Committed

Sonya and Paul Kix have been married since 2007. She's a Black woman from Texas and he's a white guy from Iowa. There were zero black people in his graduating class. Living as an interracial couple, Paul living as the only white person in his household that now includes three children, that forces their entire family to have difficult conversations about race on a regular basis. It has been more than 50 years since Loving versus Virginia struck down laws banning interracial marriage. And some may take it for granted that that means life is much less complicated for interracial couples. It is in a lot of ways, but in the face of today's national reckoning on race and systemic racism couples like Paul and Sonya also have to figure out how to best navigate race in their relationship. How can Paul be empathetic to how Sonya feels watching a police shooting of a black man, how can he raise black boys in a world that already sees them as black men, how can he understand what it feels like to be pulled over by the police as a black person? 

Navigating all of this can be exhausting for everyone, but also completely necessary.

Music featured in Now That’s A Great Idea written and performed by Jeff Willett. For more information please visit: www.JeffreyWillett.com/

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With no previous climbing experience Harold Earls sets out to climb the world's tallest mountain right after marrying Rachel, the absolute love of his life. Rachel had been supportive. Harold's dreams were her dreams. But that year was one of the most dangerous years of all time for Everest climbers and at one point during the descent Harold was caught in a life-threatening snow and ice storm. Rachel hadn't heard from Harold and she just kept thinking, my husband might die, my brand new husband might die.

This bonus episode (brought to you in 3D audio) is about dreams and hope and how we help one another accomplish the things we could never accomplish alone.

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Broadway actors Amanda Kloots and Nick Cordero were a young and healthy married couple with a new baby when Nick went into the ICU with COVID-19. Nick was only 41. He was strong and everyone thought he would be out of the hospital in a week or two. But Nick's health continued to deteriorate. He couldn't breathe on his own. His organs began to fail. Amanda did everything she could to stay hopeful. She rallied the entire world in song and prayer. We don't normally do episodes with just one part of a couple. But sometimes there is an exception to the rule and Amanda Kloots IS that exception. 

In her new book Live Your life Amanda is candid and raw and so incredibly honest about what it was like to watch Nick waste away from a disease that no one understood. She reflects back on their few years together and wonders whether she was a good enough wife to Nick at times, whether she did enough to support his dreams. She also painstakingly describes how she has committed to keeping Nick's memory and music alive for the world and for their toddler son Elvis. 

Her story is heartbreaking, but it also leaves you with hope that we can all get through our darkest moments.

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This week we are bringing you an old episode in celebration of our friend Doree Shafrir’s new book Thanks for Waiting. Doree and her husband Matt have been on the show twice to talk about their long struggle with IVF and what that meant for their family. Doree’s new book is all about hitting life’s milestones (like getting married and having kids) a little later than expected and it is a beautiful read along with her and Matt’s episode. 

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Todd Tilghman had been a pastor for more than 20 years when he realized he wanted to do something new. Call it an itch, a calling, a midlife crisis but Todd knew he needed to do something else. And so he tried out for The Voice. This episode is about Todd’s journey from pastor to singing sensation but it is mostly about how his wife of more than 20 years, Brooke, pushed him and encouraged him to get there. Todd and Brooke have weathered so many seasons in their two decade marriage. They got married young, nearly got divorced, came back together, were blessed with eight children, two of them adopted from Korea. They dealt with Brooke’s anxiety and depression, with money ups and downs, raising a family of ten on a pastor’s salary. And when Todd needed that change it was Brooke who pushed him to follow his dreams.

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Laura Stachel and her husband Hal Aronson save lives every single day through their work providing solar power to hospitals around the world. Neither of them ever could have done it on their own. Their marriage has informed their work and their work has informed their marriage. Laura is an OB-GYN and public health professional. When she traveled to Nigeria on a research trip she realized that women and children were dying during childbirth because hospitals had no electricity. When she brought the problem to Hal he saw the solution. He immediately began to design solar energy programs for these hospitals. Today We Care Solar is a vibrant nonprofit that has reached more than 6,200 health facilities serving more than 7.5 million mothers and newborns. Visit them at WeCareSolar.org

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This is the story of a female police chief in Philadelphia and how she reacted to Floyd’s murder and how she managed her police force through what came next. But it’s much more than that. This is also about the woman who supported that police officer, her partner, now wife, Jackie. This is a love story. But it is also a story about policing and how things do have to change.

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When Aimee Oates got pregnant with her first baby she told her husband John that the two of them were hitting the road with him and his band Hall & Oates. It wasn't a thing that usually happened. Wives, babies, they didn't usually come on the road with this old boys club. But Aimee was adamant. And they did it. They traveled as a family with the iconic rock group Hall & Oates. Their son took his first steps in a casino. They barely ever spent a day apart. I have always been curious about what it is like to be married to a rock star. I don't think Aimee and John's story is necessarily representative of all rock stars, but it is so beautiful how they found an unconventional way to nurture their family and their marriage all over the world.

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COVID-19 has divided Americans in so many ways in the past year. Many Americans have completely opposite views on whether or not they want to be vaccinated right now. And those conversations are happening very close to home, sometimes within the same home. We were so curious to know what was said behind closed doors when one spouse was pro-vaccine and the other one was against getting the COVID-19 vaccine. We put out a call to the Committed community and got way more responses than we expected. Today's episode contains two stories of couples who do not see eye to eye on getting the vaccine and how they manage to get through being on very opposite sides of the issue.

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If you binge-watched Tiger King during the beginning of the pandemic like Nick and I did then you may think you know everything there is to know about Carole and Howie Baskin. You probably have an idea about them in your head, maybe even a suspicion or two. But there is so much that you didn't see on Tiger King. We got to interview Howie and Carole about it all -- the documentary, Joe Exotic, the murder for hire plot, the cat sanctuary, Dancing with the Stars -- but most of all about their beautiful love story filled with compassion, humor and dedication to a cause.

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