{"id":15742,"date":"2015-09-15T12:02:14","date_gmt":"2015-09-15T19:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/?p=15742"},"modified":"2018-08-28T10:33:42","modified_gmt":"2018-08-28T17:33:42","slug":"an-interview-with-phil-danza-100-living-dying-with-john-roger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/archives\/15742-an-interview-with-phil-danza-100-living-dying-with-john-roger","title":{"rendered":"An Interview with Phil Danza | 100% Living & Dying with John-Roger"},"content":{"rendered":" \u00a0 \n

100% Living & Dying With John-Roger<\/strong> | with Phil Danza<\/strong>, Head of NOW Productions<\/p>\n

\n

NDH:<\/strong> NDH: How did you start working for J-R?<\/p>\n

Phil Danza:<\/strong> In 1974 I was living in Berkeley and coming to southern California for seminars. I was at a seminar here and before it starts I raise my hand and say, \u201cI need a ride to the airport.\u201d J-R says, \u201cI\u2019ll take you.\u201d I thought, \u201cWow, this is great.\u201d After the seminar we hop into this limo that he had in the early days. Michael Sun was driving. And J-R goes, \u201cHey, do you want to see my house?\u201d I say, \u201cSure,\u201d and we come here to Mandeville. They had just bought this place. He takes me in the house and my memory is that we go immediately downstairs. He walks me in and we\u2019re in an unfinished basement, just one big room, the ceiling isn\u2019t in, no lighting, and it\u2019s just filled with junk. We\u2019re standing here, and I\u2019m thinking why is this guy showing me his junk room? What is the deal? And of course this ended up being where my offices were for the last forty years. At the time I wasn\u2019t thinking about moving out of Berkeley or coming down here to work or anything like that.<\/p>\n

I look back on it now and see that he was saying to me, \u201cHere\u2019s the space you\u2019re going to be working in.\u201d Actually a year later I started duping tapes here as my first volunteer job. It took me a while to actually reflect back on that moment in time and realize what it was all about. But there was no explanation. He didn\u2019t say anything like, \u201cIn a couple of years you\u2019ll be working here.\u201d<\/p>\n

NDH:<\/strong> So what\u2019s it like working with J-R?<\/p>\n

Phil Danza:<\/strong> PD: It\u2019s funny. If you move into loving and cooperation, and the oneness and the partnership and the one accord, it\u2019s fantastic. If you step outside of that it\u2019s going to kick your butt. It\u2019s going to be really hard to work that. But if he gets that you\u2019re putting forth your best effort, he\u2019s just there for you. I love the clarity. He was incredibly clear about what he wanted. I enjoyed that. Even though the bar was high in terms of quality, it was something you could reach, and he would support you.<\/p>\n

You had to remember that he was the boss. But you could ask him anything and he encouraged that. What didn\u2019t work was any kind of dishonesty or withholding \u2014 not telling him stuff. The whole game was to constantly dialogue, and tell him what was going on. There was no part of the work that was too small. You could talk about anything. I\u2019m sure a big part of that was getting the light in there.<\/p>\n

For me, the person that started here and the person that\u2019s here now is the same Soul, but in terms of training, and how I perceive things, I\u2019m completely different. I loved having him as boss. It was just the best. Not that it couldn\u2019t be difficult, because you could be asked to do a lot. There was just this clarity and crispness in how things were done.<\/p>\n

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NDH:<\/strong> Sounds like a lot of work, but fun at the same time.<\/p>\n

Phil Danza:<\/strong> You have to understand that back in the day we were all young and we were working seven days a week, and that\u2019s just what we did. There was nothing else going on. It wasn\u2019t like there was another life. Staff was small. It was just so good to have that kind of focus about what we were doing and how he wanted things done. I certainly learned how to write memos. (This was before computers.) You typed or printed it out and made three carbon copies of everything. We knew email was coming someday, you could just feel that things were headed in that direction as computers developed. I don\u2019t know if it made things better. At first it was fun because it was new, but then it snowballed and you could copy all of staff instead of just three people. It made things easier and faster, but I don\u2019t think it really simplified the process.<\/p>\n

I used to like the fact that I could call J-R on the phone. We would just knock out the work. He wasn\u2019t messing around or joking around when it came to the work, and we picked that up so we really wanted to get the job done well.<\/p>\n

Nobody could keep up with him. He had so much energy. He was just this powerhouse. We would travel for weeks, months. There was one time when we traveled for about three months straight. I think that later on he tried to retire to the ranch up in Santa Barbara, to Windermere, but being who he was of course he was going to draw a crowd. And the next thing you knew people were giving him horses and the whole Windermere thing grew. So I don\u2019t think he ever got to retire, and I don\u2019t think he\u2019s retired even now.<\/p>\n

The physical guy J-R was a no-nonsense guy but he was also fun. Some of my favorite times were when the business was done and you\u2019re just sitting in the kitchen, and he would start to tell stories. I loved listening to him talk. He could just go on and on with great stories. When I would get around him all questions would leave my mind. It was just a blank slate. I\u2019d plan to ask him questions and I\u2019d get to him and they would just be gone. It didn\u2019t matter. Darshan was on, and you were in that energy field, and you just had to figure that if it was important it would show up later.<\/p>\n

NDH:<\/strong> Did you appreciate all that while it was happening, or did you take it for granted?<\/p>\n

Phil Danza:<\/strong> You take those things for granted when they\u2019re happening. You don\u2019t think that there will be a day when that\u2019s not here. And then when it ends you look back and go, \u201cOh wow.\u201d But I did know early on that this was special. I remember putting a mic on him at some seminar in El Paso and I said, \u201cI just want you to know, J-R, that these are the good old days.\u201d I knew it. I knew that this wasn\u2019t going to go on forever, that he was a magnet, that people would be pulled in, that this darshan was there, and the people who got into that would be lifted. You can hear it when you listen to the tapes or watch the videos. People would be laughing\u2014and the jokes weren\u2019t always that funny\u2014but it was just the Spirit. The spirit hits you and you\u2019re in that zone, being lifted. Gosh, the juice was present. The darshan was on 24\/7. It wasn\u2019t like it was on from 9:00 to noon. It didn\u2019t work like that. All you had to do was be in the room.<\/p>\n

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NDH:<\/strong> Was it just a physical training for you, or was it spiritual, or both?<\/p>\n

Phil Danza:<\/strong>\u00a0What worked also with him was that my intention was to do the best that I could do, and then use my skills, and he would help to hone those skills. I also knew to give him space, that he needed that. He might be looking like he\u2019s reading something but he\u2019d be working. I knew to leave him alone because he\u2019s busy. I still laugh at all of that. I\u2019m still coming to terms with how mystical that was, in terms of what he was doing. You might be sitting there working on something and he\u2019d say, \u201cthere\u2019s that thing right there in your body, let\u2019s take that off of you.\u201d At one point he said to me and my wife Brooke, \u201cYou have to take into account that you\u2019ve never been to the hospital.\u201d I hadn\u2019t even thought about that. When you look at how many hours we worked, and all the travel, you realize that you never got really sick. He was letting me know how much support I was getting.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if people realize how much we worked, and how little equipment we had to work with back in the day.
\nI look at what we had to work with at some of those big venues and think about then compared to what we use now, it was amazing we pulled it off. It wasn\u2019t always easy physically.You were being called on a lot to put your body on the line.<\/p>\n

He was a taskmaster, he was demanding, but when you mastered a task, believe me, you really learned something. I see lots of people in my field who don\u2019t have that kind of training. They don\u2019t have that kind of carry-through that a lot of us got trained to do. It was a good training ground, even though it was painful at the time. You\u2019d wonder why we were so close-tolerant about stuff, but that\u2019s what really makes it work. He was a guy who could go very wide or very narrow in focus, and he could move those in a moment.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want to pretend like it was all cookies and cream, but it was cookies and cream if you stayed in the zone and ordered up cookies and cream. If you didn\u2019t want to bring your best you would get your butt kicked. I would watch people try to give it the short effort and it was obvious immediately. It was great, great training, and a lot of it was strength-building. His consciousness was so experienced and so wide, that I did a lot of running to catch up. If you wanted to learn, it was great.<\/p>\n

He was one of the more brilliant people I\u2019ve been around. He knew so much about so much. But if he didn\u2019t know something he\u2019d tell you that too. As I got more experienced in audio and video, I would build trust and he would give me more to do. But I\u2019m under no illusion that it was anyone but J-R and the spirit who built this. I just followed and did my job. When I got involved there was just his little house in Baldwin Park. There was no Windermere or Insight, or Prana. Later as all those things came online it got busier and busier, and you\u2019d constantly have to adapt. And then there was the travel schedule on top of that. And satellite broadcasts, and then webcasts after that.<\/p>\n

Then all of a sudden we\u2019re going to do a 2000-person guest event for Insight at the Convention Center downtown. We\u2019ve never done an event for 2000 people. All of a sudden you\u2019re in this huge room and the game is on. That kept happening as things grew. It was never stale, it was always moving.<\/p>\n

J-R always kept up with the latest technology. He had the first mobile phone, which was like a whole suitcase. Then all of a sudden one day he wanted a walkie link between Windermere and Los Angeles. That was a completely new thing for us to arrange, but people didn\u2019t have much cell service at Windermere, and J-R wanted a way for us to communicate. There was just one mountain peak that had line of sight down to LA and we found it. It was wonderfully challenging, and a bit of a white-knuckle ride, too to get it set up. When we were done people in LA could communicate instantly with people at Windermere and J-R could get daily reports on the business there. And one time J-R called and said he was down near the Mexican border and he was getting the walkie signal from Windermere! It was fun, but the main thing was we were supporting the work.<\/p>\n

And even with all that was built, it was never really about the physical level. And yet he assisted me in training me how to handle that level, so that nothing was excluded. The physical was just something to be handled while we\u2019re here. He was smart about it, and he got a bunch of people around him who would handle the physical stuff. But even with all that he never really got to retire. He just moved to another level. And he was never not the boss. I don\u2019t think I could have worked for anyone better because the training was so multi-level. You were just immersed.<\/p>\n

And as you attune more into the spirit you can handle the physical even better, because a part of you is paying attention. Then more and more the levels start to become one. If you listen to that voice it will guide you. One
\nmorning I got out of bed to go to the bathroom and this voice said, \u201cJ-R\u2019s water heater.\u201d That\u2019s all it said. It was so clear. I put on my clothes and went outside to the small shed that housed his water heater, and that thing had come off the slab of cement that it was sitting on, and it was tilted so it was no longer being properly vented. It was a fire hazard. That sounds like woo-woo stuff but it\u2019s also very practical. That voice doesn\u2019t yell; it\u2019s quiet, you hear it, and you just move on it. It happens all the time. I still don\u2019t feel like I\u2019ve scratched the surface of the mystical part of working with J-R.<\/p>\n

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NDH:<\/strong> There was so much to learn and so much to do. How did you take care of yourself?<\/p>\n

Phil Danza:<\/strong> When I hit forty my body just kind of crashed and I couldn\u2019t work all those hours anymore. I was not doing well. I had to find a new way to take care of myself. I kept trying to go back to the old way, and it was like, that\u2019s not going to work, dude. I had to re-learn how to work, sleep, exercise. It starts to meld into one, where the physical thing I\u2019m doing is for God, spirit and the oneness, but if I do less of that it\u2019s still no less. It\u2019s still all good. I don\u2019t know how many times I\u2019d see J-R and he would say over and over, \u201cTake care of yourself.\u201d It would be the first thing out of his mouth when he saw me. There\u2019s the whole romance of working for the Traveler, and within that you still need to do SE\u2019s, sleep properly, eat properly. I realized that there was so much to do that you could work 24\/7 and you\u2019d never get through it all, so I might as well chill out and do things the best I could while taking care of myself. It\u2019s not about being lazy, it\u2019s about being wise, and using a more efficient approach to this level. And I found that when I went through all that, J-R was so there for me. He\u2019d check in with me almost every night on the walkie. \u201cHey\u2026what\u2019re you doing?\u201d He was letting me know he supported me.<\/p>\n

NDH:<\/strong> And there was such matter-of-factness and practicality about the whole thing. I remember putting on his mic at a workshop and he asked how I was, I said fine, how are you, and he said, \u201cI feel like I\u2019ve been beaten up by a baseball bat.\u201d Meaning he had been taking on so much karma from other people. What struck me about it was the neutrality. Usually when someone tells you something like that there\u2019s something on it, some attempt to get pity or some self-pity. But there was just this absolute neutrality. And the next day his face and eyes were swollen and bloodshot, and he looked like a mess, as he sometimes did during workshops when he was taking people\u2019s karma through his body. And I\u2019m putting on his mic and he just starts cracking up. And I start cracking up. And we\u2019re both standing there laughing at the absurdity of the situation, in spite of the situation, like two fools just laughing in the middle of this storm. And then the next day he looks great.<\/p>\n

Phil Danza:<\/strong> Yeah there are so many times like that, where you\u2019re tired, and he\u2019s tired, and you\u2019re just going to go do it anyway. And when it\u2019s done it\u2019s like, let\u2019s go get something to eat. It was always about carrying on but having fun at the same time.<\/p>\n

And even towards the end he wasn\u2019t talking as much, but he was still so present. He was just more economical with words, more \u201czen.\u201d I remember helping him into the car, and I was just going through my process, processing all my junk in my head, and he just looks at me and says, \u201cYou can be fearful or you can be bright.\u201d He could sum up your whole process in a few words. And that\u2019s been a guiding light for me ever since.<\/p>\n

But spirit is always present, and he\u2019s still present. We can\u2019t call him on the phone but when we go inside the answers are there. I\u2019m still aware of how much I don\u2019t know, how much I listen to him say the same things in seminars and I\u2019m still working on those areas. That seems to go with the dumbness of the physical level. I remember once putting his microphone on at Conference and asking, \u201cHey is there something you need?\u201d And he says, \u201cYeah, remember to press record.\u201d There was always that practicality.<\/p>\n

In the very early days I came into work one day where we had all the duping equipment for tapes, and then there was a workbench where another guy used to service all the gear. This guy says, \u201cOh man you just missed it. J-R was just here and he comes downstairs and goes to the workbench and says, \u2018Is this the tape deck that\u2019s been messing up my work?\u2019\u201d The guy says yeah, and J-R takes the tape deck\u2014it was an old reel-to-reel deck\u2014and he just drops it onto the concrete slab, and it just shatters. And J-R says, \u201cWell that\u2019s the last time it\u2019s going to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

I used that as a reference point for people who would come to work for NOW Productions. I would say, \u201cLook, the game here is fix it or get a new one. But it has to work. Because J-R does not want stuff messing up his media.\u201d That\u2019s always been the guiding light in terms of how things would be done. He\u2019s always loved his media and would always check what he was putting out. As we went from cassette to CD to MP3 to iPods\u2014whatever it was, he was always there checking his stuff. I always thought that was cool. Although he was an English teacher and loved books\u2014I always thought books were kind of his first love\u2014he also really loved his media.<\/p>\n

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NDH:<\/strong> What was it like editing his work?<\/p>\n

Phil Danza:<\/strong> In the early days he would come downstairs and check tapes with us here in the editing bays. He would come into the audio bay with me and tell me what he wanted. He was very clear about how he wanted his stuff edited. He would go, \u201cI want this, this this,\u201d and I\u2019d say, \u201cWhat about this?\u201d and he\u2019d say, \u201cIf you can get that, great.\u201d<\/p>\n

J-R always used to talk about his \u201cghost writers\u201d (in spirit) who would assist him in giving seminars. If you listen to his original recordings, they are so clear. The English, the syntax, everything is so clear that working with the recordings is just so easy. And he was smart enough that he knew that if he blew a word he could just repeat it and we could fix it in post. He was a really savvy guy. I\u2019ve worked with other people\u2019s media and they can be all over the map in terms of sentence structure, and you\u2019d have to sit there and kind of work to re-create something. I\u2019ve worked on J-R recordings where it was like, the seminar starts here, and it goes here, and then it\u2019s Baruch Bashan, and there\u2019s almost nothing to fix. He would pause for tape changes, or sometimes he\u2019d say, \u201cWe\u2019re going to cut this part out,\u201d but it was just so clean.<\/p>\n

On some recordings you can hear him doing the intro, telling jokes, and then all of a sudden the spirit would come in, the seminar starts, \u201cBOOM\u201d and he would just go, and it\u2019s just \u201con.\u201d He would sometimes tell us that sometimes in the beginning of a seminar he was just talking to fill the space, waiting for spirit to get the script to him. And you can hear where the seminar starts so clearly on the recording.<\/p>\n

He was always flexible, always open to finding what would work. If he was on stage and his mic needed to be fixed, he would stop everything to fix it. It was never a nuisance. It would have been more off-base to not take care of something like that, because the recording was going to live on. Very practical. He would always come back to the sound table and check in, and ask how things were going. I\u2019m still amazed that we never had a live sound check with him. That was his style. There were no sound checks in the early days for people who were performing. It was all spontaneous. You could put 3×5 cards on his chair with questions, and he\u2019d answer them. He could do all this amazing mystical stuff and then crack a joke. He could have a great time even telling bad jokes, and crack up. Sometimes it even got into kind of a standup comedy kind of thing.<\/p>\n

He loved to joke. I remember we were doing a workshop in Yucca Valley, CA and I didn\u2019t like the food. I just thought I\u2019ve got to get out of there and get something to eat. So I jump into the car and head into town, and there\u2019s a Denny\u2019s. I\u2019m thinking that this is great,
\nI can get some steak and eggs, I know I\u2019m on a timeline because I have to get back, and I\u2019ll just sit down quickly at the counter next to this old guy. I sit down and order. All of a sudden I get this,
\n\u201cBAM,\u201d and somebody is hitting me on my shoulder, and there\u2019s J-R sitting right there. I hadn\u2019t recognized him at all. I\u2019m like, \u201cJ-R, how did I not know it was you?\u201d He said, \u201cWell, I kind of had the \u2018cloak\u2019 on.\u201d There was that kind of fun, and magic at the same time.<\/p>\n

You didn\u2019t always know what was going on, but you could always just talk to J-R. It wasn\u2019t all about the higher realms and spirit and clearing karma. I remember picking up the phone at the house once and I hear this crowd noise, and it\u2019s J-R saying, \u201cDo you hear that? I\u2019m at the Laker game.\u201d It was so cool, because he knew how much I like basketball, and he was like, \u201cI want to share with you that I\u2019m enjoying being here, and I care enough to call.\u201d You miss that kind of stuff.<\/p>\n

He was very clear about what he wanted, and when we produced what he wanted it worked great. Our intention was that we\u2019ll spend the 25, 30, 50 hours to get it right, so J-R just has to watch it one time. That\u2019s how that went. He rarely had changes. But the \u201cscripting\u201d was so good that usually it didn\u2019t take that much time.<\/p>\n

Eventually we found a way to run wires through the ceiling to his bedroom so he could check his media there. We could call him on the intercom and say, \u201cOK J-R,\u201d and we\u2019d press play, and he could lay back in his bed and listen. Later on we set up playback machines and made him copies.<\/p>\n

J-R was always on the cutting edge of technology. When he went to Japan in 1988 he said to me, \u201cWe\u2019re going
\nto Tokyo, is there some electronic equipment that you need?\u201d I said, \u201cYeah, a couple of the new DAT digital tape decks.\u201d You couldn\u2019t buy them here yet. That changed everything, in terms of being able to stay on the cutting edge. We always had that great support from him. What I liked was that the bar was always set very high, standards were the highest, and then he would step up to support and make it happen. It wasn\u2019t just idle words.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t happen without his green light. That\u2019s the way it was getting out the thumb drives and remastering all his work. When he said yes, all the support was there, and I loved that consistent approach. Now there are about 96,000 pieces of media in our vault. There may be other catalogs as broad in scope about the human consciousness, but I don\u2019t know of one. J-R touches on just about every aspect of human consciousness. I\u2019m still amazed by
\nit, and I still continue to find new things. And at the same time the core teachings are so simple.<\/p>\n

As I go through the media database that starts in 1968, it was just MSIA. There was no USM, Heartfelt, Insight, Windermere, etc. He would do five or six seminars a week. I would be amazed at how he could teach school and do that schedule. I just chalk it up to the fact that he was plugged into something special. Back in the day he\u2019s going all the way to Thousand Oaks to do a seminar. Just the amount of seminars he did was amazing. Seminars were $3, or $5 for couples.<\/p>\n

I had my first light study with J-R in San Francisco in 1971 that was one hour one-on-one with J-R for $50. I remember after that first light study saying to myself, \u201cThis guy gets me.\u201d He could just sit with you and tell you how you\u2019re wired, what your karma was. He could show you not just what your positive stuff was, but also the negative stuff, the flip side, so you could clearly see the choices you could make. What I got was, \u201cyou\u2019re powerful either way, so choose wisely.\u201d It was so clear.<\/p>\n

One time when J-R was in the Bay Area doing seminars and light studies we asked J-R if he wanted to take a tour of Alcatraz\u2014the old prison had just opened up to tourists. He said OK, and we were in there taking the tour and a guy comes up to us and says to J-R something like, \u201cHave I met you?\u201d and J-R goes, \u201cNo.\u201d And the guy walks away and J-R says, \u201cHe\u2019s seen me in spirit and thought he knew me here.\u201d And I thought that was so cool, it was like, J-R was always working, always doing his thing, even when I thought we were doing something mundane.<\/p>\n

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NDH:<\/strong> How has your life been different since he\u2019s been gone?<\/p>\n

Phil Danza:<\/strong> I think when anybody important in your life is not around physically, it takes some time to sort it out. You know your life is going to be different but you don\u2019t know how it\u2019s going to be different. I think I\u2019m still in the figuring it out phase. One thing is sure, you can\u2019t replace it. That darshan that was always around him was a very addictive thing. But spirit is always present. So now that he\u2019s not here physically, it means spending more time going inside and connecting with that. In a way it\u2019s a good thing because you can get kind of spiritually lazy being around him physically.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s been gone about ten months now, and I\u2019m still getting in touch with how much I miss him. I remember him telling me about parents dying, and how you reach a point where the pain goes away, but you always miss them. I don\u2019t have that much pain about him, but I remember in the first month or so after he was gone, looking over at his chair in the living room and thinking, \u201cOh he\u2019s not there.\u201d I miss having him here. I\u2019ll probably never get over missing him.
\nI still miss my mom and dad, too, they passed over many years ago.<\/p>\n

Brooke and I miss working and traveling with J-R, but we\u2019re so thankful that we were able to assist him with travels to so many countries and working with so many wonderful people.<\/p>\n

The thing I feel blessed about is that as he was gradually less available, there was a long good-bye where he wasn\u2019t hanging out as much. So it was not a big shock or a big break when he died. I give thanks for that. But I still miss him. But the cool thing is that because that spiritual part is active, the experience goes on. It\u2019s not like it\u2019s over when he drops the body. We\u2019re still hooked up.<\/p>\n

But you miss the little things, going by the kitchen and waving hi, going out to eat with him. But the positive part for me is I still work with his media, so I get to see and hear him every day. We just prepped 136 excerpts for the PAT 8, for the trip to France. It\u2019s all still engaged, still really active. The ride doesn\u2019t end. He\u2019s still so active, and he\u2019s still there. You call on him and that energy is right there.<\/p>\n

\n

This article was published in the September | October 2015<\/strong> edition of the New Day Herald Online Magazine, available via ISSUU<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Browse the magazine below by using right and left arrows. Simply click a page to read the full article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

100% Living & Dying With John-Roger | with Phil Danza, Head of NOW Productions NDH: NDH: How did you start working for J-R? Phil Danza: In 1974 I was living in Berkeley and coming to southern California for seminars. I was at a seminar here and before it starts I raise my hand and say, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":17931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[263,260],"tags":[526,3466,87,469,155],"class_list":["post-15742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-spotlight","category-john-rogers-current-story","tag-humor","tag-interviews","tag-john-roger","tag-laughter","tag-love"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}