Speaker 1: The following podcast is a Dear Media production.
Speaker 2: Big Things happen when you're pretty, pretty bold, pretty clever,
Speaker 2: pretty strong. I'm Danielle Robe and each week my guests
Speaker 2: and I have conversations that put a new spin on
Speaker 2: pretty This is pretty smart. So when I thought about
Speaker 2: the very first episode of pretty Smart, I thought about
Speaker 2: wanting to feel comfortable because usually I'm on the other
Speaker 2: side of an interview. So I called up the best
Speaker 2: interviewer I know, Peter Rosenberg, host radio and TV personality
Speaker 2: sometimes moonlights as a DJ, all around funny guy. I
Speaker 2: call him the millennial Howard Stern. We'll see if he
Speaker 2: takes that. Peter, you constantly challenge me. You are so
Speaker 2: pretty smart. You make me change my perspective on things,
Speaker 2: and I'm really excited to get into a conversation with you.
Speaker 2: Thank you for doing this with me.
Speaker 3: Oh, thank you for having me. Thank you for the
Speaker 3: lovely introduction. I don't even know if I'm technically a millennium,
Speaker 3: like I'm right on the line, I'm very.
Speaker 2: Very close and you're a baby boomer.
Speaker 1: No, isn't it, jen X.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think I'm between X and millennial.
Speaker 3: I think millennials supposed to be You were younger than
Speaker 3: eighteen at the change of the millennium and I was
Speaker 3: twenty one at the change.
Speaker 1: Of the millennium.
Speaker 2: Were you born before seventy seven?
Speaker 1: No, I'm seventy nine.
Speaker 2: Then you're a millennial. Really yep, welcome to the club.
Speaker 1: Thank you. This is exciting news. I didn't even know
Speaker 1: I was getting this today.
Speaker 3: But anyways, that is a lovely introduction, and I'm honored
Speaker 3: to do this and I'm excited to get to ask
Speaker 3: you things that even being your friend, I mean, I
Speaker 3: know the answer to.
Speaker 2: Hopefully we can do this again and I can ask
Speaker 2: you all the.
Speaker 3: Questions, all right, But for today, I will ask you
Speaker 3: the questions. And let's start off for people who are
Speaker 3: just getting familiar with you, and maybe they have seen
Speaker 3: you on social media or they've seen you pop up
Speaker 3: on one of the many outlets that you do hosting work.
Speaker 3: Tell us a little bit about where you're from. I know,
Speaker 3: I know you're from Chicago generally, but where you're from
Speaker 3: in Chicago and how you ended up wanting to pursue
Speaker 3: this dream of broadcast journalism.
Speaker 2: So I feel very proud to be from Chicago. It
Speaker 2: was a really amazing place to grow up. I feel
Speaker 2: like when people ask me, are you going home? I
Speaker 2: still think of Chicago. I don't really think of LA.
Speaker 2: It feels like home to me, but I always wanted
Speaker 2: to live in LA. Like growing up, I would watch
Speaker 2: hours and hours and hours of TV, and I watched
Speaker 2: everything like I watched Saved by the Bell and Gilmour
Speaker 2: Girls and Sopranos and Family Matters, like literally anything that
Speaker 2: was on TV. I would watch and my dad would
Speaker 2: yell at me because my parents are really into education,
Speaker 2: and they'd be like, you're wasting your brain. What are
Speaker 2: you doing watching all this TV? And now he calls
Speaker 2: me and he's like, I'm sorry I yelled at you.
Speaker 2: You were just doing research. I didn't know. So I
Speaker 2: feel like I was always on a path to entertainment
Speaker 2: and live in LA. But when I went to college
Speaker 2: in Madison, I started doing internships at the local news
Speaker 2: stations and I fell in love with it. I loved
Speaker 2: the storytelling. I did not love carrying those hundred pound
Speaker 2: I think I weigh one hundred pounds in college, Like
Speaker 2: the cameras weigh as much as me, and we'd be
Speaker 2: in the snow and the like it was freezing in Madison,
Speaker 2: just trying to get one shot for hours, and I
Speaker 2: realized I didn't want to do local news at that point,
Speaker 2: but I really wanted to tell people's stories. So I
Speaker 2: booked a one way ticket to LA, moved into a garage,
Speaker 2: and the rest was kind of history. I never looked back.
Speaker 3: What was it that made you realize you didn't want
Speaker 3: to do local news? Like, what specifically about that experience
Speaker 3: made you think, you know, I want to do broadcasting,
Speaker 3: but I don't want to do that form of broadcasting.
Speaker 2: I've never been asked that, if I'm being honest, I
Speaker 2: wanted to tell different stories. And the Internet was becoming
Speaker 2: a thing like do you remember all those Britney Spears
Speaker 2: fans that would on YouTube? And that was, yeah, that
Speaker 2: you were one of them. That was the Internet for
Speaker 2: a minute, But right after that it exploded into something else,
Speaker 2: and I kind of felt like that was happening. I
Speaker 2: wanted to be part of that explosion because the freedom
Speaker 2: to talk to different people, tell different stories, have more
Speaker 2: autonomy felt really enticing. And so when I moved to
Speaker 2: LA after I started doing Red Carpets, I worked at
Speaker 2: a place called Clever TV, which was a YouTube channel
Speaker 2: that was always like one of the ten YouTube, ten
Speaker 2: top YouTube channels, and that's where I learned the Internet,
Speaker 2: and so it was it was cool I got to
Speaker 2: do different things.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's really neat because you got to taste sort
Speaker 3: of the classic medium of television, because like the red
Speaker 3: carpet is like a pretty traditional television kind of thing,
Speaker 3: and then mix it with doing a YouTube channel. How
Speaker 3: did you You kind of just threw and yeah, I
Speaker 3: started doing red carpets, But like, how did you start
Speaker 3: doing red carpets?
Speaker 1: Who are you doing them for? How did you get
Speaker 1: the opportunity?
Speaker 2: Well, when I moved into the garage, no one would
Speaker 2: answer my calls. I don't think it's because they didn't
Speaker 2: know I was living in a garage, but I still like,
Speaker 2: I didn't have a reel. Really, I only had like
Speaker 2: a reel from college. So I knew I needed to
Speaker 2: get practice and I needed footage. So I would just
Speaker 2: cold call people, cold email people. No one would answer me,
Speaker 2: and I started googling people's addresses and I had no money.
Speaker 2: I had the two thousand dollars and I remember setting
Speaker 2: a budget aside of like five hundred dollars to send
Speaker 2: people cookies boxes of cookies, and I would put my
Speaker 2: email address at the end of it. And so most
Speaker 2: of the time people would email me and say like,
Speaker 2: I don't know who thanks standing out for these cookies.
Speaker 2: We don't have a position available. And I was like,
Speaker 2: that's cool, you know, just keep me in mind if
Speaker 2: someone falls out last minute. But now I had their
Speaker 2: email address.
Speaker 3: Exactly, and now you have a little back and forth
Speaker 3: like when they see your email pop up again in
Speaker 3: three months, even if they don't remember who you are,
Speaker 3: they see that they already engaged with you. Then they
Speaker 3: look at it and are like, oh, yeah, the cookie
Speaker 3: girl exactly.
Speaker 2: I was the cookie girl literally and it worked because
Speaker 2: one day somebody dropped out and an online outlet called
Speaker 2: me and said, can you be in Beverly Hills in
Speaker 2: ninety minutes? And I said yes. I didn't even blink.
Speaker 2: Did my first red carpet. Simon Cowle gave me an exclusive,
Speaker 2: which I owe him so much. He doesn't even know
Speaker 2: that because he got me my first gig. They started
Speaker 2: calling me back because of that, and I would work
Speaker 2: for free. They didn't pay me, but I needed footage
Speaker 2: and it allowed me to build a reel, and then
Speaker 2: I had all those email addresses and would send people
Speaker 2: my reel over and over again.
Speaker 3: Were you nervous to show up and just do a
Speaker 3: red carpet when you hadn't done anything like that prior?
Speaker 2: I think when you're young, you have this blind naivete
Speaker 2: like I would watch Juliana Ransick or Kat Sadler and think, like,
Speaker 2: I can do that, And so I didn't realize that
Speaker 2: I couldn't do that, Like I definitely couldn't do that
Speaker 2: to the level they were doing it, but in my
Speaker 2: head I could, which was a blessing in disguise because
Speaker 2: you just kind of go for it and then by
Speaker 2: doing you get better hopefully.
Speaker 3: Well, I've realized recently as i've been like looking back
Speaker 3: at my life and thinking about mistakes I've made, things
Speaker 3: I'd like to do better. And one of the consistent
Speaker 3: mistakes that I've made throughout my career and I still
Speaker 3: make it is saying things that I regret and like,
Speaker 3: I don't mean necessarily something that like you have to
Speaker 3: apologize for saying something off color. I mean, I'm sure
Speaker 3: I've done that too, but I mean, you know, a
Speaker 3: critique that was too harsh, you know, describing someone in
Speaker 3: a way that wasn't kind, giving an opinion that was
Speaker 3: just incredibly brash. You know, I showed up in New
Speaker 3: York and I was just so brash with my opinions.
Speaker 3: And I say all of this not to just make
Speaker 3: everything about me another great trade of mine, but because
Speaker 3: that thing you just spoke about. In order to be
Speaker 3: the person who has a chance to make it, you
Speaker 3: have to have a sort of unrealistic view of yourself.
Speaker 3: If you you don't believe that it whatever twenty something
Speaker 3: year old age that you're at, if you don't believe
Speaker 3: that you're capable of doing it as well as Ryan
Speaker 3: Seacrest and Juan Ransick, you're never going to get the
Speaker 3: opportunity to even come close. So it's a catch twenty
Speaker 3: two and you really do. It's kind of amazing hearing
Speaker 3: you say that that you just sort of showed up
Speaker 3: and like, I can do this, Because to me, that's
Speaker 3: the sign of someone who can eventually make it, Because
Speaker 3: you have to believe you're good enough to be in
Speaker 3: the game, even if at that time when you look
Speaker 3: back at it, you're like, I wasn't really good enough
Speaker 3: to be in the game.
Speaker 2: It's so funny you say that, because one, it makes
Speaker 2: me feel better hearing that you felt the same way,
Speaker 2: because I always want to be self aware and try
Speaker 2: and like live outside my ego. But there is a
Speaker 2: little ego in that right, like you have to have
Speaker 2: a little bit. And then secondly, I interviewed Kevin Hart
Speaker 2: once and I asked him did you know this was
Speaker 2: going to happen? Like, did you know that you were
Speaker 2: going to do this? And he said no, I had
Speaker 2: no idea. I was a shoe salesman in Philadelphia. I
Speaker 2: had no idea. And I did not believe him. I
Speaker 2: thought it was a nice, humble answer. I did not
Speaker 2: believe him, because anybody who goes after something passionate and
Speaker 2: difficult has to have some sort of a belief.
Speaker 3: Especially if you're Kevin Hart, who for so long got
Speaker 3: laughed out of rooms. People didn't think he was good enough,
Speaker 3: funny enough. They made fun of him for being short,
Speaker 3: like he had so many things working against him that
Speaker 3: maybe he didn't think he'd ever become an industry but
Speaker 3: he had to have a certain level of just like
Speaker 3: I'm good at this. I know I make people feel good,
Speaker 3: and I know what I can do. But yeah, you're right,
Speaker 3: it is. It's one of the funny things about this business.
Speaker 3: And as a result, people can come off as sort
Speaker 3: of obnoxious and make mistakes and it doesn't mean they're
Speaker 3: bad people or arrogant in general, but that they think
Speaker 3: I'm cable.
Speaker 1: I mean I used to watch MTV.
Speaker 3: I remember this is one of my favorites is I
Speaker 3: used to watch MTV and there was a guy on
Speaker 3: TV and I would just think, like man to Actually
Speaker 3: two people I would see and be like, why did
Speaker 3: they even have this job?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Those two people are Carson Dally, who I don't know
Speaker 3: in real life, but we have like a very friendly
Speaker 3: mutual admiration Instagram relationship which started with him which was
Speaker 3: completely random, Like I didn't know that he'd been following me.
Speaker 1: I didn't know he was so checked into hip hop stuff.
Speaker 3: But Carson Dally is just that diverse, which is what
Speaker 3: makes him awesome and capable of doing the things that
Speaker 3: he does right. The other person I used to hate
Speaker 3: on was Cipha Sounds, who's now been my co host
Speaker 3: for the over a decade, and I would be like,
Speaker 3: why this.
Speaker 1: Guy not me?
Speaker 3: And it, Yeah, it can have its negative attributes, because
Speaker 3: you can also get caught up thinking no one else
Speaker 3: deserves it more than you do. But I really do
Speaker 3: think for anyone who's listening who has an interest in broadcasting,
Speaker 3: if you don't have a belief that you're capable of
Speaker 3: doing what kind of the people you see are doing.
Speaker 3: If you don't have that belief, you probably don't belong
Speaker 3: and you have a really tough time.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 3: A healthy dose of reality of like I need work
Speaker 3: that also helps because there are people who just show up,
Speaker 3: Like especially with the Internet. I mean, if you get
Speaker 3: one hundred thousand views on a video, what you're good?
Speaker 1: Hand me the mic?
Speaker 3: And I have seen people get handed the mic and
Speaker 3: you're like, well, you were not ready to be handed
Speaker 3: the mic. So you have to do the work and
Speaker 3: you have to prepare yourself. But a healthy dose of belief,
Speaker 3: I think is super important. You've done a ton of
Speaker 3: interviews at this point, hundreds, maybe thousands. What's the most
Speaker 3: effort you've had to put in to securing an interview?
Speaker 3: And what did you do?
Speaker 2: Ooh, the most effort to secure an interview? I do
Speaker 2: a lot of crazy things to get things done, like
Speaker 2: not just cookies. I really believe in the cold message,
Speaker 2: cold email. I'm trying to think about even.
Speaker 1: If it's just the amount of effort or times that you.
Speaker 2: Tried, you know what I did. I used to This
Speaker 2: is so embarrassing. I just remembered this. When I moved
Speaker 2: to LA, I made business cards with my headshot.
Speaker 4: On them and like a real estate agent business card,
Speaker 4: literally and they had different photos on each side. Like
Speaker 4: it was really indulgent, but I wanted people to remember
Speaker 4: me and every red card, but I was on. After
Speaker 4: I spoke to the celebrity, the actor, the musician, I'd
Speaker 4: hand them my business card.
Speaker 1: I didn't know, how did that play out for you?
Speaker 2: Well? Interesting because I don't really know. I don't think
Speaker 2: I understood how things worked. I handed them the business card,
Speaker 2: thinking like maybe if I asked them really good questions
Speaker 2: and they feel connected, that they'll reach out to me
Speaker 2: and then I can do a sit down interview. Because
Speaker 2: when I moved to LA, all I wanted to do
Speaker 2: was interview people, and I thought the road to that
Speaker 2: were red carpets and building an online presence and right
Speaker 2: and business cards.
Speaker 1: I end up instead with you just getting random, inappropriate
Speaker 1: mess from people that you didn't want to get messages
Speaker 1: from or maybe you did want to get a message
Speaker 1: from them professionally, and instead it was like ten thirty,
Speaker 1: wya can.
Speaker 2: You meet at my hotel lobby? There were a few
Speaker 2: of those, but also a good learning experience. You know,
Speaker 2: you got to figure out how to navigate that. But honestly,
Speaker 2: some people were really really kind, like some of the
Speaker 2: video at the cameramen and I say men because they
Speaker 2: were men, but it should be camera people and editors.
Speaker 2: I would trade them like lunch and promise them some laughs,
Speaker 2: and they would shoot sit down interviews with me with
Speaker 2: these actors that I don't know why they agreed, they
Speaker 2: were so kind and they came for an hour and
Speaker 2: I would do sit down interviews with them and put
Speaker 2: them on YouTube. Like people were really generous with me.
Speaker 2: I think one of the biggest lessons is like ask
Speaker 2: and you shall receive, because if you don't ask, nothing
Speaker 2: ever happens.
Speaker 3: As time went on, did you continue to fall more
Speaker 3: in love with interviewing did you like it less Did
Speaker 3: you think I like inter viewing the actors, but I'd
Speaker 3: like to talk to other people as well. How did
Speaker 3: you find the experience of sort of the la Entertainment
Speaker 3: interview World.
Speaker 2: At first, it was really exciting because I was so
Speaker 2: happy to be there and I really wanted to get better.
Speaker 2: I want Somebody told me, like, you just want to
Speaker 2: get paid to get your reps in at the beginning,
Speaker 2: and I wasn't even really getting paid, but I was
Speaker 2: just happy to get the reps in. And then when
Speaker 2: I started working at Entertainment Tonight Online, I started having
Speaker 2: a crisis of conscience because I realized that the type
Speaker 2: of reporter, the type of interviewer I wanted to be,
Speaker 2: was somebody who always came from a place of kindness.
Speaker 2: I always ask questions to this day with kindness at
Speaker 2: the forefront, and you can't always do that at some
Speaker 2: of these entertainment outlets. And it's no knock on them,
Speaker 2: it's just it's not how the machine works. And so
Speaker 2: it kind of evolved, and eventually I did a morning
Speaker 2: show in Chicago, which was a gift because I got
Speaker 2: to do hard news. I got to do I got
Speaker 2: to be live for two hours every day. They let
Speaker 2: me produce and write so many packages. I did stuff
Speaker 2: on gun violence and voting, and I realized that I
Speaker 2: wanted to mix pop culture and politics which I think
Speaker 2: that's probably why we bonded initially, is you have that
Speaker 2: same love. It's like they go so hand in hand
Speaker 2: even though they seem like opposites.
Speaker 3: And also I would correct, I would personally correct whoever
Speaker 3: gave you the advice of getting getting paid for reps.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm with you. It's just get reps.
Speaker 3: You know. That's that's actually something And it may be
Speaker 3: an old school philosophy, but it's probably not one.
Speaker 1: I'm going to give up me too.
Speaker 3: Young person who wants to get reps and you give
Speaker 3: them an opportunity and then they're like, yo, so what's
Speaker 3: up with the money. I'm like, all right, get out, no.
Speaker 2: Reps, get out same like I mean, I.
Speaker 3: Literally say get out. But I'll be like, well, this
Speaker 3: is how this is going to work. You're either just
Speaker 3: gonna do it or you're not. But the idea of
Speaker 3: like you show up and you think you get paid
Speaker 3: to entertain who wants to see you entertain?
Speaker 1: Who wants to hear you say anything?
Speaker 2: Truly? And also not only not get paid. I've paid
Speaker 2: to work so many times, particularly when I was young,
Speaker 2: because I felt like it was an investment in myself,
Speaker 2: Like I paid for hair and makeup. I paid to
Speaker 2: get there with either bus money or gas money or
Speaker 2: parking Like I've spent a lot of money trying to work.
Speaker 3: I am just now. I'm forty one, and I am
Speaker 3: just now, like, oh not fine. Maybe I'm exaggerating a
Speaker 3: little bit, but it didn't. It took until my mid
Speaker 3: thirties for me to get like comfortable with having a
Speaker 3: car service set for you and like that stuff gets
Speaker 3: taken care of if you're hired. Everything for me for
Speaker 3: the first ten to fifteen years of my career was
Speaker 3: jumping in my very average, low end car and driving
Speaker 3: to where I was going and being the most overly prepared.
Speaker 3: The amount of redundancy in my audio equipment, Like I
Speaker 3: have a mini displayer with a microphone, but I also
Speaker 3: have a tape recorder. I also have extra batteries. I
Speaker 3: also have an extra plug. I also have a camera,
Speaker 3: so if the audio doesn't work, I can just get
Speaker 3: video use that audio if I like and listen. This
Speaker 3: isn't some sort of I used to walk uphill both
Speaker 3: ways when I went to school in the in a
Speaker 3: two feet of snow. But we will see and and
Speaker 3: and by the way, we've seen this play out already,
Speaker 3: Like I believe that it's already been proven out to
Speaker 3: be true when we saw the emergence of I'm not
Speaker 3: even being that guy. But seriously, I can't remember what
Speaker 3: it's called anymore. What was the name of the social
Speaker 3: media app with the really short.
Speaker 2: Clips, TikTok?
Speaker 1: But the first one that was super short five second come?
Speaker 2: Oh, oh my god, uh.
Speaker 3: Vine Vine, which took us thirty seconds to remember the
Speaker 3: name of the medium.
Speaker 1: Okay, that time happened.
Speaker 3: And there are peace people who turns it into real money,
Speaker 3: and there are people who turns it into especially further
Speaker 3: social media money. But if you were to play a
Speaker 3: game called let's name all the Vine stars who turned
Speaker 3: into mainstream media stars, you wouldn't do very well. You
Speaker 3: might think of some people who did well on other
Speaker 3: social media outlets, and props and kudos to them for
Speaker 3: figuring it out.
Speaker 1: But I say that to say.
Speaker 3: Everyone thinks, when they have that moment, that this is
Speaker 3: it and now everything's just going to open up for you.
Speaker 3: You're all good now. And the traditional ideas of work
Speaker 3: ethic and just sticking around a place and blinding it
Speaker 3: out and being a good person who people want to
Speaker 3: be around. I just don't think that part's ever going
Speaker 3: to go away.
Speaker 2: You know, when you said that you have all that equipment,
Speaker 2: it reminded me. I did an event one time, I
Speaker 2: think it was the MTV Movie Awards and the outlet
Speaker 2: I was working for screwed up the scheduling and the
Speaker 2: cameraman never showed, and I was like, I'll shoot it.
Speaker 2: I would have the camera and I knew how to shoot,
Speaker 2: so I set it up, shot myself and ended up
Speaker 2: editing the tape. And I remember thinking, like, you have
Speaker 2: you can't just like go be a host. You have
Speaker 2: to know how to do everything. It's how it works,
Speaker 2: It's how bad do you want it?
Speaker 3: You're just there. That's the other thing that I think
Speaker 3: really comes up a lot. What do you want to do? Uh?
Speaker 1: You know, I do a little of this, I do
Speaker 1: a little of that. I do a little I'm like,
Speaker 1: what do you do? You know? Like? And I guess
Speaker 1: I'll ask you that question, what do you do? Like?
Speaker 3: What is what is Danielle Robe's thing that you would
Speaker 3: say is really in you that you're meant to do?
Speaker 2: I think that I'm able to ask people questions without
Speaker 2: any judgment and create a really comfortable space for people
Speaker 2: to open up and feel seen in a way that
Speaker 2: other people probably can. But I think that's my thing.
Speaker 1: Let's remove the in a way other people probably Well,
Speaker 1: it's true.
Speaker 2: It's not like I'm the only person who can make
Speaker 2: people feel seen, you know, but I do think that.
Speaker 3: That's I'm the one who allows people to be seen.
Speaker 3: But that just speaks to humility in general that you
Speaker 3: wouldn't even give yourself that. But so in other words,
Speaker 3: though the looking back, if someone were to ask twenty
Speaker 3: one year old to you, what do you do?
Speaker 1: The answer is really I interview. Really, well, that's what
Speaker 1: I do.
Speaker 2: I mean I would stand on red carpets and I
Speaker 2: would ask people about feminism, and like you know, I
Speaker 2: would ask people things that you probably shouldn't ask on
Speaker 2: red carpets, And now I get to do that in
Speaker 2: an interview series. So I think it was kind of
Speaker 2: all leading up to that.
Speaker 3: And it's so perfect too, because you know, that's why
Speaker 3: pretty Smart and what you're doing with it is such
Speaker 3: a perfect fit because you have the opportunity to pick
Speaker 3: people that make sense that you want to ask questions to,
Speaker 3: who you already know can engage in these kinds of conversations.
Speaker 3: So I guess we should get to the pretty smart
Speaker 3: of it all.
Speaker 2: What's your what's your pretty? What's your adjective? You're pretty?
Speaker 2: What like? If we were to name your.
Speaker 1: Episode smart, I wouldn't go past that.
Speaker 2: You're pretty funny too, I'm pretty funny. Yeah.
Speaker 3: No, I'll give myself more than that. I believe i'm funny.
Speaker 3: I'm pretty smart.
Speaker 2: No, pretty is not a diminutive.
Speaker 3: I feel like, well, it depends how you're looking at it.
Speaker 3: In your case, it's not it's pretty smart. It plays
Speaker 3: on multiple things. In the case with me, one version
Speaker 3: of pretty is out the window immediately, so pretty ends
Speaker 3: up turning into kind of not true.
Speaker 2: Not true at all. You know, when I named it,
Speaker 2: part of it was that it was irreverend. I heard
Speaker 2: Amy Schumer say that people would say, well, you know,
Speaker 2: she's pretty funny for a woman, and I was like,
Speaker 2: there's a spin on that. You know.
Speaker 3: Was that the origins of you thinking of pretty smart?
Speaker 3: Or did it start somewhere else?
Speaker 2: It's actually started when I was doing the morning show
Speaker 2: in Chicago. I read a book called Beauty Sick, and
Speaker 2: doctor Renee Engellen wrote it it's a book that changed
Speaker 2: my life. She's stills off with a stat by Esquire
Speaker 2: and she says fifty four percent of women would rather
Speaker 2: be hit by a car than considered fat. And when
Speaker 2: I read that, my heart sunk, because when I was
Speaker 2: in high school, I would ask, well, how fast is
Speaker 2: the car going? And that's kind of hard for me
Speaker 2: to say out loud because it feels.
Speaker 1: A joke to some degree. I mean mostly, No, it.
Speaker 2: Wasn't a joke. I don't think I had a healthy
Speaker 2: relationship with food or body image. And I think to
Speaker 2: be a woman in America, to be honest, is that, like,
Speaker 2: find a woman who has a really healthy perception of
Speaker 2: their own body, their own self, their own weight, doesn't
Speaker 2: have a weird relationship with food in any way, and
Speaker 2: like I will give you a million dollars that I
Speaker 2: don't have.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's when I go through the list of
Speaker 3: people that I'm really close to in my life, it's
Speaker 3: a very tough one.
Speaker 2: And it's not excluding men either.
Speaker 3: I think there's a high percentage of men too. Yeah,
Speaker 3: very higher than you think. But you can think of some.
Speaker 3: But it's tough, but it really is. It really is
Speaker 3: true and Obviously that's not surprising when you look about this,
Speaker 3: when you look at around and see the images that
Speaker 3: are put out there for people.
Speaker 2: I'm so glad you mentioned that because I kept thinking
Speaker 2: as I was reading this book, it's a value issue.
Speaker 2: It's that we place so much value on pretty for
Speaker 2: women in America. And then I started asking people, who's
Speaker 2: the prettiest woman you know? So for you, who pops.
Speaker 1: Into your mind the prettiest person that I know?
Speaker 2: Prettiest woman?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean my girlfriend.
Speaker 2: Oh, good answer.
Speaker 3: Prior to giving the good answer of the person that
Speaker 3: you're obviously with, I would say the most consistent person
Speaker 3: I've said over my whole life.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I probably would have said Halle Berry.
Speaker 2: So also a good answer. But you're the first person
Speaker 2: to actually name the first person I've spoken to to
Speaker 2: name a celebrity, because everybody I spoke to would be
Speaker 2: like my mom, my sister, my girlfriend. No one would
Speaker 2: name like well known people. And I kept thinking about
Speaker 2: how the prettiest women in my life were all of
Speaker 2: these things. They weren't perfect. They had bumps and bruises,
Speaker 2: and that's what made them so pretty. They were pretty
Speaker 2: bold and pretty strong, pretty witty, pretty smart, and so
Speaker 2: I was like, I'm going to go create the show
Speaker 2: I've always wanted to create and interview people who are
Speaker 2: the kind of pretty that matters. So each episode is
Speaker 2: going to feature somebody who is all of those things.
Speaker 2: Pretty determined, pretty ambitious, pretty funny, And we're going to
Speaker 2: take the word pretty and.
Speaker 3: Spin it so pretty does not have the connotation that
Speaker 3: for example, I just used it for, which is Halle Berry,
Speaker 3: who's just objectively pretty.
Speaker 2: She is, but you know she's actually she's pretty soulful too.
Speaker 3: Well, no, no, how's Hallie's pretty complicated and right and
Speaker 3: smart and interesting, and she's a lot.
Speaker 1: Halle's a lot.
Speaker 2: But knowing you, that's why you said her too, because
Speaker 2: if she was just pretty and vapid, you wouldn't have
Speaker 2: thought about her.
Speaker 3: That's probably, But that's I have a weird thing for
Speaker 3: being into people because of their whole story.
Speaker 2: It's not weird. That's everybody.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I mean, I always think about this in terms of
Speaker 3: athletes a lot. Like people root for athletes because they're good.
Speaker 3: I root for athletes sometimes because they're good, but sometimes
Speaker 3: because I want them to win.
Speaker 2: I disagree with you. I think we buy into people's stories.
Speaker 1: We do not everyone does.
Speaker 2: Like name an athlete that you think that people do
Speaker 2: that about.
Speaker 3: I think, Jordan, I think people story. Yeah, they I
Speaker 3: guess you're right. They add the story to make you
Speaker 3: feel good. I'm not saying most people don't, but I'm
Speaker 3: saying I also wouldn't write that office saying oh, everyone
Speaker 3: does that.
Speaker 1: Everyone cares about people's stories. Like No, A lot of
Speaker 1: people who root for sports.
Speaker 3: They root for you because you wear a laundry that's
Speaker 3: the color they like, and if you're not doing good job,
Speaker 3: they want you trade it immediately. And then there are
Speaker 3: other people who are like, I know he's not doing
Speaker 3: well right now, but like, I'm committed.
Speaker 1: To this person and I want them to succeed.
Speaker 3: But that group does exist, and it's one of the
Speaker 3: reasons athletes can often get frustrated with fans. So I
Speaker 3: say that to say there are a lot of people
Speaker 3: who would identify with wanting to see the whole package.
Speaker 2: Interesting.
Speaker 1: Listen, I think you're right.
Speaker 3: I think most I think good people like people because
Speaker 3: of their stories. So when you say who's pretty to them,
Speaker 3: they don't just think of the prettiest supermodel they've ever seen.
Speaker 3: They think of someone who's close to them or someone
Speaker 3: who has meaning. I think that's a really interesting point,
Speaker 3: as opposed to as being like, well, Heidi Klumb, not
Speaker 3: that Heidi Clumb's not super interesting, because she is actually,
Speaker 3: but you get the point.
Speaker 1: Or Cindy Crawford or Brad Pitt.
Speaker 3: They're going to think of someone who probably has something else,
Speaker 3: some other connection to them. But I think that's for
Speaker 3: good people. I don't think everybody's good. I think everybody
Speaker 3: has good I don't think everybody's good.
Speaker 2: See, I think everybody's good, But I think whatever we
Speaker 2: don't get to I want to ask you something else.
Speaker 2: Have you ever thought about why you are obsessed with stories?
Speaker 2: Because you and I are both really obsessed with stories.
Speaker 3: No, I never thought about why I'm obsessed with stories.
Speaker 3: I just relate to people for whatever reason. I see
Speaker 3: something in them that I go I feel like people
Speaker 3: are judging this person unfairly.
Speaker 1: I'd like to see what else is there interesting?
Speaker 2: I've never thought about it that way.
Speaker 1: Well, everything that I'm into requires defending well.
Speaker 2: I think one of the things that makes you such
Speaker 2: an interesting interviewer and personality is that you're very comfortable
Speaker 2: with confrontation. And I don't know if it's because you're
Speaker 2: very practiced at it, but you have no qualms about
Speaker 2: pushing up against an idea a person. It's something that
Speaker 2: most people are not as comfortable with. You're okay being
Speaker 2: a naysayer.
Speaker 3: Well, I appreciate you saying that it's not true, because
Speaker 3: I am uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: I don't like things to go that way.
Speaker 3: I would love for interviews to just always be like
Speaker 3: an awesome, fun back and forth. But you know, sometimes
Speaker 3: there's a moment when you just say no that you
Speaker 3: cannot say that we're gonna have a an argument here.
Speaker 3: No now. I don't always, though, and there are times
Speaker 3: when if the art, if the person's big enough, and
Speaker 3: you have relationships that were required to get the interview,
Speaker 3: where you have to be like, oh man, how do
Speaker 3: I navigate this disagreement kindly, in like really delicately so
Speaker 3: they don't rush off? And I have all kinds of
Speaker 3: other drama to deal with as a result of that.
Speaker 3: I know the nice answer would be like, I'm Walter Cronkite,
Speaker 3: and the second I hear wrong, I stop it in
Speaker 3: its tracks because I am here to have America hear
Speaker 3: the truth. But sometimes you go, oh, I got to
Speaker 3: think about the manager. I gotta think about this, I
Speaker 3: gotta think about and let me. Sometimes I think, hey,
Speaker 3: can I help you give a better answer to that
Speaker 3: question because what you just said sucks. Let's walk through
Speaker 3: this together. And you know, sometimes that's what you try
Speaker 3: to do. But I appreciate that you think I do
Speaker 3: that because I don't think it's easy, and I think
Speaker 3: if you do it too much, you're an asshole.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you have to walk the line. It's the heart
Speaker 2: and the hustle.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because if you're a gotcha guy in interviews who's
Speaker 3: waiting for the moment to be like what you say
Speaker 3: gotcha like, there are a lot of people who do
Speaker 3: that and are very successful. And I don't respect that either,
Speaker 3: and I don't I don't appreciate that either. And that's
Speaker 3: something I like about what you do and why I
Speaker 3: think pretty smart will be cool. I can't imagine while
Speaker 3: the goal is to have thoughtful dialogue, I can't imagine
Speaker 3: the goal is to like catch people in something they
Speaker 3: wish they didn't say.
Speaker 2: No, absolutely not. The goal is twofold. It's so back
Speaker 2: to stories like this is one of the goals I'm
Speaker 2: obsessed with stories because I'm obsessed with why I feel. Like,
Speaker 2: you know, I went through like a little bit of
Speaker 2: a depression last year, and no person could make me
Speaker 2: feel better. The only thing that made me feel better
Speaker 2: was listening to people's stories and podcasts and reading of
Speaker 2: people's stories and books. And I really believe like when
Speaker 2: we listen to other people's stories, a kernel of truth
Speaker 2: exists within ourselfs. And so my goal is a to
Speaker 2: bring out incredible, moving, interesting, inspiring stories and also have
Speaker 2: some thematic episodes like I'm doing in a few weeks.
Speaker 2: I'm doing You'll like this a whole history of Women
Speaker 2: in Hip Hop episode, and we're talking to female MC's
Speaker 2: and talking about topics that impact culture and talk about
Speaker 2: what works for us and what we can work to change.
Speaker 3: That is awesome And I won't say lofty goal, but like,
Speaker 3: that's a good, real expectation to have for yourself.
Speaker 1: Are you nervous to launch the podcast?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm pretty nervous. I'm usually the one asking the questions,
Speaker 2: and it's because I think I'm innately curious, but also
Speaker 2: because I don't like answering them as much. So this
Speaker 2: is really taking me out of my comfort zone. My
Speaker 2: promise is that it will be incredibly candid and real,
Speaker 2: So I cannot be an exception to that. I have
Speaker 2: to show up as that every week.
Speaker 3: So do you just mean that because it's not exclusively
Speaker 3: you asking questions.
Speaker 1: It's conversation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, opposed.
Speaker 3: To like, hey, what are you doing with this? What
Speaker 3: are your thoughts on blank? It's a here's a question,
Speaker 3: now let's go back and forth.
Speaker 2: Exactly.
Speaker 1: It's a different sort of animal.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you have to show up as yourself to make
Speaker 2: other people comfortable to show up as theirselves. I think you.
Speaker 3: Had some relationship with the late great Larry King. What
Speaker 3: can you say about Larry King?
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's the best. I Actually, before he passed away,
Speaker 2: he signed the microphone that I'm using for my at
Speaker 2: home setup. I bought like an old school mic that
Speaker 2: he used to use, and I had him sign it.
Speaker 2: So I hope that he would kind of put a
Speaker 2: stamp of approval on this. But I used to have
Speaker 2: breakfast at Larry and it was sort of an outer
Speaker 2: body experience at first, because I studied him, like I
Speaker 2: watched hours and hours of Barbara Walters and Larry King
Speaker 2: and Bob Costas, and I just would think and look
Speaker 2: at how they moved their hands and the way they
Speaker 2: asked a question and rewind and think about why they
Speaker 2: asked a question that way. And So to be with
Speaker 2: him in conversation and hear him telling me stories about
Speaker 2: interviews was wild because in my head I knew the
Speaker 2: interview he was talking about. I was like, oh, you
Speaker 2: were wearing a blue shirt that day, Like I knew
Speaker 2: what he was talking about, and to hear it in
Speaker 2: real time was cool.
Speaker 1: How did this relationship come to be?
Speaker 2: So he has breakfast at uh or. He used to
Speaker 2: have breakfast at a bunch of different delis in Beverly Hills.
Speaker 2: Every day. He had this group of friends from growing
Speaker 2: up in Florida and some people from New York. And
Speaker 2: every single day he would have breakfasts and he would
Speaker 2: usually have cheerios and blueberries.
Speaker 1: What I only knew that he went to Nate Nowles,
Speaker 1: but he went to multiple places.
Speaker 2: So like Tuesday would be Nate Nows and Thursday would
Speaker 2: be Nate Nows, and then like Wednesday would be a
Speaker 2: different spot. He had a whole schedule, okay, and he
Speaker 2: had this group of people and friends. It was like
Speaker 2: a bunch of old Jewish guys. Sometimes women would be there,
Speaker 2: like a cousin or something, and I was like, oh
Speaker 2: my god, this is like what I grew up around.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: It was so fun and I didn't really have that
Speaker 2: in La. I didn't know anybody. And I would go
Speaker 2: and he would. He was obsessed with youth. He loved
Speaker 2: having youthful energy, and so he would stare at you
Speaker 2: and ask you a hundred questions, like some questions about
Speaker 2: what you ate for breakfast, and then some questions deep enough,
Speaker 2: like you know, what do you think of the world,
Speaker 2: and how do we cure hunger? And he just he
Speaker 2: was the single most curious person I'd ever met.
Speaker 1: And he just like where you introduced to him? Like
Speaker 1: how did he end up taking to you?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I was introduced to him by a friend and it
Speaker 2: was actually for my birthday one year, and it was
Speaker 2: such an amazing gift, and it was supposed to be
Speaker 2: a one off breakfast and then there was no way
Speaker 2: I was letting that be a one off. I was like,
Speaker 2: I have to come back, so I would go more often.
Speaker 3: Which, by the way, is such an interesting insight to
Speaker 3: the valuable the value of get of knowing people and
Speaker 3: having relationships, you know, and having connections to people, and
Speaker 3: getting to meet people because you never know who that
Speaker 3: person is close with and which is ultimately for better
Speaker 3: or for worse, a part of our game as well.
Speaker 3: I mean, I've never got in anything from sent to
Speaker 3: the point you made earlier. I've never gotten a job
Speaker 3: from sending.
Speaker 2: In a tape ever, me neither never.
Speaker 3: Never even really had a meaningful dialogue as a result
Speaker 3: of just sending off a resume in an air check.
Speaker 2: You know what's funny though, When I worked at ET Online,
Speaker 2: I would go in after hours when no one was there,
Speaker 2: and they had this incredible backlog of interviews, like they
Speaker 2: had just hundreds and hundreds and thousands of hours twenty
Speaker 2: thirty years of interviews archived, and I would go and
Speaker 2: just watch them. And there was this one interview with
Speaker 2: j Loo that I always remember. She said that when
Speaker 2: she booked her first role for Selena, that was like
Speaker 2: her first big movie role. She did like twelve auditions
Speaker 2: and her manager called her and was like, Wow, you
Speaker 2: finally got it. But you always take the long road,
Speaker 2: like it never just comes easy to you, nothing ever
Speaker 2: just falls in your lap and we look at Jaylo,
Speaker 2: we think everything fell in her lap, right like it
Speaker 2: just seems like it all appeared. And I so identified
Speaker 2: with that. I never have just like gotten a job,
Speaker 2: no one ever, just like you know, and it, Yeah,
Speaker 2: you have to work so hard for it. It's so funny,
Speaker 2: but it makes it worthwhile.
Speaker 3: It's so funny. I never really thought about that. But
Speaker 3: you know, all of my jobs were years in the making. Yes,
Speaker 3: ESPN would probably be the one that came easiest, but
Speaker 3: even that, I'd obviously already been working for a very
Speaker 3: long time. And once my agents made the introduction, we
Speaker 3: played a game of them bringing me in to do
Speaker 3: random things.
Speaker 1: That lasted almost six months. Six months, come in and.
Speaker 3: Do this weekend, jump on this show, come with this
Speaker 3: person and listen. After a couple months, I got to
Speaker 3: the point of being like, Okay, they're going to use
Speaker 3: me for something here. They're not going to just keep
Speaker 3: having me back for no reason. But it took time,
Speaker 3: and like I said, that was the easiest one. But
Speaker 3: to your point, it takes a long time and some
Speaker 3: people and the hard part about it taking a long
Speaker 3: time is for some people it happens overnight and it
Speaker 3: can be frustrating. You know, we're all human beings, especially
Speaker 3: with social media. When you go on social media and
Speaker 3: you're comparing your insides to other people's outsides, it's a
Speaker 3: very complicated place to be. So people are putting up
Speaker 3: the image of like, look how easy my life is.
Speaker 3: Everything I auditioned for I get, and you're scrolling like
Speaker 3: I'm in my underwear. I hate myself. No one writes
Speaker 3: me back, my mom doesn't even call me. And it
Speaker 3: can be a really challenging dynamic, you know, to get through,
Speaker 3: but that's not real.
Speaker 1: You're not seeing what people are really going through.
Speaker 2: So knowing me, because you knew I had kind of
Speaker 2: a tough year and a half previous to this, I
Speaker 2: wasn't my happiest. When you looked at my social media,
Speaker 2: you probably were like, this bitch.
Speaker 1: Is a liar, liar, But I did the same thing.
Speaker 3: My ex wife and I broke up. I went off
Speaker 3: social for six months, came back on social, was still
Speaker 3: in horrible shape, and I just made a social media
Speaker 3: that covered up all the misery and deep pain I
Speaker 3: was going through. And it's like, here's me doing an interview,
Speaker 3: here's me doing that, And the truth is I did
Speaker 3: it to protect myself, but I also hate it because
Speaker 3: it's so dishonest.
Speaker 2: Disconnected system. I agree with you, but I also don't
Speaker 2: think that the place to process pain is social media.
Speaker 2: If that's not for you, that's not where I'm comfortable
Speaker 2: processing it. So I didn't want to show up on
Speaker 2: stories crying. I'd rather show up in a moment where
Speaker 2: I wasn't.
Speaker 3: Not only do I agree with you, but I find
Speaker 3: wanting to share it interesting.
Speaker 1: It's not for me. I don't understand it.
Speaker 3: I get it when people do it and it's like
Speaker 3: something silly or you know, not that deep. But if
Speaker 3: you're going through deep, deep pain, the idea of being
Speaker 3: like I want to share this with everyone naturally, without
Speaker 3: having to push yourself to be like this would be good.
Speaker 1: I want to help other people.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know when I use the D word on
Speaker 3: the radio when I first started, when I eventually started
Speaker 3: saying divorce, it was just because I wanted to, Okay,
Speaker 3: I have to accept this and live authentically again. Right
Speaker 3: in the immediacy of it. I had no obligation to people.
Speaker 3: I don't know your obligations to take care of yourself.
Speaker 3: And then once you're at a point of being Okay,
Speaker 3: all right, well, now I want to be authentically me
Speaker 3: and let people see what's going on here.
Speaker 1: But even in that, I'm not going to be like
Speaker 1: throwback Thursday.
Speaker 3: Here's a picture of me weeping faced out on my
Speaker 3: kitchen floor, like I'm gonna do.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 3: Here, I want to ask. I know reading is super
Speaker 3: important to you. Yeah, I love posting about the books
Speaker 3: that are on your nightstand.
Speaker 2: You say that with a little bit of judgment, but
Speaker 2: we'll let that slide.
Speaker 1: Not a little bit strong judgment.
Speaker 3: I'm I'm hating because it takes me two years to
Speaker 3: finish a book, but I don't.
Speaker 2: Always finish them. But whatever, keep going.
Speaker 3: What's a book that really affected you, really maybe affected
Speaker 3: your perspective on life, something that you think like everyone
Speaker 3: should should pick up.
Speaker 2: Okay, my favorite book of all time is Tale of
Speaker 2: Two Cities. I am a hopeless romantic and I love
Speaker 2: that book. A book that shifted my perspective. I love
Speaker 2: Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. I love Freakonomics before bed. I
Speaker 2: oftentimes listen to What I Know for Sure by Oprah
Speaker 2: on Audible. I love her voice and I love her wisdom.
Speaker 2: I wish everyone could see your face right now. There's
Speaker 2: so much judgment.
Speaker 1: Your judgment, I mean slight judgment.
Speaker 2: Blake Door g alert.
Speaker 3: All right now, I'm going to steal from you and
Speaker 3: do my favorite thing that you do in interviews, which
Speaker 3: is yours Q, your pretty smart question, where you literally
Speaker 3: have a deck of note cards and pick a question
Speaker 3: at random and have to answer it.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 3: I'm in New York, you're in Los Angeles. I don't
Speaker 3: have the deck of cards, but you have the questions
Speaker 3: randomly in front of you. So I want you to
Speaker 3: pick a random question like you would with one of
Speaker 3: your guests, and let's ask Danielle the question. Okay, thank you,
Speaker 3: just like randomly, Yeah, randomly scroll and grab and grab one.
Speaker 2: Okay. Do plants thrive or die in your care? Unfortunately?
Speaker 2: They die? They died. I die. I actually killed succulents.
Speaker 2: I think I could kill it cactus. It's so embarrassing.
Speaker 1: Did do you feel a judgment by this?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 1: Is there a little bit of self judgment?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: There is. I have sort of a judgment of myself
Speaker 2: in general of maybe not being a great homemaker per se.
Speaker 2: I just don't enjoy, like I don't love decorating a space.
Speaker 2: I don't love taking care of plants, and so I'm not.
Speaker 2: So you know, you're not really good at things you
Speaker 2: don't like doing.
Speaker 1: Also, don't have any pets.
Speaker 2: On purpose, like I can't handle that, which I mean
Speaker 2: you have Bear.
Speaker 3: I like Bear, but was feed into some sort of
Speaker 3: deep fear you won't be able to take care of
Speaker 3: another human band.
Speaker 2: Yeah, actually my chest like sort of I felt something
Speaker 2: when you said that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I can understand how this line of
Speaker 3: thought could make you.
Speaker 1: Feel that way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I really. It's funny because a guest
Speaker 2: that I interview that's coming up said this, but I've
Speaker 2: always wanted a really big career and a big life
Speaker 2: and a big, loving family, and one of my greatest
Speaker 2: fears is that you cannot have that all. I think
Speaker 2: Ruth Bader Ginsburg said you can have it all, but
Speaker 2: not all at once. My fear in the future is
Speaker 2: trying to figure that out.
Speaker 1: I guess that's really interesting. I never thought about.
Speaker 2: That, and that's because you're a dude.
Speaker 3: You know. I've really wanted to have a family for
Speaker 3: a while, and obviously that plan changed, and I often think,
Speaker 3: am I ever going to have one because I want
Speaker 3: one badly, And then I'm like, I've lived this life
Speaker 3: that's so unique relative to everyone else I know in
Speaker 3: my friends and family, but they all have this wonderful family.
Speaker 1: Will I ever get to have that? Also?
Speaker 2: Can I ask you one question about that? What's your
Speaker 2: relationship with faith? And I don't mean religiously, I mean
Speaker 2: like faith that things will work out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's pretty good, it's solid. Everything I've ever accomplished
Speaker 3: was based on that. You know, it is based on no,
Speaker 3: I'm going to do that. And you know, my friend Chauncey,
Speaker 3: who's one of my smartest and most thoughtful, introspective friends.
Speaker 3: He's literally a philosophy professor at Dickinson University. Yeah, Nazi
Speaker 3: always describes that his people would ask him about what
Speaker 3: I was doing and he'd say, oh, Peter's going to
Speaker 3: be on Hot ninety seven, and they'd be like what, yeah, okay,
Speaker 3: and He's like, no, he is. And that was sort
Speaker 3: of I had that faith. I had some people around
Speaker 3: me who, because of my faith, had that faith, and
Speaker 3: maybe just because of who they were. The divorce sort
Speaker 3: of shook a little bit about faith, just in the
Speaker 3: sense of, like, if I do this that and the
Speaker 3: next things will return to normal. However, I still have
Speaker 3: faith that things will end up right. It's just sometimes
Speaker 3: the thing that you think is supposed to happen, isn't it.
Speaker 3: You know, my relationship with faith is still pretty good.
Speaker 3: Plus the George Michael song Faith.
Speaker 2: Amazing Future Man, that's another one that everyone has to
Speaker 2: listen to.
Speaker 3: All right, So, last question I have for you, smartest
Speaker 3: decision you've ever made?
Speaker 2: The first thing that comes up for me is that
Speaker 2: I always take the road lest ti traveled. My mom
Speaker 2: always says like, I don't know why you always have to.
Speaker 2: You make things so hard for yourself. Maybe that's true.
Speaker 2: I just don't know any other way. I've moved like
Speaker 2: eight times. I constantly leap without a net. I've quit
Speaker 2: jobs without other jobs like I just I think I
Speaker 2: always do the thing that scares me.
Speaker 1: So your smartest decision is making bold decisions.
Speaker 2: Sounds really dumb when you put it that way, but.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess, Oh it doesn't sound dumb.
Speaker 2: Thanks for making me sound pretty stupid.
Speaker 1: I mean, can't that be part of pretty smart?
Speaker 2: Yeah? It is. I mean we can't. We can't all
Speaker 2: be smart all the time.
Speaker 3: Pretty small, pretty smart and you one can be pretty
Speaker 3: smart and pretty dumb. But no, I didn't. I didn't
Speaker 3: think about it that way at all. I just thought
Speaker 3: it was interesting, that's all.
Speaker 1: I think.
Speaker 2: Smartest decision was moving to LA. If we're gonna yeah,
Speaker 2: I think moving.
Speaker 1: To LA is that just because you love sugarfish?
Speaker 2: How do you know I love sugar Oh? Because I
Speaker 2: eat it?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 1: I mean just you live in LA.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I do love sugar fish. That's so.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 2: I think my whole life opened up here when I moved.
Speaker 2: I did not have one I did not know one
Speaker 2: single person here, like, not one, not a family member,
Speaker 2: not a friend, And it was really cool. I got
Speaker 2: to create my own life.
Speaker 1: You're very very smart. You're more than pretty smart.
Speaker 2: You're very smart, pretty dorky, and pretty dumb, according to
Speaker 2: you after this interview.
Speaker 3: Narky I would have said before and pretty judgmental about
Speaker 3: my love of wrestling, but also pretty driven and generally interested, aware, smart, etc.
Speaker 1: I'm excited for your podcast venture. May it reach many people,
Speaker 1: and may you make more money doing it than I
Speaker 1: ever have doing podcasts.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Rabbi Rosenberg.
Speaker 1: I've never gotten that, and I prefer not to again.
Speaker 2: Okay, So we have a few questions left from Instagram
Speaker 2: that I want to get to and someone asked the
Speaker 2: major key for you to be successful? For me, it's
Speaker 2: moving my body. I got a sweat every single day.
Speaker 2: The best career advice you've received, I think, don't do it.
Speaker 2: I would call people for advice and I get a
Speaker 2: lot of people saying, you know, this is a really
Speaker 2: hard path, or there is no path. If you're interested
Speaker 2: in anything else, to do that. And I think that
Speaker 2: was the best advice because if you are interested in
Speaker 2: anything else, if you're going to give up, you're gonna
Speaker 2: give up at that point. So when they said don't
Speaker 2: do it, I did it anyway, and I think that
Speaker 2: was the most helpful, honestly. The other piece of advice
Speaker 2: that I really loved is from a man named Steve,
Speaker 2: who has been a person who has guided my life
Speaker 2: more than anybody else. And he said to me, you
Speaker 2: just have to make good decisions every single day, because
Speaker 2: I used to say I don't know what the five
Speaker 2: year plan looks like, I don't know what I want
Speaker 2: in ten years, and he would say, just make good
Speaker 2: decisions every single day and hopefully they amount to something.
Speaker 2: The biggest lesson I've learned so far. I think patience,
Speaker 2: I used to try and four things, and I'm trying
Speaker 2: to learn to have some more faith. You know, Peter
Speaker 2: talked about faith. I think he's better at it than
Speaker 2: I am. Trying to have more of it and trying
Speaker 2: to let things flow, not force it as much. Three
Speaker 2: things about you that I couldn't find on the internet. Hmm,
Speaker 2: that's funny. I don't know if you could tell from
Speaker 2: my Instagram, but I'm a die hard Bulls fan. Second thing,
Speaker 2: I'll had a lot of weird jobs. I used to
Speaker 2: clean spin bikes and people's sweaty spin shoes at six
Speaker 2: am in college before class. That was probably the grossest
Speaker 2: job I've ever had. And I never say never. My
Speaker 2: mom says it's bad luck. She says, if you say never,
Speaker 2: then it happens. She can never say never. And I
Speaker 2: used to kind of be a professional intern. I would
Speaker 2: work for free all the time. And I remember I
Speaker 2: got a really coveted internship at the NBC station in Madison,
Speaker 2: Wisconsin in college. I called my dad. I was so
Speaker 2: excited and I said I got the NBC internship, and
Speaker 2: He's like, Danielle, call me when someone's paying you and
Speaker 2: he hung up. I'll never forget that. What does your
Speaker 2: mom know about you that you'd be embarrassed if she
Speaker 2: told other people? I shovel food in my mouth like
Speaker 2: I think sometimes. I like, if I'm eating salad, I
Speaker 2: bring the salad to my mouth instead of bringing the
Speaker 2: fork to my mouth. What is the quality you most
Speaker 2: respect in another woman? Hmm, I'm gonna say self efficacy.
Speaker 2: I think you cannot defeat someone who truly knows who
Speaker 2: they are. And I learned that from Oprah. You really
Speaker 2: got to know who you are. And that's why questions
Speaker 2: are so important. The more questions we ask ourselves, the
Speaker 2: more we know ourselves. What is your life motto or mantra?
Speaker 2: If you have one, you know, there's two that I
Speaker 2: always quote. The first one is those who don't believe
Speaker 2: in magic will never find it, and that's from a
Speaker 2: Roll Doll book. And the second one is something that
Speaker 2: I wholeheartedly believe and try to live, which is service
Speaker 2: is the rent that you pay for room on this Earth?
Speaker 2: By Shirley Chisholm. All Right, that's it. That's a wrap
Speaker 2: on the first episode. Second episode is up now too,
Speaker 2: so I hope you kind of bingam. I'm so excited
Speaker 2: to do this with you, and I promise to try
Speaker 2: and earn your attention every single week. There are so
Speaker 2: many great things out there, There's so many creative, smart,
Speaker 2: interesting documentaries and shows and podcasts, and I think in
Speaker 2: this attention economy, you gotta earn it. So I promise
Speaker 2: to try and earn it from you every single week.
Speaker 2: I'm going to put a ton into this, really really
Speaker 2: excited to do this with you. So thank you for
Speaker 2: tuning in, and today is a good day. To have
Speaker 2: a good day. I'll see you next week.