Speaker 1: Welcome to Bill and Juliana the Podcast.
Speaker 2: Hey guys, welcome to Bill and Juliana the Podcast. So
Speaker 2: one question, would you say, it's a nice ring to
Speaker 2: me Bill? You still love the name Bill and Julian.
Speaker 2: So one question we always get as a couple is
Speaker 2: what is it like working together? Because Bill and I
Speaker 2: we have so many of our businesses overlap. Not only
Speaker 2: did we do a reality show, what eighty episodes of
Speaker 2: a reality show? We have restaurants together, you know, we
Speaker 2: have a check Italian food line together. And so people
Speaker 2: always ask, what's it like working together? Do you get
Speaker 2: on each other's nerves? How do you make it successful?
Speaker 2: How do you make it happen? That whole thing. So
Speaker 2: we thought that we would reach out to another couple
Speaker 2: who also works together, especially now as we embark on
Speaker 2: this podcast, A venture of the way for us. Yes,
Speaker 2: and so it's Amy Roebock and TJ Pioneers. There are
Speaker 2: pioneers and podcasting. Yes, So they are journalists or podcasters,
Speaker 2: their partners, and they are two people who also work
Speaker 2: together every single day.
Speaker 3: So the question and run marathons together and marathons you
Speaker 3: can't do that.
Speaker 1: I mean, we're going to get to start.
Speaker 2: So the question we're posing today on the podcast is
Speaker 2: can couples work together without damaging their relationships?
Speaker 4: So, first of all, welcome you to to the show,
Speaker 4: thank you.
Speaker 5: For having us.
Speaker 1: You can, I answer the question, yes, they can.
Speaker 4: They can work absolutely, have a great day. We're done.
Speaker 2: So first of all, welcome, We're so happy to see
Speaker 2: the two of this.
Speaker 1: Congrats.
Speaker 3: You guys look madly in love to I'm noticing the
Speaker 3: body language and.
Speaker 1: You know what, I really even notice that we do this.
Speaker 1: We get caught doing this so often that people think
Speaker 1: we're staging it. No, no, no, this is real. That is true,
Speaker 1: is real?
Speaker 5: That is true. Sometimes. Yeah, we've had paparazzi take pictures
Speaker 5: of us and they have accused us of calling them
Speaker 5: and then performing for them, and we're like stuff, really
Speaker 5: had no idea there was a photographer.
Speaker 1: And nobody's actually caught us on camera in a fight.
Speaker 1: You are looking mad at each Other's the reason for that.
Speaker 5: We were cold one time, and they tried to say
Speaker 5: that we were like upset with each other, but it
Speaker 5: was just like New York and twenty degrees wowing wind,
Speaker 5: oh literally cold.
Speaker 4: We were just like with each other, freezing.
Speaker 5: Books of pain on our face because of the wind,
Speaker 5: and they tried to say, no, that's the only time
Speaker 5: I think I remember one time we were laughing, like,
Speaker 5: did they say what the temperature was outside and how
Speaker 5: freezing it was?
Speaker 1: Thank you for noticing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, it's great. It's really nice to see.
Speaker 2: I do wonder because you know, we live in Chicago,
Speaker 2: and so the paparazzi aren't like LA and New York. Yeah,
Speaker 2: we really don't have them in New York when you're
Speaker 2: walking around and we've never really lived in New York.
Speaker 2: I mean together a couple, yes, but together as a couple.
Speaker 2: We lived in LA and the papa arts are one
Speaker 2: thing there, But what in New York? Do you see them?
Speaker 2: Are they really good at hiding out? Are they in cars?
Speaker 4: What's the deal with so many stories?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm the one with my head on a swivel.
Speaker 1: To the point she's pointing out, she said, you're not
Speaker 1: even enjoying lunch because all you can do is make
Speaker 1: sure nobody's not behind a garbage can or something that's
Speaker 1: not fun. We actually position ourselves sometimes in a restaurant
Speaker 1: in a certain way so I can see certain angles.
Speaker 1: I only need to cover this many people. It's it
Speaker 1: gets in your head, and that's how robster.
Speaker 3: You have to have your back to the It's kind
Speaker 3: of it's bizarre that I live like you know, it
Speaker 3: comes in.
Speaker 1: And whacks you. But we've been burned so badly by
Speaker 1: simply a picture of us doing nothing wrong gets spun
Speaker 1: in such a way. So, yes, we've seen them. We've
Speaker 1: been chased on bikes, We've had car chases around, police involved, yeah,
Speaker 1: police involved in the meatpacking district. We have been sprinting
Speaker 1: down the street before. We have turned around while we
Speaker 1: were running because we see a guy behind a tree.
Speaker 1: We have unbelievable.
Speaker 3: Going to come to Chicago, none of this happens there.
Speaker 5: I know my parents are trying to get us to
Speaker 5: come back down to Atlanta. They're like, you will not
Speaker 5: be bothered.
Speaker 3: Like I was just in Buckhead.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, that's a cool part of at DJ lived
Speaker 5: in Atlanta, and obviously I grew up a lot of
Speaker 5: my life. I've spent a lot of my life there.
Speaker 5: So you know, we've discussed because yeah, it is a
Speaker 5: softer kind of way of living.
Speaker 4: Well, can I ask you so TJ.
Speaker 2: You were saying that you're more the one that is
Speaker 2: kind of more if you will say sensitive to it,
Speaker 2: meaning you notice it more, you kind of see it more.
Speaker 5: He's the only one who noticed this.
Speaker 2: So wait, Amy, is it that you just what's your
Speaker 2: kind of point of view on it? Do you just
Speaker 2: feel like, what am I going to do? I'm just
Speaker 2: going to live my life. I don't care if they're
Speaker 2: taking a picture of me. What's the worst that can happen?
Speaker 2: They see me chewing food, It's like whatever. So you're
Speaker 2: more like that attitude, and then TJ, You're just more
Speaker 2: like you feel it's invasive.
Speaker 4: Why are they photographing?
Speaker 1: That's not that? Because I would say, I think you
Speaker 1: might agree here open some might. There was a disproportionate coverage,
Speaker 1: in negative coverage of me than that was of her.
Speaker 5: That's true.
Speaker 1: So I am. I was literally just walking down the
Speaker 1: street and I smiled at a member of the proparazzi.
Speaker 1: I said hi, TJ. I said, you gotta do your thing.
Speaker 1: Might as well say hello. She was very nasty to me,
Speaker 1: And that was a picture of me smiling, and they
Speaker 1: wrote a huge head line about me not taking an
Speaker 1: issue seriously or I'm laughing off this, or that that
Speaker 1: I was being kind to someone who was chasing me
Speaker 1: and it becomes that So I have been burned severely
Speaker 1: by the bullshit. So I my head is TSD always yep,
Speaker 1: I mean always on a swell, and that's I know
Speaker 1: that sucks. And we have not hell. We're engaged, clearly,
Speaker 1: we're not doing anything wrong. But I'm still looking around.
Speaker 4: Are you getting Is it getting better as time goes on?
Speaker 5: For all?
Speaker 1: For sure?
Speaker 5: Yeah, we had a year of hell. Like where we
Speaker 5: and when I say were followed every single day. We
Speaker 5: were followed every single day. It didn't matter where we
Speaker 5: were in the world. They found us.
Speaker 4: Wow, in the world, in the world.
Speaker 2: I feel like I remember that. I feel like you
Speaker 2: guys were in Europe right and they were. They were
Speaker 2: following you.
Speaker 5: Everywhere Mexico heard Mexico, but just no matter where we went,
Speaker 5: they and you know what, sometimes we learned and you've
Speaker 5: I was always amazed because I thought, you're there's no
Speaker 5: way those people are taking pictures of us like just
Speaker 5: a family in the next you know, table over and
Speaker 5: sure enough, and they will take a picture and they
Speaker 5: will upload it to whatever tabloid they like, and they
Speaker 5: will literally send like paparazzi. They get like a fee
Speaker 5: Like there are basically folks everywhere could possibly send your
Speaker 5: photo just from their phone up to whoever they feel
Speaker 5: like they're going to get a kickback from, and they
Speaker 5: send the photographers believable.
Speaker 1: I'm still that family they walked down the hall, I
Speaker 1: would recognize them.
Speaker 5: They were holding children in their laps.
Speaker 4: They did they know?
Speaker 2: Did they follow you into the restaurant or they were
Speaker 2: just happened to be there and they just knew they
Speaker 2: could sell a picture?
Speaker 1: Which one they were already there When we came to
Speaker 1: the restaurant, we took the seat at the farthest end
Speaker 1: of the pier. Did you have a reservation at the restaurant?
Speaker 3: We went?
Speaker 5: Honestly, we tried. We were trying to find places where
Speaker 5: they wouldn't think we would go. So we were trying
Speaker 5: to go to places where we wouldn't typically go, where
Speaker 5: you don't need a reservation, you could just kind of
Speaker 5: slide in super casual, and it ended up blowing up
Speaker 5: in our face.
Speaker 1: The exact world has changed, but really has Hey, we
Speaker 1: learned a lot of lessons there and I think we've
Speaker 1: been saved a few times. With my head on a swivel.
Speaker 1: So it did. Yeah, it sucks.
Speaker 5: I appreciate his head swivel. It's just it makes me
Speaker 5: sad that you don't enjoy moments out you are. It's
Speaker 5: a lot better now. There was a while where it
Speaker 5: was just uncomfortable. Yeah, public, I got it.
Speaker 2: But it's like, doesn't it feel like because we've spoken before,
Speaker 2: you know, on your podcast, and doesn't it feel like
Speaker 2: do you think maybe just like time age, you know,
Speaker 2: just as we get older too, it's kind of like
Speaker 2: you can only control so much, right, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean?
Speaker 4: I don't know what do you think?
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, Bill, you were talking about this earlier. You
Speaker 1: get to a certain age to where you just don't
Speaker 1: give a damn anymore. This is who I am. But
Speaker 1: we had to learn a lot. If we had learned
Speaker 1: these things before everything, that we would have handled things
Speaker 1: in the public eye differently. Here's the thing, guys, we
Speaker 1: didn't realize we were celebrit would be put into a
Speaker 1: category of celebrities. We're journalists. I know they're a superstar journalist,
Speaker 1: but we are just journalists. So I'm getting a divorce.
Speaker 1: I don't need to put out a statement that says
Speaker 1: that nobody cares that TJ is getting divorced. If I'd
Speaker 1: have done that ahead of time, then it wouldn't have
Speaker 1: been a big deal months later to be dating Amy Robach.
Speaker 1: So the public find out about the dating before they
Speaker 1: found out about the divorce. So therefore, now you gotta
Speaker 1: run with a negative story. And that's the only thing.
Speaker 1: The reason you haven't seen anything about us lately, or
Speaker 1: there hasn't been a story and it's gotten easier is
Speaker 1: because we're happy. The only there is no scandal. There
Speaker 1: is nothing you can even make up about us at
Speaker 1: this point. So, but that's interesting.
Speaker 3: Did you turn to faith at all during this trying time?
Speaker 5: Because I lost faith. I'll just faith in humanity, Like
Speaker 5: I felt. It's one of those moments where, especially when
Speaker 5: I think because we were in the industry and we
Speaker 5: covered so many things, I couldn't have imagined what it
Speaker 5: was like to have the camera switched and turned and
Speaker 5: that spotlight turn on you, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 5: you're like I felt like I was wearing a scarlet letter,
Speaker 5: and I couldn't undo the false narrative. I couldn't say
Speaker 5: enough people. Obviously, my close circle of friends knew I
Speaker 5: was in the middle of a divorce and had been
Speaker 5: in a divorce since the summer. So come November when
Speaker 5: pictures come out. Once that happens, you can't undo it.
Speaker 5: And I still thought like, well, surely once we explain,
Speaker 5: people will let it go. And it just got worse
Speaker 5: and worse and worse, and I felt like I couldn't win.
Speaker 5: I felt like there was nothing I could say. I
Speaker 5: felt like there was nothing we could do, and that
Speaker 5: felt very debilitating. I lost faith.
Speaker 4: That's so interesting.
Speaker 1: Sorry to hear that.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry you guys went through that, but that doesn't sell,
Speaker 3: you know, when the original faith.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so.
Speaker 2: It's so interesting you guys are saying this because I've
Speaker 2: never thought of this, and it makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 2: Is when you were saying that, it wasn't like you
Speaker 2: were these big movie stars, right, So you were saying,
Speaker 2: we're journalists and we like we were, you know, we
Speaker 2: knew the reality of our situations and our lives and
Speaker 2: our marriages, relationships, divorce, and so in your head, right
Speaker 2: like like America is going. But wouldn't you have told
Speaker 2: us that you're on TV, you're famous, and you're like
Speaker 2: us we were We just were like living our life,
Speaker 2: like we had a whole reality, and then when it
Speaker 2: was put out, there was a separate reality to people, right,
Speaker 2: And so I've never really thought of that.
Speaker 4: That's very interesting.
Speaker 1: You all could write the uh because we heard it
Speaker 1: a million times. When couples in Hollywood get divorced, there's
Speaker 1: a statement that comes out, yeah right say Blank and
Speaker 1: Blank have made the difficult decision, after much count playing
Speaker 1: in prayer, to move forward separately, but in friendship. We
Speaker 1: will continue to co parent our children lovingly and with respect.
Speaker 1: We asked for privacy at this time.
Speaker 4: The whole statement.
Speaker 1: That's it, and that's the reason they do that, because
Speaker 1: they're protecting their money and their reputation, because we don't
Speaker 1: need some bullshit. So we didn't know to do that.
Speaker 1: It was an expensive mistake, it was. It certainly was.
Speaker 1: It's in the business.
Speaker 5: But you lost everything we did, we did and most
Speaker 5: importantly our reputation, right, and that's almost impossible to get back.
Speaker 5: It's been very difficult to after thirty years of building
Speaker 5: and sacrificing and loving our jobs, to have that happen.
Speaker 5: Because we didn't put out a statement three four months
Speaker 5: earlier that we were getting divorced. And you know, we
Speaker 5: were just happened to be around the same time, but
Speaker 5: it was a separate thing. We had been friends for
Speaker 5: eight years, like best of friends. But this was just
Speaker 5: a situation where, Yeah, I didn't think and TJ didn't
Speaker 5: think anybody cared or followed or needed I didn't think
Speaker 5: we needed to put out a statement. I didn't even
Speaker 5: imagine for one second that anyone gave a rats you
Speaker 5: know what about my love life. I just it wasn't
Speaker 5: even in on my radar.
Speaker 1: And here's the other thing. We didn't know we were
Speaker 1: going to be dating. Right. If I knew I was
Speaker 1: going to be getting into a relationship and dating, I
Speaker 1: would have put a statement out mageuse I need to
Speaker 1: make sure it wasn't It just wasn't that. So you
Speaker 1: said we lost everything, We lost it because of a
Speaker 1: lie and we couldn't get that. Do you have any
Speaker 1: recourse with like your like, we're we're not. It's none
Speaker 1: on my business.
Speaker 5: We could have. It just would have been a very lengthy,
Speaker 5: painful process that we chose to avoid after all the
Speaker 5: other pain we were experiencing. It was too much and
Speaker 5: a lot of folks asked us to pursue it. And
Speaker 5: it just I didn't have the strength. I didn't have
Speaker 5: the mental capacity. And at the time, I know, TJ.
Speaker 5: Your your little one was, I mean she was nine,
Speaker 5: and my girls were in high school in New York
Speaker 5: City and at NYU, and so they're walking past newspapers
Speaker 5: there and I just thought, whatever it takes, just go away,
Speaker 5: because if you were to pursue legal action or to fight,
Speaker 5: it is just going to continue and ramp up because
Speaker 5: you're going up against a juggernaut of a company that
Speaker 5: has unlimited resources to make your life a living hell.
Speaker 5: And that is why we did not.
Speaker 1: We're probably not surprised to know there are a bunch
Speaker 1: of attorneys who were chomping at the bit to go
Speaker 1: ahead to head.
Speaker 4: That's true, calling you all yet.
Speaker 1: So they're in, yeah, come on, man, and we just
Speaker 1: wanted to move for the sake of the kids and get.
Speaker 2: Past it and just real quick, like you know, So
Speaker 2: you had kind of what we were all seeing right
Speaker 2: with the public was saying. But behind closed doors, right,
Speaker 2: how were the two of you, like, what were you
Speaker 2: saying to each other to like not let all of
Speaker 2: this like worldwide press tear you apart, because that's what
Speaker 2: happens most of the time, right, is the pressure is
Speaker 2: so great when you're thrust into the spotlight like that
Speaker 2: wheneverallylationship to me, that's like I feel like every couple, right,
Speaker 2: like even you and I the things we've been through
Speaker 2: that have been really hard in life, like you have
Speaker 2: to have that like bond behind the sceings that no
Speaker 2: one can see, Like what are we saying to each
Speaker 2: other that keeps us together? You know? And so I'm
Speaker 2: just curious, like what you guys, how it was behind
Speaker 2: closed doors.
Speaker 1: I don't want to downplay it, but what we were
Speaker 1: saying to each other is I love you and where
Speaker 1: you want to go get lunch? Because during that time
Speaker 1: when the whole world is against you, knowing you got
Speaker 1: at least one yeah, and you're like one that's with you.
Speaker 1: And look, part of it was that she was in
Speaker 1: the same circumstances, so she couldn't necessarily run away from
Speaker 1: it like I had a problem, and we were as
Speaker 1: solid and good. I do not remember a moment where
Speaker 1: there was some question about our relationship not working out.
Speaker 1: We were more sure of what we were doing. We
Speaker 1: were so solidified and what we want to do with
Speaker 1: our kids. And we made so many plans for the
Speaker 1: future duringduring that time, we were as excited as anything
Speaker 1: to get away from it, to be together, to be public,
Speaker 1: and to move forward. And I didn't robes if you
Speaker 1: I'm even trying to think of a fight during that
Speaker 1: time that we had, and we had issues here or there.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying everything was perfect, but I am saying
Speaker 1: it was as close to perfect as you could have made.
Speaker 5: Tears tears, God, yes, both of us. He's a crier.
Speaker 1: I'm a big crier. Absolutely, Yeah, just give it a minute.
Speaker 2: We'll walter, but not tears, like about a little more
Speaker 2: tears about the circumstance.
Speaker 4: But more closely, you were so bonded.
Speaker 5: You all were saying the secret to your marriage and
Speaker 5: to your success is that you all are best friends. Yes,
Speaker 5: and I will tell you even before we became romantically involved,
Speaker 5: we were each other's sounding boards and best friends at work.
Speaker 5: If he had a question, even about like editorially speaking
Speaker 5: about a story he was writing, or vice versa, you
Speaker 5: would come into my dressing room and say, what do
Speaker 5: you think about this? I would go into your dressing
Speaker 5: room and say, what do you think about this? We
Speaker 5: trusted each other on so many different levels professionally, and
Speaker 5: then we just had some shared loves of things that
Speaker 5: people don't like, Like we we went through those eight
Speaker 5: years of GMA, were like the only two people who
Speaker 5: loved SEC football. We love horror movies. Like we just
Speaker 5: had these things that just bonded us together. We were
Speaker 5: both two Southerners living in New York City who had
Speaker 5: very similar upbringings just from the way we were raised,
Speaker 5: and so there's just we had so many connections that
Speaker 5: made us. He was my favorite person to be with,
Speaker 5: like and I can say that even in another relationship.
Speaker 5: I just he was my favorite person to be with.
Speaker 4: He's your best friend.
Speaker 5: If yes, if I saw a room full of people,
Speaker 5: I'd be like, where's TJA, And I knew I had
Speaker 5: my person with me. He was the person if you
Speaker 5: set if you've seated us next to each other in
Speaker 5: anything from a school board meeting to a funeral, we'd
Speaker 5: find a way to have a good time together. So
Speaker 5: we're thrust into this horrific situation that I wouldn't wish
Speaker 5: on anybody, and yet we had each other. And so
Speaker 5: we finally, in a weird way, after kind of figuring
Speaker 5: out how to come together. It was like, well now
Speaker 5: you're in it. So now all that alone time that
Speaker 5: you probably were seeking out, now you got it. Now
Speaker 5: do something with it, build something with it, makes something up.
Speaker 3: Yes, So you're literally standing there metaphorically in the ashes, right,
Speaker 3: everything was burned to the ground. Yes, how do you
Speaker 3: see your way out? And like what what gave you
Speaker 3: hope for everyone listening? Like, because people go through this
Speaker 3: every day? You know what made you do a podcast?
Speaker 3: Like you turn lemons into lemonade.
Speaker 1: We were talking to you about this earlier. Right, you
Speaker 1: get to a certain age and yet now you aren't.
Speaker 1: You all reminded whatever comes through that door at you
Speaker 1: all Now you think back, Oh, yeah, I had some
Speaker 1: tough shit happened before I made it through just fine. Yes,
Speaker 1: but we actually have enough experience in life to know
Speaker 1: that all we we got to keep going, We got
Speaker 1: to go through. There's a reason we had successful twenty
Speaker 1: five thirty year careers and journalism because we were good
Speaker 1: at it. We know how to fight through things. Were
Speaker 1: not a part severe. You remember those things about yourself
Speaker 1: because you had to somebody. I can't remember who told me,
Speaker 1: But man, you're really in trouble if you start believing
Speaker 1: the things about yourself that other people are saying about you,
Speaker 1: and you get to that point, Yes, start and remind
Speaker 1: yourself of who the hell you are, and that certainly
Speaker 1: helped me throughout. But I had and I remind anybody listening. Man,
Speaker 1: if you got a friend that's struggling or still going
Speaker 1: through send that. Pick up your phone and send it
Speaker 1: right now. The number of people who I know there
Speaker 1: are plenty who didn't know what to say, right you're
Speaker 1: going through all this, They don't know how to talk. Yeah, sure,
Speaker 1: but the ones that sent messages meant everything. I had friends,
Speaker 1: some people I have only interviewed once were reaching out
Speaker 1: to me and send those notes meant everything. I didn't
Speaker 1: respond to everybody, and some of them would follow up later.
Speaker 1: Don't need anything, just want you to know I'm here.
Speaker 1: That stuff means everything.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's important to see. And you know, when you're
Speaker 2: going through something like that.
Speaker 3: Well you remember those people for the rest of your
Speaker 3: life too.
Speaker 5: Oh absolutely, Oh my god, the shortest message can have
Speaker 5: the biggest impact on you when you're going through something.
Speaker 5: And I would also say that for me, it's so
Speaker 5: interesting having gone through breast cancer, Juliana, I know you
Speaker 5: know exactly what this feels like, and spending more than
Speaker 5: a year of fighting for your life, going through treatment,
Speaker 5: going through surgeries, and then living with a lifetime of
Speaker 5: fear of recurrence, and seeing friends have those recurrences happen,
Speaker 5: and realizing and recognizing how short it is that we're
Speaker 5: actually here and really trying to focus on on enjoying
Speaker 5: my life and making it mean something. And time. Time
Speaker 5: is well, none of us can predict. It's it's the
Speaker 5: greatest commodity that we don't give enough weight to. And
Speaker 5: so now I'm here, I'm with the man who is
Speaker 5: my best friend, who is the love of my life.
Speaker 5: And ye, he's a handsome fellow.
Speaker 3: He's not looking at have the bills.
Speaker 1: I mean the guy's fit. I mean, I mean this
Speaker 1: the way you.
Speaker 4: Look at you.
Speaker 1: He's got a million dollars smiles. I've been looking at it. Beautiful.
Speaker 4: You guys are were brown eyes.
Speaker 3: I want to I want to circle because you're right.
Speaker 3: And I just turned fifty five on Saturday.
Speaker 1: My dad, thank you. My dad died at.
Speaker 3: Sixty five, right, and he was athlete, never smoked like
Speaker 3: so in the back of my mind, time is ticking right,
Speaker 3: What are three things you guys want to do? What's
Speaker 3: what are three items on the bucket list that you
Speaker 3: want to do before time is.
Speaker 1: We're going to have different boocket lists, don't we Things
Speaker 1: we've decided we want to do together.
Speaker 5: We want to get married.
Speaker 3: Yes, we are ordained online ministers, so we can do.
Speaker 1: That right now. Actually, where can you?
Speaker 5: Can you do it?
Speaker 1: Anyway? I can do it anywhere? Yeah, right here, We've
Speaker 1: done it. We've married people before, so we would love
Speaker 1: to do this.
Speaker 4: In case you're you're so you need a backup side bar, well.
Speaker 1: Really cheap, go ahead, the three three things we really
Speaker 1: want to do get married. But there's a way we
Speaker 1: want to get married that we haven't revealed necessarily, but
Speaker 1: it would be very special to us, so we can
Speaker 1: we can say that. We can't say what that is,
Speaker 1: but that's a big thing for us.
Speaker 5: Yes, also, I mean, look, it's funny. I spent my
Speaker 5: forties after cancer checking off bucket list. That's when I
Speaker 5: ran my first marathon. And yes, it's gonson. I've wanted
Speaker 5: to climb mountains. I did kill him in Jarrow. I've
Speaker 5: done some of those things. He's not a big hiking person.
Speaker 5: So I'm glad I got all my hiking.
Speaker 1: I'm not a hiking person at all.
Speaker 4: Okay, thank you for being even a small hiking person.
Speaker 1: Yes, thank you.
Speaker 5: I love hiking. I'm trying to think what is on
Speaker 5: our bucket list?
Speaker 1: See, we may move.
Speaker 5: I think maybe living in another country together. Yes, that
Speaker 5: is absolutely under You can.
Speaker 1: Do your podcast anywhere exactly.
Speaker 5: I mean, it's very exciting to think that you could
Speaker 5: do that.
Speaker 1: We want to take a thie Land trip. We want
Speaker 1: to go shark diving. We want and I say we
Speaker 1: that's more.
Speaker 5: That's my biggest fear scuba wow.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, you know, forget the scoopa about the
Speaker 1: shark diving.
Speaker 5: We do ever base camp with me, then all do
Speaker 5: shark diving.
Speaker 1: Like we said, ever, the sharks are out the most.
Speaker 1: So much of our bucket list stuff really does have
Speaker 1: to do with enjoying life, has to do with vacations,
Speaker 1: has to do with travel, seeing new things, doing things
Speaker 1: with the kids. That's what life is. But on our
Speaker 1: list now is really the wedding and maybe the Vegas
Speaker 1: half marathon.
Speaker 5: Oh yes, we're so excited.
Speaker 3: Sounds crazy, right, But of the things we have a
Speaker 3: restaurant in Vegas, so you can carbol load our patallion
Speaker 3: users tell us have you there for dinner? Then before
Speaker 3: you get can load up on pasta.
Speaker 4: What's it called. It's called the rock and Roll rock
Speaker 4: and Roll Chicago.
Speaker 5: We're so excited. Okay, so they have one to Vegas
Speaker 5: and we run Chicago. So love Chicago. But it's I
Speaker 5: think we just want to keep We are those weirdos
Speaker 5: who like to, yes, have fun and go on vacation,
Speaker 5: but we like there to be some sort of an
Speaker 5: accomplishment that is involved.
Speaker 4: We just got back.
Speaker 5: We took a little road trip to Mistic, Connecticut and
Speaker 5: ran a half marathon yesterday. So we just you know,
Speaker 5: we just pick up and say, hey, let's just go
Speaker 5: do this and challenge ourselves. I think physically, we both
Speaker 5: really want to stay as healthy as we can, to
Speaker 5: live as long as we can, to enjoy each other
Speaker 5: because look, this is this will be our third marriage,
Speaker 5: both of us. We've both been married twice before, and
Speaker 5: we know TikTok, TikTok. We want to maximize the amount
Speaker 5: of time we have together and we want to enjoy
Speaker 5: as much of that as we can. That's the goal.
Speaker 4: That's awesome.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 2: When do you know when you're I don't know. Have
Speaker 2: you announced when you're getting married? Or no, you have
Speaker 2: an announcedate or you don't know when you're getting married?
Speaker 2: We do, okay, but we have not announced.
Speaker 5: Are you okay with that date? Oh? I haven't breaking news,
Speaker 5: but you're just telling me now on the podcast that
Speaker 5: you're okay with that date.
Speaker 1: Being here with him make me more comfortable.
Speaker 4: Yeah, my birthday DJ, thank you August seventeen. Oh his
Speaker 4: birthdays August nineteen.
Speaker 1: Oh, wait, Leo.
Speaker 4: I was going to ask what sign you guys are?
Speaker 5: What do you amy? Aquarius?
Speaker 4: Aquarius? That's a good thing. That's a nice sign. Oh
Speaker 4: stubborn sixteen but not really but like good you're good stubborn.
Speaker 5: Annalise, My youngest is May tenth and her do date
Speaker 5: was May sixteenth, and she is as stubborn as they come.
Speaker 1: As hell.
Speaker 2: No, you're like good stubborn though you're good stubborn. I
Speaker 2: want to know that you guys record your podcast almost daily,
Speaker 2: not almost daily daily daily? Wow, sourly sometimes that's amazing.
Speaker 2: How do you come up with topics? And also, so
Speaker 2: are there ever topics that one of you comes up
Speaker 2: with that. The other ones like, nah, that's not my
Speaker 2: I don't happens every day.
Speaker 5: Really, yes, but I think we have a newsroom mentality
Speaker 5: where you know, you just kind of throw at ideas
Speaker 5: and you get used to people saying no one cares
Speaker 5: about that, and you just get thick skin just in
Speaker 5: a newsroom environment when people are throwing out brainstorming ideas.
Speaker 5: So it is different. I will say, working with the
Speaker 5: person that you love, we're used to that, but now
Speaker 5: we're managing editors, we're you know, we're producing it. We're
Speaker 5: not just the talent. It was much easier, I would say,
Speaker 5: to just let other people do their jobs, and we
Speaker 5: did what we do well. We're learning so many other
Speaker 5: hats to wear, and TJ's wearing more hats than I am,
Speaker 5: absolutely with video and all of these new skills that
Speaker 5: we're learning, and it can get overwhelming and you can
Speaker 5: get the I think our biggest and we've recognized it,
Speaker 5: our biggest trap is to just keep talking about work
Speaker 5: and to be stressed about work and what we're doing
Speaker 5: for work, and all of a sudden we're like, wait
Speaker 5: a minute, what about just us?
Speaker 2: You mean off hours, like when you're not on the
Speaker 2: podcast at home, you just talk about really walking.
Speaker 5: I mean we and this is truly He gets up
Speaker 5: at three, wow, two thirty three. I get up at
Speaker 5: four because I just what.
Speaker 1: What time you guys go to bed at night depends
Speaker 1: on if the game went in overtime, So you don't
Speaker 1: get a lot of sleep.
Speaker 5: He gets a lot less than I do. I try
Speaker 5: to go to bed between eight and nine each night.
Speaker 5: But the point is like we will literally sometimes we
Speaker 5: will work from I will work from four am until
Speaker 5: six pm. We're pulling long and we'll go to lunch
Speaker 5: in between, and we'll go for a run in between.
Speaker 5: So it's, you know, but it's kind of a fluid
Speaker 5: work day.
Speaker 1: We've created a two person podcasting news network to a
Speaker 1: certain degree. Yeah yeah, no, But what we do we
Speaker 1: follow the news throughout the day. So if there's a
Speaker 1: breaking story of some kind, we'll hop on and do it,
Speaker 1: and we have it all set up at home to
Speaker 1: where we are back in the living area and say, hey,
Speaker 1: this just happened. We can walk across the house, hit
Speaker 1: record and can have it up in thirty minutes. So
Speaker 1: that has really worked for us. So it end up
Speaker 1: in a situation we are together, locked at the hip
Speaker 1: as a couple and as a business team all day long.
Speaker 3: As new podcasters, what advice would you guys give us?
Speaker 3: Since we're new to the game, you guys have a bigger,
Speaker 3: much bigger head start.
Speaker 5: I think you guys already know what you're doing in
Speaker 5: terms of authenticity. I think that's the key to podcasting. Yes,
Speaker 5: what we do with mostly focusing on news headlines, that's
Speaker 5: what it's become. We take our thirty years of hiss
Speaker 5: of experience as journalists and we can bring that to
Speaker 5: the table. But so can pretty much any journalist you
Speaker 5: listen to on a podcast or watch on TV. I mean,
Speaker 5: anybody can can tell you what's happening or even give advice.
Speaker 5: But it's your personalities, it's your chemistry. It's what you
Speaker 5: individually bring to the podcast that make you unique and
Speaker 5: make people want to listen. And so that's it sounds
Speaker 5: so cheesy, but that is the best advice to literally
Speaker 5: just take off the veneer, take off the armor, and
Speaker 5: be yourself and people will follow they. I think people
Speaker 5: crave honesty, and that's the one thing about this. I
Speaker 5: think what we do here, you can be honest. You
Speaker 5: can still give valuable information, but you can also put
Speaker 5: your twist on it in a way that you couldn't if.
Speaker 4: We were on television.
Speaker 1: My advice is more so not even in putting on
Speaker 1: the show for you guys. It's behind the scenes. And
Speaker 1: this is something I lost sight of for a little while,
Speaker 1: because you do. You're in a relationship. You get up
Speaker 1: in the morning, you brush your teeth, cooking breakfast. You're
Speaker 1: in a marriage and it's time to go work. Does
Speaker 1: the marriage stop? Is a relationship different? Are we now
Speaker 1: business partners? I did this and maybe it's not recommended,
Speaker 1: but I forgot that. You know what, we're in here
Speaker 1: stressed and working. But first and foremost, I'm in here
Speaker 1: with my fiance, and that has the lead everything else.
Speaker 1: I stopped looking at it. I was almost acting as
Speaker 1: if now I'm in work mode, now I'm in relationship,
Speaker 1: and train myself to just stay in reate the relationship mode,
Speaker 1: and it makes for a more pleasant experience throughout because
Speaker 1: it's the thing that's more important. So I'm strugg Oh
Speaker 1: my god, the time is coming up. Hey, it's such skull.
Speaker 1: Pop a bottle of prosecco right quick, and just have
Speaker 1: a quick sip and sit out in the balcony for
Speaker 1: a second and talk and then let's get back to this.
Speaker 1: That's nice. It really has been huge for me is
Speaker 1: to always always I'm sitting here with my fiance. First.
Speaker 1: We need to do more of that.
Speaker 4: Let the relationship lead.
Speaker 1: It always leads. And it's a game changer no matter what.
Speaker 5: And honestly, this was a new kind of development for
Speaker 5: us in the last I think even like a month
Speaker 5: or so, right, and it has absolutely changed. It's a
Speaker 5: game changer. It's a simple switch that just changes and
Speaker 5: you're like, oh my god, I feel loved, I feel appreciated.
Speaker 5: And then all boats rise. So yeah, how many times
Speaker 5: do you tell me you love me a day?
Speaker 1: Not enough is the answer. Pump the brake.
Speaker 5: I mean it's it's double digits, that's.
Speaker 1: Not I'm sitting sometime right next to her. Look, guys,
Speaker 1: I get if I'm up a two thirty, I've got
Speaker 1: I'm running around like a mad man.
Speaker 3: He's insane, like, how much coffee do you drink?
Speaker 6: None?
Speaker 5: What?
Speaker 2: What? Well?
Speaker 1: The red bull? Wow Andrew, he just came out from
Speaker 1: the back. I like coffee. No, I'm not a coffee
Speaker 1: drinker at all. Now, I used to be a big
Speaker 1: tea drinker. How many red bulls a day? I tried
Speaker 1: you just one one a day? Yeah, and it might
Speaker 1: not be in the morning.
Speaker 4: Wow, he's not human.
Speaker 1: No, I'm just I get up, you know what I am.
Speaker 1: I'm excited every morning. You're excited on Monday mornings because
Speaker 1: it's a new beginning. I can I screwed that up yesterday.
Speaker 1: Get going, get started. So two thirty to four, before
Speaker 1: she even gets up, I'm running around like a madman.
Speaker 1: So by the time she gets up, wife and trussed
Speaker 1: out of her eyes, I'm like, hey, we need this.
Speaker 1: D d da da da da da. She's like, slow
Speaker 1: down your fiance first, and if you remember that, it
Speaker 1: would be oh hey babe, you sleep right right.
Speaker 2: So, like people listening, a lot of people listening have
Speaker 2: family businesses, right, the husband and wife work together. So
Speaker 2: you're saying, basically, make sure you just keep keep your
Speaker 2: mind prioritize that this is your wife, and like, don't
Speaker 2: just lose sight of that, like, hey, where are the papers,
Speaker 2: where's the financials? It's like you got to also chill
Speaker 2: on that stuff, right, Like I.
Speaker 5: Think if I think that it could lead to absolute
Speaker 5: dysfunction when you because you don't even know you're doing it,
Speaker 5: but you're prioritizing work over your relationships, and it does
Speaker 5: take the fun out of it. And then and also
Speaker 5: I think take some of the trust out of it,
Speaker 5: like what am I doing here?
Speaker 1: What is this all for?
Speaker 6: And so if it's not, if it's not for us
Speaker 6: to work with some of that, I mean, that's where
Speaker 6: you get to it's like why, and so you start
Speaker 6: to do like maybe to preserve the relationship, we shouldn't
Speaker 6: work together.
Speaker 5: But no, there is a we like each other, we
Speaker 5: trust each other, we know what each other is better
Speaker 5: at than the other, and so it would be a
Speaker 5: shame to not it. Sometimes it just takes a little
Speaker 5: recognition and it doesn't even take that big of an
Speaker 5: adjustment sometimes it is honestly, I say, if you just
Speaker 5: smile at me, babe, or if you just like like
Speaker 5: put your hand on it's such a good time. He's
Speaker 5: but just that can be like it can change my
Speaker 5: whole mood, just just a smile, you know. And we
Speaker 5: get so busy sometimes and he takes on a lot
Speaker 5: of the stress and pressure of the business side of things.
Speaker 5: It's easy to get caught up in that, and then
Speaker 5: it's it's just a good reminder that you got to
Speaker 5: put your relationship first.
Speaker 2: So ten years from now, where do you see yourselves?
Speaker 2: Let's say it's ten years from today. Where are we
Speaker 2: seeing TJ and Amy?
Speaker 4: Where are you guys?
Speaker 5: We've been talking about this. Oh, you have an answer.
Speaker 5: I want to know what you said.
Speaker 1: I want to know.
Speaker 5: I could see us living in Rome and not working.
Speaker 1: That program. Then we're on the same page. You said,
Speaker 1: where do you see yourself? I'm I'm hoping people don't
Speaker 1: see us because to get out of the people think
Speaker 1: you crave being famous, so being in the public eye. No,
Speaker 1: we're actually doing something we love to do. And now,
Speaker 1: for the first time in my career, I'm getting to
Speaker 1: do it with the exact person I want to do
Speaker 1: it with. Okay, everything is great. What do I want
Speaker 1: to change or go chase? I know exactly what I'm
Speaker 1: forty nine. My point is I'm grown now to where
Speaker 1: you know what you want, you know what you enjoy,
Speaker 1: and you know now the clock is ticking. Why and
Speaker 1: God's name when I waste time doing something that takes
Speaker 1: me away from her or my family or things I
Speaker 1: really enjoy now. So we are not making some grand
Speaker 1: plan to grow to some media empire. We are enjoying
Speaker 1: what we're doing, but we are looking for an exit
Speaker 1: from public life. I could say.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, ten years from now, I hope no one knows
Speaker 5: where we are or what we're doing or what we're
Speaker 5: talking about. Is that terrible to say out loud?
Speaker 1: That's just the truth.
Speaker 4: Yeah, No, I get it. I think we have that
Speaker 4: kind of same feeling too.
Speaker 6: Bill.
Speaker 3: You know, I want to be in a beach, I
Speaker 3: want to be I want sand Yeah, run with my dog, you.
Speaker 2: Know, because that's what you remember at the end, right,
Speaker 2: I mean, you're not like thinking about, you know, all
Speaker 2: those days, late nights working. It's like, those are the memories,
Speaker 2: the things you're at the end of your life are like.
Speaker 5: It's always what I try to think about when you're
Speaker 5: on your deathbed. You're not saying, man, I wish I
Speaker 5: had worked more. Yeah, You're never saying I wish I
Speaker 5: hadn't taken that vacation. Yeah, never saying those things.
Speaker 4: That's right, that's right.
Speaker 5: So it's just a good remind And yes, the older
Speaker 5: we get, the more it becomes imminent or it seems
Speaker 5: like it could be, and that is just a motivator
Speaker 5: for us. We're working our butts off now, yeah, so
Speaker 5: we don't have to later.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well this is a This has been great.
Speaker 3: I think a lot of people have been inspired, and
Speaker 3: you've given people hope that no matter what life throws
Speaker 3: at you, you know this too shall pass.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and you can. You can come out and I
Speaker 5: not can you do come out stronger and better because
Speaker 5: it's only through those tough times, those uncomfortable moments, that
Speaker 5: you figure out who you are and who your people are.
Speaker 5: And we figured that out.
Speaker 1: I forget that uncomfortable though, Jesus uncomfortable. And you guys
Speaker 1: are so busy. So thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2: It was such a pleasure. Yeah, we love hanging out
Speaker 2: with you. Let's do dinner, maybe without cameras.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, you would love it. Chicago is a great city.
Speaker 4: Do you spend time their teacher or have you spent
Speaker 4: time with the.
Speaker 1: Best summer city in the I heard that from now
Speaker 1: about late October. Fantastic.
Speaker 2: We can do our birthdays in Chicago. There we go,
Speaker 2: do it August And thanks you guys so much.
Speaker 4: It was such a treasure. Thank you, thank you.