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 gut 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. Now, what what guest makes you laugh
Speaker 1: the hardest?
Speaker 2: Oh man. The one guest who came on who made
Speaker 2: me flap harder than anyone else was the last time
Speaker 2: they were always one last time Tiffany Hattish. And the
Speaker 2: reason that Tiffany Hattish made me laugh so hard is
Speaker 2: she was all over George ste Monopolis with the jokes
Speaker 2: and she made George actually kind of dance for George.
Speaker 2: It was a dance, I know it was. He refusedes
Speaker 2: to dance for me on GMA. So Tiffany Hattish, Dotty Parton,
Speaker 2: Dottany Parton's actually another funny one and told me one
Speaker 2: of the funniest things I've ever heard. When I asked
Speaker 2: her one time, so, what's the first thing you do
Speaker 2: when you wake up? She said, Well, Michael, I put
Speaker 2: on my clothes and I go home. Ah wow.
Speaker 1: My guest today is a familiar face to many of you.
Speaker 1: Michael Strahan is a television personality, a journalist, a former
Speaker 1: NFL legend and then into Football's Hall of Fame, a
Speaker 1: business owner, an entrepreneur, a dad. Oh, I could go
Speaker 1: on and on. We met a number of times over
Speaker 1: the years, and I'm always blown away by how kind
Speaker 1: and genuinely down to earth he is. I love Michael's
Speaker 1: approach to life, and I'm in awe of his work ethic.
Speaker 1: Chatting with him is always fun, and I'm so pleased
Speaker 1: to share a conversation with you all. So, without further ado,
Speaker 1: here is Michael Straham. Well, thank you for taking time
Speaker 1: to talk to me. There's so much about you that
Speaker 1: I'm so in awe of, and I feel you're such
Speaker 1: an inspiration. Tell me just a little bit about your
Speaker 1: childhood because you were an army brat. My husband was
Speaker 1: also an army brat, and then you went to Germany
Speaker 1: at age nine.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was nine. We moved to Germany where I
Speaker 2: was nine. We were at Fort Brake, North Carolina before that.
Speaker 2: I grew up there.
Speaker 1: Do you still speak the language?
Speaker 2: Oh I can't. Well, if we were there together, we
Speaker 2: would we would always have to be able to order
Speaker 2: food and drinks. Okay, outside of that, we might be
Speaker 2: a little iffy.
Speaker 1: That's okay. Did you enjoy it?
Speaker 2: I loved it. I think growing up overseas and growing
Speaker 2: up on a military base gave me a very different
Speaker 2: perspective than most people get and have the ability in
Speaker 2: what way just to be around different people of different backgrounds,
Speaker 2: different races, different religions, and none of it mattered because
Speaker 2: when you're on these military bases, you're just living. You're Americans,
Speaker 2: You're all like one, and it didn't matter. And it
Speaker 2: taught me and something that I think has helped me
Speaker 2: in my life now. I look at people as individuals.
Speaker 2: I don't look at you for color of your skin
Speaker 2: or where you're from and what you have. I don't
Speaker 2: care about those things. It's like the quality of the person.
Speaker 2: And I attribute that to growing up on the base overseas.
Speaker 1: But you know what, that that just goes back to
Speaker 1: you know, we're not born with these with prejudice in
Speaker 1: that way, like we're not born noticing somebody is different
Speaker 1: than the other person. We're born to know. Wait, that
Speaker 1: person feels safe, that person I feel is going to
Speaker 1: love me, like really sort of saying that type of
Speaker 1: freedom of perspective allows you to meet people where they
Speaker 1: are exactly.
Speaker 2: And I've found it's been refreshing to meet so many
Speaker 2: people and go that's completely the opposite of what they're
Speaker 2: maybe their public perception would be it what you would
Speaker 2: or what they would look like.
Speaker 1: And did you feel it in reverse? Like did you
Speaker 1: feel it? Was it reciprocal?
Speaker 2: I think yeah, I think they're there. It was definitely reciprocal,
Speaker 2: you know. And I think in my life now, because
Speaker 2: people know who I am, they always come in with
Speaker 2: this preconceived notion of you know, or how the people
Speaker 2: who do know who who think they know who I
Speaker 2: am their preconceived notion what I'm like. But I think
Speaker 2: for me, I've been able to transfer who I am
Speaker 2: to what I do. Yeah, if you understand, like, I
Speaker 2: don't have to get on TV and try to be
Speaker 2: a different person. My job is I kind of been
Speaker 2: able to do my job and stay the same person.
Speaker 2: But I also am aware that I cannot believe that
Speaker 2: my job is who I am, this whole celebrity thing
Speaker 2: and his whole thing. I'm uncomfortable with that because I
Speaker 2: just want to finish doing what I do. Like everybody
Speaker 2: goes to regular jobs or any job, and I just
Speaker 2: want to come home and I want to walk around
Speaker 2: the street and I want to say hello to people,
Speaker 2: and I want to go to the coffee shop and
Speaker 2: get a coffee and.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, But it's how you put that out there.
Speaker 1: I mean two people, my husbands. One of them said,
Speaker 1: he ran into you, met you for the first time
Speaker 1: at a boxing match. Okay, uh, usually more than two
Speaker 1: people at a boxing match, and met you once two
Speaker 1: years later, ran into you at SOHO house and you
Speaker 1: remember his name. And my husband calls friend of his
Speaker 1: who was in shause at that minute, and he's like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, I'm not gonna believe what just happened.
Speaker 1: He just remembered my name after two years. He's like, damn,
Speaker 1: he did the same thing to me. So you put
Speaker 1: out there this accessibility, and what's interesting is celebrity aparts athletes,
Speaker 1: they are themselves, whereas actors are playing other people. So
Speaker 1: there's an intrinsic sort of difference. So, but people think
Speaker 1: they know you. They also think it's been easy for
Speaker 1: you everything. You just had it all. You had it
Speaker 1: all handed to you, didn't you your overnight success? Aren't you?
Speaker 2: You are too you know. They think you just selled
Speaker 2: up and they said, hey, just throw her all over
Speaker 2: the place. She's gotta make it. There's no work involved.
Speaker 2: But I think that is up that you heal the point.
Speaker 2: And I think that's what it's so funny as an athlete,
Speaker 2: because most people have no idea why I went to college.
Speaker 2: They have no idea I went to HBCU. They think,
Speaker 2: you know, they think either I went to some big
Speaker 2: school or some fancy program, and I didn't. I went
Speaker 2: to a school where we had one pair of cleats
Speaker 2: for the entire season. We took a bus. We literally
Speaker 2: took a bus to every game. My senior year, we
Speaker 2: went to Florida on a plane, and we went to
Speaker 2: Las Vegas on a plane my senior year. The other years,
Speaker 2: every place from one trip to Florida, Mississippi were Arkansas.
Speaker 2: We were on buses and we had bag launches. I
Speaker 2: respect the Shawnee's restaurant chain, but I if I can
Speaker 2: help it, will never eat out another show because that's
Speaker 2: all the fetous good for football players. You feed the
Speaker 2: whole team for a discount.
Speaker 1: How do you think that shaped you? Though? How do
Speaker 1: you think that that I don't know that the real
Speaker 1: truth and the grit of that experience and that bonding
Speaker 1: and that amount of time spent sort of being uncomfortable,
Speaker 1: how do you think that's shaped you.
Speaker 2: I'm grateful and I'm appreciative because I know the other
Speaker 2: side of it. And when you come to the NFL
Speaker 2: and everybody's given you a new pair of cleats every
Speaker 2: day if you want for practice in the games, and
Speaker 2: guys are putting your pads in your pants and putting
Speaker 2: your jersey on your shoulder path.
Speaker 1: Before, explain that to me a little bit better. I'm
Speaker 1: not aware of sports that much, but wow, okay, that's
Speaker 1: a piece of it. I did not reckon. I did
Speaker 1: not know about nobody's putting. People have put pads in
Speaker 1: my boots before.
Speaker 2: A little different, okay, the kind of the same concept.
Speaker 2: But when you get these somebody does everything for you,
Speaker 2: and a lot of guys grew up that way. They
Speaker 2: were always the best in middle school, elementary school, high school, college.
Speaker 2: I didn't grow up that way. I grew up where
Speaker 2: everything felt like it was a struggle everything. I had
Speaker 2: to prove myself to get the respect that I wanted
Speaker 2: out of whatever I did. But it drove me to
Speaker 2: work harder, and it drives me to this day to
Speaker 2: appreciate everything, to appreciate everything I do, everybody I'm allowed
Speaker 2: to be around, and people allow me into their lives,
Speaker 2: and I appreciate friendships, and yeah, just gave it this
Speaker 2: great appreciation of life because I understand what the alternative
Speaker 2: could be. I remember value. Taught me value of people too,
Speaker 2: because I remember cutting grass and I bestly remember moving
Speaker 2: furniture growing up and working in the kitchen also, But
Speaker 2: people treated you as if you pretty much had no value,
Speaker 2: like you're here to serve me. And I have always
Speaker 2: always felt I always knew I felt unseen because I
Speaker 2: knew that's where I had to be at that time,
Speaker 2: but that wasn't going to be my life. So now
Speaker 2: I'm where I'm at in my life. It's very important
Speaker 2: for me to make sure that everybody around me is
Speaker 2: seen and that I let them know that like a
Speaker 2: just a hello, or remembering someone's name like you said earlier,
Speaker 2: using it because that's a personal connection to that person
Speaker 2: that some people may just go just somebody who's you know,
Speaker 2: cleaning the dishes off the table. Hell, I was at
Speaker 2: guy at one point.
Speaker 1: I call the show now what because there are so
Speaker 1: many moments in our lives that are pivotal that things
Speaker 1: change in our lives, either for the better or for
Speaker 1: the worse, and whether we realize that at that time
Speaker 1: or not, they're pivotal, and it's how we react to them.
Speaker 1: And I'm curious if there is an outstanding now one
Speaker 1: moment for you that comes to mind?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean I have several two that stand out.
Speaker 2: One when I was thirteen and the other one when
Speaker 2: I was seventeen. And when I was thirteen, this was
Speaker 2: kind of funny now, but I was. I was a
Speaker 2: big bone kid. Let's just put it that way. I
Speaker 2: was a big bone boy.
Speaker 1: I can call him a basketball so we'll talk.
Speaker 2: But my brothers and their friends, I used to I'm
Speaker 2: the youngest of six, like I said earlier, after run
Speaker 2: around with them, and they called me Bob. I thought
Speaker 2: it was cool because I'm the youngest of the kids
Speaker 2: and I'm hanging out with the older kids and they
Speaker 2: give me a nickname and usually get a nickname, and
Speaker 2: me sure, cool. But then one day one of the
Speaker 2: friends told me that Bob meant big old butt booty
Speaker 2: on back, like you can grab your wallet like that
Speaker 2: your but so big, and I cried like a baby.
Speaker 2: But it was pivotal because I went out and somehow
Speaker 2: scround up the money to buy the Jane Fonda workout
Speaker 2: tapes and I did the Jane Fonda workout tape, the
Speaker 2: butt lift, the side lifts, all that stuff, and then
Speaker 2: herschel Walker back and back in what eighty three eighty
Speaker 2: you or something like that or eighty four was big time,
Speaker 2: big time football player and he was coming out of
Speaker 2: here in Berthiage, Georgia. He had a book and it
Speaker 2: was all about body weight, push up, sit up, pushing tires.
Speaker 2: I did though, between Jane Fond and herschel Walker. I
Speaker 2: did those workouts and it worked. It's like hey, but
Speaker 2: my dad saw me working so hard, so he said,
Speaker 2: you know what, I'll work out with you. So every
Speaker 2: day my dad and I used to go to the
Speaker 2: gym six days a week and we work out. And
Speaker 2: there were times when I'm thirteen, fourteen, fifteen year old
Speaker 2: kid and I'm like, I want to be here right now.
Speaker 2: On the weekend, I'm my friend are having fun. My
Speaker 2: dad said, don't worry, Son, you put it into work,
Speaker 2: then you have your fun. But it will all pay
Speaker 2: off one day. I'm in a kid in Germany, just
Speaker 2: working out, trying not to be called Bob. I'm not
Speaker 2: thinking about sports in any way, not even playing any sports.
Speaker 2: And I get the scholarship. My dad sends me to
Speaker 2: Houston five months, live with my uncle. Get one scholarship
Speaker 2: Texas Southern University. After my first semester. This is the
Speaker 2: second point, go home for Christmas break. I was way
Speaker 2: from home for five months. Oh my god. I hated college,
Speaker 2: hated everything about it. I go, I take the light bulbs,
Speaker 2: like I was not going back to school. I cleaned
Speaker 2: that room out and my dad was like, I was
Speaker 2: like two weeks since school had started. I was like
Speaker 2: two weeks I'm still in Germany. But Dad said, what
Speaker 2: are you doing here? I'm like, I'm not going back
Speaker 2: to school. I thought I was gonna man up, and
Speaker 2: he looked at me and said, what are you going
Speaker 2: to do. I'll get a job. And he looked at
Speaker 2: me again and said, what are you going to do,
Speaker 2: And like a light bulb clicked in my mind that
Speaker 2: you know what, you got to grow up. You can't
Speaker 2: live your life and expect mommy and daddy to take
Speaker 2: care of you for your whole life. Take care of you, know,
Speaker 2: take advantage of whatever opportunities you have. But if you
Speaker 2: got to go back to school because your dad's not
Speaker 2: letting you stay here, anything you do from here on out,
Speaker 2: you do it to the best of your abilities, because
Speaker 2: anybody can just go do it, just just try your
Speaker 2: best and see what happens. And that moment changed my life.
Speaker 2: I realized I didn't have the luxury of depending on
Speaker 2: my mom and dad. They looked at me like, you
Speaker 2: got an opportunity, You're going to be grown, You're taking
Speaker 2: care of yourself. You figure it out. And those two
Speaker 2: moments changed my life. One manue work out, the other
Speaker 2: one that's left of football, and my dad pushed me
Speaker 2: to stay with it.
Speaker 1: So something does strike me about what you've been saying.
Speaker 1: It strikes me the number of times that you've had
Speaker 1: to be separated from your loved ones at different points
Speaker 1: in your life. You were a young father, so as
Speaker 1: a young father, when your career first started as a son,
Speaker 1: you were saying from your parents and a felt. I mean,
Speaker 1: just all of your career has had to bring you
Speaker 1: away and be alone in environments. How did that affect you?
Speaker 1: Having to spend that much time separated from the people
Speaker 1: who loved you and you loved.
Speaker 2: That was hard, The hardest thing I've ever done. That's
Speaker 2: why I really why I wanted to quit college and
Speaker 2: go back, because I had my parents were there, my
Speaker 2: brother's there, my first love with their in Germany. So
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh my god, this is where I need
Speaker 2: to be.
Speaker 1: Had you had a baby by then, No, no.
Speaker 2: Not by then, and that was a few years later,
Speaker 2: but even then that was another moment. When I had
Speaker 2: my daughter, Tadda been, you know, going into my senior year,
Speaker 2: it's like, okay, I have no choice but to figure
Speaker 2: something out, like this is this life is real right
Speaker 2: now because it's not about me, it's about her and
Speaker 2: making sure that she's okay, giving her the best opportunity.
Speaker 2: So you have to sacrifice a lot of yourself. I
Speaker 2: had to get rid of the selfishness that I had
Speaker 2: in order to do what I felt needed to be
Speaker 2: done to make sure that they were going to be okay.
Speaker 1: Is it really selfishness though? Or was it youth? And
Speaker 1: I mean that doesn't strike me as selfish. It just
Speaker 1: strikes me as maybe a little afraid young, you know,
Speaker 1: surrounded by your siblings and then on the base, which
Speaker 1: you've said is so secure, and then all of a
Speaker 1: sudden out of your comfort zone. You don't even know
Speaker 1: what your value is yet because it doesn't come in
Speaker 1: the form of a passion yet.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I agree, And I didn't. I didn't
Speaker 2: know what my future was going to be. I just
Speaker 2: I knew i'd work hard. I knew that I would
Speaker 2: if I had an opportunity, I would do my best
Speaker 2: at it. But it was still tough, because no matter
Speaker 2: so young and having kids and having all the responsibilities
Speaker 2: you do. I do look back and I do think,
Speaker 2: you know, I wish I had done a lot of
Speaker 2: things better as far as being a parent, because I
Speaker 2: felt like there were so many times that I should
Speaker 2: have probably sacrificed certain things in order to be a
Speaker 2: little bit more present. But then there are times I
Speaker 2: looked back, and I think I couldn't. In order to
Speaker 2: have the life that I've been able to, you know,
Speaker 2: give them, truly provide and give them. I had to
Speaker 2: sacrifice a lot of things. And a lot of people
Speaker 2: say they're the balance. It's a really tough balance. It's
Speaker 2: a tough balance, and I don't know if there really
Speaker 2: is one. In my instance.
Speaker 1: When do you think you started? When do you think
Speaker 1: you really started to seriously consider a career in broadcast
Speaker 1: and what that would mean.
Speaker 2: I think a few years before I retired, I was
Speaker 2: just always doing stuff for networks. Would have asked me
Speaker 2: because I thought it's fun, I'm having a good time.
Speaker 2: This is I'd ever thought about getting paid. I didn't
Speaker 2: really know with a career. I thought it would just
Speaker 2: something you do to have a good time. And one
Speaker 2: head of a studio, head of a network called me
Speaker 2: for lunch one day and at lunch asked me if
Speaker 2: I realized if I knew how much long I wanted
Speaker 2: to play football, And then I was like, wow, he
Speaker 2: asked me this. Then he was like, because we really
Speaker 2: would love for you to consider come joining our network.
Speaker 2: And that's the first time I realized that, oh, there's
Speaker 2: another side after the game. But Fox was incredible when
Speaker 2: I used to go do that show because it was free,
Speaker 2: it was yourself, it wasn't rehearsed. Everybody loved each other.
Speaker 2: It was like a family. So when I retired, I
Speaker 2: knew that was where I was going to go, and
Speaker 2: I was just lucky enough that they wanted me.
Speaker 1: What's the most challenging part about it?
Speaker 2: Oh? Man, Oh, the most challenging part about it. I
Speaker 2: don't really look at anything that's challenging. It's weird. I
Speaker 2: don't have a bad job.
Speaker 1: Well, it's not comparatively like when you look at what
Speaker 1: it took for you to be the exceptional athlete, like
Speaker 1: that was challenging. That's challenging. And then but there are
Speaker 1: there are things.
Speaker 2: Well, when I first yeah, when I first started, the
Speaker 2: challenging thing was getting up the speed because I didn't
Speaker 2: realize in the television world, for the most part, they
Speaker 2: just throw you in the fire and you've got to
Speaker 2: figure it out, and if you don't, they bring up
Speaker 2: the next guy. So I like, what is the rundown
Speaker 2: for a show? You know, this guy talking in my
Speaker 2: ear while I'm trying to try what is he talking
Speaker 2: about it.
Speaker 1: That's my favorite part. That's my favorite part about hosting
Speaker 1: or co hosting is when they're talking to you. You're
Speaker 1: reading your notes and you're having to listen to the
Speaker 1: to the person speaking. I love that. I love that
Speaker 1: challenge more than anything.
Speaker 2: It's like shutting off a part of your brain. You
Speaker 2: got two thighs and you gotta use them both.
Speaker 1: And I can bring a triple threat.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you get that every day at GMA, and and
Speaker 2: that's what I love about. I love that challenge too.
Speaker 2: It's weird we both love the same thing. And I
Speaker 2: love like figuring things out and I love I love
Speaker 2: live TV. And there's so many people who are terrified
Speaker 2: for live TV that they go, I don't know how
Speaker 2: you guys do this every day. I hate taping things because,
Speaker 2: first of all, you could do it, I have to
Speaker 2: do it over again. If you mess up, I'm like, oh,
Speaker 2: forget it. Yeah, messing up is part of being human.
Speaker 2: And I don't want to watch somebody or I think
Speaker 2: it's on TV's perfect, because no one's perfect. I want
Speaker 2: to watch somebody I can feel a connection with, the
Speaker 2: comfortable that Okay, yeah they messed up that word, they
Speaker 2: corrected it in the normal course of a conversation. But
Speaker 2: they're human.
Speaker 1: They're like me, talk to me about your company, Smack Entertainment.
Speaker 1: That's just one more way in which you're an entrepreneur
Speaker 1: and you start a new business and you pivot from
Speaker 1: your sport to broadcast. Tell me about that company and
Speaker 1: why you wanted to start it and what it is.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, smack and Smack is interesting because I
Speaker 2: retired from football thirty six years old, and I'm like,
Speaker 2: either I can just sit and do nothing, or I
Speaker 2: could try to figure out what the next step was.
Speaker 2: And I did have a job with Fox doing the broadcasting.
Speaker 2: And I also, you know, wanted to sell my kids,
Speaker 2: like my youngest too. The twins were so young that
Speaker 2: you can bark about working hard, and you can tell
Speaker 2: your kids you've got to go out there, but if
Speaker 2: they never see it from you, like you're the best
Speaker 2: teacher they're ever going to have with you. They see
Speaker 2: you every day. And so for my kids to see
Speaker 2: me work hard, I think we're very important. And Smack
Speaker 2: was started by Constance Schwartz, and I would go to
Speaker 2: the office all the time and I would just bug her.
Speaker 2: I retired, I living in La doing Fox Football. So
Speaker 2: I had all this free time during the week and
Speaker 2: I would go on the oft and bug her about
Speaker 2: the other things she was working on, giving her all
Speaker 2: this advice, and she finally said, after so many months
Speaker 2: of that, I'm kind of sick of hearing you. So
Speaker 2: if you're gonna come in, you need to either invest
Speaker 2: in this thing and be a partner or don't come back.
Speaker 2: And I joined her as a partner and that was been.
Speaker 2: That's twelve years ago, and it has been the best
Speaker 2: experience because it's allowed me to open up a different
Speaker 2: side of my brain and a different muscle exercise. As
Speaker 2: far as being an entrepreneur, and with Smack, we do
Speaker 2: a variety of things. We know, we have a production company,
Speaker 2: but we also do talent management to the Garcia Twins,
Speaker 2: which is be the Bella Twin wrestlers, to Aaron.
Speaker 1: Andrew wo I just did their podcast.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we Carrissa, good luck with that. Hopefully, hopefully they
Speaker 2: didn't get you into any trouble.
Speaker 1: Not at all. It was kind of great. It was
Speaker 1: it was just blue enough and it was still not
Speaker 1: it was good. I felt, you know, I was worried
Speaker 1: they were going to think like Oh whatever, she's not
Speaker 1: cool or she's not you know, I'm like, look, I'm
Speaker 1: from New York. So let's just start with that.
Speaker 2: Those two are the best. Those two of my favorite people,
Speaker 2: and they're perfect together the podcast because they're best friends
Speaker 2: and they need to have the filter. And but but
Speaker 2: but working with Aaron and her whereby EA line, and
Speaker 2: of course we have myself being a client and an owner,
Speaker 2: and my collection line at min'sware House and jac Penny
Speaker 2: and my skincare.
Speaker 1: Of my Good Care, right yeah, then we have.
Speaker 2: Dion Sanders, we have Tony Gonzalez and Whiz Khalifa, so
Speaker 2: we just you know, the whole management side of it's interesting,
Speaker 2: you know, to.
Speaker 1: Me, it's all it's such a beautiful challenge. My last
Speaker 1: question for you is a very serious one. Oh boy, Nimes,
Speaker 1: I like to end very very seriously. But what guest
Speaker 1: makes you laugh the hardest?
Speaker 2: Oh man I The one guest who came on who
Speaker 2: made me laugh harder than anyone else was the last
Speaker 2: time they were always one last, Tiffany Hattish. And the
Speaker 2: reason that Tiffany Hattish made me laugh so hard is
Speaker 2: she was all over George with ste Monopolis, with the jokes,
Speaker 2: and she made George actually kind of dance. For George.
Speaker 2: It was a dance I know it was. He refuses
Speaker 2: to dance for me on GMA, we will all do
Speaker 2: a little chimmy and George will sit there all stoic. Nope,
Speaker 2: And I said, George, you're gonna dance. It goes never, Michael.
Speaker 2: You know, So to watch Tiffany actually make George do
Speaker 2: that and dance and laugh, and I don't know what
Speaker 2: it is when he laughs, it really makes me. I
Speaker 2: don't do it makes me happy because I know he's
Speaker 2: got to trying to fight that laughter, but you get
Speaker 2: it out of him. So Tiffany had his Dolly Parton
Speaker 2: Dotlly Parton's actually another funny one and told me one
Speaker 2: of the funniest things I've ever heard. When I asked
Speaker 2: her one time, so, what's the first thing you do
Speaker 2: when you wake up? She said, well, Michael, I put
Speaker 2: on my clothes and I go home.
Speaker 1: God whoa oh God. Well, my husband makes George laugh
Speaker 1: so much. And when when he and his wife, when Chris,
Speaker 1: my husband and Ali are together, George literally sits back
Speaker 1: and just giggles and cackles, and it's like my heart
Speaker 1: sort of explodes. I love it, but I gotta tell you, Laura,
Speaker 1: you failed because that was a question for Alie Wentworth
Speaker 1: by the way, she was like, ask you a question
Speaker 1: and then say I asked them.
Speaker 2: Okay, but I'm gonna back it up. But I'm back
Speaker 2: it up. I didn't quite fail.
Speaker 1: Back it up.
Speaker 2: Ali gives me too. I get two things. Ali, by
Speaker 2: far is one of the funniest people on the plane
Speaker 2: plan and that's why I love watching George laugh because
Speaker 2: I know George is not at home still working serious
Speaker 2: because Ali it's the funniest person. I mean, seriously, she's
Speaker 2: so funny. But she also makes me accept time go
Speaker 2: because I know George inside is kind of like, I
Speaker 2: don't know what's coming. So it's kind of an exciting
Speaker 2: nervousness even for me. And I'm not even married to you. Ali.
Speaker 1: Well, I remember I run the first time I called
Speaker 1: emailed Ali and I was like, look, you don't know me,
Speaker 1: but you have to write something for me. I have
Speaker 1: to work with you, and you're gonna be my friend.
Speaker 1: And she was really and we've been best friends ever since.
Speaker 1: And when I if I can make her laugh, then
Speaker 1: I'm like, Okay, I'm good in the world. I am
Speaker 1: absolutely fine.
Speaker 2: You've accomplished something.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for spending this time with me
Speaker 1: and for just for everything, always being so nice to me,
Speaker 1: and I really like you a lot.
Speaker 2: Well, are you kidding? Thank you? First of all, thank
Speaker 2: you for having me on. I really appreciate it. And
Speaker 2: when it comes to like pivoting and doing different things
Speaker 2: in your life and career, I marvel at what you've
Speaker 2: done and who you are, because you are the absolutely
Speaker 2: nicest person out there. Like every time I see you,
Speaker 2: it's just like a ray of sunshine, and you're one
Speaker 2: of the people. When you walk in the room, people
Speaker 2: get happy, and I think that that's a testament to
Speaker 2: your character. So thank you for being you, Brooke, and
Speaker 2: thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: That was Michael Strahan. Catch you MI on Good Morning
Speaker 1: America every weekday and head over to our show notes
Speaker 1: to learn more about his latest projects. That's it for
Speaker 1: us today. We'll talk to you next week now. What
Speaker 1: with Burke Shields is a production of iHeartRadio. Our lead
Speaker 1: producer and wonderful showrunner is Julia Weaver. Additional research and
Speaker 1: editing by Darby Masters and Abu Zafar Our executive producer
Speaker 1: is Christina Everett. The show is mixed by Vahid Fraser.