Author | Filmmaker | Host of Tola Talks
Hey everyone, I’m excited to announce my new book’s a winner!
The Sub: Tales of an Inner-City Teacher, just won the 2025 Firebird Book Award for Education. Thanks to Pat Rullo and everyone at Speak Up Talk Radio!
Have an awesome day, and as always, get your workout in! Peace – R
Hey everyone! If you’re concerned about everything that’s wrong with our inner-city public schools – as you should be – then check-out my latest book, The Sub: Tales of an Inner-City Teacher. (click to view on Amazon)
Based upon my real life experiences as a K-12 substitute teacher, The Sub gives you an outsider’s view inside America’s troubled educational system.
An historical fiction novel that’s based upon true encounters, The Sub shines a much-needed light on the challenges facing our beleaguered (and burnt out) inner-city educators. There’s everything from lockdowns and school shootings, to Autistic children with a penchant for changing lives, to fighting 5th graders and discourteous kids dropping F-bombs, to Middle School girls with their own school-specific gang. Not to mention a sweet and sexy romance that’s fit for a Hallmark movie! Most of all, is our insightful protagonist’s (Eddie Cruz) ability to address all the brokenness with concrete solutions to fix them.
A must read for all High School students and K-12 educators everywhere!
Creators create, teachers teach and producers produce.
And when you’re all three, eventually you give birth to a modern-day Blues Clues show for kids called, Top 10 with Mr. B. That’s right, I LOVE educating and inspiring children of all ages, even the 59 year-olds like me!
So if you’re that BOLD, BRAVE and BRILLIANT children’s producer in search of the next great opportunity, be great to hear from you: info@richtola.com
As for everyone else, enjoy learning everything there is to know about rainbows and pandas and have fun with Mr. B…and get your workout in!
Peace – R
Today we’re talking fact vs. fiction when it comes to inaccurate claims about children being hospitalized for COVID (3,500 actual vs. 100,000) plus total US deaths and comorbidity, including highlights of the Fox News interview with Bret Baier and CDC director Rochelle Walensky; the negative affects of 5,000 schools still being closed for in-person learning; kudos to Marc Cuban for his clarity on Dogecoin vs. Bitcoin as an inflation hedge and better than a lottery ticket; plus a breakdown of soaring obesity rates throughout the US (up 26% since 2008) to an all time high of 42.4%.
Congratulations to author, psychotherapist, yoga teacher and my dear friend, Erin Mason, for publishing a tender and heartwarming story, Growing Grace, about adoption from the biological mother’s perspective.
Tola also Talks about America’s obesity epidemic and how it affects 36% of all adults and nearly 20% of all children and adolescents, and more specifically, how I would financially reward everyone for being fit…If I Were President. Not to mention fitness tips for losing that unwanted weight.
Subscribe on iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher. And have an awesome day! Peace – R
Kudos to everyone who packed the house in support of our 12 Ladies of Christmas Holiday Show at Chicago’s Two Hearted Queen, and thank you to the very funny and very talented performers who donated their time and energy to make it an awesome event!
As your host/producer who always appreciates the opportunity to impact the lives of youngsters – as well as anyone else who’s open to it – the best part of the night took place right before our raffle drawing, while teaching young Nathan the proper way to shake hands.
Like the ancient proverb says: give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. So take heed and rid yourself of that dead fish handshake!
And don’t forget your daily workout. Peace – R
Tola Talks kudos to Michael Jordan for making the Forbes World’s Richest Billionaires list for the first time and IHOP for free pancakes on National Pancake Day. Plus exploding iPhones, Jon Stewart kicking the “cojones” out of WWE’s Seth Rollins, and the Top 10 Family Charity Ideas.
Weekdays on youtube.com/tolatalks
Tola Talks about the suicidal parents in Utah, the Super Saturn with gigantic rings, Apple Computer making money hand over fist, and the wacko actor in Toronto who got arrested for voyeurism. On WTF Wednesday, Rich also celebrates the 30 year anniversary of the hit charity single, We Are The World, by Lionel Richie & Michael Jackson. Watch @ youtube.com/tolatalks
Tola Talks with Reena De Asis, Director of the nonprofit organization Dress for Success, dedicated to empowering disadvantaged women with the attire and the tools to help them thrive in work and in life. On Whatever Wednesdays, Rich also talks about North Korea leader Kim Jung Un & his ankle cyst, NASA rocket explosions & International Space Station, Ferrari & it’s split from parent Fiat Chrysler, new suicide apps & Twitter, Walmart & Fat Girl Costumes, plus the GYST Award to Monday’s disappearing Dad who resurfaced 110 miles away.
Watch weekdays on youtube.com/tolatalks.
Tola Talks all things Dating with guest co-host and Relationship Expert, Jennifer Gaynor-Yaker. On Top 10 Tuesdays, Rich also talks about the FBI posing as The Seattle Times to catch a suspect, windowless planes making air travel more cost-effective, National Chocolate Day, YouTube launching a paid subscription service, plus the Get Your S#!T Together Award to a single Mom who left her infant children alone in her 100 degree car to attend a job interview.
Watch weekdays on youtube.com/tolatalks.
