture books that are out on revise and resubmit and then I'm trying to work on three novels, one middle grade and two young adults. So I just find it really hard to squeeze everything. 

26:29 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Fair enough. Is there a common theme throughout all of these projects that you're working on, or are they very different? 

26:36 - Teresa Robeson (Guest)
They're very different, so those books under contract have not. Picture books are things that my family has expertise on or that are related to me personally, like my culture, and the novels, let's just say the one of the young adult novels. It's an angry, angry novel that I've been trying to you know, finesse since 2016, so a little therapy perhaps? Yes, definitely therapy. And then the middle grade novel is actually set in outer space. So I'm'm excited about that too, because, you know, I grew up on Star Trek and Star Wars. 

27:37 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
I love. It All right, a couple more for you. Okay, writing is. 

27:46 - Teresa Robeson (Guest)
The best way to leave your mark in the world and possibly change the lives of somebody, a child out there that you can, you know, touch the heart of, and maybe they'll grow up to be a scientist. That would just like make it all worthwhile for me. 

28:07 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Love it. 

28:07 - Teresa Robeson (Guest)
We need diverse books because as Dr Rudine Simms saysine sims says windows and mirrors. Windows and mirrors. I mean, you know, I I consider myself very lucky because I'm an immigrant and I, you know, grew up in hong kong until I was eight years old and I felt very, very comfortable there because, you know, yeah, it's my people. And then we moved to Canada and there was, and probably still is, a good bit of racism that I've experienced myself. 

28:47
Kids who were born here that look different, like me, need to know the stories about their cultures, to know that they are important and not just, you know, they're not like looked down on and they don't have to think there's something less because they're called minorities. And also then, for other people who are not part of our culture, and they can learn something about you know somebody that's very different from them. Because for me, for example, I love learning about, you know Native American cultures and you. I moved here in my kind of middle grade years. I really got into Greek myths which I had not known about prior. I was just like, wow, that is so cool. Of course, you know my own cultures are cool too, but it's just like you know, I love that. But yeah, I also want to find out about like these really cool Indian or European myths out about like these really cool in or European myths. 

29:58 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
So I just think the more we learn about other people's cultures and heritage and you know whole background, the more you can be accepting of others and just yeah absolutely, and I love the fact you referenced Dr Rudine Sims, bishop too, because I've been thinking so much about the notion of windows and mirrors and how important that is for us as a culture that we all need those experiences and not just the single story but the option to be able to really delve in and build that empathy muscle. And books allow us to experience somebody else's experience and somebody else's truth in a way that you're not going to get off of TikTok and you're not going to get it off of you know doom scrolling through the news, but you do get it by immersing yourself in a book and getting lost in somebody else's ideas for a while and going, oh okay, I didn't think about it that way before. That just opened my world up a whole bunch too, and I think that the more we can do that, the better it is for everybody. 

31:05 - Teresa Robeson (Guest)
Absolutely. I love your phrase empathy muscle, let's exercise. 

31:09 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
We all need to exercise our empathy muscles these days. All right, I have two more questions for you. I'm going to finish on my favorite question, but I'm going to ask you this one first. You should have asked me oh is there anything? I should have asked you that I didn't. 

31:33 - Teresa Robeson (Guest)
Gosh, I don't know. I mean things people don't know they probably should not know and things I want people to know. I haven't really kept anything a secret, so I don't know. Because you know, I don't want you to ask me things like what's your favorite book? Again, it's kind of like what's my favorite bird? I have too many. So, gosh, I don't know. Go to my website where I have like some fun bits about me and subscribe to her newsletter. 

32:07 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Like seriously, it comes out like once a month and it's always filled with hope and interesting little fun facts. And what I love and you said this, but I've thought about it a lot is you you do science beyond just the fun facts, and that's something I appreciate about you is that you have the fun facts but then it's a deeper dive into them and you definitely want to follow this website. 

32:34 - Teresa Robeson (Guest)
Thank you. 

32:35 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
You're so sweet. So the last real question then, and kind of thinking about building our empathy muscle, I feel like this is an important question to ask these days as well what currently brings you hope? 

32:50 - Teresa Robeson (Guest)
People like you, people like you who are willing to, you know, discuss things that are currently being banned and, um, just knowing about oh, oh. So I get all sorts of various newsletters from organizations and I got a text from, I guess, some organization I had donated to, and the 17-year-old was talking about how she just registered to vote. And, yeah, young people, young people like that gives me hope, just, you know, yeah, young people who want to learn about all aspects of the world and not, you know, close themselves up and think their way is the only way and think they're the best you know, whatever in the world. So, yeah, yeah, friends like you and young people like them those give me hope. 

33:45 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Those are good things to have hope. So, everybody, please check out the show notes, go order these books. Pre-orders are so important for an author. Those make a difference in the publishing world. So definitely check them out and do your pre-orders. And, teresa, thank you so much for joining us this week. 

34:03 - Teresa Robeson (Guest)
Thank you for inviting me, Diane. I always love hanging out with you Me too.