Jeromy Robert talks about how The Fountainhead shaped him after a chaotic, ultra-religious childhood where adults' actions didn't match their words. He and host Chris Collins discuss the physical book itself and why Rand's novel spoke to someone who felt lost and noticed the gap between what people claimed and what they actually did.
Your book that we're going to talk about today, the Fountainhead. This is substantial. Like, it just feels good in your hands.
It's. You know, when I first started, I was like, this might be too much book for me.
We got you a drink.
Thank you.
I need one to have this conversation.
Yes. Cheers.
Good.
What do you think of the library?
It's unbelievable. It's incredible. Like, there's so much here. And I remember she called me one day and she goes, this is the third time you've missed your session. Why don't you want to be better? The next thing I know, I'm just bawling.
This happened before?
No, never. And I was like, it's time. Doesn't matter how long it's going to take. It's time to start crawling out of this.
We love talking about books that have changed people's lives. They've had such an impact that they are different after reading the book. And our special guest today is Jeremy Mean Rob. So how did the Fountain Head by Alan Rand change your life?
So.
Hey, Chris.
Jeremy.
Nice to meet you. How are you?
Good. What do you think of the library?
Oh, it's. It's unbelievable. It's incredible. Like, there's so much here. It's just. Yeah, it's amazing.
I kind of live by the premise that whoever has the most books when they die, goes to heaven.
Yeah.
I'm trying to go to heaven.
I love it.
I think a lot of people are not.
Yeah, yeah.
I feel that the whole, you know, Kindle download thing, you're not going to heaven with that.
It takes away the soul of it, for sure, you know, and the quietness of it. Yeah.
Like. So your book that we're going to talk about today, the Fountain Head, this is substantial. Like, it just feels good in your hand.
It's so. Even the little paperback that I read from was so substantial that it was. When I first started, I was like, this might be too much book for me. Might be too much. But it was such a good read. It was just incredible.
The thing, too, I really like about this one is just the way these pages feel.
Yeah.
Like, there's just something to the paper. It's like a little waxy, kind of.
Yeah. Well, the fact that it's, you know, written in the 30s was just, you know, it gives you a sense of history, but it's also. She could have written it today and it still is. So much, like, just applies. Yeah. This is great.
I would have loved to see. Is this one of her, like, the original ones?
No, but we just. Whenever we buy a book, we just try to get the hardcover.
Yeah, yeah. It's so good.
I like the new.
Her stuff is very collectible, though. Is it the first pressing?
So really, really so good.
So you have a pretty diverse background.
A little bit. Yeah.
Yeah, I've taken some trips and done some stuff.
Yeah. I was kind of thinking, like, if you would have been the kid that went to law school and paid for that and then pivoted a bunch of different ways. It's hard when you're young to just decide what you're gonna do with your life.
It really is. It really is hard. Especially when you. I feel like when you are lost at a young age, you know, if you have, like, turmoil in your life at a young age, you don't really have the guidance to go, okay, this is what I'm going to do, and I'm going to go in that direction. In that direction. You just kind of get out there and figure it out.
So, yeah, oftentimes you don't really have a model to follow.
Yeah. Or the models you do have are not great. And so you go, am I supposed to be doing this or am I not supposed to be doing. How is that supposed to work?
Did you have a sense of that early on? I remember being. Being young, like 10, and just having the conscious thought of, okay, the adults say to do it this way, but they're miserable.
Yeah, almost exactly that. I grew up in a household that was very. Both religious.
Like beyond ultra religious, and very violent. And you just kind of question that whole thing as you go along and go.
You'Re not treating these other people right. You're not treating me right. Like, what's. But you, as a child, you're still trying to please those people, you know, so it's a very confusing thing trying to find a balance or trying to find, like, a direction, you know, hey, who are my role models? Where am I supposed to go? What am I supposed to do?
So do you remember being conscious of the discrepancy at a pretty young age?
Age? Like, I remember it.
Maybe eight or ten, just going, this doesn't. This doesn't feel right. You know, like somebody yelling at somebody in public, you know, and. And just going, oh, gosh, that. That doesn't let me go over here. That doesn't feel right to me, you know, and then, you know, as things progressed through childhood, just was very much like, wow, that doesn't feel right. I need to not be, you know, around this as. As quickly as possible, you know, what was the religion? Christianity, Baptist based. But I think they were just, you know, whatever they were being taught was they just went all in, you know, I think the parents did a lot of drugs when they were young, you know, and then replaced that with religion. It's what I've come up with as an answer. Who knows if that's true. But it just, you know how some people take something to the 12th degree, right? And then they stop that and they pick up something else and take it to the 12th degree. It's like a personality thing. So I think that's what they did. And you know, it was just. It didn't feel right in any way, shape or form.
So mine was very similar. So I wasn't allowed to watch tv, listen to secular music, go to the movies, any of that.
That's very familiar.
That was kind of another discrepancy for me was the.
Idea that that sort of stuff would have that much control.
You know, and just the idea that you couldn't talk about certain things too. Like, why would we be.
