Last fall Renee moved from Singapore to Los Angeles to be with her partner April. April calls it a grand gesture and it certainly is. But it was confusing to a lot of people because Renee and April aren't in a romantic relationship. At all. And yet they do consider themselves life partners. The two women have been best friends since they were teenagers and they now consider themselves platonic life partners. But our society doesn't really recognize that as a thing. Committed is a podcast about love stories, and here's the thing. This IS a love story. We talk so much about romantic love in our culture. We see romantic love in movies and books and songs...so many songs. And yet we rarely talk about the lifelong friendships that are the backbones of our lives. The ones that often last much longer than a marriage. Today we do. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
On their first date Tony Dokoupil said to Katy Tur, "So, we both have crazy parents." This was wildly refreshing for Katy to hear and for Tony to say at the start of a relationship. Any of you with crazy parents will understand how much easier it is to be with someone who also has an unorthodox family. As she recounts in her stunning new NY Times bestselling memoir Rough Draft, Katy's parents were the first helicopter news pilots in Los Angeles; they covered some totally insane stuff from the OJ Simpson police chase to the LA Riots, often with Katy along for the ride. Her dad was brilliant and volatile and often abusive. Tony's dad was a multinational drug smuggler who used the drug money to fund Tony's fancy education and privileged childhood.Gettingit all out in the open was the start to their relationship. But there were bumps along the way. Tony was divorced with two kids. He didn't know if he wanted more and if he didn't that was a dealbreaker for Katy. At the time Katy was a rising star in the news world covering the 2016 Trump campaign and Tony was struggling with what to do next in his career. They were both on the road all the time. But they figured it out. They fell in love, got married, had babies, living and worked through COVID, supported one another's careers and it all began with Tony saying, "we've both got crazy parents." See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hi, Committed fans! Let’s Red Table That is the new, official Red Table Talk fan rewatch podcast! Your hosts Cara Pressley and Tracy T. Rowe are welcoming fellow RTT fans to their virtual red table, where they’ll be breaking down the latest RTT episodes and adding their own hot takes. New episodes are airing every Thursday, starting July 7. Listen here and subscribe to Let’s Red Table That on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
For Mike Comforto, the worry and the anxiety over his infant son completely took over his life and his marriage. He was constantly convinced that the baby was in near fatal danger and those fears only intensified when he and his wife Nicole had a second child. Once he was having panic attacks and anxiety episodes every single day Mike was diagnosed with OCD and his road to recovery was a long process that is still ongoing today. The term OCD gets thrown around a lot, but we rarely think about the impact that it can have on an individual, and their spouse and their children. Mike and his wife Nicole had to learn how to tame his crippling panic otherwise they'd never be able to thrive as parents of two children or as husband and wife. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Renee Montgomery is a basketball legend. She won two WNBA championships with the Minnesota Lynx. Today she's a part owner and Vice President of the WNBA team the Atlanta dream and a social justice activist. Renee talks a lot about the many, many ways that basketball has changed her life, including getting to meet her wife, the singer Sirena Grace. Meeting Sirena at an Atlanta Hawks game completely changed Renee's life in myriad ways and the two women wake up every day thinking about how they can each support the other's dreams, goals and personal brand. I love this story because Renee seems so tough on the outside, but when you get to know her she is a hopeless romantic who found her soulmate when she least expected it. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sarah and Eric became foster parents in the hopes of one day adopting. And when baby Coco came into their lives it looked like it could be for good. But that wasn't the case. Caring for Coco became much messier, more challenging and more difficult than Eric and Sarah ever expected, mainly due to the fact that the foster system continually told them that they would likely be able to adopt Coco and then completely blindsided Sarah and Eric by pushing for reunification with Coco's birth mother who they called a "bad prospect" for getting her child back. Sarah writes about this heartbreaking situation so beautifully in her book Stranger Care, the title of which was inspired by how the foster system refers to the non-relative men and women caring for the hundreds of thousands of children in their care every year. Sarah and Eric had to learn a new kind of love, not just a love for baby Coco, but also a love for her birth mother Evelyn, in order to give Coco the best possible life she could have. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Erin and Jason's third date ended with Jason falling off of a roof and ending up in the hospital with a major spinal cord injury that left him in a wheelchair. The two of them have only been on a few dates, but both of them had felt a serious connection, maybe even the beginnings of love. But neither of them knew what could or should happen after an accident that completely changed Jason's life. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Peloton Instructor and international cycling champion Christine D'Ercole was not looking for love. She was focusing on her work, her sport and her daughter. And then one shout out on her bike led to some witty banter with a rider which led to a deep friendship which led too much, much more. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Committed is back for Season Seven on June 8th! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Holly Frey, host of Stuff You Missed in History Cass, sits down with Siedah Garrett, one of the ten winners of Seneca Women to Hear: Search for the Next Great Female Podcasters See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.