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>> In memory of Dick Robinson
and sponsored by the Institute
of Museum and Library Services.
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>> Hello, I'm Guy Raz from Wow
in the World and I'm so excited
to be at the National Book
Festival with all of you.
>> I'm Mindy Thomas coming to
you live from my own human body.
We are the authors,
the coauthors
of a brand new book called Wow
in the World, The How and Wow
of the Human Body From
Your Tongue to Your Toes
and All the Guts In Between.
>> And the book is really
about how the human body is
the most incredible machine
in the universe.
And it's really designed
to bring it alive
for kids and grownups.
And we are super excited to
talk about some of the themes
that the National Book Festival
is focused on this year.
And Mindy, I want to
ask you a question.
>> Oh, no.
>> When you were a kid, which
author first inspired you
and opened your eyes up
to the world of reading?
>> You know, Guy Raz, I've
got to say the first books
that I remember reading on my
own that got me really excited
about reading are the
classic Ann M. Martin series,
The Babysitter's Club.
>> Oh, yeah.
>> I loved it.
It opened my world
to entrepreneurship.
>> Yes.
>> Which is what you
know a lot about.
>> I do, on another show
called How I Built This.
But it's interesting you say
that, Mindy, because for me,
when I think about a modern
author who inspires me today,
it's Raina Telgemeier,
who did a version
of the Babysitter's
Club, and Raina's books,
and I know you're
a fan of Raina,
her books have opened my
world up around writing
in an empathetic way
for earlier readers.
And it's been amazing also to
see my two children, both boys,
really immersed in those books.
Those books are made for --
they're not just made for
a certain type of reader,
they're made for all kids.
And they're beautifully
written, deeply empathetic,
personal stories, and I think
that is the kind of book
for kids today that
really inspires me.
>> Yeah, I'm a big
fan of the books today
that are celebrating the whole
experience of being a person
and being a kid, and being
a kid is being a person
and you have all these
feelings, and I don't remember
so many books like that
when we were growing up.
>> No.
>> So the readers today,
you guys don't even
know how lucky you are.
Speaking of opening up the
world, we literally open
up your human body, which
you all have, in our book.
If you open up the book,
you will see the insides
of your body, all of the guts
[inaudible], it's all in here.
Guy Raz, what were
some of the things
that you were the most
surprised about when we opened
up our own human
bodies to [inaudible]?
>> You know, I mean, all of
the things we learned about.
I mean, the fact that it's
impossible to tickle yourself
or that blood travels
12,000 miles a day
through every single human body,
or that we all get
roughly 500 million breaths
in a human lifetime, or
2.5 billion heartbeats
in one human lifetime.
Or that kids' fingernails
grow twice as fast
as grownups' fingernails.
And that, Mindy, that was, for
me, the beginning of an endless,
endless period of wow, saying
wow again and again and again.
>> One of the questions that the
National Book Festival wanted
to know was about our writing
process and how we came
up with the idea for this
book and how we got it
from our initial idea to in
between the pages, and I've got
to say, I don't know how it felt
for you, Guy Raz, but for me,
it felt a little like when you
take a giant bite of something
and then it goes through
your digestive system
and you're taking out all
the good things that you need
and then you are
pooping out the rest.
That is kind of what it
is like to write a book.
And this is the first book
that I've ever written,
and I know that you've got
a grownup book called How I
Built This.
Did it feel like
that for that, too?
>> You know, it's interesting
because this book obviously was
so different than my
grownup books, right?
That we are -- we're
trying to make something
that we think we
would've loved as kids
and that we would still love
as grownups for kids today.
And one of the things that
Mindy and I talked a lot
about when we started to come
up with what this book would be
like was the book
The Way Things Work.
Also games like Operation.
We were really inspired by -- or
those books that we used to read
as kids with the clear covers
that you could, right Mindy?
Remember [inaudible].
>> Like the layers or something?
>> The layers and the veins.
We wanted to do something
that was inspired by that.
And really when we
started to work
on the book, that was our basis.
That's how we began
to think about it.
And then it all started
to come together.
Mindy is the heart and soul
of this book and Mindy is,
if you listen to Wow in
the World, our podcast,
she's the heart and
soul of our show.
And so we wanted it to be funny.
We wanted to be in our voices
as the characters on the show.
And so there was a lot of
tinkering and eventually, Mindy,
we met Jack Teagle, who became
our amazing illustrator.
>> And he sort of brought all
of these body parts to life.
One of the things that
I think was the most fun
in creating this book
was to give voice
to the voiceless
inside of our bodies.
So our red blood
cells come to life.
There's an interview with
my lungs in this book.
I had no idea.
Can you believe I've never had
a conversation with my lungs?
>> Never.
>> I wrote this section
on lungs.
>> Muscles.
>> Yeah.
>> [inaudible] muscles.
Yeah.
>> So much fun.
So I feel like -- you
might agree with this, Guy,
that we learned as
much researching
and writing this book
as the kids will reading
it with their families.
>> I mean, it's incredible.
We have 1000 times more neural
connections in our brain.
Every single person
watching this,
you have 1000 times more neural
connections in your brain
than all the stars
in the galaxy.
It's incredible.
You know, Mindy, I'm wondering,
on that question of the drafts.
I'm trying to remember now,
because the book, of course,
open secret, you
work on a book more
than the year before
it comes out.
In fact, we've just finished
pretty much the second book
in this series.
It's going to come out next
year, which we can't talk about,
but we are almost
finished with it.
And I'm trying to remember,
Mindy, in the drafts
for this book, did
we cut anything out?
Was there a section of
the, a part of the body
that we decided not to do?
>> Well, it wasn't that
we decided not to do it,
it was that we couldn't find a
picture that we needed for it.
Do you know where I'm
going with this, Guy Raz?
>> Please, please.
>> So I had a dream, I
had a dream, Guy Raz,
that you would be turning
the pages of this book
and then you would come
to a full two-page spread
of nothing but vomit.
Just a two-page spread of
glistening, chunky vomit.
Sorry for everyone who's
going to feel a little --
just take a deep breath.
And, can you believe, we
could not find a picture
of vomit anywhere.
>> Could [inaudible].
>> Not the right
picture of vomit.
We found pictures.
We just couldn't find the star.
So at one point, I had
to call you, Guy Raz,
and what did I ask you to do?
I was very serious about this
and you were very
serious with your answer.
>> And this was part of our
creative process, Mindy asked me
to make my vegan chili and to
dump it on my kitchen table
and take a photograph of it.
>> And why did I ask you to take
a picture of your vegan chili?
>> Because Mindy thinks my
vegan chili looks like barf.
>> That's why.
And what did you say to me
when I asked you to do that?
>> I said you think my
vegan chili looks like barf?
>> And then he slammed
down the phone
and that was the end of that.
More or less.
No, really what happened
was I started to feel --
that really happened, but
I was starting to feel
so nauseous just
looking at all of these,
and I have a pretty high
tolerance for gross things.
I love gross things.
But looking at all the pictures
that we could possibly use,
I thought I don't
want kids to barf all
over the book, you know.
>> That's true.
>> [inaudible] it might from
the Library of Congress.
>> Thankfully.
>> Yeah.
>> We do have a section, we do
talk about barf in the book.
You're not missing out.
And all kinds of bodily fluids
and smells and things like that.
You know, Mindy, I know
that when you were a kid,
because we've talked about this
before, you would sing in front
of mirrors with your hairbrush,
or you would have
your own radio show.
You literally would have
your own kids' radio show
with your hairbrush,
and you would pretend
like you had a show and
then eventually you grew
up to be a grownup who did.
Did you ever think
about being a writer,
a kids' book writer
when you were a kid?
>> You know, I used to
-- I liked making things,
I liked pretending, I
liked making up things.
I remember having some
fan fiction Babysitter's
Club documents.
I don't have them anymore.
I don't know what
happened to them.
But I think when I was a
kid, my favorite things
to write were fake commercials.
I think that you can be a writer
without actually
typing something up
or without actually
writing it on the page.
Because I never wrote
a whole lot
until we starting writing Wow
in the World four
and a half years ago.
I really just didn't.
>> Yeah.
>> And I couldn't figure out
when we started why it felt
so natural to me and then I
realized I had been writing my
whole career, I just
wasn't putting it on paper.
>> Yeah.
>> I was writing as I spoke.
And so I never really
thought of myself as a writer
until I realized, oh, I think
there's some different ways
of doing it.
What about you, Guy Raz?
>> Exact same story.
I mean, I think that a
lot of kids don't realize
that they're writers
from the very beginning.
And it may not be -- because
we tend to think of writing
as sitting down at the -- it
used to be the typewriter,
and typing away and
pounding the keys
and then text would come up.
But, I mean, songs and stories
that kids make up all the time,
that I used to make up.
I used to write song lyrics.
I used to write stories
for video games.
And I used to write
stories, too.
But I never thought of
myself as a future author
or kids' book writer in any way.
I mean, it seems
like I wasn't --
maybe that wasn't the
right thing for me to do.
And also, the other
thing, Mindy, as you know,
I was a pretty serious kid.
We make us kind of a fun,
silly science show today,
and I'm still pretty
serious on that show,
but I was a pretty serious kid.
And I was really
interested in current affairs
and reading the newspaper.
And so I was doing
writing as I got older,
but for like the
student newspaper
in middle school
and in high school.
And it wasn't really until we
met, seven or eight years ago,
that I started to work
on writing for kids.
And also kind of reaching
back into my childhood to try
and remember what it would be --
what I would've wanted to hear.
And that's what working
with you taught me, too.
>> I think we almost have
kind of an unlikely friendship
because we are very,
very different people.
We always talk about when we
were kids how I loved being a
kid, loved playing,
I loved pretending,
I loved being silly, still do.
And you were a very serious kid.
I wonder if we would've been --
I wonder if we would've
had a friendship as a kid.
But I'm glad we do now because I
feel like you helped me to see,
you know, I didn't
grow up loving --
we do a science podcast and
we're writing science books
and I think that as a kid, I
didn't think science was for me.
I didn't think it was fun
or particularly interesting.
And I think you helped
me see that,
long even before we started
making Wow in the World,
and I think I helped you
see the silly side of it.
So somehow --
>> Yep.
>> We make a pretty
good team, Guy Raz.
>> We do. And so with that,
I have a very important
question for you.
>> Oh, no.
>> If you were -- we
are writers now, Mindy.
We are authors.
We are published authors
with a New York Times
best-selling book.
So now, as a writer, other
writers, aspiring writers,
young writers may be
wondering what should I do?
What do you say?
>> I would say I would keep
your imagination strong.
And you know how you do that?
You play. You play.
You pretend.
You make things up.
You follow your curiosity.
You don't stop yourself from
asking ridiculous questions,
because I think those are all
of the things that serve us both
in making our podcast
while in the world
and these books that
we're writing.
We're not afraid of -- I
think even writing this book,
I was probably feeling like, oh,
now I'm pretending
I'm an author now.
I'm just going to write
because I'm an author.
And then the next thing
we knew we had this book
that we're so proud of.
So I would say the best
thing you could do,
whether you're writing
fiction or non-fiction,
keep your imagination open.
Let yourself be surprised.
Surprise yourself and
just keep playing.
That's the most important thing
in your job you can do as a kid.
>> It's great advice.
Follow your curiosity.
>> And if you do write
things, keep them.
>> That's right.
And I think that the difference
between being an author
and being an aspiring author
is just one word, aspiring.
If you are an aspiring
author, stop saying aspiring
and call yourself an author.
There's no -- nobody has
to give you permission
to become or to be an author.
All you need to do is sit down
and start putting your ideas
on paper or in your computer.
And by the way, it's going
to take time before you,
yourself might love what you
do or feel comfortable with it,
but the only way to get better
is to do it again and again
and to sit down and to just
get your ideas and thoughts
out there, even if you
feel like they're scattered
and they're not great.
It's a really important
exercise.
So if you want to be an author,
just start calling
yourself an author.
And you will be an author.
You are an author.
>> Also get a good stapler
so you can staple your
pages together [inaudible].
>> That's a good one.
That's a very important point.
>> You need a stapler if
you're going to be an author.
>> A stapler to staple things
or paper clips, but
staples are good.
File cabinet.
Mindy, do you have a message
for our fans and readers,
our listeners, people
who bought this book,
what do you want them
to take away from it?
>> I want them to take
away a new curiosity
about their own body.
I want you to learn
about your body.
I want you to read about it
and want to take care of it.
It's the only thing we've got.
It's the only body you've got.
It's great just the way it is
and it can do miraculous things.
When you think about it,
every single breath you
take is your body helping
to keep you alive, going,
powering you to the next thing.
It is incredible.
So appreciate your body,
love it, get to know it,
and we are going to help
you with the How and Wow
of the Human Body, From
Your Tongue to Your Toes
and All The Guts In Between.
>> Couldn't have said
it better myself.
Hey, friends and fans
and folks who are here
for the National Book Festival,
we are so honored to be here.
It's been so much fun.
Thank you for being
with us and check
out our book, Wow in the World.
>> Hi. My name is Monica
Valentine and I work here
in the Library of Congress.
I'm in the Woodall Pavilion,
which is the performance space
for the Library's
Music Division.
I hope you've enjoyed this video
about the book Wow in the World,
the How and Wow of
the Human Body.
Maybe you've learned
something that surprises you.
If so, here's something else
that might surprise you.
Did you know you can use
your body as an instrument.
[ Clapping noises ]
The Tambuco Percussion Ensemble
recorded a concert and a series
of educational videos for the
Library last year, including one
that shows how you can use
your body to make music.
Follow along with the
musicians here and think
about the systems inside you
as you drum on the outside.
[ Clapping sounds ]
I invite you to explore more
resources and activities anytime
on the Library's
website, LLC.gov.
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