Announcer: Coming up we are talking resilience and meeting the faces of the people who have overcome life's challenges.

Look into all your options and don't let anybody tell you that you can't or that there's nothing you can do because there's always something that you can do.

Announcer: The Whitney Reynolds Show is made possible by O'Connor Law Firm.

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The Metropolitan Chicago.

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Kevin Kelly with Jameson Sotheby's International Realty.

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Resilience or the power to keep pushing.

Today we meet guests who chose to get back up after being knocked down by life's curve balls.

[applause] [music] [applause] [music] Our first guest is resilient when it comes to health and hope.

She is battling ALS and despite losing her father to this disease she is claiming hope through medical trials and her mindset.

Welcome to the show.

Thank you.

So, today we're talking about resilience and when I hear this word, I think of you and your story because not only are you struggling with something right now, but it's been a part of your family story, but you choose to keep going.

Tell us about your story.

So, ALS runs in my family, and I was diagnosed at the age of 26.

This past August was when I got my official diagnosis.

My dad was diagnosed in 2015 and passed away three years later.

So, it's on my dad's side.

Your dad passed away from ALS.

Yes.

When you started having symptoms did it immediately run through your head, this could be happening to me too?

It did.

It crossed my mind.

There was a time when I was walking and I was limping and I thought this was, this is the first sign and I cried at that time, but everyone kept telling me no, it's a running injury.

I'd just run the Chicago Marathon the October before and everyone kept saying it's not.

There's no way it could be.

You're so young.

So, I tried to hold on to that, but as MRI's kept coming back fine it kind of got to the point where I was like this is really all it could be.

Watching your dad go through something like that, what was that like for you as a child?

It was awful.

He was diagnosed the summer I was going into my senior year of college.

So, I wasn't going to be able to be home.

He was the strongest person I knew.

He was a farmer.

He was constantly working whether that be outwork on the farm or coming home and doing something.

But he also had this really great spirit about him.

He was always happy, always making jokes.

He would walk around the house singing.

So, it was hard, really hard to see him go from being such a strong person physically to not being able to do anything for himself.

He never lost his spirit though, which was really helpful.

He would always, he was still singing for as long as he could and making jokes.

He was definitely a light during it all.

Then fast forward to your diagnosis.

Did you immediately start replaying some of those moments of your dad or did you think, you know what?

I'm going to write a different story for ALS.

I'm going to really try something new here.

Yeah.

It was definitely an emotional rollercoaster because when my dad was diagnosed, there was-- Really any of my family members, we were always told there's nothing you can do.

Just go and live your life.

I was kind of like, but I'm 26.

I want to keep working.

I want to keep doing things that I love to do.

I don't want to just give up.

But then I was like but there's nothing else.

Then I found a group, I AM ALS, and chatted with two of my other family members who are also currently living with ALS, and I found hope through that.

I found out about clinical trials and joined one and joined advocacy groups and I just, I think joining that helped me find that there actually is something we can do.

It's not the same as it was even like three or four years ago now.

Let's talk about the resilience that you have found with your clinical trial.

Yes.

Yeah, it's really, I remember having a conversation.

We did a Zoom call.

It was in the midst of COVID, so it was a Zoom call with my family members, and I learned about the clinical trials.

Before that call, I wasn't in a good place really.

I was just like really, really just defeated.

Then he told me about the trials, and I just looked into it and then I just kind of had a switch, like a flip of well, you could either be defeated or you can get into one of these.

Even if it's one that's not maybe not super far along in the clinical trials or something like that, but it's like to me that felt like I was saying no, ALS does not have me.

I have ALS.

It felt like I was taking control of what this was going to mean for me, and I gave me more of a purpose.

Because not only was it possibly going to help me, it's for sure going to push it forward and help future generations of ALS, my family or there's also sporadic ALS.

So, people who just randomly get it.

So.

For any or our viewers that are watching that might not be in the exact same place you are, but need a dose of hope to be resilient with what they're going through, what would you recommend?

Look into all your options and don't let anybody tell you that you can't or that there's nothing you can do because there's always something that you can do no matter how big or how small, and just really fight against the norm.

Just don't settle and keep going because there's always something.

There's always an option.

On the days that defeat can creep in, and we do feel a little bit like our situation is winning, what advice would you have there?

Reach out.

There's always a family, a friend, that's going to tell you don't give up, don't lose hope, don't let it win.

Or I would also say, allow yourself to cry for a little bit, but then don't get stuck there and reach out.

Thank you so much for coming on.

Thank you for having me.

Being resilient involves the ability to keep going, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg's life's work enabled people to do just that.

We talked with Amanda Tyler who authored a book with Ginsburg on her legacy.

She joins us now with more.

Whitney: The late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the face of resilience fighting for justice on the Supreme Court for 27 years.

Professor Amanda Tyler knows this well.

She worked on Ginsburg's last memoir in her final year.

I was a law clerk to Justice Ginsburg in 1999 for one year and it was an incredible year.

She was the most extraordinary boss.

She was a teacher.

She was a mentor.

She was a friend.

She had the highest, most exacting standards.

It would be hard to overstate that, but when you performed well she was the first to give praise.

And then, to my great good fortune, we stayed very much in contact for the two decades since.

Many times, she came to speak at law schools where I taught including most recently in the fall of 2019.

That visit involved me interviewing her about her life and her work and we had the idea of turning that into a book.

How was her life lived resiliently?

So, Justice Ginsburg was a judge a federal judge for 40 years, 27 years on the Supreme Court.

She wrote over 1,000 opinions over the course of her time as a judge, over 400 on the Supreme Court.

As an advocate she argued 6 cases before the Supreme Court in the 1970s.

She authored over two dozen briefs in gender discrimination cases.

And she battled cancer on no less than four occasions.

That is who she was.

She was defined by her resilience.

When I clerked for her it was the first time she had a bout with cancer.

She had colorectal cancer and she had surgery just I think about eight or nine days before the court term opened.

She had started extensive treatment.

No one thought she would be on the bench for the first day of argument.

And I happened to be the first person in chambers that morning, the first Monday in October when the court opened.

So, I was lucky enough to get the phone call from her when she called from the car saying, Amanda go down and tell the chief I'm coming.

She was determined to contribute, determined to keep going.

And this project was very special to her because it was her opportunity to lay out her legacy as she wanted to be remembered and also to encourage people to pick up where she's left off.

Whitney: Ginsburg's drive for change was so strong it has managed to live on even after her death.

Think about the span of her 87 years, the changes that she witnessed with respect to race, with respect to gender, with respect to many other things were nothing short of incredible.

But she knew and she appreciated, and she talks in the book about how there is work left.

A passage really encapsulates what she was about.

She talks about how ours is a constitution that should make it possible for each and every individual to achieve their full human potential.

That's what she was about.

She was about equality in the pure sense to allow everyone to flourish.

That's the system that she wanted, that's the constitution that she understood us to have and that's the constitution for what she worked.

When we were writing the book, I think a big eminence was to lay all of that out and to inspire people to pick up and continue that work because she knew particularly-- We did quite a lot of work on this in the final months of her life.

She knew that her days were numbered, and so I think it's really important to bear in mind that this isn't just a memoir, this is sort of a call to arms to people to pick up and continue to work.

Our next guest is a woman that helped some of our youngest fighters get back up.

She brings resilience to families when it's hard for them to see it.

Welcome to the show.

Well, thanks so much for having me.

Today, we're talking about resilience and the Ronald McDonald House brings resilience to families every day.

Tell us a little bit about it.

Yeah, when your child is battling a critical illness I'm amazed every day at the resilience of these kids and these families.

They're going through an incredible crisis in unpredictable times and Ronald McDonald House Charities, we just try to be there for them.

But I say they are some of the strongest people I know.

So, let's walk back.

How did the Ronald McDonald House start?

Yeah, you know, it started with a family.

Forty-four years ago, Charlie Marino and his wife had a sick child, and her name was Gage and she had cancer and Dr.

Balm was her doctor.

As they were going through treatments they saw these families sleeping on couches and eating out of vending machines and just finding support in these spaces inside the hospital and they had heard about a Ronald McDonald House, the first one being built in Philadelphia.

Same story.

Dr. Audrey Evans was the doctor and had a family of-- Kim Hiller was the child at the time and he's like, we have to do what they did in Philadelphia here in Chicago.

Then it just started moving on, on a fast train and they opened up the first Ronald McDonald House in 1977 on Deming Street-- Wow.

--which was an old convent home and that's what Charlie and his wife and all the founders were after, which is how do we give these families a home away from home while they're traveling into the Chicagoland area or perhaps they live in the suburbs and they're coming into the city, at that time that was Children's Memorial, to get care and they needed a place to stay?

They needed a place to take a nap, a warm home-cooked meal.

They needed a place for their other children to play and be, and a home just seemed like the right thing to do.

So, here in Chicago we became the second Ronald McDonald House in the world with a fantastic partnership that really, our founding mission partner being McDonald as a company who got on board and said, let's help this become a reality for families.

Then it just grew into what's 360 plus Ronald McDonald Houses around the world today.

So, let's talk about the resilient kids.

How you're helping these families basically stand back up and say, we can make it through this time.

Yeah, like I said these are some of the toughest kids that I have ever met.

We have all the way from babies that are being served to teenagers that are going through whatever medical journey they are on, and they are brave souls.

If you can imagine, and I'm sure that you can as a parent, that the pokes and the prods and the testing and all those things that they're going through, and they just come out with optimism and hope.

As parents, the parents, we try to help them maintain their strength.

If they can come and stay at a Ronald McDonald House, get a great meal made by volunteers and get a little bit of rest and reconnect virtually with families by doing their Caring Bridge page and having the space to do that, they go back to the hospital well rested and stronger better able to engage in the tough medical decisions that they're going to make.

So, resilience, they ought to have t-shirts that say resilience because of what they're going through.

These medical journeys are long often.

While our average length of stay for a family might be 10 days, childhood illness lasts a long time and it's generally not just a, we're in here for 10 days sort of thing.

Right.

And For the mother watching, mother to mother, we are both moms, or the dad watching or the family member watching how's a family member going through a really tough time, what would you say to them?

As a parent I think we can all imagine what it might be like to have a kid that's sick and you become powerless, which is how you can relate, but you hope it's never you.

I think that there are so many families that stay with us that had heard of a Ronald McDonald house, but didn't really know what we were all about or what we did because they never envisioned that they would need it.

The families that come in are so grateful.

They are so grateful, and they know that there is an army of people out there donating their time donating their financial resources, dropping off supplies like toiletries and wishlist items and care packages.

So, they know that you are out there supporting them and their journey even though they don't know who you are.

Yeah, standing on the shoulders of others.

That's exactly right.

Well, thank you so much for coming on.

Absolutely.

Thanks for having me.

[theme music] Speaking of families, let's take a look at one family's journey to the United States and the resilience that followed them here.

Whitney: The film, Minari, follows a Korean family as they make their move to Arkansas in search of the American dream.

The film shows a behind the scene look at the struggles for first generation Americans and the resilience they find to make America their new home.

I don't know if I was actively thinking about resilience as kind of part Jacob's journey on an active level.

I think I was thinking more of it as just kind of a baseline of what else are they going to do?

They're here?

They're in a new place and a new frontier, and they have to make it.

I think in the journey for that sometimes they misunderstand how to express the bond and the connection and the love between each other and so that felt like a larger journey.

But I will say this film came out when we needed it right before this pandemic hit.

Subsequently after I feel like we've all collectively kind of been made to feel the life of an immigrant in some way, the isolation and kind of the exile that comes from quarantine and being separated from each other and disconnected is really kind of an immigrant reality too and hopefully we can all kind of come to this understanding of resilience that it just is, you just got to keep going.

Whitney: The movie was loosely based on the life of writer and director, Lee Isaac Chung.

I felt it was deeply personal.

So, I felt like there was a lot I wanted to explore and talk about by revisiting different things that had happened when I was a kid, but also to not do it in a way that's just self-indulgent or just doing a memory piece.

So, as much as it is about growing up for me, it also is a fictional story and wrestles with a lot of the things that I think about these days as a father and as a husband.

It feels incredibly important to me just because I feel like I threw everything I had into it and my whole heart into it.

So, for me at least it means the world.

Would you say that your parents were resilient?

My parents were definitely resilient.

That's one way I would describe them, yes.

I think Steven's right.

They never had a chance to think about should I be resilient or not?

It's almost like they just were forced into it.

What I always like to think is that it's moments of stress and difficulty that really bring out character.

It's almost like you have to go through those things and resilience is just one of those good things that we have within us as a potential element that can come out and hopefully lead us to a better place as human beings.

Whitney: We spoke with the other actors and asked them to weigh in on their perspective on discovering what this movie taught them about surviving the struggle.

When I think of the foundation of Monica's strength as ultimately love, I think just the strength of her love is what allows her family to move across the states and lay down roots in the states.

Monica is someone who never gives up until the end.

I think the movie shows this sense of love that she exudes, and I think the audience perceives this as resilience.

Yuh-Jung Youn playing this role, did anything trigger back to your own life?

Grandma's position I think for me being and myself as grandma because when you are parents they work so hard that they just trying to correct them and trying to make them behave all right, but when you get grandma, they relax.

Just watching them, when they make mistake, it's nothing for a grandma.

And finally, a music legend who has sang about the grit that it takes to be number one.

Nelly was recently on the Pop and Positivity Podcast and opens up about what has carried him through the years.

Whitney: You know him from his songs, but you might not know about the incredible work he has done outside the recording studio.

His drive comes from helping others find resilience.

My sister passed in 2005, but we started a foundation back in her name when we were trying to find bone marrow donors for her called, Just Us for Jackie.

Where we were getting people signed up on the bone marrow stem cell registry.

We were able to coordinate one of the largest bone marrow stem cell drives in history here in this country, which we did it from coast to coast.

I was able to get a lot of my celebrity fans from Snoop Dog to a lot of different people and we were able to get 5,000 people signed up all across this world.

We found donors for seven people.

We weren't able to find a donor for my sister, but we were able to save somebody else's sister and somebody else's brother through our efforts, which is really great.

We also have the Black and White Ball which I do here in Saint Louis, which we've been sending two kids to college for over the pass 15 years.

What I love is knowing that there's more behind you than just these amazing number one songs.

You actually give back in so many ways and that's what I want our listeners to know today that your heart is so there too.

Well, yeah.

I think you always want to help people.

Like I said again, I think the way that you grow up sometimes-- I grew up in a situation where I didn't always have and I could have always used a little inspiration to keep going.

I always think to myself that there's somebody that will love to trade places.

I always think that no matter how bad it gets for myself, I always say, you know what?

It's bad, but it's somebody out there who has it worse.

It's somebody out there that would trade places with you in a heartbeat no matter what you're dealing with.

So, I have a serious question.

Yeah?

What does it take to be number one?

[laughing[ You know what?

I think just, I think we all can be number one as long as we're putting forth our best effort.

You know what I mean?

That's more of about what that song to be is just like as long as you're doing the best that you can then you're winning.

It doesn't matter.

I think a lot of people give up on themselves which in turn makes them give up on people.

If you can't believe that you can do it, how can you instill and help somebody else?

I'm always aware of or try to be aware of my capabilities and try to maximize what I can do and hopefully it inspires somebody else.

We all have that story that reminds us how far we've come.

Reflect on those memories and always keep going.

Remember, your story matters.

[music] Announcer: The Whitney Reynolds Show is made possible by O'Connor Law Firm.

When it comes to your injuries, we take it personally.

Sciton because results matter.

Theraderm Clinical Skin Care: committed to developing skincare products designed to restore skin health and promote natural beauty.

Happy to Meat You: Prime.

Fresh.

Fast.

Leigh Marcus: Stop looking, start finding.

Children's Learning Place.

Ballroom Baths & Home Design.

Pedalheads.

UFC Gym Wrigleyville.

My Buddy's Chicago.

Brendon Studzinkski with State Farm.

Goldfish Swim School.

Ella's Bubbles.

The Kid's Table.

Hi-Five Sports Chicago.

The Metropolitan Chicago.

Fresh Dental.

Kevin Kelly with Jameson Sotheby's International Realty.

Mitchell Black.

Jewelry & Coin Mart of Schaumburg.

CI Med Spa.

Love Your Melon.

Deluxe Cleaning Services.

STI Moving & Storage.

Tutu School Chicago.

And by other sponsors.

Go beyond the interview with Whitney Reynolds and her 52-week guide of inspiration.

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For more information on today's program, visit whitneyreynolds.com or follow us on social media on Twitter @whitneyreynolds and on Instagram @whitney _reynolds.

Kids: Our mommy.