1 00:00:05,680 --> 00:00:08,840 Speaker 1: Well, here's something special I promised you all a while 2 00:00:08,920 --> 00:00:13,160 Speaker 1: back in our final bonus episode before the eighth season 3 00:00:13,200 --> 00:00:16,400 Speaker 1: of Family Secrets launches in just a few weeks. The 4 00:00:16,440 --> 00:00:21,160 Speaker 1: tables are turned, and today I'm the guest. The wonderful 5 00:00:21,239 --> 00:00:26,680 Speaker 1: Kimmy Cope, writer, motivational speaker, former OPRAH producer and host 6 00:00:26,720 --> 00:00:29,720 Speaker 1: of the podcast All the Wiser is sitting in my 7 00:00:29,840 --> 00:00:34,560 Speaker 1: seat today and asking all the questions about my family Secrets. 8 00:00:35,040 --> 00:00:41,080 Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy our conversation. I'm Danny Shapiro and 9 00:00:41,159 --> 00:00:44,320 Speaker 1: this is family Secrets, the secrets that are kept from us, 10 00:00:44,680 --> 00:00:47,320 Speaker 1: the secrets we keep from others, and the secrets we 11 00:00:47,440 --> 00:00:48,880 Speaker 1: keep from ourselves. 12 00:00:51,760 --> 00:00:55,160 Speaker 2: Hello Danny, Welcome to Family Secrets. 13 00:00:56,880 --> 00:00:59,360 Speaker 3: Hi Kimmy, It's nice to be on Family Secrets. 14 00:01:00,240 --> 00:01:05,120 Speaker 2: Yes, yes, familiar territory for you. My intention for this 15 00:01:05,200 --> 00:01:08,960 Speaker 2: conversation is really for this beautiful community you have built, 16 00:01:09,040 --> 00:01:14,000 Speaker 2: your listening audience to know you a little deeper and yeah, 17 00:01:14,280 --> 00:01:18,280 Speaker 2: hopefully find some pieces of themselves in stories that perhaps 18 00:01:18,319 --> 00:01:22,679 Speaker 2: will here for the first time. And the origin story 19 00:01:22,880 --> 00:01:28,319 Speaker 2: of Family Secrets in this podcast was you as a secret. 20 00:01:28,440 --> 00:01:31,720 Speaker 2: And I know so many of your listeners are familiar, 21 00:01:31,880 --> 00:01:35,200 Speaker 2: but for anyone who's listening and does not know that 22 00:01:35,360 --> 00:01:39,360 Speaker 2: story of the life changing secret that you learned in 23 00:01:39,400 --> 00:01:41,800 Speaker 2: twenty sixteen, can you briefly share? 24 00:01:42,360 --> 00:01:44,119 Speaker 3: Yeah? Absolutely so. 25 00:01:44,160 --> 00:01:49,400 Speaker 1: In twenty sixteen, my husband Michael was sending away for 26 00:01:49,440 --> 00:01:52,400 Speaker 1: a DNA test, a home DNA test, and he asked 27 00:01:52,400 --> 00:01:54,520 Speaker 1: me if I wanted to do it too, and I just, 28 00:01:55,200 --> 00:01:57,880 Speaker 1: on a whim, said sure. It wasn't out of any 29 00:01:58,560 --> 00:02:03,600 Speaker 1: real curiosity or you know, I could easily have said no, 30 00:02:03,800 --> 00:02:05,840 Speaker 1: because I thought I knew everything that there was to 31 00:02:05,840 --> 00:02:10,480 Speaker 1: know about my family and its ancestry and my origins, 32 00:02:10,520 --> 00:02:11,320 Speaker 1: my ancestors. 33 00:02:11,919 --> 00:02:13,520 Speaker 3: But I went ahead and did it. 34 00:02:13,560 --> 00:02:15,720 Speaker 1: And when the results came back, I actually didn't even 35 00:02:15,760 --> 00:02:18,400 Speaker 1: remember that I had done it, That's how insignificant it 36 00:02:18,480 --> 00:02:20,640 Speaker 1: was to me. The results revealed to me that my 37 00:02:20,760 --> 00:02:24,440 Speaker 1: dad hadn't been my biological father, the dad who raised me, 38 00:02:25,160 --> 00:02:26,480 Speaker 1: and I. 39 00:02:26,520 --> 00:02:27,079 Speaker 3: Learned a lot. 40 00:02:27,120 --> 00:02:31,480 Speaker 1: I uncovered a great deal about secrets that my parents 41 00:02:31,560 --> 00:02:37,200 Speaker 1: kept all their lives that I feel certain they intended 42 00:02:37,200 --> 00:02:39,640 Speaker 1: to take to the grave with them, which they did 43 00:02:40,280 --> 00:02:43,240 Speaker 1: after a lifetime of writing a bad secrets, or writing 44 00:02:43,280 --> 00:02:47,560 Speaker 1: novels and memoirs of bad secrets, and always also feeling 45 00:02:47,600 --> 00:02:51,680 Speaker 1: like something didn't totally add up, just something I felt 46 00:02:51,720 --> 00:02:57,800 Speaker 1: slightly adjacent to myself. Somehow it all suddenly became. 47 00:02:58,160 --> 00:03:02,040 Speaker 2: Clear, and you described, you know, growing up having this 48 00:03:02,880 --> 00:03:06,880 Speaker 2: really easy love for your father and just this deep adoration, 49 00:03:07,960 --> 00:03:12,000 Speaker 2: where your mother was more distant at times, it was 50 00:03:12,080 --> 00:03:17,000 Speaker 2: much more contentious. And you had even pondered that question, 51 00:03:17,639 --> 00:03:19,840 Speaker 2: you know, is she my mom? Does she feel like 52 00:03:19,880 --> 00:03:24,480 Speaker 2: my mom? I'm curious sort of, you know, you've described 53 00:03:24,520 --> 00:03:28,720 Speaker 2: a sense of loneliness as a kid, wandering around the neighborhood, 54 00:03:28,760 --> 00:03:33,559 Speaker 2: peering in windows, looking at families, large families with siblings, 55 00:03:33,639 --> 00:03:37,240 Speaker 2: and so I know you were an only child, and 56 00:03:38,240 --> 00:03:45,400 Speaker 2: I'm curious about Danny in the outer world versus your 57 00:03:45,800 --> 00:03:49,880 Speaker 2: inner world and what that was like during that time. 58 00:03:50,720 --> 00:03:56,960 Speaker 1: So Danny in the outer world apparently looked like she belonged. 59 00:03:57,640 --> 00:04:01,200 Speaker 1: People who I've enco it over the years, who knew 60 00:04:01,240 --> 00:04:04,120 Speaker 1: me when I was a kid, are really shocked to 61 00:04:05,240 --> 00:04:09,520 Speaker 1: learn how out of step I felt. And you know 62 00:04:09,560 --> 00:04:11,920 Speaker 1: that I didn't feel that I belonged. You know, people 63 00:04:11,960 --> 00:04:13,480 Speaker 1: I went to middle school with, people I went to 64 00:04:13,520 --> 00:04:17,520 Speaker 1: high school with, all really professed shock about that, because 65 00:04:18,440 --> 00:04:21,359 Speaker 1: I guess I had a kind of contained nature and 66 00:04:21,400 --> 00:04:24,040 Speaker 1: I sort of looked to the part, but I felt 67 00:04:25,080 --> 00:04:29,400 Speaker 1: really like a creature visiting from outer space. A lot 68 00:04:29,440 --> 00:04:33,960 Speaker 1: of the time, I didn't feel like people really knew me, 69 00:04:34,240 --> 00:04:37,480 Speaker 1: or that I really knew myself in many ways, and 70 00:04:38,400 --> 00:04:45,800 Speaker 1: the environment of my home was so awkward and uncomfortable. 71 00:04:46,400 --> 00:04:49,120 Speaker 1: One of the things I've really learned on you know, 72 00:04:49,160 --> 00:04:54,440 Speaker 1: hosting this podcast is that what we experience as children, 73 00:04:54,560 --> 00:04:58,479 Speaker 1: whatever the environment is of our home, we just think 74 00:04:58,520 --> 00:05:01,200 Speaker 1: that that's the way it is, and that's normal, and 75 00:05:01,240 --> 00:05:04,760 Speaker 1: maybe that's the way everybody lives. At a certain point, 76 00:05:04,800 --> 00:05:08,839 Speaker 1: when I was probably in high school, I started realizing 77 00:05:08,839 --> 00:05:11,880 Speaker 1: that that wasn't the case, and that the atmosphere in 78 00:05:12,480 --> 00:05:16,960 Speaker 1: our home was markedly different from you know, my friends 79 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:20,840 Speaker 1: whose homes I would visit. It felt to me, and 80 00:05:20,880 --> 00:05:24,880 Speaker 1: I think this has to do with my own extreme sensitivity, 81 00:05:25,200 --> 00:05:32,280 Speaker 1: you know, just too behavior and tone and actions of others. 82 00:05:32,800 --> 00:05:36,440 Speaker 1: It felt to me like it was a tinder box. 83 00:05:36,520 --> 00:05:39,920 Speaker 1: It felt like it was always ready to just sort 84 00:05:39,960 --> 00:05:43,520 Speaker 1: of explode. My parents were miserable with each other, and 85 00:05:43,560 --> 00:05:46,440 Speaker 1: there was something in the way that each of them 86 00:05:46,560 --> 00:05:49,120 Speaker 1: was with me, very different in the way that they 87 00:05:49,600 --> 00:05:53,039 Speaker 1: treated me, But there was something that just didn't feel 88 00:05:54,160 --> 00:05:55,880 Speaker 1: easy or comfortable. 89 00:05:56,960 --> 00:05:59,760 Speaker 2: You know, as we have this conversation, I've thought a 90 00:05:59,760 --> 00:06:04,719 Speaker 2: lot about how your present work, this podcast included is 91 00:06:05,440 --> 00:06:07,840 Speaker 2: deeply informed by your past. I think all of our 92 00:06:07,839 --> 00:06:12,479 Speaker 2: work is. But I also from hearing you and how 93 00:06:12,480 --> 00:06:16,960 Speaker 2: you talk about your son Jacob and your husband Michael, 94 00:06:17,200 --> 00:06:20,599 Speaker 2: the deep love and connection that I hear in the 95 00:06:20,640 --> 00:06:23,600 Speaker 2: family you've created. You know, I think so often in 96 00:06:23,680 --> 00:06:28,000 Speaker 2: generational stories, we either repeat, or for lack of a 97 00:06:28,160 --> 00:06:31,640 Speaker 2: better language, we write the wrong and create something very different. 98 00:06:31,960 --> 00:06:34,520 Speaker 2: And that appears to me that you very much created that. 99 00:06:35,200 --> 00:06:37,400 Speaker 1: It certainly feels to me like the greatest achievement of 100 00:06:37,440 --> 00:06:41,520 Speaker 1: my life that I didn't repeat and that I did 101 00:06:41,560 --> 00:06:45,440 Speaker 1: create something different. And I do think that probably from 102 00:06:45,480 --> 00:06:49,600 Speaker 1: the time that I was a teenager, I was forming 103 00:06:49,640 --> 00:06:57,080 Speaker 1: myself in counter identification to my mom. I understood that 104 00:06:57,160 --> 00:07:02,400 Speaker 1: she was somebody who very often put people off, chronically 105 00:07:02,440 --> 00:07:07,279 Speaker 1: felt misunderstood, was very angry a lot of the time, 106 00:07:08,200 --> 00:07:12,160 Speaker 1: this kind of just simmering, low level, ready to be 107 00:07:12,240 --> 00:07:15,200 Speaker 1: dissed at the slightest notice. You know, the world had 108 00:07:15,240 --> 00:07:17,800 Speaker 1: something against her in her mind, and she sort of 109 00:07:18,480 --> 00:07:22,040 Speaker 1: built the life that she saw in a way like 110 00:07:22,320 --> 00:07:25,760 Speaker 1: she felt that way about the world, and so the 111 00:07:25,760 --> 00:07:29,280 Speaker 1: world reflected that back at her. And you know, I'm 112 00:07:29,320 --> 00:07:30,720 Speaker 1: not trying to throw her under the bus. I have 113 00:07:30,760 --> 00:07:33,040 Speaker 1: a lot more understanding of her now than I did 114 00:07:33,080 --> 00:07:36,800 Speaker 1: when I was younger. But as a mother, she wanted 115 00:07:36,840 --> 00:07:43,200 Speaker 1: me to be a certain way, and if I didn't 116 00:07:43,280 --> 00:07:45,160 Speaker 1: conform to the way that she wanted me to be, 117 00:07:45,880 --> 00:07:49,600 Speaker 1: which was essentially a reflection of her, then there was 118 00:07:49,600 --> 00:07:50,880 Speaker 1: trouble if I couldn't do that. 119 00:07:51,560 --> 00:07:54,040 Speaker 2: And I'm sure and then for you it then said 120 00:07:54,160 --> 00:07:56,480 Speaker 2: not enough and not enough for her right. 121 00:07:56,760 --> 00:08:00,040 Speaker 1: And something that's occurred to me recently, I've been thinking 122 00:08:00,040 --> 00:08:02,440 Speaker 1: a lot about my father. The anniversary of his death 123 00:08:02,520 --> 00:08:05,080 Speaker 1: was just last week, and always a time where he's 124 00:08:05,160 --> 00:08:08,480 Speaker 1: very much on my mind. And because of his religiosity, 125 00:08:08,800 --> 00:08:12,440 Speaker 1: I mean, it was really the defining characteristic of my 126 00:08:12,520 --> 00:08:15,200 Speaker 1: father was that he was an Orthodox Jew. It's how 127 00:08:15,240 --> 00:08:18,040 Speaker 1: he would have defined himself, I think, before any other 128 00:08:18,080 --> 00:08:22,080 Speaker 1: way of defining himself. It was the landscape that he 129 00:08:22,240 --> 00:08:25,200 Speaker 1: was brought up in, and you know, there were generations 130 00:08:25,280 --> 00:08:28,160 Speaker 1: preceding him, you know, where that was the way they lived. 131 00:08:28,320 --> 00:08:34,120 Speaker 1: And in order to please my father, I think my 132 00:08:34,160 --> 00:08:36,840 Speaker 1: father would have loved me no matter what because he 133 00:08:36,920 --> 00:08:40,000 Speaker 1: knew how to love, which was something that I think 134 00:08:40,040 --> 00:08:42,200 Speaker 1: saved me in a lot of ways. But in terms 135 00:08:42,240 --> 00:08:44,920 Speaker 1: of his approval, I had a really hard time being 136 00:08:44,960 --> 00:08:47,600 Speaker 1: a good little Orthodox Jewish girl. If you had asked me, 137 00:08:47,679 --> 00:08:51,160 Speaker 1: I think even when I was like a child, whether 138 00:08:51,240 --> 00:08:53,880 Speaker 1: I thought that I would grow up and marry an 139 00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:57,680 Speaker 1: Orthodox man and you know, have a whole bunch of 140 00:08:57,800 --> 00:09:01,480 Speaker 1: Orthodox children and live that life, I think I would 141 00:09:01,480 --> 00:09:03,680 Speaker 1: have known from a very early age that that wasn't 142 00:09:03,679 --> 00:09:08,480 Speaker 1: going to be my path. And that was really problematic 143 00:09:08,520 --> 00:09:11,880 Speaker 1: between my father and me, because that was the most 144 00:09:11,920 --> 00:09:14,640 Speaker 1: important thing to him. So in a way I was 145 00:09:14,640 --> 00:09:17,720 Speaker 1: sort of squeezed between both of my parents and failing 146 00:09:17,720 --> 00:09:21,040 Speaker 1: them each with my mother because I was unable to 147 00:09:21,080 --> 00:09:24,720 Speaker 1: be her perfect mirror, and with my father because I 148 00:09:24,880 --> 00:09:27,720 Speaker 1: just wasn't that Orthodox Jewish girl. 149 00:09:28,880 --> 00:09:32,080 Speaker 2: That makes so much sense to me. And yeah, this 150 00:09:32,160 --> 00:09:38,360 Speaker 2: idea of just the radical acceptance for you exactly as 151 00:09:38,400 --> 00:09:40,720 Speaker 2: who you are and who you came into this world. 152 00:09:41,280 --> 00:09:45,600 Speaker 2: So you mentioned being the anniversary of your father's death, 153 00:09:45,920 --> 00:09:49,720 Speaker 2: and you know, as I research and as I told you, 154 00:09:49,760 --> 00:09:52,839 Speaker 2: it's been such a joy and privilege to learn about 155 00:09:52,880 --> 00:09:57,480 Speaker 2: you through your work. I see these sort of tempole 156 00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:01,840 Speaker 2: moments in your life, and some of them are of 157 00:10:01,880 --> 00:10:05,960 Speaker 2: deep suffering and trauma, and certainly the loss of your father. 158 00:10:06,320 --> 00:10:09,199 Speaker 2: Your parents were in a car crash that killed your dad, 159 00:10:10,160 --> 00:10:15,600 Speaker 2: and your mom survived. So for what you're comfortable sharing, 160 00:10:17,000 --> 00:10:22,400 Speaker 2: what do you remember about that period, about that day 161 00:10:22,480 --> 00:10:24,080 Speaker 2: and sort of how it shaped you. 162 00:10:25,240 --> 00:10:28,880 Speaker 1: That day I've described in my writing as the moment 163 00:10:28,880 --> 00:10:32,760 Speaker 1: that divided my life into before and after. And when 164 00:10:32,800 --> 00:10:35,280 Speaker 1: I wrote those words, I was probably in my thirties 165 00:10:35,320 --> 00:10:38,040 Speaker 1: and I was writing about my twenties. I was writing about, 166 00:10:38,240 --> 00:10:41,400 Speaker 1: you know, February nineteen eighty six, and I was young 167 00:10:41,480 --> 00:10:45,240 Speaker 1: enough to not understand that lives contain more than one 168 00:10:45,240 --> 00:10:47,560 Speaker 1: of these before and after moments if we live long enough. 169 00:10:47,960 --> 00:10:51,520 Speaker 1: But for me, that was the first, and a huge one. 170 00:10:51,679 --> 00:10:53,520 Speaker 1: I just want to preface what I'm about to say 171 00:10:53,559 --> 00:10:58,880 Speaker 1: with I've been very aware lately that I recently had 172 00:10:58,920 --> 00:11:01,959 Speaker 1: a big birthday and I turned sixty, which is still 173 00:11:02,320 --> 00:11:05,360 Speaker 1: a complete shock to me. It was, you know, it 174 00:11:05,400 --> 00:11:10,760 Speaker 1: was a big milestone birthday, and I entered the decade 175 00:11:12,240 --> 00:11:14,640 Speaker 1: that my father died in. He was sixty four years 176 00:11:14,640 --> 00:11:17,320 Speaker 1: old when he died, and My mother was sixty two 177 00:11:17,400 --> 00:11:22,400 Speaker 1: when she was widowed, and my son is twenty three, 178 00:11:22,920 --> 00:11:25,920 Speaker 1: which is the age I was when all of this happened, 179 00:11:25,960 --> 00:11:29,280 Speaker 1: and I suddenly realized all of that recently that. 180 00:11:29,480 --> 00:11:32,400 Speaker 2: Wow, yeah, of all the ages and the pieces and. 181 00:11:32,640 --> 00:11:36,640 Speaker 1: Exactly like the perfect storm of that. And on family 182 00:11:36,640 --> 00:11:40,520 Speaker 1: secrets it comes up often the whole idea of anniversaries 183 00:11:40,559 --> 00:11:43,400 Speaker 1: and the anniversary of a loss through the anniversary of 184 00:11:43,400 --> 00:11:46,320 Speaker 1: a shock. And you know, it's easy, I think to 185 00:11:46,520 --> 00:11:50,840 Speaker 1: dismiss what that is, but the body remembers always, you know. 186 00:11:50,960 --> 00:11:55,560 Speaker 1: So I might not remember on February twenty third of 187 00:11:55,600 --> 00:11:59,160 Speaker 1: any given year that it's February twenty third, but my 188 00:11:59,240 --> 00:12:01,720 Speaker 1: body remembers. I mean, I'll be out of sorts all 189 00:12:01,800 --> 00:12:03,760 Speaker 1: day and then suddenly I'll realize what the date is 190 00:12:04,480 --> 00:12:07,559 Speaker 1: and understand, you know, or I'll remember what the weather 191 00:12:07,760 --> 00:12:12,360 Speaker 1: was like on that particular February day. So the main 192 00:12:12,480 --> 00:12:15,640 Speaker 1: thing about that day and that time is that I 193 00:12:15,800 --> 00:12:21,760 Speaker 1: was such a mess in my life. And also looking 194 00:12:21,800 --> 00:12:24,280 Speaker 1: at my twenty three year old son now and seeing 195 00:12:25,040 --> 00:12:27,120 Speaker 1: that he is not a mess, you know that he 196 00:12:27,480 --> 00:12:30,440 Speaker 1: knows who he is, and he has courage of his 197 00:12:30,480 --> 00:12:35,479 Speaker 1: own convictions and he's his own person. I wasn't that yet. 198 00:12:35,640 --> 00:12:39,480 Speaker 1: I was really kind of unformed. 199 00:12:39,800 --> 00:12:39,960 Speaker 2: You know. 200 00:12:39,960 --> 00:12:43,640 Speaker 1: When I started teaching university, when I was around twenty 201 00:12:43,720 --> 00:12:46,360 Speaker 1: nine or thirty years old, I remember looking around the 202 00:12:46,400 --> 00:12:48,840 Speaker 1: workshop table I was teaching at Columbia University, and I 203 00:12:48,840 --> 00:12:51,400 Speaker 1: looked around the table at these young women, these young 204 00:12:51,440 --> 00:12:56,400 Speaker 1: Barnard and Columbia women, and I could identify. It was 205 00:12:56,400 --> 00:12:58,360 Speaker 1: like this little game I played in my head, you know, 206 00:12:58,480 --> 00:13:04,000 Speaker 1: the ones who never have let themselves get into so 207 00:13:04,160 --> 00:13:08,520 Speaker 1: much trouble or never would have sort of like followed 208 00:13:08,760 --> 00:13:10,800 Speaker 1: the path that I followed, and then the ones who 209 00:13:10,800 --> 00:13:14,040 Speaker 1: would I could feel and see and pick them out, 210 00:13:14,240 --> 00:13:16,160 Speaker 1: you know, and tried to mentor the ones I thought 211 00:13:16,160 --> 00:13:16,720 Speaker 1: I could help. 212 00:13:16,760 --> 00:13:18,440 Speaker 3: But I had dropped out of college. 213 00:13:19,000 --> 00:13:24,360 Speaker 1: I was modeling and acting and doing TV commercials, or 214 00:13:24,400 --> 00:13:26,240 Speaker 1: at least that's what I told myself I was doing. 215 00:13:26,840 --> 00:13:29,280 Speaker 1: I did that for a while, but I was terrible 216 00:13:29,320 --> 00:13:29,679 Speaker 1: at it. 217 00:13:30,120 --> 00:13:33,480 Speaker 2: If I was going to cast you for anything in life, 218 00:13:33,679 --> 00:13:40,640 Speaker 2: knowing your deep soul and commercials, I love that. 219 00:13:40,640 --> 00:13:43,760 Speaker 1: Commercials like you know, for Coca Cola, you know, for 220 00:13:44,280 --> 00:13:46,680 Speaker 1: York peppermint patties. I actually had to like jump up 221 00:13:46,720 --> 00:13:49,240 Speaker 1: and down on a beach and say California loved New 222 00:13:49,360 --> 00:13:54,400 Speaker 1: York with more chocolate. I mean, I was terrible and 223 00:13:55,160 --> 00:14:00,960 Speaker 1: uncomfortable in my own skin and awkward. But because again 224 00:14:01,160 --> 00:14:04,959 Speaker 1: going back to sort of mirroring my mother, a big 225 00:14:05,080 --> 00:14:07,319 Speaker 1: part of the fuss that was made over me when 226 00:14:07,360 --> 00:14:09,160 Speaker 1: I was growing up was the way that I looked 227 00:14:09,640 --> 00:14:11,400 Speaker 1: and that I was a pretty little girl and I 228 00:14:11,440 --> 00:14:16,040 Speaker 1: was a pretty teenager, and I kind of just went 229 00:14:16,160 --> 00:14:18,160 Speaker 1: with that. I thought, well, I guess that's what I 230 00:14:18,200 --> 00:14:20,160 Speaker 1: have to offer. I don't want to sound like I'm 231 00:14:20,160 --> 00:14:22,240 Speaker 1: blaming anybody, because I'm not. Like I had a lot 232 00:14:22,280 --> 00:14:24,760 Speaker 1: of longing for other things, but I didn't know. 233 00:14:24,960 --> 00:14:28,880 Speaker 2: Well, maybe that's the disconnect I just felt, because I 234 00:14:29,040 --> 00:14:33,080 Speaker 2: know you right for your brilliant mind, and so much 235 00:14:33,080 --> 00:14:36,640 Speaker 2: of that work is on the physical appearance, especially when 236 00:14:36,640 --> 00:14:40,400 Speaker 2: you're young and youthful, and yeah, that's so interesting. You know, 237 00:14:40,760 --> 00:14:45,080 Speaker 2: this expectation that you were beautiful and that people identified 238 00:14:45,120 --> 00:14:48,280 Speaker 2: you with that, and it's perhaps there was some unconscious 239 00:14:48,320 --> 00:14:51,920 Speaker 2: expectation around that to do something with that physical beauty. 240 00:14:52,120 --> 00:14:55,080 Speaker 1: Mm hm. Well, and that was complicated by the fact 241 00:14:55,680 --> 00:14:58,880 Speaker 1: that that focus on my looks had a lot to 242 00:14:58,920 --> 00:15:01,560 Speaker 1: do with my not looking to Iwish quote unquote, you 243 00:15:01,560 --> 00:15:05,280 Speaker 1: know that that's what people were constantly, constantly saying, And 244 00:15:05,360 --> 00:15:07,360 Speaker 1: so really what they were saying was that I didn't 245 00:15:07,360 --> 00:15:11,520 Speaker 1: look like who I thought I was, or like my 246 00:15:11,640 --> 00:15:15,920 Speaker 1: physical appearance was some sort of crazy, weird gift, like 247 00:15:15,960 --> 00:15:19,440 Speaker 1: some sort of nutty fluke, that I looked the way 248 00:15:19,440 --> 00:15:21,400 Speaker 1: that I looked, and I didn't look like my family, 249 00:15:21,520 --> 00:15:24,040 Speaker 1: and instead I was, you know, very fair and had 250 00:15:24,120 --> 00:15:27,320 Speaker 1: blue eyes and features. It just didn't look like, you know, 251 00:15:27,400 --> 00:15:31,760 Speaker 1: anybody that I was surrounded by. So I think somewhere 252 00:15:31,800 --> 00:15:35,360 Speaker 1: within that there was this hard kernel of confusion. 253 00:15:35,520 --> 00:15:39,960 Speaker 2: You've described as inner knowing, which I think when I 254 00:15:40,280 --> 00:15:45,280 Speaker 2: hear you talk about it, it feels so relevant and 255 00:15:45,320 --> 00:15:48,200 Speaker 2: real to me as I look back on my life, 256 00:15:48,520 --> 00:15:51,960 Speaker 2: and you know, part of it, as you share, is 257 00:15:52,160 --> 00:15:55,720 Speaker 2: was your physical appearance almost this whisper of your heart. Right, 258 00:15:55,880 --> 00:16:02,040 Speaker 2: something's off and that subconscious knowing, and you've described with 259 00:16:02,200 --> 00:16:06,000 Speaker 2: the discovery that your father was not your biological father, 260 00:16:06,240 --> 00:16:09,320 Speaker 2: that it was almost as if the puzzle piece it 261 00:16:09,440 --> 00:16:12,440 Speaker 2: all came into focus, all that little subconju the whisper 262 00:16:12,480 --> 00:16:17,000 Speaker 2: of the heart and the mind. So yeah, I'm deeply 263 00:16:17,080 --> 00:16:20,760 Speaker 2: curious about that and what your heart was saying to 264 00:16:20,880 --> 00:16:21,360 Speaker 2: your mind. 265 00:16:22,080 --> 00:16:28,360 Speaker 1: I think that's that's where that disconnect that didn't enable 266 00:16:28,480 --> 00:16:35,560 Speaker 1: me to really come to know myself when I was younger. 267 00:16:36,160 --> 00:16:41,240 Speaker 1: I think that that's where it resided, because there was 268 00:16:41,400 --> 00:16:45,640 Speaker 1: this feeling that I didn't belong and I didn't know. 269 00:16:45,880 --> 00:16:47,440 Speaker 1: Why in the world would I feel that way? Why 270 00:16:47,480 --> 00:16:48,920 Speaker 1: would I feel that way? I mean, I was the 271 00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:52,960 Speaker 1: ultimate insider in terms of, you know, the Jewish world. 272 00:16:53,160 --> 00:16:55,640 Speaker 1: My family had a lot of prestige in that world. 273 00:16:55,680 --> 00:17:00,240 Speaker 1: My ancestors on my dad's side were just storied, legendary people. Well, 274 00:17:00,400 --> 00:17:02,400 Speaker 1: why in the world would I feel like I didn't belong? 275 00:17:02,720 --> 00:17:05,440 Speaker 1: Why would I go to a wedding or a bar 276 00:17:05,480 --> 00:17:08,560 Speaker 1: mitzvah in my family and feel that I did not belong? 277 00:17:09,000 --> 00:17:13,439 Speaker 1: Why were people constantly commenting in some sort of what 278 00:17:13,560 --> 00:17:17,480 Speaker 1: was meant to be flattering way about my not looking Jewish, 279 00:17:17,600 --> 00:17:19,200 Speaker 1: my not looking like where I come from. I mean, 280 00:17:19,359 --> 00:17:23,400 Speaker 1: underneath that, I must have been hearing you're not one 281 00:17:23,400 --> 00:17:26,000 Speaker 1: of us. What would happen is I would double down. 282 00:17:26,080 --> 00:17:28,439 Speaker 1: Anytime somebody would say something like that to me, I 283 00:17:28,480 --> 00:17:32,080 Speaker 1: would nicely bite back and I would say, oh, yeah, no, 284 00:17:32,240 --> 00:17:35,399 Speaker 1: raised Orthodox, you know, went to a yeshiva, a Jewish 285 00:17:35,440 --> 00:17:38,400 Speaker 1: day school, you know, kept a kosher home, never tasted 286 00:17:38,400 --> 00:17:41,400 Speaker 1: bacon until I was a senior in high school. Had 287 00:17:41,400 --> 00:17:44,840 Speaker 1: two sinks and two dishwashers. I mean really seriously kosher home, 288 00:17:45,359 --> 00:17:47,679 Speaker 1: fluent in Hebrew. I would say all these things, like 289 00:17:47,760 --> 00:17:50,879 Speaker 1: list them like a litany, which was my way of 290 00:17:50,920 --> 00:17:54,480 Speaker 1: saying stop it, you know, stop it. Stop saying that. 291 00:17:54,600 --> 00:17:58,680 Speaker 1: And after my discovery about my dad, a couple of 292 00:17:58,720 --> 00:18:03,440 Speaker 1: years later, I was at a dinner, a big awards 293 00:18:03,800 --> 00:18:06,439 Speaker 1: dinner that was honoring a friend of mine, and it 294 00:18:06,520 --> 00:18:09,719 Speaker 1: was in the Jewish world. It was like sponsored by 295 00:18:09,720 --> 00:18:12,119 Speaker 1: one of the Jewish newspapers, and I was there to 296 00:18:13,040 --> 00:18:16,159 Speaker 1: you know, congratulate and cheer on my friend. My husband 297 00:18:16,160 --> 00:18:17,880 Speaker 1: and I got there. It was a you know, fancy 298 00:18:17,880 --> 00:18:20,240 Speaker 1: cocktail party attire, and it was in one of those 299 00:18:20,280 --> 00:18:22,760 Speaker 1: old New York City hotels that has kind of cloudy 300 00:18:22,840 --> 00:18:27,120 Speaker 1: glass behind the bar and like sort of modeled glass mirror. 301 00:18:27,760 --> 00:18:30,000 Speaker 1: And I went over to the bar to get a drink, 302 00:18:30,560 --> 00:18:33,760 Speaker 1: and I caught a glimpse of myself, you know, unexpectedly, 303 00:18:34,080 --> 00:18:35,800 Speaker 1: and I was wearing a little black dress and had 304 00:18:35,840 --> 00:18:39,159 Speaker 1: long blonde hair, and I looked the way I looked, 305 00:18:39,560 --> 00:18:44,840 Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, I thought, oh, that this 306 00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:48,520 Speaker 1: is what they were seeing. I mean, in this room, 307 00:18:49,440 --> 00:18:53,679 Speaker 1: everyone would assume that I'm the wife of a Jewish 308 00:18:53,760 --> 00:18:56,720 Speaker 1: man who's here, or they would have a story. It 309 00:18:56,880 --> 00:18:58,400 Speaker 1: was plain as day. 310 00:18:59,600 --> 00:18:59,960 Speaker 2: But I. 311 00:19:02,000 --> 00:19:04,520 Speaker 1: Didn't see it, couldn't see it. It was too dangerous 312 00:19:04,560 --> 00:19:07,480 Speaker 1: to see it. We believe what our parents tell us. 313 00:19:07,960 --> 00:19:10,040 Speaker 1: We believe the stories that were told about ourselves from 314 00:19:10,080 --> 00:19:13,320 Speaker 1: the time that were tiny, and those become our identities. 315 00:19:13,359 --> 00:19:18,240 Speaker 1: And that was my identity, you know, when Inheritance came out, 316 00:19:18,359 --> 00:19:20,200 Speaker 1: you know, which is the books that I wrote about 317 00:19:20,480 --> 00:19:23,760 Speaker 1: this discovery and the secret. One of the first comments 318 00:19:23,800 --> 00:19:26,760 Speaker 1: I saw was on my Facebook page, and it was 319 00:19:26,800 --> 00:19:31,439 Speaker 1: from the wife of my seventh grade English teacher who 320 00:19:31,520 --> 00:19:32,960 Speaker 1: I was friends with. Them. They were like one of 321 00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:36,760 Speaker 1: those young, cool, young English teacher couples in high school. 322 00:19:36,800 --> 00:19:38,960 Speaker 1: And I was always looking for my mentors. I was 323 00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:42,000 Speaker 1: always looking for like somebody to take me in like 324 00:19:42,040 --> 00:19:44,160 Speaker 1: a stray dog and just you know, make me part 325 00:19:44,200 --> 00:19:47,080 Speaker 1: of their family. And this couple, Peter and Nancy Cowan, 326 00:19:47,119 --> 00:19:48,879 Speaker 1: they were like that for me. And Nancy wrote on 327 00:19:48,920 --> 00:19:54,080 Speaker 1: my Facebook page hashtag always wondered, you know, only child, 328 00:19:54,480 --> 00:19:58,760 Speaker 1: older parents, physically so different from what I was supposed 329 00:19:58,760 --> 00:20:00,520 Speaker 1: to look like and what my ethnicy he was supposed 330 00:20:00,560 --> 00:20:03,320 Speaker 1: to be, so hashtag always wondered. So there was a 331 00:20:03,359 --> 00:20:07,639 Speaker 1: part of me that was working, over time, always to 332 00:20:07,760 --> 00:20:11,840 Speaker 1: try to figure out to belong. Yeah, I think there 333 00:20:11,880 --> 00:20:17,560 Speaker 1: was a kind of profound anxiety that I couldn't recognize 334 00:20:17,640 --> 00:20:20,320 Speaker 1: or label. I mean, I was well into my twenties 335 00:20:20,320 --> 00:20:24,400 Speaker 1: before I even could define the word anxiety. But it 336 00:20:24,600 --> 00:20:28,640 Speaker 1: ruled me, and it shaped that feeling of not belonging, 337 00:20:28,680 --> 00:20:33,040 Speaker 1: not fitting in, not adding up being other. When that's 338 00:20:33,080 --> 00:20:35,760 Speaker 1: the case and we can't supply a reason for it, 339 00:20:35,840 --> 00:20:38,840 Speaker 1: then we turn it against ourselves. And that was the 340 00:20:38,880 --> 00:20:42,119 Speaker 1: story of you know, I would call those sort of 341 00:20:42,200 --> 00:20:44,639 Speaker 1: almost lost decades of my life. I mean, from the 342 00:20:44,680 --> 00:20:49,840 Speaker 1: time that I was a child, through my adolescence and 343 00:20:50,200 --> 00:20:55,480 Speaker 1: into my early twenties and culminated with a thunderclap and 344 00:20:56,040 --> 00:21:00,840 Speaker 1: ended for all intents and purposes when my parents were 345 00:21:00,840 --> 00:21:03,960 Speaker 1: in their car crash and my dad died, and it 346 00:21:04,320 --> 00:21:10,040 Speaker 1: was a shock to my system that actually rebooted my system, 347 00:21:10,320 --> 00:21:14,840 Speaker 1: you know, sort of reshaped my system, and was the 348 00:21:14,960 --> 00:21:20,080 Speaker 1: very very beginning of my figuring out who I had 349 00:21:20,119 --> 00:21:22,679 Speaker 1: always been but had never allowed myself to be. 350 00:21:23,119 --> 00:21:26,760 Speaker 2: Well, Yeah, and I the deep wounds and the reconciliation 351 00:21:27,320 --> 00:21:32,760 Speaker 2: of your identity of belonging with the discovery that your 352 00:21:32,760 --> 00:21:39,840 Speaker 2: father was not your biological father, It makes so so 353 00:21:39,960 --> 00:21:43,159 Speaker 2: much sense, How much when you can textualize it with 354 00:21:43,840 --> 00:21:48,439 Speaker 2: the decades before and the knowing, It just really to 355 00:21:48,520 --> 00:21:54,720 Speaker 2: me just almost highlights how powerful and layered the wave 356 00:21:54,760 --> 00:21:59,040 Speaker 2: of emotions must have been with the discovery. And you know, 357 00:21:59,119 --> 00:22:04,040 Speaker 2: there's something that in the wake of that discovery about 358 00:22:04,080 --> 00:22:08,960 Speaker 2: your family and your identity. You talk about you had 359 00:22:08,960 --> 00:22:11,280 Speaker 2: a flight the next day that you're on the plane 360 00:22:11,560 --> 00:22:14,159 Speaker 2: and you're sort of looking around and people are eating 361 00:22:14,200 --> 00:22:20,040 Speaker 2: pretzels and peanuts and going about their business, and in 362 00:22:20,080 --> 00:22:25,080 Speaker 2: your body, you were in crisis, almost looking around, How 363 00:22:25,240 --> 00:22:28,679 Speaker 2: is how is everyone just going about their business. I 364 00:22:28,760 --> 00:22:32,040 Speaker 2: had lunch with my mother in law days after her 365 00:22:32,119 --> 00:22:35,760 Speaker 2: husband died, and I remember her having that experience. She 366 00:22:35,840 --> 00:22:38,800 Speaker 2: turned to me and she said, it's just so bizarre. 367 00:22:39,680 --> 00:22:42,760 Speaker 2: You know, people were going about having and meanwhile she 368 00:22:42,920 --> 00:22:48,199 Speaker 2: is sitting there experienced this wave of disbelief and grief 369 00:22:48,280 --> 00:22:51,159 Speaker 2: and heartbreak that is unbearable in the world is just 370 00:22:51,240 --> 00:22:54,439 Speaker 2: moving by. So that scene was really powerful for me. 371 00:22:54,600 --> 00:22:56,680 Speaker 2: But what you spoke to, which I think is really 372 00:22:56,720 --> 00:23:01,720 Speaker 2: important to this community, is that the specific discovery about 373 00:23:01,760 --> 00:23:07,560 Speaker 2: your father was unrelatable and unrecognizable to people. Whereas the 374 00:23:07,640 --> 00:23:10,160 Speaker 2: death of your father, the car crash, some of these 375 00:23:10,160 --> 00:23:12,800 Speaker 2: other moments you've had in life. When Jacob was sick 376 00:23:13,640 --> 00:23:18,280 Speaker 2: are immediately there's the sense of empathy and understanding. But 377 00:23:18,440 --> 00:23:24,080 Speaker 2: this certain piece discovery that was heartbreaking to you was 378 00:23:24,280 --> 00:23:29,359 Speaker 2: harder for people to grasp, to empathize with, to identify 379 00:23:29,520 --> 00:23:33,359 Speaker 2: or understand. And you know, for a podcast that is 380 00:23:33,400 --> 00:23:37,560 Speaker 2: about secrets of all shapes and forms, and you know, 381 00:23:37,920 --> 00:23:40,320 Speaker 2: the nuance of what a secret can be. I just 382 00:23:40,359 --> 00:23:45,040 Speaker 2: thought it would be great to hear what was helpful 383 00:23:45,040 --> 00:23:48,760 Speaker 2: and what was not, so as we moved through the 384 00:23:48,800 --> 00:23:51,840 Speaker 2: world and people share their secrets, we can show up 385 00:23:52,359 --> 00:23:53,240 Speaker 2: better for them. 386 00:23:53,480 --> 00:23:54,080 Speaker 3: I love that. 387 00:23:54,640 --> 00:23:57,000 Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, there's so much I've learned along the 388 00:23:57,040 --> 00:23:59,760 Speaker 1: way in this regard that feeling of you know, happen 389 00:23:59,800 --> 00:24:02,320 Speaker 1: to be your peanuts And watching the in Flight movie, 390 00:24:03,240 --> 00:24:05,080 Speaker 1: the thought that went through my mind is that is 391 00:24:05,119 --> 00:24:08,359 Speaker 1: the experience of grief, of immediate grief is you know, 392 00:24:08,359 --> 00:24:11,440 Speaker 1: how can the world still be turning? And there are 393 00:24:11,480 --> 00:24:15,680 Speaker 1: so many ways in which I think we as human beings, 394 00:24:16,600 --> 00:24:20,280 Speaker 1: we want to make it better for someone who's going 395 00:24:20,320 --> 00:24:26,119 Speaker 1: through something, and if it makes us uncomfortable, we tend 396 00:24:26,160 --> 00:24:30,000 Speaker 1: to fall prey to platitudes. I mean, we do that 397 00:24:30,080 --> 00:24:33,240 Speaker 1: even with things that are relatable, like grief, like the 398 00:24:33,280 --> 00:24:35,800 Speaker 1: loss of somebody like you know, death, will you know 399 00:24:35,840 --> 00:24:38,240 Speaker 1: say things like you know she's in a better place, 400 00:24:38,520 --> 00:24:44,840 Speaker 1: or we tend to often say something that's easy, that 401 00:24:44,880 --> 00:24:48,280 Speaker 1: doesn't cost us very much, just to actually deal with 402 00:24:48,320 --> 00:24:52,080 Speaker 1: our own discomfort that somebody else is suffering. And you know, 403 00:24:52,160 --> 00:24:56,560 Speaker 1: one of the things that happened with my discovery and 404 00:24:56,720 --> 00:24:59,760 Speaker 1: I thought about it even really early on too, because 405 00:24:59,800 --> 00:25:01,120 Speaker 1: I know, I knew that I was going to write 406 00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:05,480 Speaker 1: about it. I was aware that it was not instantly relatable, 407 00:25:05,520 --> 00:25:09,120 Speaker 1: as you say, to feel sympathy or compassion for somebody 408 00:25:09,119 --> 00:25:12,880 Speaker 1: who's lost someone very close to them is not a stretch. 409 00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:16,320 Speaker 1: But this felt and I realized very quickly because I 410 00:25:16,359 --> 00:25:20,000 Speaker 1: started almost immediately, I sprang into action, which is it 411 00:25:20,080 --> 00:25:24,119 Speaker 1: tends to be my way when something's really hard, is 412 00:25:24,320 --> 00:25:27,960 Speaker 1: I kind of go into fix it mode or research mode, 413 00:25:28,480 --> 00:25:33,040 Speaker 1: or what can I do. And in that case, as 414 00:25:33,080 --> 00:25:36,159 Speaker 1: we were moving through airports, and because of where we live, 415 00:25:36,200 --> 00:25:38,679 Speaker 1: we had to make connecting flights, so you know, there 416 00:25:38,680 --> 00:25:41,680 Speaker 1: were planes, there were airports, there were terminals, there was Starbucks, 417 00:25:41,720 --> 00:25:43,840 Speaker 1: there was you know, there are hours to sort of 418 00:25:44,280 --> 00:25:46,919 Speaker 1: observe people and also to talk to people. And I 419 00:25:46,960 --> 00:25:53,159 Speaker 1: remember calling one of my aunts, my mother's older brother's wife, 420 00:25:53,520 --> 00:25:55,639 Speaker 1: and I was calling them because I was trying to 421 00:25:55,680 --> 00:25:58,080 Speaker 1: figure out whether anybody had ever known anything, you know, 422 00:25:58,240 --> 00:26:01,159 Speaker 1: had my parents told anyone? How big a secret was this? 423 00:26:01,440 --> 00:26:03,639 Speaker 1: Was this a secret that everybody was keeping and I 424 00:26:03,720 --> 00:26:06,360 Speaker 1: was the only person who didn't know or did everybody 425 00:26:06,400 --> 00:26:08,719 Speaker 1: not know? And did they not have that you know 426 00:26:08,880 --> 00:26:15,399 Speaker 1: hashtag always wondered experience. And on the phone this happened 427 00:26:15,400 --> 00:26:17,439 Speaker 1: as well with my mother's best friend, who I called, 428 00:26:17,960 --> 00:26:21,359 Speaker 1: said you know, well, you know, whatever happened, Danny, your 429 00:26:21,359 --> 00:26:25,040 Speaker 1: father still your father. And that was profoundly not helpful. 430 00:26:25,400 --> 00:26:29,159 Speaker 1: I ultimately, over the course of years and a tremendous 431 00:26:29,200 --> 00:26:33,879 Speaker 1: amount of thought and work and questioning and living with 432 00:26:33,920 --> 00:26:39,160 Speaker 1: it and metabolizing and processing, absolutely feel that my father 433 00:26:39,480 --> 00:26:42,359 Speaker 1: is still my father. But on the day, you know, 434 00:26:42,400 --> 00:26:45,240 Speaker 1: within twenty four hours of discovering that in fact he 435 00:26:45,400 --> 00:26:49,600 Speaker 1: was not. In point of fact, there was somebody else 436 00:26:49,600 --> 00:26:51,680 Speaker 1: out there in the world who was my biological father 437 00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:54,280 Speaker 1: that was a total stranger to me, and I had 438 00:26:54,320 --> 00:26:57,200 Speaker 1: no idea that that had been the case until that day. 439 00:26:57,600 --> 00:27:01,440 Speaker 1: That's not a helpful thing to hear. It made me enraged. 440 00:27:02,040 --> 00:27:05,760 Speaker 1: I felt just absolute rage at the don't try to 441 00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:09,680 Speaker 1: fix this for me right now. I'm trying to understand 442 00:27:09,880 --> 00:27:12,800 Speaker 1: everything that I can possibly come to understand. 443 00:27:13,400 --> 00:27:17,879 Speaker 2: Well, what you say which is so powerful is this 444 00:27:18,040 --> 00:27:22,280 Speaker 2: idea that we're sure about the past, or at least 445 00:27:22,320 --> 00:27:27,080 Speaker 2: reasonably sure, and uncertain about the future, and that when 446 00:27:27,080 --> 00:27:34,920 Speaker 2: you're past became completely uncertain, how disabling and wobbly, that 447 00:27:36,240 --> 00:27:42,880 Speaker 2: nothingness almost on both sides, And again the reckoning and 448 00:27:43,640 --> 00:27:47,719 Speaker 2: the knowing that in a whisper becoming real and proof. 449 00:27:48,080 --> 00:27:52,640 Speaker 2: Then you're absolutely right. It's people's own discomfort with pain 450 00:27:52,680 --> 00:27:55,479 Speaker 2: and suffering that we so often can't just sit with 451 00:27:55,560 --> 00:28:01,239 Speaker 2: someone in it. But the idea of acceptance, you know, 452 00:28:01,359 --> 00:28:04,160 Speaker 2: I see how hard this is. This is painful versus 453 00:28:04,280 --> 00:28:06,600 Speaker 2: oh you're still you know, you're still part of the family, 454 00:28:06,880 --> 00:28:12,400 Speaker 2: or everything worked out fine, right, This missive of that 455 00:28:12,760 --> 00:28:18,199 Speaker 2: extraordinary grief and confusion and uncertainty and trauma that you 456 00:28:18,240 --> 00:28:22,840 Speaker 2: were experiencing. It's minimizing something that was really significant. 457 00:28:23,840 --> 00:28:24,240 Speaker 3: Yeah. 458 00:28:24,320 --> 00:28:27,200 Speaker 1: I learned so much about human nature through that experience, 459 00:28:27,240 --> 00:28:30,520 Speaker 1: and then through the writing of Inheritance and then the 460 00:28:30,560 --> 00:28:33,160 Speaker 1: publishing of Inheritance, which meant that I was having many, 461 00:28:33,160 --> 00:28:36,600 Speaker 1: many conversations with people, and you know, and everybody had 462 00:28:36,680 --> 00:28:41,480 Speaker 1: different opinions, and the world really divided between people. Fortunately, 463 00:28:41,480 --> 00:28:44,840 Speaker 1: most people who sat back and thought, huh, what would 464 00:28:44,840 --> 00:28:48,160 Speaker 1: that be like? Let me see if I can imagine 465 00:28:48,720 --> 00:28:52,040 Speaker 1: what it would be like to wake up one day 466 00:28:52,640 --> 00:28:57,760 Speaker 1: and discover that everything that I had believed, my entire history, 467 00:28:58,440 --> 00:29:03,600 Speaker 1: my memories, all need to be reordered now, and there's 468 00:29:03,720 --> 00:29:06,240 Speaker 1: no one to ask about it. There's no one My 469 00:29:06,320 --> 00:29:08,640 Speaker 1: parents were both gone. There was no one to sit 470 00:29:08,680 --> 00:29:13,200 Speaker 1: down and say what happened? And why didn't you tell me? 471 00:29:13,400 --> 00:29:15,959 Speaker 1: And how did you feel about it? And did it 472 00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:19,120 Speaker 1: matter to you? And was this always hard or did 473 00:29:19,120 --> 00:29:21,840 Speaker 1: you forget it ever happened, just you know, to have 474 00:29:21,840 --> 00:29:26,800 Speaker 1: that conversation. I think that in writing Inheritance, which was 475 00:29:26,920 --> 00:29:30,120 Speaker 1: the hardest books that I've ever written, I had to 476 00:29:31,040 --> 00:29:36,600 Speaker 1: stay conscious as a writer about the universality. I had 477 00:29:36,640 --> 00:29:40,760 Speaker 1: to constantly ask myself the question, what is universal about 478 00:29:40,760 --> 00:29:44,800 Speaker 1: my experience? How can I invite the reader into my 479 00:29:44,880 --> 00:29:47,160 Speaker 1: experience in a way that the reader's going to understand? 480 00:29:47,640 --> 00:29:50,360 Speaker 1: And as a writer, and as somebody who had written 481 00:29:50,400 --> 00:29:53,480 Speaker 1: a whole bunch of books prior, I was able to 482 00:29:53,520 --> 00:29:56,040 Speaker 1: really focus on doing that as a writer. 483 00:29:56,560 --> 00:29:59,880 Speaker 2: How painful was the dismissal When it was. 484 00:29:59,760 --> 00:30:01,800 Speaker 3: This, Oh, it still happens. 485 00:30:02,320 --> 00:30:05,560 Speaker 1: People will say something like, you know, what's the big deal? 486 00:30:06,440 --> 00:30:10,120 Speaker 1: Or you know, they'll somehow turn the volume up on 487 00:30:10,200 --> 00:30:13,120 Speaker 1: the privilege argument, which is like, look at everything that 488 00:30:13,160 --> 00:30:16,160 Speaker 1: you have. You know, you got great genes, you know, 489 00:30:16,480 --> 00:30:19,920 Speaker 1: you're so fortunate. Are you glad you're here? That sort 490 00:30:19,960 --> 00:30:24,920 Speaker 1: of thing. I what I experienced that as is very 491 00:30:24,960 --> 00:30:32,160 Speaker 1: wounding because what it boils down to is not being seen, 492 00:30:32,560 --> 00:30:34,240 Speaker 1: not being seen, not being understood. 493 00:30:34,760 --> 00:30:34,920 Speaker 3: You know. 494 00:30:34,960 --> 00:30:38,040 Speaker 1: I always begin my Family Secrets episodes with asking my 495 00:30:38,080 --> 00:30:40,120 Speaker 1: guests to tell me about the landscape of their childhood. 496 00:30:40,400 --> 00:30:43,200 Speaker 1: That was the landscape of my childhood. My hair could 497 00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:45,600 Speaker 1: have been on fire, and I could have been, you know, 498 00:30:45,720 --> 00:30:48,280 Speaker 1: walking on my hands, and nobody would have noticed. And 499 00:30:48,360 --> 00:30:53,880 Speaker 1: so I think when those moments come up or someone 500 00:30:53,880 --> 00:30:56,760 Speaker 1: will say to me as happened recently, someone told me 501 00:30:57,280 --> 00:31:01,240 Speaker 1: that they have a grown child who was conceived using 502 00:31:01,760 --> 00:31:04,200 Speaker 1: a donor and that they have never told that child 503 00:31:04,680 --> 00:31:06,880 Speaker 1: and asked me what I. 504 00:31:06,840 --> 00:31:09,840 Speaker 3: Thought they should do. And it gets very tricky. 505 00:31:09,480 --> 00:31:11,960 Speaker 1: For me because I almost feel like I'm having a 506 00:31:11,960 --> 00:31:15,080 Speaker 1: conversation with my own mother when somebody says something like 507 00:31:15,120 --> 00:31:17,840 Speaker 1: that to me. And I do have very strong opinions 508 00:31:17,960 --> 00:31:23,280 Speaker 1: about the corrosive power of secrets. And look, I understand 509 00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:27,640 Speaker 1: why my parents didn't tell me, and I am very 510 00:31:27,680 --> 00:31:28,520 Speaker 1: happy to be here. 511 00:31:28,720 --> 00:31:29,800 Speaker 3: I really love my life. 512 00:31:30,160 --> 00:31:32,040 Speaker 1: And even when I didn't love my life and was 513 00:31:32,040 --> 00:31:35,280 Speaker 1: feeling sort of like a just like an alien, as 514 00:31:35,320 --> 00:31:38,000 Speaker 1: a result of this discovery, I would look at my son, 515 00:31:38,520 --> 00:31:41,640 Speaker 1: who's just this magnificent person, and I would think, without 516 00:31:41,760 --> 00:31:44,240 Speaker 1: any of this, you wouldn't be here. You change one 517 00:31:44,280 --> 00:31:46,960 Speaker 1: single thing about any of this, you would not exist. 518 00:31:47,040 --> 00:31:50,320 Speaker 1: So I'm very happy that everything happened exactly the way 519 00:31:50,360 --> 00:31:55,680 Speaker 1: it happened. I understand that my parents couldn't tell me 520 00:31:56,120 --> 00:31:58,040 Speaker 1: because no one in that generation did. 521 00:31:58,360 --> 00:31:58,720 Speaker 3: No one. 522 00:31:59,200 --> 00:32:00,880 Speaker 1: You know, we live in a culture and in a 523 00:32:00,920 --> 00:32:04,000 Speaker 1: society that so badly wants to put everything into its 524 00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:07,440 Speaker 1: basket and have everything like remain in its lane. And 525 00:32:08,040 --> 00:32:14,240 Speaker 1: once that is the ground that you spring from. Once 526 00:32:14,560 --> 00:32:18,440 Speaker 1: there is that wound, there always is that wound. Closure 527 00:32:18,560 --> 00:32:24,040 Speaker 1: is a myth, healing is incomplete. There are always scars. 528 00:32:24,440 --> 00:32:26,160 Speaker 1: When my son was little, we used to play this 529 00:32:26,240 --> 00:32:29,640 Speaker 1: game Shoots and Ladders, and you know, you're kind of 530 00:32:29,680 --> 00:32:32,280 Speaker 1: moving your little piece along on the on the board 531 00:32:33,440 --> 00:32:35,560 Speaker 1: and then you know, you roll the dice and you 532 00:32:35,560 --> 00:32:39,720 Speaker 1: you hit a certain square and it's a shoot, and 533 00:32:40,080 --> 00:32:41,720 Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you were on that square. Youre 534 00:32:41,720 --> 00:32:43,200 Speaker 1: in the you were in the present, you were making 535 00:32:43,240 --> 00:32:46,440 Speaker 1: progress on the path, and boom, you're back down to 536 00:32:46,600 --> 00:32:48,959 Speaker 1: like where you began. And sometimes there's a ladder and 537 00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:51,680 Speaker 1: you get to climb up. I feel like that's a 538 00:32:51,720 --> 00:32:56,040 Speaker 1: metaphor for what we commonly, you know, and probably over 539 00:32:56,240 --> 00:33:02,360 Speaker 1: use the term triggering, Like something will trigger that feeling, 540 00:33:03,320 --> 00:33:10,320 Speaker 1: that very solitary, lonely, not being seen, not being understood feeling. 541 00:33:10,800 --> 00:33:13,600 Speaker 1: And even though I'm sixty years old and even though 542 00:33:14,240 --> 00:33:20,320 Speaker 1: I have this big, rich, wonderful life, I can be 543 00:33:20,440 --> 00:33:21,920 Speaker 1: brought right back there. 544 00:33:22,880 --> 00:33:25,240 Speaker 2: Yeah, And the intensity of it, because as you said, 545 00:33:25,320 --> 00:33:30,000 Speaker 2: your body remembers, so it's so amplified because of that, 546 00:33:30,120 --> 00:33:33,360 Speaker 2: the intensity and the amplification because of the history and 547 00:33:33,440 --> 00:33:36,479 Speaker 2: the wiring of the story in your body. 548 00:33:36,760 --> 00:33:38,920 Speaker 1: Right, and it remains as alive as it's ever been. 549 00:33:39,040 --> 00:33:41,280 Speaker 1: I mean, you know Besil vander Kulk, who was a 550 00:33:41,280 --> 00:33:44,240 Speaker 1: guest in a bonus episode of Family Secrets a while back. 551 00:33:44,600 --> 00:33:46,440 Speaker 1: You know, the body keeps the score. I mean, it's 552 00:33:46,440 --> 00:33:48,960 Speaker 1: one of the great titles of all time. I mean, 553 00:33:49,040 --> 00:33:52,480 Speaker 1: the body does keep the score. And no amount of 554 00:33:53,200 --> 00:33:56,040 Speaker 1: knowledge or intellectualizing. 555 00:33:55,640 --> 00:33:58,360 Speaker 2: Or meditating or lemon juice at. 556 00:33:58,240 --> 00:34:03,840 Speaker 1: All, meditation, lemon juice, yoga therapy, talk therapy, you know, 557 00:34:04,360 --> 00:34:08,920 Speaker 1: cognitive behavioral therapy, e MDR. You know, it all helps, 558 00:34:09,600 --> 00:34:11,840 Speaker 1: but it's never going to make it go away. 559 00:34:12,080 --> 00:34:13,800 Speaker 3: And and that's okay. 560 00:34:14,239 --> 00:34:18,080 Speaker 1: I really feel like to have that go away would 561 00:34:18,120 --> 00:34:21,520 Speaker 1: actually be what would what would that even mean? It 562 00:34:21,520 --> 00:34:23,799 Speaker 1: would be like I'd be like sort of amputating a 563 00:34:23,800 --> 00:34:27,400 Speaker 1: part of myself that that lived, you know, that lived 564 00:34:27,440 --> 00:34:28,080 Speaker 1: that story. 565 00:34:28,680 --> 00:34:31,680 Speaker 2: Yeah. And the work is the softening of it, right, 566 00:34:31,840 --> 00:34:35,040 Speaker 2: not the eradication exactly exactly. 567 00:34:35,120 --> 00:34:37,120 Speaker 1: I love that word soften and I think about it 568 00:34:37,400 --> 00:34:40,640 Speaker 1: a lot and try to sort of model it in 569 00:34:40,719 --> 00:34:44,680 Speaker 1: my life, that that feeling of yoga teacher friend of mine, 570 00:34:44,719 --> 00:34:47,160 Speaker 1: Elena Brower, once said to me as I was getting 571 00:34:47,200 --> 00:34:49,759 Speaker 1: ready to go on book tour, and I pulled my back, 572 00:34:50,040 --> 00:34:52,920 Speaker 1: you know, like picking my suitcase off my bed. And 573 00:34:53,000 --> 00:34:55,839 Speaker 1: I called her, because she travels all the time, and said, 574 00:34:55,880 --> 00:34:58,080 Speaker 1: how do you do it? And she said, move softly 575 00:34:58,120 --> 00:35:02,040 Speaker 1: through the world. And I constantly it's like a mantra. 576 00:35:02,120 --> 00:35:04,520 Speaker 1: I think about that when I'm moving through the world, 577 00:35:05,000 --> 00:35:08,719 Speaker 1: when I'm having an off day, just move softly, just 578 00:35:08,920 --> 00:35:10,520 Speaker 1: you know, be gentle with yourself. 579 00:35:11,840 --> 00:35:12,720 Speaker 3: We'll be right. 580 00:35:12,560 --> 00:35:21,839 Speaker 2: Back in thinking about the discovery of you, you being 581 00:35:21,840 --> 00:35:25,360 Speaker 2: the secret, as you have said, and eventually that you 582 00:35:25,360 --> 00:35:29,640 Speaker 2: would meet your biological father, and that as a result, 583 00:35:29,960 --> 00:35:33,680 Speaker 2: you would create a podcast called Family Secrets, which would 584 00:35:34,160 --> 00:35:37,000 Speaker 2: reach millions of people around the world. And I can 585 00:35:37,040 --> 00:35:39,480 Speaker 2: only imagine the ripple effect of the families and the 586 00:35:39,520 --> 00:35:44,759 Speaker 2: conversations and the healing and that have occurred. And I 587 00:35:44,800 --> 00:35:51,080 Speaker 2: couldn't not think deeply about for all of the realities 588 00:35:51,080 --> 00:35:53,120 Speaker 2: of technology and the world, and the good and the bad, 589 00:35:53,160 --> 00:35:58,680 Speaker 2: the intersection of technology and humanity and technology and human story, 590 00:35:59,480 --> 00:36:07,239 Speaker 2: and particular arc that at this time and place, the 591 00:36:07,360 --> 00:36:10,680 Speaker 2: identity would have never been exposed because the technology didn't 592 00:36:10,719 --> 00:36:13,400 Speaker 2: exist to understand your genes in the way that we 593 00:36:13,440 --> 00:36:17,319 Speaker 2: can now by simply your husband telling you in the kitchen, hey, 594 00:36:17,440 --> 00:36:22,759 Speaker 2: spodness vile, that you meeting your biological father, and you 595 00:36:22,840 --> 00:36:25,760 Speaker 2: paint in the book you peering into each other's world. 596 00:36:25,880 --> 00:36:27,879 Speaker 2: I mean, he's really getting to know you through your 597 00:36:27,880 --> 00:36:32,200 Speaker 2: writing and seeing pictures and almost I think this sense 598 00:36:32,280 --> 00:36:35,799 Speaker 2: of safety and security and looking at that you and 599 00:36:35,840 --> 00:36:39,279 Speaker 2: your the pictures and your words, that this is a 600 00:36:39,280 --> 00:36:42,040 Speaker 2: safe person to meet in person and connect or at 601 00:36:42,120 --> 00:36:45,040 Speaker 2: least that was my experience. And then you turn to 602 00:36:45,160 --> 00:36:50,600 Speaker 2: podcasting and had this been twenty years ago, none of 603 00:36:50,640 --> 00:36:55,160 Speaker 2: that would have existed or been available in a way 604 00:36:55,160 --> 00:36:57,400 Speaker 2: that it is now and the reach that it is now. 605 00:36:57,480 --> 00:37:00,719 Speaker 1: Absolutely yeah, and it would have been you know, one 606 00:37:00,719 --> 00:37:04,440 Speaker 1: of my favorite quotes from sort of Buddhist literature has 607 00:37:04,480 --> 00:37:06,480 Speaker 1: to do with dharma, and it's you know, when it 608 00:37:06,480 --> 00:37:10,640 Speaker 1: comes to dharma or your life's calling, if you're off 609 00:37:10,680 --> 00:37:12,400 Speaker 1: by a centimeter, you might as well be off by 610 00:37:12,440 --> 00:37:16,360 Speaker 1: a mile. And if I had lived my whole life, 611 00:37:16,520 --> 00:37:21,279 Speaker 1: especially given what I've done in my life and the 612 00:37:21,360 --> 00:37:25,080 Speaker 1: excavating that I've done and the writing book after book 613 00:37:25,120 --> 00:37:29,080 Speaker 1: about you know, family and identity and different kinds of 614 00:37:29,560 --> 00:37:32,319 Speaker 1: you know, novels and memoirs that all really kind of 615 00:37:32,320 --> 00:37:35,080 Speaker 1: dealt with secrets in one way or another. And if 616 00:37:35,080 --> 00:37:38,960 Speaker 1: I had never known, I think there always would have 617 00:37:39,000 --> 00:37:41,400 Speaker 1: been something that was off by a centimeter. It's what 618 00:37:41,440 --> 00:37:44,360 Speaker 1: it felt like, even though I had reached a point 619 00:37:45,120 --> 00:37:47,800 Speaker 1: in my life where I had a you know, tremendous 620 00:37:47,800 --> 00:37:52,120 Speaker 1: amount of stability and love and family and work that 621 00:37:52,200 --> 00:37:55,440 Speaker 1: I love and you know, felt and feel very blessed 622 00:37:55,480 --> 00:37:59,040 Speaker 1: in that way, but that centimeter would have been there. 623 00:37:59,120 --> 00:38:03,600 Speaker 1: And the thing about the podcast and also about publishing Inheritance, 624 00:38:04,360 --> 00:38:06,600 Speaker 1: it is one of the things I realized. And this 625 00:38:06,640 --> 00:38:09,840 Speaker 1: actually goes back to Besil vander Kolk again. In The 626 00:38:09,840 --> 00:38:13,880 Speaker 1: Body Keeps the Score, he talks about trauma and the 627 00:38:13,960 --> 00:38:18,880 Speaker 1: different ways that people recover from or have trouble recovering 628 00:38:18,880 --> 00:38:22,360 Speaker 1: from traumatic events. Is that if it's a traumatic event 629 00:38:23,320 --> 00:38:27,719 Speaker 1: that has trapped you, say, you know, something where you 630 00:38:27,719 --> 00:38:31,240 Speaker 1: were powerless. You know, you're in a car watching someone 631 00:38:31,280 --> 00:38:34,160 Speaker 1: you know and someone in another car not make it, 632 00:38:34,280 --> 00:38:36,879 Speaker 1: or you know, a crash. You know, there are many 633 00:38:36,960 --> 00:38:39,480 Speaker 1: examples that I don't want to trigger my listeners with, 634 00:38:39,960 --> 00:38:42,640 Speaker 1: but you know, if you're in a state of powerlessness 635 00:38:42,640 --> 00:38:47,600 Speaker 1: when you are traumatized, there tends to be a more difficult, 636 00:38:47,680 --> 00:38:52,040 Speaker 1: challenging outcome in terms of dealing with that trauma as 637 00:38:52,040 --> 00:38:57,480 Speaker 1: opposed to the kind of trauma that allows for a 638 00:38:57,560 --> 00:39:01,719 Speaker 1: kind of agency. And when I was reading that, I 639 00:39:01,760 --> 00:39:04,600 Speaker 1: was rereading The Body Keeps the Score before Bessel came 640 00:39:04,600 --> 00:39:09,080 Speaker 1: on my show, and I thought, Oh, that's what I've done. 641 00:39:09,160 --> 00:39:12,400 Speaker 1: I wrote a book about this experience that has helped 642 00:39:12,480 --> 00:39:16,800 Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands of people and has actually had an impact. 643 00:39:16,960 --> 00:39:20,120 Speaker 1: You know, parents have told their children when they never planned. 644 00:39:19,840 --> 00:39:21,560 Speaker 2: On time, you wrote it the book you needed on 645 00:39:21,600 --> 00:39:23,040 Speaker 2: the shelf at that very moment. 646 00:39:23,200 --> 00:39:23,399 Speaker 3: Yeah. 647 00:39:23,400 --> 00:39:25,280 Speaker 1: And it turned out that a lot of other people 648 00:39:25,320 --> 00:39:28,759 Speaker 1: did too, And I started hearing about that, and so 649 00:39:28,880 --> 00:39:32,439 Speaker 1: there was this tremendousness of purpose to what had been 650 00:39:33,120 --> 00:39:37,080 Speaker 1: extremely painful and hard and traumatic and shocking. And then 651 00:39:37,480 --> 00:39:40,759 Speaker 1: Family Secrets, which has been like really one of the 652 00:39:40,800 --> 00:39:44,760 Speaker 1: great gifts in my life. I started this podcast by accident. 653 00:39:45,239 --> 00:39:47,680 Speaker 1: I had no idea what I was doing. I was 654 00:39:47,719 --> 00:39:50,239 Speaker 1: on the phone with my friend Sylvia Borstein, who whose 655 00:39:50,280 --> 00:39:53,880 Speaker 1: episode is in the first season of Family Secrets. She 656 00:39:54,880 --> 00:39:57,080 Speaker 1: is an early reader of mine. She read a draft 657 00:39:57,080 --> 00:39:59,680 Speaker 1: of Inheritance, and she proceeded to tell me a story 658 00:39:59,680 --> 00:40:02,200 Speaker 1: about it family secret, and I just thought, oh my god, 659 00:40:02,320 --> 00:40:07,400 Speaker 1: I wish everyone could hear this. This is a really moving, 660 00:40:07,440 --> 00:40:10,440 Speaker 1: beautiful story, and she's an amazing storyteller. And the next 661 00:40:10,480 --> 00:40:12,279 Speaker 1: thought that went through my mind as I was sitting 662 00:40:12,320 --> 00:40:15,279 Speaker 1: on the phone was, Huh, I wonder if there's a 663 00:40:15,320 --> 00:40:19,759 Speaker 1: podcast about family secrets. And there wasn't you know, there 664 00:40:19,760 --> 00:40:22,399 Speaker 1: are times in our lives where the dominoes just all 665 00:40:22,520 --> 00:40:24,680 Speaker 1: fall in a certain direction, you know, in a good 666 00:40:24,680 --> 00:40:26,360 Speaker 1: way or in a not good way. That was in 667 00:40:26,360 --> 00:40:29,880 Speaker 1: an extremely good way. And then there was this coincidence, 668 00:40:29,880 --> 00:40:32,160 Speaker 1: which is that she was coming to visit me. She 669 00:40:32,200 --> 00:40:34,440 Speaker 1: lives in the Bay Area. She was coming to New 670 00:40:34,480 --> 00:40:37,719 Speaker 1: England to visit me in a few weeks. And so 671 00:40:38,640 --> 00:40:42,160 Speaker 1: the podcast company that I was connected to said, you know, 672 00:40:42,160 --> 00:40:43,920 Speaker 1: we'll send a sound engineer. Let's just give it a 673 00:40:44,040 --> 00:40:46,720 Speaker 1: let's give it a whirl. Why don't you have a conversation. 674 00:40:46,800 --> 00:40:50,840 Speaker 1: We'll see what we've got. And we did that, and 675 00:40:50,880 --> 00:40:54,240 Speaker 1: then everybody got really excited. I never had a dream 676 00:40:54,320 --> 00:40:56,919 Speaker 1: that it would be a huge successful podcast. I didn't 677 00:40:56,920 --> 00:40:59,080 Speaker 1: even know what that meant when it hit the iTunes 678 00:40:59,120 --> 00:41:01,359 Speaker 1: top ten the week it came out, I thought maybe 679 00:41:01,400 --> 00:41:02,560 Speaker 1: all podcasts did that. 680 00:41:02,920 --> 00:41:03,920 Speaker 3: I truly had. 681 00:41:03,800 --> 00:41:08,440 Speaker 2: No idea, because we all have secrets, right, so I 682 00:41:08,480 --> 00:41:13,160 Speaker 2: would think, because it's so deeply universal, and to focus 683 00:41:13,160 --> 00:41:17,680 Speaker 2: in and zoom in on a beautiful, inspiring and uplifting 684 00:41:17,760 --> 00:41:21,920 Speaker 2: aspect of your work and secrets, so often there is liberation, 685 00:41:22,760 --> 00:41:28,680 Speaker 2: and certainly in your work and inheritance, you write a 686 00:41:28,680 --> 00:41:32,040 Speaker 2: lot about the liberation in the sense it sort of 687 00:41:32,960 --> 00:41:37,920 Speaker 2: created this blank page for you to be and explore 688 00:41:39,080 --> 00:41:44,760 Speaker 2: who you want to be, including changing your name, a tattoo, 689 00:41:45,480 --> 00:41:50,440 Speaker 2: all of these these things because you weren't as tethered 690 00:41:50,560 --> 00:41:54,920 Speaker 2: to your story of origin or your generational story. And 691 00:41:55,040 --> 00:41:59,200 Speaker 2: certainly we know obviously in this community that that secrets 692 00:41:59,200 --> 00:42:03,759 Speaker 2: can be deeply freeing in a sense and healing, as 693 00:42:03,840 --> 00:42:06,560 Speaker 2: difficult as the process is to move through them. 694 00:42:06,680 --> 00:42:09,560 Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, well, the knowledge is a kind of 695 00:42:09,840 --> 00:42:12,680 Speaker 1: its own kind of superpower, no matter how hard it is, 696 00:42:12,960 --> 00:42:18,120 Speaker 1: the knowledge, after a long time of being shoved under 697 00:42:18,160 --> 00:42:22,880 Speaker 1: the rug, being in some way compartmentalized, because I really 698 00:42:22,920 --> 00:42:25,040 Speaker 1: do think that most of the time the secret's being 699 00:42:25,120 --> 00:42:27,520 Speaker 1: kept from us on some level, we do know that? 700 00:42:27,960 --> 00:42:31,399 Speaker 1: And if we are the secret keeper, were haunted by 701 00:42:31,920 --> 00:42:35,400 Speaker 1: the burden of carrying that secret, And then you know 702 00:42:35,440 --> 00:42:37,840 Speaker 1: the secrets that we keep from ourselves, you know. That 703 00:42:37,960 --> 00:42:39,640 Speaker 1: was the story of my life. I mean, I was 704 00:42:39,640 --> 00:42:42,000 Speaker 1: having a secret keft from me, but I was also 705 00:42:42,640 --> 00:42:45,040 Speaker 1: keeping a secret from myself because it was impossible and 706 00:42:45,040 --> 00:42:47,200 Speaker 1: too dangerous to know. So I used to ask my 707 00:42:47,239 --> 00:42:49,960 Speaker 1: guests in every episode, I would ask them in the interview, 708 00:42:50,800 --> 00:42:53,399 Speaker 1: do you wish you hadn't found out? And not one 709 00:42:53,400 --> 00:42:55,040 Speaker 1: single one of my guests said, yeah, I wish I 710 00:42:55,080 --> 00:42:55,759 Speaker 1: hadn't found out. 711 00:42:57,000 --> 00:43:00,040 Speaker 2: I kept a secret for twenty four years and I 712 00:43:00,040 --> 00:43:04,880 Speaker 2: shared it on my podcast three years ago that I 713 00:43:04,920 --> 00:43:11,600 Speaker 2: have bipolar disorder, and the amount of the weight, the 714 00:43:11,640 --> 00:43:15,000 Speaker 2: shame and the secrecy and the work of covering it 715 00:43:15,120 --> 00:43:17,759 Speaker 2: up I was. I mean, I would go on a 716 00:43:17,800 --> 00:43:21,359 Speaker 2: girl's trip and leave my little makeup bag that had 717 00:43:21,360 --> 00:43:25,239 Speaker 2: all my meds in it and leave it unzipped. And 718 00:43:25,320 --> 00:43:29,520 Speaker 2: when I thought my hand would shake, that somebody had, 719 00:43:29,680 --> 00:43:31,480 Speaker 2: you know, as if they would spend their time googling 720 00:43:31,520 --> 00:43:35,920 Speaker 2: with all the medications. But that was my level of 721 00:43:36,560 --> 00:43:39,200 Speaker 2: fear of being seen, of being known for who I 722 00:43:39,239 --> 00:43:42,640 Speaker 2: really am, and the brain I was given in this world. 723 00:43:43,440 --> 00:43:46,760 Speaker 2: And you know, on the outside, I was working for Oprah, 724 00:43:46,800 --> 00:43:51,480 Speaker 2: I had three kids, happily married. Obviously my three kids 725 00:43:51,480 --> 00:43:54,840 Speaker 2: and my love of my husband is very real, but 726 00:43:54,880 --> 00:43:58,400 Speaker 2: there were pieces of my mental health that were really 727 00:43:58,440 --> 00:44:04,520 Speaker 2: hard to manage, and so stepping out of that shame. 728 00:44:06,200 --> 00:44:10,880 Speaker 2: I cannot tell you the freedom, the liberation, the healing 729 00:44:11,640 --> 00:44:14,719 Speaker 2: and what I think about your work on this podcast, 730 00:44:15,000 --> 00:44:18,120 Speaker 2: and it certainly was not my intention when I shared, 731 00:44:18,800 --> 00:44:23,400 Speaker 2: but the message it sends generationally, I believe to my 732 00:44:23,600 --> 00:44:27,799 Speaker 2: kids is that not that there's no place for it, 733 00:44:27,920 --> 00:44:33,240 Speaker 2: but shame and secrecy will not win stepping into your truth. 734 00:44:33,920 --> 00:44:35,759 Speaker 2: I just think, you know, my daughter even said to 735 00:44:35,800 --> 00:44:38,759 Speaker 2: me she was talking about a friend talking about her 736 00:44:38,760 --> 00:44:43,360 Speaker 2: mom's mental health, and she was curious, like, I'm confused 737 00:44:43,360 --> 00:44:46,799 Speaker 2: why everyone keeps it a secret and you talk about 738 00:44:46,840 --> 00:44:49,360 Speaker 2: it so openly. So I think the work that you 739 00:44:49,440 --> 00:44:54,399 Speaker 2: are doing, the impact will live on as people share 740 00:44:54,440 --> 00:44:57,879 Speaker 2: their secrets and heal from them and are move into 741 00:44:57,880 --> 00:45:02,919 Speaker 2: this place of freedom, which I deeply sensed that you've experienced. 742 00:45:03,040 --> 00:45:06,200 Speaker 2: And for me, it's been perhaps one of the greatest 743 00:45:06,200 --> 00:45:09,920 Speaker 2: gifts I've given myself in my life. Was no longer 744 00:45:10,000 --> 00:45:10,880 Speaker 2: keeping it a secret. 745 00:45:11,480 --> 00:45:15,440 Speaker 1: I love hearing that, and it makes me think really 746 00:45:15,520 --> 00:45:19,560 Speaker 1: like it's all of a piece, right, Because if you 747 00:45:19,880 --> 00:45:23,239 Speaker 1: keep a secret like the one that you kept out 748 00:45:23,320 --> 00:45:28,040 Speaker 1: of shame, out of fear that you won't be perfect, 749 00:45:28,400 --> 00:45:31,680 Speaker 1: if you won't see you as the perfect shiny exterior 750 00:45:31,719 --> 00:45:33,279 Speaker 1: with the amazing career and the amazing. 751 00:45:33,120 --> 00:45:36,120 Speaker 2: Family acted, you'll be judge to see us rights. 752 00:45:36,440 --> 00:45:38,680 Speaker 3: And that's not what happens. 753 00:45:38,320 --> 00:45:43,880 Speaker 2: Is it. Oh, it is the opposite. People are drawn 754 00:45:43,960 --> 00:45:47,520 Speaker 2: to you in a way that is unexplainable. I mean, 755 00:45:47,600 --> 00:45:51,560 Speaker 2: within weeks of hitting published and you know, tens of 756 00:45:51,600 --> 00:45:54,960 Speaker 2: thousands of people hearing the thing, I'd hit my whole life. 757 00:45:55,480 --> 00:45:57,879 Speaker 2: I mean, people in the grocery store I would run 758 00:45:57,920 --> 00:46:00,799 Speaker 2: into in town would lean in a little closer. I 759 00:46:00,840 --> 00:46:05,960 Speaker 2: mean I thought people would run, and instead they were 760 00:46:06,040 --> 00:46:08,040 Speaker 2: drawn in. It was fascinating. 761 00:46:09,040 --> 00:46:11,440 Speaker 1: That's a little bit of what I was describing in 762 00:46:11,520 --> 00:46:16,560 Speaker 1: terms of the superpower. There's something that feels there's like 763 00:46:16,760 --> 00:46:24,919 Speaker 1: radiates a kind of humanity, humility, transparency that makes other 764 00:46:25,080 --> 00:46:30,160 Speaker 1: people feel more comfortable with whatever their own stuff is, 765 00:46:30,640 --> 00:46:33,640 Speaker 1: because everybody has stuff. 766 00:46:34,400 --> 00:46:38,440 Speaker 2: Brene Brown says, you know, when in her work around vulnerability. 767 00:46:38,480 --> 00:46:40,239 Speaker 2: You share it with the people who earn the right 768 00:46:40,880 --> 00:46:44,920 Speaker 2: to try. And I always am careful to say not 769 00:46:45,040 --> 00:46:47,959 Speaker 2: everyone has to shout it on a podcast or from 770 00:46:48,000 --> 00:46:52,440 Speaker 2: the mountain. It may just be your family, your friend, 771 00:46:52,640 --> 00:46:55,920 Speaker 2: you know. But but the liberation and having it no 772 00:46:56,000 --> 00:46:58,880 Speaker 2: longer be a secret, moving it into the light is 773 00:46:58,920 --> 00:47:04,000 Speaker 2: where the magic hap exactly. So I listened to your 774 00:47:04,000 --> 00:47:08,360 Speaker 2: interview with Jamie Lee Curtis, and you talked about faith, 775 00:47:08,520 --> 00:47:12,560 Speaker 2: and faith is a huge part of your story of 776 00:47:12,640 --> 00:47:15,600 Speaker 2: your discovery and you being a secret because of your 777 00:47:15,640 --> 00:47:20,080 Speaker 2: family's deep lineage and story of their faith, devout faith. 778 00:47:20,520 --> 00:47:23,920 Speaker 2: So your book Devotion, you had said in the interview 779 00:47:24,120 --> 00:47:28,200 Speaker 2: that that changed you the most, So I'm curious why 780 00:47:28,480 --> 00:47:30,239 Speaker 2: and how did it change you. 781 00:47:31,040 --> 00:47:33,120 Speaker 1: Devotion was a book that I really did not want 782 00:47:33,160 --> 00:47:36,279 Speaker 1: to write. It wanted to be written. I think that's 783 00:47:36,360 --> 00:47:40,640 Speaker 1: true with all of my books, but with Devotion. When 784 00:47:40,640 --> 00:47:43,600 Speaker 1: I realized what I was embarking on, the title came 785 00:47:43,640 --> 00:47:46,640 Speaker 1: to me first, and I realized that I wanted to grapple, 786 00:47:47,560 --> 00:47:51,120 Speaker 1: or needed to grapple with my own history. 787 00:47:51,560 --> 00:47:52,759 Speaker 3: You know, my son was very young. 788 00:47:52,800 --> 00:47:55,239 Speaker 1: He was asking me questions about what I believed, and 789 00:47:55,280 --> 00:47:58,640 Speaker 1: I realized I had absolutely nothing to say, because I 790 00:47:58,719 --> 00:48:03,520 Speaker 1: had pushed back so hard word against that complicated childhood 791 00:48:03,560 --> 00:48:06,160 Speaker 1: of my own that you know, I hadn't replaced it 792 00:48:06,200 --> 00:48:09,960 Speaker 1: with anything. I had just rebelled against it. And so 793 00:48:10,120 --> 00:48:15,319 Speaker 1: I was raising my son with no rituals. And you know, 794 00:48:15,440 --> 00:48:19,360 Speaker 1: certainly I had a spiritual life, and I'm a longtime 795 00:48:19,640 --> 00:48:24,720 Speaker 1: practicer of yoga, and I meditate every day. But there 796 00:48:25,200 --> 00:48:28,000 Speaker 1: was something I felt like I was not fully doing 797 00:48:28,160 --> 00:48:30,000 Speaker 1: for him as his mother that I wanted to be. 798 00:48:30,239 --> 00:48:33,000 Speaker 1: And so I started writing this book and it came 799 00:48:33,040 --> 00:48:36,000 Speaker 1: out in these little pieces, like little breadcrumbs through a forest. 800 00:48:37,520 --> 00:48:40,920 Speaker 1: My mandate to myself was that I was trying to 801 00:48:41,000 --> 00:48:47,240 Speaker 1: look at every single passage, every single scene or incident, 802 00:48:48,120 --> 00:48:51,480 Speaker 1: as does this pose a spiritual question that I can 803 00:48:51,520 --> 00:48:52,000 Speaker 1: grapple with? 804 00:48:52,040 --> 00:48:53,800 Speaker 3: And if it does, it doesn't belong in this book. 805 00:48:54,560 --> 00:48:57,560 Speaker 1: And along the way, as I was writing it, I thought, 806 00:48:57,680 --> 00:48:59,960 Speaker 1: I am I really think I'm writing a book that 807 00:49:00,000 --> 00:49:05,560 Speaker 1: no one will read. It's so deeply idiosyncratically me and 808 00:49:05,920 --> 00:49:09,080 Speaker 1: I felt and feel a little bit like a unicorn. 809 00:49:09,400 --> 00:49:12,520 Speaker 1: So unless you're a unicorn with the same exact unicorn 810 00:49:12,520 --> 00:49:15,000 Speaker 1: properties as me, you're not going to be able to 811 00:49:15,040 --> 00:49:20,120 Speaker 1: relate to this book. That's what I thought, And then 812 00:49:20,480 --> 00:49:27,160 Speaker 1: devotion came out. And what started happening pretty much immediately 813 00:49:27,880 --> 00:49:31,840 Speaker 1: was that I started hearing from people readers of every 814 00:49:31,920 --> 00:49:39,600 Speaker 1: different stripe, of every different age, gender, you know, nationality, background, 815 00:49:40,320 --> 00:49:43,959 Speaker 1: and they all said the same thing, which was, you've 816 00:49:43,960 --> 00:49:47,080 Speaker 1: told my story. And that was what was life changing 817 00:49:47,800 --> 00:49:52,080 Speaker 1: because it was the first time, and it happened many 818 00:49:52,120 --> 00:49:55,759 Speaker 1: times since, but it was the first time that I 819 00:49:55,920 --> 00:50:03,480 Speaker 1: understood just how alike we are all are on the inside, 820 00:50:03,520 --> 00:50:07,400 Speaker 1: that we carry the same anxieties and fears and burdens 821 00:50:07,440 --> 00:50:10,920 Speaker 1: and longings, and the content of them may be different, 822 00:50:11,000 --> 00:50:16,200 Speaker 1: but the you know, the human experience is not as 823 00:50:16,320 --> 00:50:18,560 Speaker 1: distinct or different from each other as as we think 824 00:50:18,600 --> 00:50:18,920 Speaker 1: it is. 825 00:50:19,080 --> 00:50:22,879 Speaker 3: And and what that did. I had been. 826 00:50:22,840 --> 00:50:26,360 Speaker 1: Terrified of public speaking before that, couldn't stand getting up 827 00:50:26,360 --> 00:50:30,160 Speaker 1: in front of crowds, which is not great. If you 828 00:50:30,239 --> 00:50:31,840 Speaker 1: do what I do, you need to be able to 829 00:50:31,880 --> 00:50:36,279 Speaker 1: do that. And it cured that for me. And the 830 00:50:36,360 --> 00:50:39,640 Speaker 1: reason why it cured that for me was because I 831 00:50:39,640 --> 00:50:42,279 Speaker 1: would look out into an audience and just think we 832 00:50:42,360 --> 00:50:43,040 Speaker 1: are connected. 833 00:50:44,120 --> 00:50:49,080 Speaker 3: There. There really isn't this, Yeah, yeah, this is safe. 834 00:50:49,160 --> 00:50:51,719 Speaker 3: There isn't You're not sitting there. 835 00:50:53,000 --> 00:50:58,000 Speaker 1: Judging me. You're sitting there ready to feel something. And 836 00:50:58,080 --> 00:51:01,160 Speaker 1: I'm here wanting to offer you that, wanting to give 837 00:51:01,200 --> 00:51:03,320 Speaker 1: you that. And so that's what I meant in that 838 00:51:03,400 --> 00:51:06,400 Speaker 1: conversation with Jamie about the way it changed me. But 839 00:51:06,440 --> 00:51:09,360 Speaker 1: it was really the beginning of that has been true 840 00:51:09,719 --> 00:51:15,160 Speaker 1: now throughout these years, since twenty ten when that book 841 00:51:15,200 --> 00:51:20,360 Speaker 1: came out, that feeling of if you really tell your story, 842 00:51:21,360 --> 00:51:25,400 Speaker 1: and if you tell it true, then what the listener 843 00:51:25,920 --> 00:51:29,920 Speaker 1: is going to hear is, oh, that's my story too. 844 00:51:31,160 --> 00:51:38,759 Speaker 1: We'll be back in a moment with more family secrets. 845 00:51:39,120 --> 00:51:44,719 Speaker 2: I found a piece of myself in Inheritance, And the 846 00:51:44,800 --> 00:51:48,759 Speaker 2: interesting thing is it was such kind of subplot in 847 00:51:48,840 --> 00:51:52,480 Speaker 2: your story, but it was these few sentences and I 848 00:51:52,600 --> 00:51:57,080 Speaker 2: highlighted and it literally changed the way I view myself 849 00:51:57,120 --> 00:52:00,000 Speaker 2: as a mother. It didn't change, it gave me language 850 00:52:00,200 --> 00:52:03,759 Speaker 2: to it. And you were talking about meeting your biological 851 00:52:03,800 --> 00:52:07,120 Speaker 2: half sister, and you said something along the lines of 852 00:52:07,600 --> 00:52:11,360 Speaker 2: your illustrating kind of your immediate bond and some of 853 00:52:11,400 --> 00:52:14,520 Speaker 2: the things you had in common. And you said serious 854 00:52:14,560 --> 00:52:17,640 Speaker 2: about our work and fierce about our children. And I have, 855 00:52:18,600 --> 00:52:22,120 Speaker 2: for whatever reason, is somebody who has loved working, who 856 00:52:22,120 --> 00:52:26,440 Speaker 2: has been really deeply passionate and ambitious in her work. 857 00:52:26,840 --> 00:52:30,239 Speaker 2: I had this deep guilt because I live in a 858 00:52:30,280 --> 00:52:32,960 Speaker 2: community where most moms are stay at home moms, that 859 00:52:33,040 --> 00:52:34,799 Speaker 2: there was a choice I was making and I had 860 00:52:34,800 --> 00:52:37,960 Speaker 2: to be one or the other. And you saying that 861 00:52:38,040 --> 00:52:40,839 Speaker 2: it was okay to be serious about your work and 862 00:52:41,040 --> 00:52:44,479 Speaker 2: fierce about your kids. I literally went on a walk 863 00:52:44,520 --> 00:52:48,719 Speaker 2: that night and said, that is me. I'm both. I mean, 864 00:52:48,760 --> 00:52:52,200 Speaker 2: it was unbelievable, Danny, But I think when you look 865 00:52:52,239 --> 00:52:54,760 Speaker 2: out into that sea of people, they're looking for little 866 00:52:54,760 --> 00:52:58,960 Speaker 2: pieces of themselves, their little answers or clarity, and it 867 00:52:59,040 --> 00:53:01,920 Speaker 2: is something as little as a few sentences gave me 868 00:53:02,000 --> 00:53:02,600 Speaker 2: such peace. 869 00:53:03,200 --> 00:53:04,560 Speaker 3: Oh I love hearing that. 870 00:53:04,760 --> 00:53:08,719 Speaker 1: And it's been my experience that either in teaching or 871 00:53:08,760 --> 00:53:14,080 Speaker 1: speaking or writing, you never know exactly what's going to 872 00:53:14,200 --> 00:53:16,759 Speaker 1: land or who is going to land with. And in 873 00:53:16,800 --> 00:53:19,319 Speaker 1: a way, it's kind of none of your business as 874 00:53:19,360 --> 00:53:23,080 Speaker 1: the writer. You said something too about like finding yourself 875 00:53:23,120 --> 00:53:27,319 Speaker 1: in a description or in the language, and you know, 876 00:53:27,320 --> 00:53:31,959 Speaker 1: I just want to say one thing because I feel 877 00:53:32,040 --> 00:53:34,840 Speaker 1: like it might be helpful, which is that when it 878 00:53:34,880 --> 00:53:38,879 Speaker 1: comes to the secrets that we keep from ourselves. I 879 00:53:39,040 --> 00:53:42,359 Speaker 1: know no better tool, you know, I mean, listeners will 880 00:53:42,400 --> 00:53:45,680 Speaker 1: know that so many of my guests on Family Secrets 881 00:53:45,680 --> 00:53:46,240 Speaker 1: are writers. 882 00:53:46,760 --> 00:53:47,640 Speaker 3: And that is not. 883 00:53:47,760 --> 00:53:50,920 Speaker 1: Because if I wanted to create a literary podcast. It's 884 00:53:50,920 --> 00:53:54,720 Speaker 1: not a literary podcast. It's a podcast about family secrets. 885 00:53:54,760 --> 00:53:58,239 Speaker 1: But it's often writers because writers, and in this case, 886 00:53:58,239 --> 00:54:03,040 Speaker 1: have written books. But the very act of setting words 887 00:54:03,040 --> 00:54:08,040 Speaker 1: down on the page, the very act of just trying 888 00:54:08,120 --> 00:54:11,279 Speaker 1: to write it out, the very act of attempting to 889 00:54:11,280 --> 00:54:16,480 Speaker 1: write it out, actually unlocks things. I think, probably you know, 890 00:54:16,560 --> 00:54:19,960 Speaker 1: in the in the top few gifts in my life, 891 00:54:20,680 --> 00:54:26,360 Speaker 1: the fact that I became a writer, and that I 892 00:54:26,400 --> 00:54:29,680 Speaker 1: got to spend my days and my months and my 893 00:54:29,800 --> 00:54:34,239 Speaker 1: years actually following the line of words and not even 894 00:54:34,280 --> 00:54:35,839 Speaker 1: knowing where the line of words was going to lead 895 00:54:35,880 --> 00:54:39,080 Speaker 1: me has a lot to do with my having been 896 00:54:39,080 --> 00:54:42,240 Speaker 1: able to unlock. Of course, I would never have unlocked 897 00:54:42,239 --> 00:54:44,239 Speaker 1: it without a DNA test. But you know, when I 898 00:54:44,280 --> 00:54:47,520 Speaker 1: look back at my early work, it's actually there on 899 00:54:47,560 --> 00:54:50,320 Speaker 1: the page. You know, if I look at my first novel, 900 00:54:50,560 --> 00:54:52,800 Speaker 1: it takes my breath away. On some level I knew. 901 00:54:53,120 --> 00:54:54,800 Speaker 1: And if I look at my little book on writing 902 00:54:54,920 --> 00:54:58,560 Speaker 1: still writing, there are lines in there, like there's there's 903 00:54:58,600 --> 00:55:00,359 Speaker 1: there's a line in there where I'm snow being through 904 00:55:00,400 --> 00:55:03,520 Speaker 1: my parents' things, and I write, what was I looking 905 00:55:03,560 --> 00:55:07,560 Speaker 1: for a clue? A reason? And the word reason is italicized, 906 00:55:07,719 --> 00:55:11,240 Speaker 1: and it's like, what I didn't I didn't know anything? 907 00:55:11,320 --> 00:55:13,839 Speaker 1: What did I even mean by that when I wrote 908 00:55:13,880 --> 00:55:17,120 Speaker 1: that book that I wrote years before the discovery about 909 00:55:17,160 --> 00:55:20,839 Speaker 1: my dad? So there's something about the you know, the 910 00:55:20,880 --> 00:55:23,680 Speaker 1: act of the act of writing, and the act of 911 00:55:23,719 --> 00:55:26,080 Speaker 1: reading and sort of finding yourself, and the act of 912 00:55:26,120 --> 00:55:30,560 Speaker 1: listening to podcasts and this sort of the intimacy of 913 00:55:30,600 --> 00:55:34,200 Speaker 1: what that is of you're doing it by yourself. When 914 00:55:34,239 --> 00:55:37,239 Speaker 1: you're listening to a podcast, you're listening to it by yourself. 915 00:55:37,320 --> 00:55:39,160 Speaker 1: There's no such thing as as far as I know, 916 00:55:39,200 --> 00:55:43,360 Speaker 1: as like podcast listening parties, you know, or podcast groups, 917 00:55:43,440 --> 00:55:47,600 Speaker 1: like there are book groups. It's intimate and the act 918 00:55:47,640 --> 00:55:50,759 Speaker 1: of reading. When you're reading a book, you're doing it 919 00:55:50,760 --> 00:55:52,839 Speaker 1: by yourself. Nobody can do that for you. And when 920 00:55:52,880 --> 00:55:57,000 Speaker 1: you're writing something, you're writing it by yourself and for yourself. 921 00:55:57,360 --> 00:55:59,480 Speaker 1: So I think all of these things are ways in 922 00:55:59,520 --> 00:56:01,040 Speaker 1: which things get unlocked. 923 00:56:01,840 --> 00:56:04,760 Speaker 2: I'm so glad you brought up the intimacy of podcasting, 924 00:56:04,880 --> 00:56:08,440 Speaker 2: because I wanted to ask you about this community and 925 00:56:08,440 --> 00:56:11,320 Speaker 2: what it's meant to you and how it's contributed to 926 00:56:11,360 --> 00:56:16,520 Speaker 2: your healing. But what I've learned as a podcaster is 927 00:56:17,640 --> 00:56:21,640 Speaker 2: I love the work of sharing, being a conduit and 928 00:56:21,680 --> 00:56:24,279 Speaker 2: sharing other people's stories. And when you think of the 929 00:56:24,320 --> 00:56:28,879 Speaker 2: intimacy of being in someone's ear on a walk as 930 00:56:28,920 --> 00:56:33,480 Speaker 2: they fold their laundry as they drive to work, and 931 00:56:33,560 --> 00:56:40,759 Speaker 2: having these really deeply intimate conversations, and the connection and 932 00:56:40,800 --> 00:56:44,040 Speaker 2: the opportunity right in a world that's moving so fast, 933 00:56:44,080 --> 00:56:49,080 Speaker 2: with so many distractions, to be able to connect that way. 934 00:56:49,200 --> 00:56:54,600 Speaker 2: It's a really really powerful medium, and I think it 935 00:56:54,640 --> 00:56:59,200 Speaker 2: is really impactful when done with intention, as you do 936 00:56:59,320 --> 00:57:05,600 Speaker 2: on this And on that note, I'm really curious. You know, 937 00:57:05,640 --> 00:57:08,680 Speaker 2: we've talked about a lot of tent pole moments in 938 00:57:08,719 --> 00:57:13,280 Speaker 2: your life, but I know your husband, your great love, 939 00:57:14,120 --> 00:57:16,360 Speaker 2: had cancer recently. 940 00:57:17,240 --> 00:57:21,640 Speaker 1: Is he in remission, he's considered cured. It was three 941 00:57:21,720 --> 00:57:22,200 Speaker 1: years ago. 942 00:57:22,600 --> 00:57:27,040 Speaker 2: Three years ago, so I know your husband had cancer. 943 00:57:27,720 --> 00:57:30,720 Speaker 2: There was a global pandemic. As much as you're showing 944 00:57:30,800 --> 00:57:35,800 Speaker 2: up for this podcast, you are dealing with a real 945 00:57:35,880 --> 00:57:40,120 Speaker 2: life and difficulties and pain, and in creating this community 946 00:57:40,160 --> 00:57:45,040 Speaker 2: and that connection and intimacy. What has this community meant 947 00:57:45,040 --> 00:57:48,720 Speaker 2: to you? How has it changed you? And how has 948 00:57:48,720 --> 00:57:49,360 Speaker 2: it healed you. 949 00:57:50,080 --> 00:57:55,560 Speaker 1: When I'm doing one of these interviews for episodes, time 950 00:57:55,600 --> 00:58:00,600 Speaker 1: stops for me. I go so deep inside story. I'm 951 00:58:00,640 --> 00:58:04,000 Speaker 1: like my entire being is an instrument that is in 952 00:58:04,080 --> 00:58:07,280 Speaker 1: the service of the story that my guest is sharing 953 00:58:07,320 --> 00:58:13,000 Speaker 1: with me. And so the actual act of doing the 954 00:58:13,000 --> 00:58:16,320 Speaker 1: interview itself feels like a sacred act to me, and 955 00:58:16,360 --> 00:58:19,760 Speaker 1: it's it's very intentional. I don't use zoom. I know 956 00:58:19,800 --> 00:58:25,200 Speaker 1: a lot of podcasters do, and I don't because it 957 00:58:25,320 --> 00:58:30,200 Speaker 1: feels to me more intimate in each other's ears. I mean, 958 00:58:30,240 --> 00:58:32,000 Speaker 1: like my eyes are closed right now as I'm talking 959 00:58:32,040 --> 00:58:35,320 Speaker 1: to you. I want to be able to go as 960 00:58:35,360 --> 00:58:38,080 Speaker 1: deep as I can into the story of my guest. 961 00:58:38,120 --> 00:58:42,080 Speaker 1: And I feel honored that my guest trusts me with 962 00:58:42,240 --> 00:58:44,680 Speaker 1: their story. And I think a big part of why 963 00:58:44,720 --> 00:58:48,760 Speaker 1: they do is because I'm not approaching it as a journalist, 964 00:58:48,840 --> 00:58:51,160 Speaker 1: and I'm not approaching it. You know, people who have 965 00:58:51,200 --> 00:58:53,920 Speaker 1: never listened to the podcast think, ooh, family secrets. You know, 966 00:58:54,000 --> 00:58:55,640 Speaker 1: like it must be a kind. 967 00:58:55,440 --> 00:58:57,680 Speaker 2: Of sensational elation. 968 00:58:57,800 --> 00:59:03,360 Speaker 1: Sensational salacious purient, you know, rubbernecking, watching other people's tragedies, 969 00:59:03,400 --> 00:59:06,000 Speaker 1: you know, go by, and that is the very very 970 00:59:06,080 --> 00:59:10,400 Speaker 1: last thing that I'm interested in. And so I'm with 971 00:59:10,480 --> 00:59:14,640 Speaker 1: my guests very much, with the feeling of me too. 972 00:59:15,520 --> 00:59:17,960 Speaker 1: And at the same time, you know, over the course 973 00:59:18,000 --> 00:59:20,720 Speaker 1: of the seven thus far, it's about to be eight 974 00:59:21,080 --> 00:59:25,840 Speaker 1: seasons of family Secrets, I've realized that I actually recede 975 00:59:25,840 --> 00:59:29,360 Speaker 1: into the background more and more, and my guests stories 976 00:59:29,960 --> 00:59:33,040 Speaker 1: become more and more. I mean, they've always been front 977 00:59:33,080 --> 00:59:36,360 Speaker 1: and center, but I think in the beginning I would 978 00:59:36,760 --> 00:59:40,360 Speaker 1: insert myself more, and I've done that less and less. 979 00:59:40,800 --> 00:59:43,360 Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure there's vo but it's about the 980 00:59:43,400 --> 00:59:46,800 Speaker 1: story itself, and that's been just really interesting for me 981 00:59:46,880 --> 00:59:51,360 Speaker 1: to notice. I just feel like I'm so completely in 982 00:59:51,400 --> 00:59:54,000 Speaker 1: the service of the stories, and the person who I 983 00:59:54,160 --> 00:59:59,040 Speaker 1: most want to reach and to love the episode when 984 00:59:59,040 --> 01:00:02,480 Speaker 1: it comes out is my guest. If I've done my job, 985 01:00:02,720 --> 01:00:05,840 Speaker 1: my guest. You know, often somebody who's been interviewed many 986 01:00:05,880 --> 01:00:08,920 Speaker 1: many times before will say I never thought that before, 987 01:00:09,520 --> 01:00:11,960 Speaker 1: I never made that connection, I never said that, or 988 01:00:12,880 --> 01:00:17,240 Speaker 1: I've never cried before while I'm being interviewed. Whatever, it 989 01:00:17,360 --> 01:00:19,680 Speaker 1: is just a feeling of like, I want you to 990 01:00:19,720 --> 01:00:22,400 Speaker 1: see your story in a new way. I want you 991 01:00:22,440 --> 01:00:25,520 Speaker 1: to see your story maybe with a different dimension or 992 01:00:25,560 --> 01:00:29,240 Speaker 1: a little bit more illuminated for you. Then before we 993 01:00:29,320 --> 01:00:33,000 Speaker 1: had this conversation and then, you know, one of the 994 01:00:33,040 --> 01:00:37,200 Speaker 1: amazing things to me about having a podcast that has 995 01:00:37,920 --> 01:00:42,040 Speaker 1: millions of listeners is that it's kind of abstract. I mean, 996 01:00:42,160 --> 01:00:45,680 Speaker 1: I know that there are all these listeners, but as 997 01:00:45,720 --> 01:00:48,160 Speaker 1: I said, like, I could be walking down the street 998 01:00:48,160 --> 01:00:50,720 Speaker 1: and somebody could be walking up the street passing me 999 01:00:50,840 --> 01:00:53,120 Speaker 1: with their AirPods in their ears, and they could be 1000 01:00:53,160 --> 01:00:55,200 Speaker 1: listening to me and I wouldn't know it. 1001 01:00:55,680 --> 01:00:58,320 Speaker 2: I've never thought about that, and so there's. 1002 01:00:58,200 --> 01:01:00,240 Speaker 1: There's no you know, if if you write a book, 1003 01:01:00,360 --> 01:01:02,080 Speaker 1: you know, somebody took a picture the other day of 1004 01:01:02,080 --> 01:01:05,960 Speaker 1: somebody on the subway reading my most recent novel, is like, okay, 1005 01:01:05,960 --> 01:01:08,120 Speaker 1: somebody's reading my novel on the subway. If they were 1006 01:01:08,120 --> 01:01:10,840 Speaker 1: listening to my podcast, there would be no picture and 1007 01:01:10,880 --> 01:01:12,919 Speaker 1: no one would know that. And so there have been 1008 01:01:13,000 --> 01:01:15,600 Speaker 1: these moments and they are so meaningful to me. But 1009 01:01:16,240 --> 01:01:19,640 Speaker 1: I was at a wedding last summer when a young 1010 01:01:19,680 --> 01:01:21,280 Speaker 1: woman came up to me and she said, you're Danny 1011 01:01:21,320 --> 01:01:25,200 Speaker 1: Shapiro right said yeah, and she said, my entire family, 1012 01:01:25,320 --> 01:01:29,400 Speaker 1: like you've changed our lives. We've all listened to Family 1013 01:01:29,440 --> 01:01:32,040 Speaker 1: Secrets and it enabled us to talk about things that 1014 01:01:32,120 --> 01:01:33,800 Speaker 1: we had never been able to talk about before. 1015 01:01:33,880 --> 01:01:36,400 Speaker 3: And what an immense. 1016 01:01:36,320 --> 01:01:41,040 Speaker 1: Privilege to have anything to do with helping people to 1017 01:01:41,120 --> 01:01:45,720 Speaker 1: feel less alone in there, you know, whatever it is 1018 01:01:45,760 --> 01:01:49,080 Speaker 1: that is making them feel a part or alone, and 1019 01:01:49,600 --> 01:01:52,240 Speaker 1: that's just amazing to me and wonderful, and it does 1020 01:01:52,360 --> 01:01:55,280 Speaker 1: feel you know, sometimes I record bonus episodes and I'll 1021 01:01:55,280 --> 01:01:58,880 Speaker 1: refer to my world of listeners as the Family Secrets family, 1022 01:01:59,160 --> 01:02:00,480 Speaker 1: because that's what it feels like to me. 1023 01:02:01,000 --> 01:02:04,400 Speaker 2: And the privilege on both ends, I mean, I often think, 1024 01:02:04,760 --> 01:02:09,520 Speaker 2: and you just express this, the privilege and the honor 1025 01:02:10,360 --> 01:02:14,400 Speaker 2: for someone in our case, the guest, to trust you 1026 01:02:15,320 --> 01:02:18,280 Speaker 2: with their hearts. I mean, the bravery and courage it 1027 01:02:18,360 --> 01:02:24,120 Speaker 2: takes to not only share the most vulnerable pieces of yourself, 1028 01:02:24,240 --> 01:02:27,600 Speaker 2: but to share it knowing it'll be broadcast, you know, 1029 01:02:27,760 --> 01:02:31,200 Speaker 2: around the world, and who you choose to trust that 1030 01:02:31,360 --> 01:02:35,560 Speaker 2: story with. So I think, you know the privilege of 1031 01:02:35,600 --> 01:02:38,560 Speaker 2: being the conduit between the family that was changed and 1032 01:02:39,080 --> 01:02:44,280 Speaker 2: the person, the guest, who chose you right, who trusted 1033 01:02:44,320 --> 01:02:48,120 Speaker 2: you with their heart, And it really is like when 1034 01:02:48,120 --> 01:02:50,840 Speaker 2: you think about it deeply, the work is it makes 1035 01:02:50,880 --> 01:02:51,360 Speaker 2: you hurtful. 1036 01:02:51,920 --> 01:02:54,240 Speaker 3: It's really true. It's really true. 1037 01:02:54,400 --> 01:02:58,280 Speaker 1: And it's the way that I think of myself when 1038 01:02:58,320 --> 01:03:00,680 Speaker 1: I'm putting together episodes and when I'm pairing for them 1039 01:03:00,720 --> 01:03:04,880 Speaker 1: and when I'm doing the interview, is I'm trying to 1040 01:03:05,840 --> 01:03:09,640 Speaker 1: do my best to hold the story, like to hold 1041 01:03:09,680 --> 01:03:13,280 Speaker 1: it in my arms, to be the container for it, 1042 01:03:13,600 --> 01:03:16,680 Speaker 1: to make the container for it. And you know, to 1043 01:03:16,720 --> 01:03:20,760 Speaker 1: be trusted with doing that is just a really wonderful thing. 1044 01:03:21,680 --> 01:03:26,520 Speaker 2: So my last question. You write so lovingly about your aunt, 1045 01:03:26,840 --> 01:03:30,960 Speaker 2: who has played, you know, such a exquisite role in 1046 01:03:31,000 --> 01:03:35,400 Speaker 2: your life, and I heard you on the podcast that 1047 01:03:35,440 --> 01:03:40,000 Speaker 2: she says, go where it's warm, So my last question 1048 01:03:41,480 --> 01:03:44,720 Speaker 2: is what does that mean to you? And where do 1049 01:03:44,760 --> 01:03:45,560 Speaker 2: you go to be warm? 1050 01:03:46,560 --> 01:03:50,360 Speaker 1: I think that there are people and places for all 1051 01:03:50,400 --> 01:03:55,640 Speaker 1: of us where we feel our safest, where we feel 1052 01:03:55,680 --> 01:04:01,640 Speaker 1: seen and known, where we feel the absence of certain things, 1053 01:04:01,720 --> 01:04:05,880 Speaker 1: like the absence of competitiveness, the absence of envy, the 1054 01:04:05,960 --> 01:04:10,360 Speaker 1: absence of comparison, where we are with people that we 1055 01:04:10,520 --> 01:04:15,160 Speaker 1: know are rooting for us and want the best for us. 1056 01:04:15,280 --> 01:04:22,360 Speaker 1: And I think sometimes when we don't come from when 1057 01:04:22,400 --> 01:04:25,760 Speaker 1: the initial landscape of our childhoods isn't that it's a 1058 01:04:25,840 --> 01:04:28,880 Speaker 1: learning experience along the way, because we can be drawn 1059 01:04:29,120 --> 01:04:34,840 Speaker 1: to places where it isn't warm because it's familiar. And 1060 01:04:35,480 --> 01:04:40,280 Speaker 1: one of the benefits of living long enough and learning 1061 01:04:40,400 --> 01:04:44,160 Speaker 1: enough and getting older is that I really don't have 1062 01:04:45,000 --> 01:04:48,600 Speaker 1: the patience for that anymore in my life. To the 1063 01:04:48,640 --> 01:04:51,840 Speaker 1: degree that I can choose who I want to, but 1064 01:04:51,920 --> 01:04:53,760 Speaker 1: we can't always choose who are going to be around. 1065 01:04:53,800 --> 01:04:56,320 Speaker 1: But to the degree that I can, I want to 1066 01:04:56,480 --> 01:05:02,720 Speaker 1: choose to be with people who who love me and 1067 01:05:02,760 --> 01:05:06,120 Speaker 1: who I love and really to have time with them, 1068 01:05:06,560 --> 01:05:11,960 Speaker 1: to not be racing, to not be always onto the next. 1069 01:05:12,600 --> 01:05:15,200 Speaker 1: And we live in a world that you know, that 1070 01:05:15,280 --> 01:05:21,760 Speaker 1: doesn't reward depths or quiet. I think increasingly there is 1071 01:05:21,880 --> 01:05:24,480 Speaker 1: a I think there's there's a bit of a move 1072 01:05:24,560 --> 01:05:29,920 Speaker 1: toward understanding how important depths and quiet, And you know, 1073 01:05:30,040 --> 01:05:33,080 Speaker 1: sitting with the Danish have this beautiful word that I 1074 01:05:33,160 --> 01:05:36,240 Speaker 1: never pronounced right. It's spelled hygge, and I think it's 1075 01:05:36,320 --> 01:05:39,560 Speaker 1: yuga yuga, and it's the meaning is a kind of 1076 01:05:40,120 --> 01:05:46,200 Speaker 1: like a relaxed, open, warm, inviting environment, and that's that's 1077 01:05:46,200 --> 01:05:48,680 Speaker 1: what I want to create for the people around me, 1078 01:05:48,840 --> 01:05:51,880 Speaker 1: and that's how I want to live my life and 1079 01:05:51,920 --> 01:05:53,480 Speaker 1: spend my time in whatever way I can. 1080 01:05:54,360 --> 01:06:00,080 Speaker 2: That's beautiful. I just interviewed a depth Dula and she, 1081 01:06:00,240 --> 01:06:02,480 Speaker 2: you know, walks with the dying in the last weeks 1082 01:06:02,480 --> 01:06:05,080 Speaker 2: and months of their lives, and she referred to them 1083 01:06:05,120 --> 01:06:08,400 Speaker 2: as the wisdom keepers. And I asked her, you know, 1084 01:06:08,480 --> 01:06:11,560 Speaker 2: if there was one piece of advice and wisdom, and 1085 01:06:11,600 --> 01:06:14,480 Speaker 2: that was exactly what she said. She said, just to 1086 01:06:14,520 --> 01:06:18,880 Speaker 2: slow down and make space to just be with your people. 1087 01:06:18,960 --> 01:06:21,640 Speaker 1: Because really time is all we have. And you learn that, 1088 01:06:21,720 --> 01:06:24,520 Speaker 1: I mean, you mentioned my husband's illness. If I didn't 1089 01:06:24,560 --> 01:06:27,400 Speaker 1: know that already, it was completely brought home to me 1090 01:06:28,000 --> 01:06:33,800 Speaker 1: that when you're facing something terrifying like that, all you 1091 01:06:33,880 --> 01:06:36,000 Speaker 1: really want is time. 1092 01:06:36,600 --> 01:06:41,880 Speaker 2: Well, Danny, you have made such beautiful meaning out of 1093 01:06:41,920 --> 01:06:44,520 Speaker 2: your discovery of your secret and the work of Family 1094 01:06:44,560 --> 01:06:48,919 Speaker 2: Secrets and the community you have built which feels very 1095 01:06:48,960 --> 01:06:52,400 Speaker 2: warm to me, a very warm place to go. So 1096 01:06:52,520 --> 01:06:55,560 Speaker 2: thank you for that, and thank you for trusting me 1097 01:06:56,000 --> 01:07:00,560 Speaker 2: to have this conversation and yeah, hopefully share some new 1098 01:07:00,600 --> 01:07:04,400 Speaker 2: pieces of yourself with your Family Secrets Family. 1099 01:07:04,560 --> 01:07:07,120 Speaker 3: Oh, Kimmy, thank you so much. It was really interesting 1100 01:07:07,120 --> 01:07:17,200 Speaker 3: to have the tables turned. Phew. 1101 01:07:17,720 --> 01:07:22,080 Speaker 1: Well, that was meaningful and intense. I'm reminded of the 1102 01:07:22,120 --> 01:07:27,120 Speaker 1: courage it takes to share oneself fully, openly, with vulnerability 1103 01:07:27,280 --> 01:07:31,040 Speaker 1: and heart. My thanks to Kimmy Kulp as well as 1104 01:07:31,040 --> 01:07:35,240 Speaker 1: to my amazing team. Family Secrets is an iHeartMedia production. 1105 01:07:35,880 --> 01:07:39,160 Speaker 1: Mollie's a Core is story editor and Dylan Fagan is 1106 01:07:39,240 --> 01:07:43,160 Speaker 1: executive producer. We'll be back in your ears on May 1107 01:07:43,280 --> 01:07:47,120 Speaker 1: fourth with our all new season. I couldn't be more 1108 01:07:47,120 --> 01:07:48,600 Speaker 1: excited to share it with you.