Joy 101: Harry Connick Jr.

"I was swimming in the pool at the Sunset Marquis Hotel. I was 22 years old... I jumped out of the pool and introduced myself. And when I met her, I'd never seen a more beautiful human being."    – Harry Connick Jr. on meeting his wife, Jill Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb is Presented by CVS. Shop your local CVS, right around the corner. Experience the full conversation on the "Joy 101 podcast with Hoda Kotb" wherever you listen to podcasts. For more information, please visit us at www.joy101.com/podcast https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.joy101.com%2Fpodcast&data=05%7C02%7CBrianBurton%40iheartmedia.com%7C1fd260980ba44341690d08df25960874%7C122a527e5b714eba878d9810b495b9e3%7C0%7C0%7C639270998441052851%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=UdEAjjecTP15MibklLaibdAFgHCHlQ0Q7dUc%2F%2B4snBc%3D&reserved=0 See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:10Hoda Kotb?

  Wow, I hope you are ready for an incredible conversation. Okay, Harry Connick Jr. is a brilliant musician, a brilliant actor, and just a brilliant human being. So you wonder, how did he get to be that brilliant? Like, what is it about him? Where did it all start? How did it begin? Well, for Harry, it began with his mother. His mom, who he calls Babe, passed away when he was just a young boy. So Harry, at age 59, decided he was going to write a book about her, the woman who influenced his life. And it's called Babe Elaboratio. And it is a gorgeous book that shows how Harry Connick Jr. came to be.

• 0:54Hoda Kotb?

  She was a musical influence on him. She was a moral influence, and she just guided his life and still guides it today. And he actually did something for her on what would have been her 100th birthday. This is a beautiful conversation, a deep and meaningful conversation that I think you'll be able to relate to in your own life. I hope you enjoy my talk with Harry Connick Jr.

• 1:18Speaker 01

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.

• 1:22Hoda Kotb?

  Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb is presented by CVS. I've realized that joy doesn't always come from those big moments. Sometimes you find it on the most ordinary day. I'll pop into a CVS for toothpaste or paper towels, and it never seems to be just a quick errand. Maybe I'll grab a delicious Well Market Trail Mix or wander over to the Joy Word Collection. That's part of the fun. So the next time you're checking something off your to-do list, stop by your local CVS pharmacy. You might go in for one thing and leave with a little more joy. Visit your local CVS pharmacy, sponsored by CVS. Every purchase is a financial decision, so it's worth asking, what am I getting out of this?

• 2:04Hoda Kotb?

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• 2:28Speaker 02

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• 2:55Speaker 03

  I'm Melissa Jelton, host of the What Happened to Her podcast. We're kicking off the season with the Sandra Birchmore story, a case the police wrote off as a suicide in a snowstorm. Her family never bought it, and the man they suspected wore a badge.

• 3:13Speaker 04

  You never know who that devil is because he's wearing a disguise. Sometimes it's a police uniform.

• 3:18Speaker 03

  And you can get access to all episodes 100% ad-free with an iHeart True Crime Plus subscription exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Available only to iHeart True Crime Plus subscribers. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts, search for iHeart True Crime Plus, and subscribe today.

• 3:36Speaker 05

  What happens when romance gets a little monstrous? On Radio 831, a romance podcast, join us, St. Johnna Basker and Tyler McCall, as we host our own monster romance extravaganza. We're joined by the Villain Edit author Rosie Dannon and sentient object romance expert Gracie Delgado to explore what these unexpected love stories can reveal about desire, fantasy, and what we actually want. Listen to Radio 831, a romance podcast, on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 4:06Hoda Kotb?

  Okay, so your book is out. It is called Babe Elaboratio.

• 4:13Speaker 06

  That's better than I pronounce.

• 4:15Hoda Kotb?

  Booyah. Okay, it's about your mom, but before we get into you and your life, I just want to read the back cover because this touched me. "There aren't enough trees to make enough paper to write enough words to say how much I love my mom." Period, full stop. That kind of sums up your relationship with her.

• 4:32Speaker 06

  It really does. You know, I mean, she died when I was 13, so the only memories I have of her were from a very short time. And nothing good came from her death. But when I think about how I remember her, she's sort of frozen in time. And I think that is kind of a blessing. And the love I have for her has only grown deeper, which is strange because my relationship didn't go past that point. But as I've grown, my perspective on her has changed, and I really do love her infinitely.

• 5:10Hoda Kotb?

  How did you know as a kid that she loved you?

• 5:14Speaker 06

  She showed her love to me in ways that I can remember like they were yesterday. She was, I mean, she was very physical, like she loved to hold me and to... Like, I remember once I went into her room. She was laying down, and there was a face cream that she used to use, and I just would go in and put this face cream on. I was like five or six. And she was just very patient with me. She never sort of shooed me away. Very physical, but also she allowed me to discover things on my own. She would never stop me unless it was something, you know, if I was walking onto oncoming traffic.

• 5:54Hoda Kotb?

  Yeah, she'd stop you then.

• 5:55Speaker 06

  Yeah, but she was the type of person who would allow me to figure things out on my own, which is a kind of playing the long game in terms of how she showed her love. But, you know, I remembered those things and tried to, you know, incorporate them into how I parent our kids.

• 6:12Hoda Kotb?

  Why did you decide to write a book about her? Why was this something that you felt it was time for, it was important to do?

• 6:22Speaker 06

  Well, it all started with her dream of my playing at Carnegie Hall, which was since I was a child. But I found out she was sick when I was around 10, and I called Carnegie Hall from New Orleans and said, hey.

• 6:35Hoda Kotb?

  As a 10-year-old?

• 6:36Speaker 06

  Yeah, and they said, I said, I really want to play there for my mom. They said, well, this is the box office. It doesn't work like that. And I told my mom. And then she died three years later. And I wanted to, that was sort of a, kind of a signpost goal for me to play at Carnegie Hall. But I intentionally didn't go into Carnegie Hall. I'd never walked inside that building for 45 years because I wanted to, I wanted to make sure that when I did, it would be something special. So that got me thinking about, maybe I could write a piece of music for her. So eight years ago, my manager called Carnegie Hall and said, do you have May 22, 2026? Because you have to book it years in advance.

• 7:13Hoda Kotb?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 7:14Speaker 06

  So we had that date. And then when I started writing the music, I thought, a lot of times when people go hear symphonic music, they can only imagine what the composer must have been thinking about. But because this was for my mom, I thought, maybe I'll write a book that sort of can serve as a blueprint to the music for people to kind of help navigate what I was thinking about.

• 7:33Hoda Kotb?

  Why that date? Why'd you pick that date?

• 7:35Speaker 06

  That was her 100th birthday.

• 7:36Hoda Kotb?

  Her 100th?

• 7:37Speaker 06

  May 22nd. Yeah, she was born on May 22, 1926. So I figured I'm going to do something special on that, on that day.

• 7:44Hoda Kotb?

  The fact that she said to you, I want you to play Carnegie Hall, meant, and she's a musician, I mean, she understood music, she knew you had it. No mom is saying you're playing Carnegie Hall.

• 7:55Speaker 06

  It was, I mean, I still can't believe she really said that because that's, I mean, that is calling with incredible specificity, like something that she just saw in her mind. And the fact that I, this is what she said, we have her on tape saying this, "I could die happy knowing he played at Carnegie Hall. I want people to say, look, there goes Beethoven's mother." So she wanted me to be a famous pianist and composer. And here I am on Carnegie Hall, you know, as a pianist and composer. It's just, it's incredible.

• 8:24Hoda Kotb?

  We should say that as a little, little kid, and I remember when I worked in New Orleans, one of the first stories I learned when it was about New Orleans was about you, being this little kid. And I still remember being in WWLNS Roland video of Harry Connick Jr., this little kid banging on the keys and just, and I was like, I can't believe that at that age, this young kid, and they were so proud of you because you'd grown and then they were, they were talking about you. But I thought, how did that come to be? How does a little boy who, you know, I picture my kids, you know, what can they do? I don't know. But how did, did you have that inside you?

• 8:58Speaker 06

  I think, I think so. But, I mean, you're an amazing mom, and you know what it's like to see something of interest in your kids and see something they're interested in and doing anything you can to foster that. And that's, that's who they were. So I think had I, a different set of parents who didn't really care, I'm not sure where I'd end up. But, I mean, being in New Orleans, being around all of that music, and knowing that I had not only a little bit of talent, but an incredible desire to play, I mean, they just did everything they could to make sure that, that I had the opportunity to develop.

• 9:30Hoda Kotb?

  They brought you the best teachers, the best everybody.

• 9:32Speaker 06

  Well, in New Orleans, there's a rule, a law that says, if the main purpose of an establishment is other than serving alcohol, then you can bring a minor in. So these clubs on Bourbon Street had bands. The focus was the band. So I'd go down there with my parents every Saturday afternoon, Sunday afternoon, and listen. And they would know that I was there because they'd see me in the audience, and they'd be like, Harry Jr., come up and play. So, you know, when you're six, seven, eight years old, and you're getting a chance to play with these musicians, and they don't tell you anything like, okay, we're going to play this song in this key. They just start playing.

• 10:04Hoda Kotb?

  And you got to catch up.

• 10:05Speaker 06

  And you figure it out. And I mean, it's unbelievable training.

• 10:08Hoda Kotb?

  I mean, the fact that Ellis Marsalis, who such, was such a legendary musician, was your mentor.

• 10:15Speaker 06

  Yeah, he was my teacher, and that, that was a different kind of teaching. That was like very strict, very formal and tough. I mean, he wasn't like, as much as we all loved Ellis, he wasn't the warmest, fuzziest guy in the classroom. I mean, it was, it was rough in there.

• 10:32Hoda Kotb?

  Really?

• 10:33Speaker 06

  Oh, yeah. And you have to remember too that his two sons, Winton and Branford, were about five, six years older than I was. And these guys are among the greatest musical minds that have ever lived. And so coming up after them, the standard was so high, he just didn't waste his time unless you were very, very serious.

• 10:49Hoda Kotb?

  Do you ever think about just with all that pressure about saying like, I'm not sure if this is worth it? It's not fun.

• 10:54Speaker 06

  He did. He told, yeah, he told me I should quit. When I was about 15, he said, you should consider another vocation. You're not meant for this. He was tough.

• 11:02Hoda Kotb?

  Why did he say that?

• 11:03Speaker 06

  He was mean. He was like, you know, like, didn't want to waste his time. But at the same time, he told my dad, because I was about to move to New York when I was 18. My dad was like, is my son gonna be okay?

• 11:15Hoda Kotb?

  Yeah.

• 11:16Speaker 06

  And the quote he said was Harry Jr.'s like secretary at looking for a race to run. He said, he'll be fine, but he didn't tell me that. He told me to quit.

• 11:23Hoda Kotb?

  So he was doing tough love? He thought it would motivate you?

• 11:26Speaker 06

  Yeah, he was tough.

• 11:27Hoda Kotb?

  I think we spend so much of our lives waiting for the big moments. The birthdays, the vacations, the milestones. But the truth is, some of the happiest moments show up on the most ordinary days. So like this, I'll stop into a CVS because I need one thing. Somehow, the best part of the trip is never the thing I came for. So maybe I'll grab a delicious well-marketed snack, or maybe I'll wander over to the Joyward Collection. It's really full of fun, cool, seasonal decor, thoughtful little gifts, and those little discoveries that make you so glad you stopped in. I have to tell you, if you're an Extra Care member, you're gonna save on things you're already buying, and those extra bucks really do add up.

• 12:11Hoda Kotb?

  Just watching that total go down at the checkout never, ever gets old. I know life's busy, we're all juggling a lot, and that's why I think those little unexpected moments of joy matter so much. So the next time you're running errands, stop by your local CVS pharmacy. You may go in for something you need, but don't be surprised if you leave with something that simply makes your day a little brighter. Visit your local CVS pharmacy, sponsored by CVS. Halloween has a funny way of making you buy things you'd never normally buy. A 10-foot skeleton? Sure. A full-size fog machine? Why not? Three bags of candy that somehow become six bags of candy? It happens.

• 12:54Hoda Kotb?

  Which brings me to the Chase Freedom Flex Card, the savvy decision that will earn you more cash back on the everyday purchases, plus the extraordinary Halloween tricks and treats. With Freedom Flex, you earn even more treats on your Halloween and everyday needs. You get 5% cash back on popular rotating quarterly categories, 3% on dining and drugstores, and 1% on all other purchases. More ways to earn, more ways to get rewarded. That's no tricks, all treats. More ways to earn, more ways to get rewarded. So sign up for the Chase Freedom Flex Card. Learn more at chase.com/getflex. This is a paid collaboration with Chase Freedom Flex. Cards issued by JPMorgan Chase Bank, NA Member FDIC.

• 13:39Hoda Kotb?

  Subject to credit approval. Offer subject to change. Terms apply.

• 13:43Speaker 02

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• 14:13Speaker 03

  I'm Melissa Jelton, and in my new podcast, What Happened to Her? I'm bringing you new stories and conversations every week. Stories about women whose deaths were too quickly ruled a suicide.

• 14:25Hoda Kotb?

  She was starting to get worried and get scared for her safety.

• 14:31Speaker 03

  Stories of survival.

• 14:33Speaker 07

  The only difference between me and her, frankly, was a little bit of luck, because by all rights, I should be dead.

• 14:40Speaker 03

  Cases that everyone else called closed. They can't convict her, right? Like, she has so much evidence. These stories all start in the same place, with a woman failed by a system that didn't believe her, that didn't protect her, that didn't see her.

• 14:56Speaker 01

  No child should ever experience that. And we were babies.

• 14:59Speaker 04

  She did all of these brave things and came out and spoke about it, and he got a year. You never know who that devil is because he's wearing a disguise. Sometimes it's a police uniform.

• 15:11Speaker 03

  Listen to What Happened to Her on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 15:18Hoda Kotb?

  I want to go back. You said it, you were 10 when you, when your mom was diagnosed with cancer.

• 15:25Hoda Kotb?

  I have a nine-year-old about to turn 10. I don't know how a little kid could ever process such words, but how was it presented to you? And what did you think it even meant?

• 15:35Speaker 06

  I didn't process it because to me, I didn't, I didn't know what that was. So I remember hearing, either from my mom or my dad, like, like, I'm sick. You know, I'm not, I'm not feeling so well. And my mom, you know, was getting sicker and sicker, but I didn't, I thought, you know, okay, it's the way that, you know, she'll be fine. I remember driving 10 miles an hour in the car because she was so nauseous from chemotherapy.

• 16:00Hoda Kotb?

  Yeah.

• 16:01Speaker 06

  And I'm like, come on, you know, we're late. And I was a child, I didn't understand. And even after she died, it, it just didn't, I'm like, well, she's, she's coming back. Like, it just didn't occur to me that she wasn't coming back because it was impossible to wrap my brain around. But you know, you, you, you get presented with situations and you get through them, and later you figure out, you know, how to, how to process it.

• 16:25Hoda Kotb?

  Do you remember the funeral?

• 16:27Speaker 06

  I do, because she didn't want a public funeral. She just wanted my dad and my sister and me there. So she didn't have a wake, she didn't have anything like that. It was a very quiet, peaceful ceremony. And I remember just spending some time with her alone. My dad and my sister let me just kind of, you know, be, be with her right before they buried her. And I just don't remember really, I, I didn't, I didn't know what to.

• 16:53Hoda Kotb?

  To feel.

• 16:54Speaker 06

  Yeah, because you're looking at a lifeless body, and you're thinking, okay, I guess this is what, what it is now. And then you, you just sort of move on. And how that affected me later in life is, is, is, it's hard to articulate, but, but I'm sure, I'm sure that it obviously had.

• 17:11Hoda Kotb?

  Of course, yeah.

• 17:12Speaker 06

  Huge impacts on.

• 17:13Hoda Kotb?

  Did it, um, did you all talk about her? I remember after my dad died, I was in college, but after he died, I remember we didn't talk that much about him. And I don't know why that was. Maybe we thought it was too painful for my mom, so we want to continue. But was she a presence still?

• 17:30Speaker 06

  Oh, yeah. She was, she was a huge presence. And I mean, I, I hung on to her because she was, she was like a goddess to me. So she was very much a part of the conversations. And, you know, everyone was grieving in a different way. My dad lost his wife, and my sister, who was 17, lost her mom. And that's a different deal for a girl who's 17. And yeah, no, we, we, we talked about her a lot, and, and she was, my dad eventually remarried, and, but she was still, you know, very much a part of the conversation.

• 18:01Hoda Kotb?

  I mean, your mom was tough, man. She's, she immigrated, she's a lawyer, she was, I mean, when you hear her life story, she went to Morocco. I mean, she seemed like she was a yes person. She tried things, she was unafraid.

• 18:14Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 18:14Hoda Kotb?

  If you were to describe her to someone who had never met her.

• 18:18Speaker 06

  Tough is pretty good, because when, when she married my dad in Morocco, they were both working over there and met and eloped. And my dad contracted tuberculosis, so she had to fly back to New Orleans, a city that she had never been to, and move in with my dad's devout Irish Catholic parents. And she was this Jewish girl from New York. Nobody was gonna hire her. They was very kind of provincial town back then. So, you know, being a female, being from New York, being a Jew, people in Lakeview are not really into that. So she started a record, uh, record, opened a record store and started selling albums. And then my dad got back from Morocco and helped her. They put themselves through law school. And I just remember, eventually she ran for a judge. And I remember this, there were seven men running against her.

• 19:02Speaker 06

  And I remember them saying, why would you vote for Anita Connie? She's gonna die. She has cancer. And I remember my mom just kind of calmly taking it and defeating them. And she got.

• 19:13Hoda Kotb?

  She beat all the guys?

• 19:14Speaker 06

  She got 72% of the vote.

• 19:16Hoda Kotb?

  Wait, they were like, why would you vote for her?

• 19:19Speaker 06

  Oh, yeah. She was brutal. Politics, as you know, is a brutal game, and they didn't, they didn't care.

• 19:23Hoda Kotb?

  But so she ran, she was a judge?

• 19:24Speaker 06

  She was a judge, and, you know, I just remember her, you know, putting on that robe and going to work. And I'm like, man, this woman is, she's something.

• 19:33Hoda Kotb?

  So through the chemotherapy, through all of it, she worked?

• 19:35Speaker 06

  Just plowed through it. We'd be driving to school, and there'd be a poster for her campaign on the telephone pole.

• 19:41Hoda Kotb?

  Yeah.

• 19:41Speaker 06

  And she would pull over and make me get out of the car and take it down. And I said, why are you doing that? She goes, it's illegal. You can't post those billboards on public property. And so we, I'd take it off, and like, come on, I want to get to school. We see another one.

• 19:56Hoda Kotb?

  Pull over?

• 19:56Speaker 06

  Yeah, that's who she was.

• 19:58Hoda Kotb?

  So she was just a rule follower? She followed the rules?

• 20:00Speaker 06

  She was ethical. She knew right and wrong. She was a good woman. She, um, just very measured, you know? She would teach me about things. Like, I remember one time she pulled me into her room, put the album on of Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday. And she goes, I want you to listen to these words. And anybody who has heard the words to Strange Fruit knows it's about lynching of black people in the American South. It's a very, very sad song. And she said, I want you to, this is my favorite song, and I want you to, you know, pay attention to it. And I had no idea what they were talking about. It wasn't until years later, I'm like, that's what my mother was, you know, explaining to me that I needed to understand. Or when I went to Hebrew school as a kid, learned about Mordecai.

• 20:45Speaker 06

  And I came back, and my mom said, who'd you learn about today? I was three, and we have this on audio tape. I said, Mordecai. And she goes, what color was his face? I said, brown. And that would be, that's such an unusual question to ask a young child. But what she was telling me, without telling me, was excellence comes in all kinds of colors, and you need to be aware of that. But she, she played the long game with that stuff.

• 21:08Hoda Kotb?

  So interesting, because she, if you can't get hired in a town that you create your own business so that you can start it, for some, that would come with resentment, with huh, with, you know, I'm always fighting with that. Was she somebody who had that?

• 21:24Speaker 06

  Maybe. I, I didn't see it.

• 21:25Hoda Kotb?

  You didn't see it?

• 21:26Speaker 06

  Like, I was too young to recognize it if that were the case. I'm sure she felt overwhelmed at times. But I, I, as a child, I never saw that. She never brought that home. She was just, she was very, very calm and, and measured with me, and never, I never saw her get angry. I'm sure she did, but I didn't see it.

• 21:43Hoda Kotb?

  You didn't see it. So what was it like watching her, watching you play?

• 21:50Speaker 06

  Oh, it was the greatest thing and I, I, that's all I cared about. It's, I kind of feel like that with my wife Jill and our girls now. Like, the audience is very important to me, but if Jill is there or the girls, I'm, I just want to know what they think. You know, I'm still trying to impress them. And that's what it was like with my mom. Like, I would just zone into her. It was very exciting.

• 22:08Hoda Kotb?

  I was just looking before I came in here, again, videos of you when you were younger. They just kept popping up through the years and you're sitting with all these greats at the pianos. I think in one, were you in preservation hall with some famous singer?

• 22:21Speaker 06

  Oh, it might have been.

• 22:22Hoda Kotb?

  She was taking up the whole keyboard. Yeah, Sweet Emma. She was taking up the whole keyboard and you were like down here at the.

• 22:28Speaker 06

  Well, she had a stroke and so she, her, she couldn't use her left arm and she was in a wheelchair. So when I got invited up to play, like she wasn't about to give me half the piano. She, she played it all. It was, you know.

• 22:41Hoda Kotb?

  But you, you got to play with, who else have you played with that we'd go like, oh, wow, Harry sat with them?

• 22:46Speaker 06

  I, I mean, I played with, you know, Buddy Rich as a child and Ubby Blake and of course, you know, all the greats in New Orleans, James Booker and Al Heard.

• 22:56Hoda Kotb?

  Mm-hmm, Al Heard, yeah.

• 22:57Speaker 06

  You know, I, I got a chance to play with Ella Fitzgerald and, um, just a lot, a lot of amazing, a lot of amazing people.

• 23:05Hoda Kotb?

  I mean, when you think of your musical career, which is just incredible, did you think it would reach so far into like modern pop culture? Because, you know, the jazz and the cool, because I, I even saw you were imitating Fats or somebody, I think, or maybe it was Louis Armstrong. You sounded like him. It was so wild. But somehow, I mean, you came from what is a little nichey into, yeah, into mainstream. How did that happen?

• 23:32Speaker 06

  I think people like people who perform, they like performers. Doesn't, you know, if you see, if you see somebody that's on stage performing, I mean, they could be juggling, they could be playing rock and roll. If a good performance is captivating, so the, the performance part of it was always very important to me.

• 23:50Hoda Kotb?

  Yeah.

• 23:50Speaker 06

  Not to generalize, but many times jazz musicians kind of play among themselves and it's kind of heady music. Um, we don't do that in New Orleans. We, we're very, you know, outward and, and the performance is really important. You can play the same kind of music, but a lot of times people won't realize what they're hearing. If they, you know, so if they walk out of a good show and they heard some jazz music or rock music or country music, it doesn't really matter.

• 24:14Hoda Kotb?

  When you're in the audience, there's something that's just like this collective kind of effervescence. When you're in a crowd and something's happening and you, there's like, you're levitating. And to be in this moment with all these people in the audience making eye contact, you're not even saying a word, you're just like pointing up on the stage. That kind of euphoria, that kind of joy you can only get there. What's it like to be the person who's up on the stage when it comes to the joy piece of this? What do you, what do you feel up there?

• 24:43Speaker 06

  It, it's, it's definitely that. Sometimes it's, it's not that. Sometimes it's, I'm trying to accomplish something that I'm having trouble doing. It's usually disproportionate to me. The shows that I feel are like that. Sometimes people don't really, they don't feel it.

• 25:04Hoda Kotb?

  Doesn't land that well.

• 25:04Speaker 06

  And sometimes I've played shows that are just horrible to me. Like, I've never sounded worse and that was the greatest thing ever. So, you know, so, but, but it is, it is pretty euphoric. It's like going into another place. It's a, it's a, it's a fleeting thing. It's not like every night.

• 25:20Hoda Kotb?

  Yeah.

• 25:21Speaker 06

  Even if I'm doing the same show every night on Broadway, it's like walking a tightrope. You might be walking the same tightrope every night, but it's still a tightrope and you still have to get to the other side. And it's, it's this unusual feeling.

• 25:33Hoda Kotb?

  Well, the fact that you've kicked from, you've gone from music, you've done Broadway, you've done movies, you've done all the different things. Is there, of those genres, is there something that gives you the most kind of electrifying, joyful feeling of the?

• 25:48Speaker 06

  It's all different. Like, when you're doing Broadway, there's so many technical things you have to do. You have to hit marks, you have to remember lines, you have to work with other actors. When I'm playing a concert, I don't have to do any of that stuff. I just sort of do whatever. Or, um, you know, acting in a film is, is different than acting on television, different than, you know, playing solo piano versus a band. I just, I like, I crave stimulation and I crave that. So whether it's writing a book or composing a symphony or whatever, all of those things are things that thrill me in different ways.

• 26:19Hoda Kotb?

  When you talked about composing music for this book that you have out about your mom, I mean, that is, that's a lot of pressure. Sorry, this is like, this is your 100th birthday. This is the music you want to put out during this time. Tell me about that process.

• 26:37Speaker 06

  I, you know, I, I think of the little drummer boy. When, when he, when he went to offer his gift, I don't think he was thinking about pressure. All he was doing was, hey, this is what I got and that's what I could do. I can't do anything else. Like, my mother wanted me to be comfortable in who I am. And I guess pressure comes when you start thinking about what other people might think.

• 26:58Hoda Kotb?

  Oh, that's good.

• 26:58Speaker 06

  And it just doesn't even occur to me. All I can do is, I'm very aware of who I am now.

• 27:04Hoda Kotb?

  Yeah.

• 27:04Speaker 06

  And what I'm able to do. And so I gave, I played that drum as best as I could and, and there was zero, zero pressure.

• 27:13Hoda Kotb?

  How did you get to that point? Because I was imagining people listening, no matter where we are, we're, we're constantly trying to put a circle in a square. They need this, so I'll be that for them. This person, my boss needs this, I'll be that. My, you know, you're constantly trying to fit in places and you're not necessarily being like, like you said, who you are, what you're supposed to be. When did you get to that place of like, this is me?

• 27:35Speaker 06

  I live in a place that doesn't really, I don't really feel overwhelmed. I don't really feel.

• 27:42Hoda Kotb?

  Beautiful.

• 27:43Speaker 06

  Like I have to please anyone. Um, I'm able to do a lot of things at once without feeling like time is running out.

• 27:51Hoda Kotb?

  What you just said, it, you don't, you don't feel like time's running out. That is huge and so profound. I remember, this sounds so weird, I was in a SoulCycle class. This girl named Sue was pedaling and it was, I was, I was, a thing about adopting children. I had filled out paperwork. They said it might be years. I was like, oh, my God, and I was thinking time. And she gets up there and she plays this song called "Time" by The Burn. And I'd never heard it before. It just came up and it, the, the refrain was, uh, God, I hope there's time for everything. And as I was pedaling, I was like blubbering and thinking about time, time, time. Don't want to waste time. I have a time pie. How much goes to my kids? How much goes to work? Am I doing it right?

• 28:36Hoda Kotb?

  And that statement you just made, that you don't feel like time is running out, to me is so beautiful.

• 28:42Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 28:42Hoda Kotb?

  And getting to that.

• 28:44Speaker 06

  Well, we all know that the past doesn't exist.

• 28:47Hoda Kotb?

  Yeah.

• 28:47Speaker 06

  Right? It doesn't exist.

• 28:49Hoda Kotb?

  Yes.

• 28:49Speaker 06

  It exists, Ted.

• 28:50Hoda Kotb?

  Yeah.

• 28:50Speaker 06

  And we know that the future doesn't exist.

• 28:52Hoda Kotb?

  Right.

• 28:52Speaker 06

  And if you think about what is, people talk about living in the moment all the time, which I think is kind of an overused cliche, but what is the moment? Is it five minutes? Is it a minute? Is it a fraction of a second? Well, if you think of it like that, the present doesn't really exist either.

• 29:06Hoda Kotb?

  Yeah.

• 29:06Speaker 06

  So, all that matters to me is I'm talking to my friend Hoda right now. That's all I'm thinking about. I've got a ton of things that I'm working on.

• 29:14Hoda Kotb?

  Yes.

• 29:14Speaker 06

  But I am the one leading the way. I'm not being dragged along by responsibilities or different kinds of pressures. I'm the one. There's nothing in front of me. Everything is to my side and I'm leading the way.

• 29:30Hoda Kotb?

  Um, but I think what, what this book has, and whether people know, you know, your mom's story or not, it's about a beautiful connection that didn't go away, um, that it still exists today. How old are you?

• 29:45Speaker 06

  I'm 59.

• 29:46Hoda Kotb?

  You're 59 years old and you're talking about your mom like you had just seen her yesterday. She exists that way for you, right?

• 29:54Speaker 06

  Yeah, she really does. And it's a very healthy relationship I have with her now. It wasn't for a long time because, of course, well, not grieving is healthy, but after that, I remember going into interviews and people would ask me questions and I mean, I would walk out. I wouldn't talk about her. It was just too painful and it took me a long, long, long time to understand how her memory could sort of coexist with all of the other things in my life. Um, in fact, I'll be honest with Hoda. There is stuff in this book, I told my wife Jill, I said, like, what did I do? Like, this very personal thing, baby pictures that were hanging in my house now are all all over the place. And it was a really a strange feeling. My daughter, Georgia, said,

• 30:36Speaker 06

  you wrote this book for the woman who said she wanted her son to play at Carnegie Hall. This is not about you. This is about your mother and your love for your mother. And there's nothing that she would have wanted more than to see her son show that. She never got a chance to do it. Like, she did, she, she would love that. I promise you, if she were alive, she'd be front row Carnegie Hall. She'd probably be sitting in this room. So it's not about what I feel I'm revealing about my life. It's about, Mom, we finally get to show everybody what you wanted them to see.

• 31:08Hoda Kotb?

  Okay, so on top of all this beautiful stuff that you're putting out into the world, there's an album as well. Tell me about that.

• 31:14Speaker 06

  So the album is the three movements of the orchestral piece. Um, there is a, you can get it digitally, but you can also get the album. It's a double album. Um, the first movement is my mom's life in New York. The second is her life in North Africa. And the third is her life, um, in New Orleans. And it was recorded in Australia with the Orchestra Victoria. And, um, I'm just, I'm really proud of it. It's, there's no singing on it. It's for people who are expecting music, maybe similar to things I've done in the past, it's very, very different from that. It's kind of like, you know, it's very different. Hopefully they like it.

• 31:52Hoda Kotb?

  This music puts you in this place. You get the, and, and you wrote this with your, you were thinking about your mom and what she was going through at the time?

• 31:59Speaker 06

  Yeah, I just thought about, I started with the, the first four notes, B, A, B, E, and then it went from there. And then I, what they call orchestrated it, which means, you know, if you, maybe it's a violin playing the part, or French horn, or an oboe, or flute, and there's 80 musicians playing it. And so it's the, you know, writing all of those notes out, and telling them whether they need to play a note, soft, or loud, or short, or long. And then, you know, you, thousands and thousands of notes later, you, you put it in front of the orchestra and you play it.

• 32:25Hoda Kotb?

  Tell me about, so you waited to perform at Carnegie Hall. So tell me about the moment that you walked into that building. Just take me from that moment to performing. What was that finally like?

• 32:41Speaker 06

  Well, I, I knew I didn't want to go into Carnegie Hall. It's a big building with lots of, you know, spaces. I, I'd been in some of those, but I'd never been inside Carnegie Hall. And I knew I didn't want to walk on into that building until right before the show. So I rehearsed with the orchestra off-site. When the orchestra went into the theater that day, I didn't go because I didn't want to be at rehearsal. I just wanted to experience it for the first time. So when I got there, like, seven o'clock at night, my sister was there, my wife, and our girls were there. And I'm not really the nervous type. I, I don't really deal with anticipatory nerves at all. I'm very much right now. So I'm, if I was going to be nervous on stage, or thrown off my game on stage, I didn't want to experience

• 33:26Speaker 06

  that twice. So I'm just with my sister and hanging out. And we walked down the hall, and it was five minutes to eight. And we went down the elevator, and we stood backstage. And the, it's not a proscenium theater where there's wings. It's two doors that open up, and you walk right on. And I'm sitting there with my sister, and I wasn't nervous. I was very calm. And then we played a, a little video of, of everything. And I heard my mom, and, hold on, I just, I just became almost dysfunctionally emotional. Like, I couldn't, my legs got wobbly. I thought, I actually think I told my sister, like, I don't know, I can't do this. Like, this has been 45 years between me standing right here and walking

• 34:11Speaker 06

  out on to the stage. Not to mention that my very first piano I ever played was waiting for me on the stage. The piano my mother gave me when I was a child was on the stage. It was really heavy. And, and I just, it helps that my sister's a psychiatrist, because she, she kind of knew what to say, in addition to being a big sister. And I, I, I, the only reason I, I know I was crying is because it was being filmed, and I've seen that since. And I mean, I was, I was, I, I didn't think I could do it. I've never felt that. You could throw me on any stage, anytime. I just don't get nervous. And the doors opened, and I walked out. And I just remember putting my, I was sobbing, and just putting my hand

• 34:54Speaker 06

  on my face. And Jill and the girls ran up to the stage. I didn't see them, I, because the light was in my face. I've seen it on film. It's the most beautiful shot, where I'm, I, I just am weeping into my hands. And from that point on, I don't really remember it. I remember putting my hands on the piano to play this piece, this Beba L'Barateo piece. And I remember seeing my hands and thinking, I don't remember how to play. Like, and I'm on, on stage at Carnegie Hall. And every, I mean, you're talking about 59 years of being alive just went out of my head. And I just, like, you know,

• 35:32Hoda Kotb?

  What happened?

• 35:33Speaker 06

  Here we go. And I just, you know, so the, the first four notes are the name, the letters in her name, B, A, B, E. I'm glad her name wasn't like Francine or something, because we don't have those in the musical language. But we do have B, A, B, E. And once I started playing, I just, I just

• 35:50Hoda Kotb?

  Played.

• 35:51Speaker 06

  Played, you know, it was, it was really weird. A good weird.

• 35:55Hoda Kotb?

  What was the experience like when you played the last note? You had done it. You had done this thing.

• 36:01Speaker 06

  It was just like, I could just, I could just feel my mom with me. I really, really felt it with me. I, I just, it was in, in, incredible, it was the most incredible. I'll never feel that, that again. You know, that was the only time I'll experience that. And, and then I went home and went to sleep, and woke up and played again the next night.

• 36:24Hoda Kotb?

  That's so funny. So how many nights did you play?

• 36:27Speaker 06

  Just two. In the second night, I was very aware of what I was saying, what I was doing. Um, my mother kept a journal, and she started it the month before I was born. And she said, dear baby, I'm gonna have you next month. And she wrote every single event, birthday party, first tooth, everything, till, until a couple of months before she died. And one of the things she said when I was like four was, they don't know what you can do. I know what you can do. You are gonna give the people this. And I wrote, I read some of those excerpts on stage. And it was, it was, it was a challenge, because, you know, it was very, I, I don't, I get emotional on stage, but this was a different kind of emotion. This was like,

• 37:10Speaker 06

  so deeply personal. I, I'd never, I'd never felt that on stage.

• 37:15Hoda Kotb?

  So to be able to read the words that you wrote, when, when, and even to have those words, though.

• 37:21Speaker 06

  I have a book. It's that thick. It's unbelievable.

• 37:24Hoda Kotb?

  And what kind of things did she say in there?

• 37:26Speaker 06

  I mean, like, she talks, I was, I don't know if they were, this was back in the 70s, but I probably had ADHD, or I probably had some learning difficulties. They didn't necessarily use those names back then, but she was saying, you know, you, you know, you're, you're very stubborn, or you, you know, you're very, you know, you don't listen, or, and she would just talk about, very honestly about that.

• 37:51Hoda Kotb?

  You can see what was going on. Interesting.

• 37:54Speaker 06

  Yeah. And she, she was aware of it, but it wasn't like they had names for that stuff. But so I have that. I have, you know, your, you know, you, you, your fifth birthday, like, everybody who was there and what they gave me. And then she, somebody gave me a toy. She wouldn't let me play with it until I wrote a thank you note. She'd be sitting right there on the table. If I had a little G.I. Joe, she said, nope, sit down, write your thank you note.

• 38:21Hoda Kotb?

  And then you can do it.

• 38:21Speaker 06

  Then you can do it.

• 38:22Hoda Kotb?

  Got all these lessons. She was, what a moral powerhouse.

• 38:26Speaker 06

  Yeah, she was, she was something else.

• 38:27Hoda Kotb?

  Wow. I think we spend so much of our lives waiting for the big moments, the birthdays, the vacations, the milestones. But the truth is, some of the happiest moments show up on the most ordinary days. So, like this, I'll stop into a CVS because I need one thing. Somehow, the best part of the trip is never the thing I came for. So maybe I'll grab a delicious Well Market snack, or maybe I'll wander over to the Joyward Collection. It's really full of fun, cool, seasonal decor, thoughtful little gifts, and those little discoveries that make you so glad you stopped in. I have to tell you, if you're an Extra Care member, you're gonna save on things you're already buying, and those extra bucks really

• 39:10Hoda Kotb?

  do add up. Just watching that total go down at the checkout never, ever gets old. I know life's busy. We're all juggling a lot. And that's why I think those little unexpected moments of joy matter so much. So, the next time you're running errands, stop by your local CVS pharmacy. You may go in for something you need, but don't be surprised if you leave with something that simply makes your day a little brighter. Visit your local CVS pharmacy, sponsored by CVS. Halloween has a funny way of making you buy things you'd never normally buy. A 10-foot skeleton? Sure. A full-size fog machine? Why not. Three bags of candy that somehow

• 39:51Hoda Kotb?

  become six bags of candy? It happens. Which brings me to the Chase Freedom Flex Card, the savvy decision that will earn you more cash back on the everyday purchases, plus the extraordinary Halloween tricks and treats. With Freedom Flex, you earn even more treats on your Halloween and everyday needs. You get 5% cash back on popular rotating quarterly categories, 3% on dining and drugstores, and 1% on all other purchases. More ways to earn, more ways to get rewarded. That's no tricks, all treats. More ways to earn, more ways to get rewarded. So sign up for the Chase Freedom Flex Card. Learn more at chase.com/getflex.

• 40:32Hoda Kotb?

  This is a paid collaboration with Chase Freedom Flex. Cards issued by JP Morgan Chase Bank, N A Member FDIC. Subject to credit approval. Offer subject to change. Terms apply.

• 40:45Speaker 02

  Running a business means keeping pace with the latest tech. You put a lot into building your enterprise software stack, and scrapping it to integrate AI is out of the question. That's why IBM technology works with all the apps, data, and models you need. It's another way IBM helps you build on the technology you rely on. Let's create smarter business. IBM. Visit ibm.com to learn more.

• 41:13Speaker 03

  I'm Melissa Jelton, and in my new podcast, What Happened to Her, I'm bringing you new stories and conversations every week. Stories about women whose deaths were too quickly ruled a suicide. She was starting to get worried. Worried and gets scared for her safety. Stories of survival.

• 41:34Speaker 07

  The only difference between me and her frankly was a little bit of luck because by all rights, I should be dead.

• 41:40Speaker 03

  Cases that everyone else called closed.

• 41:43Speaker 05

  They can't convict her, right? Like she has so much evidence.

• 41:47Speaker 03

  These stories all start in the same place with a woman failed by a system that didn't believe her, that didn't protect her, that didn't see her.

• 41:56Speaker 01

  No child should ever experience that. And we were babies.

• 41:59Speaker 05

  She did all of these brave things and came out and spoke about it and he got a year.

• 42:06Speaker 04

  You never know who that devil is because he's wearing a disguise. Sometimes it's a police uniform.

• 42:11Speaker 03

  Listen to What Happened to Her on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 42:18Hoda Kotb?

  So when you were looking for the person you wanted to marry, she had, she had high standards because first of all, you saw your mom at and you know, it's almost like when your parents die young, there, there's nothing ever wrong.

• 42:32Speaker 06

  That's right.

• 42:33Hoda Kotb?

  That, you know, it's a hard standard to reach, but when you were deciding who you were going to spend your life with, why, why your wife, what was it? Did they, did your mom and your wife share any traits that you were like, yeah?

• 42:44Speaker 06

  Well, I wasn't really looking, but when I met Jill, I was swimming in the pool at the Sunset Marquis Hotel. I was 22 years old. She was at that same hotel going to a modeling shoot and we had a mutual friend and I jumped out of the pool and introduced myself. And when I met her, I'd never seen a more beautiful human being. So that was the first thing I reacted to. And then I said, do you, you want to have some lunch? She says, I really can't. I'm late for a shoot. And I said, please, just a few minutes. And, and she sat down and within 10 minutes, I'm like, oh my gosh, cause, cause she was very, she was very much like my mom in that she was very calm and measured. And I didn't know this

• 43:25Speaker 06

  then, but very comfortable in her own skin. That's the most attractive thing about Jill. Like, cause I wasn't, I was like a cat on a hot tin roof and she was just very calm. And people say, well, she was grounding. And I don't really say that. I think to the contrary, she's the one who sort of allowed me to be exactly who I wanted to be and loved me really for the person that I was. I didn't have to try to be.

• 43:55Hoda Kotb?

  Pretend to be anything.

• 43:57Speaker 06

  Nothing at all. And I love that. Like my mother would, we talk about acceptance, acceptance of other people, but I think there's a step beyond that where acceptance almost implies that you're tolerant of people.

• 44:09Hoda Kotb?

  Yeah.

• 44:10Speaker 06

  My mother loved everybody. She loved people and it, it wasn't about accepting people. It was about really loving them. And, and Jill really loves me. Like she really loves me. And that's, that's something she had in common with my mom.

• 44:27Hoda Kotb?

  And to have three girls afterwards, what did you share with your girls about your mom? Cause I'm sure they said, tell me what, what my grandmother was like.

• 44:35Speaker 06

  Well, the craziest thing was when our daughter Georgia was about, she was about four and we were driving down the West Side Highway from Connecticut and we passed the sign for Dyke Street. And I said, Georgia, that's where your grandma grew up, somewhere around there. She goes, I know. She was in her car seat in the backseat. I said, no, how you know that? She goes, well, I knew, I know your mom. I said, Georgia, she died, you know, 40 years ago. She said, no, no, no, I see her in my magic circle. And you know, she had red hair and I see her, she's in bed. And she described my mother's death to a T. And I almost drove off the road. So somehow even beyond the genetic presence

• 45:18Speaker 06

  that my mother has in our daughters, there's, there's something else going on. There's something, I don't know how you define that, but my mother's very much.

• 45:29Hoda Kotb?

  A presence.

• 45:29Speaker 06

  In them. It's an incredible thing. And they're very much in her. I can see the other three grandparents, my dad and Jill's parents were around, but my mother wasn't. So you almost forget that she's as much of that genetic equation as the other three. But then you start seeing things and you think, oh, that's my mother. That's my mother laugh like that. Or my mother would have made that decision.

• 45:52Hoda Kotb?

  When, when your wife was diagnosed with cancer, did you, tell me about just how, cause I would imagine you'd have almost, you know, post-traumatic, my mom died, you know, what's going to happen here?

• 46:05Speaker 06

  No, that was, you know, I actively pray for people who have had an experience with that brutal disease or any disease and who are going through it. Because man, if you take my Jill away from me, like I just don't know. I don't know how I could deal with that. But again, I try to be very present and I tried to be whatever she needed me to be and what our children, you know, needed. And, and we just did a lot of praying and, and just love harder. Because the, the alternative to that is living in the future.

• 46:47Hoda Kotb?

  Yes.

• 46:48Speaker 06

  And thinking.

• 46:48Hoda Kotb?

  There you go.

• 46:49Speaker 06

  You know, what if?

• 46:50Hoda Kotb?

  What if?

• 46:51Speaker 06

  And I just don't subscribe to that.

• 46:52Hoda Kotb?

  No.

• 46:53Speaker 06

  You know, that doesn't mean I'm not a realist. And in much of my life, I prepare for things that will eventually happen in the future. But I didn't entertain the thought of not having her. All I did was try to love her as much as I could and, and be there. But, but I mean, I was terrified.

• 47:11Hoda Kotb?

  Yeah.

• 47:11Speaker 06

  Absolutely terrified.

• 47:12Hoda Kotb?

  It's so interesting how that's your, that philosophy again about being here in the moment is so important for anyone who's going through anything. I mean, Jill's great now, you know, and like I, I had a bout with cancer and I remembered being scared and thinking about the future and trying really hard to just get up, go for a walk. I'm here, talk on the phone.

• 47:32Speaker 06

  What's going to happen is going to happen.

• 47:34Hoda Kotb?

  Is going to happen.

• 47:34Speaker 06

  So all you can do is the best now. And, and whether that means something beneficial physically or emotionally.

• 47:43Hoda Kotb?

  Yeah.

• 47:44Speaker 06

  But the stress of wondering what might happen, I think is detrimental.

• 47:50Hoda Kotb?

  I know you don't like to live in the past, but if I had a magic wand right now and I could give you three photographs of snapshots of your past and said, you could go back there, right here, just for about 10 minutes, what images would you want to see? Where would you, even if you could just go back for a, for a little bit, just to taste that feeling again? What, what moments would you select?

• 48:16Speaker 06

  Well, anything with my mom and dad and my sister, just because I love that feeling, the feeling of.

• 48:20Hoda Kotb?

  All together.

• 48:21Speaker 06

  Yeah, I love that. And then I'd have to throw in one with, with me and James Booker because he was my hero. And, and, and I wish I could have known him as an adult. I didn't know the pain that this man went through. Being black is certainly not a handicap, but in the American South, when he grew up, it was. Being schizophrenic, being gay, being an alcoholic. These are all things that he had to deal with. And I didn't know any of that.

• 48:53Hoda Kotb?

  What did you, what did you know about him?

• 48:55Speaker 06

  He was Superman.

• 48:56Hoda Kotb?

  Yeah.

• 48:56Speaker 06

  He was Superman to me. I didn't know, my dad and mom presented me, presented him to me as this elegant genius. I had no idea that he was suffering in that way. And he died when I was 16 and I wish I could know him as a man and just hold him and, and tell him, you know, how much I, I loved him. So anything with James and then probably one of me and you from the Today Show.

• 49:20Speaker 06

  I mean, what else other choice do I have?

• 49:24Hoda Kotb?

  I think that's it. Okay. This, this podcast is called Joy 101 because we like to talk about what brings people joy. I feel like you live in it. I feel like you live in joy. I mean, the fact that when you talk about your wife and your daughters, like your world, your eyes just light up. When you talk about your music, you light up. But these days, what is it that's bringing you joy?

• 49:44Speaker 06

  For me, it's, it's the idea that whatever is happening right now is something that I'm going to accept as gracefully as I can. If that's a joyous moment or if it's a difficult moment, knowing that I have gotten to a point where I can accept those things gracefully and feel what I need to feel. If it's joy or rage or anything in between, I can, hopefully it's not rage. Whoa, that got dark. But if it's whatever it is, I just, what gives me

• 50:28Speaker 06

  joy is knowing that I've gotten to a point where I, I can, I can accept all of those things.

• 50:35Hoda Kotb?

  Yes.

• 50:36Speaker 06

  That, that, that gives me great peace.

• 50:38Hoda Kotb?

  And you know exactly who you are. It's so clear. You know, there are certain people you, you interview and talk to, and it's like they're trying to be whoever the world thinks they are. But you, you're, you clearly are just sitting here being you.

• 50:53Speaker 06

  Well, I, you know, in my totality, there's things I, I love about myself and things I don't like so much. But that's okay. You know, like I'm okay with, with all of that. And, and it takes a while to get there. You know, it takes a while to get to the point where your mind is sort of quiet enough to understand that you've evolved into someone. And, and I, you know, I, you'll understand how I mean this. Like I love myself. You know what I mean? With, with all of my faults, I really, I really do. And, and I'm, I'm okay with me as a person in, in totality.

• 51:36Hoda Kotb?

  I love it. I love you.

• 51:37Speaker 06

  I love you too.

• 51:38Hoda Kotb?

  Oh my God, please buy this book. It's called Babe Elaboratio, A Tribute to My Mother by Harry Connick Jr. By the way, it's an art piece. So if you pick up the book, it's much more than a book about life. It's got beautiful baby pictures and music and gorgeous snapshots and the weight of it just feels.

• 51:58Speaker 06

  Thank you.

• 51:58Hoda Kotb?

  It feels beautiful.

• 51:59Speaker 06

  I'm really proud of it. And it has little musical things to show people if they're listening to the music. It's like, why, why, why do I hear that music? And it sort of tells you about that.

• 52:08Hoda Kotb?

  Explains it. Harry, thank you.

• 52:10Speaker 06

  Thanks, Hoda.

• 52:10Hoda Kotb?

  Love you.

• 52:14Hoda Kotb?

  Okay, you loved Harry Connick Jr. before, and you love him even more now, and so do I. Please, again, pick up his book and also that double album that is out. Okay, so what do you say we live in the present, as Harry Connick Jr. was saying? What do you say we get to a moment where we feel we're right where we need to be? Sometimes we just need a little breath work to do that. So I've got a perfect practice from our Joy 101 app. So please enjoy this breath work with Malana Snow.

• 52:47Speaker 03

  Hello, my name is Malana Snow over at Joy 101. And today, we're going to do a breath work practice to get you back into alignment. And we're using box breathing to do just that. So it's simple, but potent, because we will be holding our breath in between the inhales and the exhales. It will be through the mouth, and I will count you down for each part of the breath work practice. I invite you to sit down. You can also lay down or stand, whatever's most comfortable for you. So you're going to breathe in through the mouth, and I'm going to count you down in counts of four for each part of the breath.

• 53:26Speaker 03

  Let's begin now, breathing in, one, two, three, four. Hold, one, two, three, four. Now exhale out, one, two, three, four. Now hold before breathing in, one, two, three, four. Now breathe in, one, two, three, four. Hold, one, two, three, four.

• 54:08Speaker 03

  And exhale, one, two, three, four. Just again, and hold, one, two, three, four. Now come back to your normal breath. That's it. So this is the pattern of breath that we're going to repeat just two more times. It's really grounding, and it gets you back into alignment, because you have to focus on the breath so acutely. And this is one of the ways that we become more present. The more present we become, the better we feel. So we're going to do this again. Are you ready? All right, breathing in for one, two, three, four.

• 54:52Speaker 03

  Hold, one, two, three, four. Exhale it out in, one, two, three, four. Hold it, one, two, three, four. And let's do it again, inhaling, one, two, three, four. Hold, one, two, three, four. Exhale it out, one, two, three, four. And hold, one, two, three, four. That's it.

• 55:36Speaker 03

  Now come back to your normal, everyday breath. Let's just take a moment to acknowledge how you feel. We're going to do one more round in just a moment. Take a breath in, one, two, three, four. Holding, one, two, three, four. Exhaling, one, two, three, four. And holding, one, two, three, four. Last round, inhaling in, one, two, three, four. Holding, one, two, three, four.

• 56:20Speaker 03

  Exhaling, one, two, three, four. And holding, one, two, three, four. Coming back to your normal, everyday breath. Phew, let yourself do the breath that you need to do. You're back to your normal day breath, everyday breath, the way that you need to breathe. What's so potent about box breathing is it disrupts your everyday patterns. And when we disrupt the way that we breathe, we disrupt the way that we think and the way that we feel. So you can use this box breathing method as a way to kind of snap back into alignment, to get yourself back into the present, back into your body.

• 57:05Speaker 03

  You can use it whenever you need. I'll be here for you. Can't wait to do it with you again. Thanks for joining me.

• 57:13Hoda Kotb?

  All right, guys, thank you so much. I hope you feel a little lighter, a little better, and a little more filled up, especially after listening to Harry Connick Jr. I hope you guys have a great day, and we'll see you here next time. I've realized that joy doesn't always come from those big moments. Sometimes you find it on the most ordinary day. I'll pop into a CVS for toothpaste or paper towels, and it never seems to be just a quick errand. Maybe I'll grab a delicious Well Market Trail Mix or wander over to the Joy Word Collection. That's part of the fun. So the next time you're checking something off your to-do list, stop by your local CVS pharmacy. You might go in for one thing and leave with a little more joy.

• 57:57Hoda Kotb?

  Visit your local CVS pharmacy, sponsored by CVS.

• 58:01Speaker 03

  I'm Melissa Jelton, host of the What Happened to Her podcast. We're kicking off the season with the Sandra Birchmore story, a case the police wrote off as a suicide in a snowstorm. Her family never bought it, and the man they suspected wore a badge.

• 58:16Speaker 04

  You never know who that devil is because he's wearing a disguise. Sometimes it's a police uniform.

• 58:21Speaker 03

  And you can get access to all episodes 100% ad-free with an iHeart True Crime Plus subscription exclusively on Apple Podcasts, available only to iHeart True Crime Plus subscribers. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts, search for iHeart True Crime Plus, and subscribe today.

• 58:40Speaker 05

  What happens when romance gets a little monstrous? On Radio 831, a romance podcast, join us, Sanjana Basri and Tyler McCall, as we host our own monster romance extravaganza. We're joined by the Villain Edit author, Rosie Dannen, and sentient object romance expert, Gracie Delgado, to explore what these unexpected love stories can reveal about desire, fantasy, and what we actually want. Listen to Radio 831, a romance podcast, on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Michael Lewis here to tell you about my new book, Blockers, which gives you an inside look at the Trump administration and the public servants who stood in its way. These were people who were securing our most sensitive data, keeping the public safe

• 59:23Speaker 05

  from all sorts of threats, and engaged in life-saving scientific research, until they were told they no longer belonged. And the question to me is, if they can't survive in our government, then what does it say about us? Get Blockers now, only at blockers.fm.

• 59:44Speaker 01

  This is your girl, TS Madison, coming to you loud, live, and always and forever in color from the Outlaws Podcast. National Coming Out Day is in October, and we've got stories from all your favorite LGBTQ celebrities to celebrate. Check out our episode with comedy legend, Wayne Brady. My daughter was actually the one, she said, Dad, you may be pansexual. The iconic Billy Porter. And Terrell Grace and I talk about family and show the family post coming out. I don't like statements like that. That's Dad, or that's Grandma. No, no, no, no, no. It should never come at the cost and expense of your own sanity and your own mental health. Download the free iHeart Radio app, search Outlaws with TS Madison, and listen now. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.