Sibling Revelry with Kate Hudson and Oliver Hudson - Chosen Family with Glee's Jenna Ushkowitz

Episode Date: April 22, 2024

Jenna Ushkowitz 'Glee-fully' tells us about the importance of chosen family. From the loving parents who adopted her as a toddler, to the Glee family she found later in life, find out what it was like to work on a hit show with co-stars who bonded (and argued) like siblings. Plus, Kate and Oliver open up about finding their adopted sibling during adulthood.  Could Jenna be considering finding her birth parents? Does she have blood-related siblings somewhere in the world? What's her biggest fear when it comes to meeting her biological family?  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Hi, I'm Jennifer Lopez and in the new season of The Over Comfort Podcast, I'm even more honest, more vulnerable, and more real than ever. Am I ready to enter this new part of my life? Like, am I ready to be in a relationship? Am I ready to have kids and to really just devote myself and my time? Join me for conversations about healing and growth, all from one of my favorite spaces, The Kitchen. Listen to the new season of the Overcombered podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast,

or wherever you get your podcast. Hi, I'm Kate Hudson. And my name is Oliver Hudson. We wanted to do something that highlighted our relationship. And what it's like to be siblings. We are a sibling rivalry. No, no. Sibling rivalry.

Don't do that with your memory. mouth. Sibling Revelry. That's good. So what's up? I mean, I'm here. There's so much to talk about. We're going to get into that because I want to do an episode just you and I.

I know. Which I think we should actually be doing more. I think people will like that. Yeah, because we could just talk shit. Just worried about this podcasting. What do you mean? I think it's really. ruining my life.

Let's save that. Let me get to that later. Yeah. Okay, great. Yeah. Let's talk about our next guest. Okay. So, so I am a Gleer.

Alum. An alum. I'm a Glee alum. I played Cassandra July. Actually, honestly, one of the most fun characters I played. because she was so mean. Wasn't she like a dance teacher? Yeah, I was a dance teacher.

And I taught Leah Michelle. She was my student and I just was really nasty. It was fun. And we had fun. Leah and I had so much fun. But I didn't get to work with Jenna, who we Ushkowitz, super talented, really interesting, very interesting upbringing, which we will get into.

and is very committed to Broadway, producing on Broadway, but has a great life story. I mean, yeah, adopted. Adopted. And we'll get in. Yeah, we'll get, we won't. We'll get into all. Sometimes we have a problem with these intros where we kind of tell everything before the guests.

Yeah, that's why we're trying not to. No, I know. But I will say that the glee community is still going strong. It's still strong. It's wild. And people rewatch and, like, young kids you know it has like these secondary lives young kids they they get introduced to glee and then they get obsessed with it well that's kind of cool but i don't know if it's cool or not cool

actually with streaming nowadays i mean you look at suits you look at all these shows that i know that all of a sudden get put on streaming and bang they're popular again yeah they like they put in austin's creek on two years ago allie are you famous again i was famous again for when i was 22 years old, I had people come up to me like, oh my God, Dawson's Creek. I'm like, what the fuck? And I realized that it was put on some stream out of Netflix or whatever. I know. And then they kind of switch. Like, yeah, Sex and the City is on something right now. I was looking at something. Yeah. The City was on something. And I was like, isn't that HBO? But it was on. Well, they all get licensed out. Oh, so confusing. I'm in the business and I'm

confused. So you just, you should actually have that. That would be a good revel in it. It's to, well, to like get, you know, to talk about the state of the business, like, talk to an expert of, like, you know, Hollywood. Bob Iger. Well, yes, I would love to have Bob on the show. But, like, I mean more like someone who really, really understand the ins and outs of, like, the business. Yeah. Like a variety reporter. Right.

You know. What about Jesse Herman? I mean, that could be interesting. He's at Warner Brothers. Yeah. He's an executive of Warner Brothers. But someone on the outside looking in. This is a boring intro for people.

I already tune out. Guys, don't tune out. We're thinking out loud. But no, I'm really excited to talk to Jenna. I want to hear a story. And I believe they just started. She has a podcast with Kevin. where they re-watch Glee

and they talk about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they're just starting the season that I was in. Oh, good. Yeah. Well, perfect. Let's bring her in. Let's bring her on.

All right, let's do this. Hi. Hi. How are you? How are you? I'm good. Thank you. Good.

What's going on? Not too much. Just doing the podcast thing. Are we all doing the podcast thing? Who is it? But I like your podcast. I like, so you guys, so you and Kevin are re-watching the whole thing. Yes, we are.

We're up to your season right now. Oh, my gosh. We are on season four. Very exciting. What's it like relivingly? It's strange and cathartic and therapeutic all at the same time. I think there's been enough time now. and having lived through a pandemic and becoming a mother

and, you know, all of these different things. Like, there's enough time and space away from it that I feel like I'm watching it from a fan's perspective instead of all of the, you know, all the baggage that came with the show. A drama. Yeah. It was a very dramatic set.

Was it? Well, you know, when you've got all of those personalities and all those, all of those, all that, talent and all that youth. Egos. A lot of hormones. A lot of hormones. There's got to be egos.

Oh, definitely. Yeah, but it's youthful, young. Youthful egos. Yes. Do you have to watch what you say, you know, because obviously you can't expose and reveal everything. So how do you manage that? You can. Don't be like me.

We don't. We really, you know, I say to Kevin. lot. Look, that's not our story to tell. I tell it from my perspective, his perspective. We try to be kind about it because I will be honest, like we were all very close. And yes, we all have our squabbles and there's all things. But we really were a family and it was easier to get along than it wasn't. So as dramatic as it was, and I'm so, that's so interesting you say that, Kate, there was just, there's so many moving parts of our show and so many cast members and so many personalities.

I think it's because you guys were so close, you know, and the show was so huge. So you're all this like young, little family. And then, of course, inside of it, it's like, you know, you're going to have like all the stuff that comes with it. The other thing is you had extraordinary talent on that show. It's true. And let me tell you something. There's a reason why very talented people.

art can be sometimes challenging people to work with because they can be uncompromising, they really believe in themselves, they know what they have to offer. And so, you know, you get that, all of that in one room and there's going to be some, you know, fun drama. That's right. We were working hard too and you got to see a little bit of the machine and the way it worked and how much, how much time we really did spend together. I mean, we saw each other more than we saw our own families. So there was a lot of that dynamic too. We were so close. And I was just doing this other podcast where I was talking about people learning how to advocate for themselves. I think it's an interesting line between being taken advantage of advocating yourself and coming

across as a diva. And I think as a woman in this industry, we can come across as really strong and that could be perceived differently than the way we hoped it would. So I think there was also an element of that as well. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and you have to learn through the experiences where you wish maybe it was set up differently. Yeah. You know, like I, I myself had an experience one time, not in a film experience, but more of a business experience where it wasn't even a business thing. It was like I started this thing with a friend of mine for charity purposes. And it was kind of taken from us because we didn't dot our eyes and cross our T's. We didn't approach it in a certain way.

We were young and, you know, we were sort of naive to that. And so you kind of have two, you have a choice. You either learn from that mistake and move on and let it go or you hold onto it forever and ever and you create, you know, waves around it. And I'm, I'm the first one, you know, for me, it's like, you learn you you you can see it and you just never do that again yeah and then advise others you know Jenna why don't you explain kind of what you're talking about in terms of yeah I mean I think in the sense of glee what I was referring to is there was a lot of time this was like a new format for people

the show was never done before there was a musical element there were tours there were huge guest stars like yourself like there were just a lot of things kept flying at us and then you add in the element of time and we're working 15, 18 hour days, five days a week and then doing all this other stuff on the weekends and press. So because it was a new format, like I think everybody was just figuring it out. And so therefore, a lot of the time was like, well, you guys are in every scene. You also have to record. You also have to learn how to do these dance routines and then shoot them the next day. And so there was a lot of opportunity to be taken advantage of in a way where even

SAG, like, you know, they didn't know what was going on. Like, you can just say, like, I'm exhausted. I have a herniated disc in my back. I'm being told I have to work. And there has to be a time where nobody knows how to say no except for yourself. And so when you're saying no on a set in our industry, it's not really like. heard of. You become expendable in a way where they say like, okay, then we'll find somebody else who will say yes. There were particular people that in a really diplomatic way knew how to say

I'm not doing that and like didn't really get in trouble for it. Like I think there's a way to do it. Whereas for me, if I was too scared to even say that. So it took a long time for me to to learn how to how to do that in a way that people will respect you and don't try to fire you. Yeah, where it's under where it's understand. There is a way to do it too where it is where, you know, they actually like appreciate and understand where you're coming from. You know, I was I was thinking about this the other day because in television, I don't think a lot of people on the outside understand how grueling.

the television schedules are you know the other day same thing i worked 14 hours into it 16 hour day into a 14 hour day and i was just like i hadn't seen my kids i had that and i was and it's it's it's also like you think like oh we're just you know sitting in a trail it's like no you're you're working you're working all day and you know at one point i was in a pool like soaking wet the middle of the night and I was like God these hours are insane yeah and if I'm working that long

then our crew's working along and that to me is even more important because you know if I'm not advocating for myself in my exhaustion then I'm really not advocating for

for the group for our group and that you know and our business still we still just yeah it's a it's a pretty it's a pretty it's a pretty it's a grind of an of a working industry you know yeah then there are rules and if those rules don't sort of change as long as they work within the parameters of the rules yeah exactly it's you know i'm curious like on on our show were you worked like was it a were there really long days for you or was it a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was pretty crazy.

It were very long days. But, you know, I was, you know, I was just a guest star. So, you know, but I did get a good sense of the energy. And everything on that's on the set. And I worked with two different directors, three different directors, I think. And one who worked really fast, one who was more thoughtful in his approach I really appreciated the one who took a little bit longer because he was so cinematic but I could also tell that people

who were working all the time were just like oh my God please move please can we just go home because I came in like I came in like this is fantastic this guy's amazing everybody's like oh my God I know but we just want to get right right right and is hearing the grumbling from the crew of the hair make of

Yeah, everybody was like, oh my God, hour 14. What I was surprised by was I thought I would have way more time to rehearse the dancing and like I went in. It was like, okay, and I learned the routine. And then we were like shooting it the next day. And I was like, I haven't danced. I know. I hadn't like danced in a long time.

So I was like, fuck, I'm really, it was, it was like being. thrown into the fire bit but you know I don't know I love it I love being thrown into the fire and we had such good numbers and it was so great and Brad and Brad and Brad was there I love Brad so much false yeah

yeah yeah he's always looking out he's always looking out just so cares for everybody so much and yeah that's Brad Felchuk one of the one of the creators of me and yeah and screen just so who knows I'm an actor too

and I did a show called Screen Queens with Murphy and Feltzha. Yeah. That was a fun one. That was with Leah. Yeah. And Emma? Oh, yeah. You weren't on screen, Queen. It was crazy. And Glenn.

And Glenn. Glenn. Of course. Glenn. Stamos was on that one, too, right? Stamos. What was Jonas on that one? Jonas. Nick? Yeah. Wow.

They really pulled it out. Stamos, Jones, Nick. Yeah, that's a fun. And Jamie Lee Curtis. like my love interest. Oh, my God, that's so funny. And the seam. And the seam.

And the seam. Yeah, so Jamie, I, uh, I broke my ankle like right before shooting. And I was actually pretty spelt. I was like, you know, I was like 178 kind of shredded. Went to, went to New Orleans and just ate and drank my face off. I have a picture. I face-timed Oliver, because I was actually about to go shoot in New Orleans. So I was shooting Deepwater Horizon with Mark Wahlberg and Pop.

Yeah. And you were shooting Scream Queens. But I FaceTime to him and I swear to God, I was like, oh no. Yeah, well, he looked insane. I couldn't run anymore. I couldn't do anything. Oh, no. He had a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.

Yeah. And you were drinking. I'm drinking, just smoking, fucking eating. I was like, all of it. This is not good. And I'm tipping the scales at close to. 200. Whoa, that's quick.

No, I don't. Wow. And I read the last episode. And not only that, Jamie is supposed to walk in and I am in a tiny black speedo with a rose in my mouth on the bed. Oh, no. And I'm like, oh, no. It's like, oh, my God. And I was going to, Jamie's laughing.

She goes, just go with it. What are you going to do? I'm like, oh, my God. This is called. Oh, Jamie's the best. So there I was, and you can look at it online. It's like I just look like just my stomach's pouring out everywhere. I'm like, ah, fuck, I just rolled it, I guess, you know.

I think, I thought it was great. I thought you did great. You didn't know, yeah. Yeah, what are you going to do? I don't know. What are you going to do? Yeah. You didn't look anything over $195.

Perfect. Well, Jenna, let's get it. We're kind of, we're not crazy. We could talk about this forever. Yeah, of course. But let's get into your story because we, you know, we love unpacking stories about sibling dynamics and how he grew up. But you were adopted at three months old.

That's right. And when can you kind of give us like an review of your adoption story? Yeah. It's pretty simple. So a lot of creation. Adopties were being shipped to the U.S. during that time. I was born in the 80s. And so my parents had tried, they had my, my mom had my brother, then my parents got together. So my brother has a different father than I do. But they, my dad took my, my brother in, basically, like

his own. And so they formed their little family. My mom tried to have, another baby and about through a lot of challenges and infertility she did you know they just decided to go the adoption route she had also always thought about adoption and so um they went down the adoption route they were sent this picture eventually it was me um in korea you don't have to go to korea to pick up the baby they come to you um so these men in the service were actually coming back to the states and so they brought us over wow And I landed at JFK, three months old, and my parents took me home. I grew up in New York on Long Island.

My dad is Italian and Russian, and my dad, sorry, Polish. And my mom is Irish and English. And so we're like a little bit like the United Nations in our house. And that's why I had the name Ashkowitz. My married name now is Stanley, which is. Gosh, so much he's here. The Super Secret Bestie Club podcast season four is here. And we're locked in.

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not just because of who my mom is. Like, I felt like I needed to be better or work twice as hard as she did. Join me for conversations about healing and growth. Life is freaking hard. And growth doesn't happen in comfort. It happens in motion, even when you're hurting. All from one of my favorite spaces, The Kitchen. Honestly, these are going to come out so freaking amazing.

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Welcome to Season 2 of the Good Stuff. Listen to the Good Stuff podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Did you know, did they tell you were adopted? How did that all go down? I always knew. It was something that they shared. It's not like on friends where the kid Chandler like tells the kid. Yeah, I always knew.

And it also would be pretty obvious. Exactly. It's not one of those. Yeah. Right. You're like, why do I, why do I look different, mom and dad? Well, the stork brought you. So, yeah, I think that was part of it.

But they, you know, they were always very open and honest and, you know, had answered all the questions. And I never felt like, like something was missing. I think a lot of adoptees, there's this feeling of trying to find yourself in these formative years and also feeling like they need that part of their story finished a told closure uh i don't know i i never had that uh growing even even curiosity has never sort of gotten the best of you i think if i got older for sure uh i think being a mother now for sure but i don't think back then it was something that plagued me in any way did you did you uh ask did your mom do anything like specific that was really um important to her when you were a baby for bonding?

Was she into that? I don't think so. Was she like immediately skin on skin? And, you know, like, was there anything that she? Yeah, okay. No, she always says like, you know, you came off the plane. You were jet lagged. You kept me up for a whole week.

Like, we went the formula route, obviously. And that was it. And we bonded eventually, I guess. I was very passionate about this. skin on skin for my daughter, so I totally get it. Well, I was thinking about this, too, because they have all these, like, things you can do in the water now, especially if you adopt a child, a baby, that kind of can re-program the brain to think like you're in the womb.

Fascinating. And so, like, if you, I have this thing where I'm like, if you adopt a baby and you want to kind of whatever, you know, whether it was positive or anything traumatic, whatever it was, but that you can actually reconnect to that feeling for them as the connection, you know. Yeah. Yeah. You can actually do it with your own kids. Like if you feel like you might have had one of those pregnancies that was very like tumultuous or you're super emotional during pregnancy or that things like might have been traumatic for the for like and you.

There's things you can do when the baby comes out that can kind of reprogram that for them. They say, you know, or I mean, you know, this is, this is me talking who's into all this stuff. You basically lay them in the water, what you with them, and you hold them. How old are they? Like babies. Okay. You know, if you go into like a warm pool, it should be. 47.

I'm like, I mean, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I need a mom to hold me. Hey mom I have this idea I would do it of course you would I did it with Bing because yeah for some reason I had a very emotional like very kind of high

stress pregnancy with Bing and I was so hormonal and when he was when he was little I got into the water with him and I basically held him and then I just talked to him about being in my belly in the water.

So, yeah, talked about him being safe and, you know, you're so safe here. Yeah, he actually, like, loves it. He totally remembers it. He gets into that kind of stuff. You'd be surprised.

I even go into his room sometimes and he's got like, you know, he told Alexa, they put on meditation music and Bing will just be like sitting in his bed just like with his eyes close. That's awesome. Yeah. He's very sick and self-regulated. Crazy as he seems on the outside. He's very well regulated. Um, so but did you as you got older, did you have any desire to know where you came from? I'm only asking because, you know, so much, uh, well, then you're dealing with nature and nurture. Exactly. Exactly. So who knows what percentage is nature and nurture in our

lives. I think a lot of it might be nurture. I don't know. But you do have that nature aspect. Exactly. I, I'm, that is the one of the only things that I'm actually, well, that's not true. There's a couple of things that I'm interested in. As I got older, there was a point in which I thought, maybe I do want to do the search. Maybe. My, my, my, one of my best friends, she's a Korean adoptee, and she found out at 26 years old, she was separated from her twin at birth. And they were adopted to two different families, one in France and one in America. They found each other on Facebook. And so through this experience, she had, they reached out to their birth mother with no response.

But there's a lot of things I learned about that. And a lot of them is that the parents don't come out of the economic crisis that they were in at the time. And so there's this whole thing that I thought, what happens after if I find them? What is that relationship? what do I want what do I expect from it and I think there's um that it didn't scare me away but it just kind of like pushed me in the other direction um I'm curious what they look like I'm curious what they did I'm curious if they're musical or um I'm I'm yes I'm curious about the the traits and the characteristics because my I would say there's a lot of similarities in my family

growing up and there's a lot of differences so it's definitely something that I was interested in, but not enough. Not enough. It's just something that I think I'll always have these fun questions to ask. How does that work with like sort of family medical history? That is also one of the things. Like I think now with the science we have, there's enough where you can do testing early enough and, you know, there's enough, you know, we're just more advanced at this point. But it is, that is the other thing. But do you ever think about doing like 23 me. Okay, so I did it, but I didn't put on the family thing. Like, I think you can toggle the family. I think I kind of ignored it. And I went, because that's how a lot of people are

finding siblings and family members. Yeah, tell us about it. People that they don't. We have so many relatives. Yeah. We figured the couple. Yeah. Wow. No, and I did, I did the 20 and three in me just to see if there was any other, anything else in my background that I should know. about. And at one point, this was early on, I had Japanese. And I was like, oh, my God, one of my parents had to be like half Japanese. And then I got a letter recently that was like, we've updated the system and the data was wrong. Oh, no. I was like going around telling people. I was like, you're not Japanese. This really cool part. Did you think you were, what did they say you were half Japanese or a quarter? It was like a, it was enough to be, it was like,

30% so one of my parents had to be at least half right yeah does it come up like i know because like there's like danny danies uh japanese my partner my my my fiance he's half japanese half irish but it came up for him that he has yakut and it's i guess it's like uh i don't even know what it's like interesting an east east asian maybe yeah i don't know maybe i was the one who had you of Yakut? No, I have 2.6 East Asia. So I think it's, which means you would too. Does it say Yakut in my thing?

What is Yakut? I don't know. It's a tribe. Oh. It's like Yakut. But I think it's like might be among, might be more Mongolian area. I don't know. I got to look at it.

But, no, I didn't have anything cool like that. Yeah. Okay. You're just straight up. Korean. They swapped the story on me. So you ended up producing this show, right? This documentary about your friends.

And what, so what happened with that? Did they, they found each other, but... They did. They found each other. The documentary documents them actually meeting for the first time. It's very charming and cute. They are, without a doubt, identical. They did the test just to make sure.

and you know they left a letter for their mother saying like we love you we forgive you and they are they're both thriving one of them lives in France still the other lives here they've got families now they're still best friends they talk every day it's interesting because the French one and I she's she was an only child growing up and she felt like there was something missing and she always felt like she was missing Sam And Sam is the American one who grew up with two older brothers in New Jersey. And so never quite felt the same way that Anise did. And so it was interesting from the perspective of the way that they grew up with or without siblings and how they felt that affected them emotionally.

Does one have a New Jersey accent and one French? Yes. That's right. Sam is not quite in New Jersey, but yes, in French. And she speaks English, too. so that's good but uh that's awesome so did you grow up with your old with your older brother did you grow up with him yeah yeah okay how's that really how was that relationship just super brother sister like there's nothing different about it no um truly he's nine years older than me so the age

difference was so large that like there wasn't a lot for us to argue about um we were never competitive. He really took me in as like his little baby and we've been close ever since I can remember. And yeah, we're still really close now. Like it's a pretty amazing relationship that I feel very lucky to have. So as far as performing goes, and you sort of touched upon this about wondering if your true biological parents were in the arts or had some sort of creativity. I mean, was this just something that was organic and natural and you were just talented, right? I mean, or was this something that you were passionate and worked on? You know, I guess meaning how much is this coming from just pure raw talent?

Well, that's the question. I grew up, I started when I was three. And so it's hard to say. I was doing commercials and, you know, print ads my whole life. And then I booked a Broadway show when I was nine. And so it was like, I don't even think I had the time to figure out if that was something that was just in me or that I loved. I was a really charismatic kid. And I was an extrovert.

And I would go up to other people and say hi. And I was just never afraid of anybody. And so my parents were like, everybody said, just put her in modeling, like let her go, get her energy out and, you know, be cute. And so it was like being around it, I felt like, I don't know, it was like this big tumbleweed that kept rowing and I just wanted to do more. But I don't know. I mean, I guess it could be fostered because obviously like you spend enough time doing something you're probably going to get pretty good at it.

Are your adopted parents, are they creative or are they like? No. Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. So, okay, so they're more, I mean, everybody's creative, but you know what I mean. Sure. No, they don't, they don't express themselves in that way. And so, I mean, really, not at all. That's so funny. It's really interesting. They enjoyed it. They enjoyed the arts. They always took my brother and I to see shows and do things. And so they enjoyed being patrons of it. But I don't, they weren't themselves expressive in that way.

So, yeah. So, I mean, and do either of them sing? Is there any his, no. no no not a not a scotch not a thing i don't know how you can do that i would want to know so i know i know the curiosity would definitely yeah yeah well maybe not meet you like i know what you're saying yeah meeting them i mean there's there's a whole other um sort of world around that but at least just knowing okay here's what they are here's who they were right you know dad was an was an opera singer yeah you know what i mean all of a sudden you're like oh shit Well, that was our... It makes sense, right?

And our story with our adopted brother, we found out we had an adopted brother like eight years ago. Wow. Yeah. And he was put up for adoption and none of us knew. Right. On my dad's side. And so, yeah, when he reached out to us, it was like wild. And when I spoke with him, one of the things Paul said was, you know, he never, he had a great child.

and like has a really like full happy life and never felt like he had to reach out and find out who his birth parents where it was really his wife who was like I want to know like what your history is I want to know you know for our kids for you and so he's he basically left it up to her he's like If you want to find this out going. Right. Got you. She figured it out. She did.

So what? And have you gotten it to know him enough that you, maybe there's the nature versus nurture thing you could understand a little bit? We haven't really gotten to know very well. Physically though. Yeah. It looks like a Hudson. Okay.

Yeah. I mean, definitely looks like he'd be related to you. Yeah. And, but no, I mean, he loves. a fish. I'm a big fisherman. Oh, yeah, and his kids are very creative. His kids are creative. His kids play. Athletic. Yeah, I mean, it definitely fits into the whole.

As far as musically, you know, Hudson's are very musical. I don't know about him. Okay. I was talking about Oliver, I did a big, one of my first kind of bigger interviews for my album that's coming out. Yeah. And we were talking about the Hudson. and lineage, I said, you know, all of the Hudson

said, I mean, I'm like, and I was like, yeah, Oliver. What are you talking about? I was like, he's got a great falsetto. Raw talent. I go, and you know what? But then I saw myself, too, that was being funny. And I was like, well, you know what? Oliver can write lyrics for dates.

You're talking about it. I can fucking sing. I don't think you give me enough credit. Where'd you on a musical TV? I mean, yeah. You don't give me enough credit. I can, I can give me enough credit. the right you know production i will i could crush something yeah no i remember we were really

i could go falsetto but i can also what was the show you did where you played the rock star my guide to becoming a rock star yeah i had an album before anybody we listened to it over thanksgiving and i like oliver you sound great thanks a little production and you're killing i'm telling him Oh, so funny. Yeah, so back to that, back to our brother. It is interesting to kind of find out where all of those things come from that sort of feel like, you know, why you connect to certain things and then realizing that. No, I know, but I guess there's the flip side too. It's like, boy, bar, who gives us shit?

I'm like, okay, fine, great. I am what I am. Who fucking cares? Yeah. Yeah. We always want answers, you know. and wanting to make sense. Oh, yeah, especially when you're dealing with, you know, like mental health or anxiety

or certain things that you feel where they feel irrational and you don't know where they come from. You're like, oh, shit, well, is this a part of just me and my makeup or is this an environmental situation, you know, I mean, maybe in that world. I had this like overwhelming sensation that I had to. call her right then. And I just hit call, said, you know, hey, I'm Jacob Schick. I'm the CEO of One Tribe Foundation, and I just wanted to call on and let her know. There's a lot of people battling some of the very same things you're battling. And there is help out there.

The Good Stuff Podcast Season 2 takes a deep look into One Tribe Foundation, a non-profit fighting suicide in the veteran community. September is National Suicide Prevention Month, so join host Jacob and Ashley Schick as they bring you to the front lines of One Tribe's mission. I was married to a combat army veteran, and he actually took his own life to suicide. One tribe saved my life twice. There's a lot of love that flows through this place, and it's sincere. Now it's a personal mission. I don't have to go to any more funerals, you know.

I got blown up on a React mission. I ended up having amputation below the knee of my right leg and a traumatic brain injury because I landed on my head. Welcome to Season 2 of the Good Stuff. Listen to the Good Stuff podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Secret Bestie Club podcast season four is here. And we're locked in. That means more juicy chisement. Terrible love advice.

Evil spells to cast on your ex. No, no, no, no. We're not doing that this season. Oh. Well, this season we're leveling up. Each episode will feature a special bestie and you're not going to want to miss it. Get in here. Today we have a very special guest with us. Our new

super secret bestie is the divo of the people. The diva of the people. I'm just just like text your ex. Okay. My theory is that if you need to figure out that the stove is hot, go and touch it. Go and figure it out for yourself. Okay.

That's us. That's us. My name is Curley. And I'm Maya. In each episode, we'll talk about love, friendship, heart breaks, men, and of course, our favorite secrets. Listen to the Super Secret Bestie Club as a part of the Michael Tura podcast network available on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

Hi, I'm Janica Lopez, and in the new season of the Overcover podcast, I'm taking you on an exciting journey of self-reflection. Am I ready to enter this new part of my life? Like, am I ready to be in a relationship? Am I ready to have kids and to really just devote myself and my time? I wanted to be successful on my own, not just because of who my mom is. Like, I felt like I needed to be better or work twice as hard as she did. Join me for conversations about healing and growth. Life is freaking hard.

And growth doesn't happen. It happened in comfort. It happened in motion, even when you're hurting. All from one of my favorite spaces, The Kitchen. Honestly, these are going to come out so freaking amazing. Be a part of my new chapter and listen to the new season of the Overcomfort Podcast as part of the MyCultura podcast network on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. In 2014, you started, co-founded a foundation called Kindred. Is this still going?

It's not. It's dormant at the moment. Okay. We, Sam and I, the American twin, you know, on the heels of twinsters felt like adoptees were reaching out to them looking for guidance and support and people, a lot of them going on their birth searches. And we didn't want to reinvent the wheel. There's so many amazing organizations out there for adoption. But for the adoptee itself, it feels like the support is lacking. And so we decided to start something. We tried to kind of navigate it.

As you know, like nonprofits are a full-time job. And that's not our world. It's a business in itself. It's like running a business. You really are for very little financial payoff. And, you know, it's just really, really hard. So we really enjoy the time and connecting with the people we did just because there's a lot of everybody's story is so different and unique. And so we wanted to kind of be there for them.

And we did it during the time it was. During that process, did you, when that was happening, did you feel like, oh, God, should I be reaching? Yes. That was the time. and when it really hit its peak of like, am I going to do this search? I'm thinking about it. It felt like if I wasn't doing it and I was giving advice to all these other adoptees, it felt like, I don't know, who am I to give them advice?

But again, it was like I had to remind myself that everybody's story is so different and you don't have to be like everybody else. So I think it kind of peaked and then declined from there of just understanding like a lot of these kids they you know adoptees found parents or a parent or a sibling and didn't quite get the result that they were hoping for um get the answers they were hoping for the feelings that they were hoping for so uh i think that also kind of gave me some answers and like closure in the whole but you know like i have a daughter now and i'm like yeah keep going through your daughter because i was the one to talk to you about having kids and what that means to you

yeah you feel about all that yeah yeah but go ahead talking about your mom. No, I mean, it wasn't until about four months after she was born that my husband actually brought it. He's like, this is your first blood relative. Yeah. And you're like, that's crazy. Like, I didn't even dawn on me. But I was very connected to her from the beginning. And I think I subconsciously knew that. And it was a really, it's really special and really earth-shattering for me. And so I think about like if she wants answers later, And there's, you know, by the time she's grown, I'm sure there's going to be a lot of facility to find things. Obviously, my parents, you know, wouldn't be alive at the time.

But, you know, I think she could find out information. And so if she wants to do that, she's obviously more than welcome. That's her right as well. But it's definitely something that she was another element to make me think about finding out some more information, especially how much lies. Yeah. So you've said that servicemen and women would take the babies, take the adoptees to the states. So they just be like,

God damn it, I'm on this. I got this duty. Like little babies. Like little babies on the plane. These like services, is that kind of how it worked? Yeah, I think they were returning to the states to come home. And I think that they had given this duty to bring these babies.

They're like, I don't know if there are dads or what, but they, they, and I threw up on myself on the way. You did. I threw up all over myself, all over the guy, I think. And it was a month's light. It's like 23 hours. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. There's a, there's a short docu series or some sort of a thing and like returning the babies.

That's crazy. Well, I worked with this wonderful director on, on truth be told, who was one of the babies. babies that were coming over from Vietnam during the war where there's like pictures of them on these cargo planes. Wow. And there's just all. Oh, my God. And she's one of those babies and came to the States adopted and pretty, I mean, wild. Yeah. Wild. It's crazy. Like, you know, Jenkins gets, you know, finally gets home. He's like, I got a six-month leave. And like, you got this baby to take me you got two you got two Korean kids you got to bring back with Jenkins they're great it's a great name Jenkins is like what do you mean I got to bring back two babies oh yeah buddy

really long flight buckle up yeah wow and there's like the time in between two where I had a foster mom like in this agency where they take care of you between the time you're given us and then the time that you're being sent to America. So strange. I have no memory of it, obviously, but. How long or how long are you with the fosters? As long as I think you are like, well, she when you were three months, right?

Yeah, so it was three months for me. Okay, got it. So it's however long, like, I think that they find a family for you or however you're paired. Wow. So, Jenna, what are you up to now? What do you, what do you have on your plate? other than

mommy, your baby girl. Yeah, I'm momming pretty hard right now. She's almost two, so we're in the thick of it. And we're doing the podcast, which is great. I can do it from home, pop in and out. We're doing, I've been doing a little bit of like non-profit work.

Surprise, surprise. For this incredible organization called Harvest Home that houses pregnant, homeless women, takes them in to provide support. So we're doing a little benefit charity like performance uh coming up so we've been doing that as well um and yeah and then just kind of surviving in this dank industry oh no i mean tell me about it i know you know i have a

producing deal so that's been very fun for me just selling shows but i'm not making any money doing it but from a creative standpoint it's so fun the outlet is great yes but yeah when you say dank that shit it's dank i mean i need money you know what i mean like Like, I know, it's like, I'm talking to my agents every day. Is there anything going on down to him? Like, it's Russ, man. They're like, you've been out for everything that there's to be out for. You're like, trust me, we're on it.

We're on. I am. Yeah, exactly. It's crazy. But I, you know, I will say, like, it's a, it's actually a weird gift at the same time. Like, I, you know, she's so young right now. And, like, it's, you know, it's like the pandemic. You would just have this, like, kind of scary time.

but also time that I think you can't get back. Yes, that's the blessing. Yeah, and you know, the these, the first three years is so important. Like, I was so grateful that the shutdown and everything happened when Ronnie was in that time because she got all of, literally all of me. I like working. I wasn't, I was home. I mean, it was so great. It was so great.

Totally. I feel that. Yeah. Well, it was so awesome talking to you. and having a little glee It's nice It was great Thanks for your story

Here's what I got out of this I'm going to take my oldest 16 year old son and draw a bath And see if he wants to Sort of reconnect with Danny No you have to take him in the pool It's got to be the pool Because you need the full

I wonder what I'll say They need to feel like they're floating Okay I'll bring him in the pool And then you kind of move them like if you move them in this sort of like you're rocking right instead of the womb it's like

back into my nuts back into my nuts oh and that's it thanks for joining us thank you guys thank you so much it's really good to you

thank you all right bye oh that was so fun she's awesome it was so it was so fun to reconnect yeah so she's great

yeah I don't know I after after that I like want her to find out who I want to know I know I want to do as well yeah so wild you know yeah what a wild thing to think that that was the that your origin story was like flying 21 hours to you'd I see with some stranger with a service man yeah you know

pretty amazing then it begs the question Yeah, what does it all mean? Well, you know, they talk about, you talk about, you know, childhood trauma or when it's really, really young like that. But think about her journey and think about how stable she is, you know, with her parents and how she was raised. So did those first three or four months, I mean, imagine flying with someone strange,

you don't know, going to a foster place, da-da-da-da, that it inherently didn't really affect her. I guess she felt comfortable. comforted or safe or whatever. I don't know. I don't know, but it is, it is. My point is, is you don't have to truly love your kids until they're four months old. You heard it here first.

That headline. Oliver says never love your kid. Oh, that was great, though. That was good. really need another podcast with a condescending finance brof trying to tell us how to spend our own money no thank you instead check out brown ambition each week i your host mandy money gives you real talk real advice with a heavy dose of i feel uses like on fridays when i take your questions for the b aqa whether you're trying to invest for your future navigate a toxic workplace i got you listen to

brown ambition on the i heart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast Hi, I'm Janica Lopez, and in the new season of The Over Comfort Podcast, I'm even more honest, more vulnerable, and more real than ever. Am I ready to enter this new part of my life? Like, am I ready to be in a relationship? Am I ready to have kids and to really just devote myself and my time? Join me for conversations about healing and growth, all from one of my favorite spaces, The Kitchen. Listen to the new season of the Overcombered podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. In early 1988, federal agents raced to track down the gang they suspect of importing millions of dollars worth of heroin into New York from Asia.

Had 30 agents ready to go with shotguns and rifles and you name it. Five, six white people. Pushed me in the car. Basically, your stay-at-home moms were picking up these large amounts of heroin. All you got to do is receive the package. Don't have to open it, just accept it. She was very upset, crying. Once I saw the gun, I tried to try to take. take his hand and I saw the flash of light.

Listen to the Chinatown Stang on the IHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or anywhere you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast.