I Am Princess Diana The Unforgettable Journey With The Amazing Brad Meltzer

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Your exploration.

Dude, congratulations on this book because I mean,

you're really playing my fiddle when you do something about Princess Dye.

This is right here.

She is the queen of empathy still to this day inside my heart.

You know, and that's where it's from.

I've spoken to you about these books.

And listen, it illustrated kids books, right?

For little kids to give my own kids, I started to give them better heroes to look up to,

right? To give them heroes who aren't famous on Instagram or have a million followers.

Like, that's not a hero. That's someone who's famous.

And being a hero is more important.

And in the beginning, we started with I'm a meal, you air-heart.

I'm Abraham Lincoln. I am Rosa Parks.

And that's obvious.

You know, those are the obvious choices, right?

That's who people would pick if you said pick the best heroes.

You know, Dr. King and Albert Einstein.

But then when you're 30 books into this series, you start going, well,

who do our kids need these days?

And when I started looking around, I said,

wait a minute, we need to teach our kids about empathy.

And how do we teach empathy?

And that's where we did I am Princess Diana.

Oh my God. I could probably do 50, 60 pages of all the things that she did that I sat there

and just got closer and closer and closer.

And I think, and I would love to know what yours is,

mine was with the dedication and oil that she put in the mines that were still in the ground.

And she went to these countries looking for these mines that could have easily blown up.

Rudolph, of course, we put that in the book as you saw.

I mean, you know, that was in fact how we end the book is it's one of her great moments.

And, and you know, what I love about Princess Diana is that empathy doesn't just start

when she's an adult, you know, one of the things we do in the ordinary people change

world books is we always show you the hero when they're a kid.

So they're drawn like kids. They look like kids.

You know, they look like the reason kids love our books is because it's like a

Chris Ellyopoulos, the artist draws each here. He has a star style.

It's like Charlie Brown meets Calvin and Hobbs. They're just lovable.

And when you see Diana when she's a young girl,

she's got this rough life, you know, like her parents get divorced.

It's a really wealthy family. Everyone's like, you know, you grew up at your rich and you have

a fairy tale life. But her family didn't eat dinner together.

Her brother would eat and her would eat with the nanny and the nursery.

Her parents never hugged her. Never said they loved her.

And, you know, gets divorced and leave her feeling alone.

But what she has is this grandmother.

And her grandmother was sweet and kind.

And used to visit the people in her town who were sick or they needed something that they

couldn't afford. And Diana sees that.

And everyone tells you look like your grandmother.

And that's where Diana gets it from.

She gets that empathy by meeting it herself when she's little.

She needs someone to love her. And that's obviously why we start showing.

And we can talk about all the other different things she does from there.

But that's where it comes from.

Well, I'll tell you one of the things that you inspired me to do.

And I'm sure it's going to be other readers as well.

Is that you brought me to the question of, do I tell my dog or my family?

Do I tell them I love them too much? Because I didn't have that either growing up.

And it was like, do I say that too much?

In fact, the story that I did today on I Heart Radio was based on, do we tell our dogs?

We love them too much. And the answer is yes.

And I went, whoa, how can this be possible?

And they said because you can say words.

Now put something with it and give me an activation.

Princess, die, activated it.

She didn't just say it.

And that got it from your book, dude.

No, I love that.

I mean, and that's what she had to do, right?

She, when she's in school, she's not a great student.

She actually does poorly. But every Tuesday and Thursday is a kid.

They would go to a hospital for people who were physically disabled, mentally disabled.

And everyone, when the doors open, all these sick old people would kind of roll on their

wheelchairs, talk to kids. And the kids are freaking out.

It looks like it feels like a zombie movie.

And they used to, like, the kids would push the wheelchairs from behind.

And instead, she would meet people where they were.

She'd go when there was a dance instead of pushing the wheelchair from behind,

she would go around to the front.

So would you like to dance together?

And again, that's before she meets Charles.

And yeah, she meets them and they get married and they have the big wedding and all that.

But you have to understand that when she takes becomes royalty,

royalty back, then they'd have royal activities, right?

They would, like, go out and wave to the crowd and the crowd would wave back.

And then your work was done.

And they look around.

They're like, where's Diana?

And they see that she's reached down.

She's hugging some kid and they're like, what's she doing with it?

And they're like, she's hugging it, sir.

And I know it sounds so obvious, but no one did that back then.

That wasn't how the royalty moved through the crowds.

And then she sees, like, people doing charity work.

She's in a hospital and she sees this guy with his dying wife holding his wife's hand.

So she goes over and puts his hand on, you know,

her hand on this guy and just says, I'm going to sit with you.

And she realizes when she does these visits that,

where she sees suffering, that's where she wants to be.

That's where she finally felt good about herself.

And my God, what a lesson to teach your kids to take care of other people like that.

Well, it's if she wanted to hug those that everybody else ran away from.

She was always just present in their life to make them feel like you're one of us.

I'm not judging you.

You're one of us.

You're just as great and beautiful just like one of us.

Yeah.

And let's talk about that because that's such a vital part.

It's one thing the hug a little kid.

But as she gets, you know, more comfortable here,

she starts hugging people that no one, like you said, would hug my brother, right?

Like, so she sees people with leprosy, right?

And I remember growing up as a kid being like leprosy would just scare the hell out of me.

What is that?

And she would go and hug people who had leprosy.

She'd hug people who were homeless.

She'd go and see people who were addicted to drugs.

And then let's see, you know, the most important part arguably is AIDS.

All right.

I was just going to bring that up.

Oh my God, I was just going to bring that up.

That's so cool.

You would bring that up, right?

And like that's, you know, so AIDS, we all know now, like thank God,

they have things and treatments and things, but not then.

And I remember back then, people were terrified.

They didn't know if you, if you hug someone with AIDS,

you're going to get sick.

If they cough on you to get AIDS, I know it even knew in the beginning how you get AIDS.

And she's not wearing any gloves and she's shaking people's hands.

And this is one visit we include in the book.

And again, it's a kids book.

But she says, you know, during this one visit to see an AIDS patient,

she sees this man start crying when she holds his hands.

And she wants to hug them to make them feel better,

but she doesn't know what to do.

No one knows what to do.

And she tells herself, just do it.

Just hug him.

And so she reaches out, she squeezes this man tight.

He squeezes her back, laughing with joy.

And she realizes it's amazing what a hug can do.

And hundreds of, you know, first hundreds and then thousands.

And then millions of people see her do this.

She goes around with first lady, Barbara Bush at the time,

who full credit to her starts doing it like.

And that's where people start saying, oh, these aren't lepers.

These aren't people we should forget about,

but they're human beings.

And it takes, it takes Princess Diana to say,

man, we got to start treating them like that.

Please do not move.

There's more with Brad Meltzer coming up next.

Warning, the following Zippercruder radio spot you are about to hear

is going to be filled with F words.

When you're hiring, we at Zippercruder know you can feel frustrated.

For Lauren, even, like your efforts are futile.

And you can spend a fortune trying to find fabulous people,

only to get flooded with candidates who are just fine.

Fortunately, Zippercruder figured out how to fix all that.

And right now, you can try Zippercruder for free

at zippercruder.com slash zip.

With Zippercruder, you can forget your frustrations,

because we find the right people for your roles fast,

which is our absolute favorite F word.

In fact, four out of five employers who post on Zippercruder

get a quality candidate within the first day.

Fantastic.

So whether you need to hire four, 40, or 400 people,

get ready to meet first rate talent.

Just go to zippercruder.com slash zip to try Zippercruder for free.

Don't forget that zippercruder.com slash zip.

Finally, that zippercruder.com slash zip.

Finding great candidates to hire can be like, well,

trying to find a needle in a haystack.

Sure, you can post your job to some job board,

but then all you can do is hope the right person comes along,

which is why you should try Zippercruder for free.

At zippercruder.com slash zip.

Zippercruder doesn't depend on candidates finding you.

It finds them for you.

It's powerful technology identifies people with the right experience

and actively invites them to apply to your job.

You get qualified candidates fast.

So while other companies might deliver a lot of, hey,

Zippercruder, find you what you're looking for.

The needle in the haystack.

See why four out of five employers who post a job on Zippercruder

get a quality candidate within the first day.

Zippercruder, the smartest way to hire.

And right now, you can try Zippercruder for free.

That's right.

Free at zippercruder.com slash zip.

That zippercruder.com slash zip.

Zippercruder.com slash zip.

Then in the book, I am Princess Diana.

We are back with Brad Meltzer.

I am a firm believer that this book served as a huge reminder in my heart.

Why that I will walk with a blind man through a grocery store and help them shop?

Why out, you know, if there's somebody that is mentally challenged,

then I will sit there and I will talk with them like they are like you and I.

And then their carekeeper looks at me like I'm strange.

I'm going, no, no, no, no, no, do not do what you don't,

don't undo what we're doing right now.

Because this man, this lady is really getting into being recognized as a human being.

Yeah, and that's the key thing is not just, you know, like he said,

saying it, but doing it.

Yes.

And what I love, you know, she, her sons are born.

Obviously, you know, you have the, she has these two boys.

And what she starts doing is taking them to serve with her.

But he was the part that I didn't know.

Even when I was researching the book that I found out,

I never knew this part of the story is she used to go to homeless shelters to feed the poor,

but she didn't bring the cameras.

She didn't want her kids to see, you know, like that there was a performance art of some sort

or some performative action.

Yeah.

And she would tell them like, you know, not having a home doesn't make you different than anyone else.

And also the most important lesson that the best good deeds are never seen by anyone.

But they're never forgotten.

And now, man, that's what I am Princess Diana is all about is leading with your part and showing

people that rather than just talking about it, rather than just making it performative.

And I want my daughter to have that lesson.

I want my sons to have that lesson.

I want them to learn empathy.

And I am Princess Diana as a kid's book.

That's what it's designed to do is teach that empathy.

What I love about it is that it's coming at such a perfect time because it may not happen

in your and my lifetime, but our kids and our grandchildren.

It's going to happen in their lifetime.

This is William's mom that you're talking about.

And see, and King William, when he gets that job, everybody's going to go,

whoa, whoa, who was his mom?

Guess who wrote about it?

Yeah.

No, and I love that.

And listen, let's just talk for a moment about the, just because I don't want to look.

I can't, it'll be a shame to talk about it.

But will you talk about the landmines?

This is after she gets divorced.

She doesn't have to do anything anymore.

She's not the royal anything.

It's all done and she finds out in Angola Africa that there are seven kids

who've been killed by landmines.

All right, the soldiers had dug them buried them during the war and

the kids were playing soccer in a field that should have been clear to mines,

but the mines were still there.

And they basically have an event for her there.

And they're like, listen, we should cancel the event.

And she's like, no, I'm not canceling.

We need to make sure this won't happen to anyone else.

And they put, they tell her, don't, you know, this isn't safe.

And they put body armor on her of give her a visor.

And she's like, if I go, then the world will see what's happening.

So the minefield at that point is only half cleared.

And they're like, please be careful.

And they, and some people said it was dangerous.

And she's like, and she takes off and starts walking through this minefield.

And all these people and all these most important leaders see it.

And basically the UN, after her visit, 122 governments

signed the Ottawa Tree to stop using mines that can hurt innocent people.

And, you know, it goes like this.

Like, as it's, and this is what it says in a book, like, you know,

it can be hard or even scary to see someone suffering.

And sometimes you want to turn away.

But don't turn away.

Offer a smile, a hand, or even a hug.

And when you do, it'll be your crowning achievement.

Man, I love the fact that I get to give that to kids.

I love the fact that they get to take these books and find this story and find that lesson.

She's the one that taught me the, the mantra of,

you people aren't happy to see me.

They're happy that I see them.

And I, I took from that.

And I believe that so heartedly.

It's like, don't, don't, don't make them think that they're coming to see you.

I'm coming to see them.

No, I love that idea.

I'm going to steal that.

That's a beautiful idea.

Yeah, no, it's, and listen,

the, the final pages of the book literally say,

this is what I'm going to, you know,

from what I'm Princess Anna says, it's your turn now.

Yeah.

The world needs more kindness and it certainly needs more empathy.

Compassion is a sign of strength.

Every person you meet is going through something that you can't see.

You won't be able to solve every problem.

But when you open your arms and listen with love,

you can make sure no one feels alone.

It says, I'm Princess Diana.

I lead from the heart.

Doesn't your dedication,

doesn't your dedication also kind of symbolize that?

I mean, because look at that circle that you created

with the dedication inside the book.

Well, let's talk about that.

I love you for noticing that.

So, you know, whenever we get to the end,

we've done, again, this is a book, I think 36 are in the series.

So I dedicate a lot of books to a lot of people.

But this one, I dedicated to my mother and my daughter

because they're strong women who are on apologetically themselves.

That's what Princess Diana is to me like,

and I was, and I guess I've done other books to my mom.

I've done other books to my daughter.

But do you know my daughter in her college dorm room

had a Diana poster?

And I'll tell you something.

My daughter now loves Princess Diana so much

that at the end of the book, I always,

I'm hidden in every book.

Crystal always draws me like as a hidden cartoon character.

Like it's like, all wears, all though in every book.

But he also puts my three kids in there.

And you can see if you flip through,

flip back a couple pages in the big crowd shot,

you'll see these three kids.

And he always puts one of my kids in a 42 years,

because he loves Jackie Robinson.

And in this book, I said,

draw my daughter, make aware in the black dress

that she loves so much.

And she's wearing Princess Diana's dress.

And I just, I want my daughter to know

that you should only just be on apologetically yourself.

That's Diana's great superpower.

Wow.

Now, let me ask this question about the card.

Or maybe I might be wrong on this.

Did I see a card that people can add to their personal lives

and share those cards forward?

Share which card.

Well, then I, okay,

then I am reading the pictures wrong,

then, because I swear it was like a greeting card of some sort.

And I took it as, oh, it's a princess for the day card.

And it's princess die as a young child.

But I took it that you're marketing cards to go with the book.

Oh, no, no, no, I think they just sent,

they must have sent you a nice picture of it.

No, yeah, we just, uh, we, we've made,

oh, you're talking about my social media everywhere that I went

to find out about this book because you could, you know,

it's like every time that I thought I had enough,

I wanted more.

That's, that's the thing about this book is that you make us do,

you, you create action and reaction,

but you always do with your books.

No, I appreciate it.

And listen, I love doing these books, you know,

that, and let's talk about for a moment,

the next book we're doing is going to be,

again, I was like, what else do kids need?

So we saw that kids needed, um, you know,

I was like mental health issues are huge now.

We did, I am some own Biles.

I wanted to show America's just split into right now.

I was like, how do we teach people to come together?

That there's strength in being together,

that we bring different strengths to each thing?

We, we are the Beatles, right?

Like, but the next one that we're doing,

which is coming out in a couple months,

is we're doing, I am Teddy Roosevelt.

Because I really wanted Teddy Roosevelt,

one of my favorite presidents of all time.

And I wanted to show the kids what,

what real leadership it looks like.

Yeah.

And what Teddy Roosevelt, when he was little,

his dad said to him, listen, we have lots of money.

But that doesn't make you great.

Like, it doesn't make you powerful, even.

What it does is it gives you a responsibility

as what his father told him.

And you have to take care of other people,

especially those who don't take care of themselves and can't.

So to see those orphans who would tell Teddy Roosevelt,

we got to take care of them and get them off the street.

You see these people who are being treated badly in factories,

fight for them.

You see this, this giant waterfalls and these beautiful dams and, you know,

things like this that people want to,

want to plow over so they can open a factory.

No, we have to take care and have a responsibility

to help our environment.

And that's why Teddy Roosevelt starts the national park system.

That's why we have yellow stone.

That's why we have your semity.

That's why we have these national parks.

Because Teddy Roosevelt was like, we need to protect these

for the next generation.

And I love the fact that we get to use the IAM books,

whether it's IAM Princess Diana, IAM Teddy Roosevelt,

or anyone we've spoken about today.

I love the fact that we get to give these kids

and people use our books to build libraries of real heroes

for their kids and their grandkids or nieces and nephews.

One of these days, you've got to do a video

of the process of the entire thing

and somehow someway share it with those

that have stood beside you the entire way

because it would be so interesting to see your process

in the way of inspiring a next generation of writers

as well as illustrators.

Well, I love you saying that.

You know, we get, I can't say how often we get away.

I have all these kids who are writing,

they write the next hero for us.

Oh.

So I have a whole stack on my desk.

I don't, you know, that are books that kids have written.

And they've written IAM movie bridges.

They've written IAM Brad Meltzer.

They've written IAM, you name the hero.

And they're all like clearly gunning for our jobs.

I say, Chris and I are really, we got to worry now.

But I loved the fact that kids have realized

that they have the power to tell these stories.

And, you know, the books have now been around

I think almost 12 years.

And it's the first time when I went to speak at colleges,

people came up to me and said, oh, I grew up on those books.

Yep.

And that's the thing, you know, because here's the thing,

I can't change the minds of adults.

It's too hard.

But for the past over a decade now,

I've been armed in a generation of young kids

with lessons of compassion and kindness

and how to be a good person.

And I will take that fight any day.

So I love that the IAM books,

that the ordinary people change the world books

have had that impact on some of those kids out there.

Wow, where can people go to find out more

about everything that you're doing?

This isn't just one book.

This, like you said, this is your, this is a catalog.

When they talked about Prince having a catalog

or Michael Jackson having a catalog,

you've got a catalog.

You're sweet.

Yeah, and you can buy them at Amazon.

You can buy them at your local independent bookstore.

You can buy them at bookshop.org.

You can buy them anywhere books are sold.

The IAM books are there.

And you all recognize them because you'll see

the sit that same artwork,

that beautiful colorful artwork.

And I love the fact that so many people,

you know, you can even subscribe to them on our website.

If you go to ordinarypeoplechangerworld.com,

you can have a book every month's ship to kid in your life.

And every month they'll get a new hero.

And I'll keep going.

And we give all the profits.

It always runs through an independent bookstore by us.

But again, you can go on Amazon or anywhere else

and find all the books.

I love what you're doing with your art.

You are, you are working it the way that it's meant to be.

And that is to move people.

Well, thank you, brotherless.

And then the same thing with you.

I mean, you and I, you, you've had me on the show for

and we've spoken about the thrillers,

like the Viper, about the nonfiction books that I've done,

about the kids books and whatever,

whatever genre I'm in, you and I are speaking.

And so I don't get to do these kids books

without you being there for the first one.

So thank you for unlocking to me,

you know, and not just with me,

but with all your guests for your list.

There's the most valuable thing in the world,

which is empowerful as ideas.

That's what you put in the world and ideas.

And every time you do a show,

you unlock those kindness ideas.

And I love you for it.

Wow. Well, we've got to be back together again in two months

when that next book comes out.

We've got to continue this because this is a journey

that just opens up imaginations.

Thank you, brother.

Well, you be brilliant today.

Okay, Mr. Brad?

Thank you, sir.

Appreciate it.

Can't wait.

Warning, the following Zippercruder radio spot,

you are about to hear is going to be filled with F words.

When you're hiring, we at Zippercruder know you can feel frustrated

for Lauren, even, like your efforts are futile.

And you can spend a fortune trying to find fabulous people

only to get flooded with candidates who are just

fine.

Fortunately, Zippercruder figured out how to fix all that.

And right now, you can try Zippercruder for free at zippercruder.com slash zip.

With Zippercruder, you can forget your frustrations.

Because we find the right people for your roles fast,

which is our absolute favorite F word.

In fact, four out of five employers who post on Zippercruder

get a quality candidate within the first day.

Fantastic.

So whether you need to hire four, 40, or 400 people,

get ready to meet first rate talent.

Just go to zippercruder.com slash zip to try Zippercruder for free.

Don't forget that zippercruder.com slash zip.

Finally, that zippercruder.com slash zip.

Finding great candidates to hire can be like, well,

trying to find a needle in a haystack.

Sure, you can post your job to some job board.

But then all you can do is hope the right person comes along,

which is why you should try Zippercruder for free.

At zippercruder.com slash zip.

Zippercruder doesn't depend on candidates finding you.

It finds them for you.

It's powerful technology identifies people with the right experience

and actively invites them to apply to your job.

You get qualified candidates fast.

So while other companies might deliver a lot of,

hey, Zippercruder, find you what you're looking for.

The needle in the haystack.

See why four out of five employers who post a job on Zippercruder

get a quality candidate within the first day.

Zippercruder, the smartest way to hire.

And right now, you can try Zippercruder for free.

That's right.

Free at zippercruder.com slash zip.

That zippercruder.com slash zip.

Zippercruder.com slash zip.