Speaker 1: Yeah, I've been prepping for like a couple of different
Speaker 1: roles recently, and my mind, my braining has been just
Speaker 1: full carrying around like multiple characters. You know, as an actor,
Speaker 1: your mental space is kind of your office like that.
Speaker 1: That's where we do the work, and it's so important
Speaker 1: that we keep our space uncluttered. And over my life,
Speaker 1: I've learned that my surroundings play a pretty big part
Speaker 1: in my own mental state. Have that is anybody out
Speaker 1: there noticed something similar? I mean, when your space is clear,
Speaker 1: your mind is clear.
Speaker 2: Today's guest, Bobby Burke, has dedicated his life to the
Speaker 2: art of interiors spaces while also championing an organization that
Speaker 2: stands up against one of the biggest killers of our time.
Speaker 1: So lean in. I'm glad you're here. Hey, everybody, I'm
Speaker 1: here today with Bobby Burke. Anybody call you Robert?
Speaker 3: No, well they try, but Bobby is actually my legal name.
Speaker 4: It is that's Robert.
Speaker 3: I am from Texas, so my name is Bobby James,
Speaker 3: not Robert.
Speaker 4: So it's always funny to me when I'll get a.
Speaker 3: Legal document sent over to me and they've just assumed
Speaker 3: and they put Robert on there, and I'm like.
Speaker 4: No, that's not my name.
Speaker 1: So it was never you were never Robert.
Speaker 4: I was never Robert.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's everybody calls me Bobby except for Caramo, my cathmate,
Speaker 3: which is the only person that is allowed to call
Speaker 3: me Bob.
Speaker 1: I say, okay, yeah, it's funny. We I just ask
Speaker 1: about names. I don't really know why, but I think
Speaker 1: part of it is because I just don't like mine,
Speaker 1: and so I'm always curious how people feel about their
Speaker 1: own names. And I have this funny thing where, speaking
Speaker 1: of Bobby, like, I like the name keV, but much
Speaker 1: better than Kevin by the same token. I feel like
Speaker 1: people can Kevu a little too early, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. Yeah, it's like are you having me already?
Speaker 1: Like like we literally like like literally you just took
Speaker 1: my order. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I was kind of like, I'll get an email where
Speaker 3: somebody calls me Bob and I'm like, what, No. And
Speaker 3: that's a triggering one because my mom, when I was little,
Speaker 3: people would call me Bob and She's like, don't call
Speaker 3: him Bob. That's an old man's name. And so that
Speaker 3: was ingrained in my mind, and so when I hear Bob,
Speaker 3: I think of an old man's name. But when I
Speaker 3: was little, I couldn't stand Bobby. I didn't like the name,
Speaker 3: so I tried to I tried to switch it up.
Speaker 4: My middle name is James.
Speaker 3: I tried to get people to call me James, and
Speaker 3: that never happened. And then I had the bright idea
Speaker 3: to go by BJ, which luckily, my mom, without explaining
Speaker 3: to me why I shouldn't go by BJ, talk me
Speaker 3: out of going by BJH, that's funny.
Speaker 1: That's funny. That's along the same lines as when I
Speaker 1: when my wife was pregnant and I told her that
Speaker 1: I thought Macon was a good name for our son,
Speaker 1: and she's like, Macon bake.
Speaker 4: No, that's make it Bacon.
Speaker 3: Oh, that'd be kind of fun, though, I mean not forever,
Speaker 3: but that would be fun.
Speaker 1: He would hate us forever. So now we have a goat.
Speaker 1: We have a goat named Macon. But but and he doesn't,
Speaker 1: he doesn't hate us. What part of Texas are you from?
Speaker 3: Originally from Houston or Alvin, Texas is a little a
Speaker 3: little suburb in the southern part of Houston, home of
Speaker 3: Nolan Ryan.
Speaker 4: That's the only thing it's famous for.
Speaker 1: Okay, Okay, I have a band and we we often
Speaker 1: play Texas. We're actually just on our way out there,
Speaker 1: doing four shows in Texas in about a week. And uh,
Speaker 1: it's it's always, it's always amazing. How long were did you?
Speaker 1: Did you spend most of your child out there?
Speaker 3: No, I we instantly moved to Missouri, but my hands
Speaker 3: and uncles, my grandparents, they were all in Texas, so
Speaker 3: I would I would spend my summers there.
Speaker 4: So I grew up between Missouri and Texas.
Speaker 1: Houston in the summer, there's a climate.
Speaker 3: Yeah, of all the times to go to Houston in
Speaker 3: summer was not the best time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So what was it do you think that got
Speaker 1: you into uh, design and and and decorating and just
Speaker 1: tell me that path. I mean, it's it's well. First off,
Speaker 1: let me just say that it's so fun to talk
Speaker 1: to you because a lot of you know who I
Speaker 1: ended up speaking to and these podcasts are actors and
Speaker 1: musicians and not. I mean, we had a sort of
Speaker 1: out of the box episode where I was speaking to
Speaker 1: Deepak Chopra, But but it's mostly been kind of like people.
Speaker 1: I mean, I know that you are in the entertainment industry,
Speaker 1: but but you come to it from something that a
Speaker 1: lot of people would be surprised about, but it's it's
Speaker 1: one of my passions and one of my favorite kind
Speaker 1: of things and interests is design and architecture. And I
Speaker 1: it's not that I'm I'm good at it or really
Speaker 1: know much about it, but it's just been something that
Speaker 1: I've always kind of loved and I I I think
Speaker 1: probably if I wasn't an actor or a musician, I
Speaker 1: think that's probably what I would be doing. So so
Speaker 1: it's fun. So I'm curious from your standpoint, what kind
Speaker 1: of drew you to this.
Speaker 3: You know, what I was little, designed wasn't something I
Speaker 3: really thought of as like a career or a path.
Speaker 3: It was just something that I always kind of got.
Speaker 3: I remember when I was like five or six years old,
Speaker 3: my mom had decorated my bedroom and all red, like
Speaker 3: red curtains, red bedspread, red rug, red pillows, and I just,
Speaker 3: even as a little kid, I was like, this is
Speaker 3: not this is not this is not the plot, This
Speaker 3: is not relaxing to me. You know, this is giving
Speaker 3: me anxiety, even though you know, obviously I didn't even
Speaker 3: know what the word anxiety was back then, but I
Speaker 3: was just like, I need to do something different.
Speaker 1: So I, you know, I feel like I'm at the
Speaker 1: Mustang ranch or something.
Speaker 3: Yeah, my aunts and grandma would always send me, you know,
Speaker 3: these little twenty dollars checks for my birthday, and so
Speaker 3: I used up all my twenty dollars checks to get
Speaker 3: betting and new curtains, you know, as like a little kid.
Speaker 3: And I found this like dinosaur poster because I was
Speaker 3: assessed with dinosaurs that had all these blues and greens
Speaker 3: and yellows in it. And I kind of coordinated the
Speaker 3: pillows on the bed to this poster, and I just
Speaker 3: I knew it made me feel better. I knew the
Speaker 3: blue was more relaxing, you know. And again I couldn't
Speaker 3: articulate that as a child, I didn't know why.
Speaker 4: I just had a feeling.
Speaker 3: And so my whole life, I've understood the power of
Speaker 3: transforming your space can really transform your whole attitude.
Speaker 4: It could really.
Speaker 3: Transform your life. Honestly, you know, that's what I do
Speaker 3: all queer I had transformed people's lives by transforming their space.
Speaker 3: And throughout my teens, you know, I left home at fifteen,
Speaker 3: and at some points I was homeless, and so like
Speaker 3: the feeling of home was very important to me now,
Speaker 3: because for a while I didn't have a home, so
Speaker 3: that the feeling of.
Speaker 4: Safety, you know.
Speaker 3: And even when I was living in my car, you know,
Speaker 3: I always kept it organized and I would I would
Speaker 3: have betting in the back, and I would make the
Speaker 3: bed every day.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: I wasn't one of those people that lived in their
Speaker 3: car that you could see that lived in their car.
Speaker 3: And when I finally got apartments, you know, I made
Speaker 3: sure that I really, even if it was stuff that
Speaker 3: I would find on the street, I would set up
Speaker 3: my home to or what made me feel comfortable and
Speaker 3: safe and secure. And you know, I I you know,
Speaker 3: I left home at fifteen, Like I said, I left
Speaker 3: high school at fifteen, so I didn't I don't have
Speaker 3: a formal education.
Speaker 4: And design it's something I've kind.
Speaker 3: Of self taught myself, but I've always been.
Speaker 4: Drawn to it.
Speaker 3: And so I was lucky enough that, you know, I
Speaker 3: ended up working in retail stores and the retail management,
Speaker 3: and then I got I started working at retail furniture stores,
Speaker 3: and which is how I kind of got into the
Speaker 3: furniture industry. And then I started I started my own
Speaker 3: retail company. I first started selling furniture online on Bobby
Speaker 3: Burke dot com. I worked for a company called Portico
Speaker 3: in New York, and I had built their e commerce
Speaker 3: division and one day, unfortunately they went bankrupt and I'm like, well, crap,
Speaker 3: what am I.
Speaker 4: Going to do?
Speaker 3: And so I come to the database I had built
Speaker 3: for them. I put it on Bobby burg home dot
Speaker 3: com and I'm like, maybe I'll sell itself or two
Speaker 3: while I look for another job.
Speaker 4: But it did well.
Speaker 3: I was one of the first online retailer selling furniture online.
Speaker 1: I stopped on the website just in preparation for this,
Speaker 1: and it's really it's pretty impressive. I mean it's very impressive,
Speaker 1: you know, I thank you. There's so much, so much.
Speaker 1: It's really it's what's much more than design. If anybody's
Speaker 1: never been on there, it's kind of like a lifestyle.
Speaker 1: I mean, I saw you have some you had a
Speaker 1: thing with a cattlebell, workout or something like that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's all about lifestyle and living healthy, not just
Speaker 3: with design, but with food, with fitness, with travel, with
Speaker 3: all kinds of things. But then after the website it
Speaker 3: did really well. So I opened up my own stores
Speaker 3: and I had stores in New York and Miami and
Speaker 3: Atlanta and LA and they were all retail furniture and
Speaker 3: accessories and home decor, and I would help my customers
Speaker 3: pick out stuff for their houses and help design their houses.
Speaker 3: And then I realized that that was way more fun
Speaker 3: and I had way more passion to do that than
Speaker 3: I did running a retail company. So I opened up
Speaker 3: a design division and that started being quite successful. So
Speaker 3: as that gained more traction, I started closing stores as
Speaker 3: leases were.
Speaker 4: Up and solely focused on design.
Speaker 3: And then where I came along two years later, and oh.
Speaker 4: That's where I am at.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you had so you had like brick and
Speaker 1: mortar retail stores and you close them up. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: you held on to the website.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, the website is an editorial website. Now we
Speaker 3: actually don't sell anything on our web.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, Oh yeah, there's no connection. How do you
Speaker 1: make the choices for like what you steer people to?
Speaker 1: I mean there has to be some kind of a
Speaker 1: connection there though.
Speaker 3: If it looks good. Yeah, And I mean I also
Speaker 3: do have my own collections that I've designed, but I
Speaker 3: don't really actually, I think you can buy my rugs
Speaker 3: and maybe like my wallpaper on the website, that's it.
Speaker 3: And even that, honestly, I'm trying to get away from
Speaker 3: I just like my retail partners to handle that. And
Speaker 3: my website. I like to just be a place that
Speaker 3: you can come and find beautiful things, and if we
Speaker 3: use a product from somebody else, we link to it
Speaker 3: so you can find it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it seems like you have all kinds of
Speaker 1: like price points on there. It's not like super super
Speaker 1: high end necessary.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I've always tried to make my brand accessible.
Speaker 4: You know, from the moment I.
Speaker 3: Had my stores and A because I think design should
Speaker 3: be for everybody, and B I opened.
Speaker 4: Up my first store.
Speaker 3: November two thousand and seven, and then, of course or January,
Speaker 3: I think February two thousand and eight, the whole economy
Speaker 3: crashed and collapsed and bear Stearn's Clothes and I had
Speaker 3: to make.
Speaker 4: A quick decision on where my brand was going.
Speaker 3: To go, if it was going to go super high end,
Speaker 3: if it was going to be accessible, and I decided
Speaker 3: I wanted it to be accessible, and I've stayed true
Speaker 3: to them.
Speaker 1: I want to lean in a little bit to this
Speaker 1: idea of the emotional connection that people have to their
Speaker 1: living spaces because they don't think that it's like necessarily
Speaker 1: spoken about all that often. I mean, I I mean,
Speaker 1: because I think a lot of people would look at
Speaker 1: something like the furniture, Uh, you know, you knew that
Speaker 1: you didn't want red walls, right, A lot of people
Speaker 1: would say, I don't know, the red walls are finding me.
Speaker 1: I think about my brother who actually was him and
Speaker 1: his wife were actually on Queer Eye many many years ago, uh.
Speaker 4: The straight Guy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, original show. They did their their their apartment in
Speaker 1: New York, came and did their apartment. I was actually
Speaker 1: on the episode myself. I mean, I you know, showed
Speaker 1: up when the during the big reveal and the whole thing.
Speaker 1: And he's not a guy that really he will say
Speaker 1: like he doesn't. He claims that he just doesn't see
Speaker 1: stuff like he'll he would never walk into a place
Speaker 1: and say, uh, I don't like the way this this
Speaker 1: looks necessarily you know he he he Uh. That's his
Speaker 1: own kind of assessment of him. But I do think
Speaker 1: that he has a really a really good eye actually,
Speaker 1: and I think that I guess my question is, if
Speaker 1: you're not somebody that considers yourself, you know, sensitive to
Speaker 1: your surroundings. How do you talk somebody into the idea
Speaker 1: that whatever the furniture, whatever their their you know, overall
Speaker 1: space is like is going to give them some kind
Speaker 1: of internal peace or or happiness. Because I think a
Speaker 1: lot of people would go, I don't care. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm happy in a motel sex.
Speaker 3: I think there are there are those people who just
Speaker 3: who think that, and and you know, from one hand
Speaker 3: they might be right, but I think on another hand,
Speaker 3: they don't realize just how much your your surroundings can
Speaker 3: affect you. And you know, for example, like a clutter
Speaker 3: and chaos around you, like they'd be like, oh, it
Speaker 3: doesn't bother me. Subconsciously it does. You know, chaos around
Speaker 3: you really does create chaos in your mind, and you
Speaker 3: may not realize that that might be one of the
Speaker 3: reasons why you're getting anxiety or you're stressed out. But
Speaker 3: you know, when you finally do deal with that clutter
Speaker 3: and you organize everything, you kind of take a breath
Speaker 3: and you're like, Okay, wow, I thought that didn't affect me,
Speaker 3: but god, I do feel that there's a weight.
Speaker 4: Lifted off my shoulder. So yes, there's absolutely those people
Speaker 4: that are like, ah, that doesn't bother me. I don't care.
Speaker 4: You know, my husband was the same way.
Speaker 3: You know, for years, We've been together for twenty years,
Speaker 3: and I used to always be able to do whatever
Speaker 3: I wanted at the home because he just didn't care.
Speaker 4: It didn't bother him.
Speaker 3: But over the years, having watched me transform our spaces
Speaker 3: and having seen how it has changed the way he
Speaker 3: feels about the space and changed his outlook and changed
Speaker 3: stress levels. Now, unfortunately for me, now he has opinions,
Speaker 3: and now I don't just get to do whatever I want.
Speaker 3: He wants to be a part of everything we do
Speaker 3: in our homes.
Speaker 1: That's all.
Speaker 3: So I think once people will kind of experience some
Speaker 3: type of transformation, then they're like, oh, this is better.
Speaker 3: I thought I was fine and I thought it was good,
Speaker 3: But you're you're right, this did.
Speaker 4: Have an effect on me that I did not think
Speaker 4: it would.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean I also think that I don't
Speaker 1: know how you feel, but have you noticed with either
Speaker 1: with clients or or with people that you know or
Speaker 1: friends or whatever, that over time, your your needs in
Speaker 1: terms of things like clutter, actually sort of change. Like
Speaker 1: I've gotten to the point where I just I want
Speaker 1: less and less stuff like like like, I got so
Speaker 1: much stuff in my head. There's you know, the hard
Speaker 1: drive is so overloaded right now with junk and and
Speaker 1: and you know, work in the world and everything that
Speaker 1: when I'm I mean, you never know it from my background,
Speaker 1: but I've just happened to be I just have to
Speaker 1: be in the room. It just has a ton of
Speaker 1: shit in it. But but but yeah, I I I
Speaker 1: feel like and I think my wife has sort of
Speaker 1: gotten there too. You know, when we first met, I
Speaker 1: started out as a super messy person. I was, you know,
Speaker 1: I would just throw towels on the floor and you know,
Speaker 1: the whole thing. When I was, you know, a young
Speaker 1: single guy, and I lived in a complete shithole, was
Speaker 1: roach infested and and you know, ate out of a pot.
Speaker 1: I mean it was it was bad. And I thought
Speaker 1: maybe I would always be like that, And but I
Speaker 1: really have transformed a lot. And when I met her,
Speaker 1: she was pretty messy too. And now boy, she's like
Speaker 1: she's worse than me. I mean, she just wants things,
Speaker 1: you know, nice, and once things are, once things are nice,
Speaker 1: that's when she can breathe.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it goes back to what we were
Speaker 3: just scerring about that. You know, your brother was like, oh,
Speaker 3: it doesn't bother me. I don't see things, and back
Speaker 3: then you did neither. But over time you evolved to
Speaker 3: see that, Oh, when I pick up after myself, when
Speaker 3: I keep things less cluttered, it makes a huge difference
Speaker 3: for me mentally, you know, because there's so much going
Speaker 3: on in our minds, especially in our industry, we have
Speaker 3: so many things that we're thinking about that we can't
Speaker 3: have that chaos around you. So I think it is
Speaker 3: something that as a person you have evolved to realize
Speaker 3: that the space around you has a huge effect on
Speaker 3: what's going on inside your head.
Speaker 1: And I know you're must take up a lot of
Speaker 1: time doing queer Eye, but do you still have time
Speaker 1: for individual clients? Are you still working with people in
Speaker 1: that capacity?
Speaker 3: So I still have a full time design firm. So
Speaker 3: I think in twenty twenty three we did sixty homes.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, sixty homes in one year. Yeah, wow,
Speaker 1: how do you have time for that? I mean, I
Speaker 1: have an amazing team. Wow.
Speaker 3: You know, most of the people that have worked for
Speaker 3: me have been with me for years and years. You know,
Speaker 3: it's people that started out designing you know, my big
Speaker 3: guy that runs my design firm. He started out as
Speaker 3: my one single employee and my one assistant when I
Speaker 3: had my design firm and grown with me. So yeah,
Speaker 3: I have a really great team. I still oversee it
Speaker 3: as a creative head, but not like the day to
Speaker 3: day installs and stuff.
Speaker 1: Well, let's say somebody didn't have the dough for a
Speaker 1: decorator but felt that they wanted to in some way
Speaker 1: transform their home, and they're, you know, working with a budget,
Speaker 1: and you know the whole thing. I mean, I think
Speaker 1: a lot of people would say, well, I just really
Speaker 1: don't know where to start. I don't like, you know,
Speaker 1: do I move the couch or you know, whatever it is.
Speaker 1: How would you what would you recommend to somebody that
Speaker 1: wanted to explore that.
Speaker 3: I mean, I would always start with getting rid of
Speaker 3: things and organizing, you know, I think pers yeah, perbs.
Speaker 3: You know, often the issue with your room is that
Speaker 3: there's this too.
Speaker 4: Much stuff, you know.
Speaker 3: And I mean I can't speak for everyone, because I'm
Speaker 3: sure there are those people out there that might thrive
Speaker 3: in chaos, you know, I just don't meet those people
Speaker 3: very often. I might meet those people who think they
Speaker 3: do and then when the chaos is fixed, they realize,
Speaker 3: oh no, I was just making excuses to allow myself
Speaker 3: to live in this, but now I realize this is better.
Speaker 3: So I would first recommend purging, you know, getting rid
Speaker 3: of the stuff that you're just not making you happy. That's,
Speaker 3: you know, as Ariconder would say, is not sparking joy
Speaker 3: because you might realize that you don't need to go
Speaker 3: out and spend money. You fix the space by getting
Speaker 3: rid of the stuff you had that wasn't working. So
Speaker 3: first do some purging, you know, do some organization, but
Speaker 3: start out small. You know, oftentimes people will try to
Speaker 3: bite off more they can chew. You know, they'll be like, Okay,
Speaker 3: my garage is a disaster. There's stuff everywhere, there's stuff
Speaker 3: stacked to the ceiling. I'm going to try to organize
Speaker 3: my garage today. Well that's a little too much. And
Speaker 3: then you get you don't do it. You stop, you know,
Speaker 3: thirty minutes into it, and you didn't get discouraged, and
Speaker 3: you don't.
Speaker 4: Try anything else.
Speaker 3: But if you start with your joke drawer, everybody's got
Speaker 3: to try it. He's got that drawer that has all
Speaker 3: a crap in it, that just comes from everywhere.
Speaker 4: Start with that.
Speaker 3: If you get accomplished that, then you're like, you get
Speaker 3: those little endorphins of accomplishment. You're like you can tackle,
Speaker 3: Like I can tackle the closet in my room now,
Speaker 3: and then do that, and then work your way up
Speaker 3: to that garage, you know, work your way up once
Speaker 3: you have the confidence and say, you know what, I
Speaker 3: can handle this.
Speaker 4: I can throw stuff out. I'm not I'm not.
Speaker 3: Married to these things that are holding me captive. I
Speaker 3: can get rid of this stuff and I can live
Speaker 3: much more.
Speaker 4: Cleaner and organized.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's very, very good advice. I can totally see that.
Speaker 1: I always tell people that, especially not people, but you know,
Speaker 1: my kids basically if they're moving because they've moved a
Speaker 1: couple of times, I say, purge before you move, because
Speaker 1: I'll never forget. We had a construction thing happening, and
Speaker 1: so there was a dumpster, you know, in the in
Speaker 1: the in the driveway. So I was like, oh, a dumpster.
Speaker 1: This is the greatest thing. I spent probably four days,
Speaker 1: you know, bleeding, cursing, sweating, just dragging stuff out of
Speaker 1: the basement to put into the dumpster. And the stuff
Speaker 1: that I found that we had obviously moved from one
Speaker 1: house to another, probably in the eighties. I mean some
Speaker 1: of this stuff belonged to like like nanny and nanny
Speaker 1: that had worked for us. It was it was like
Speaker 1: a couple of pots and pans, you know, I mean stuff.
Speaker 1: I was like to how did this stay? Like what? What?
Speaker 1: How did we decide that we were going to move
Speaker 1: and bring uh some some some pots and pans and
Speaker 1: a couple of pieces of tupperware from that belonged to
Speaker 1: somebody that hasn't worked for us for forty years or something,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean, it was just it was just crazy.
Speaker 1: So I'm all, I'm all about, you know, purge and move.
Speaker 1: And I think that's a really really good, really good
Speaker 1: piece of advice.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, we moved from when we moved from
Speaker 4: New York.
Speaker 3: To to la I got rid of and ethy the
Speaker 3: only thing we kept was closed. I was like, I'm
Speaker 3: just going to purge and then I completely start over.
Speaker 4: I took everything we.
Speaker 3: Had in the house, I donated it and like we're
Speaker 3: gonna we're gonna start fresh.
Speaker 1: That's great, that's great. So you'd mentioned that on the
Speaker 1: on the site, it's overall like wellness, like what other
Speaker 1: what other things are you uh do you do? I
Speaker 1: mean you're you're like into food and exercise and what
Speaker 1: meditation or any of those kinds of things.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, we have a lot of articles on
Speaker 3: exercising and health and recipes for for food and you know,
Speaker 3: we do a lot of recipes around.
Speaker 4: The holidays to help you out with that.
Speaker 3: So yeah, the theme is kind of like, you know,
Speaker 3: it's your life, design it well and that's you know,
Speaker 3: not just your interiors.
Speaker 4: It's it's everything that has to do with your life.
Speaker 1: Uh huh. That's great. And what's the book do you have?
Speaker 1: You have a book that you wrote.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, so I have a book called Right at Home.
Speaker 3: It's called How Good Design Is Good for the Mind,
Speaker 3: and it's all about figuring out.
Speaker 4: How to design your space.
Speaker 3: So it's all about empowering you to design your space
Speaker 3: because a lot of interior design books are an interior
Speaker 3: designer's perspective on what is beautiful, what looks good, this
Speaker 3: is the things you should choose for your home. My
Speaker 3: book is all about helping you figure out what makes
Speaker 3: you happy, because I feel the things that you should
Speaker 3: put in your home are things that make you happy
Speaker 3: because your home is like your foe charger. It needs
Speaker 3: to be the thing that recharges you every night. And
Speaker 3: if you're just filling your house full of things that
Speaker 3: some designer told you were pretty, because that's what's on trend,
Speaker 3: really things that.
Speaker 4: Are you're passionate about.
Speaker 3: Right, So it talks about, you know, figuring out the
Speaker 3: things that make you happy.
Speaker 4: Is going through your.
Speaker 3: Closet, figuring out like, Okay, what are the colors I
Speaker 3: see in my closet, what are the textures I see
Speaker 3: in my closet?
Speaker 4: These are the things I'm loving in fashion.
Speaker 3: These are probably going to be some things I should
Speaker 3: infuse in my decor. You know, what's your favorite food,
Speaker 3: what's your dream vacation, what's your favorite television show? Like,
Speaker 3: think this checklist of things that make you happy? Those
Speaker 3: are the things you should start thinking about of how
Speaker 3: you should design your home because again, those are the
Speaker 3: things that are going to make you happy to look
Speaker 3: at every day.
Speaker 1: Sure that makes a lot of sense. I have to
Speaker 1: ask you because now correct me if I'm wrong. I
Speaker 1: didn't see it. But were you on the mask singer?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah I was. I was on the back.
Speaker 1: I have to know what that experience is like, I mean,
Speaker 1: it just it's such a wild idea.
Speaker 4: It's insane.
Speaker 3: So I made the assumption incorrectly that there is no
Speaker 3: way in hell somebody is actually singing in those costumes.
Speaker 3: Like I assumed I would have to sing, but I
Speaker 3: thought I would pre record it because I'm like, those
Speaker 3: costumes are heavy, they're massive, you know.
Speaker 4: But I was wrong.
Speaker 3: So I had to sing inside this costume. And I
Speaker 3: remember my very first episode, I almost passed out from
Speaker 3: heat exhaustion because I run really hot and inside of
Speaker 3: there was so hot.
Speaker 1: In that claustrophobook. I think I would get very close
Speaker 1: to Yes, I played an astronaut one time and I
Speaker 1: had to put the The first time, I had to
Speaker 1: put the spacesuit on it and then and then clamp
Speaker 1: the helmet down and stop. I was like, whoa this
Speaker 1: is I don't know if I could do this.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's literally what that was like a big astronaut
Speaker 3: helmet that that caterpillar costume and I had. It was
Speaker 3: the tallest, largest and heaviest costume they had ever done.
Speaker 3: So by episode two, I had to make me a
Speaker 3: vest that I could pack with ice, and so I
Speaker 3: wore an ice packed vest to.
Speaker 1: So there's a good a good mic.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's as a.
Speaker 1: Good headset and a good headset to hear. Okay, so
Speaker 1: you can hear, you can hear yourself and then there's
Speaker 1: like track you're singing to track is yeah, oh my god.
Speaker 4: It was quite the experience.
Speaker 1: It was. Were you a singer?
Speaker 3: I mean, were you I've always I've always been a singer.
Speaker 4: That was actually my dream was to be a singer.
Speaker 4: It just wasn't in my cards.
Speaker 3: I keep thinking about pursuing a little more. Like I've
Speaker 3: done a few songs. I did a song last year
Speaker 3: with a big Brazilian artist, Rebecca, So I have some
Speaker 3: music out on Spotify. I just don't know if I'm
Speaker 3: in the point of my life where I want to
Speaker 3: start another new career. Yeah, come on, man, like you
Speaker 3: you're going your go, You're touring like your joy. The
Speaker 3: thought of touring is just not not something that I'm
Speaker 3: I would.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I don't, I don't want it.
Speaker 1: Is it the going from place to place or or yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just.
Speaker 3: The last six years, you know, when we have with
Speaker 3: filmed Queer, we've had to move to wherever we are
Speaker 3: and it's six month filming so for the last six.
Speaker 4: Years, I haven't really been home.
Speaker 3: So the thought of like going out on the road
Speaker 3: and going on tour and not being home just right
Speaker 3: now is not in my cards. Maybe in a few
Speaker 3: years I'll be like, hey, I'm ready to do it.
Speaker 3: You know, I've thought about I'm kind of in the
Speaker 3: beginning places phases of maybe recording a Christmas album for
Speaker 3: next year.
Speaker 4: Hmm, So yeah, I might dabble in it and see
Speaker 4: how I like it.
Speaker 1: Oh, that's cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah, singing's always been a huge pagine.
Speaker 6: If you are inspired by today's episode, please join us
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Speaker 1: You're here today and the organization is Stand Up for Cancer,
Speaker 1: and I want to bring in Julian Adams, who is
Speaker 1: the CEO for Stand Up to Cancer. Julian, Welcome to
Speaker 1: the podcast.
Speaker 5: Thank you, Thank you Kevin for having Bobby and me
Speaker 5: on the show.
Speaker 1: Do you guys know each other? Now?
Speaker 4: This is the first time we've met.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've worked with their organization for years, but yeah,
Speaker 3: this is the first time I've got to meet Julian.
Speaker 1: And Julian, I think you're new to the gig, right I.
Speaker 5: Am two weeks?
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, so that is why we haven't met that.
Speaker 5: But I joined last summer as the chief science Officer,
Speaker 5: and I'm here to talk about why cancer research is
Speaker 5: so important.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I really want to hear about that. Well, first off,
Speaker 1: let me just ask you, Bobby, how did you get
Speaker 1: involved with Stand Up to Cancer?
Speaker 3: So, my father, who just passed from cancer in August,
Speaker 3: has battled four different types of cancer over the last
Speaker 3: ten years. So when I became a person who had
Speaker 3: a platform over the last few years with Queer Eye,
Speaker 3: I knew I wanted to work with an organization that
Speaker 3: was very close to the situation that my family was
Speaker 3: going through, and so I asked my team to go
Speaker 3: out there and find me an organization that I could help.
Speaker 3: And that's when I got introduced to Stand Up to Cancer.
Speaker 1: Well, great, great, And how about you Julian, how did
Speaker 1: you end up working for Stand Up to Cancer?
Speaker 5: It's a long story. I am minded myself to science,
Speaker 5: even as an undergraduate uh in college. I did my
Speaker 5: PhD at mi T in chemistry, and I knew at
Speaker 5: the very beginning, from the very beginning, I was interested
Speaker 5: in medicine, but didn't go to medical school. I just
Speaker 5: devoted myself to doing biomedical research.
Speaker 1: Wow, that's fat I just want to understand this. So
Speaker 1: when you were you were undergraduate, you didn't want to
Speaker 1: be a doctor, but you did want to do medical
Speaker 1: research exactly. That's that's really fascinating. I mean, that seems
Speaker 1: like a pretty unusual path.
Speaker 5: It was. I considered going to medical school, but as
Speaker 5: I whimsically say, I didn't want it to interfere with
Speaker 5: my education.
Speaker 3: Having having having went through medical school myself and I
Speaker 3: say I went through medical school because I went through
Speaker 3: medical school, because my husband went to medical school and residency,
Speaker 3: I can understand it. It has a tendency to interfere with
Speaker 3: other things.
Speaker 5: I wanted to work on big problems and really solve
Speaker 5: h you know, fundamental issues that are you know, taking
Speaker 5: our lives. And obviously I went into industry I went
Speaker 5: into the pharmaceutical and biotech industry uh for over forty years.
Speaker 5: My first drug was for HIV. I witnessed HIV when
Speaker 5: I was a grad student emerging in the early eighties,
Speaker 5: and then found myself working in HIV research and developed
Speaker 5: the first one of the first drugs for the for
Speaker 5: the treatment of HIV AIDS. And then I migrated to
Speaker 5: cancer because I was following some some basic research and
Speaker 5: was working on some some laboratory work that eventually drew
Speaker 5: me into cancer and I spent, you know, over thirty
Speaker 5: five years of my life involved in cancer research, developing drugs, discovering, developing,
Speaker 5: and you know, doing the whole gamut. I joined Stand
Speaker 5: Up to Cancer about fifteen years ago on the scientific
Speaker 5: Advisory Committee, which was chaired by Nobel Laureate Phil Sharp,
Speaker 5: and so you can imagine the interviews I had to
Speaker 5: get to get to this place, and I got a
Speaker 5: drug approved for bone marrow transplantation. Last year, decided to retire,
Speaker 5: but being on Stand Up to Cancer's Advisory Committee, I
Speaker 5: went to Sherry Lancy, our chair of the organization, and said, look,
Speaker 5: I have more time on my hands. I'm retired. She says, well,
Speaker 5: come to be our Chief sides officer.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 5: And six months later I'm the CEO and so I'm
Speaker 5: running the show.
Speaker 1: Wow, that's amazing. Well, I want to get into where
Speaker 1: I want to get into where we're at and also
Speaker 1: what specifically stand up to cancer does. My question for you,
Speaker 1: Julian is so I people ask me, you know, and
Speaker 1: they often asked this of famous people, what led you
Speaker 1: to what you do? And you know, it was pretty simple.
Speaker 1: You know, I just wanted to be famous, and I
Speaker 1: wanted people look at me, and I wanted to make
Speaker 1: a lot of money and get girls. That was It
Speaker 1: was very simple kind of thing. I later kind of
Speaker 1: learned to understand that there was an art to it
Speaker 1: and that there was a thing and it became something
Speaker 1: that I was passionate for. But the driving instinct or
Speaker 1: motivation wasn't that. But I'm curious with you because obviously
Speaker 1: it wasn't to become famous or or make money or
Speaker 1: get Girls's the what's the thing do you think that
Speaker 1: makes you be interested in, you know, research in medicine,
Speaker 1: in making sick people well, like, is there something that's
Speaker 1: outside of the nuts and bolts of it personally that
Speaker 1: is was drove you.
Speaker 5: Initially again, as a kid, I read the story of
Speaker 5: Thomas Edison in the third grade, literally and it just
Speaker 5: fascinated me. I just wanted to invent stuff. I didn't
Speaker 5: know what I wanted to invent. I didn't know, you know,
Speaker 5: I wasn't going to be you know, a movie projector
Speaker 5: it wasn't going to be whatever Thomas Edison did. And
Speaker 5: I just got fascinated with health and science and biomedical
Speaker 5: applications to improving people's lives. I mean, what is it
Speaker 5: What do we have if we don't have our health?
Speaker 5: You know, there's no amount of money or you know,
Speaker 5: toys or things you can have if you don't have
Speaker 5: your health. And cancer is the second biggest killer. One
Speaker 5: point nine million people succumb to this disease in twenty
Speaker 5: twenty three. And cancer is not one disease, as you know,
Speaker 5: it's hundreds of diseases. So it just become a complete
Speaker 5: passion of mine. As I got more in to it,
Speaker 5: It's just you kept drawing in, drawn in and drawn in,
Speaker 5: and you know, it defines me. Now I'm a cancer researcher.
Speaker 1: It's pretty hard to find somebody that hasn't been touched
Speaker 1: by cancer. In some kind of way.
Speaker 5: You're exactly right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's it's uh, if nothing else by
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you know, having a little scare
Speaker 1: or whatever. But what is it? What what is the
Speaker 1: Is there anything news wise as a as an expert
Speaker 1: on this that you can share with us in terms
Speaker 1: of research or or or you know, any any good
Speaker 1: news on the horizon. We're always looking for good news.
Speaker 5: Yeah, there's tons of good news coming. Let me start
Speaker 5: with a little history lasting okay in belged me sure,
Speaker 5: last century, twentieth century, it's chema. It's taken toxic chemotherapy,
Speaker 5: cocktails of chemotherapy, and you try to kill the cancer
Speaker 5: before the chemo kills you. And the twenty first century
Speaker 5: has been an explosion of research. We solve the human
Speaker 5: geno at the turn of the century, and all of
Speaker 5: a sudden, all these technologies, all these abilities to understand
Speaker 5: how DNA works, how cancer emerges, how does it develop
Speaker 5: in the first place, we have all of these remarkable discoveries.
Speaker 5: Hundreds several hundred new medicines have been approved just in
Speaker 5: the last twenty twenty four years, you know, And I've
Speaker 5: been part of that. I've been part of that the
Speaker 5: whole time, and I just you know, it just keeps
Speaker 5: drawing me even further in and I'm even more committed.
Speaker 5: So as I said, I tried to retire, but I
Speaker 5: could just became impossible. And then Stand It to Cancer
Speaker 5: is sort of like the perfect landing spot for me,
Speaker 5: because a we treat all cancers. Cancer doesn't really know
Speaker 5: any borders. Cancer does know what age you are, it
Speaker 5: doesn't discriminate, and the community of science is just an
Speaker 5: international community and just trying to solve this nefarious disease
Speaker 5: that catches people too early off guard and really doesn't
Speaker 5: just disrupt one life, it disrupts the entire family. And
Speaker 5: listen to Boppy story, just breaks my heart to lose
Speaker 5: your dad, to lose a loved one. It's just what's worse.
Speaker 1: Stand Up to Cancer is primarily focused on research, Is
Speaker 1: that correct?
Speaker 5: Yes, We have raised money in the neighborhood of about
Speaker 5: eight hundred million dollars since our fifteen year existence to
Speaker 5: fund the best science across the globe. We seek out
Speaker 5: some of the more difficult problems, and no cancer is spared.
Speaker 5: We look at the rarest cancers all the way to
Speaker 5: the most common cancer like lung cans. So we do
Speaker 5: everything that we can so long to advance knowledge to
Speaker 5: advanced research into advanced medicines for patients.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you something, Julian, this is actually
Speaker 1: uh kind of brings up an interesting question and and
Speaker 1: and actually, Bobby, I'd like you to kind of weigh
Speaker 1: in on this too. You're talking a lot about, uh,
Speaker 1: these incredible medicines and this incredible research that that we've
Speaker 1: done in terms of finding out about uh, you know,
Speaker 1: you mentioned the human genome and et cetera. How do
Speaker 1: how much does the research point to lifestyle in terms
Speaker 1: of trying to remain cancer free? And I mean, I
Speaker 1: know I think about this because Bobby's experience with his father.
Speaker 1: I think, I don't know, if I don't want to
Speaker 1: put words in your mouth, but might have had an
Speaker 1: influence on how you've thought so much about exercise and
Speaker 1: diet and and uh mental clarity or whatever. That is
Speaker 1: what I mean. Maybe you guys could talk about that
Speaker 1: a little bit.
Speaker 3: I think from my dad it had a lot to
Speaker 3: do with lifestyle. You know, my dad drove a truck
Speaker 3: for you know, forty fifty years he inhaled you know,
Speaker 3: toxic fuel fumes he smoked for fifty years. He was
Speaker 3: also a rancher who dealt with chemicals like round up,
Speaker 3: So I think a lot of it was environmental and
Speaker 3: his lifestyle.
Speaker 4: That being said, I.
Speaker 3: Lost a friend a year and a half ago, super healthy,
Speaker 3: worked out every single day, did not put anything that
Speaker 3: wasn't organic into his body. At thirty three, he was
Speaker 3: diagnosed with liver cancer and was dead in six weeks. So, Julian,
Speaker 3: obviously you're the scientist, but those have been my two
Speaker 3: drastic different experiences. For one, that I was like everything
Speaker 3: that my father did with his life, decisions that he made,
Speaker 3: pointed to sadly the outcome where I had friends who
Speaker 3: were very active in making sure that they took care
Speaker 3: of themselves and did everything they could for that to
Speaker 3: not happen, and then this still happened.
Speaker 5: So what we know about today's environment plays a huge role.
Speaker 5: It's probably the largest contributor. And environment includes things like smoking,
Speaker 5: things like overeating. Obesity is a huge cofactor, but it's
Speaker 5: also genetics, it's infectious diseases. There are numerous you know
Speaker 5: what happens during puberty for breast cancer in women, all
Speaker 5: kinds of factors that beat to cancer, and sadly it's
Speaker 5: not that predictable. The only three things that we know
Speaker 5: for sure is obesity, smoking and alcohol overuse are really bad.
Speaker 5: And then of course the area you breathe, that water
Speaker 5: you drink. Of course all of that matters. And it's
Speaker 5: just a dialbollical uh situation. Uh and Bobby, I you know,
Speaker 5: I just nothing is sadder than seeing a young person
Speaker 5: develop cancer and be dead in six weeks. I feel free.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that is That's that's really rough, really rough. Uh. Well, listen,
Speaker 1: what I'd like to do is, uh do a little
Speaker 1: This is our call to action section. I mean, can
Speaker 1: you guys talk about ways that people can help, uh
Speaker 1: in terms of finding out where to donate or stand
Speaker 1: up to cancer any events. I think it's stand up
Speaker 1: to Cancer as far as I know, usually has some
Speaker 1: pretty big events in the course of the year. What's
Speaker 1: what's what's going on. Let's uh, let's let's give them
Speaker 1: the digits and the websites and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we just had a telecast this past summer. Uh.
Speaker 5: It we raised millions of dollars of it based on
Speaker 5: the telling patient stories and having celebrities come in that's
Speaker 5: that's one of the special uh attributes of Stand Up
Speaker 5: to Cancer. We were founded by the entertainment industry, and
Speaker 5: so we have access to all these great celebrities and
Speaker 5: donate their time and do these public service announcements, et cetera,
Speaker 5: et cetera. Uh. So we're constantly looking for more research
Speaker 5: dollars UH to fight these multitude of diseases. And it's
Speaker 5: really it's it's it's our mission. Our mission is to
Speaker 5: fund innovative research to detect and intercept and and with
Speaker 5: the aspiration to cure all pants A patients. That's that's
Speaker 5: our north star.
Speaker 1: That's good. That's a good one. What's and what's the website?
Speaker 3: Is?
Speaker 1: It must be stand Up to Cancer dot com. I
Speaker 1: would think dot org dot org. Yeah, stand up to
Speaker 1: Cancer dot org. Yeah.
Speaker 5: We're a nonprofited mind everywhere. It's my first time in
Speaker 5: the nonprofit world, so.
Speaker 1: Getting used to it. Yeah. It's it's a it's its own,
Speaker 1: it's its own thing.
Speaker 5: And it feels good. It really feels good.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, you know, congratulations Julian on this. Uh what
Speaker 1: can I call this a second chapter or a third
Speaker 1: chapter or you know, or just a new gig.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's a new gig, and it's it's probably chapter
Speaker 5: five or six. Because every time I discover a drug,
Speaker 5: you know, I move on, I take on another problem
Speaker 5: and uh, you know, and I've been lucky.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 5: I've discovered for were unique rugs. I have two cooking
Speaker 5: right now in the Tight States clinical trials. But what
Speaker 5: I'm most excited about now is the ability that we
Speaker 5: have with all the technologies that we have, is to
Speaker 5: do early detection of cancer, uh and intercept that cancer.
Speaker 5: And for the first time, last year, we saw evidence
Speaker 5: that for the first time, cancer vaccines actually work. We've
Speaker 5: seen in melanoma, we've seen it in pancreatic cancer. And
Speaker 5: so I'm really pivoting our organization to do what the
Speaker 5: pharmaceutical industry will never do, is to try to detect
Speaker 5: that early detection, early intervention with cancer vaccines. I think
Speaker 5: we stand in a very unique spot to be able
Speaker 5: to foster that kind of research.
Speaker 3: I've recently started doing full body MRI scans.
Speaker 4: I've now started having won every three years.
Speaker 3: I me at that age where you know, other people
Speaker 3: in my family have My grandfather died of a brain
Speaker 3: tumor around my same age, So every three years now,
Speaker 3: I'm getting a full body MRI scan just so I
Speaker 3: can catch things early if I ever too get something.
Speaker 5: But unfortunately, with the health disparities in this country, that's
Speaker 5: not scalable. You know. I obviously, Bobby, you got to
Speaker 5: do what you've got to do. But if you think
Speaker 5: about the country wide population, you know, we need point
Speaker 5: of care off doctor's office. You know, pinprick blood, draw saliva,
Speaker 5: you know, something simple that can really with great fidelity
Speaker 5: predict are you susceptible? Are you at risk for getting cancer?
Speaker 5: And if so, how do you intervene? Again, I'm very
Speaker 5: jazzed about cancer vaccines, but there are other modalities that have,
Speaker 5: you know, improvements in surgery, improvements in every aspect of
Speaker 5: biomedical interventions that if we can get you into remission,
Speaker 5: we don't want your relapse either. So that's a place
Speaker 5: where we just want to improve survivorship. And I've laid
Speaker 5: out a bold vision for our organization is we want
Speaker 5: to fund research that I want to say, in five
Speaker 5: years from now will reduce cancer cancer deaths by twenty
Speaker 5: five percent and in ten years by fifty percent. That's
Speaker 5: you know, and that I can die happily. Something that's
Speaker 5: not you know, I have something that not can Good.
Speaker 1: For you man, Good for you, man, Bobby, Thank you
Speaker 1: for being here today, looking forward to well whatever is
Speaker 1: coming down the road. And and you know, I maybe
Speaker 1: I'll have to go back and hear you singing that
Speaker 1: what kind of creature were you in that show?
Speaker 4: I was a caterpillar.
Speaker 7: Caterpillar, caterpillar, a very long and large caterpillar. All right,
Speaker 7: well we're gonna have to check out Bobby Burke as
Speaker 7: a caterpillar. And fellas, it's been really fun chatting with
Speaker 7: you and really fascinating and I really do appreciate the
Speaker 7: work that you're both doing, so keep it up.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Hey guys, thanks for listening to another episode of Six
Speaker 1: Degrees with Kevin Bacon. If you want to learn more
Speaker 1: about Stand Up to Cancer and all the amazing work
Speaker 1: that they do, head to their website Stay and Up
Speaker 1: to Cancer dot org that Stand Up to Cancer dot org.
Speaker 1: You can find all the links in our show notes
Speaker 1: and if you like what you hear, make sure you
Speaker 1: subscribe to the show. Please tune in to the rest
Speaker 1: of our episodes. You can find six Degrees with Kevin
Speaker 1: Bagan on iHeartRadio Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 4: See you next time.