Humor and Hope: Joseph M. Lenard's Insights on Terrorism, Survival, and Living Fully

In this captivating episode of Living the Dream with Curveball, we have the pleasure of speaking with Joseph M. Lenard, also known as @JLenardDetroit A true jack of all trades, Joseph is an author, speaker, blogger, influencer, podcaster, political activist, and a cancer survivor. He shares his remarkable journey from a career in IT to becoming an internationally published author, discussing his book *Terror Strikes: Coming Soon to a City Near You*, which tackles the serious themes of terrorism while emphasizing hope and resilience. Joseph opens up about his personal experiences with leukemia and suicide, shedding light on the importance of mental health and the struggles of survivor's guilt. We delve into his podcast, *Christitutionalist*, where he explores faith, history, and the foundations of our nation, as well as his upcoming projects, including the fifth book in his *Life and Living* series. Tune in for a thought-provoking conversation filled with humor, insights, and a reminder that every life has value and meaning, even in the face of adversity. Don't miss this inspiring episode that encourages listeners to embrace life and keep moving forward.
For more information, visit www.josephmlenard.us

Transcript

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 0:00

Welcome to the Living the Dream podcast with Curveball. If you believe you can achieve. Welcome to the Living the Dream podcast with Curveball. If you believe you can achieve. Welcome to the Living the Dream with Curveball podcast, a show where I interview guests that teach, motivate, and inspire. Today's guest is a guest who has many jack of trades. I guess you could say he's the. He's the jack of all trades. His name is Joseph M. M Leonard, AKA J. Leonard, Detroit. Joseph is a author, speaking speaker, blogger, influencer, podcaster, political activist, cancer survivor, gold affiliate, among many other things. So we're going to be talking to Joseph about his interesting life and everything that he's up to and gonna be up to. So, Joseph, thank you for joining me.

>> Joseph M. Leonard: 1:18

It's a great honor to be on the goofball. I mean, Screwball. No, I mean Curveball podcast.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 1:26

Absolutely. He's also a comedian as well, right?

>> Joseph M. Leonard: 1:30

Hey, at least I kept it clean. I didn't go with the blue balls joke now. I guess it just did, right? We got to keep a sense of humor.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 1:41

Most definitely. Well, start off by telling everybody a little bit about yourself.

>> Joseph M. Leonard: 1:46

Born and raised in southeast Michigan, even though I hate the winters, including the ugly, dreary rainy day we got going on out there today. I do choose to stay, here in southeast Michigan, But I'd love to be someplace else, especially right now. especially somewhere warm. I've written my entire life, but until I went once. I went on disability from my I. T. Career in 2004. I then got more serious about becoming an internationally published author. So, my dad is Ted Leonard Jr. Of Ted Leonard Jr. And the polka Kings, if there's any polka music fans out there. And my name is Joseph M. Leonard. It looks French. It's not Leonard. It's Leonard without an O. And indeed, as said, my dad had a polka ban. It was Polish at some point. Leonard AIT or something. But there is a Joseph Leonard out of South Carolina. I'm here in Michigan, so I have to go with my middle initial in there also, Joseph M. Leonard, to distinguish us. And I like to joke. I am not he. He is not me. We are two different people, and neither of us will be confused for Shakespeare.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 3:22

Well, I know one of the topics. I was going through your bio. One of the topics you talk about is terrorism. you have a book called Terror Strikes, so talk about that.

>> Joseph M. Leonard: 3:35

Yeah, Terror Strikes coming soon to a city near you. There's a bazillion books. Terror Strikes, the Subtitle is what distinguishes it. Coming soon to a city near you. Number one Amazon bestseller in multiple categories came out in 2022. Just as relevant today as when it came out. In fact, I actually began writing it and there's a copyrighted version all the way back in 2006. So yeah, and as I said, stuff is so serious you got to keep us even in terror strikes. Coming soon to a city near you. There is a comic relief chapter to make that point. Right? You got the terrorists win if we don't keep our sense of humor about us. In a way, the way I see it, and I like to say it's my first in my life and living series of books. Tinyurl, uh.com lifeandlivingseries it's not about death and destruction, even though terrorism is the thread that holds the entire book together about life and living. Hope over fear, faith over despair, love over hate. Those sorts of things.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 5:00

Okay, well, you're also a cancer survivor, so kind of talk to the listeners about that.

>> Joseph M. Leonard: 5:07

Yeah, you could see me on the zoom video. The lack of the hairdo. No, if you see me, I am not a 1980s Neo Nazi skinhead. The hair came out during chemotherapy leukemia in 2010 and I shave it since then. Luckily These aren't the 1980s. Someone see a white guy with a bald head no longer automatically is it assumed, oh, he must be a neo Nazi skinhead. So no, I didn't choose the hairdo or the lack thereof. But yeah, cancer in 2010, knock on wood. Still in remission. So far so good.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 5:52

Do you feel like a national federal broken windows police policy would have prevented 9 11.

>> Joseph M. Leonard: 6:00

It, it could have. There is absolutely no question with the fact that those most that were involved in and ah, committed 911 overstayed their visas. And if there would have been a broken windows, no tolerance policy, you prosecute the lower level offenses, they would have been removed from the country. They couldn't have been here to hijack those planes. Which is not to say someone else at a later date then might not have done it but, but it's very conceivable it could have been prevented. And of course those who had the information, hey, there's people learning how to fly planes but not take off and land Red Flag and Project Bojinka years before the dots were there to connect and weren't either connected or those for their own desiring agenda. Could connect the dots but didn't do anything about it to prevent it. Which is different than those accusing administrations of a false flag operation. No, the US didn't do it. No, Saudi Arabia didn't do it. Osama Bin Laden wasn't stupid. He took fellow disaffected Saudis like him and recruited them so that it would then appear like Saudi Arabia might be involved. And there's a lot of people, the useful idiots that fell for his ploy.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 7:58

Okay, well in your book do you cover things like ptsd, survivor's guilt and suicide prevention?

>> Joseph M. Leonard: 8:06

Oh, absolutely, talk about that. It's, I don't like to talk about it. It's not something I'm happy about or proud of. But I myself am a suicide attempt survivor 2004. So I feel I must talk about it though. No matter its survivors guilt is covered because you know, survivors of a terror attacks or even a general accident will often then ask themselves they suffer PTSD also. It isn't just a military related thing, you know, why did those people die but I'm still alive. Survivor's guilt. So I deal with that and Project 22. On average 22 vets a day commit suicide. That number goes up, that number goes down. But unfortunately is the case no matter how many times that lying devil on your shoulder tells you your life has no value or meaning. The devil is a liar, the great deceiver. Every life has value and meaning. You may not see it. It's not like It's a Wonderful Life, the movie, you know, where George is visited by Clarence the angel who tells him how much his life means and what it would be like if he were gone. That ain't going to happen. And your life isn't likely as dramatic. Small things matter. I also like to mention the movie the Butterfly Effect. Right. And in my the book of Kennedy project, Carpe diem number three in the Life and Living series of books. Kennedy shares a small smile with someone who's having a bad day, who then goes on to remarry and has a child that cures cancer. What role did that simple silly little smile she gave, she doesn't even remember or think about ever again play in that person? Going on to live, then going on to have a child, then going on to cure cancer. Every little bit, every little thing matters. Your life matters. Whether you see it or not. Doesn't make it untrue.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 10:48

Well, talk about some of the other many sub themes or issues that you cover in the book.

>> Joseph M. Leonard: 10:55

Oh yeah, I'm going to try to pick up my green screen here and grab it. I said a few of these before I wrote it. Down so I don't forget because I forget it. Yes, it's about terrorism, but not a book about death and destruction, but life and living. Life over death, hope over fear, faith over despair, love over hate, good over evil, individualism over collectivism. Martin Luther King Jr. Plays an important role in that. Individualism, content of character. We are not the sum total of what group some identity politics may try to hoist upon us. Freedom over tyranny, family and friends, life. So again, it's not about death and destruction, but about so many more important things.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 12:03

Well, let's talk about Arethusa. Hopefully I'm saying that right. Talk about who she was and what does she have to do with terrorism today.

>> Joseph M. Leonard: 12:10

Yeah, that. That's an interesting question. We're talking Nostradamus, we're talking prophecy, we're talking the Mediterranean. Arethusa was the goddess of the meditation. And Arethusa is in a Nostradamus prediction that many, attribute to 911 about the expansion of, most likely potentially and relevant to the news today, Iran becoming Greater Persia again and reuniting and extending all the way back to the Mediterranean. And Iran as the, the ayatollahs, as the main state sponsor of terror and terrorism. So there is a connectivity there, altogether, and I hint and tease at that in the book so that hopefully others wanting to learn more than read other books on say, Nostradamus, and history and mythology and how it all interrelates and ties to today.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 13:30

Well, you also have a podcast, so. So tell listeners about your podcast, what they can expect when they listen to it and where they can listen to it.

>> Joseph M. Leonard: 13:40

Yes, Christitutionalist podcast. Christa for Christ. Christian Christos from the Greek Christa Tuitionalists are Judeo Christian foundations. We don't teach history or civics in our schools anymore. People don't know our history. So my show is part history, part faith. And during the week I, have guests on which can be about anything, books, music, health, nothing to do with faith or politics. so during the week it's kind of a variety hour and on the weekend, my Saturday monologues. Generally our Judeo Christian ethos foundations are national biblical roots.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 14:39

Well, do you feel like terror strikes stop doing the Wuhan China lockdowns?

>> Joseph M. Leonard: 14:46

No, no, and we're out of that. The Wuhan hysteria, it seems now, finally. But during that time period, during the lockdowns, terrorism didn't stop. You weren't seeing it on the news. It's just that the news was consumed with huster News on a fear probably porn daily basis. So they stopped talking about terrorism. Still today even you're not seeing the terror attacks that are taking place being reported. It hasn't gone away. It's still there. And I'm not trying in terror strikes coming soon to a city near you to sell fear porn. I want you just to be at least have a modicum of situational awareness to understand bad things sometimes happens to good people. I want you awake and alert and not burying your head in the sand to terrorism or even general crime could be around any corner again. I don't want you paranoid though, but I want you at least to acknowledge the realities of our time. Resolve to be a thinker rather than a panicker. Fear fight or flight.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 16:18

Right.

>> Joseph M. Leonard: 16:19

I have before it's news.com my substack J. Leonard detroit.substack.com Joseph M. Leonard Jay Leonard Detroit on before snews.com fight, flight or fade is another option. Fighting unless if you're armed or trained may not be your best option. Flight may be a bad option. Also like the Ariana Grande concert from years ago. More people were hurt and a few died due to the stampede of sheep. People trying to rush out of Madison Square Garden than the actual threat inside the Garden posed. So fade can be an option. Hide behind a chair. Don't make yourself a big shiny visible target.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 17:20

All right, well, tell us about any other upcoming projects that you're working on that listeners need to be aware of.

>> Joseph M. Leonard: 17:26

Well, as, as of right now, in February 2026. In January of 2026, Complicated Life and Living, the fourth book in the Life and Living series of books came out. I'm working on the 5th that I'm tentatively titled Loss. It will deal with loss as part of life and living as well as my a short story a lasting legacy. Number number two in the series. I've lost track of which one came out in which order. You're having brain fog. but I tentatively titled Loss, that I'm planning will probably come out May of 2026 will be the fifth again and that's tinyurl.com lifeand living series will take you to the Amazon Life and Living series of books.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 18:29

All right. So how can people keep up with everything that you're up to and going to be up to?

>> Joseph M. Leonard: 18:34

Yeah. Josephmleonard us again. Leonard without an O. It's not French. Joseph M M L E N A R D US or Terror Strikes has its own website. Terror strikes.infox@J. Leonard Detroit on most social media platforms.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 18:59

Okay, we'll close this out with some final thoughts. Maybe if that was something I forgot to talk about that you would like to touch on or any final thoughts you have for the listeners.

>> Joseph M. Leonard: 19:06

Yeah, a life philosophy I have and it's repeated in many of my life and Living series of books. Things could always be better, but they could often be worse, correct? We are so spoiled, entitled and entitled in the United States. People, stop whining, please. Things could be better, yes, but they could be an awful lot worse too. We got to remember that before we keep whining so much.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 19:43

All right, ladies and gentlemen, that you have it. Joseph M. Leonard. Leonard without the O. So please check out his books and check out his podcast and everything that he's up to and gonna be up to. Joseph is definitely a character. Follow a Rate Review Share this episode to as many people as possible and go to www.craveballuh337.com and sign up for the Living the Dream newsletter and share the website and the show to everybody you know. Thank you for listening and supporting the show and Joseph, thank you for all that you do and thank you for joining me.

>> Joseph M. Leonard: 20:21

Thank you again for having me. I really appreciate it. Take care. God bless.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 20:25

For more information on the Living the Dream with Curveball podcast, visit www.craveballuh337.com until next time, keep Living the dream.