Replay! Kristin Chenoweth, WHAT WILL I DO WITH MY LOVE TODAY?

[1:34]Zibby Owens: Welcome to moms don't have time to Read Books hosted by me, Zibby Owens. It's an award winning podcast with over 1,900 episodes all featuring authors of books you love and those you have yet to discover. Listen daily five times a week. Then go to zippymedia.com and learn more about what the LA Times called the Zippy verse. Zippy Media includes Zippy's Bookshop, an independent bookstore in Santa Monica, Zippy Books Publishing, Zippy Retreats, Zippy's Book Club, and more. Go check it out at zippymedia.com, and follow me on Instagram at Zippy Owens. It'll take you where you need to go. Thanks for listening. Hi, everybody. This is one of the replay bonus episodes to get you through the holiday season. Maybe you missed some. There have been over 2,000 episodes. We are going into a rebrand where we're going to be changing the name of the podcast from moms don't have time to read books to Zippy's podcast. So that is happening in the New Year. In the meantime, have a listen, enjoy, and let me know what you think. Bye. I had the best time interviewing Kristin Chenoweth, who I've been a fan of for a long time. But our conversation I mean, this is why I do this. Conversations like this where we strip away all the chitchat and just go deep and talk and connect. And I feel so honored to have just gotten a chance to get to know her and talk to her and her to know me. I don't know. It was just amazing. So anyway. Okay. Kristin Chenoweth's bio. Kristin Chenoweth is the author of What Will I Do With My Love Today, a children's book. Emmy and Tony award winning actress and singer, Kristin Chenoweth's career spans film, television, voice over, and stage. She received an Emmy Award for best supporting actress in a comedy series for her role in Pushing Daisies, won a Tony Award for You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, and received a Tony Award nomination for her original role of Glinda the Good Witch in the Broadway smash hit Wicked, which we talked about in this conversation. Chenoweth has released multiple albums, including The Art of Elegance and For the Girls, and has performed to sold out audiences around the world. Kristen stars in the Apple TV plus musical comedy Schmigadoon. She also starred in the Netflix comedy Holiday, voiced the character Daisy in the HBO Max film The Witches, and hosted the Food Network series Candyland. Kristen remains a passionate supporter of charities, including the Broken Arrow Performing Arts Center Foundation in her home state of Oklahoma, where she launched an annual Broadway boot camp, providing young Broadway hopefuls with the opportunity to learn from mentors in the field. Enjoy our episode. Welcome, Kristen. Thank you so much for coming on moms don't have time to read books to discuss your amazing new children's book, what will I do with my love today, illustrated by Mane Diaz. Thank you. Thank you for having me. I'm super excited to be able to talk to everybody,

[4:30]MY LOVE TODAY?: especially the moms that don't have time to read a book.

[4:34]Zibby Owens: Yes. I have four kids. I had no time, and I thought, you know, this would be a good way to help people hear about books that they might not otherwise and, you know, get the backstory. That's so cool. That's so cool of you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Well, let's just start with you talking about this amazing book. And then I wanna come back to our our pre chat because that was so interesting. Why did you write this book? Why is this important to you? One of the things that happened, I don't know how you felt when the pandemic first hit,

[5:02]MY LOVE TODAY?: I went from 180 to zero and I didn't know what to do with myself. And I thought, what will I do with myself today? Was originally the thought, the question. And my boyfriend now fiance said, just take a beat. Maybe you can hear. He said, let hear what you're supposed to do. Just take a beat. And on one of our walks with Thunder, my dog, I was feeling pretty low and she just kind of looked up at me like all of our pets do. People who love pets understand what I mean. They can look at you sometimes at your lowest. I've had a lot of loss this past couple of years and she just looked at me and just like, it's gonna be okay. And I thought, Oh, how can I show you how much I love you? And then the question evolved into what will I do with this love? What will I do with my love today? I just wanted to share with everybody how the title became because that's how the book became. I thought it might be a song, but it's in the middle of the night. I have a tendency to, a lot of writers are this way. I'm no Shakespeare, but I write in thoughts down in the middle of the night. And then I get up in the morning and go, Oh, right. That's what I was thinking. So that's how this book was born. And thank goodness it was born because I have heard from so many people that they have the same relationship with their pet. And also what am I going to do with myself now? How does life look differently? What's going to be important to me now? You know, this pandemic has given us time to not just find solutions, but ask the questions that we're scared to ask of ourselves. And that's why I wrote the book. If you want to be honest, it's pretty deep, but that's why I wrote the book right there is to not be afraid to ask yourselves, ask anybody, what will I do with myself today? How am I gonna leave this world in a better place? Again, I'm a scared writer because I'm not you. I'm not her. I don't wanna try to be great, know, great, except I wanna get my message across. How can I do that in rhyme and the way I want to get to be heard? So that in conjunction with my lovely illustrator, Mane Diaz, who I just loved, I thought she would just nailed it. Like I picked from people and I just went, thank you. I just went right there to her. Amazing. So that's how the book came, and I'm so glad I did it. And I'd love to do another one. I'd love it to be a sequel. You know? I'd it to be like, I'd love it to keep going. And I have to tell you something, it's sort of happening naturally. So

[7:41]Zibby Owens: that's great. It's amazing. And by the way, yes, I love The Deep. Let's definitely I mean, I've also had a lot of loss in my life and I feel like it deletes a lot of the need for the non important stuff. Right? And that's I think that's why I also relate so well to this book. Right? Because you do we all we all have limited time. Right? We don't have all the time in the world. What are we gonna do? Promise. There's There's no promise for tomorrow. And what you just said is because of the loss and pain

[8:08]MY LOVE TODAY?: and even where we are in our world today. Yep. Easy to let that you said it perfectly. And if I may steal that from you, I'll give you credit. It's easy to delete. Allow it to delete the good things, the good times, the blessings. Thank you for that. Thank you for that. Needed that today. No problem.

[8:28]Zibby Owens: And by the way, I don't know if you can see my dog on the floor. She's in black. But anyway, I am also a huge dog lover. You leaned over and there was like I was like, is that an animal? It is an animal. And I you know, it's so funny. Before COVID, I interviewed an author named Michelle Weinstein, and her whole book was about someone who had a big loss in their life, and the dog step forward is, like, the main comfort. And that was, like, the source of our and I and at that time, I didn't have a dog. And I was like, oh, that's so amazing. And her whole thing was dog so during the pandemic and not to I will go back to you in one second. What is what I wanna talk about. I love it. During the pandemic, my husband's mom and grandmother both passed away and from COVID. And and my mother-in-law was only 63 in beautiful and in perfect health, and it was horrific, a six week drawn out awful process. So when she died, we actually adopted her dog, which is who Naya is. And from when I went down to Duke to the hospital where they finally were allowed to see her just to say goodbye, Naya sat on the bed with me and while I sat there just waiting. And since that moment, she has not left my side. Okay. This is this is what we're talking about today. This is just a conduit

[9:39]MY LOVE TODAY?: to this conversation. You have a little piece of her with you. And if I may, my God, what bigger blessing could there be? Have that beautiful furry baby. That's what I call him. And it's your mother-in-law you're talking about right. He'll remind you every day in the best possible way what true love is and how it continues on. Aw. I'm sorry for your loss, and yet thank you for sharing that story. A lot of us need to hear it. No. It it's fine. But when you said you have had a lot of loss lately, right, it's a it's a special place in the world for people who have that fresh loss and who automatically can rethink and and

[10:21]Zibby Owens: can connect with, like, how important, like, what's really important. Right? What's really important. Yeah. And that's what your book does so well. Right? Because part of what's important is you realize love. Like, that's really the most important thing of all is who you love, your relationships with them. Right? Yes. And thank you so much for

[10:41]MY LOVE TODAY?: understanding because I look for ways, I'm lucky and you are too, anybody that's artistic, we get to put it out that way. Even if this weren't to be printed ever, I would still have gotten to do it and have it. As artists, particularly we have a duty. It's almost a requirement to get it out, whether anything happens with it or not. And this whole time period, and I hate to say it, and we just keep rolling into new stuff, right? That's fine. It's important to talk about the state of our world and to see so much hate in the world to concentrate on the word love. Battles hate better than any other word I know. And that's why, and you're gonna know what's the, what is the exact term for a word sounding like what it is? Like, that's what I think love is. Love sounds like what it is. Oh, like on a monopoeia or whatever it is. On a monopoeia. That's what the word love is to me. And I anyway yeah. Yes. Everything you said, ditto and times 10. Like, understand.

[11:57]Zibby Owens: It's like a a there's a A club. And you said there's like a club you don't wanna be a part of or something like the bad That's it. You know? I lost my background this year. Oh. Two years ago.

[12:09]MY LOVE TODAY?: Right when it started. I'm so sorry. Thank you. And 50. No. '49. Same. Like you think so young, not ready. Wasn't time. But you know, this is why we, this is what we're talking about when, what will I do with my love today? That's all you can do is show love. Yourself when you mess up. That's important too. Forgive yourself when you mess up and then move on. Yeah.

[12:37]Zibby Owens: But another piece of the story too in your book is about helping other people. Right? Helping, giving back, paying attention to everyone in the world. Right? Being aware that we're all so interconnected and the energy you kind of put out into the world is so important. Right? You like, you're saying, like, you have to put all this out there, and I I completely agree. Like, that's all you can do. It's sort of like it's as if, you know, it's like an Instagram Live with all the hearts. You're, like, pressing the heart, heart, heart, heart, heart button and that they're just flowing from you. Right?

[13:09]MY LOVE TODAY?: Totally true. And also, you're a mom. You understand I'm not a mom, but I'm a mother, if that makes sense. I have several kids I take care of. No, I'm not twenty four seven mom. I don't have your job. I do not. And that's to me the most important job on this planet for parents. But I do have this dog and I do take her everywhere with me because I need her with me a lot. There is something to the word rescue. See words, I'm not a wordsmith, but I just love them. And as an adopted person myself, getting to adopt a dog and having us sort of get each other in a way, we're both little rescues and I wanted to help other people too. Adoption isn't really the theme of the book. Well, it didn't start out that way. It's now become like, Hey, this book is about adoption and rescue. And I'm like, you know what? It is. I didn't set out that to be that well. Think about anything you want it to be. It kind of is. And it's also, we're just people wanting to be loved by somebody that sees us. There's something I'm learning from the younger generation. They want to be seen. Okay. And I say this because I was the woman, you know, going, rolling her eyes at 50 going, I wanna be seen, I wanna be heard. You know what, stop that. Get out there and work your butt off and then let's talk. No, no, no. Now I get it. I get it. The problems today are different than the problems that were twenty, thirty years ago. There's instantaneous gratification or dissatisfaction with these things. I totally stand corrected and they, all of us, not just they, but especially they, because they're our next generation need to be seen. They need to be heard. They have lots to learn and we have lots to give, but they have lots to teach and we need to hear it. So all of this package into this tiny little, tiny little book that didn't even set out to say or be any of that just happened. That's why as a writer, when I write a song, for example, I think, Oh, the song's going to be about this. I do this a lot. Woah, the song's not about that. I end up writing it like I was completely wrong. So especially to anybody listening out there who is an artist, a reminder, I'm not a teacher, I'm a reminder to not put yourself in a box, not put yourself in a box because I set out to write a song and what came out was a children's book. So for whatever that's worth for your listenership, for whatever that's

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[18:47]Zibby Owens: I mean, could still be a song.

[18:50]MY LOVE TODAY?: And it might just be funny. I'm I'm gonna be reading this at a lot of very fancy places coming up. And my music director, the woman that goes on tour with me and her name is Mary Mitchell Campbell, she's Broadway royalty. She said, I feel like there's a song there. And I went, okay, okay. And then you just said that. So I'm listening again

[19:11]Zibby Owens: to all of a sudden, why can't there be? Yeah, Why can't there be? Yeah. Yeah. Nice accompaniment. Yeah. Right? Yeah. It would be great. I actually have a children's book coming out on April 19. Yeah. It's called it's called princess charming, and it's about a girl who just can't find her thing. And she keeps, like, messing up everything she tries and can't figure out what she's good at, and then she realizes what she's really the best at is not giving up at whatever she puts her mind to. Okay. And then there's, like, a funny twist at the end. And, yeah, I'm excited. So I'm I'm particularly aware of.

[19:44]MY LOVE TODAY?: No way. I would definitely I probably love that book. Oh, I'll I'll send that. So charming. Yes. Yes. But

[19:52]Zibby Owens: because of that, like, I can be I'm so attuned to every decision that goes into the books. Right? And what goes on the cover and, like, the little imagery and, like, how amazing your end papers are and just all the things that go into it and everything on every page. I mean, I didn't know you were adopted, to be honest, before I mean, you know, I've been a fan from afar watching you on stage and, you know, Wicked and oh my gosh. By the way, there's a song in Wicked about losing a friend that I when I lost my not to keep talking. I also lost my best friend on 09:11. And during like, soon after that, I went and saw Wicked. I can't remember exactly when. But that was the song that I would play over and over again. Good. It's called You know which one I'm talking about? Yes. It's called For Good. Yes. For Good. For Good. But I don't know. Now that you're in the friend loss thing, that happened to have been the song that was most powerful for me at that time. Well, it's it's all about it's all about friendship. It's all about love and forgiveness. It's all about what we look for in our relationship. So, of course, that of course, that stuck to you. Yeah. I'm not yeah. But anyway, so I saw you from afar, but not I didn't know about your adoption. So I found it particularly interesting to learn of that, but also that it was I don't think you hit people over the head with it at all. It was subtle and, like, you know, you just sort of it was just introduced in passing and I don't know. I think because for me, I forget, first of all, thank you for bringing it up. I don't lead with that because I don't think about it because I'm

[21:16]MY LOVE TODAY?: me. It's like me saying to you every day, I'm four foot eleven, I'm four foot eleven, I'm four foot eleven. Of course I know it. People that around me know I'm little, but I don't think about it every day. Of course I know I have a funny speaking voice, but I don't lead with that. I just, it's part of who I am. So the adoption, yeah, I didn't, like I said, I didn't mean to make it about that, but I think there's a lot of people in this life that need to hear it. And even people who feel lost, not just that I was adopted as a baby and the way it happened, which is another book, which was a miracle. But that I have this dog who, again, I go back to Thunder and thinking, Oh, I'm that crazy dog lady now. Like I've seen people on the street and now I'm her and it's okay. But there is one passage in the book for me, passage. I use quotations. I love this. This is my favorite part of the whole book. And one of the reasons I was so happy when I got it down in the way I wanted it to be heard. And you know what I'm talking about because the rhymes and the sequence. You see, families don't all look the same or talk like each other or have the same name. Sometimes extra love in your heart and your home is waiting for somebody who's all alone. No matter how life has brought us together, adoption means family and families forever. We've had lots of love in our family before, but with you Thunderpup, we can have even more. And I guess what I'm trying to say here is love breeds love.

[22:54]Zibby Owens: Mhmm. That's it. That's true. But it's so important. I mean, it's really I mean, it's simple, but not because so many people still don't get it. Get it?

[23:05]MY LOVE TODAY?: I know, honey. I know. That's why we as artists, when I say we have a responsibility, and I don't mean that with any sort of arrogance. I just mean there's a responsibility to say what's in your heart, especially put out good in the world, whether it's through a song, a book, a painting, it's a responsibility. And I believe that's why God gave certain people certain gifts. Notice I'm not in a math lab. I'm not a surgeon. You know, I'm not a very good driver. Me neither. Oh my God. Thank you. Thank you. I speed way too much. So I'm doing what it is I'm supposed to be doing. You are, you're supposed to be doing and Thunder is doing her little job. And yeah, it's, I love getting deep, especially when it's with something that seems so little and so like nothing. This probably took me more time to write than anything I've ever done because I didn't, I just wanted to say it in a way, in a certain rhyme. And actually I have a woman that helped me and she just, she said, Joni Rogers is her name. Whenever I write something, I always want her to look over it because I'm trying to be respectful and well spoken. And she just said, there's really not a lot to change here, Kristen, or work on because I was about to get but it took me two year two two years. Oh my gosh.

[24:32]Zibby Owens: Well, it real I mean, it's really good. It's really it really works. It gives you the chills and makes you smile and all the good things.

[24:40]MY LOVE TODAY?: All the feels. All the feels. Yes. Right. That's what I was supposed to say. But you spoke in the beginning that you've been going through some vertigo and stuff lately. What's that been like? Well, anybody out there that knows what Meniere's disease and or vertigo or ringing in the ears, all of those things are sisters to each other or brothers, depending on how you look at it, it doesn't matter. I have that, I have Meniere's. It is Virgo accompanied with ringing and balance issues. And when I've looked back upon my life about when it's really been bad as an adult is when it kind of in my twenties, it's accompanied with a migraine a lot of times. Thank goodness for Botox, by the way, because that is the truth. I mean, I made the decision long ago when I found out that it worked. I was like, do you want to be able to move your face or do you want to be able to move at all? I'm like, I think I'll choose B. So Botox has really helped with, it's helped in a lot of places now that I want it to, but it's helped all over the head with migraine triggers. So all of this to say is flying. I don't drink a lot of alcohol anyway, but that's something to watch, low sodium, something to watch, but I'm having it right now. And sometimes here's the lesson. Here's the thing. Sometimes you can do everything just right. Just like you're supposed to, and it's still gonna happen. Sometimes you can do, you know, you're walking that fine line. Oh, I'm getting on another flight and I'm having, you know, this too much salt here and you don't get it. So the lesson is do your best, give into it when it happens so that you can get over it. It's an interesting of all things to have as an artist. I said to my mom, long ago, well, now it's been a couple of years, but I said, if I could just cut off one of my fingers and pull her out of this again. And she goes, who are you to say that you're not going to have a certain something? Everybody has their crap. Yours just happens to be the inner ear. And she's right. She's right. I bet I wouldn't say that if I were a guitarist, you know, she just really, she's been such a great influence as far as injury, sickness, and healing. Like who are you to be so special to not have something? Everybody has something. I'm like, but nobody can see it. It's not that I want pity, it's inside my ear. She's like, Cole Porter, let's look at all who may, you know, she goes, let's look at everybody who's ever had, you know, this problem. And then we kind of started talking and she goes, what do you think about Van Gogh? I mean, do you think he chopped off his ear because maybe he couldn't, the ringing, maybe he had, I mean, who knows? It's just an interesting question to ask of oneself is why not me? Why not me? I'm no special or different than anybody else.

[27:31]Zibby Owens: Everybody's got their crap. Right. But on the other side, it is interfering with one of your God given gifts. Right? That It

[27:39]MY LOVE TODAY?: does. It does. It me to my knees. And for me, it's prayer, meditation for other people's different things. But when I start to really focus in on just hone in on it and relax and calm down, be still, all the things that we're supposed to do actually when we pray or meditate, I can sometimes get over it. For example, I am flying tonight and I'm in a very good spot right now. I'm being very careful with how I move. And I'm going to be so in a prayerful mode when I get on that plane. Want anything to disrupt it or make it weird again, but it might, but it's worth it to me to try. Because again, I don't know how much not to get morbid. I don't know how long we are here. So I wanna keep continuing to live and try. If it were yesterday, I couldn't have done it. So this is all now at this point in my life, all these things that I'm receiving, like why this and why that is now, why not calm down, relax, you're of a certain age, chill out. You've been blessed. You work your butt off, Continue to do what you love. These are all things that keep coming in like little

[28:57]Zibby Owens: zappers in my brain. You know what I mean? I know what you mean. But it still stinks. And I'm sorry. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Very unfortunate. I had vertigo for, like, one week, and I was like, how do people live with this when I had COVID? It, like, caused Please don't. Yeah. It's awful. It's awful. I literally was like, I can't believe and I thought back on all the books I'd read about people with chronic pain and chronic vertigo, I was just like, oh my gosh. And so I can't believe it. Like, how disruptive it is. It's completely disruptive.

[29:30]MY LOVE TODAY?: That's the word. That is the word. And today even, you know, I try wanna look great for you and everything, and I wanna but I thought, you know what? Here I am. I've got a ring light around me, and I'm just happy to be on the call. And so this is it people, this is it right here. And I think I said to you before the interview, you know, it's okay if you don't want a video, not much will be shown. I said, you know what, it's okay. I want people to see the good, bad and the ugly. I show what my hair and makeup team can do all the time. And that's a fact. Maybe that's graduating a little bit. Maybe I feel like I've graduated and I'm like, this is the real thing. And maybe it's not pretty or happy, but it's alive.

[30:16]Zibby Owens: First of all, I mean, you're a beautiful person, but it's mostly from the inside. And that sounds cheesy, but, you know, I'm certainly not here for your hair and makeup. Right? There if I wanted to go see you in hair and makeup, I'd, you know, go to I I know where to find you. Right? This is this podcast, this is about the inside. This is about what we think and feel, not what we look like. So Thank you. Amen, sister. So well, thank you so much, Kristen. This has been so nice. Thank you for being so open and real, and it's so personally refreshing to be able to just connect and find when people are on the same wavelength and really get it. So Same, girl. Same. Same. Very rare.

[31:00]MY LOVE TODAY?: Stay safe. Take care of that dog and all those kids. You too. Thank you so much. I'll be getting the book, princess charming. Yes. I'm actually already like, that's the song anyway. Take it. Run with it. I love I can read it. Oh, you're so sweet. I can't wait. Thank you. Bye.

[31:25]Zibby Owens: Thanks for listening to moms don't have time to read books. If you love it, please leave a review and follow us on social at Zippy Owens and at Zippy Readers.