[SPEAKER_02]: Christian parenting.
[SPEAKER_03]: Welcome to the Bible for Kids Podcast with your hosts, author Trisha Goyer, and author and co-creator of Veggie Tales, Mike Nuraki.
[SPEAKER_03]: If instilling biblical values and kids is important to you, this podcast will give you the resources, wisdom, and hope to do just that.
[SPEAKER_03]: Now let's join our hosts, Trisha, and Mike for this week's episode.
[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome back to the Bible for Kids Podcast.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm Mike Naraki.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm Trisha Goyer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Today I'm interviewing my co-host, Mike Naraki.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the squirrels producers see that's her new title, the squirrels.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll be giving this an update on the Dead Sea squirrels, books, music, animation, and plushies.
[SPEAKER_01]: But before we do that, we like to start every Bible for kids podcasts with a Bible first.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mike.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I love on Dead Sea squirrels days to have dead sea-related Bible verses.
[SPEAKER_02]: So this one is from Zachariah 1489.
[SPEAKER_02]: On that day, life-giving waters will flow out from Jerusalem, half toward the Dead Sea, and half toward the Mediterranean, flowing continuously in both summer and winter, and the Lord will be king over all the earth.
[SPEAKER_02]: On that day, there will be one Lord.
[SPEAKER_02]: His name alone will be worshiped.
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_01]: As co-creator vegetales, co-founder of Big Idea Entertainment and the voice of the beloved Larry the Cucumber.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hello!
[SPEAKER_01]: Mike Iraqi has been dedicated to helping parents pass on biblical values to their kids through storytelling for three decades.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mike has written and directed most of the extremely popular silly songs with Larry segments and lent his screenwriting and directing talents to dozens of
[SPEAKER_01]: and both of the properties that theatrical release films Jonah and the pirates who don't do anything in his most recent book project The Dead Sea Scrolls has been adapted into an animated series now streaming on the Christian Kids Streaming Service Mino, as well as Amazon Prime.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mike also serves as an Assistant Professor of Film and Animation at Lipscomb University and co-hosts podcast.
[SPEAKER_02]: All right.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh yeah, you can bring it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I need to shorten that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, no.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not still going to introduce to you.
[SPEAKER_02]: All right.
[SPEAKER_02]: I got Steve.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: I got Steve Taylor has earned his Renaissance Man Stripes through a career that's spanned music, filmmaking, and producing as a recording artist.
[SPEAKER_02]: He sold over 1 million albums, received two Grammy nominations and became the only artist to twice-wind Billboard Music Video Awards for his self-directed video.
[SPEAKER_02]: He also fronts the rock band Shavoghavara, whose latest album Halsian Day is released in 2022.
[SPEAKER_02]: As a producer, Steve's credits include the Platinum Certified Six Pents None the Richer and Three Gold Certified News Boy's Album, Each Earning Grammian Ammonations.
[SPEAKER_02]: His production work includes Six Pents Global Number One Hit, Kiss Me, and There She Goes.
[SPEAKER_02]: Which by the way, I heard there she goes again, and I don't know, some store the other day.
[SPEAKER_02]: Usually here, you kiss me, but I heard there she goes, I'm like, this is a good song.
[SPEAKER_02]: Steve's film maker resume includes writing and directing the second chance for Sony and the award-winning blue-like jazz which premiered at South by Southwest.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's produced feature films, Sun Moon with Sony Affirm and Sketch, which premiered at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, as well as the animated kid series The Dead Sea Scrolls from Veggie Tells, co-creator yours truly.
[SPEAKER_02]: He serves as filmmaker and residents at Lipscom University and lives in Nashville with his
[SPEAKER_04]: All right, I got to get to a shorter bio.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: We both need to buy those.
[SPEAKER_02]: Dreader buys.
[SPEAKER_01]: Blood type and your social security never.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, exactly.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, Steve, welcome back to our podcast.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Mike, welcome, even though you're always here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right, thank you very much.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, let's start Mike for those who aren't aware.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, maybe they've been living in the Dead Seves cave.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: Can you give us like elevator pitch for the series?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so the Dead Sea squirrels series stars a little boy named Michael, uh, he's 10 years old.
[SPEAKER_02]: He is with his dad during the summer and our first book, uh, at the Dead Sea is Dad's an archaeologist.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's on a dig.
[SPEAKER_02]: He goes into a cave with his buddy Justin to explore and they come across two Salt and Crested dehydrated squirrels.
[SPEAKER_02]: Michael thinks they'd make really great vacation souvenirs, uh, and he stuffs him in his backpack, brings him back home to Tennessee, puts him up on his window sill that night when they arrive.
[SPEAKER_02]: and it rains and they rehydrate and desalinate and come back to life after a 2000 year slumber and turns out that they lived in Merle and Pearl, old Jewish couple, lived in the days of Jesus in the first century and have a lot of great wisdom to share with Michael and his friends as they go through their 10 year old fifth grade lives.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's the basis of the story.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love it and I love how, you know,
[SPEAKER_01]: rehydrates.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's something that I never thought expecting the children series.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you think of like, you know, I don't know, dried bananas or something you'd re-hight the rehydrate.
[SPEAKER_02]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_01]: Makes sense.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Steve, so how long have you been working with Mike?
[SPEAKER_01]: And did it always include vegetables?
[SPEAKER_04]: Mike, and I got to know each other, I think first off of the Jonah movie, and yeah, yeah, I think we worked together on Jonah for, you did the belly of the whale song for the end of the song.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then we worked again on the pirates who don't do anything movie, and I might have done a little bit of other work on veggie tales, but then we got to know each other here at Lips Community and through the Dead Sea squirrels.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so yeah, when I left big idea, like 10 years ago now, had coffee with Steve and Steve said, hey, I'm part of this university in Nashville, Tennessee, have you ever thought about teaching?
[SPEAKER_02]: And I thought that was intriguing.
[SPEAKER_02]: And before I knew it, I was at Lipscomb.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we've been, boy, I think it's been since 2017, 2018, since I've been there.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's just been a great experience working with Steve.
[SPEAKER_02]: And of course, launching the series with him as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's awesome.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're gonna be talking about the music animation, but let's talk a little bit about the books because didn't a new scrolls book just release.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, so today's, let's see, released earlier today, Cybersquirrels, and what's really exciting is this is the first book of the new storyline.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the first 12 books wrapped up a, you know, we're one storyline, you know, with how Merle and Pearl were found and brought back to Tennessee, and then they had to go back to Israel, you know, the kids went back on a rescue mission of Merle and Pearl,
[SPEAKER_02]: of Jesus life and ministry of Jesus, and then return back to Tennessee, so now we're starting a new kind of a new storyline, so it's a lot of fun, and this will also be the storyline that the second season of animation is based off of, but Saber Scrolls is out now, and we're really excited about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, I want to hear a little bit of cyber scroll, sounds a little... Oh, yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, techno?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it's a little bit technical, so Michael and Justin returned back from the holy land and Sadie, their friend, returned back from the holy land, but they've missed a lot of the end of 5th grade and so they have a ton of makeup homework and so Sadie loves it, she loves makeup homework so she just does all the hers right off the bat, but Michael and Justin are struggling and their teacher, Ms. McKay, kind of feels bad that they're not able to kind of, you know,
[SPEAKER_02]: Do recess and celebrate with the other kids in of fifth grade.
[SPEAKER_02]: They're in their grade school experience and so she says tell you what why don't you both Do a report of your time in Israel and educational report and present it to the class and at first They feel like that's a great idea and until they realize that Merle and Pearl are in all of their photos And so they don't know how to get them out of their photos until Merle discovers AI and so they're able to doctor their photos and AI Also writes this you know goofy story about how you know about their
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, they're tripping all of that.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Michael, Michael and Justin decided to take the easy way out and just do their homework with AI and it gets them into a lot of trouble.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so there's a lot of lessons to be learned there about integrity.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's the basis of that story.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ooh, bringing AI into children's, but That's right.
[SPEAKER_02]: And Merrill and Pearl have an AI, AI doppelgangers merge and purge.
[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, so we get another AI doppelgangers.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I love it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, I want to hear about this new music system.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tell us a little bit about the new music from the animated series.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, so Mike and I have worked together on music before, and every song has a, every episode has a flashback to Bible times, and that's typically where the song happens.
[SPEAKER_04]: So sometimes it's flashback to a teaching of Jesus, and Matthew West is our singing Jesus.
[SPEAKER_04]: We had a flashback to John the Baptist, where Mac Powell from third day was John the Baptist.
[SPEAKER_04]: Drew and Ellie Holcomb are Mary and Joseph, and then I am the singing apostle Paul because of, I presume, typecasting.
[SPEAKER_04]: So sometimes I'll sing a song and I might write that song or Mike might write it or we might write it together, but we have a lot of fun figuring out these songs, especially because
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: And with 13 episodes in the first season, there's a lot of songs in beyond the flashback songs.
[SPEAKER_02]: We just have a lot of really fun little ditties.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so, you know, we've got, I don't know, 25, 26 songs on a, you know, 40 minute album.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we've been releasing them little by little, so like two or three songs at a time.
[SPEAKER_02]: And by this summer, all of the songs will have been released.
[SPEAKER_02]: So if you go to Spotify or Apple Music or wherever you stream your songs, you can find a number of Dead Sea squirrel songs.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we just did an Easter release of our Easter song and surrounding songs around those episodes, which just came out.
[SPEAKER_02]: So folks can find those right away.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you guys got the best musicians on there, too.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hot people.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, oh my goodness, yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, just the talent.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, the music is just so rich and so fun.
[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, I think if you're a fan of, you know, veggie tales music and, you know, that type of, you know, songwriting, I think you're gonna, I think you're gonna love Dead Sea squirrels music.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love that anymore more question before we're gonna break.
[SPEAKER_01]: I heard that the theme song was part of your recent concert with Russ Taff.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_04]: So, I went on tour.
[SPEAKER_04]: I had been on tour in 12 years and took out my band some band and we did an 80 minute set and I thought, well, why not throw in a Dead Sea squirrel song.
[SPEAKER_04]: So we performed the theme song for the Dead Sea squirrels in the series.
[SPEAKER_04]: You just hear a short version, but we performed the expanded version.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's about two minutes and had the audience singing along and
[SPEAKER_04]: It was a blast and they, you know, they were good.
[SPEAKER_04]: They didn't need a rehearsal.
[SPEAKER_02]: They got it every night for the Dead Sea Squirrels live album.
[SPEAKER_01]: Soon to release.
[SPEAKER_02]: See the dead live.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I guess now would be a good time for a break.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we'll take a short break and we'll be right back on the Bible for kids.
[SPEAKER_02]: What if you could empower kids to engage with the gospel?
[SPEAKER_01]: Introduce seeing the life of the world Bible storybook.
[SPEAKER_01]: Inspired by the animated film, guided by John, Jesus, disciple and friend, children journey from creation to revelation, discovering how every story points to Jesus, the light of life.
[SPEAKER_02]: With vibrant papercut illustrations, engaging stories, and space for reflection and prayer, this beautifully crafted Bible storybook invites kids to explore God's salvation story for themselves.
[SPEAKER_01]: Light of the world Bible storybook is available wherever books are sold.
[SPEAKER_01]: from the co-creator, vegetables, and the voice of Larry the Cucumber, comes and all new Dead Sea Scrolls Adventure.
[SPEAKER_01]: When Michael and Justin are forced to hide moral and pearls identities in a class presentation, they turn to AI to generate odd, squirrels, stand-ins, uncle, merge, and ant purge.
[SPEAKER_01]: As things spiral out of control, the boys begin to wonder if the cost of lying is worth it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't miss cyberskworld, book 13 in the Dead Sea Scrolls series, available now wherever books are sold.
[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back to the Bible for Kids.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm here with my co-host, Mike N'Racky, and Steve Taylor.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're talking about the Dead Sea Scrolls books animated series.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would love to hear
[SPEAKER_01]: Give us an update of where season two kind of like a peak behind the curtain and what's going on.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, season two.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, much like season one, the animated episodes are based off the books.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so we've been developing the storylines, you know, for the whole season, and then I go away and write the book.
[SPEAKER_02]: and then hand that off to Seth Warley, who's on the team, a fantastic writer and filmmaker, and he's just been wonderful to work with on the scripts.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then, you know, from there, they go into animation production.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so so far, I've written six books.
[SPEAKER_02]: The first six books.
[SPEAKER_02]: We just had a story session for books seven the other day.
[SPEAKER_02]: So six books are done.
[SPEAKER_02]: They're in various phases of production.
[SPEAKER_02]: We actually are done with the first couple of episodes.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then, you know, episodes three through six are in various stages.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's coming on great.
[SPEAKER_02]: We love it.
[SPEAKER_02]: We've got six more episodes to make after this.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we're hoping to be done probably optimistically sometime around this time next year.
[SPEAKER_02]: with all 12.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think I think by the end of near the end of this year, you know, we could be done with all the production of the first six.
[SPEAKER_02]: But we're just excited to get another season out and it's been so much fun and I can't wait for folks to see it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I love Mike it's like you have this whole team I mean with a brainstorming and the books and Yeah, yeah, so yeah a little bit different than just like I mean I can't imagine having like all this creative people without it ideas and do the plot and
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh my goodness no, it's so wonderful just because well number one things can happen faster like that, you know, and you know, because in the first the with the first books, you know, is me, you know, I was just, you know, kind of like what writers do is sit there and think it up and then write it and then you work with the editor.
[SPEAKER_02]: but to be able to develop the stories ahead with Steve and Seth and get to bounce off ideas and shape kind of the arc of things has been great and then just to get that creative additional creative input has been fantastic and that's what I love about animation because there's so many creative people who come in along the way and add
[SPEAKER_02]: their talents and gifts to the process and so you end up with something that's much greater than some of its parts and I've seen that time and time again and this is the same way I feel about squirrel so you know by time you get the writing in the voice actors in to do their work, your editors, your animators, your musicians, everything just you know just really just kind of blooms so it's so much fun.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, this week was my 36th anniversary.
[SPEAKER_01]: So John and I've been married 36 years and congratulations.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know when we are dating we are driving around with Steve's cassette tapes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ladies and ask, Steve's cassette tapes in our vehicle.
[SPEAKER_01]: Steve, could you imagine back then that you would
[SPEAKER_01]: In the future, be working with squirrels.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, no, that's their lives and business.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's a whole new twist.
[SPEAKER_04]: I was not expecting that one.
[SPEAKER_02]: I just wrote some, read some quote today that the, the road is paved with flat squirrels who could not make a decision.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know what that is to do with this.
[SPEAKER_02]: I just, I just, I, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that
[SPEAKER_02]: You know cassette tape.
[SPEAKER_02]: I just it was like it was so cool and just knowing this guy from across town did it I was just amazed by it and I had the the chance to meet him at a You know like a I don't know it was like a music seminar just very briefly You know while I was in college and continue to be a fan of his work and so yeah All these years later to be working with him has just been amazing it's been so much fun with squirrels Squirrels that's right
[SPEAKER_01]: I love that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, the last time you guys were here, and we talked about Merlin Pearl and Museum of the Bible.
[SPEAKER_01]: Can you tell us a little bit more about how that's going?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: Steve, do you want to talk a little bit about that?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: I keep hearing stories of people that have gone through the Museum of the Bible, and as people might remember, they currently are hosting the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit,
[SPEAKER_04]: And it's a really popular exhibit, I think it's one of the most popular, so large numbers of people are passing through to see fragments of the Dead Sea scrolls and get a background on how they were discovered, just see maps of the area and fragments of pottery and get a sense for what life was like back then.
[SPEAKER_04]: to add in something for kids they decided that the Dead Sea squirrels would host kind of the children's part of the exhibit.
[SPEAKER_04]: So they have kiosks throughout the museum that are about life size like a like a big mirror and every kid that comes gets a card, they scan their card into the kiosk,
[SPEAKER_04]: And then they go on an adventure.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's like kind of like a video game where they are trying to find fragments of Dead Sea scrolls.
[SPEAKER_04]: And so they've got a flashlight in one hand that's kind of virtual and then a stick in the other hand.
[SPEAKER_04]: So they wander into these animated caves.
[SPEAKER_04]: And when they see a jar or a piece of pottery, they take the stick and smash the jar as you would, of course, if you were an archaeologist.
[SPEAKER_02]: Archaeologists love that kind of thing.
[SPEAKER_04]: I love that stuff, right?
[SPEAKER_04]: And then to find it if there's a scroll fragment inside, and as you collect the scroll fragments, and eventually it all samples into a Bible verse, but along the way, of course, you got to be aware because there's bats that might attack you or that are scorpions that might attack you, and so you use your trusty flashlight to ward off the bats and the scorpions.
[SPEAKER_04]: And what's really crazy is you're walking through this museum with a Bible, which is a really great museum.
[SPEAKER_04]: And you know, kind of, uh, I mean, a lot of antiquities in there.
[SPEAKER_04]: And everywhere you go, you hear the sound of breaking pottery, because kids are playing with this.
[SPEAKER_04]: Break it stuff.
[SPEAKER_04]: So...
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and of course, and Merle and Pearl are hosting along the way.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, the kids assume that one of the personalities of one of the kids in the series.
[SPEAKER_02]: So they either say, okay, I choose to be Michael or Justin or Sadie or Jane.
[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, I'm going through exploring this and Merle and Pearl are leading them.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's just been so great.
[SPEAKER_02]: We've been hearing back so many great little stories of all.
[SPEAKER_02]: I was at the Museum of the Bible, I saw Merle and Pearl, I was so excited and it's great and then when you exit the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit, you know, you're in a bookstore and there's, you know, there's the Scrolls books and the Scrolls Plushies, which has been amazing to be able to get finally get our plushies out there to the public.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, so the Scrolls really have gone cyber.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, remember this game that you can play with the Museum of the Bible?
[SPEAKER_02]: Absolutely, yeah, that's right, yeah, that's a good way to think of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love it.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to take a break and we'll be back in just a moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you searching for the perfect guest to celebrate the special moms, dads, and grads in your life?
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[SPEAKER_01]: That's ChristianParenting.org for its last gifts.
[SPEAKER_01]: To explore the 2026, Mom, Stads, and Grads gift guide today.
[SPEAKER_01]: The link is also in the show notes.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back to the Bible for Kids.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm Trisha Goyer.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm here with Mike Neurarchy and Steve Taylor.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now right before the break you were talking about plushies, I wanna hear more about these plushies because I have kids, well, all the way from my 30s all the way to teens, and everyone wants a plushie for Christmas.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, we can't do old for plushies now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Plushies are all in, but tell us about the squirrel plushies.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, man, we're so excited about our plushies.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Steve, we probably did our first ones back when we were doing our initial fundraising for squirrels.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think I might have a set in the office there.
[SPEAKER_02]: They were like, they've evolved over time.
[SPEAKER_02]: The first set are pretty rough.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't even, where did they go?
[SPEAKER_04]: I wonder if, yeah, is that the ones up there?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, they were up there for a little bit.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, we're speaking of flattened squirrels on the highway.
[SPEAKER_04]: Murrow looks like he's about ready to get hit by a car.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, so the early versions of the plushies were nothing to write home about.
[SPEAKER_02]: But the later ones, we had a, a Greg Atari who we worked with, just a really great plushie designer.
[SPEAKER_02]: And worked, you know, to get Merrill and Pearl on model, and we did a couple of runs.
[SPEAKER_02]: But, you know, we've had a lot of fans asking about, you know, can I get these plushies?
[SPEAKER_02]: And so, we finally did a big order and, you know,
[SPEAKER_02]: the other day got a ring on my doorbell and it was the truck driver asking to unload 2,000 you know, Merle and Pearl plus she's into my garage and so.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh so not but there was the plushies, not like real squirrels.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah yeah so we had the plushies infested my garage for a few weeks and so we got got him into a proper warehouse but we're getting everything set up of course they're on sale right now at the Museum of the Bible but we're about ready to we're building a website
[SPEAKER_02]: We're about ready to start selling them through there and I just, you know, can't, can't wait to get those.
[SPEAKER_02]: Get those out there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'm pairing with that CD that's coming out.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Do we talk, yeah, because the CD, the music CD.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's probably sometime this summer as well, Steve.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, the full soundtrack, which will be obviously available, streaming, but we're also doing a physical CD of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hello, okay, Steve.
[SPEAKER_01]: What's your favorite song?
[SPEAKER_01]: that you've done with the squirrel.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh man.
[SPEAKER_04]: Mike, what was the one that we did recently?
[SPEAKER_04]: The, I'm a kosher kid.
[SPEAKER_04]: I can't eat just two.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that was from Daniel, the Daniel song.
[SPEAKER_02]: That was from Cyberschools, actually.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, that's when it's about, it's a song about integrity.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we tell the story of Daniel, we do it sort of as a rap, sort of a Hamilton-ish rap.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my goodness, that is okay, we're gonna love it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I cannot wait to hear that as so full.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Cyberschool's just released, and you mentioned this, you have plushies that are read out like on the website soon.
[SPEAKER_01]: Music is coming, what about books and the rest of, when can we get all this wonderful things that you're talking about?
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, well.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, Tindale releases the books a couple of years.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, the release of cyber scrolls just happened.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, later this fall, Field Day frenzy, which is the next book, well, release.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're just so excited about the book series.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, we just just surpassed 100,000 copies sold about first book.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was the first book.
[SPEAKER_02]: That was the first book.
[SPEAKER_01]: Learning about Jesus, learning about Jesus.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're so excited.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, the whole series is well over a half a million sold now, and just excited to continue writing more books.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, so we've got, I mentioned, I've gotten the drafts done for the first six of the next series, so those will be releasing a couple year, you know, a couple every year over the next couple of years.
[SPEAKER_02]: um you know until I've got you know 12 more yeah so folks can look forward to a couple new books a year for the next few years with squirrels and then hopefully a new animated series available sometime mid to late next year.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love it oh and Steve you're also going to be at the role makers conference.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes that's right first time.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah so role makers is amazing.
[SPEAKER_01]: I went probably five or six years ago.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I loved it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love all the specular fiction stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know Mike's been there before.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I was just there last year.
[SPEAKER_01]: The dedicated fans there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, love it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm, I'm actually in a few weeks heading down to the Florida Parent Educators Association Convention down in Orlando, which is very great.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, great.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, just I'll hang out with you in Orlando, Mike, and say hi.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, that's beautiful, though.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's great.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we're, you know, yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'll be signing Squirrels books and, you know, we'll have some plushies there, too.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so thanks guys for being here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mike, thank you for being here every time, but Steve, thank you for coming this time.
[SPEAKER_01]: How can listeners find the books and animated series and then connect with you guys?
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh wow, so books are available wherever books are sold.
[SPEAKER_02]: Amazon is a great place to get them.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, your local Christian bookstore, Barnes and Noble, they're available there as well, I believe.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then we've got, you know, if you go to DeadC squirrels.com, that'll link you to Mino right now.
[SPEAKER_02]: But we're building that out now to be kind of more of our home page for Dead Sea squirrels and, you know, for, you know, by books and, you know, plush and that sort of thing.
[SPEAKER_02]: And in folks can find us on, you know, socials as well.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we've been putting a lot more emphasis on our socials lately.
[SPEAKER_02]: So if you want to go to, you know, Dead Sea squirrels on Facebook or Instagram, you know, we're in contact with our fans a lot there.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, thank you guys for being here.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you, Trisha.
[SPEAKER_02]: So great to be here.
[SPEAKER_02]: And oh, and I can give our sign off here.
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, here we go.
[SPEAKER_02]: And listeners, be sure to follow us on Facebook or Instagram at the Bible for Kids.
[SPEAKER_02]: The Bible for Kids is now a 501C3 nonprofit.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we'd love to have you join us in our mission of reaching kids with the message of the Bible.
[SPEAKER_02]: Visit thebibelforkids.com to explore our store, donate, or learn more today.
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll see you next time.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks for listening to the Bible for Kids Podcast with Trisha Goyer and Mike Nurekki.
[SPEAKER_03]: Be sure to connect with the Bible for kids on Instagram, Facebook and at thebibelforkids.com.
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