Hey, it's Minouche. We are revisiting this week one of my all-time favorite conversations

that I think I've ever had actually. It's with the profoundly wise and extremely cool

Jason Reynolds. If you haven't heard of him, he is an award-winning author and the Library of

Congress's National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. If you've got a kid in your life,

chances are they have heard of him if you haven't, and they've probably read one of his books like

Long Way Down, All-American Boys, and Look Both Ways, a tale told in 10 blocks.

So Jason's theory is the kids need stories that they can see themselves in, especially kids

who maybe have not been able to picture themselves in classic literature. So I got to talk to Jason

about his path to becoming a New York Times best-selling author, even though he almost gave up

writing in his 20s, and quite unexpectedly, he also has so many lessons for adults and what we

can learn from kids. This episode first aired in September as part of NPR's partnership with

the Library of Congress during their National Book Festival. So please enjoy our conversation,

again, if you need some inspiration in your life, or for the first time. And if you haven't heard

it, we just finished our series, which is called Work, Play, Rest, examining the fundamental ways

we spend our time. Go back in your feed and check that out too. This is the Ted Radio Hour.

Each week, groundbreaking Ted Talks, delivered at Ted Conferences,

to bring about the future we want to see around the world, to understand who we are.

From those talks, we bring you speakers and ideas that will surprise you. You just don't know

what you're going to find. Challenge you. We treat our acts ourselves like why is it noteworthy?

And even change you. I literally feel like I'm in different forces. Yes. Do you feel that way?

Ideas worth spreading. From Ted and NPR. I'm Anush Zomerodi and today we're going to celebrate

kids and reading by getting to know a man who is changing the world of children's books.

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