Speaker 1: What do you do when life doesn't go according to
Speaker 1: plan that moment you lose a job, or a loved one,
Speaker 1: or even a piece of yourself. I'm Brookshields and this
Speaker 1: is now What a podcast about pivotal moments as told
Speaker 1: by people who lived them. Each week, I sit down
Speaker 1: with a guest to talk about the times they were
Speaker 1: knocked off course and what they did to move forward.
Speaker 1: Some stories are funny, others are cut wrenching, but all
Speaker 1: are unapologetically human and remind us that every success and
Speaker 1: every setback is accompanied by a choice, and that choice
Speaker 1: answers one question.
Speaker 2: Now, what.
Speaker 1: Would I steal an emmy?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: I stole an emmy?
Speaker 2: Yep. Yeah, my dad's apartment in New York City at
Speaker 2: a Christmas party every year, and we had just kind
Speaker 2: of gotten to know each other, so invited you. I
Speaker 2: will take a shot. Maybe Brooke will come, Maybe she wan.
Speaker 2: I'm sure she's busy. One fighter to the family and
Speaker 2: friends Christmas party. That was way too many people in
Speaker 2: a way too small apartment. And that was the first year.
Speaker 2: So that was when you showed up with Dan. I
Speaker 2: believe he was the tree. Is that right?
Speaker 1: We were a Christmas tree? I was on his shoulders,
Speaker 1: and we brought you a bucket of Kentucky Fried chickt yes, and.
Speaker 2: Just for a visual for people at one of those
Speaker 2: small elevators in a pre war New York City building,
Speaker 2: and here comes the front door opening. Someone ducking underneath
Speaker 2: up on the shoulders of another person who's wearing gifts
Speaker 2: on his feet because he's the tree. And I guess
Speaker 2: you were the angel on the top of the tree.
Speaker 1: Star.
Speaker 2: You were the star. You were the star. And I
Speaker 2: remember looking over and so I was like, who is
Speaker 2: that And someone was like, I think that's brook Shields.
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh my god. So you went over an
Speaker 2: entire room until you did. There was some shoplifting that
Speaker 2: happened of Emmy's and other things that belonged to my dad,
Speaker 2: but all three were I's so charming. He was all forgiven.
Speaker 1: My guest today is one heck of an interviewer. He's
Speaker 1: also a good friend, a doting husband and father, and
Speaker 1: a fixture on NBC and MSNBC. Willie Geist is a
Speaker 1: co host of Morning Joe, a host of NBC's Sunday Today,
Speaker 1: where he recently celebrated three hundred Sunday sit down interviews.
Speaker 1: He and I met professionally years ago, and from day
Speaker 1: one it felt like I was meeting an old friend.
Speaker 1: Willy is kind quick on his feed, so funny and
Speaker 1: lucky for me, loves a holiday prank as much as
Speaker 1: I do. I'm so happy I had the opportunity to
Speaker 1: turn the tables on him this time and learn a
Speaker 1: little in the process. So, without further ado, here is
Speaker 1: Willy Geist. Hi.
Speaker 2: How are you, Brooker?
Speaker 1: I'm so good.
Speaker 2: How are you good? The last time I saw you
Speaker 2: was at your premiere and you were going to Thailand
Speaker 2: for a long time.
Speaker 1: I went to Thailand.
Speaker 2: How was that?
Speaker 1: It was amazing? Okay, first things, first, asked Christina.
Speaker 2: She's good. She misses you, and I know we say
Speaker 2: it every time, but we're just so overdue. It's embarrassing,
Speaker 2: isn't it.
Speaker 1: It's embarrassing in life keeps getting crazier and crazier.
Speaker 2: I feel it too, And then I see you and
Speaker 2: then we go our separate ways, and then it's like
Speaker 2: another four months and I'm like, ah, well.
Speaker 1: You defected out of the city.
Speaker 2: So that's really what it comes to.
Speaker 1: That is on you, that's on me. The dog, The
Speaker 1: dog that looks a lot like my dead dog. I
Speaker 1: know that was a wonderful text. You were like, it's
Speaker 1: like my dog just died, and you're like, oh my god.
Speaker 1: They look like they could be siblings. I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: except yours is alive.
Speaker 2: I always know the right thing to say.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you do, you do. I'll tell you what you do.
Speaker 1: Know the right thing to say when you're interviewing people,
Speaker 1: you're coming upon an anniversary. You have what three hundred interviews?
Speaker 2: Yeah, three hundred sundays. Sit down. Yeah, oh god.
Speaker 1: I actually got a little not nervous, but because I
Speaker 1: love you so much and I really feel the day
Speaker 1: I met you that I was like, oh, this is
Speaker 1: where my little brother went. They've been keeping him from
Speaker 1: me forever. And when we first met, everybody thought we
Speaker 1: had known each other forever.
Speaker 2: I remember, I will never forget that. It must have
Speaker 2: been ten years ago. And you came to fill in
Speaker 2: on the Today Show where I was doing the third
Speaker 2: hour of the Today Show, and I felt the same thing.
Speaker 2: And so people know. Usually when somebody comes and hosts
Speaker 2: with us, it's a lot of like for us, like
Speaker 2: you want to manage the person, usually a very well
Speaker 2: known person. It's not what they do, and this is
Speaker 2: a whole different muscle, and I never felt a moment
Speaker 2: of management. I was like, Oh, this is just fun.
Speaker 2: She's a natural, she's funny, she's cool, she's smart. Like
Speaker 2: we're good.
Speaker 1: It was a huge gift. And then I got to
Speaker 1: know you more socially. And the first time I met
Speaker 1: your father, I stole his Emmy.
Speaker 2: Gre shoplifting that happened of Emmys and other things that
Speaker 2: belonged to my dad, but all for you were so charming,
Speaker 2: it was all forgiven.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you. I was so happy to meet your dad.
Speaker 1: Your dad is such an extraordinary person, and I was
Speaker 1: looking at so much of his sort of older stuff.
Speaker 1: He has such an amazing sense of humor.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's He started as a newspaper columnist he came
Speaker 2: home from Vietnam, and then he had a couple of jobs,
Speaker 2: and then he started writing for the Chicago Tribune, but
Speaker 2: not the big paper. He worked the suburban trip and
Speaker 2: he was covering like school board meetings and all the
Speaker 2: stuff you do. But he started writing sort of funny
Speaker 2: columns about living in the suburbs with caught people's eye.
Speaker 2: And then he got a job at the New York
Speaker 2: Times off that. So when I was five, we moved
Speaker 2: from Chicago to New Jersey. And he's always had a
Speaker 2: sense of humor. That's always been his things. Really smart,
Speaker 2: really engaging, but he's always been funny. And I think
Speaker 2: that was the biggest thing I've taken from him, is
Speaker 2: sense of humor. Is sort of lead with that, like
Speaker 2: that's where you start get you places, and he's yeah.
Speaker 2: And then went on from the New York Times and
Speaker 2: did the CBS Sunday Morning for more than thirty years.
Speaker 1: And there's some teenage relige geist on some of those there.
Speaker 2: Is he he was. He did a piece about my
Speaker 2: sister's little league baseball team. I guess her soft was
Speaker 2: baseball softball team, and I was one of the base
Speaker 2: coaches on her team. So I was at first base
Speaker 2: and I was like yelling at a kid to run.
Speaker 2: I think that was my TV debut and a piece
Speaker 2: or two later. But he was always shooting stuff at
Speaker 2: our house. I think that's part. People are like, did
Speaker 2: you get into journalism because of your dad? And they say, well,
Speaker 2: not consciously. He and I never sat down and talked
Speaker 2: about like you should get into this sun. It was
Speaker 2: just it was in our house, it was in our lives.
Speaker 2: He shot pieces at home and in our town, and
Speaker 2: he would go out and travel and meet interesting people
Speaker 2: and have great stories. And I think just watching him
Speaker 2: genuinely enjoy his job in a way that I didn't
Speaker 2: always see the other dads.
Speaker 1: Is there something about his, like his style that you
Speaker 1: think you got?
Speaker 2: I think so, yeah, I think having I think he
Speaker 2: has big curiosity for what we do. You have to Actually,
Speaker 2: you can't sit across from someone who you're like not
Speaker 2: super interested in or haven't gotten yourself to be interested in.
Speaker 2: So I think being curious. And I'm always that way.
Speaker 2: I mean, we were just on vacation and I come home,
Speaker 2: I wake up too early, and I come home and
Speaker 2: I'm like showing Christine, all right, there's a house for
Speaker 2: sale over here, and I got the bagels, I got
Speaker 2: the like She's like, you're just around every corner and
Speaker 2: in every nook and cranny, just like what's around Oh,
Speaker 2: let's go up here, let's see what's up here. And
Speaker 2: I think my dad definitely had that. Professionally, his big
Speaker 2: stories were not he wasn't a war correspondent, but he
Speaker 2: was going to like the Iowa State Fair. What are
Speaker 2: you going to do there? Just show up and find
Speaker 2: something interesting and funny there. And so I think I
Speaker 2: took the curiosity and again the sense of humor hopefully.
Speaker 2: I mean the job I do is different from his,
Speaker 2: and that he wasn't an anchor of a news show
Speaker 2: and he wasn't covering politics and international affairs every day.
Speaker 2: But I think on Morning Joe, the show I do
Speaker 2: on MSNBC for four hours every day, you're allowed to
Speaker 2: be your full self, which is such a gift in
Speaker 2: its own and through that you can be funny. You know,
Speaker 2: at a certain point in the show, there's room for
Speaker 2: humor and music and sports and all the things that
Speaker 2: I've sort of accumulated over my life and get to
Speaker 2: show up. So I think my dad comes through me
Speaker 2: probably the most in those moments. And then I would
Speaker 2: say writing. He's such a great writer. He started with writing,
Speaker 2: as I said, and that's the foundation for everything.
Speaker 1: And so you've always written, like when you were a
Speaker 1: little kid. Your kids are now fourteen and sixteen, right,
Speaker 1: so when you see your when you think about yourself
Speaker 1: at their age, were you the same person you are now?
Speaker 2: In a way, Yeah, I think writing was always there.
Speaker 2: You know, I took journalism classes in high school. I
Speaker 2: think there was a premium and a value placed on
Speaker 2: being a reader and a writer in our house. You know,
Speaker 2: my dad didn't know and he couldn't balance a checking account.
Speaker 2: He wasn't in finance. That wasn't that wasn't our house.
Speaker 2: We were My mom's a social worker, so we were
Speaker 2: very creative and open hearted and all those things. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I think the professional seeds probably were there beginning in
Speaker 2: elementary school. And so I guess, yeah, you make me
Speaker 2: think about it, it probably was always there.
Speaker 1: So you say, you write your own stuff, So today, Sunday,
Speaker 1: today you write all that. Do you write your own
Speaker 1: Morning Joe stuff in the same way?
Speaker 2: Morning Joe is more difficult because it is a daily
Speaker 2: churn of hard news of this person got indicted, and
Speaker 2: this thing's happening today, and here's the latest from Ukraine.
Speaker 2: So we have a staff of people who get here,
Speaker 2: I mean at midnight, one, two in the morning, we
Speaker 2: go on the air at six, and since the last
Speaker 2: night they've been preparing for today's show. So they, I
Speaker 2: would say, in Morning Joe. The truth is there's not
Speaker 2: a ton of writing anyway. On Morning Joe because it's
Speaker 2: such a freeform, ad lib conversational show, but there are
Speaker 2: scripts that set up the story that we talk about,
Speaker 2: so there's not as much writing for Morning Joe. It's
Speaker 2: just preparation and do you have to do prep?
Speaker 1: And then do they give you prep? Like is it
Speaker 1: a common Are you constantly listening to the news and.
Speaker 2: You are as much as you want to turn it
Speaker 2: off and say, okay, my work day is over, as
Speaker 2: you know, that's just doesn't not the way it works anymore.
Speaker 2: It's you've got a phone in your hand and you
Speaker 2: look down and you've got emails or you've got notifications
Speaker 2: from a media outlet or a senator's office or something
Speaker 2: that Okay, I'm going to internalize that. And then at
Speaker 2: the end of the night we get a nice note
Speaker 2: from our producers and that we wake up to has
Speaker 2: been updated, which kind of boils it all down. Here
Speaker 2: are the five or six big things that we're going
Speaker 2: to talk about in some details about them. So the
Speaker 2: preparation comes from our great producers, but it's also at
Speaker 2: the end of the day, it's on you when that
Speaker 2: question is asked of you, or when you have to
Speaker 2: ask a question to be kind of fluent in whatever
Speaker 2: that is. And it's a lot of ground to cover,
Speaker 2: you know, it's a lot of players on the board
Speaker 2: to remember who they are and where they fit into
Speaker 2: the story and remember what they said last time, which
Speaker 2: may be different than what they're saying today.
Speaker 1: It sounds like a twenty four hour a day job.
Speaker 1: I don't know how Johnny Walker fel it's in it.
Speaker 1: I don't know how does he a guest on the show.
Speaker 1: It doesn't seem to make sense to me.
Speaker 2: He'll show up at night once in a while to
Speaker 2: get you to it. Yeah, he shows up at night
Speaker 2: with his friends from Kentucky. But yeah, I mean the
Speaker 2: other side has to be said, as we have such
Speaker 2: an ensemble show that yes, it's a lot of TV
Speaker 2: and a lot to know, but there's always somebody to
Speaker 2: lean on. Sunday is just me, but morning Joe, as
Speaker 2: you can spread the ball around and kind of have
Speaker 2: a good team game every day.
Speaker 1: To me, doing this show is a pivotal moment for
Speaker 1: me because all of a sudden I was on the
Speaker 1: other side of the table, which is I thought it
Speaker 1: would be sort of easier, but it's so much easier
Speaker 1: for me to be sitting in the chair being asked
Speaker 1: questions because I've done it for forty plus years. But
Speaker 1: in a way, the show in and of itself for
Speaker 1: me has been a pivotal min But it's also about
Speaker 1: pivotal moments and are first of all, are there any
Speaker 1: in your earlier years just want to back up a
Speaker 1: bit that good or bad would underscore you?
Speaker 2: Well. I have college on my mind right now, as
Speaker 2: we were discussing before we started. My daughters a junior
Speaker 2: in high school, and we're thinking about that and thinking
Speaker 2: about my choice to go to Nashville. I went to Vanderbilt.
Speaker 2: That choice in terms of opening my world, you know.
Speaker 2: And friends of mine who stayed in the Northeast and
Speaker 2: went to all the great schools you can go to
Speaker 2: in the Northeast had a completely different experience and have
Speaker 2: had different lives since because of where they went where
Speaker 2: I went to the South, and all my friends were
Speaker 2: from Atlanta or New Orleans or Peewee Valley, Kentucky or Albany,
Speaker 2: Georgia or places I'd never dreamed i'd go to, hadn't
Speaker 2: even heard of. And then I lived in Atlanta after college,
Speaker 2: so all in I lived in the South for about
Speaker 2: ten years, and I have so much grounding in that,
Speaker 2: and I think, of course I didn't know it then,
Speaker 2: but it changed the way I see different cultures and
Speaker 2: people and places and political parties even and belief systems
Speaker 2: to live alongside and understand. And that served me well
Speaker 2: in this job for sure.
Speaker 1: How do you think it has changed a house?
Speaker 2: Because I think the stereotypes were blown up, you know.
Speaker 2: I mean the sort of cartoon version of the South
Speaker 2: that maybe you have growing up in New York City
Speaker 2: or in New Jersey or wherever, is blown up when
Speaker 2: you get down and they say, oh, they're just me,
Speaker 2: but they live down here, and maybe they believe different
Speaker 2: things in some cases. But I think the commonality of
Speaker 2: our experience and how disconnected the reality is from the stereotype.
Speaker 1: Do you think it's helped specifically with Morning Joe.
Speaker 2: Yes, definitely, definitely. I think that's where it has helped.
Speaker 2: And Joe, you know, my co host Joe of Morning Joe,
Speaker 2: He's from the South and he was Republican congressman and
Speaker 2: he understands that deeply. He grew up with it, and
Speaker 2: I think I have some element of that too. So
Speaker 2: where everyone picks to go to college. If they decide
Speaker 2: to go to college changes their life. But I think
Speaker 2: it's certainly. I mean it steered me to Atlanta, which
Speaker 2: steered me to CNN, which you know that you can
Speaker 2: watch all the dominoes fall from there.
Speaker 1: Are you allowed to have an opinion or are you?
Speaker 1: Do you have to stay neutral? How do you exist
Speaker 1: in an environment in which, politically per se you don't
Speaker 1: necessarily agree with but you need to be neutral enough
Speaker 1: to be able to have sort of both sides.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean on Morning on Morning Joe. My theory
Speaker 2: is that there's plenty of opinion. There are plenty of
Speaker 2: hot takes, right, I mean, that's what the show is.
Speaker 2: And I think my role and by the way, I'm
Speaker 2: not it's not a cynical play. I should have this role.
Speaker 2: It's really the way I feel is to provide information.
Speaker 2: And I'm always thinking about the viewer. Does the viewer
Speaker 2: get what we're talking about? If I were watching this
Speaker 2: at home, what would be my question? You've talked past
Speaker 2: us a little bit, or you're down so deep in
Speaker 2: the weeds. Can you pull us out of the weeds
Speaker 2: and explain the big picture of what's going on? So
Speaker 2: in terms of giving opinion, I think honestly, within the
Speaker 2: last eight years or so, I think maybe there's been
Speaker 2: more opinion, which is to say, and not for me anyway,
Speaker 2: not strident, bomb throwing and a hot take. But like
Speaker 2: you know, I think it's bad to try to overturn
Speaker 2: the government. I don't think that's a shouldn't be a
Speaker 2: terribly controversial thing to say. I think it's bad to
Speaker 2: beat up police officers at the Capitol. That shouldn't be
Speaker 2: a controversial thing to say. So to me, there are
Speaker 2: some things that are just true that maybe people perceive
Speaker 2: as an opinion or a hot take, which I don't
Speaker 2: necessarily intend for it to be. But otherwise, within the
Speaker 2: context of Morning Joe, everyone who's on there is there
Speaker 2: for their opinion, and I try to be a little
Speaker 2: bit of a rudder to say, Okay, here's some of
Speaker 2: the facts about the case. Let's put a whole bunch
Speaker 2: of context around this, and then to drop into the
Speaker 2: conversation questions on behalf of a viewer who may say, wait,
Speaker 2: who's that person again? Or wait why I don't understand
Speaker 2: why that's bad. I just I literally sit back. Sometimes
Speaker 2: I'm like, I know where we are here, but if
Speaker 2: I'm watching it home, don't so let me let me
Speaker 2: put down a little flag to remind people what we're
Speaker 2: talking about.
Speaker 1: Well, you've been all all across the I mean, okay,
Speaker 1: so I feel like you've been on many many different networks, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, you were at CNN for sports in your twenties,
Speaker 1: you worked at Tucker Carlson, he was at an MSNBC.
Speaker 1: Was that sort of your first on air?
Speaker 2: It was, yeah. So I started out of college. I
Speaker 2: graduated from Vanderbilt, and then I went home to New
Speaker 2: Jersey and I drove the and I don't mean to
Speaker 2: brag here, the liquor delivery truck for Hohokus Wine and
Speaker 2: Spirit World.
Speaker 1: Did it all get delivered where it was supposed to go?
Speaker 2: You know, some of it fell fall off the truck.
Speaker 2: You know what I mean. It happens. It happened, It
Speaker 2: falls off the truck.
Speaker 1: Does you get any free booth?
Speaker 2: We did have a generous boss who occasionally would allow
Speaker 2: us to take a bottle home. So I did that.
Speaker 1: Sorry I digressed, No, No, that was.
Speaker 2: My dad was mad when I left that job because
Speaker 2: we got like a twenty five percent case discount and
Speaker 2: everything but I took so then I moved to Atlanta.
Speaker 2: I knew I I wanted to work in media in
Speaker 2: some form. I'd done an internship the summer before while
Speaker 2: I was still in college at the CBS Political Unit,
Speaker 2: so it was kind of the nexus of media and politics,
Speaker 2: and it was during a presidential campaign. It was all
Speaker 2: very exciting. So then I moved to Atlanta, but CNN
Speaker 2: didn't have the PA job in news itself, so it
Speaker 2: was actually at CNN Sports Illustrated CNN Sports Network, and
Speaker 2: I was there for about six and a half years,
Speaker 2: learned every job you can learn in TV. I was
Speaker 2: from the bottom of the logging tapes to producing and
Speaker 2: everything you can learn to do. And then I moved
Speaker 2: up to New York, which was a big jump. We
Speaker 2: wanted to get back home. Christina and I had just
Speaker 2: gotten married and took a job at another sports show
Speaker 2: called IMAX and it got canceled after nine months.
Speaker 1: That's a now what moment?
Speaker 2: Well, so that I was, yeah, I mean talk about
Speaker 2: now what moments, and you know what, it was the
Speaker 2: last day of the show canceled after nine months. We've
Speaker 2: made a big move, got an apartment and everything. We're
Speaker 2: like all right, we're New York is now. Was Christina's
Speaker 2: thirtieth first and I remember we went out to dinner
Speaker 2: for her birthday and then we went to like a
Speaker 2: karaoke place after. But I remember being like, let's not
Speaker 2: maybe we don't have drinks tonight. I'll just stick with
Speaker 2: the water and then like the karaoke thing is too
Speaker 2: expensive and all that. And that was truly like when
Speaker 2: you asked me that, I was like, that was a
Speaker 2: real what now moment? Like I don't know if I'm
Speaker 2: am I done in TV? Maybe you know CNNSI the
Speaker 2: network I was on, they had pulled the plug, they
Speaker 2: canceled this show. Maybe it's not for me. I thought
Speaker 2: I wanted to be on the air, but that didn't
Speaker 2: work out. What am I doing? And I honestly everything
Speaker 2: from law school ran through my mind. I was like
Speaker 2: the world was wide open, but also very scary. You know,
Speaker 2: we lived in New York and it wasn't cheap and
Speaker 2: what are we going to do? And so the twist
Speaker 2: of fate was that someone in a couple of guys
Speaker 2: I knew who I'd worked with on this IMAX show,
Speaker 2: knew somebody at MSNBC. We were hired as freelancers as producers,
Speaker 2: and that was how I started at MSNBC as a
Speaker 2: freelancer in Secaucus, New Jersey, reverse commute through the Lincoln
Speaker 2: Tunnel to go out where they have all these like
Speaker 2: it was like an abandoned Liz Claiborne outlet or something
Speaker 2: that they turned into a TV studio. Its like all
Speaker 2: those outlet stores, and so that was me. I was
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, Okay, I guess I'm working in news.
Speaker 2: But to your question, they had just hired Tucker Carlson
Speaker 2: at MSNBC. A lot of people can't believe that he
Speaker 2: ever worked at MSNBC. He did, and it was his
Speaker 2: idea that I come on at the end of the
Speaker 2: show because you thought we had good chemistry in the newsroom,
Speaker 2: which we did. And that was my debut on television,
Speaker 2: was doing four minutes at the end of that show
Speaker 2: every night. And from there, you know, I started doing
Speaker 2: a little more here and a little more there, little
Speaker 2: segments that were just kind of throwaways at the end
Speaker 2: of the show pop culture or here's the thing you
Speaker 2: got wrong tonight or whatever it was. And then that
Speaker 2: turned into you know, other shows saying, hey, can you
Speaker 2: do a piece for us? Can you do this this?
Speaker 2: Because I guess it was kind of a funny, lighter thing.
Speaker 2: So that was I did well enough. I guess on
Speaker 2: that that when Joe took over the morning time slot
Speaker 2: on MSNBC, said Hey, do you want to do this
Speaker 2: show with me?
Speaker 1: Which I thought, and you had known him pror a
Speaker 1: little bit.
Speaker 2: I'd done a couple of pieces for his show, but
Speaker 2: I didn't really know him, and so he roped me
Speaker 2: and Mika in and that was his calculation that the
Speaker 2: three of us would work. And here we are sixteen
Speaker 2: years later, and.
Speaker 1: That seemed to really work out for them.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, well, I mean, think about it, I'm going
Speaker 2: from doing four minutes at the end of the show.
Speaker 2: Now they're asking me to co host the morning show,
Speaker 2: which is hard news, straight news. So that was a
Speaker 2: huge leap, huge lead.
Speaker 1: I've watched too many times on Morning Joe and on NBC,
Speaker 1: and what I find so unbelievably striking is that you
Speaker 1: always just seem to be yourself. You just know it's
Speaker 1: not bullshit, like you're not opting for a personality. Are
Speaker 1: there enough people around you that you feel you'll operate
Speaker 1: the same way Because so many of them just seem
Speaker 1: like they're doing shtick or they've kind of opted for
Speaker 1: that character, and you just kind of go like, I mean,
Speaker 1: I want to trust you, but I don't know what
Speaker 1: you're really are meaning right now.
Speaker 2: And there it is, though you see right through it,
Speaker 2: and I think most people do. I think there's no
Speaker 2: I don't think there's a reward for that anymore. And
Speaker 2: I think, again, I keep going back to it, but
Speaker 2: Morning Joe. Everyone you see on Morning Joe, like, that's
Speaker 2: who Joe is off camera, That's who Nika is off camera,
Speaker 2: that's who Mike Barnacle or Donnie Detch, that's who your
Speaker 2: dad was, my dad. Yeah, I mean it's so we
Speaker 2: have a place and I think it's almost like a
Speaker 2: radio show. And I mean, the fact is we replaced
Speaker 2: don Imus's radio show. He was on Imus in the
Speaker 2: Morning in the morning, so when we were born into
Speaker 2: that time slot where Imus had been, his radio show
Speaker 2: was simulcast and MSNBC we sort of adopted that, like,
Speaker 2: let's just sit around and talk vibe to a morning show.
Speaker 2: And so immediately from day one, it was it was
Speaker 2: not you are a news anchor, now start acting like one.
Speaker 2: It was like, just bring yourself to this. We trust you,
Speaker 2: we think, we know you'll do your homework, we know
Speaker 2: you're smart, we know you'll report and do all the
Speaker 2: things you do. I don't know. I feel like there
Speaker 2: are fewer and fewer people who are playing TV because
Speaker 2: it doesn't work anymore. Everyone's seen Anchorman like they expose.
Speaker 2: It's like, you know, you can't still do all the
Speaker 2: old cliches.
Speaker 1: You've talked about professional Now what moments? Is there a personal?
Speaker 1: Now what moment for you?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I know I hate to do the cliche thing,
Speaker 2: but it is true. But my so I said, Morning
Speaker 2: Joe started April of two thousand and seven. June of
Speaker 2: two thousand and seven, my daughter Lucy is born, and honestly,
Speaker 2: up until that point, despite the semi polished package you
Speaker 2: see on TV, like, I had some fun in my
Speaker 2: twenties and early thirties, We had some good times. And
Speaker 2: so I always talk about it as this brick wall
Speaker 2: of reality, which is your dad. And then you have
Speaker 2: a morning TV show that you wake up at three am,
Speaker 2: which is sort of the back end was of my
Speaker 2: day up until then. So those were I'll never forget.
Speaker 2: And I'm sure you had this as well, walking out
Speaker 2: of the hospital with Lucy in a green car seat
Speaker 2: and I'll never forget the nurse going good luck, and
Speaker 2: I was like, good luck. Like that's like that was
Speaker 2: the heaviest good luck of all time that you got
Speaker 2: to you got to keep this person safe and healthy
Speaker 2: and happy, hopefully and get her to eighteen and then
Speaker 2: get her even farther than that. And so that was
Speaker 2: I mean, it's an obvious one, but man, was that
Speaker 2: And now, what what do I do now? So my
Speaker 2: life is different personally obviously it's different professionally. Now I
Speaker 2: didn't know how it was going to go I was
Speaker 2: going to turn out, So I think that, I mean,
Speaker 2: obviously that was it. And then I as I got along.
Speaker 2: My dad has had Parkinson's disease for thirty one or
Speaker 2: two years, I think. And so getting to a point
Speaker 2: in life and I know you had this too, because
Speaker 2: you've had a parent that you've had to worry about
Speaker 2: sometimes in your life. Is to be in that middle
Speaker 2: zone where I'm concerned about my kids well being and
Speaker 2: happiness and safety. And now on the other end of it,
Speaker 2: the people who were always looking out for me, I
Speaker 2: got to think about them too. Are they okay? Are
Speaker 2: they doing all right? And I don't think anyone talks
Speaker 2: enough about that or prepares you for that, or maybe
Speaker 2: they do, and I just didn't, wasn't on my radar.
Speaker 2: But it's the middle zone and I'm still in it
Speaker 2: to a big extent. Is you're worried on two sides
Speaker 2: of you now, you know?
Speaker 1: And he didn't even tell you, right for decades, right,
Speaker 1: you didn't even know about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, his Parkinson's. So he was diagnosed at forty seven
Speaker 2: years old, which is younger than I am now. And
Speaker 2: it was very, very slow moving. So it's weird to
Speaker 2: use the word lucky with Parkinson's. But he continued to
Speaker 2: work full time and travel and be on television, and
Speaker 2: it was you know, I don't. I was almost a
Speaker 2: decade before they finally said out loud, my parents' dad
Speaker 2: as Parkinson's. We knew he was slowing down a little,
Speaker 2: and I thought it was too young for.
Speaker 1: Him to slow down, and to wait, how old were you.
Speaker 2: When he was diagnosed? I was seventeen, and by the
Speaker 2: time they told me, I was in my twenties and
Speaker 2: living in Atlanta. So but again, he worked until about
Speaker 2: two thousand and eighteen, like five years ago, he retires,
Speaker 2: which think about now the strength he had quietly to
Speaker 2: he was going through all this, his body was changing.
Speaker 2: He didn't have control of everything he was doing with
Speaker 2: his movement, and he was getting on a plane and
Speaker 2: going to interview people. There was no hiding from it,
Speaker 2: and coming home and writing a piece and being on TV.
Speaker 2: And you know, people show strength in different ways. And
Speaker 2: he's not like the face of Parkinson's and he doesn't
Speaker 2: have a foundation, but he's.
Speaker 1: Like, you've done a lot of work for Michael.
Speaker 2: We've done a lot and the Michael J. Fox Foundations
Speaker 2: don't so much for us. Yeah, and he's but he
Speaker 2: was really strong. And the hell of it is he
Speaker 2: when they diagnosed him, they couldn't there was no genetic component.
Speaker 2: They couldn't find any of the markers they looked for.
Speaker 2: And the doctor said one more question. Were you in
Speaker 2: Vietnam by any chance? And he said I was what
Speaker 2: years sixty nine seventy where were you? And they go,
Speaker 2: you got it from age and Orange and my dad.
Speaker 2: And it turns out we know now through class action
Speaker 2: lawsuits and government admitting to it, that the agent Orange
Speaker 2: that they dropped to you know, defoliate all the trees
Speaker 2: and everything. Our guys were breathing it all in and
Speaker 2: many many of them got Parkinson's and MS and effectively
Speaker 2: had their nerves fried by this stuff they were breathing
Speaker 2: in over there. So there's that element of frustration to it,
Speaker 2: and you know, it's there are a lot of layers,
Speaker 2: but certainly getting that news was a what now moment
Speaker 2: for me and for my mom and my sister everybody.
Speaker 1: I mean, God, did you have you spoken about that,
Speaker 1: like reporting on that?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, I mean I haven't done my own, but
Speaker 2: there's like they.
Speaker 1: Were very controversial. I mean, that kind of knowledge is.
Speaker 2: Needed out there. And you know what it's still I mean,
Speaker 2: it happened in Iraq and Afghanistan these things called burn
Speaker 2: pits where they just burn everything. That's all the garbage
Speaker 2: on the base, but it's also tires and medical waste
Speaker 2: and chemicals, and the guys from Iraq and Afghanistan are
Speaker 2: getting sick now from that too. So it's it's frustrating
Speaker 2: on many levels that he for that time he's spent there,
Speaker 2: which he wasn't thrilled about obviously being there, even that
Speaker 2: he paid so dearly for it. But I do take
Speaker 2: I do take all the years I've had with him.
Speaker 2: He's still here. I was just on vacation with him.
Speaker 2: He's doing great. I mean, for all the years I've
Speaker 2: had with him, I'm grateful because it's not always that
Speaker 2: way for everyone. It can accelerate very quickly and be debilitating.
Speaker 2: And he's he had, you know, twenty five really good
Speaker 2: years and now getting past thirty.
Speaker 1: It's just extraordinary. How do you how do you stay?
Speaker 1: How do you just stay? Wonderfully? Willie? You're so unique?
Speaker 2: You know, I don't. I don't know any other way.
Speaker 2: It's we have in our call it the makeup room
Speaker 2: test here where like what's the person really like? And
Speaker 2: then make make up the hair people they know everything
Speaker 2: about everybody. So if you're want to know what you like, oh, really,
Speaker 2: you know, she seems great. So but I think, like
Speaker 2: the point am I even bring that up?
Speaker 1: Was?
Speaker 2: I feel like when I hear everyone's like, oh, you're
Speaker 2: so nice, and I'm like, what's the alternative to that?
Speaker 2: I don't know. Maybe it's like maybe it's the way
Speaker 2: I was raised, or I'm surrounded by great friends, and
Speaker 2: who are who are like that too? Who are trying
Speaker 2: to be nice to everybody and be generous and be
Speaker 2: filled with gratitude, which I always am, even when I
Speaker 2: wake up at four am today and I commute in
Speaker 2: and then you get here and you get in the
Speaker 2: elevator at thirty and you see the Peacocks on the
Speaker 2: carpet and you're like, oh right, I work for NBC
Speaker 2: News at Peacock and you know, Bill Murray us to
Speaker 2: ride this elevator up to SNL Like, I'm what, you know,
Speaker 2: come on, snap out of it, you know. So I
Speaker 2: truly I have gratitude, and Christina and I on a
Speaker 2: personal level, we are we always stop for gratitude. We're
Speaker 2: our kids are healthy right now, we're healthy. We just
Speaker 2: went on this vacation where my parents came with us.
Speaker 2: We were so grateful to get them there, and my
Speaker 2: sister and her family, and like you just look and
Speaker 2: you go, this is all I need. This is it,
Speaker 2: This is all I need.
Speaker 1: That was the amazing and insightful Willie Geist. To hear
Speaker 1: more from him, tune into Morning Joe weekdays on MSNBC
Speaker 1: and Sunday Today every Sunday on NBC. That's it for
Speaker 1: us today. Talk to you next. Week Now. What with
Speaker 1: Burke Shields is a production of iHeartRadio. Our lead producer
Speaker 1: and wonderful showrunner is Julia Weaver. Additional research and editing
Speaker 1: by Darby Masters and Abu Zafar. Our executive producer is
Speaker 1: Christina Everett. The show is mixed by Baheed Fraser.