How Storytelling Fosters Compassion for Kids with Chronic Illness - About IBD Podcast Episode 181

How Storytelling Fosters Compassion for Kids with Chronic Illness – About IBD Podcast Episode 181

Leave a reply

A children’s book leads to this conversation, which bridges the worlds of chronic illness, creativity, and connection. I talk with MB (Britt) Mooney, author of “The Mouse Who Couldn’t Eat Cheese,” a children’s book inspired by a young woman named Alex who lived with severe Crohn’s disease. MB, a science fiction and fantasy author, stepped outside his usual genre to create a story that helps kids and families understand invisible illnesses and the power of friendship. You’ll hear behind-the-scenes insight on MB’s creative process, the lessons learned from working with Alex’s family, and the message he hopes every reader takes away—whether they live with inflammatory bowel disease or not.

Topics in this episode include:

🦉 Representation of chronic illness, specifically Crohn’s disease, in children’s literature.🦉 The importance of empathy and understanding in friendships, especially for children with chronic illnesses.
🦉 The challenges faced by children with Crohn’s disease and the need for social inclusion.
🦉 The creative process involved in writing a children’s book and the balance required in storytelling.
🦉 The role of creativity in problem-solving and fostering community.
🦉 The significance of raising awareness about chronic illnesses through literature.
🦉 The broader themes of connection, support, and validation for children facing health challenges.

Find MB Mooney at:

Find Amber J Tresca at:

Find Mac Cooney (mix, sound design, and theme music) at:

Transcript

[Music: IBD Dance Party]

Amber Tresca 00:00:04 I’m Amber Tresca and this is about IBD. I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis as a teen and had pouch surgery ten years later. Now I help people with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis understand their disease and feel seen on about IBD. You’ll get real talk on symptoms, treatment, and life with IBD straight from patients, caregivers, and experts. You’ll learn, feel less alone, and even have a laugh along the way.

Amber: MB (Britt) Mooney is a science fiction and fantasy stories author who believes great stories can change the world. He lives in the Atlanta, Georgia area with his amazing wife and three energetic kids. You will often find him fueled by coffee and rocking out to heavy metal when he writes. His latest book is a children’s story about an owl who befriends a mouse that lives with Crohn’s disease.

Amber Tresca: Britt: Welcome to About IBD.

MB Mooney 00:01:00 Thank you very much. I’m excited to be here. It’s going to be good.

Amber Tresca 00:01:04 Yes, I love it. So first off, I want to hear about your writing career and where how did you get your start as an author?

MB Mooney 00:01:14 All right, so the legend is, when I was in the second grade, I was getting in trouble.

MB Mooney 00:01:22 Now, I loved to read. My mom taught me how to read. When I was four. My mom started to stay at home when I was born, but she was a teacher. That was her job before I came along. And then my brother came along when I was about three. But I loved books, so I wanted her to read to me all the time, and probably annoying her because I had a little brother or whatever, you know, that’s probably some of that going on too. Yeah. So she her solution was to teach me how to read. So she taught me how to read at a very young age. And I just always loved reading and love stories and movies and all the things. So I’m in the second grade and I’m getting in trouble on a regular basis because I would get bored with, you know, school, I’d finish early or whatever. And there was there were these spelling tests on Thursday, and if you got a hundred on Thursday, you didn’t have to retake it on Friday.

MB Mooney 00:02:17 So here was this energetic young kid in school, sitting there with nothing to do while the rest of the class was having to retake a spelling test. And my teacher, Miss Green, looked at me. This is early in the year and she said, Britt, why don’t you write me a story? And something clicked in my brain. It was one of those moments in life where you’re like, wait a minute. People write stories like the stories that I love to read the books. The movies, like someone creates that. I could do this. Like that could be me. Like I could be one of those people who writes a story that impacts other people. And so then from that point on, I started getting 100 on purpose on Thursday so I could write her a story on Friday. I even reconnected with her several years ago now, but I just I was like, because I kept telling the story and people were like, well, you know, have you reconnected with her? And I was like, no.

MB Mooney 00:03:27 But in the world of Facebook and Google, like, you got to figure this out. So I kind of tracked her down and she’s on Facebook. And so, you know, we’re connected even today. And she’s so supportive. And she’s she even told me recently, she said, I’ve been praying that you would write a children’s book, you know, because I’ve sent her other books that I’ve written, you know, just to let her know how thankful I am. So that’s how I got started. And I just always from that point on, I just had this attitude, You’d like. If there’s stuff that I like. I could do that. And just writing stuck with me. I loved all the characters and doing the things and writing the stories. I always liked it.

Amber Tresca 00:04:07 I love this story. I especially love the epilogue that you reconnected with Mrs. Green. Did she see something in you? Has she ever said to you, you know, she recognized something in you that she thought that writing would resonate with you for some reason?

MB Mooney 00:04:22 I think she saw that I loved to read.

MB Mooney 00:04:24 So I as a kid, the only time I was quiet was when I was reading, you know, or watching TV or something. But, you know, that was I think she saw how much I loved reading. So she was a young teacher herself, just probably desperate. Right. What can I do with this kid? And. Yeah. So. Yeah. But since we reconnected, she did. She said she remembered me and how she had to put me in the front of the class, keep an eye on me and the whole thing. So she was, but she’s super sweet and she still lives in. That was in Montgomery, Alabama when? When I lived there. But of course, now she’s retired and she and her husband and the whole thing. And so it’s just been cool getting to reconnect with her, you know?

Amber Tresca 00:05:08 Yeah. That’s such a great story. And I love that she it was on her mind that you needed to write a children’s book which has come to pass.

MB Mooney 00:05:18 It has.

Amber Tresca 00:05:18 You wrote you you wrote a book, right? The reason why you’re here today is because you wrote a book called The Mouse Who Couldn’t Eat Cheese, which is something that will resonate with a lot of my listeners. So what inspired you, though, not to write the children’s book so much, but to write a children’s book about a character spoiler in it who has Crohn’s disease?

MB Mooney 00:05:39 Yeah. So what had happened was, is at our church, there was a young woman and her name was Alex, and she had Crohn’s disease, and she had a very severe form of it, and her parents were a huge part of our church, volunteered a lot. Her dad was just, you know, just made coffee every Sunday. You know, they were just very involved in our church. And she passed away at around maybe the age of 20 or 21. And but she wanted to start a nonprofit. And when she could kind of to help kids like her, to help kids like her like and to give them a better experience than she had with the medical industry and, you know, wanted to bring awareness and and help people, you know, because she had experienced some things where doctors really didn’t know how to handle it, didn’t know how to treat her.

MB Mooney 00:06:38 You know, that’s happens sometimes, right? And she learned a lot since then because that was a long time ago. But that was sort of her experience. And so when it when she knew she was more than likely going to pass, she made her parents promise that they would continue to do something to help. And one of the things that her mom and a friend of hers came up with was like to bring awareness, was to write and write a children’s book, and all they had was the title. That’s all they had. And they wanted one of the characters to be named Alex, you know, to kind of honor the daughter. And so they came to the only writer they knew, which was the guy who, you know, was writing about killing dragons and cutting heads off of monsters. And, you know, they they they came to that guy.

Amber Tresca 00:07:27 Yeah.

MB Mooney 00:07:27 And asked me if I would write the children’s book. And even though I’d never written a children’s book, I loved children’s books.

MB Mooney 00:07:36 In my estimation, I think a children’s book is probably the hardest thing to write. Well, because people think, oh, it’s just short, it’s easy, and it’s not. It’s the exact opposite. Like you, in order to put the kind of make the kind of connection Action with a kid, but also with adults, right. Because adults are going to buy the book. You know, I mean, there’s there’s just a lot to it that’s complex. But I had little kids at the time, so this was years ago, but this was about 10 or 11 years ago. And so my kids were 4 or 6, eight. You know, my kids were little and we loved reading to our kids. So I took on the challenge and wrote the book. And I did a lot of research. I asked a lot of questions. What were what was life like for Alex as a kid? What was what was it like for her to have friends? What did it mean for her to have friends? What did her friends have to understand in order to be friends with her? And I just I really was trying to get into what are some of the themes that I could put into a book? And I did a lot of I asked a lot of questions, did research and did the whole thing.

MB Mooney 00:08:44 And I just and then I, you know, developed some ideas. And just one day I just felt I had it, you know. I don’t know if creative people can understand. Probably. But there’s, you know, sometimes you wrestle with an idea that you love long enough, and then all of a sudden it’s just it’s there. There it is. And so I wrote it and shared it with people, and they got really emotional because it reminded them, even though maybe they didn’t know people, someone who with Crohn’s disease or reminded them of someone with a that they knew as a kid with a chronic illness or something like that, that they had to learn how to be their friend and all that sort of stuff. So it’s taken time to get it published because, you know, just trying to find the right publisher that would see the vision for it, being what it is. and here we are.

Amber Tresca 00:09:38 Wow. Such a a long journey. But as you said, sometimes the creative process, that’s what it looks like.

Amber Tresca 00:09:47 And then suddenly you’re just hit with it in the face after struggling with it for a while. So tell us about the mouse who couldn’t eat cheese. What’s it about? You tell us a little bit and then who are the main characters?

MB Mooney 00:10:00 So the two main. It really has two characters. The two main characters are Alex the owl and Amaya the mouse. And you know, you got the. You got the little. Got them right there on the cover there. And and essentially I wanted to write the story about the theme of friendship, you know, because at least Alex’s experience from what I gathered from her mom and asking people, she felt alone a lot. Right. Because she wasn’t able to do some of the things as often or as frequently or be involved as much as she might like. And so I wanted to kind of explore that. Maya, the mouse and her family move into the forest. and Alex is excited about making a new friend and thinks, well, mouse like cheese, right? That’s that’s kind of a thing.

MB Mooney 00:10:59 So she gives Maya the president and they they play. They have a great day playing. But the mouse doesn’t eat the cheese. And and so they go through some conflict because, you know, there’s one day that they had plans to play but Mike couldn’t show up. And so, you know, Alex al is frustrated and asked questions. Why, you know, why can’t you eat the cheese and why can’t you play? Why weren’t. Why were you so tired and and and you know so then they it gets into the struggle of Crohn’s disease. And so it’s very simple and quick. It’s not you know there’s a little bit more in the like on the back cover, not back cover, but one of the last pages a little bit more about Crohn’s disease specifically. But in the story it’s just it’s more about trying to understand and have empathy, sympathy for another person and learning how to be their friend where they are. even if they can’t come out and play like you want them to sort of thing.

MB Mooney 00:11:58 So that’s that’s pretty much the book.

Amber Tresca 00:12:02 Yeah. I did have the chance to look at the book. It’s beautiful. And you told us that you did so much research talking to Alex’s family. Thinking about it for a long time. So I’m wondering from your perspective why you think it’s important that kids with Crohn’s disease see themselves represented in books?

MB Mooney 00:12:25 That’s a good question. The organization that Alex’s mom, Laurie, started was called Beautiful Beyond the Pain and and a and a big part of a big theme with the organization and with the Crohn’s community is that this is this is an unseen disease. In other words, People don’t naturally look at you and think you’re sick. And that kind of comes up in the book as well. Right. You know, you don’t look sick. It’s not something that’s easily apparent to people, so they don’t feel seen. There’s a certain level of explanation that they have to do that. Maybe other people who are sick don’t have to do for whatever reason. And so, so, so to feel seen and heard as someone, as if their problems are legitimate and worthy of empathy and all those sort of things, I think is is an important aspect to it.

Amber Tresca 00:13:27 Yeah, absolutely. Completely agree. And I can tell how much research that you’ve done by how you’re speaking about the disease and people who live with it because you are hitting exactly head on. You know, some of the some of the big issues that this community experiences.

[MUSIC: About IBD Transition]

Amber Tresca: Coming up, Britt tells us what he learned while working on “The Mouse Who Couldn’t Eat Cheese.”

Amber Tresca: So, Britt, you’ve told us a little bit about the challenges of writing a children’s book and writing, shorter format things. as a writer myself completely agree. it’s very different to write something if you’ve only got a short amount of space versus, you know, all of the space in the world, like when you’re writing for the internet, who cares how long it is? but Crohn’s disease we know is challenging for anyone to understand, for adults to understand, helping children to understand it is on a whole other level. So what did you think about what? What how did you approach creating a story that was aimed at kids, especially considering you’re the guy that writes about dragons and elves and all of that?

MB Mooney 00:14:58 Sure. Yeah, I I’ve brainstormed a lot, you know, and the purpose of the book was to bring awareness, right? There’s a dual purpose, right, to bring awareness. And that bringing awareness will kind of have a secondary and important effect of helping. Like we said, people Crohn’s disease feel or colitis feel seen heard that sort of things. But but the main goal is to help it be seen in the larger culture, right in the larger society for for people around and all sorts of places to have the awareness and the ability to dialogue with someone and make the space that they need to make space for them in their lives so they can be friends. Because we all need friends, we all need community around us. That’s a part of what’s a need for every person. And it’s especially important. I don’t I’m not going to say it’s especially important. It’s a need a need for everybody. Right. That’s that’s part of growing up. Some of the things that I heard was about how lonely Alex would feel and how hard it was for her to keep friends because they were doing all these other things, and she couldn’t always participate as much as they could.

MB Mooney 00:16:20 So. So for me, it was, you know, how how do I express the story in such a way that helps a kid without Crohn’s or colitis, you know, be able to reach out and include someone who does. Even though it might have to be in a different way than they’re used to. And if you if you give them that space to say, what are some other things you could do with a kid who might have these problems? And kids can be very creative. You could just let them see the need and give them the opportunity to be, to be creative and innovative. Kids are just naturally that way. We we kind of we organize it out of them sometimes.

Amber Tresca 00:17:05 Absolutely.

MB Mooney 00:17:06 We do through.

Amber Tresca 00:17:07 Through spelling tests. Really.

[Laughter]

MB Mooney 00:17:09 Spelling tests. yeah. There’s and that’s, that’s that’s always one of those. I don’t know about balances, but that’s always one of those things that my wife and I always tried to be cognizant of with our kids is because, you know, there are things you need to learn, like, this is how things are spelled.

MB Mooney 00:17:27 You know, these are things this did happen in history or whatever the things are. Two plus two does equal four, and yet at the same time, really encourage them to be silly and creative and to to not lose that part of themselves. Because when you combine those things. These are the these are facts. But then you can. It’s the creativity that comes up with new things that solves problems. A lot of life is being creative and innovative, because you’re going to be faced with things that you didn’t learn about in school, and you’re just going to be faced with things. And how do you use your resources to to do that? and so I think there’s an element of that in this book, right? I mean, you know, they come up because they couldn’t play like Val might want them to. They had to, come up with a way to solve that problem, you know, and, and I think that’s, I think that’s one of the things that people really like about the book is that that there’s that because that’s why I think creativity does not see.

MB Mooney 00:18:27 Now I’m starting to ramble. We talked about this before, but here it is. But what creativity does is it gives a third option because a lot of people live in two options and they feel stuck. And creativity says, well, what if there is a third option? What if there was another way? And that gives people hope. Right. And they don’t feel as stuck. And and that’s what’s kind of underlying some of the things in the book.

Amber Tresca 00:18:54 I love that. yeah. I want to ask you about the message that you hope kids take away from the mouse who couldn’t eat cheese, because now what you’re saying is resonating with me specifically because I do tend to be a little black and white, and I do tend to only see two options for things. And yet creativity, problem solving, that’s something that can show you a third way or infinite ways, depending on how you look at it. And we hope that people learn how to be critical thinkers and to problem solve. But, yeah, school doesn’t always lend itself to that.

Amber Tresca 00:19:30 but anyway, what message do you hope that kids are taking away and also kids who live with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis. Or hopefully kids who are not touched by this disease are also reading this book and taking something away from it. What do you hope that is?

MB Mooney 00:19:50 Yeah, I think in general, the the core thing I’m hoping for is that people make space for each other. They make time and space for each other. We live in a social media dominated world where it’s always difficult to get out of your own bubble. It’s always difficult. That’s just a human problem, right? And that’s part of kids growing up is learning. You know, I was, you know, in one of one of my explorations of what I could do for the rest of my life before God showed me otherwise was a psychologist. Right. So you learn about that, you know, and as a teacher, you learn about the stages of, you know, human development and and at some point, kids need to get out of their own head.

MB Mooney 00:20:42 Right. They need to get beyond other people exist. Right. You know, other people have feelings. Other people, do things and social media. How can I say this without being too mean? But social media, social media doesn’t really do that. Yeah, it tries to at times, but social media is is a very isolated activity and there’s no real human interaction now. I love social media. You know, I was a I was a missionary into another country. And I have friends all over the world. So it can be a great tool, right, to stay connected on a certain level. But it doesn’t replace the beauty and the value of being with people in person. That’s the connection that matters. That’s a connection that that feeds, that need that we have for to feel community, to feel a part of something. So just for the people who don’t have Crohn’s disease to to get out of their bubble a little bit and make that intentional choice because it’s a willing choice, you have to make the choice to make space for somebody who might be different and might and might need to have some accommodations made for them.

MB Mooney 00:22:03 And and for people who do have Crohn’s disease. I would hope that this lets them see they are worth the effort, that they have value, that just because somebody needs to make an accommodation for them, that doesn’t mean they’re not worthy of being someone’s friend. That they that there are ways you can’t be someone’s friend, even though you may be limited in some ways that they’re that creativity means you can you can still do the same things even though you might have certain limitations. You Again. There’s possibilities here and and but it takes bravery on both sides to kind of step into that. But I think when people are brave in those ways, that’s what bravery is for. When you are brave in those ways, then beautiful things can happen.

Amber Tresca 00:22:55 Amazing. Thank you so much for giving that beautiful soundbite just now. But I love that. Yeah. And so, Brit, I mean, you know, this, the act of writing changes you. It teaches us things. often things that we don’t expect, sometimes things that we don’t want to learn.

Amber Tresca 00:23:15 what did you come away with? What did you learn while you were working on the mouse who couldn’t eat cheese?

MB Mooney 00:23:21 I obviously learned a lot more in depth about Alex’s life growing up. And then, of course, that gave me more compassion for other kids that were going through something similar. And it wasn’t like I didn’t have compassion before. But when you understand more what’s really going on, you know, because no one in my family or immediate, you know, sort of family had that sort of issue. Then, it allowed me to better understand, you know, Lori and and her family and the things that they had to deal with as a family. And, and and Alex’s sister. And this allowed me to get closer to them and, and really sort of be with them as part of the grieving process because they get to talk about her, they get to celebrate her, they get to, there’s a positive way of doing that instead of, you know, it’s grief. But then there’s also.

MB Mooney 00:24:34 just being a part of seeing them feel excited that people are going to get to know Alex in a way, and she’s still making an impact because she made an impact. Alex is one of those people, man. She did not let it like get her down. She she she was going to turn like when she went to the hospital. She would try to visit other people and encourage them. Like she was just one of those sort of people. That was if you knew her, she was an inspiration. And so, so for the family, they feel like that inspiration carries on and so so there’s just a lot of that. And of course, so just in a general way, as you learn about this specific thing, and that’s another thing you find with these stories, the power story, you can be very specific about Crohn’s disease and this character. It’s like it’s like two characters, but then there’s a universal element to it where it’s not just about Crohn’s disease. You know, there are people that you need to make space for if they have mental health issues or if they have other sort of accommodations that need to be made for whatever reason.

MB Mooney 00:25:43 And then learning like there might be elements to their life I don’t really know about. Yeah. And maybe if I can ask questions and I can understand more and then, you know, it doesn’t mean I need to change everything about me, but then at least I’m getting out of my bubble, even as an adult and being humble and learning and that and that allows me to again, help anybody feel seen and heard. and again, those are things I already knew, kind of, but it just kind of reinforced them and made me better at it, I think, at least hopefully in most cases. I’m still I’m not perfect, but, I would.

Amber Tresca 00:26:22 Hope. Well, we’re all still we’re all still learning, every day, growing and putting ourselves in other people’s shoes.

MB Mooney 00:26:30 Yeah.

Amber Tresca 00:26:31 it’s one thing to know Crohn’s disease exists, and to perhaps read something about it that gives this, you know, the salient information, you know. it’s another thing to be very close to a family and a person that’s living with the disease and understanding it on a on a very different level.

MB Mooney 00:26:53 So yeah.

Amber Tresca 00:26:54 Yeah. Britt , I want to ask you a question that you might hate. I don’t know, you might like it, I don’t know. so you’ve written many other books, as we’ve talked about briefly. do you have a favorite? I’m asking you to, like, choose a favorite child.

MB Mooney 00:27:10 Oh, no. Yeah, that’s for sure. Yeah. It’s like, yeah, you can’t pick a favorite child. yeah. They’re just. Just like I’ve talked about this book. I have tried to challenge myself with each book I write and challenge myself in a new way, to learn new things, to do something different, and along with whatever you want to call it, the inspiration. I call it writing with God, like having him be part of the process. There’s always that sort of. Even if I am cutting the heads off of monsters, there’s it’s still about character. It’s still about character and and reality and relationships and emotions and understanding. It’s still all about those things.

MB Mooney 00:28:02 I mean, the best science fiction stories, fantasy stories, it’s cool. Like the the images and stuff. that’s all cool. But the ones that last are the ones that make you feel something that make you. Yeah, that impact you in a real way. So for me, each book does that, that I’ve written and, and so like with this book or with any of the books I write, when people respond to those parts of it, like, oh, when that character has to deal with this and this conflict with their father or whatever it might be that really impacted me. And and just being able to get that sort of like I like I said, that feedback from this book, that those are the special times, you know, because craft is one thing. But if you can connect on a universal level with people, I think that that has a lot of power and a lot of and that’s and that’s where I really, I think any writer probably that’s where we really like to connect with for people to say, I know that’s specific about Crohn’s disease, but like I said, when I first shared it with my writing group ten years ago, and they remembered a friend of theirs that had cancer that they had to I mean, you know, it was just when you can bring up those sort of universal things.

MB Mooney 00:29:23 So every book that I’ve written, I’ve tried to I’ve learned about things like that as I’ve written them because I’ve tried to go a little deeper, not not just be formulaic and all that sort of stuff. So yeah, it’s kind of like my kids, you know, it’s like they’re all different and they all have their strengths and weaknesses, but I can’t pick one. You know.

Amber Tresca 00:29:43 But you love them all equally. At least that’s what we tell our kids. They may say something different. yeah. I always, as a big genre fan myself. Ever since discovering Frank Herbert and McCaffrey, you know, way back when I was a teenager, and I remember going into a used bookstore and specifically looking, you know, something that Anne McCaffrey had written. And I remember the owner of the store apologizing to me that science fiction and fantasy, he had them on the same shelf. And he said, some people get so upset, you know, because they’re not the same thing. And so but I always tell people that, especially people who don’t have familiarity with these genres or who see them as something that, oh, that’s not for me.

Amber Tresca 00:30:31 That it’s not about space. It’s not about the dragons. I mean, sometimes it’s about the dragons, but it’s about the people and it’s about the story.

MB Mooney 00:30:40 Yeah. For sure. Yeah.

Amber Tresca 00:30:43 All right. So I want everyone to be able to follow your work. Both the mouse who Couldn’t eat cheese, which is your children’s book about a mouse who lives with Crohn’s disease and probably can’t eat their favorite food anymore, but also more about, you know, the books that you have written for adults. So tell me where people can find you.

MB Mooney 00:31:04 If you look up m b mooney on Facebook and I think it’s author Amby Mooney on Instagram, and, you know, you can find my books on Amazon, a couple of them have audio versions of them. you can, you know, find that stuff. The living Stone is sort of was sort of the first in the fantasy series. And I do have one Ya fantasy called The Shield of the King that came out last year. U before somewhere in there, and that’s gotten some great reviews and a lot of great feedback from that as well.

MB Mooney 00:31:39 So yeah, that’s where you can find me.

Amber Tresca 00:31:42 Sure. You’re also a fellow podcaster. which is why this is such a great conversation for me. Partly. can you tell me about some of the some of the podcasts that you’re currently running or anything that you, have done in that field in the past?

MB Mooney 00:31:58 Oh, yeah. Yes.

Amber Tresca 00:32:00 Well, yeah.

MB Mooney 00:32:02 There’s a lot there. No.

Amber Tresca 00:32:03 So, yeah.

MB Mooney 00:32:04 Currently, although I’m kind of taking a break for a couple of different reasons. So I have a YouTube channel called Great Stories Change the World. And I’ve, you know, I’ve done some I’ve done some original stories on there. We kind of pick apart a movie or a story that’s popular enough. And why is this good? Why do we like it? Why is, you know, what are the story elements of this? And usually it’s a science fiction fantasy. I try to keep it there. genre wise, I have, another podcast that’s more ministry related because I’ve been a pastor and I’ve been a missionary, and that one’s called Kingdom Over Coffee.

MB Mooney 00:32:45 And I’m about to start a new series. We’re in the middle of one series, and we’re going to start a new one based on a fairy tale. Actually, it’s going to be really good. sometimes I’m on a podcast called men at the movies where we look at movies and we dissect the movie. And why is this an impactful story? And I have, just because I’m crazy. I have another podcast where it’s called Christian Geeks Rock cast, where we go over Christian metal and rock from from the 80s. We go over old albums and stuff from the 80s, you know, because I don’t I’m not doing enough, obviously, with all the other stuff.

Amber Tresca 00:33:23 Yeah, yeah. I mean, you’re kind of making me feel a little bit better about myself right now because I have a lot of projects, but, you might have a few more than I do, so. Well, Britt, it’s been fantastic to get to know you a little bit better. I want to thank you for your work.

Amber Tresca 00:33:40 You clearly went about writing the mouse who couldn’t eat cheese in a very thoughtful way. And and I think the fact that you worked on it for so long, speaks to that and shows that you were you were what you wanted it to be, right? Of course, you know. Right. We always wanted to be right. But, I feel as though this was a little bit more special to you. Even though you treat all your books the same. because it is, the legacy of Alex. And I think that you are doing a great service to to her and to her family and to everyone that is touched by inflammatory bowel disease. So thank you so much for speaking with me today. And thank you so much for your work.

MB Mooney 00:34:28 Thank you for having me. This has been great.

Amber Tresca 00:34:35 Hey super listener. Check the show notes to find links and information about the topics discussed in this episode. Plus, get a written transcript and much more on my website about IBD. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider sharing it with someone else or leaving a rating in your podcast app.

Amber Tresca 00:34:53 Reviews and ratings help me grow this show and bring you more great content. Thanks for listening, and remember. Until next time, I want you to know more about IBD.

About IBD is a production of Mal and Tal Enterprises.

It is written, produced, and directed by me, Amber Tresca.

Mix and sound design is by Mac Cooney.

Theme music is from Cooney Studio. 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *