Megan Alexander, ONE MORE HUG
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[0:42]I'm here today with Megan Alexander, who's an Emmy-nominated national news correspondent
[0:46]on Inside Edition, the number one syndicated news magazine TV show.
[0:50]She has covered football for CBS, acted in the TV show Nashville,
[0:54]appeared in several films that executive produced the future film Heartbeats.
[0:58]She is the author of Faith in the Spotlight,
[1:00]thriving in your career while staying true to your beliefs,
[1:02]and a new children's book, One More Hug, illustrated by Hero Nakata.
[1:06]She also hosts the podcast inspired with Megan Alexander
[1:09]and co-hosts the Sports Podcast Women Talk Sport.
[1:12]She hosts the inspirational country music awards
[1:14]each year from Nashville, Tennessee,
[1:16]and currently splits her time between New York and Nashville.
[1:18]So welcome, Megan. Thanks for coming in, mom.
[1:20]It's your time to read books.
[1:21]Thank you for having me.
[1:22]Of course, but a pleasure.
[1:24]Your children's book, One More Hug,
[1:25]I have to say my kids now request over and over again,
[1:28]and I am not just saying that they love it,
[1:30]and every time I read it out loud, I start crying.
[1:32]Thank you. That's the ultimate compliment.
[1:35]Thank you. And I do too.
[1:38]I'm crying soon, I'm still.
[1:40]So why don't you tell us, Nerds, What One More Hug is About?
[1:43]Yeah, so when I was thinking about writing a second book,
[1:47]my first book was about faith and more of a guidebook for young adults,
[1:51]and when I was thinking about my second book,
[1:53]I got some great advice, right what you know,
[1:56]what's going on in your life right now.
[1:58]And I started talking about my son, who at the time was in kindergarten,
[2:02]and was having a lot of anxiety getting on the school bus,
[2:05]and he kept running back to me for One More Hug, One More Hug,
[2:08]and he must have asked me for five or six hugs.
[2:10]And what started as being first in line to get on the bus,
[2:13]by the time he was done running back for all those hugs,
[2:15]he was the last little boy to get on the school bus.
[2:18]And this went on for almost two years, kindergarten, first grade.
[2:21]And at first, my husband Brian and I were sort of hurrying him along like,
[2:25]come on, time to go to school, let's go, you know,
[2:27]quick little hugs and then sort of pushing him on his way,
[2:29]and then we realized, oh my gosh, we need to slow down and cherish these moments.
[2:34]And just be there for him.
[2:36]And it became a little saying in our family,
[2:38]where when he'll ask for One More Hug, we'll say,
[2:40]there's always time for One More Hug,
[2:42]and that happens at bedtime.
[2:44]That happens when mommy needs to travel for work.
[2:47]And that's how the book came about.
[2:49]I was telling my editor that story and she said,
[2:52]Megan, that is your next book, One More Hug.
[2:55]She said, you need to write about that.
[2:56]And so in the book, we take the boy,
[2:59]not just through childhood, but also into high school.
[3:01]And then when he's going off supposedly to college,
[3:04]he can always come back for One More Hug.
[3:06]Aww.
[3:08]Aww, I'm glad.
[3:08]And he's still asked for hugs.
[3:10]Yes, I know that was so nice.
[3:12]I had, my son was literally walking out the door today and my husband was like,
[3:16]aren't you going to give your mom a hug?
[3:17]And he's like, oh yeah, right, right.
[3:19]And I'm like, really, no, you have this whole beautiful book,
[3:21]and I can barely get my kid to turn around.
[3:23]But anyway, you're like, come here, give me that hug.
[3:27]So I found it interesting in the book,
[3:29]you actually cited the study from child trends,
[3:32]leading non-profit research organization,
[3:34]saying that children receive lifelong positive outcomes when their parents express warmth
[3:38]and affection to them.
[3:40]So this seems like an obvious point, right?
[3:42]The more you're nice to your kids, the better off they'll probably be.
[3:45]The most, the most, the time.
[3:47]And yet, is there always time for One More Hug in the craziness of day-to-day life?
[3:51]It seems like there have been many times where I'm like,
[3:53]like you used to be like getting people okay,
[3:56]okay, enough snuggling, now it's bedtime.
[3:58]So how do you know when to draw the line?
[4:00]When do you stop your hugs?
[4:01]Like you have a hard stop at five or six, or?
[4:04]You know, that's a really good question.
[4:05]And honestly, I don't think I'm gonna ask the question.
[4:08]Literally for Chase, my son, on whom this book is based,
[4:11]it was about five, and he was good.
[4:14]He would literally run back for about five hugs.
[4:16]And then at bedtime, both Chase and now my younger son,
[4:19]Catcher, probably call out for two or three, One More Hugs.
[4:23]I think by four or five, my tone is a bit more.
[4:26]Okay, time to settle down now.
[4:29]You know, time to turn off the lights.
[4:31]But honestly, for me, I try to just put down my phone
[4:35]and appreciate that moment.
[4:36]And as a working woman, I gotta say,
[4:38]I wasn't always that way.
[4:39]I mean, I absolutely hurry my kids along at times,
[4:42]and it was really a realization of this isn't gonna last forever.
[4:46]Because I'm a young mom.
[4:47]I have an eight-year-old, I have a four-year-old,
[4:48]and now I have a baby.
[4:49]And so, you know, I'm seeing it go by like that,
[4:53]even just with my eight-year-olds.
[4:54]And I'm getting really sentimental,
[4:56]and I think as a reporter, you know,
[4:57]you try to figure out the who, what, where, one, why?
[5:00]And I want to be the best mom I can be,
[5:01]and I have a lot of fears in mother.
[5:03]I mean, I've had this conversation with my husband
[5:05]and friends numerous times,
[5:07]where I feel comfortable interviewing celebrities,
[5:09]CEOs, top news makers.
[5:12]I get very scared when my sweet little boys look up at me
[5:16]and ask me a question.
[5:16]I don't know what to answer to.
[5:18]I'm really worried about being a good mom.
[5:20]And so, in this season, it's just been slowing down
[5:23]and going, maybe it's just a hug right now.
[5:25]I don't have to have all the answers,
[5:27]even though I want to, I want to do the best that I can.
[5:29]It's been slowing down to just give those hugs
[5:32]because I'm trying to just give them what they need in the moment.
[5:35]And yet, you're already giving them what they need
[5:37]without even trying.
[5:39]Oh, I hope so.
[5:39]No, it's true.
[5:40]I mean, it's so nice to say, like,
[5:42]I know so much more because I have 12-year-olds.
[5:44]You know, what do I know?
[5:44]But the stuff that the kids really need
[5:47]is not the stuff that will come out of your mouth
[5:49]maybe one day and not the next.
[5:51]It's just like that, that sense of like,
[5:53]you loving them.
[5:54]And no matter how busy you are,
[5:55]like, you're going to give it to them, you know?
[5:57]Oh, I hope so.
[5:58]Well, and you put up a good point with the research,
[6:01]with our little boys, you do see.
[6:03]I mean, I come from a family of girls.
[6:05]My mom is one of three girls.
[6:07]I have an older sister.
[6:09]And so, having boys, you know, you start to notice
[6:12]that media and culture and society wants them
[6:14]to drive their tears quicker than I kind of thought
[6:17]would happen with sports and with activities and,
[6:20]you know, be tough.
[6:20]Suck it up.
[6:21]You can call it the shake it off.
[6:23]The shake it off, absolutely.
[6:25]And I found myself going, oh my gosh,
[6:27]I don't want him to stop expressing his feelings.
[6:30]I think there's a way we can teach our boys to still be tough
[6:32]and yet express that need for affection and love.
[6:36]Because ultimately, it doesn't make the best
[6:38]husbands and fathers if our guys can still express their emotions.
[6:42]And just everything going on in the world today
[6:44]and wanting our boys to still feel like it's okay
[6:46]to show those tender, the tender side of them.
[6:50]So that's kind of been going through my mind too.
[6:52]Is, oh gosh, I want my eight-year-old to know
[6:54]as he's, you know, beginning to kind of look around the playground
[6:58]and see that boys are supposed to, you know,
[6:59]toughen up a little more.
[7:00]It's okay to still share your feelings.
[7:03]That's, again, a season that we're in right now
[7:05]and where my heart was when I wrote this book
[7:07]because I want them to know it's always okay
[7:09]to come back for a hug.
[7:10]And you wrote a song to accompany the book also.
[7:13]Yes. And I can't, so you play the guitar at bedtime?
[7:15]That's amazing.
[7:16]Well, I'm very basic.
[7:17]I just know your basic chords
[7:19]and I quickly learned growing up when I took guitar lessons
[7:21]that like all the Beatles songs or four chords,
[7:24]like you can play a lot of music
[7:25]by just knowing your basic chords on guitar.
[7:28]But yeah, once we put together the book
[7:30]and the manuscript is ready to go,
[7:31]my literally, my next phone call was to my friend Michael Oaks
[7:35]who I worked for 15 years ago in Nashville.
[7:37]He's an incredible singer-songwriter.
[7:39]One of my first jobs, I called him.
[7:41]He's, we've stayed good friends.
[7:43]And then I called my friend Lucas Hogue,
[7:44]who's a country singer in Nashville
[7:46]and also a great songwriter.
[7:47]And I said, we have to write a song.
[7:49]They go along with this book.
[7:51]Just the emotions and let's do a sweet children's lullaby.
[7:54]And so, yeah, we put it to music
[7:57]and put together a music video.
[7:59]And my son has a little part in it,
[8:00]both of my kids are in it.
[8:02]And we just try to express this story of one more hug
[8:06]in a musical way, just one more way to express, you know,
[8:09]what we want to give our kids.
[8:10]Yeah, why not?
[8:11]But yeah, if you have the skill, that's amazing.
[8:14]Yeah. And music's a part of our routine, too.
[8:16]You know, bedtime, like you mentioned,
[8:17]I play the guitar for my boys and sing to them.
[8:20]And that's the way for me to connect with them.
[8:21]So it was just kind of a logical thing
[8:23]to do to accompany the book.
[8:25]When I first read that, I was like,
[8:26]oh my gosh, I barely know my own name by bedtime,
[8:29]the fact that you're like whipping out the guitar
[8:30]and like composing music, I was like blown over.
[8:33]Well, some people tell creative stories to their kids.
[8:36]Some people, you know, for me,
[8:37]it was just let's pick up the guitar and start singing.
[8:40]I think everybody has something.
[8:42]Yeah, okay.
[8:42]I'll take that.
[8:43]Yeah, everybody has something.
[8:44]Some parents tell jokes.
[8:46]Like, everybody has a little something.
[8:47]Okay, and go back a little bit to your first book.
[8:51]So how did the idea for that come,
[8:53]book come about and what's like the main,
[8:55]what the main takeaways from that book
[8:57]for people who haven't read it?
[8:58]Yeah, so that book is called Faith in the Spotlight,
[9:01]thriving in your career while staying true to your beliefs.
[9:04]And I've been in the entertainment industry now
[9:06]for about 15 years.
[9:08]And I got an email a couple of years ago
[9:10]from a pastor in Seattle.
[9:12]Both all United Methodist Church.
[9:14]I was born and raised in Seattle.
[9:16]And a pastor emailed me and said,
[9:17]I have a church full of young, ambitious women of faith.
[9:20]They want to go after their goals and dreams,
[9:22]get that corner office, climb the corporate ladder,
[9:25]maybe work in entertainment,
[9:27]but they don't want to sell their soul to get there.
[9:29]And they look at pop culture and they just think,
[9:32]I don't want to do all that.
[9:33]Is there a way to still achieve while maintaining
[9:36]my faith in values, how it was raised?
[9:39]And he said, I know of you.
[9:41]I don't know of that many people in the entertainment industry
[9:44]that have maintained their faith.
[9:45]He said, would you come speak to these girls?
[9:47]And I'd gotten that email before.
[9:48]And I felt like it was just yesterday.
[9:50]I was that girl sitting in church with big dreams,
[9:53]wondering how it was all going to play out.
[9:55]And so that got me thinking, gosh,
[9:57]let's go to the bookstore and find a book.
[9:59]I can remember.
[10:00]refer to these young women.
[10:01]And I found a lot of good books for men
[10:04]on being a Christian businessman
[10:06]or bringing your faith into business for men.
[10:08]And then I found a lot of great books
[10:10]for being a mom or a wife with a faith-based set of guidelines
[10:16]but very few for the young working ambitious female.
[10:19]And it was that lightbulb moment where I thought,
[10:21]I need to write it.
[10:22]Like, I really don't see any books
[10:24]and I'm looking for them myself.
[10:26]And so I sent out 10 book proposal letters.
[10:30]I got nine rejections and one yes
[10:33]from Simon and Schuster to write that book.
[10:35]So I said, anybody listening,
[10:36]if you wanna write a book, all it takes is one yes.
[10:40]I could have been very discouraged after four, five, six.
[10:43]The ninth letter comes back and they said,
[10:45]no, and then I got that 10th letter that was a yes.
[10:48]So hold out for one yes, everybody.
[10:50]That's all you need.
[10:52]You probably heard that from other authors too.
[10:54]I have, but it never gets old.
[10:55]Yes, so hang in there.
[10:57]And so the book came about and it's been a way
[10:59]to just kind of give a set of guidelines
[11:02]and inspirational stories and advice
[11:04]and practical advice.
[11:05]I wanted it to be meaty.
[11:07]Let's really talk about body image, negotiating,
[11:10]what do you do if you find yourself in an uncomfortable situation?
[11:13]I shared the story when I was asked to wear a dress
[11:16]that I wasn't comfortable wearing on national television
[11:19]or maybe you're on set for a movie
[11:21]and they wanna push the scene more
[11:23]than you're comfortable with, what are you gonna do?
[11:25]And so it's not just me.
[11:26]It's a lot of people I know in the industry.
[11:28]What do you do?
[11:29]Well, I said no to that film.
[11:32]That was an independent film a couple of years ago.
[11:34]It was the final scene and it was a love scene
[11:36]and the script called for just a romantic close hug
[11:40]and we were on set and the director said he said,
[11:43]cut and it came over and he said,
[11:45]let's just do a little bit more.
[11:46]Let's do this.
[11:47]Let's do that.
[11:48]And you really started pushing it
[11:49]beyond what I was comfortable doing.
[11:50]And everybody's staring at you.
[11:52]What do you do?
[11:53]I never discussed that in college.
[11:55]I never went over that with my acting coaches or teachers.
[11:58]It was more technique and so I got uncomfortable
[12:02]and I said, I'm sorry, I don't think so.
[12:04]I really like what's in the script
[12:06]and he kind of looked at me and he went,
[12:08]okay, and we ended up being fine in the movie.
[12:11]It was filmed that way.
[12:12]So that's a positive instance
[12:13]but there was another time
[12:15]where I had to just turn down a role
[12:16]and they said, okay, and they just gave it to somebody else
[12:19]cause I wasn't comfortable.
[12:21]So I tell young people try to know who you are
[12:23]before you get into this industry.
[12:26]Parents try to run those scenarios with your kids.
[12:28]What would you do if this happened or that happened?
[12:31]How would you decide what would be your response?
[12:34]Because I talked about very little of that
[12:36]when I was studying to be in this industry
[12:38]and I think we got to talk about it
[12:39]and give examples and everybody's comfort level is different.
[12:43]You know, mine is different than this girl or that girl.
[12:45]So just find out what works for you.
[12:48]Right, but everybody has one.
[12:49]So everybody has one of what to do in that spot.
[12:53]I mean, that took a lot of courage to be able to say,
[12:55]look, no, I can't do that.
[12:57]Yeah.
[12:58]And a lot of people wouldn't have been able to say that.
[12:59]I was gonna say, if it had happened 10 years ago,
[13:01]I don't think I would have had the courage
[13:04]but it happened a couple years ago
[13:05]when I was already thinking about these sorts of things.
[13:08]So yeah, it's important to talk about it
[13:10]early, early, early.
[13:11]Talk about this stuff in junior high and high school.
[13:13]I mean, this is not just good for people of faith.
[13:15]I mean, I'm not Christian,
[13:17]but this is like a great book for my children
[13:19]to have this book for anybody, right?
[13:21]Anybody is just trying to adhere to any good values in life.
[13:24]Totally.
[13:25]What's your comfort level?
[13:26]What do you believe in?
[13:27]What are your black and white?
[13:28]What will you not compromise on?
[13:29]Absolutely.
[13:30]Just knowing who you are and what you want to represent.
[13:33]When people see you, I had Beyonce's vocal coach
[13:37]about a decade ago.
[13:38]I took a voice lesson with Beyonce's
[13:41]vocal coach in Nashville.
[13:42]Many, many years ago, I saved my pennies
[13:44]and I took one with her.
[13:45]She was super expensive,
[13:46]but she literally said to me,
[13:48]Megan, who are you in this industry?
[13:50]Who is Megan Alexander?
[13:52]And I said to her, well, I don't know.
[13:54]I was hoping you could help me.
[13:56]And she said, Megan, we can't tell you who you are.
[13:58]You need to decide.
[14:00]And if you don't, somebody else will decide for you.
[14:03]One day you'll wake up, look in the mirror
[14:05]and not be crazy about what you see.
[14:06]Awesome advice.
[14:08]And that applies to so many situations,
[14:10]just defining who you are.
[14:12]So could you answer that question now?
[14:14]Yeah, I mean, I think I'm somebody
[14:16]that I want my family to be proud of my work.
[14:19]I think about my father, I think about my grandfather,
[14:22]my friends, young women that I know now
[14:25]are watching me and reading my book.
[14:27]I want them to be proud of the work that I do,
[14:30]whether it's in print form or on television.
[14:33]I like to do inspirational work, inspirational content.
[14:36]I like there to be some redeeming factor to the art, right?
[14:40]Some story that's being told or a moral of the story.
[14:44]I think that's important, you know?
[14:46]So still trying to fine tune it.
[14:48]Now as a mother, I'm aware of my little boys
[14:51]and soon my baby girl will be watching mommy
[14:53]and what does that mean, you know,
[14:55]what them to be proud of my work?
[14:56]And did your podcast come as an offshared
[14:58]of this inspirational endeavor?
[15:01]Absolutely, so many inspirational stories
[15:04]I find get left on the cutting room floor in media
[15:06]because there's just not enough time for all of them.
[15:09]And so yeah, I said I've got a creative outlet
[15:11]where I can tell some of these stories
[15:13]and interview these people that are doing awesome things.
[15:15]So I just told you before we started here,
[15:17]I'm so grateful for podcasts
[15:19]and the opportunity to get this content on air.
[15:22]Anybody can do it and tell these stories.
[15:24]So true.
[15:25]So how often do you tell me more about your podcast?
[15:27]How often do you record it?
[15:29]Like how are you fitting all this into your life?
[15:31]I know that's like an annoying question.
[15:32]How do you do it all?
[15:33]But logistically, when you split your time
[15:35]you're between Nashville and New York
[15:38]and you're doing this podcast and hosting,
[15:40]I mean, you're doing like a zillion things.
[15:41]Well, the podcast is kind of on hate.
[15:43]That's right now.
[15:44]That was like a pregnant.
[15:46]And I have a two and a half month old baby girl
[15:48]at the time that you and I are talking right now.
[15:50]I knew I needed to come back.
[15:51]It was just a little too much.
[15:52]I'm even happy to get it.
[15:54]I'm like, oh my God.
[15:56]So I just tried to record a bunch
[15:58]and then have them in the can, you know.
[16:00]And you tried to put one out every other week
[16:02]and maybe I'll start it up again someday.
[16:04]I really enjoyed doing it.
[16:06]I mean, I love what you do.
[16:07]You're really good.
[16:08]I listened a year.
[16:09]I mean, I really enjoyed it.
[16:10]Oh, thank you.
[16:11]And you actually, you mentioned in one of your podcasts
[16:14]and somebody that's some hairdresser you had
[16:15]on the Upper West side.
[16:16]Yeah.
[16:17]So I have to ask you also like who that is
[16:19]because that is not so far from here.
[16:21]And I love your hair.
[16:22]You're so kind.
[16:23]That is share, shout out to share at Dramatics
[16:25]on the apple side.
[16:26]No way.
[16:27]It's 17 seconds.
[16:28]It's dramatic.
[16:29]Oh, that's right.
[16:30]Yes, okay.
[16:30]I just stumbled in one.
[16:31]Yeah, that's so funny.
[16:32]It's been there forever.
[16:33]Oh, yeah.
[16:34]I'm joking about like when I was in high school.
[16:35]Oh, Dramatics is a chain that's all of your Manhattan.
[16:38]Yeah.
[16:38]Sorry.
[16:39]So I'm still going back to how you do everything
[16:43]inside from stealing your hairdresser.
[16:46]Podcasts on hiatus.
[16:48]Do you have like a general framework?
[16:51]Like I'm only going to do this amount of work?
[16:53]Or are there things you turn down?
[16:55]Oh, yeah.
[16:56]I mean, there must be.
[16:56]Oh, absolutely.
[16:58]Well, I am part-time with inside edition now.
[17:00]I, for the last couple of years, I only
[17:01]worked for them a couple days a week, which is very helpful
[17:05]with all this other stuff that's going on.
[17:07]But I get a lot of work done on the plane.
[17:10]So I commute from Nashville, Tennessee,
[17:12]to New York City.
[17:13]I'm flying all the time.
[17:14]And it's a beautiful thing to have two hours of uninterrupting
[17:18]time.
[17:18]I have a plane time.
[17:19]I will stay on a plane for a week.
[17:22]I'm like, don't bother me.
[17:23]This is amazing.
[17:25]Yes.
[17:25]I wrote both of these books basically on the plane.
[17:28]Because all of a sudden, a lot of people
[17:30]are annoyed that you have to turn off your cell phone.
[17:32]I see it as a gift now.
[17:34]You know, as you can still get Wi-Fi and so forth.
[17:36]But I mean, that uninterrupted time is huge,
[17:39]whether to read or to write.
[17:41]So a lot of it has been commuting or in the car
[17:45]in the city when you're going from one story to the other.
[17:47]I just try to be intentional with my time
[17:49]and take advantage of it.
[17:50]But traveling has ended up being away from me to focus.
[17:53]Yeah.
[17:54]Totally agree.
[17:54]Yeah.
[17:55]Do you feel like you let any balls drop?
[17:57]Like is there anything that?
[17:58]Oh, yeah.
[17:59]I mean, you can't do it all.
[18:01]I have sure this to people before.
[18:02]I heard a lady say this once at a conference.
[18:05]She said, you can have it all, but you can't have it all perfectly.
[18:09]And that is so true.
[18:10]I mean, there have been times where a couple of years ago,
[18:13]I was covering Thursday night football for CBS.
[18:15]And I was in Denver covering a Broncos game.
[18:18]And I FaceTime with my husband who was taking Chase,
[18:22]my oldest son, to a flag football game that I was missing.
[18:26]And a lot of people would go, oh my gosh, an NFL game.
[18:28]You know, it's the Broncos.
[18:29]It's so exciting.
[18:30]But I was missing my sweet son's flag football game.
[18:33]And he was like, mom, you, where are you?
[18:35]So there are trade-offs, you know, where you've got to go, gosh.
[18:39]Okay, I can't miss the next one.
[18:41]You know, and so then I'll say no to other assignments
[18:43]because I want to be there for my kiddos.
[18:45]My husband and I are constantly getting at our calendars
[18:48]and talking and saying, okay, what's going on here
[18:50]and next week and doing that juggle that so many people do.
[18:54]My parents are very involved.
[18:55]Grandparents are big in our life,
[18:57]which I'm so grateful for.
[18:59]They're very involved with the kids too.
[19:01]So if mommy can't be there, nana can be there,
[19:03]which is wonderful.
[19:05]And then yeah, you just have to turn things down sometimes.
[19:09]Like there's been a couple of different speaking gigs
[19:11]that I've been asked to do where it was just one,
[19:12]too many weekends away.
[19:14]And you just need that time together.
[19:16]So we just try to, I do the old-fashioned pros and cons lists.
[19:20]You know, okay, let's talk about this
[19:21]and what's going on there.
[19:24]And it's just, you know, it's a dance.
[19:26]So you feel like you've been getting a place
[19:29]where you're the one who might need the hug.
[19:31]Sure, and I will say, you know,
[19:33]it's harder as your kids get older.
[19:35]I'm sure you can relate to this.
[19:36]Like my eight-year-old needs me the most now
[19:38]of the eight-year-old, the four-year-old and the baby.
[19:40]Well, of course, the baby needs me.
[19:41]But you know what I mean emotionally,
[19:44]it's getting harder and harder to travel as much
[19:46]from my eight-year-old.
[19:48]So that's another reason why this book is special
[19:50]because he really still wants those hugs.
[19:53]Yeah.
[19:54]And it's just a dance that all working families do, you know?
[19:57]I just, I don't think it'll ever be perfect.
[20:00]I'm not sure that I, you know, have it all figured out.
[20:03]I feel like every day I'm trying to figure it out.
[20:05]All over again, I hear that.
[20:07]And there are days when I forget things at school
[20:10]and, you know, my husband and I will get an email
[20:12]from our teacher.
[20:12]Today you were supposed to bring this form
[20:16]or you were supposed to sign this field trip form
[20:18]and we're like, oh, okay.
[20:20]We gotta get back to the bulletin board
[20:21]and the kitchen so we can remember everything.
[20:23]So I'll only try to keep a sense of humor about it.
[20:26]Otherwise it'll kind of be overwhelming.
[20:29]I feel like people listening will think like,
[20:32]oh my gosh, like this glamorous life that you live, right?
[20:34]You're out there, you're on TV all the time
[20:37]and you're around all these celebrities.
[20:38]Like, how do you do it?
[20:40]Like, what's it really like?
[20:41]Like, did you always want to do this?
[20:43]Yeah, what would be not expect
[20:45]from what your life has turned out to be?
[20:47]Like, what would people not know?
[20:49]Yeah, you know, well, first of all,
[20:51]inside edition, yes, we do do celebrity interviews
[20:54]but the other half is real news.
[20:56]So, I mean, I've had to cover school shootings,
[20:59]natural disasters, difficult medical stories.
[21:03]You know, where a child's going in for surgery,
[21:04]we do a lot of medical miracle stories.
[21:06]So I'm there with people on their top of the world,
[21:10]top of their game and also when they're at the lowest of lows.
[21:13]And if anything, it's a privilege and an honor
[21:17]to see how people love on each other in hard times.
[21:20]You know, I tell everybody that I covered this
[21:23]in Southern school shooting, actually it was at a church.
[21:26]The Southern Spring School shooting
[21:27]outside of San Antonio, Texas a couple of years ago,
[21:31]incredibly difficult, but I really observed
[21:34]that these Texans were teaching us how to grieve
[21:38]in the way that they cared for each other.
[21:39]I mean, neighbors were stationed in the driveway
[21:44]of other neighbors who had been affected by the shooting.
[21:46]And they were just talking to people
[21:48]and serving as gatekeepers for the media and saying,
[21:51]hey, they don't want to talk right now,
[21:53]we'll let you know.
[21:54]And I just thought, gosh, the way they were loving
[21:57]on each other and caring for each other
[21:59]was really a lesson in how to grieve
[22:01]and how to love your neighbor.
[22:03]So I felt incredibly honored to just witness that.
[22:06]And it makes me just want to be a better neighbor myself.
[22:10]And then I mean, I think, you know, for me,
[22:13]I mean, celebrities are people like anyone else.
[22:16]And I just try to connect on a human level.
[22:19]Talking about your kids is a great icebreaker, you know,
[22:21]or talking about family or traveling.
[22:25]I mean, I try to just connect with people
[22:26]because at the end of the day, you know, they're humans too.
[22:30]And yes, we see them in glamorous moments,
[22:31]but I've also seen celebrities where their kids
[22:34]are asking them for their attention
[22:36]or interrupting something.
[22:37]They're being a mother or a father.
[22:38]And you realize, wow, everybody's really human.
[22:41]And we all go through the same thing.
[22:42]So the behind the scenes moments are some of my favorites,
[22:45]which we don't always get to show on TV,
[22:47]you know, once a quick two minute story.
[22:48]But I'll just end by telling you
[22:50]that something that was really cute that happened
[22:51]was I covered the CMA Awards recently,
[22:54]the Country Music Awards in Nashville.
[22:56]And there were all these celebrities coming down the carpet,
[22:59]you know, you've got Tim McCraw
[23:01]and Carrie Underwood and Marin Morris
[23:04]and all these celebrities.
[23:05]And then I saw in the distance this woman in all black
[23:08]and she was like, Megan.
[23:10]And I was like, oh, hey, and she's like,
[23:12]I'm Grayson's mom.
[23:13]And I was like, oh my gosh, I'm Chase's mom.
[23:16]I'll be going through my son goes to school with her son.
[23:20]And she's a publicist for all these big celebrities.
[23:23]And we just connected on that cute human moment.
[23:26]And I came home to Chase, my son.
[23:28]And I said, guess who I met on the red carpet tonight?
[23:30]And my whole family thought I was gonna say,
[23:32]like Taylor Swift or something.
[23:33]And I was like, Grayson's mom.
[23:35]And he's like, oh, how cool.
[23:37]So it's fun to have those moments.
[23:39]That's, I mean, that was much cooler to my son
[23:41]than any celebrity that I met his friend's mom.
[23:43]So what's coming next for you?
[23:46]You've done this children's book.
[23:47]You have your first book, more books.
[23:49]What's next?
[23:50]You know, I just talked to one of my fellow songwriters
[23:54]for the song One More on which this book is based.
[23:56]One more hug.
[23:57]And we are thinking about putting together
[23:59]a children's album of children's lullabies.
[24:02]All originals, we need to write them maybe one or two covers.
[24:06]I thought it would be fun to do like one or two Disney songs
[24:08]just acoustic vocal.
[24:09]But yeah, I'm thinking about a children's album,
[24:12]which would be so fun and sweet
[24:15]and just putting on those songs
[24:17]was we're tucking our kids into bed, bedtime lullabies.
[24:20]So that's kind of on the horizon.
[24:21]Very fun.
[24:22]Yeah, that's great.
[24:24]Do you have any parting advice
[24:25]I know you gave some already to aspiring authors?
[24:28]Yeah, the best advice I got was write what you know.
[24:31]This is a story about me and my son
[24:34]and our relationship and his need for one more hug,
[24:36]which I think so many parents and grandparents
[24:38]can relate to other people too.
[24:40]So if you want to write, write what you know.
[24:42]What's going on in your life right now?
[24:44]What's your season of life and keep it simple?
[24:47]I mean, this is a very simple book, you know?
[24:49]One more hug.
[24:51]So that would be my advice.
[24:52]Write what you know, keep it simple
[24:54]and all you need is one, yes.
[24:57]So hang on for that one, yes.
[24:59]Excellent.
[25:00]Thanks again.
[25:01]I really appreciate you coming in.
[25:02]Mom's time to read books.
[25:03]Thank you for having me, Savie.
[25:04]No problem.
[25:05]You've been listening to Mom's time to read books
[25:08]with Zippy Owens.
[25:09]Please make sure to sign up for my newsletter
[25:11]at zippyowens.com to get more updates
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[25:17]Thanks so much.
[25:18]Today's episode has been sponsored by poets and writers.
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[25:32]Don't have time to read books.
[25:34]Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan at Texturesound
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[25:39]for providing this fantastic intro and now trim music.
[25:42]Thanks for listening.
[25:43]You can always email me at zippyowens.com.