Committed

What would it take for a sixteen year old boy to hike the entire Appalachian trail with his mom? That's what we are talking about today with Jessica and Largo, the mother and son duo we chatted with last week about traveling the world as a family. 

Jessica and Largo saw their relationship and their bond change and evolve during their months together on the trail. Sometimes Jessica was the caregiver and sometimes it switched to Largo. Sometimes they talked about everything under the sun and sometimes they were silent for days on end.

They bother emerged from this journey changed and ready for the next phase in their relationship when Largo leaves the family nest.

As a parent, how do you transcend the regular run of the mill parent/child relationship? How do you turn your bond into a real friendship? When Jessica's two kids were young, she pulled them out of traditional school, began homeschooling them and started traveling abroad.  They left the U S a decade ago in search of a more authentic path. Since then they've lived in an RV in Europe for three years, learned to sail and crossed the Atlantic together as a family.

This has been challenging and insane and also delightful and wonderful.

Today we're talking to Jessica and Largo, her 17-year-old son, about how this lifestyle has strengthened their bond. This is the first in a two-part episode. In the first episode we dig into the foundation of their relationship and next week are getting into the mother-son duo's decision to hike the Appalachian trail together.

Janae and Tricia are sisters in law.  That means they're related by marriage, but they didn't have to choose each other. They didn't have to choose their bond or their commitment or their friendship. But they did. And for years, the two of them have been each other's rock.  Back in September of 2023, this bond helped them get through an unimaginable tragedy.  

Trisha was camping with her family in upstate New York when her nine-year-old daughter Charlotte was abducted from the campground. Over the next 47 hours Trisha and her family went through the worst possible thing that parents can go through. Janae, took over the reins of the investigation.She knew that she had to be the strong one. This is a story of courage and bravery and love. It’s also the story of the commitment between two women who would stop at nothing to bring a little girl home.

Vince and Madison met the way a lot of millennials are meeting these days—on Hinge. 

Vincent Madison, it met in the way that a lot of millennials are meeting these days.  On hinge.  They went on one date and they've spent every single day together since then a year and a half ago.  

Vince and Madison are still young and they're still toeing the waters of this commitment thing, but they are in it! Not too long after they got together their relationship went viral when Madison posted a video of Vince crying on TikTok. It went viral and racked up more than 4 million views. 

Buddy Woodall is serving three life sentences for murder. In January he'll celebrate his 22nd wedding anniversary to his wife Kristy. When Buddy was sentenced he asked Kristy to divorce him, he begged her to divorce him. She refused. She says she will stay with him until the very end. This is their love story. It starts when they were 15 years old and Kristy hit Buddy in the head with a volleyball in gym class. It takes them through the difficult early days of their marriage when they were just trying to make ends meet and it follows them through Buddy's arrest, his trial, his sentencing and now his time in Telfair State Prison. Buddy and Kristy believe they have a love that transcends the prison walls. 

Back in 2018 we talked to Kristy and Buddy Woodall. If you don't remember that episode, on March 16, 2001 Buddy Woodall was arrested for the double murder of Lavelle Lynn and Robert Van Allen which would be known in Georgia as the Labor Day Murders.  Buddy is currently serving three consecutive life sentences and still claims his innocence. This week are are catching up with Kristy to talk about how she still holds onto hope for Buddy's release even though it gets harder every single day.

Erica Cerulo and Claire Mazur met in college in 2002.  They bonded instantly.   Fast-forward to 2010 when they founded the popular fashion and design website Of a Kind.  Since then the two women have created many, many things together, most recently the publishing company, 831 Stories. 

They are business partners and lifelong friends.   This season we're expanding the scope of Committed.  Because not all commitment resides within a marriage.  In many ways a business partnership is like a marriage and frankly, a marriage is also like a business partnership. 

There's so much we can learn from all different kinds of commitment. And that's what we'll be exploring in the coming months. Today, we're going to talk to Claire and Erica about creating and building things together and the lessons a business partnership can give a romantic partnership.

Laura and her husband met in college. They got married quickly and had four sons. Laura’s husband was born a man, but always felt like something else, always felt like a woman. After thirteen years of marriage Laura's husband transitioned into a woman named Samantha. Now Laura and Samantha are navigating their new relationship as parents, partners and wives.

Many of our committed guests have become like family to us. We've stayed in touch and  followed their journeys. Some of the pairs have stayed together and some haven't. That's the cycle of commitment. Love doesn't have to last forever to be beautiful and to contribute to our lives. When we first met Samantha (episode SUDDENLY SAMANTHA), she had just transitioned.  After 13 years of marriage, Samantha and her wife, Laura, we're adjusting to how that transition would impact their marriage. 

Laura and Samantha eventually split up and Samantha began navigating the world as a single lesbian woman. Today we are talking to Samantha four years later about how she has rebuilt her life and found love again. 

This is the first of one of our BEST OF COMMITTED episodes. We're going to be compiling different shows on various themes in the hopes of both inspiring you and perhaps starting a conversation.  One of the things that's amazed me about the couples on this show is the ability for love and commitment to withstand some of the worst tragedies that you could ever imagine. And it's these episodes that have personally given me hope in some really dark times.