Welcome to Nobody Told Me. I'm Laura Owens, and I'm Jan Black. Most of us have heard of the Pony Express, and most of us don't know much about it. Our show today

will change that. Some of the great legends of American Western history were associated with

the Pony Express, and it's a fascinating story. It's one which our guest, Jim DeFalise, knows all

about. Jim is the co-author of such bestsellers as American Sniper, American Wife, and

codename Johnny Walker. His latest book, though, focuses on the Pony Express. It's called

West Like Lightning, the brief, legendary ride of the Pony Express. Jim, it's an absolute pleasure

to have you on the show today.

Well, you know, the pleasure really is all mine.

Oh, I like it.

Thank you.

Thanks for saying that.

I have to know, how did you become so interested in the Pony Express?

You know, here's the thing.

I mostly write about heroes, wrote about, you know, as you

mentioned, American sniper about Chris Kyle, Johnny Walker, and codename Johnny Walker, Omar Bradley,

Ivan Castro, a lot of, a lot of heroes that, you know, in different ways are examples for

us.

And so what I was looking to do, though,

I wanted,

I'm very interested in history and have done some nonfiction history.

And I wanted to still do something about heroes,

but I also wanted to do something that would be a lot of fun and have a lot of stories along the way, as I'm telling,

...