So let's talk a little bit about the tools of the trade, okay, for storytelling fella.

It seems like when you start on a story, pretty quickly you got to get to the hook.

And the best hook I ever heard in my life ever was, in fact, I've done a number of history

series and my interest in history was absolutely kick-started by Ken Burns of Civil War.

And the very, very first thing in Ken Burns of Civil War is, you know, if you have any

knowledge at all, you know that, you know, first Bull Run, First Manassas was the first major

battle of the war. And he talks about this guy, Wilbur McLean, who had a house in First Bull Run, and they had the battle there.

And Cannonballs are coming through his windows, and his mom's nearly killed and so on.

And Wilbur McLean says, my God, I've got to get the hell out of here.

You know, I'm in the middle of Virginia.

I got to leave this house and get out of here and go someplace safe. So he leaves his house in first Bull Run and he goes and and buys a house in the town of

Appomattox.

He buys the courthouse.

And then the narrator says, Wilbur McLean could say that the Civil War started in his backyard

and ended in his parlor.

And when and when that three minute beat was over, I was in for the, I was in for the rest of it.

You know, just in.

So, so the hook, it doesn't have to be drama.

It doesn't have to be anything even particularly spectacular.

But really early, you got to have something in that story that makes people

want to listen to the rest of it.

The hook also has a barb on it, and the barb is really important, too.

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