Carl Nellis
Appearances
SNAFU with Ed Helms
Behind the SNAFU Book – plus, your chance to meet Ed on tour (or virtually)!
And the Canadians need immediate emergency help to contain the disaster that's happening. And so they reach out to the nearest experts. And it's some U.S. nuclear sub guys in New York State. They head up over the border. They work out a wild plan to save this melting down nuclear reactor.
SNAFU with Ed Helms
Behind the SNAFU Book – plus, your chance to meet Ed on tour (or virtually)!
And the thing that's so cool about this story is that the person leading that team trying to save the melting down nuclear reactor is future President Jimmy Carter.
SNAFU with Ed Helms
Behind the SNAFU Book – plus, your chance to meet Ed on tour (or virtually)!
Yeah, and he's 20. No, he's very, very young at this point. And there's also a little connection in this chapter to the Allman brothers that I love. It's one of those really funny moments that I'm glad is in the book.
SNAFU with Ed Helms
Behind the SNAFU Book – plus, your chance to meet Ed on tour (or virtually)!
In terms of the book coming out, you know, I mean, we're talking about this because we're getting close. What's it like gearing up for a book launch? Does it feel similar to you? I mean... You've had so many incredible projects come out over the years, including some great podcasts, I might say. How does gearing up for a book launch feel compared to promoting a new movie or TV show?
SNAFU with Ed Helms
Behind the SNAFU Book – plus, your chance to meet Ed on tour (or virtually)!
It's very similar, honestly.
SNAFU with Ed Helms
Behind the SNAFU Book – plus, your chance to meet Ed on tour (or virtually)!
You're going to get to talk history. You're going to you're going to go around the country talking history with folks like that.
SNAFU with Ed Helms
Behind the SNAFU Book – plus, your chance to meet Ed on tour (or virtually)!
So if people want to see you on this book tour that you're doing to support the launch of the book, where can they go? Where are you going to be?
SNAFU with Ed Helms
Behind the SNAFU Book – plus, your chance to meet Ed on tour (or virtually)!
You nailed it.
SNAFU with Ed Helms
Behind the SNAFU Book – plus, your chance to meet Ed on tour (or virtually)!
Fantastic. If you were going to cast yourself... In one of these snafu stories from the book, is there someone you would want to play? Obviously, these are snafus, so we're talking about screw-ups.
SNAFU with Ed Helms
Behind the SNAFU Book – plus, your chance to meet Ed on tour (or virtually)!
No danger of that.
SNAFU with Ed Helms
Behind the SNAFU Book – plus, your chance to meet Ed on tour (or virtually)!
Here, here. Don't miss it.
SNAFU with Ed Helms
Behind the SNAFU Book – plus, your chance to meet Ed on tour (or virtually)!
But yeah, it's such a joy to do that. And many of the other producers at Gilded Audio, Film Nation team, season three was so fun because there were those little chances to voice a bit here and there.
SNAFU with Ed Helms
Behind the SNAFU Book – plus, your chance to meet Ed on tour (or virtually)!
Yeah, so... we often think of it like a treasure hunt you know there's so many great stories across time and we know they're out there and so we get together we set the vision and we go looking and we just come back with so many incredible uh sometimes small sometimes big you know amazing stories of great screw-ups to cover and consider take lessons from sometimes laugh at laugh with um
SNAFU with Ed Helms
Behind the SNAFU Book – plus, your chance to meet Ed on tour (or virtually)!
It's so fun that we're all doing it together and then we come and bring them to each other, discuss, pick the best ones. Chuckle.
SNAFU with Ed Helms
Behind the SNAFU Book – plus, your chance to meet Ed on tour (or virtually)!
Yeah, absolutely. Well, and let's start right there with the foundational idea. Why? Why go from audio to book? And what excites you about turning these snappy stories into a book? Great question.
SNAFU with Ed Helms
Behind the SNAFU Book – plus, your chance to meet Ed on tour (or virtually)!
You're right. It's so gorgeous. And some of the ways that he manipulates historical photographs, like you're seeing the real photograph of the real thing, but then he's really put it into his style and his idiom. It's so, so fun to see. For my part, I was a book editor before audio. So I went book editor, audio, now back to book again. I'm just feeling right at home.
SNAFU with Ed Helms
Behind the SNAFU Book – plus, your chance to meet Ed on tour (or virtually)!
I'm so, so glad to be doing this project. Amen. What are you feeling about this being your first book coming out? Do you have particular book feelings with this book about to launch? Yeah.
SNAFU with Ed Helms
Behind the SNAFU Book – plus, your chance to meet Ed on tour (or virtually)!
And then on the publisher side, editors, their team, they're also putting in work when you hand it off to them. So maybe we think of books as individual projects, but like you said, there are these pieces, different people getting it ready to go out where people can actually pick up a chunk of paper and read the ink off it. There's a lot of steps along the way from your desk to there.
SNAFU with Ed Helms
Behind the SNAFU Book – plus, your chance to meet Ed on tour (or virtually)!
It's fun to see it all come together as we head toward launch. Yeah, very, very proud.
SNAFU with Ed Helms
Behind the SNAFU Book – plus, your chance to meet Ed on tour (or virtually)!
And speaking of what the stories are about, how they shape the tone or invite certain kinds of, like you said, jokes, pathos, etc. Let's head into the book a little bit. Can you take us inside? How is it set up? What are readers going to find in there when they crack open the cover?
SNAFU with Ed Helms
Behind the SNAFU Book – plus, your chance to meet Ed on tour (or virtually)!
In thinking about it, I'm like, oh, this is my grandpa's snafu. This is the one that had him like white knuckling his armchair. Oh, this was my dad's snafu. And then, like you said, we come up to the present and there are stories where I'm like, yeah, I remember that. I remember how I felt reading that in the news.
SNAFU with Ed Helms
Behind the SNAFU Book – plus, your chance to meet Ed on tour (or virtually)!
And then the story that we get in the book kind of peels back that headline layer and takes us into, with each story, some of the intricacies behind it. And that's a fascinating process, even for the stuff that is in the present where I'm like, yeah, that's my snafu. That's my present day snafu. I'm like, wow, there's some new nuggets here, even for me who remembers that present day event.
SNAFU with Ed Helms
Behind the SNAFU Book – plus, your chance to meet Ed on tour (or virtually)!
You're right. Like each of them has a different flavor, the different decades. Yeah.
SNAFU with Ed Helms
Behind the SNAFU Book – plus, your chance to meet Ed on tour (or virtually)!
So speaking of those stories, what are some of your favorites from the book? Now that you've put this book together, like what's sticking with you? Honestly, they're all my babies.
SNAFU with Ed Helms
Behind the SNAFU Book – plus, your chance to meet Ed on tour (or virtually)!
And just from that story, there's also a phrase that the CIA used to cover their tracks about that secret operation that has entered the public lexicon. And if you want to know what it is, got to read that chapter of the book. Thank you. Yes. For me, there's one from the 1950s where there was a Canadian nuclear reactor that melts down.