WEBVTT - Shannon Watts: Channeling Her Anger into Change with Moms Demand Action 0:00:00.640 --> 0:00:12.360 Welcome back to she Pivots. I'm Shannon Watts. 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:17.360 Welcome to she Pivots, the podcast where we talk with 0:00:17.440 --> 0:00:20.680 women who dared to pivot out of one career and 0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:25.079 into something new and explore how their personal lives impacted 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:32.839 these decisions. I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman. We're speaking 0:00:32.840 --> 0:00:36.000 with someone who's not only an iconic activist and leader, 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:41.000 but someone who is unapologetically woven the personal and the professional. 0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:44.880 Throughout her career. Shannon Watts, founder of Mom's Demand Action. 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:48.480 Every First Friday in June, we take time to recognize 0:00:48.479 --> 0:00:52.320 Gun Violence Awareness Day and wear orange to honor survivors 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:55.200 and build community with those working to end gun violence. 0:00:56.080 --> 0:00:58.600 Shannon's work to reduce gun violence has led to more 0:00:58.680 --> 0:01:01.960 progress than we've ever seen. She's been named a Time 0:01:02.040 --> 0:01:05.840 Magazine one hundred Most Influential People, a Forbes fifty over 0:01:05.880 --> 0:01:09.480 fifty change Maker, and Glamour Woman of the Year. But 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:12.680 Shannon found this work after pivoting not once. 0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:13.400 But twice. 0:01:14.319 --> 0:01:16.399 She started her career as a young speech writer for 0:01:16.480 --> 0:01:20.039 Governor Carnahan and Missouri, not realizing that one day she'd 0:01:20.080 --> 0:01:24.199 flex or political muscles to fight gun violence. After building 0:01:24.280 --> 0:01:28.560 a successful career in crisis communications, Shannon proudly left to 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:31.440 be a stay at home mom. It wasn't in until 0:01:31.520 --> 0:01:35.880 December fourteenth, twenty twelve, when Shannon watched alongside all of 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:39.479 us as twenty children were massacred at Sandy Hook Elementary 0:01:39.959 --> 0:01:43.280 that she made her next pivot. She started a Facebook 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:45.880 group with the message that all Americans can and should 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:50.320 do more to reduce gun violence. The online conversation turned 0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:54.440 into grassroots movement, which turned into Mom's Demand Action. During 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:57.280 this time, I also started working on gun violence prevention 0:01:57.760 --> 0:02:01.160 in my pre pivot days, I worked Sandy Hook families, 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:04.520 particularly bringing young people into the movement, and we immediately 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:07.840 heard about Shannon's work. Shan I never actually met in 0:02:07.840 --> 0:02:10.520 person at the time, but we both worked on trying 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:13.880 to get Congress to pass universal background checks, which we'll 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:17.360 talk about later in the episode. Shannon's inspiring pivots don't 0:02:17.360 --> 0:02:19.560 seem to be stopping, and she also talks about what's 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:22.600 next for her after stepping down as CEO of Mom's 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:26.480 Demand last year. Guns are a uniquely American problem that 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:30.040 sometimes feels hopeless when we see headline after headline, but 0:02:30.120 --> 0:02:33.520 we can make a difference Shannon is a testament to that, 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:36.480 and I hope this episode inspires you all to get 0:02:36.520 --> 0:02:39.600 involved to protect people from gun violence. You can visit 0:02:39.600 --> 0:02:42.560 our website for organizations to get involved with their contribute 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:44.520 to enjoy. 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:51.400 Can you just tell us a little bit about growing public? 0:02:51.440 --> 0:02:52.480 Where did you grow up? 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:56.320 I was born in Rochester, New York. I was born 0:02:56.360 --> 0:02:59.880 on January first, in nineteen seventy one, and I ended 0:02:59.919 --> 0:03:04.840 up being an only child. Had a fun nineteen seventies upbringing. 0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:08.919 You know, it's kind of the decade of lash Key 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:11.960 kids and free range children. 0:03:12.360 --> 0:03:12.520 You know. 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:14.600 I would leave in the morning at seven, and I 0:03:14.600 --> 0:03:17.200 would come home at night at seven, and my parents 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:19.400 really didn't know where I was or what I was doing. 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:21.840 And a lot of people I talked to who grew 0:03:21.919 --> 0:03:24.560 up in the seventies have that same experience, and I 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:28.360 think in part when I look back at what I 0:03:28.400 --> 0:03:31.200 was inspired by, you know, Rochester, New York is the 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:36.360 home of so many activists, and it's what we are 0:03:36.440 --> 0:03:37.520 taught to revere. 0:03:37.720 --> 0:03:37.880 You know. 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:40.000 We would go on field trips. We would go to 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:43.520 Susan B. Anthony's house, we would go see where Frederick 0:03:43.560 --> 0:03:47.400 Douglas made speeches. We would see where Harriet Tubman passed through. 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:51.520 And when I think about my childhood, I think about 0:03:51.920 --> 0:03:54.080 those two things. Sort of the freedom I had to 0:03:54.280 --> 0:03:58.320 grow up and make mistakes and learn, but also what 0:03:58.400 --> 0:04:01.880 I was taught about value use and what was important. 0:04:02.560 --> 0:04:04.000 What did you think you wanted to be when you 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:04.440 grew up. 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:07.400 I don't know. I mean I was really precocious, So 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:12.960 I have had ADHD my whole life untreated ADHD. My 0:04:13.040 --> 0:04:17.240 parents had me diagnosed in the nineteen eighties, and you know, 0:04:17.320 --> 0:04:19.000 it's pretty severe if your parents took you in for 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:21.480 a diagnosis in the nineteen eighties, you know, I began 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:25.400 failing out of school in middle school. I was getting 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:29.560 into trouble for a lack of impulse control. It was 0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:32.240 really when I went through puberty that so much in 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:34.080 my life started to change. And I don't think my 0:04:34.120 --> 0:04:36.320 parents knew what to do with that. But even after 0:04:36.360 --> 0:04:38.720 I was diagnosed, I think because of stigma, you know, 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:42.080 they did not agree with the treatment plan, so I 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:46.159 just never was treated and it made it really difficult 0:04:46.160 --> 0:04:48.440 for me to learn. I knew that I was bright, 0:04:49.080 --> 0:04:51.200 but I was also being told at the same time 0:04:51.240 --> 0:04:53.880 that I was sort of a failure. Or a disappointment, 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:57.440 or that I didn't have the capacity to compete with 0:04:57.480 --> 0:05:01.480 my peers. And I barely made it through high school. 0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:04.839 Thank god for the economics teacher who passed me, because 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:06.919 otherwise I would not have I didn't even get a 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:08.520 cap and gown because I didn't think I was going 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:12.360 to graduate. How did I get into college? I ended 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:14.919 up going to community college for a year, and I 0:05:14.960 --> 0:05:18.039 think my brain started to solidify at that point. You know, 0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:21.800 I started to understand the workarounds that I needed to 0:05:21.839 --> 0:05:25.159 do in order to succeed in this system that was 0:05:25.160 --> 0:05:28.039 not set up for me. And I can remember when 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:32.760 I was basically failing out of high school. You know, 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:35.240 my dad came to me and said, why why don't 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:38.560 you become an airline attendant? And that's certainly nothing wrong. 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:40.599 I mean, that sounds like a very glamorous life. Honestly 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:42.720 to me, I might have I might wish I had 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:46.400 become an airline attendant in retrospect, but I just felt 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:49.080 like they were saying to me that I couldn't go 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:52.120 to college, that I couldn't do it. And my personality 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:54.680 is such that no matter how hard it was to 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:56.480 get through school, I was going to figure that out. 0:05:56.960 --> 0:06:00.839 My parents had such low expectations for me, and I 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:05.039 was so stubborn and determined that I wanted to go 0:06:05.080 --> 0:06:07.760 to college. No one went to college on my mother's 0:06:07.760 --> 0:06:10.080 side of the family, that was a woman. I come 0:06:10.120 --> 0:06:13.520 from a very very impoverished family on my maternal side, 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:16.800 coal miners in western Kentucky, who many of them didn't 0:06:16.800 --> 0:06:19.000 even go to high school, and my mom did not 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:21.680 go to college. And so I got all a's that 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:24.799 first year in community college, much to my parents' surprise, 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:28.480 and about a year later, I transferred to the University 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:29.279 of Missouri. 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:33.320 Despite her parents' low expectations and her struggles with ADHD. 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:36.080 Shannon grew up an avid reader. 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:38.839 As an only child. That was sort of my lifeline 0:06:39.040 --> 0:06:42.720 was to Anna the Green Gables or you know, Nancy 0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:46.279 Drew or eventually, as I got into high school Watergate. 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:48.600 I became obsessed with Watergate. I have no idea why 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:50.719 there is not a Watergate book that has been written 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:54.360 that I have not read, and that really inspired inside 0:06:54.400 --> 0:06:57.120 of me a love for journalism. And so when I 0:06:57.240 --> 0:07:00.320 decided to transfer from community to college to college college, 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:03.559 I decided to go to the best state journalism school 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:04.040 in the country. 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:07.400 So it ended up working as a public affairs officer 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:11.400 for the Missouri state government. How did that come about. 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:13.640 Well, it is not a surprise that I did struggle 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:16.040 to get through college as well, again because of this 0:07:16.120 --> 0:07:19.920 untreated ADHD, and I wasn't even able to major in journalism. 0:07:20.000 --> 0:07:21.760 I had to major in sociology because I couldn't get 0:07:21.760 --> 0:07:24.400 into the j school ultimately, but I still loved journalism 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:26.600 and I still loved everything that was a part of 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:29.280 that world. And so when I graduated, I was writing 0:07:29.320 --> 0:07:31.320 for a local newspaper. I was selling ads for a 0:07:31.320 --> 0:07:34.720 local newspaper in Columbia, Missouri, and there was a you know, 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:37.120 back then, we looked in the newspaper for job ads, 0:07:37.240 --> 0:07:40.360 and there was an ad that said that Governor Carnahan's administration, 0:07:40.920 --> 0:07:45.520 a democratic administration, was hiring for a speech writer. That 0:07:45.600 --> 0:07:47.960 sounded very glamorous to me and like something I could do. 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:50.160 And so I applied, and I was one of over 0:07:50.200 --> 0:07:55.679 one hundred applicants, and I made it through the process 0:07:55.720 --> 0:07:57.679 and I was offered the job. I made a whopping 0:07:57.840 --> 0:08:01.600 nineteen thousand, eight hundred dollars a year, but it was 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:04.280 a very sought after position. And you know, the lessons 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:07.400 I learned in that job have served me throughout my 0:08:07.520 --> 0:08:08.080 entire life. 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:11.600 But this was politics in the nineteen nineties, and those 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:13.960 lessons she learned in the halls of the Jefferson City 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:16.960 Capital went beyond policies and press conferences. 0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:19.800 I mean, as a young woman in the state House, 0:08:19.960 --> 0:08:23.400 you were constantly being hit on, regardless of political party. 0:08:24.120 --> 0:08:26.280 I called it spring break for middle aged men, Like 0:08:26.320 --> 0:08:28.240 these men were coming in from all over the state 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:31.960 of Missouri to gather just for this few months, right 0:08:32.000 --> 0:08:35.280 to make laws allegedly, But what they were really doing 0:08:35.360 --> 0:08:38.160 was partying. I mean, drinking in their offices and in 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:44.000 the hallways and being feted by lobbyists and making the 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:48.800 moves on interns like it was debauchery. So that kind 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:51.760 of also made me think, you know, if these guys 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:52.920 can do it, anybody can do it. 0:08:53.600 --> 0:08:56.880 But did that make you lose your faith in government? 0:08:56.960 --> 0:08:59.320 I mean it feels like it would really make me 0:08:59.440 --> 0:08:59.960 lose my faith. 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:03.080 It's kind of like seeing the sausage being made, but 0:09:03.320 --> 0:09:05.720 you know, you still enjoy the sausage, Like I thought, 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:08.600 the lawmaking that was happening in the state House, and 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:11.920 particularly Governor Carnahan. I mean, it was really heroic the 0:09:11.960 --> 0:09:14.800 things that he was championing in a state like Missouri, 0:09:15.480 --> 0:09:18.360 women's rights, improving education. 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:21.680 I'm very pleased to report to you that under the 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:25.320 budget that I am introducing today, the state is right 0:09:25.360 --> 0:09:29.400 on target and fully funding the Outstanding Schools Act, providing 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:32.800 schools the resources they need to give our children a 0:09:32.920 --> 0:09:37.080 quality education. And whatever decisions we make, they will live 0:09:37.120 --> 0:09:41.000 with the consequences for years to come. Let us resolve 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:45.480 to work together to put the small on the unimportant 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:50.679 things aside, focus on the common goal to leave Missouri 0:09:50.760 --> 0:09:54.439 an even better place for our children to live than 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:56.960 it was for ourselves. Thank you. 0:09:57.320 --> 0:10:01.720 Even sensible gun reform and so I didn't dissuade me 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:04.320 from being interested in politics, but it made me think 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:07.000 that the people who were politicians could be of a 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:07.800 higher caliber. 0:10:09.520 --> 0:10:12.360 Still, young Shannon soaked it all in, but was still 0:10:12.480 --> 0:10:16.080 unaware that politics was it for her, completely unaware that 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:18.640 her time in the governor's office would later give her 0:10:18.640 --> 0:10:20.679 the skills that would help or lead the nation's fight 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:21.720 against gun violence. 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:25.320 I was twenty three years old. I'm not sure that 0:10:25.360 --> 0:10:30.440 I had a lot of strong opinions or even fully 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:34.480 formed political notions. At that point, I was more watching 0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:38.160 and learning from the sidelines, and not just learning how 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:41.120 to tell story, but understanding how the process worked. 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:45.880 Still not sold on politics, Shannon made her first pivot 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:49.400 from public service to corporate America. 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:51.280 Just walk us through a little bit more. When you 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:53.760 left the public sector and you went into the private sector, 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:56.360 I mean you rose quickly, like you were a star. 0:10:57.040 --> 0:10:57.280 Yeah. 0:10:57.320 --> 0:11:01.720 It was interesting how my ADHD quickly became a superpower 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:06.000 of concentration. And not long after I left the State House, 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:08.960 I did a couple of other quasi governmental jobs, but 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:12.920 I ended up at Fleischmann Hillard, the public relations agency, 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:16.880 and they had a really strong arm of that public 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:21.680 relations firm in Kansas City, mostly focused on agriculture, but 0:11:22.120 --> 0:11:25.480 Hallmark was a client some of the local headquarters in 0:11:25.600 --> 0:11:28.600 Kansas City. And it's really where I cut my teeth 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:33.439 on crisis management. So there would be a chemical spill 0:11:33.440 --> 0:11:35.199 in the middle of the night and I would get 0:11:35.200 --> 0:11:36.640 woken up and I would have to get on a 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:39.200 plane and go out and understand what happened. And how 0:11:39.280 --> 0:11:42.640 do you message this to community members? How do you 0:11:42.679 --> 0:11:45.600 explain to them, we understand this is a crisis, we care, 0:11:46.000 --> 0:11:49.880 we're working to fix it, and that became my job. 0:11:49.920 --> 0:11:52.160 And I wasn't even thirty years old yet, but I 0:11:52.240 --> 0:11:54.679 did have a gift, I think in part because of 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:57.200 my work at the state House. But I knew how 0:11:57.240 --> 0:12:00.520 to tell a story effectively. I knew how to message, 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:04.320 and I knew how to help clients in part because 0:12:04.320 --> 0:12:07.120 of holding the hands of state lawmakers through any kind 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:09.079 of journey. You know that they were on because of 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:12.680 their brand or their business or whatever was unfolding, and 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:17.680 that experience certainly is something that is valuable I think 0:12:17.720 --> 0:12:18.640 in the corporate world. 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:21.959 I also feel like for people that work in crisis 0:12:22.360 --> 0:12:25.360 are like a special breed, like you're either built to 0:12:25.480 --> 0:12:28.040 run towards the crisis and have a very clear brain, 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:29.640 or it's just overwhelming. 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:33.719 I agree, And I don't know that you would think 0:12:33.760 --> 0:12:36.240 that someone who almost failed out of high school and 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:39.240 college would have that kind of brain. But yet, what 0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:41.959 I found is that my ADHD helps me to focus 0:12:42.000 --> 0:12:45.520 so specifically when one thing unfolds, which I'm sure we'll 0:12:45.520 --> 0:12:47.600 talk more about when it pertains to gun violence. But 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:50.480 I saw this play out over and over again, and 0:12:50.960 --> 0:12:53.640 this was just as you know, the Internet was coming 0:12:53.720 --> 0:12:57.000 into play where I was able to track an issue, 0:12:57.080 --> 0:13:00.000 find the information about it, look at the news coverage, 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:04.560 synthesize all of it, and spit back out a strategic 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:07.880 plan and cohesive messaging. And it's just something that my 0:13:07.920 --> 0:13:08.920 brain is wired to do. 0:13:09.960 --> 0:13:12.960 When we come back, we dive into how Shannon's personal 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:19.920 life played a role in her early career and beyond. 0:13:22.520 --> 0:13:25.520 Shannon's career was continuing to grow and grow, but so 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:29.200 was her family. She married her high school sweetheart fresh 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:30.719 out of college. 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:34.000 I was very young. My parents were going through divorce. 0:13:34.040 --> 0:13:35.520 As I said, I was an only child, and I 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:37.800 kind of felt like my family was falling apart, and 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:41.200 I think I was looking for another family, to create 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:45.880 another family. And so I married and found out I 0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:49.440 was pregnant three months later, had a baby again. I 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:51.439 got pregnant three months after that. So by the time 0:13:51.440 --> 0:13:53.400 I was twenty nine years old, I had three children, 0:13:55.240 --> 0:13:57.880 which is not something that really happens even with women 0:13:57.880 --> 0:14:02.560 in my generation. And and my main focus really in 0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:07.840 my twenties and thirties was being able to support my family. 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:10.360 And it was really sort of a blur the fact 0:14:10.400 --> 0:14:12.600 that I was having children, that I was working full 0:14:12.640 --> 0:14:15.440 time that I was married. I think all the fun 0:14:15.480 --> 0:14:18.040 most people have in their twenty thirties in thirties, I'm 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:21.800 having now in my fifties. But my focus in those 0:14:21.880 --> 0:14:26.960 days was really just how do I keep succeeding so 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:28.440 that I can't support my family? 0:14:29.080 --> 0:14:32.560 And you weren't a job that I'm imagining had kind 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:36.040 of unpredictable hours and unpredictable focus, Like if a crisis 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:38.480 came up, you would have to drop we know, wherever 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:40.760 you were with the family and run towards it. How 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:41.560 did you manage that? 0:14:42.480 --> 0:14:46.080 Yeah, well, I was really the person who was mainly 0:14:46.120 --> 0:14:49.920 supporting our family, and so my ex husband, my ex husband, 0:14:49.920 --> 0:14:52.040 now he had a job, but he was able to 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:54.200 be home most of the time with the kids, and 0:14:54.240 --> 0:14:56.720 that was also, I think a little bit unheard of 0:14:56.800 --> 0:15:00.600 back then. So he started out making sure that his job, 0:15:00.680 --> 0:15:03.440 because I was paid more, that his job was more 0:15:03.480 --> 0:15:08.040 conducive to childcare and staying home on paternity leave and 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:10.080 picking kids up from school, et cetera. 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:14.480 So you were doing incredibly well in your career, your 0:15:14.560 --> 0:15:16.400 kids are growing. In two thousand and eight, you were 0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:19.960 named to pr Week's forty under forty list and in 0:15:20.040 --> 0:15:23.360 the same year you decided to leave to stay home 0:15:23.400 --> 0:15:26.600 with your kids. So tell us more about that decision. 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:28.720 And I mean, what was that juxtavision? Like, you know, 0:15:28.840 --> 0:15:31.560 you're the top of your field and you say, you 0:15:31.560 --> 0:15:32.840 know what, it's not for me right now. 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:36.160 It's sort of a pattern in my life where I 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:39.960 always try to go out on top, but I ended 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:44.920 up divorcing in my early thirties. When you get married 0:15:44.960 --> 0:15:47.960 at twenty three, you don't really marry the person you 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:51.240 would probably marry in your thirties, which is why I've 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:53.400 encouraged all my kids to wait until they're thirty to 0:15:53.400 --> 0:15:56.760 get married. We have a wonderful relationship. I think Gwyneth 0:15:56.800 --> 0:15:59.880 Paltrow would call it conscious uncoupling. You know, we've been 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:03.800 able to parent our kids together for the last couple 0:16:03.800 --> 0:16:06.960 of decades very well. But we just realized at a 0:16:07.000 --> 0:16:10.200 certain point that we were not going to have the 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:13.480 marriage that either of us wanted. And so after we divorced, 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:17.960 I ended up meeting my now husband and remarrying. And 0:16:18.600 --> 0:16:22.280 he had two older children in high school and college, 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:26.680 and I had children in elementary and middle school, so 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:31.080 it was a very complex dynamic. You know, we wanted 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:33.360 to make sure that our family felt like a family. 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:36.440 We wanted our kids to come together, and I just 0:16:36.480 --> 0:16:38.280 knew there was no way that I could keep working 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:40.560 full time and do that, and it seemed like a 0:16:40.600 --> 0:16:43.720 good time to take a break, and so I just 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:45.800 decided I would step back from the day to day, 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:49.480 always imagining that it would be about a five year 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:51.560 break and that I would certainly go back into the 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:52.640 workforce full time. 0:16:54.240 --> 0:16:56.760 What I love about Shannon's story is how she speaks 0:16:56.840 --> 0:16:59.680 openly and honestly about putting her personal life and her 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:02.640 family first. When I made the decision to leave my 0:17:02.680 --> 0:17:05.080 career in politics to be more present with my family, 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:07.920 I felt a sense of shame around it, as if 0:17:07.920 --> 0:17:11.800 that reason wasn't good enough, But Shannon was steadfast in 0:17:11.920 --> 0:17:14.200 trusting herself and her decisions. 0:17:15.200 --> 0:17:19.160 I was much more concerned about wanting to make sure 0:17:19.200 --> 0:17:21.840 that my kids had someone home when they came home 0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:25.920 from school, that I was helping them through the divorce 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:29.359 and remarriage, that I was getting to know my husband's kids, 0:17:29.440 --> 0:17:31.680 and also that I was spending time with my new husband. 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:35.280 You know, we had both been married before, and we 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:37.760 wanted to make sure that the same things that got 0:17:37.800 --> 0:17:39.480 in the way of our first marriages didn't get in 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:41.080 the way of our second marriage. So that was really 0:17:41.080 --> 0:17:43.720 my priority. And my husband was working full time. I 0:17:43.760 --> 0:17:45.720 had a little bit of a luxury to say, Okay, 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:47.840 I can put this on the back burner and go 0:17:47.960 --> 0:17:52.080 back when I'm ready, but always believing that because of 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:54.879 my personality, because of the career I had created, I 0:17:54.960 --> 0:17:55.760 would go back. 0:17:56.560 --> 0:17:59.040 Talk to us about the moment it clicked for you 0:17:59.119 --> 0:18:01.600 to take action again against gun violence. Had it been 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:03.879 about five years for you at that point. 0:18:04.480 --> 0:18:07.320 I had been home almost exactly five years, and in fact, 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:09.760 I had started looking at jobs. I had started sending 0:18:09.760 --> 0:18:14.400 out my resume, and it was a very cold day 0:18:14.680 --> 0:18:19.320 in Indiana, December fourteenth, twenty twelve. I had just dumped 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:22.880 like five huge baskets of laundry out on the bed 0:18:22.920 --> 0:18:26.159 in my primary bedroom. As you can imagine, like laundry 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:28.040 is a full time job when you have five kids, 0:18:28.560 --> 0:18:30.760 and I was just I was going to have CNN 0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:33.520 on the background while I fulded close and suddenly there 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:36.480 was this breaking news chirn that there was an active 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:40.159 shooter inside in elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. I had 0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:44.080 never heard of Newtown, Connecticut. But I knew based on 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:45.840 the footage I was seeing of people in the parking 0:18:45.880 --> 0:18:51.120 lot and families crying, and these reporters who were already 0:18:51.119 --> 0:18:53.639 on the scene, that this was horrific. 0:18:56.440 --> 0:18:59.160 Any hooks cool, I think there's somebody shooting in here, 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:00.840 a New Hook school. 0:19:01.119 --> 0:19:02.199 Okay, what makes you think that? 0:19:02.520 --> 0:19:05.160 Because somebody's got I thought a glimpse of somebody they're 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:06.200 running down. 0:19:08.400 --> 0:19:09.320 If she thinks that so much? 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:13.199 The Mental Report, I'm Rebecca Jarvis with the latest on 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:17.480 the deadly shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, 0:19:17.520 --> 0:19:20.080 the Sandy Hook School, and it is turning out to 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:22.680 be worse than anyone could have imagined. 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:27.280 One fifteen asked everybody to sit down, and they said 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:30.160 that it was a tragic day in Newtown today and 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:37.080 twenty children were killed. 0:19:38.760 --> 0:19:40.600 Tell me little girl was gone. 0:19:40.720 --> 0:19:44.119 There was so much panic and confusion when that announcement 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:48.760 was whatever was about to unfold was going to sear 0:19:49.400 --> 0:19:54.000 the psyche of Americans. So I'm sure, like so many 0:19:54.040 --> 0:19:56.640 people listening, you know, I just kind of sat down 0:19:56.680 --> 0:19:59.040 where I was that day and I just watched this 0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:02.320 tragedy unfold for hours and hours and hours and I 0:20:02.359 --> 0:20:06.879 was inconsolable. It's still unfathomable, even though it shouldn't because 0:20:06.880 --> 0:20:08.879 there have been so many mascul shootings since. But you 0:20:08.920 --> 0:20:12.120 know that twenty children and six educators were slaughtered inside 0:20:12.600 --> 0:20:18.760 in American elementary school in seconds. Because this, you could 0:20:18.760 --> 0:20:21.200 call him a man, but he's really he was barely 0:20:21.240 --> 0:20:25.520 a man who had easy access to a weapon of war. 0:20:26.359 --> 0:20:28.320 I went to bed that night, I woke up the 0:20:28.359 --> 0:20:31.280 next morning, and I'm not even sure I can explain 0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:33.840 to you the rage I felt, which is sort of 0:20:33.880 --> 0:20:36.000 a common denominator in my life, Like my go to 0:20:36.040 --> 0:20:39.200 emotion is anger pretty much for anything good or bad. 0:20:39.640 --> 0:20:42.159 And I was so angry that I didn't really know 0:20:42.280 --> 0:20:45.159 what to do with it. I had to channel it, 0:20:45.520 --> 0:20:48.200 and I thought, okay, I'll join something like Mother's against 0:20:48.240 --> 0:20:52.000 drunk driving, but for gun safety, that's got to exist. 0:20:52.080 --> 0:20:54.159 Mad was so influential to me as a teen in 0:20:54.160 --> 0:20:55.920 the eighties growing up. You know, they used to park 0:20:55.960 --> 0:21:00.560 the cars, the crumpled cars full of victims block still 0:21:00.560 --> 0:21:03.080 like in front of your high school, to say like 0:21:03.160 --> 0:21:05.000 this could happen to you if you drink and drive, 0:21:05.080 --> 0:21:08.640 which just was like very impactful, and I thought, there's 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:11.160 got to be a group of moms who are doing 0:21:11.160 --> 0:21:12.840