NPM 26: Author Sara Hathaway & The Changing Earth

If you're just joining us, you've missed everything. Go back and listen to everything on the podcast. Listen to the great shows. We're live on Rumble. We've got them available up on Rumble. We've got them available up on our ex at Prepper Radio. And most of them are up here on Instagram also. But tonight, folks, tonight we're going to enter into an entirely different universe, right? You're going to meet my sister, Sarah. And yeah, we're going to, we're going to introduce you to the changing earth multiverse of shows, man. And it's just one of those things. Look, my personal point of view on this series of books turned audio drama, turning even something even bigger, like it's inevitable. Who said that? Was that, was that the big purple guy? I don't remember. Let's bring Sarah on. Cause I want to, tell you guys all about this audio drama to start because I think I don't know if you ask me that's probably the best way to get into the door right Sarah Hathaway ladies and gentlemen author so much more than that author and audio mad scientist let's go with that I think that pretty much sums you up lately right. Yeah producer screenwriter how many hats can I put on at once. I'm telling you it's uh Yeah, well, like I said, to me it feels inevitable that this thing just keeps growing and growing, but I kind of wanted to open up the show and talk about how people can dive in with the audio drama right off the bat to get to sort of learn what the Changing Earth series is all about. If you think that's the best way in, in my opinion, I think it's one of the best ways in because anybody can do it at any time. Everybody really loves audio these days. Um, you know, there was like, Oh, you got the audio book, you got the audio book. So yeah, we have the audio books. Um, but the audio drama is pretty cool. Um, there's, there's pieces of the story that you're going to get in the audio drama that you don't get in the books and there's pieces in the books that you're going to get that you don't get in the audio drama. So they both have their values. Um, but yeah, most people are like, well, I don't really like to read or whatever. And, You know, PBN is just showcased across the board in the audio drama as well. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, no doubt about it. Yeah, so I guess the audio drama was born out of the book series first to give everybody the history, right? Yeah. The book series is how many? The book series is not insanely old, right? Yeah, 11 books deep, but you started writing when? 2014 is when Day After Disaster came out. So about 12 years ago now, yeah. That's not bad, 11 books. Damn near one book per year. Yeah, I did like three in some years. And then other years, you know, I just... And then I dove into the audio. So that takes up a lot of time. And the audio drama, folks, has gone through... I don't know if you... Do you have like the original or no? I do. I actually just went back and revamped it. um from the start you know because the music got so much better just my skills really got um just so much better as far as production goes so that's why season five kind of took a lot while to get here because i went back to season one yeah revamped the whole thing and now uh they have the video piece that comes with them too that's like you know uh kind of ai slides basically just to give you something to look at when i put. Them up on youtube yeah Yeah, I I'll always remember that first audio drama episode because we set up it didn't we didn't plan this. We set up a tent out back and it was when I first got my hot tent, actually. And I set it up and had the kids sleep out there with me one night. And that night you called and you were like, the audio drama first episode is up. And we listened to it out there in the tent. I remember listening to it going like, oh, my God, this is crazy. And I remember hearing Christian first thing. Little Christian. Yeah. Yeah. His voice now, you know, yes. And back then it was, yes, Bob, you know, right. And now his voice. So Daniel is going to grow up quite a bit this season. Um, and then next season, even for sure. I'm, uh, got one more episode to write for season six. And then you guys are getting audios again. So I'm missing it. Yeah, actually. That's why we had the break. Cause like, The music. I mean, the very first time we put out an episode of the Changing Earth audio drama, there was no music. Nothing, yeah. Yeah, it was just the voices and the sounds. I don't ever go in like, we need something in there. It was your kind of vision that got the, let's add the music, let's add the sound effects and that kind of stuff. Right, right. Because it sets the tone, you know, it just sets like the tone of the moment. Oh, yeah. And then. You're good with the music, too. That's the thing. Yeah. Now I can design my own music. And I know that's pretty cool. But as far as it goes, like finding the proper lyrics for the proper moment. Oh, I'm like a kid in a candy store. Only you could do that because, you know, the book so well, you know what I mean? And that's part of the character so well, too. Yeah. So most of the music now I just create it, which is fantastic. Yeah, it's, hey, look, it's one of those things where like, that's one of the biggest struggles right now is if you were, you have so limited time to work on the things you want to work on. And if you were to send out to somebody and say, hey, I need a song that's like this, this and this. Yeah. You're just not working for a week. Right. It would take like three months to get it back. Oh, yeah. There's no doubt. Yeah, there's no doubt. So it's, yeah, that's the thing. But why don't you give a high, because we talked a lot about the series already, like the high overview of kind of what's going on in the changing earth so that people know if I go listen to this audio drama tonight to fall asleep to or whatever, or tomorrow on the treadmill, what am I listening to? Well, you should definitely start back episode one. I mean, definitely. It's like jumping into Walking Dead at season four, right? You're going to be like, what, who are these people and what the heck's going on? Way deeper than that though. Yeah. There's not even a zombie to give you a sort of an anchor point. Right. Like once they introduced Negan kind of, it would be like coming in to four episodes after him. And you're like, that's a good way to look. Who is this crazy guy? Right. Cause TJ is really on top of the world right now. He is just. Yeah. And seventh heaven right now. Anything, but yeah. Yeah, this is his moment. So you should definitely go back to season one. I started it from the very, you know, very beginning of the adventure, the audio drama. It's about Erica Moore, and she is the lone survivor of Sacramento. Sacramento gets taken out by this huge flood, toxic water. West Coast is just devastated. And then from there, it's her mission to see, like, did my family survive? She lives up in the foothills. So did my family survive? What does that look like? People help her along the way. And then later on, she has to decide, like, do I sacrifice myself? To help the people who help me. So the beginning book was really that ethical journey for me. Like, what would I do? Yeah. If this all went down, like, you know, she comes across some dude just not being nice to this chick. And she has to decide again, like, do I sacrifice myself? Maybe never see my family again to help this stranger. Right. All kinds of questions like that. Like, man, what would you do? Yeah, that's the I mean, that's why the changing earth that I always say is it's like so much better than everybody kind of thinks The Walking Dead when you think a long series like that. But it's just the people element in the post-apocalyptic world is the whole thing, right? The ethical and the moral element. That's what makes your books awesome. All the characters or most of them are put in these crazy positions. And then those positions automatically to the reader go like, hmm. What would I do? You know what I mean? Right. What would I do in that situation? Some people are like, man, it hits so hard. It hits so hard. I cried and everything. I'm like, well... You know, because I want you to really do the ethical question of looking inside and what does that look like? So that's really what Day After Disaster is all about. And just Hollywood seemed to do like we're coming up to the disaster and then, oh, we saved it. It didn't really happen. Right. Or like nine years after the disaster, 20 years after the disaster. So I wanted to do the day after the disaster. It's a great opening for sure. You guys will get a kick out of it. How how Erica makes it out of Sacramento is a whole thing in and of itself. I like like the MacGyver type stuff, you know? So she had to be like super crafty and creative, but I try to make her not like over the top. I want women to be able to identify with her and be like, Yeah, I could do that. You know, I don't want her to be. Like Jason Bourne of the female persuasion. Right. Yeah. Right. She doesn't come in like taking out 50 guys like, come on, that's not reality. I want people to be able to learn from my material as they get entertained. And then so that's the big difference in the audio drama compared to the books is the book is just Erica's story. But in the audio drama, because I wrote Swenson's original story. The bad guy. And I wrote Virgis. Well, Virgis got his original story in the audio drama. I actually wrote a book because of the audio drama. Right. Yeah. I just took like his story and went, okay, this is its own book. So that's where their origin stories come in. But so you get to see them from the very beginning as well. Like where was TJ Swenson when the stuff went down? And he was actually in St. Louis, which I've studied a ton about the New Madrid earthquake because I'm just fascinated by that kind of stuff. And so I really wanted to showcase like, you know, the sand blows that are going off there. They're like literally sand geysers that come out of the earth that happened during the New Madrid quake. And pieces of land just going up two stories tall, lakes forming just out of nowhere. And this really happened in the 1800s. So I wanted to showcase that. Yeah, you're great at research. You really were phenomenal in terms of figuring all that stuff. You know what? I always tell my kids that story. I literally just told my son that story again. I don't even know how we got on the subject of it. EMP or something like that. Somehow we got on the subject of solar flares and EMPs and all that. Yeah, the CME, the coronal mass ejections. Yeah, the story that you told us about the Hopi EMP. Talking about it raining lightning. Yeah. I told him about that. I don't remember if we were talking about living underground or whatever. Yeah, no. That story comes up several times. Several times when I'm talking to my kids and I remind them that the world may, at one point, maybe not when they're alive, but it could rain lightning and it's been reported by the ancients that that could happen. Yep, the Hopi blue star and all that is pretty... With the earthquake activity that's been happening lately, you know, you just got to stay ready. They say because of the magnetic shielding stuff, by 2040, we're looking at, you know, a much different planet because of the pole shift and everything. Oh, yeah. Something's got to give with that. That thing seems to be moving and moving steadily. Yep. Steadily moving. And you know that's going to have all the effect. Look at this crazy El Nino year we're having. Oh, yeah. You know. Things are a little haywire. That's a good point. Yeah. All the volcanoes. It's even moving in that direction too. That's funny. Uh-huh. Yeah. That's eyes on the prize, man. That's why you got to know how to survive on the earth. Like you can't just do technology. Oh, no way. You've got to plant your garden. You've got to know how to have a relationship with this planet. Yeah. That's a great way to put it. That is a great way. You got to go back about 100, 150 years. If you think you could survive 100, 150 years ago, you'll be okay. I was like, oh, I got my Faraday cage. I'm like, you got a phone. Who are you calling? No power. That's the Carrington event. Took out all the Transformers. We've been getting hit. They just don't talk a lot about it. Spain had an entire grid down. I think it was Portugal that went out because of solar flares coming in. They just don't, I don't want you to know these things, you know. The South Atlantic anomaly is just massive down in South America and going into two pieces. What's that one? The South Atlantic anomaly. I don't think I know what that is. Yeah, it's a hole in the ozone, basically, where the shield's really weak. And they can't even fly satellites through there. They completely malfunction because of the, yeah, it is on the move, like. If you're looking for the signs, they're all over the place. Wow. And this was the catalyst when you started writing was you're saying something's coming. Oh, everybody's like, are you the next Nostradamus? I'm like, I hope not. I hope not. Right. I hope not, man. You've told me some crazy stuff. Right. Yeah. It was just disaster. I just went with like the disaster. I just knew I just had a feeling like I didn't really pick a certain thing. Um, and the earthquakes are what, um, you know, I've just read so much prophetic information and it's always earthquakes, earthquakes, earthquakes. So I was like, okay. The earth is just sick of humans, right? And the earth is just going to shake like we're ticks on its back, you know? And then, yeah, and then let's see what happens when everything gets shook up. And look at like Venezuela, all the buildings that went down and everything. But like not a lot of people died, honestly, for a disaster that big, right? That is good. So an earthquake. Yeah. It was like a seven or something, right? Yeah, that one was like a 7.2, I believe. I mean, that's a pretty big one. Right. And like their infrastructure got pretty messed up. But all in all, like comparatively disaster wise, the death toll wasn't huge. So what if all of Earth's infrastructure is destroyed, but not that many people are dead? Right. Like five billion people. Right. And you still have your house, maybe. All these people just lost their house. Yeah. Now they're coming to your house. Oh, of course. Yeah. So then what does the. Government do about this? They round them up into FEMA camps. And that's what they would do. You have to. Oh, definitely. You have to put them somewhere. You can't leave them outside. Yeah. And then the oil supply is disrupted. So what do you got? You got a lot of people sitting around with idle hands. put them to work so then that's really the where the the series goes um book two is nine years later um i wrote part of my gap book in between those two and that's in the audio drama but i've also published uh the lost vegas years yeah it was like the missing nine years because i was like what happened in the story between when she was in, you know, up in the mountains to when they're in Vegas and Daniel's born and everything. Uh, so some of that is in the audio drama, but the audio drama does have a little, little jump to it as well. So that's where we go. It is a big wide world that Earth series, man. It is. Yeah. And the earth keeps pushing. Yeah. Yeah. You created a great survivor in Erica. A great character, man. It's like one of those sort of... It's always funny when people talk about how we didn't have enough female heroines. Because when I grew up, I just felt like everybody kicking ass was a woman. Like in the early 90s, it was... You know, you had Warnie Weaver and Sarah Connor. Oh, Sarah Connor. Yeah, there were so many women. Everybody who killed a i watched a lot of horror as a kid and girls always killed off the bad guys in horror movies but it was cool to see that you know not like an augmented reality version of a woman you know what i mean like like a legitimate woman survivor and that and. Yeah i wanted to make her real and her family right yeah this isn't like a It's not like, oh, and then they leave each other and everything. No, this is like, I'm already married. You know, Erica is already married. She's got her character. She's got her husband and how they make it together. Yeah. And, you know, it's that drama of when she's feeling survivor's guilt and stuff like that. And he's like, you know, it's not always all about you. Right. Like, yeah, that's. What I mean. Yeah. It's, it's crazy because it's so simple, but you look around in the world for a character like that in a situation like that. And it's like, I mean, there's no, it hardly exists. Right. I don't even know if it exists. The family's always splinter. Yep. Always. Yep. Always. Dad or broken up or dad's dead or mom's dead or the kids, you know, it's always a thing. And that's the most drama of the whole thing. Like that's the biggest drama of the whole thing. Right. Is the family going to make it through? Are they going to make it through together? And they even adopt one in. Yeah, exactly. Because that's how it would go down. Sarah's going, how can I make this worse? How can I give them more to worry about? Let's bring in another kid. That's just the decision she had to make in that moment. That's book one. Yeah, you guys will love it. Book one. And it's just, you know, there's nowhere to go. And you're amongst, some people are going off their rocker, right? All the people who don't have to follow laws anymore, who are just waiting for that day. They're dying for that. Right. And no doubt about it. Folks over there on Instagram, you've got a link directly to Sarah's page, Sarah's homepage, where she has, well, the first thing you should do is watch the awesome trailer. That's up there for the book series slash audio drama series slash everything else series. That's going to be the TV series right there. Yes. That's what we're all praying for these days is to get this thing done. As good a job as everyone's done with their audio and everything. We want to see the next iteration. Right. That's going to be amazing. But you can go buy the books there. Listen to the audio drama over there. the whole nine yards, buy your cool merch. I had my hoodie on all day too. I just got hot from chasing them. Those hoodies are the best. They are the best. You know, they don't sell like sweats. Like when I was a kid, you know, or like at the college campus, you get that great sweat material that's thick and got the fuzzy on the inside. Those sweatshirts are it. That's why I was like, oh yeah. They are it. You're right. It's one or the other. It's too thin. Or it's too fancy. Like, Oh, the bird, the birds flying around. Oh no. In your office. Jake, you just opened the door and the bird flew. My son was sitting outside. He didn't even want to deal with it. Oh gosh. He's in a good spot though. I might be able to kick the dogs out and get them out the front door, but whatever. Side note, folks. I just had a squirrel moment, but it was a bird. Yeah. I love that. Um, Yeah. So head on over there, man. What else is over in that website? You got all kind of, you got a membership over there. Yeah. All the social media links. If you want to go back to the changing earth podcast. So in my books, in my novels, I really try and teach a lot as I go. And the changing earth podcast was a chapter of the book with a survival lesson pulled out from the chapter. And if you want to go through the entire archives, we're almost up to 500 shows now. Um, Yeah. And if you want to go through the entire archives, you're going to have to go and become, um, at least jump on the, uh, you don't have to pay, but if you become a member, then you can go back through the archives. And if you want to help the change in earth world go round, it costs three bucks to become a subscriber. I got the members page where you get like some behind the scenes stuff and you get to go way back in time with me, uh, through a lot of ups and downs of life on that podcast. Coming out from time to time. They are. Yep. We, um, I'm actually next Sunday, I'm doing a really cool interview with a producer from, um, one of the other big post-apocalyptic audio dramas on audio dramas. Um, American Afterlife, it's called. And the producer of that show is coming on to interview with me. So that is going to be a ball. Yeah, that's sweet. Yeah, it keeps growing. It keeps growing. I'm trying to show off the audio drama here. If I were you guys and you're out there listening, this is where I would start. I would check out this first episode and first whole season of the audio drama. You can listen to it while you're driving. You can listen to it while you're walking, running, whatever you're doing at bedtime. It won't take long. It won't take long. You'll get binging it. I sit there and watch every prepper camp now, at least for the last three years. I sit there and watch people come up to your booth and go, I read the last four books on the plane ride and all that kind of crazy stuff. When I was reading them, they'd read them in a weekend and they're like, where's the next one? And I'm like, okay, I can't work that fast, guys. You gotta give me at least a little bit here. So, yeah. If you watch them on YouTube, the first season is just like the bouncing ball video, random videos. And then you're gonna watch basically the evolution of AI. Because as soon as I had the ability to make characters, and be able to bring that to life. I started fiddle-diddling with it, and now it's pretty darn cool. I'm pretty proud of the videos, but way back when, them videos were like, oh, like, whoa. I'm going to have to redo all that now, because I don't know that I'm satisfied with that. Everybody's going to have that weird transitionary period, though, for sure. There's no doubt. Yeah it's amazing like how far it's come and just. Oh you kidding me i mean what is it gonna be next i mean that's a big thing right. I want to be able to just feed it like my audio drama and have it just like do it it. Will i mean yeah undoubtedly gonna be able to do that especially like those personal projects because it's it's like uh getting to know you you know Yes. And it'll keep getting to know you. And it'll be like, oh, I think I know how Sarah wants us to go. We can do that. Yeah, exactly. It's crazy. It's a fun ride, though. But anyway, not to get off track, go check out the website. Go listen to the audio drama. Watch the TV series trailer. It's going to pop right up. You can sign up for the mailing list there, too. And yeah, man, let's bring this thing to life. The, the given the trailer of you is like the, one of the best things that can happen right now. We want to get that thing going, share it with your friends, please, you know, get a move in. Cause, uh, that's, you know, just shows them interest. And that's actually over on IMBD pro, um, or IMBD, which is, you know, the Hollywood, all that stuff. So, um, yeah, that's one of the biggest movements. And then Christmas is coming up. I do sign copies off the website. So anybody can, get the book signed and whatnot. Yeah. The more books that move, the better get this thing into producers faces and all that. And yeah. Yeah. The algorithm has been a challenge for, for Sarah along the years. So, uh, everybody, I mean. Yeah, we just keep going, you know, it's called perseverance. Better have it nowadays. So, uh, let's see, uh, FEMA camps, uh, And then, uh, we book three, when I wrote that was super challenging. Um, it was bringing them back into like, what does the world look like now? Right. We're not just out in the, on the side, bring them back in. That was a lot of fun to do set up the governing boards and I can bring a little bit more like sci-fi in cause they had some tech left in the central region and that, that kind of thing. He's running stuff out all over the country. Right. And then they try to like silence her and she uses that moment as like the springboard to just pump the Constitution back to the United States. Let's get rid of this FEMA system. You know, let's bring our Constitution back. And so the government's not thrilled about that one. But the next disasters in route were always up against the earth, too. And so, yeah. So right about that time is the time I was researching Tim Ballard and all the work he was doing with anti-trafficking. Yeah. So I knew that I could use my platform to also bring awareness to human trafficking and what's going on there, right? Yeah. Big thing. So that's really where TJ Swenson comes from. Yeah. He's a perfect character to run a. Yeah, human trafficking operation amongst other illicit behaviors that he's wrapped up in. And he was actually human trafficked as a child as well. So that's, you know, Mr. Lee found him in a dumpster. And so trained him to be his muscle and all that. So Swenson's trying, they don't, if they kill Erica, they make her into a martyr. You know, that's the yeah, that's the right for them. But Swanson likes to capture and retrain, reeducate, reeducate. Yeah, sure. So that's really, you know, there they went head to head and they keep going head to head. And then but like without land or I'm sorry, hope on the horizon. That's like my second to last book. that's a really exploratory about people who get rescued out of human traffic, trafficking situations. And you know what they're going through mentally. Oh yeah. Oh, back to life. Well, excuse me. You know, like life's messed up a little. Right. Right. So, you know, to let Erica really feel that and what that looks like. And then, um, last one, the bitter end as the bitter end. And, um, you know, you just, that's the one I've never given away for free and I don't think I ever will. Yeah. So, um, we will have a season seven. but we might have a paywall for like the last six to eight episodes. That's a good idea. I think. Yeah. Cause I've done the whole thing for free. I want everybody to just experience the story, learn, learn, learn, learn. Learn, learn. Cause we've got stuff coming down the pipeline. Right. So I want to do my part to help everybody learn and be able to be more prepared tomorrow than they are today. But also I put a lot of work into those things, man. She's not kidding, folks. Yeah. She is not kidding. All the scripts have to be written. I get single line tracks of voices that I have to turn in the conversations. Put all the sounds in. Make all the music. Put all the music in. And then the video is a whole other layer. And that's worth mentioning because you've mentioned a handful of characters, but if you listen to the audio drama, you're going to hear 20. characters in that first episode probably and every one of them is a voice a person that sarah knew and recruited to come on and be a voice on that show i mean it's hell i think i'm two characters in that first episode you are i just. Um so i know how to manipulate voices a little bit more now So I've manipulated your pilot voice a little bit. He's like, hey, what's up? Instead of being like James Walton. That's hilarious. Yeah. That's hilarious. Well, folks, check it out. Sarah, I appreciate you joining us tonight. Absolutely. It's an amazing world that you've invited us all into, and I hope that. Okay, I got a question for you, though. Oh, go ahead. Sure. What has been your favorite part so far? My favorite part has definitely been the crazy way that you lined me up with my second character and his whole situation. That was just crazy. It's kind of creepy. How he melded through the story? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it was kind of crazy. It was almost like Sarah's like, in my watch history vengeance movies i'm watching all the time. So yeah but yeah i mean very cool you know it's amazing for me to hear everybody doing this thing to see you you know doing it and it becoming better and better with every iteration you know it's amazing. I've been blessed it's a lot of good people It's. Incredible to see. And then of course, you know, it winds up on PBN on top of all of that. So that's another delay to everything over there, but all right. I don't want to go too long because I want to try to fit this onto Instagram. Awesome. So, all right, folks, click the links, go check out the story, get addicted and we will see you tomorrow. Drop me messages. I love to hear them. Yeah. Yes. Send a message for sure. And Sarah, you're, What is your Instagram? Oh, that's a good question. I think it's changing earth series. Just type in changing earth series. You'll probably find her followers. Yeah. Look for the globe. That's the key. You see anybody with the globe on, give them a handshake. Tell them you thank them for their service. Yeah, pretty much. All right. Appreciate it folks. I'll talk to you tomorrow. Another episode. We're running out of days. When you're off the grid or working in real winter conditions, the basics matter more than anything. Heat Force Pro was designed around a simple idea. One product doing more than one job. Heat Force Pro turns a single heat source into three essentials, providing warmth, a place to cook, and generating usb power through high temperature thermoelectric technology you can use for charging or powering a light source It gets the job done cooking charging heating everything from a to b i mean it's it's a good using product for the outdoorsman for sure