Committed Podcast

07/06/2024

New episode alert! Casey and Steven met on a study abroad program in Morocco when they were juniors in college. After school they traveled to Beijing to teach English and then to Mali to live in Timbuktu. Travel does something to a relationship. It creates intimacies and speeds up the way we learn about one another. Now, two decades later, Casey and Steven have opened an Inn together in the Catskills, they have two daughters and they have found a sense of balance and give and take in their relationship that allows the other one to thrive. and

29/03/2024

Yes, in case you've noticed, I'm moving on from South Pole. Thanks to everyone who's offered catch up calls and conversations about what's next! However... there's something more important in the short term! The success of my wife, Jo Piazza new book which is completely fantastic. Don't take my word for it, here's some recent coverage... Head down to your local bookstore, or even Amazon and PLEASE grab a copy of "The Sicilian Inheritance". You'll thank me!

In 'The Sicilian Inheritance,' Jo Piazza follows a woman accused of witchcraft in early 1900s Sicily and a relative piecing together her death. A true crime podcast about the real case is forthcoming.

21/03/2024

"This is the book you need to read before you go to Sicily"

Author Jo Piazza's new book about solving a family murder inspired by her own travels to Sicily.

10/08/2022

In 2006 Lee Woodruff got the phone call that no wife ever wants to get. Her husband Bob, then the co-anchor of ABC World News Tonight, had been hit by a roadside bomb in Iraq. In the explosion of rocks and metal, Bob was critically injured, sustaining shrapnel wounds to the head.

He was evacuated to Bethesda Maryland where he was put into a medically induced coma for five weeks to allow his brain to heal. Bob and Lee had already been together for a long time, they had four young kids and Lee had no idea what their life would look like moving forward. Lee recounts her love story and their family's journey beautifully in her New York Times bestseller In an Instant, but I have to say that there was nothing like hearing both Bob and Lee tell their story together in this interview. This is a story about the unexpected, both the unexpected tragedies that upend our lives, but also the unexpected joy that we find in the aftermath of those tragedies.

01/07/2022

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.

22/06/2022

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. Link to Sarah’s book in the profile. 

15/06/2022

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.

12/07/2021

Broadway actors and Nick Cordero were a young and healthy married couple with a new baby when Nick went into the ICU with COVID-19. Nick was only 41. He was strong and everyone thought he would be out of the hospital in a week or two. But Nick's health continued to deteriorate. He couldn't breathe on his own. His organs began to fail. Amanda did everything she could to stay hopeful. She rallied the entire world in song and prayer. We don't normally do episodes with just one part of a couple. But sometimes there is an exception to the rule and Amanda Kloots IS that exception. 
In her new book Live Your life Amanda is candid and raw and so incredibly honest about what it was like to watch Nick waste away from a disease that no one understood. She reflects back on their few years together and wonders whether she was a good enough wife to Nick at times, whether she did enough to support his dreams. She also painstakingly describes how she has committed to keeping Nick's memory and music alive for the world and for their toddler son Elvis. 
Her story is heartbreaking, but it also leaves you with hope that we can all get through our darkest moments.

16/06/2021

New episode dropped this morning! Do you guys watch ? If so then you’ll recognize this guy. had been a pastor for more than 20 years when he realized he wanted to do something new. Call it an itch, a calling, a midlife crisis but Todd knew he needed to do something else. And so he tried out for The Voice. This episode is about Todd’s journey from pastor to singing sensation but it is mostly about how his wife of more than 20 years, pushed him and encouraged him to get there. Todd and Brooke have weathered so many seasons in their two decade marriage. They got married young, nearly got divorced, came back together, were blessed with eight children, two of them adopted from Korea. They dealt with Brooke’s anxiety and depression, with money ups and downs, raising a family of ten on a pastor’s salary. And when Todd needed that change it was Brooke who pushed him to follow his dreams.

10/06/2021

New episode!! Laura Stachel and her husband Hal Aronson save lives every single day through their work providing solar power to hospitals around the world. Neither of them ever could have done it on their own. Their marriage has informed their work and their work has informed their marriage. Laura is an obgyn and public health professional. When she traveled to Nigeria on a research trip she realized that women and children were dying during childbirth because hospitals had no electricity. When she brought the problem to Hal he saw the solution. He immediately began to design solar energy programs for these hospitals. Today is a vibrant nonprofit that has reached more than 6,200 health facilities serving more than 7.5 million mothers and newborns.

03/06/2021

Today’s episode is about a dear friend of mine. I know the topic of policing is sensitive and we tried to be as sensitive as possible in this reporting. This is the story of a female police chief in Philadelphia and how she reacted to George Floyd’s murder and how she managed her police force through what came next in the summer of 2020. This is about how she immediately used the word murder when so many were not. But it’s much more than that. This is also about the woman who supported that police officer, her partner, now wife, Jackie. This is a love story. But it is also a story about policing and how things do have to change.

26/05/2021

I love me some Hall & Oates! So I was absolutely delighted to interview John Oates and his wife Aimee this week to find out what it is like to raise a family on the road. When Aimee Oates got pregnant with her first baby she told her husband John that the two of them were hitting the road with him and his band Hall & Oates. It wasn't a thing that usually happened. Wives, babies, they didn't usually come on the road with this old boys club. But Aimee was adamant. And they did it. They traveled as a family with the iconic rock group Hall & Oates. Their son took his first steps in a casino. They barely ever spent a day apart. I have always been curious about what it is like to be married to a rock star. I don't think Aimee and John's story is necessarily representative of all rock stars, but it is so beautiful how they found an unconventional way to nurture their family and their marriage.

19/05/2021

Today’s new episode is a little different. COVID-19 has divided Americans in so many ways in the past year. Many Americans have completely opposite views on whether or not they want to be vaccinated right now. And those conversations are happening very close to home, sometimes within the same home. We were so curious to know what was said behind closed doors when one spouse was pro-vaccine and the other one was against getting the COVID-19 vaccine. We put out a call to the Committed community and got way more responses than we expected. Today's episode contains two stories of couples who do not see eye to eye on getting the vaccine and how they manage to get through being on very opposite sides of the issue.

12/05/2021

If you binge-watched Tiger King during the beginning of the pandemic like Nick and I did then you may think you know everything there is to know about Carole and Howie Baskin. You probably have an idea about them in your head, maybe even a suspicion or two. But there is so much that you didn't see on Tiger King. We got to interview Howie and Carole about it all -- the documentary, Joe Exotic, the murder for hire plot, the cat sanctuary, Dancing with the Stars -- but most of all about their beautiful love story filled with compassion, humor and dedication to a cause.

05/05/2021

This episode broke my heart wide open and then put it back together again. Chris had proposed to Goldie when they were 18. He got down on one knee at Cinderella's castle. When you're that young you think marriage might be like a fairytale, that the prince being down on one knee is the one thing that will make it all better. 
But their first years of marriage were hard. They were totally broke and Goldie was dealing with trauma from past sexual abuse. She developed an autoimmune disorder where she was in pain all the time. Pain that made her want to take her own life. 
Chris never gave up. When Goldie tried to commit su***de he doubled down on his efforts to be by her side, to provide constant hope and optimism, to do anything and everything to save his wife's life.

28/04/2021

Reverend Roxy and Reverend Joshua come from completely different backgrounds. He’s a white guy from Colorado. She’s a Black woman from Brooklyn. They met while they were both chaplains in the military. They fell in love fast and hard despite all their differences. Being in an in*******al couple in America has never been easy, but right now, as our country deals with a much overdue racial reckoning, there is often even more of a learning process involved. 
Joshua had to learn how to grow and adapt and restructure his world-view in a multitude of different ways because he was raised in an environment where race or racial issues weren't really something he was ever confronted with. Roxy had to learn to educate Joshua, and also when to step back and let him educate himself. They both had to learn how to have an open and honest dialogue to express how they really felt.
They really enjoyed figuring out how to grow together. And after they got married they discovered they loved working with other couples to do the same thing. Together they created a premarital counseling and wedding officiated business. Reverend Roxy is something of a wedding celebrity these days. She’s performed ceremonies on shows like Love is Blind and Married at First Sight, usually in some fantastic designer gown that should be on a red carpet.

21/04/2021

Leah was terrified of getting married. She didn’t want to give up her independence. But a terrible accident at a construction site changed everything Leah thought she wanted. Her longtime boyfriend Kelsey rushed to her bedside to be with her and she proposed to him from the hospital. The two of them have had to figure out how to navigate their first year of marriage during a pandemic and with Leah paralyzed from the waist down. We love this couple so much. We did the interview a year ago and in that time they had a very joyful update that we added to the end of the episode.

14/04/2021

We’re back my friends!!! And we are kicking off season six with 40 years of marriage with and Phil Donahue. Phil and Marlo met on Phil’s TV show in 1977 (who else adored Donahue as a kid). I’ll put the video in stories. It’s electric. You can literally watch them fall in love. For forty years Phil Donahue and Marlo Thomas tried to keep their celebrity marriage out of the spotlight. But after being married for four decades, or what felt like a hundred years as Phil says, they got interested in researching what makes a marriage work and last. These two survived Hollywood and cross country moves and jealousy over co-stars. Their wit and wisdom about commitment is unparalleled. We are so excited to share their long love story with you and introduce you to their incredible new podcast called Double Date. Fans of Committed will just adore the interviews Phil and Marlo do on double date with celebrities like Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka, Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen, Sting and Trudy Styler and so many more.