May 29, 2024 • 27 mins
After 13 years as one of the most respected and recognizable news anchors at CNN, Brooke Baldwin left the network at the height of her career – not because of the stress of covering the pandemic or the tumultuous Trump presidency, but because of the toxic work culture, bullying, and unequal treatment she experienced. Years later, Brooke calls that transformative time in her life and its aftermath her “unraveling," and she credits it with finally finding her own voice amidst the noise. She joins us to share how she garnered the strength to reinvent herself and what she’s up to now that she has entered her bad girl era. The list is long!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey Brightside Besties, Hello Sunshine. Today on the bright Side, journalist,
TV host and best selling author Brooke Baldwin shares how
leaving CNN after thirteen years helped her find her voice
and where her journey on self discovery has taken her.
It's Wednesday, May twenty ninth. I'm Danielle Robe.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
And I'm Simone Boyce and this is the bright Side
from Hello Sunshine. All Right, We've got some fantastic news
for all of our Reese's book Club besties. So in
addition to our monthly Reese's book Club picks, we're going
to be sharing even more recommendations. Reese is teaming up
with her adorable nieces Abby and Draper to share YA picks.
(00:43):
If you don't know what YA stands for, that means
young adult, one of my favorite genres.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Me too.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
And with that news, the summer YA pick has officially
been announced and it is Twelfth Night by Alexin Ferrell Falmouth.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Twelfth Night is a YA romantic and a coming of
age story about taking up space in the world and
learning what it means to let others in. This sounds
like something I definitely need to read. I think it's
worth mentioning too that the book has some not so
subtle nods to Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, so same character names,
but with a modern plot.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
We got to show love to the author of Twelfth Night,
Alexi and Farrell Faalmuth is a first generation American, a
romance enthusiast, and she has actually written a number of
science fiction fantasy projects under the pen name Olivi Blake
Ooh Mysterious right, including the international bestseller The Atlas Six.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
This is intriguing. I'm excited for this. And you know,
even though YA is labeled young adults, we love YA
love They're really fun to read. I feel like this
book spans generations. And I do want to note that
if you have not seen Reese's video with her Nieces
announcing this extension of the book Club, it's really really cute.
(01:59):
But this got me thinking about some of my favorite
movies that you might not know were actually shakespeare inspired.
So do you want to play a little games, Simon?
I would love to a little Shakespearean rough runce. Are
you ready?
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Let's go gla.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
So I'm gonna give you two movies. One of them
is Shakespearean inspired. Okay, that's my Shakespeare voice is a
good That was a lot. Okay. Ten Things I Hate
about You or She's All That, which one was inspired
by Taming of the Shrew.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Ten Things I Hate about You? I actually know this one.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Yes, yes, they have like a lot of Shakespeare references
in that movie.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Should I do it in a Shakespeare voice?
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Sure? Please?
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Jungle Book or Lion King, which one was based on Hamelot.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I'm gonna go with Jungle Book.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
M whish I could do more noises with my voice?
Or Lion King. I could not believe that was inspired
by Hamlet. I did not know.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
I'm so entertained by all the sounds that are coming
out of your mouth right now.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Okay, how about She's the Man with Amanda Binds. Oh,
bring it on?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Oh? I mean bring it on is one of my
all time faves. That feels Shakespearean to me. Bring it on?
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Yeah, I know it actually does. But it's She's the Man.
It was inspired by Twelfth Night.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Wow, I'm learning so much today.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Okay. Last one, I haven't seen this, but you liked
this movie The Sydney Sweeney Anyone but You or No
Strings Attached, which one was based on much Ado about nothing.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Wait, give me a little refresher on no strings attached?
Who's in that one?
Speaker 1 (03:37):
That's Natalie Portman got it and Ashton Kutcher got it
and they're like hooking up and that was like the
whole millennial hookup culture movie.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I feel like I remember hearing something about the Sydney
Sweeney Glen Powell and anyone, but you some going to
go with that?
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yeah, you did really well?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Nice. I got what like two out of four snaps
for someone? You know what's interesting.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
About three out of four? That's a C plus.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
That's I mean better five percent better than I did
in a lot of my college classes. Does any of
this inspire you to go back and read some Shakespeare?
Speaker 1 (04:08):
No, because I just have flashbacks of high school where
I would I had to read so much Shakespeare, and
they're beautiful stories, but I much prefer an adaptation that
I understand.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
I feel you on that. You know, my dad recently
has been reading a lot of period fiction, Like he's
read Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice, and like he's
going back and rereading all these classics work than Shakespeare.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
You didn't ask me that question.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
I just I want to revisit the classics.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
I think, okay, I'm with you on that.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
And we're really in for a treat because the author
Alexine will be joining us next month, so be sure
to read along with us and send your questions to
Hello at the bright Side podcast dot com. And tomorrow
we're talking with May's book Club Pick.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Yes, author Julien Kwang is here to talk about her
book How to End a Love Story. It was so good,
we both love it so much. And after the break,
Brooke Baldwin is here to talk about her life after
CNN and why she's leaning into her bad girl era. Y'all,
(05:19):
welcome back, Bestie's all right on the show Today, we've
got someone who has redefined reinvention again and again. Brooke
Baldwin spent more than two decades in the news business,
including many years as one of the most recognizable and
respected faces at CNN. I'm sure you watched a lot
of her there, like I did, Danielle. I have been
watching from afar as Brook pivots from this celebrated news
(05:42):
anchor career into a rich and meaningful second act, and
I'm so curious. I can't wait to talk to her
about it today. It's been really inspiring to watch her.
She describes this pivot as her unraveling. So in addition
to her work as a journalist, Brooke is the best
selling author of the book Huddle, How Women Unlock their
Collective Power, and the host of the Netflix reality series
(06:04):
The Trust. She's written extensively about her exit from the
network and, in my opinion, very movingly about her journey
to self discovery. So we're lucky she's here with us
now to talk more about it. Brooke, thank you for
joining the bright Side.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Hello Daniel Simon, it's so good to be here.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
We're so happy to have you Brooke.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
I want to start with a piece that you recently
wrote for Vanity Fair. You titled it Leaving CNN was
how I found my voice, and people speculated on why
you left. They thought it may be the chaos of
the pandemic or Trump coverage on the network. But you've
called this process you're unraveling. I've never heard anybody use
that term. I really like it. For those who haven't
(06:47):
read your piece yet, will you explain what you mean
by unraveling.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
Essentially, what I mean by unraveling, which is what I
wrote at the very end. You know, at first you
think unraveling means like coming apart right or maybe finding
the truth. And for me, what I realized in the
end is it's both.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
When did the unraveling start?
Speaker 4 (07:06):
Ooh, let me think back to when that man came
down the escalator in Trump Tower. That was twenty fifteen,
when he declared his candidacy for president. I would say
my unraveling happened somewhere between him winning and the first
probably month being at the Women's March, seeing all the
(07:29):
women showing up in ways I had never seen before
in my twenty year career and realizing, oh shit, I
think I'm one of them.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
It was no longer aligned after that. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah, it feels like you knew something was going to
change at that point. But at the same time, we
also had no idea how much it was going.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
To change, right, We had no idea. I mean we
were all covering the twenty sixteen election. I mean, no
one had ever seen someone like that man. Do we
need to say his name? Do we all know? Okay,
that man running for president? We all remember the October
surprise where he liked to grab women. Everyone thought it
would be impossible for that person to then be elected
(08:09):
president alas the joke was on us, you know, I mean, listen,
we were blindsided and we shouldn't have been.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
You know.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
I remember sitting with some of the Trump sons at
another meeting before the election. They were pointing out in
the Midwest, how all these Trump sides there were. There
was momentum in a way that I think the quote
unquote coastal media elites were just intentionally oblivious to. So
I think some of the onus obviously falls on us.
We just totally freaking missing it.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
You've been really open and vulnerable about your own hubris
when it comes to having to unravel your identity that
was attached to achievement, that was attached to being a
good soldier, being good girl, and that comes up a
lot for women who are pioneering in male dominated spaces.
(08:59):
I'd love for you to read this passage that we
feel like really stood out to us from your essay.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
Okay, it has taken me nearly three years to remove
the blinders, feel the anger, welcome the fear, and recognize
that in all my yeses, silence, and enabling the person
who betrayed me the most was me. I wanted to obey,
I wanted to please. I wanted to be the good girl.
(09:27):
I was afraid they'd let me go jokes on me.
It starts in childhood. We want approval from our parents,
than our lovers, than our bosses. I wanted the people
who had certain control over me to want me so
that I could get what I wanted. It's a transaction,
and it's a gamble, and the house always wins.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Thank you so much for reading that. In your piece,
you mentioned instances where you didn't speak up at first,
like when your producer would go dark on you on
the air. I mean, that is a terrifying thing to
think about. And then when you finally did ask your
boss to remove that producer from your team, your request
was denied, and that's what you called the beginning of
the end for you. How do you think you would
(10:09):
have used your voice differently if you had had this
awakening earlier.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
I can remember moments, you know, at CNN with my
own show, with my own team, where I should have
spoken up, and things that were done to me or
around me just we're toxic, We're not right. And instead
of going to the boss, I tried to handle it myself,
(10:34):
because that's what we do. We don't want to complain
cue the America Fererra Barbie monologue. You know, I didn't
want to come off as too aggressive.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
I didn't.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
I was worried that if I complained too much that
I may maybe would lose my show or lose an
hour of my show, And so I just kept my
mouth shut for way too long. And it was really
in just until I wrote this book Huddle, where selfishly,
you know, my soul was withering through covering this man
and covering Lies twenty four seven through sixty five, I
needed to like get out and talk to women. And
(11:01):
it was through sitting and sharing oxygen with you know,
chefs and teachers and mothers and congress women and professional athletes,
and learning that no is a complete sentence, like if
I may like, holy fuck, no is a complete sentence.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
You know.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
That's when it all really started to unravel for me
when I went back to work.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
I think, to your credit, too, though you found success
at a major network at a really young age, I
can't imagine you had a lot of practicing no in
local news. Like you're just that you have to say
yes to everything coming up.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Well, you know, when you're twenties, you're grinding your clawing,
you're saying yes because you know there are especially in
a you know, in a business like we've all been
in in journalism and TV news specifically, it is brutal.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
You know that there are there's a line of women
behind you who would like cut off their left arm
to have your job. So, hell no, I'm not going
to say no. You want me to leap how far
you want to do flips? You know, like, I will
do all the things in order to continue having these
opportunities to continue to rise. And I think also when
you do start out young someplace, you start out with
this like, oh my gosh, I'm just so grateful to
(12:07):
be here. Oh my gosh, I'm just so grateful to
be here, instead of being like, wait a second, you're
asking me to do this, or you're speaking to me
this way. That's not okay. No, let's have a conversation
and find a compromise. I didn't do that until it
was too late, and that is on me, and that,
to me, was the biggest point of my piece.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Yes, I point out the.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
Toxicity and the bullying and also my own complicity my
own self silencing, which is what got me in trouble.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
But you are also doing the only thing that you
knew how to do in order to survive. And the
thing is saying yes is actually a condition of that
job being in the news industry. Like I can't tell
you how many colleagues of mine were like, oh, this
is my first year at NBC. I'm just gonna say
yes to every single thing they asked me to do,
because that's how you succeed and that's how you thrive.
(12:54):
And the other element of this, I think is like
once you reach the level that you are at brook
the top and you realize how few opportunities there are
at the top, and like there's not really much room
to climb after that. So I think there's almost this
like new scarcity mindset that gets introduced at the top.
That's super interesting. Actually, you're totally taking me back to
(13:16):
So the last couple of years when I was there,
my biggest source of anger would be twofold one. I
just didn't agree with how we were covering that man
all the time, the way in which we were. But
my second was I had done that job for ten years.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
That's a long.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Time to have two hours to yourself on this giant network.
It was a huge, huge job. And I got to
the point where we all like we work hard, and
we think, okay, well what's next?
Speaker 2 (13:39):
What's next?
Speaker 4 (13:40):
And what would have been next would have been maybe
like a primetime job. And at the time, all the
primetime anchers were men, and right after my show, it
was a bunch of men in Washington. You know, not
to speak ill of those men. Most of those men
were wonderful to me. And I would talk to some
of them about like our giant differences in salary, or
the opportunities they would have, or all the times I
(14:01):
would get bounced off my show because some huge Washington
thing would happen, and that'd be bigfooted off of my
show a lot of times for these men. And it
started really pissing me off. And what message is that
sending to the viewer that I'm getting bounced off my
own show, that I'm not capable of covering X, Y,
and Z because of someone else. I wanted to be
treated equally.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
That was it.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
I wanted to be treated equally, and it was so
obvious that that wasn't happening.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
I feel like the collective response to your piece signaled something.
Because I saw it online, I can only imagine what
you receive.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Personally, crazy, What are you? Damns?
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Well?
Speaker 1 (14:37):
What do you think the collective response says about women
at work?
Speaker 4 (14:42):
It is so clear that my piece really resonated not
just with women but also with men, men of color.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Specifically.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
They would reach out to me and say, you know, hey,
I have been bullied and treated poorly because of how
I show up at the workplace and the opportunities that
I feel like I'm not being given. And then all
these other women and having their own experiences, you know,
there was this huge needed me too wave where it
was like that obviously was disgusting what was happening, and
(15:09):
it became a hashtag and so many men got in
trouble as a result, and good on them. But to me,
there is this whole other movement that needs to happen,
which is what I referred to in the piece as
the thousand little cuts. It's less black and white. We
all have experienced it. We don't know how to talk
about it. It happens in broad daylight at work oftentimes,
(15:30):
you know, you can't email about it. You don't often
go to hr about it. You don't think that it's
a big enough deal. Like I didn't think my story
was a big enough deal to even write about it
until I really sat on it for a while and
talk to a lot of people. To me, we need
to name it. We need to name this thing that
is happening to us. I don't have the name. I
(15:51):
am all ears on what the name of it is.
But this thing that is happening to all of us.
That is step number one, and then step number two
is once we name it, what do we do about it.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
That's what happened with me too. We didn't have a
vocabulary for what was happening. So I really think you're
onto something. You mentioned gratitude in your piece. You talk
about how you were told to be grateful for what
you had there. Yeah, what was the exact point that
you said, fuck being grateful?
Speaker 4 (16:17):
It wasn't necessarily fuck being grateful. It was fuck, this
really isn't okay, And I've got to say something. And
my first step was walking into my boss's office and
trying to make my case in a very diplomatic way.
I wasn't trying to get my executive producer in trouble.
I wasn't trying to infer anything nefarious other than I
literally said, we've run out of track. I am worried
(16:39):
about the show, I am worried about being doing live
TV with this person, and could we please just do
a trade? And that is when at all, all the
dominoes started to fall down.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
It sounds like you were experiencing like a spiritual disconnection
between the life that you were living, yes, and the
life that you felt in your soul like you really
wanted to live. And I want to hear more about
your healing journey that you went on after you decided
to leave this job, because it sounds like it was
so transformational, Like I.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Want it still on it?
Speaker 2 (17:15):
We still at it? Yeah, we do. We want what
did you read? Okay, where did you go? What our
streets did you go on? Who did you surround yourself with?
Anything you feel comfortable?
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Sure?
Speaker 4 (17:25):
Oh my gosh, you know, I don't think I had
the words yet when I was having that sort of
disconnect or incongruity or the out of alignment feeling when
I was doing this job. I mean, you know, in
order to do this job, I work so hard, like
from a little girl dreaming of lurking in New York City.
You know, then you work in these small markets, you
don't have as many friends, you date the wrong guys,
(17:46):
you put off having kids, all the things to maybe
maybe maybe one.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Day make it, and I did.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
And then at some point you're sitting on this fancy
set with these fake eye lashes and these extensions and
these beautiful having really important conversations. But at some point,
you know, I'm sitting dazing out the window and during
a commercial break and thinking like you would in any
relationship where the guy is impressive and shiny and you've
been with him for a really long time or girl,
(18:14):
and then you start wondering though, like is this it?
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Is? This?
Speaker 4 (18:19):
It?
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Yes, but hold on a second.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
I've worked so hard and there are all these girls
who again would eat their left arm for this job,
so I must, you know, keep going. And finally, once
I left, I sent myself on a three week trip,
which felt like.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Who takes a three week vacation?
Speaker 4 (18:40):
Not me in my twenty whatever years. And I went
to the British Version Islands and I just needed to
like skinny dip and drink a lot of rum and
journal and that started my journey of healing and centering
myself and coming home to myself. And I remember staring
at the most beautiful blue water.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
And thinking, I'm a named more than this.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
This is like beautiful to look at, but I gotta
go really deep. I need to really excavate some shit
in my in my body and in my soul. And
so that then started my spiritual journey. And so I
reached out to a friend of mine who founded this
thing called the Class, which is a workout and a practice,
and I'd do it all the time, and you know,
(19:25):
and so she recommended going on this spiritual retreat in Sedona.
And I was on this sort of solo journey. And also,
let me say, parallel to all of this, I was married.
I was very alone in my marriage. And I actually
think one of the things that my now ex husband
taught me was how to really be on my own.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
I went from never having eaten alone.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
By myself to like kind of prefer eating alone by myself,
and you know, going off by myself and hiking by myself.
So I remember doing all of that and realizing, like
being in nature, I felt so close to what I
referred to as just God. Or higher power, and from
there my bible became Martha Beck's book With a Way
of Integrity. It's the whole story of Dante's Inferno, but
(20:08):
she explains it in a really palatable, digestible way of
all the ways that we are all on our journeys
ultimately to the being in full integrity. And I made
my mission to interview her. I became friends with her.
She has been in my home. Like I started doing
a bunch of stuff with women athletes, Sue Brd.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
I got to know Meghan Rapino.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
I got to know a bunch of these soccer players
and basketball players and volleyball ley all through Subird's production company.
They hired me together to do a bunch of stuff
for them. So I was then around a bunch of
like badass, a lot of queer women who spoke my
language of just no and being empowered and embodied. And
(20:50):
it was really great to just soak up their oxygen
and do those.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Things interesting because like when you're not living up to
the male gaze in any way, that changes.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
That's why queer women can teach us a lot.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
They literally are running the country.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
By the way that was like if that would have
been the alternate subtitle of my book, like Huddle, How
Queer Women Are Running America.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
We're taking a quick break, but we'll be right back
with Brooke Baldwin.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
And we're back with Brooke Baldwin.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
So, at forty four, you changed your entire life everything.
You moved from New York to LA You ask questions,
You found your spiritual center.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
Chot my hair, became a vegetarian, learned about sobriety because
of someone near and dear to me. Have stopped talking
to my father. Yeah, the list is long.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Through all your inner work and your excavation. How did
your inner child factor in? Did you talk to her.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
The day I left CNN. I don't know what possessed
me to do this.
Speaker 4 (21:53):
I remember going into work by myself, and before I did,
I opened my journal and I journaled to my younger self,
and I talked to her for the first time, basically
trying to assure her don't be disappointed in us. I
know we worked so hard. I know we dreamt of
living in New York City. I know that we worked
so hard in all these you know, small towns in
(22:14):
America when all of our girlfriends were living their big
sex and the city lives in New York City, and
we were like going to bed at nine o'clock at
night and waking up at two in the morning and
being one woman newsroom and rolling the procter with our
foot and covering water, skiing squirrels, like you know, goddamn
it paid.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
Off, did you?
Speaker 2 (22:30):
That's an Anchorman reference.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
So so yeah, I just needed to talk to her
and say, like, we're doing it. You know, hang tight,
don't feel disappointed. I know I can understand why this
feels disappointing, but I'm gonna make you proud.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Why do you think she needed to hear that?
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (22:50):
Because she was disappointed and as we all now know
of writing this piece, like how it all went down,
it was really fucking disappointing, the way in which I left,
the way in which I completed this twenty year chapter,
most of which was the dream job. And she was disappointed.
(23:12):
She was like, but we did all the right things,
and we worked really hard, and we were nice, and
we were good at what we did. Why did this happen?
Speaker 2 (23:21):
You know? Why did this happen?
Speaker 4 (23:22):
She was disappointed, and I needed to assure her that
it was going to be okay.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
What did leaving CNN teach you about leaving things?
Speaker 4 (23:32):
Oh my gosh, that nothing is permanent, and that also,
you know, working for a giant machine. While it certainly
comes with really fun fancy bells and whistles and cachet,
it also comes with being a cog in the system.
And what I really felt like for me was being
(23:54):
a mouthpiece and not having a voice. And now that
I have, like self emancipated, have a voice, and it's
on me to use it and to show others how
they can use it every freaking day.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Now that we're having some much needed closure for our
inner good girl, I need to know what is the
least good girl thing about you? Now?
Speaker 4 (24:14):
Ooh, well, I got a tattoo that felt pretty bad.
I got a tattoo a couple of months ago that
felt pretty bad.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
Oh my god, I sound like such a good cirl. Jesus,
what are the other bad things? One of the other bad.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Things I felt the same?
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Oh oh oh oh.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
Okay, I have really I'm just going to say this,
I have in the last year really experimented with psychedelics
and I don't feel like that's even a bad girl thing.
That's just like I want to open my mind. Yeah,
and my heart thing and expand. That's another thing on
your list of things that Brooke Baldwin has done this year.
I have experimented in multiple psychedelic ways and have had
(24:54):
absolutely extraordinary spiritual experiences, open hearted, loving experiences.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
I've never like gone to a rave or been with
a bunch of people.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
I've only been with my close, close people, but that
has been.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Mind altering.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
It's so la and so bad girl. I love it.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Yeah, psychedelics and tattoos.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
I've done some breath work that's very la. I've become
a yogi in the last year, trying to think what
other bad girl?
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Now?
Speaker 3 (25:23):
This is the thing that I'm gonna take away from
this conversation.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
So, my best friend from college, Yeah, we didn't really
drink when we were in college.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
We didn't really date.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
God like we were in the library. We were such
good girls. And she texted me the other day and
she was like, I really feel like we screwed up.
We should have been bad girls. Then we're doing it
so late. Why are we bad girls?
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Now? Wait?
Speaker 4 (25:46):
Wait, I've got to turn the tables. Are what is
your most bad girl thing? I'm a reformed bad girl.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
So I did the bad girl things in college and
I'm like married to kids suburbs.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Okay, you did it the right way. Okay, my bad girl,
I mean got a tattoo. I don't know all the things.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Yeah, you guys have you guys have dainty little baby?
We got a girl mine. Yeah, I want to leave
next time you come back. Okay, Brook, I agree.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Ah, thank you guys.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
You know, this interview, your story, this conversation. My hope
is that someone listens to this who's in a soul
crushing job, and through your story and just the sharing
of experiences that they feel the courage to make the jump.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
And yes, they feel seen and heard and they're not.
You are not alone. Reach out to me Broke Baldwin Instagram,
find me dm me. You know I always try to,
like I love being in conversation with all these people,
to just remind them and if they are in the
thick of it, you know, I've got advice for you too.
Hang in there, You're gonna be Okay.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Brook, thank you so much for blessing us with your
light on the right side.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Thank you, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
That's it for today's show. Tomorrow we have the author
of Reese's book Clubs, may pick Yuleen Kwang. She's here
to tell us all about her debut novel, How to
End a Love Story.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Listen and follow the bright Side on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
I'm Simone Boye. You can find me at Simone Voice
on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
I'm Danielle Robe on Instagram and TikTok. That's ro b A.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Y See you tomorrow, folks. Keep looking on the bright side.
Hey Brightside Besties, Hello Sunshine. Today on the bright Side, journalist,
TV host and best selling author Brooke Baldwin shares how
leaving CNN after thirteen years helped her find her voice
and where her journey on self discovery has taken her.
It's Wednesday, May twenty ninth. I'm Danielle Robe.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
And I'm Simone Boyce and this is the bright Side
from Hello Sunshine. All Right, We've got some fantastic news
for all of our Reese's book Club besties. So in
addition to our monthly Reese's book Club picks, we're going
to be sharing even more recommendations. Reese is teaming up
with her adorable nieces Abby and Draper to share YA picks.
(00:43):
If you don't know what YA stands for, that means
young adult, one of my favorite genres.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Me too.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
And with that news, the summer YA pick has officially
been announced and it is Twelfth Night by Alexin Ferrell Falmouth.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Twelfth Night is a YA romantic and a coming of
age story about taking up space in the world and
learning what it means to let others in. This sounds
like something I definitely need to read. I think it's
worth mentioning too that the book has some not so
subtle nods to Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, so same character names,
but with a modern plot.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
We got to show love to the author of Twelfth Night,
Alexi and Farrell Faalmuth is a first generation American, a
romance enthusiast, and she has actually written a number of
science fiction fantasy projects under the pen name Olivi Blake
Ooh Mysterious right, including the international bestseller The Atlas Six.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
This is intriguing. I'm excited for this. And you know,
even though YA is labeled young adults, we love YA
love They're really fun to read. I feel like this
book spans generations. And I do want to note that
if you have not seen Reese's video with her Nieces
announcing this extension of the book Club, it's really really cute.
(01:59):
But this got me thinking about some of my favorite
movies that you might not know were actually shakespeare inspired.
So do you want to play a little games, Simon?
I would love to a little Shakespearean rough runce. Are
you ready?
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Let's go gla.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
So I'm gonna give you two movies. One of them
is Shakespearean inspired. Okay, that's my Shakespeare voice is a
good That was a lot. Okay. Ten Things I Hate
about You or She's All That, which one was inspired
by Taming of the Shrew.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Ten Things I Hate about You? I actually know this one.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Yes, yes, they have like a lot of Shakespeare references
in that movie.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Should I do it in a Shakespeare voice?
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Sure? Please?
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Jungle Book or Lion King, which one was based on Hamelot.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I'm gonna go with Jungle Book.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
M whish I could do more noises with my voice?
Or Lion King. I could not believe that was inspired
by Hamlet. I did not know.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
I'm so entertained by all the sounds that are coming
out of your mouth right now.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Okay, how about She's the Man with Amanda Binds. Oh,
bring it on?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Oh? I mean bring it on is one of my
all time faves. That feels Shakespearean to me. Bring it on?
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Yeah, I know it actually does. But it's She's the Man.
It was inspired by Twelfth Night.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Wow, I'm learning so much today.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Okay. Last one, I haven't seen this, but you liked
this movie The Sydney Sweeney Anyone but You or No
Strings Attached, which one was based on much Ado about nothing.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Wait, give me a little refresher on no strings attached?
Who's in that one?
Speaker 1 (03:37):
That's Natalie Portman got it and Ashton Kutcher got it
and they're like hooking up and that was like the
whole millennial hookup culture movie.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I feel like I remember hearing something about the Sydney
Sweeney Glen Powell and anyone, but you some going to
go with that?
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yeah, you did really well?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Nice. I got what like two out of four snaps
for someone? You know what's interesting.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
About three out of four? That's a C plus.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
That's I mean better five percent better than I did
in a lot of my college classes. Does any of
this inspire you to go back and read some Shakespeare?
Speaker 1 (04:08):
No, because I just have flashbacks of high school where
I would I had to read so much Shakespeare, and
they're beautiful stories, but I much prefer an adaptation that
I understand.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
I feel you on that. You know, my dad recently
has been reading a lot of period fiction, Like he's
read Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice, and like he's
going back and rereading all these classics work than Shakespeare.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
You didn't ask me that question.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
I just I want to revisit the classics.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
I think, okay, I'm with you on that.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
And we're really in for a treat because the author
Alexine will be joining us next month, so be sure
to read along with us and send your questions to
Hello at the bright Side podcast dot com. And tomorrow
we're talking with May's book Club Pick.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Yes, author Julien Kwang is here to talk about her
book How to End a Love Story. It was so good,
we both love it so much. And after the break,
Brooke Baldwin is here to talk about her life after
CNN and why she's leaning into her bad girl era. Y'all,
(05:19):
welcome back, Bestie's all right on the show Today, we've
got someone who has redefined reinvention again and again. Brooke
Baldwin spent more than two decades in the news business,
including many years as one of the most recognizable and
respected faces at CNN. I'm sure you watched a lot
of her there, like I did, Danielle. I have been
watching from afar as Brook pivots from this celebrated news
(05:42):
anchor career into a rich and meaningful second act, and
I'm so curious. I can't wait to talk to her
about it today. It's been really inspiring to watch her.
She describes this pivot as her unraveling. So in addition
to her work as a journalist, Brooke is the best
selling author of the book Huddle, How Women Unlock their
Collective Power, and the host of the Netflix reality series
(06:04):
The Trust. She's written extensively about her exit from the
network and, in my opinion, very movingly about her journey
to self discovery. So we're lucky she's here with us
now to talk more about it. Brooke, thank you for
joining the bright Side.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Hello Daniel Simon, it's so good to be here.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
We're so happy to have you Brooke.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
I want to start with a piece that you recently
wrote for Vanity Fair. You titled it Leaving CNN was
how I found my voice, and people speculated on why
you left. They thought it may be the chaos of
the pandemic or Trump coverage on the network. But you've
called this process you're unraveling. I've never heard anybody use
that term. I really like it. For those who haven't
(06:47):
read your piece yet, will you explain what you mean
by unraveling.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
Essentially, what I mean by unraveling, which is what I
wrote at the very end. You know, at first you
think unraveling means like coming apart right or maybe finding
the truth. And for me, what I realized in the
end is it's both.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
When did the unraveling start?
Speaker 4 (07:06):
Ooh, let me think back to when that man came
down the escalator in Trump Tower. That was twenty fifteen,
when he declared his candidacy for president. I would say
my unraveling happened somewhere between him winning and the first
probably month being at the Women's March, seeing all the
(07:29):
women showing up in ways I had never seen before
in my twenty year career and realizing, oh shit, I
think I'm one of them.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
It was no longer aligned after that. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah, it feels like you knew something was going to
change at that point. But at the same time, we
also had no idea how much it was going.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
To change, right, We had no idea. I mean we
were all covering the twenty sixteen election. I mean, no
one had ever seen someone like that man. Do we
need to say his name? Do we all know? Okay,
that man running for president? We all remember the October
surprise where he liked to grab women. Everyone thought it
would be impossible for that person to then be elected
(08:09):
president alas the joke was on us, you know, I mean, listen,
we were blindsided and we shouldn't have been.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
You know.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
I remember sitting with some of the Trump sons at
another meeting before the election. They were pointing out in
the Midwest, how all these Trump sides there were. There
was momentum in a way that I think the quote
unquote coastal media elites were just intentionally oblivious to. So
I think some of the onus obviously falls on us.
We just totally freaking missing it.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
You've been really open and vulnerable about your own hubris
when it comes to having to unravel your identity that
was attached to achievement, that was attached to being a
good soldier, being good girl, and that comes up a
lot for women who are pioneering in male dominated spaces.
(08:59):
I'd love for you to read this passage that we
feel like really stood out to us from your essay.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
Okay, it has taken me nearly three years to remove
the blinders, feel the anger, welcome the fear, and recognize
that in all my yeses, silence, and enabling the person
who betrayed me the most was me. I wanted to obey,
I wanted to please. I wanted to be the good girl.
(09:27):
I was afraid they'd let me go jokes on me.
It starts in childhood. We want approval from our parents,
than our lovers, than our bosses. I wanted the people
who had certain control over me to want me so
that I could get what I wanted. It's a transaction,
and it's a gamble, and the house always wins.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Thank you so much for reading that. In your piece,
you mentioned instances where you didn't speak up at first,
like when your producer would go dark on you on
the air. I mean, that is a terrifying thing to
think about. And then when you finally did ask your
boss to remove that producer from your team, your request
was denied, and that's what you called the beginning of
the end for you. How do you think you would
(10:09):
have used your voice differently if you had had this
awakening earlier.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
I can remember moments, you know, at CNN with my
own show, with my own team, where I should have
spoken up, and things that were done to me or
around me just we're toxic, We're not right. And instead
of going to the boss, I tried to handle it myself,
(10:34):
because that's what we do. We don't want to complain
cue the America Fererra Barbie monologue. You know, I didn't
want to come off as too aggressive.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
I didn't.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
I was worried that if I complained too much that
I may maybe would lose my show or lose an
hour of my show, And so I just kept my
mouth shut for way too long. And it was really
in just until I wrote this book Huddle, where selfishly,
you know, my soul was withering through covering this man
and covering Lies twenty four seven through sixty five, I
needed to like get out and talk to women. And
(11:01):
it was through sitting and sharing oxygen with you know,
chefs and teachers and mothers and congress women and professional athletes,
and learning that no is a complete sentence, like if
I may like, holy fuck, no is a complete sentence.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
You know.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
That's when it all really started to unravel for me
when I went back to work.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
I think, to your credit, too, though you found success
at a major network at a really young age, I
can't imagine you had a lot of practicing no in
local news. Like you're just that you have to say
yes to everything coming up.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Well, you know, when you're twenties, you're grinding your clawing,
you're saying yes because you know there are especially in
a you know, in a business like we've all been
in in journalism and TV news specifically, it is brutal.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
You know that there are there's a line of women
behind you who would like cut off their left arm
to have your job. So, hell no, I'm not going
to say no. You want me to leap how far
you want to do flips? You know, like, I will
do all the things in order to continue having these
opportunities to continue to rise. And I think also when
you do start out young someplace, you start out with
this like, oh my gosh, I'm just so grateful to
(12:07):
be here. Oh my gosh, I'm just so grateful to
be here, instead of being like, wait a second, you're
asking me to do this, or you're speaking to me
this way. That's not okay. No, let's have a conversation
and find a compromise. I didn't do that until it
was too late, and that is on me, and that,
to me, was the biggest point of my piece.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Yes, I point out the.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
Toxicity and the bullying and also my own complicity my
own self silencing, which is what got me in trouble.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
But you are also doing the only thing that you
knew how to do in order to survive. And the
thing is saying yes is actually a condition of that
job being in the news industry. Like I can't tell
you how many colleagues of mine were like, oh, this
is my first year at NBC. I'm just gonna say
yes to every single thing they asked me to do,
because that's how you succeed and that's how you thrive.
(12:54):
And the other element of this, I think is like
once you reach the level that you are at brook
the top and you realize how few opportunities there are
at the top, and like there's not really much room
to climb after that. So I think there's almost this
like new scarcity mindset that gets introduced at the top.
That's super interesting. Actually, you're totally taking me back to
(13:16):
So the last couple of years when I was there,
my biggest source of anger would be twofold one. I
just didn't agree with how we were covering that man
all the time, the way in which we were. But
my second was I had done that job for ten years.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
That's a long.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Time to have two hours to yourself on this giant network.
It was a huge, huge job. And I got to
the point where we all like we work hard, and
we think, okay, well what's next?
Speaker 2 (13:39):
What's next?
Speaker 4 (13:40):
And what would have been next would have been maybe
like a primetime job. And at the time, all the
primetime anchers were men, and right after my show, it
was a bunch of men in Washington. You know, not
to speak ill of those men. Most of those men
were wonderful to me. And I would talk to some
of them about like our giant differences in salary, or
the opportunities they would have, or all the times I
(14:01):
would get bounced off my show because some huge Washington
thing would happen, and that'd be bigfooted off of my
show a lot of times for these men. And it
started really pissing me off. And what message is that
sending to the viewer that I'm getting bounced off my
own show, that I'm not capable of covering X, Y,
and Z because of someone else. I wanted to be
treated equally.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
That was it.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
I wanted to be treated equally, and it was so
obvious that that wasn't happening.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
I feel like the collective response to your piece signaled something.
Because I saw it online, I can only imagine what
you receive.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Personally, crazy, What are you? Damns?
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Well?
Speaker 1 (14:37):
What do you think the collective response says about women
at work?
Speaker 4 (14:42):
It is so clear that my piece really resonated not
just with women but also with men, men of color.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Specifically.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
They would reach out to me and say, you know, hey,
I have been bullied and treated poorly because of how
I show up at the workplace and the opportunities that
I feel like I'm not being given. And then all
these other women and having their own experiences, you know,
there was this huge needed me too wave where it
was like that obviously was disgusting what was happening, and
(15:09):
it became a hashtag and so many men got in
trouble as a result, and good on them. But to me,
there is this whole other movement that needs to happen,
which is what I referred to in the piece as
the thousand little cuts. It's less black and white. We
all have experienced it. We don't know how to talk
about it. It happens in broad daylight at work oftentimes,
(15:30):
you know, you can't email about it. You don't often
go to hr about it. You don't think that it's
a big enough deal. Like I didn't think my story
was a big enough deal to even write about it
until I really sat on it for a while and
talk to a lot of people. To me, we need
to name it. We need to name this thing that
is happening to us. I don't have the name. I
(15:51):
am all ears on what the name of it is.
But this thing that is happening to all of us.
That is step number one, and then step number two
is once we name it, what do we do about it.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
That's what happened with me too. We didn't have a
vocabulary for what was happening. So I really think you're
onto something. You mentioned gratitude in your piece. You talk
about how you were told to be grateful for what
you had there. Yeah, what was the exact point that
you said, fuck being grateful?
Speaker 4 (16:17):
It wasn't necessarily fuck being grateful. It was fuck, this
really isn't okay, And I've got to say something. And
my first step was walking into my boss's office and
trying to make my case in a very diplomatic way.
I wasn't trying to get my executive producer in trouble.
I wasn't trying to infer anything nefarious other than I
literally said, we've run out of track. I am worried
(16:39):
about the show, I am worried about being doing live
TV with this person, and could we please just do
a trade? And that is when at all, all the
dominoes started to fall down.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
It sounds like you were experiencing like a spiritual disconnection
between the life that you were living, yes, and the
life that you felt in your soul like you really
wanted to live. And I want to hear more about
your healing journey that you went on after you decided
to leave this job, because it sounds like it was
so transformational, Like I.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Want it still on it?
Speaker 2 (17:15):
We still at it? Yeah, we do. We want what
did you read? Okay, where did you go? What our
streets did you go on? Who did you surround yourself with?
Anything you feel comfortable?
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Sure?
Speaker 4 (17:25):
Oh my gosh, you know, I don't think I had
the words yet when I was having that sort of
disconnect or incongruity or the out of alignment feeling when
I was doing this job. I mean, you know, in
order to do this job, I work so hard, like
from a little girl dreaming of lurking in New York City.
You know, then you work in these small markets, you
don't have as many friends, you date the wrong guys,
(17:46):
you put off having kids, all the things to maybe
maybe maybe one.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Day make it, and I did.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
And then at some point you're sitting on this fancy
set with these fake eye lashes and these extensions and
these beautiful having really important conversations. But at some point,
you know, I'm sitting dazing out the window and during
a commercial break and thinking like you would in any
relationship where the guy is impressive and shiny and you've
been with him for a really long time or girl,
(18:14):
and then you start wondering though, like is this it?
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Is? This?
Speaker 4 (18:19):
It?
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Yes, but hold on a second.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
I've worked so hard and there are all these girls
who again would eat their left arm for this job,
so I must, you know, keep going. And finally, once
I left, I sent myself on a three week trip,
which felt like.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Who takes a three week vacation?
Speaker 4 (18:40):
Not me in my twenty whatever years. And I went
to the British Version Islands and I just needed to
like skinny dip and drink a lot of rum and
journal and that started my journey of healing and centering
myself and coming home to myself. And I remember staring
at the most beautiful blue water.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
And thinking, I'm a named more than this.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
This is like beautiful to look at, but I gotta
go really deep. I need to really excavate some shit
in my in my body and in my soul. And
so that then started my spiritual journey. And so I
reached out to a friend of mine who founded this
thing called the Class, which is a workout and a practice,
and I'd do it all the time, and you know,
(19:25):
and so she recommended going on this spiritual retreat in Sedona.
And I was on this sort of solo journey. And also,
let me say, parallel to all of this, I was married.
I was very alone in my marriage. And I actually
think one of the things that my now ex husband
taught me was how to really be on my own.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
I went from never having eaten alone.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
By myself to like kind of prefer eating alone by myself,
and you know, going off by myself and hiking by myself.
So I remember doing all of that and realizing, like
being in nature, I felt so close to what I
referred to as just God. Or higher power, and from
there my bible became Martha Beck's book With a Way
of Integrity. It's the whole story of Dante's Inferno, but
(20:08):
she explains it in a really palatable, digestible way of
all the ways that we are all on our journeys
ultimately to the being in full integrity. And I made
my mission to interview her. I became friends with her.
She has been in my home. Like I started doing
a bunch of stuff with women athletes, Sue Brd.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
I got to know Meghan Rapino.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
I got to know a bunch of these soccer players
and basketball players and volleyball ley all through Subird's production company.
They hired me together to do a bunch of stuff
for them. So I was then around a bunch of
like badass, a lot of queer women who spoke my
language of just no and being empowered and embodied. And
(20:50):
it was really great to just soak up their oxygen
and do those.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Things interesting because like when you're not living up to
the male gaze in any way, that changes.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
That's why queer women can teach us a lot.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
They literally are running the country.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
By the way that was like if that would have
been the alternate subtitle of my book, like Huddle, How
Queer Women Are Running America.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
We're taking a quick break, but we'll be right back
with Brooke Baldwin.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
And we're back with Brooke Baldwin.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
So, at forty four, you changed your entire life everything.
You moved from New York to LA You ask questions,
You found your spiritual center.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
Chot my hair, became a vegetarian, learned about sobriety because
of someone near and dear to me. Have stopped talking
to my father. Yeah, the list is long.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Through all your inner work and your excavation. How did
your inner child factor in? Did you talk to her.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
The day I left CNN. I don't know what possessed
me to do this.
Speaker 4 (21:53):
I remember going into work by myself, and before I did,
I opened my journal and I journaled to my younger self,
and I talked to her for the first time, basically
trying to assure her don't be disappointed in us. I
know we worked so hard. I know we dreamt of
living in New York City. I know that we worked
so hard in all these you know, small towns in
(22:14):
America when all of our girlfriends were living their big
sex and the city lives in New York City, and
we were like going to bed at nine o'clock at
night and waking up at two in the morning and
being one woman newsroom and rolling the procter with our
foot and covering water, skiing squirrels, like you know, goddamn
it paid.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
Off, did you?
Speaker 2 (22:30):
That's an Anchorman reference.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
So so yeah, I just needed to talk to her
and say, like, we're doing it. You know, hang tight,
don't feel disappointed. I know I can understand why this
feels disappointing, but I'm gonna make you proud.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Why do you think she needed to hear that?
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (22:50):
Because she was disappointed and as we all now know
of writing this piece, like how it all went down,
it was really fucking disappointing, the way in which I left,
the way in which I completed this twenty year chapter,
most of which was the dream job. And she was disappointed.
(23:12):
She was like, but we did all the right things,
and we worked really hard, and we were nice, and
we were good at what we did. Why did this happen?
Speaker 2 (23:21):
You know? Why did this happen?
Speaker 4 (23:22):
She was disappointed, and I needed to assure her that
it was going to be okay.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
What did leaving CNN teach you about leaving things?
Speaker 4 (23:32):
Oh my gosh, that nothing is permanent, and that also,
you know, working for a giant machine. While it certainly
comes with really fun fancy bells and whistles and cachet,
it also comes with being a cog in the system.
And what I really felt like for me was being
(23:54):
a mouthpiece and not having a voice. And now that
I have, like self emancipated, have a voice, and it's
on me to use it and to show others how
they can use it every freaking day.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Now that we're having some much needed closure for our
inner good girl, I need to know what is the
least good girl thing about you? Now?
Speaker 4 (24:14):
Ooh, well, I got a tattoo that felt pretty bad.
I got a tattoo a couple of months ago that
felt pretty bad.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
Oh my god, I sound like such a good cirl. Jesus,
what are the other bad things? One of the other bad.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Things I felt the same?
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Oh oh oh oh.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
Okay, I have really I'm just going to say this,
I have in the last year really experimented with psychedelics
and I don't feel like that's even a bad girl thing.
That's just like I want to open my mind. Yeah,
and my heart thing and expand. That's another thing on
your list of things that Brooke Baldwin has done this year.
I have experimented in multiple psychedelic ways and have had
(24:54):
absolutely extraordinary spiritual experiences, open hearted, loving experiences.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
I've never like gone to a rave or been with
a bunch of people.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
I've only been with my close, close people, but that
has been.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Mind altering.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
It's so la and so bad girl. I love it.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Yeah, psychedelics and tattoos.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
I've done some breath work that's very la. I've become
a yogi in the last year, trying to think what
other bad girl?
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Now?
Speaker 3 (25:23):
This is the thing that I'm gonna take away from
this conversation.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
So, my best friend from college, Yeah, we didn't really
drink when we were in college.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
We didn't really date.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
God like we were in the library. We were such
good girls. And she texted me the other day and
she was like, I really feel like we screwed up.
We should have been bad girls. Then we're doing it
so late. Why are we bad girls?
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Now? Wait?
Speaker 4 (25:46):
Wait, I've got to turn the tables. Are what is
your most bad girl thing? I'm a reformed bad girl.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
So I did the bad girl things in college and
I'm like married to kids suburbs.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Okay, you did it the right way. Okay, my bad girl,
I mean got a tattoo. I don't know all the things.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Yeah, you guys have you guys have dainty little baby?
We got a girl mine. Yeah, I want to leave
next time you come back. Okay, Brook, I agree.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Ah, thank you guys.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
You know, this interview, your story, this conversation. My hope
is that someone listens to this who's in a soul
crushing job, and through your story and just the sharing
of experiences that they feel the courage to make the jump.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
And yes, they feel seen and heard and they're not.
You are not alone. Reach out to me Broke Baldwin Instagram,
find me dm me. You know I always try to,
like I love being in conversation with all these people,
to just remind them and if they are in the
thick of it, you know, I've got advice for you too.
Hang in there, You're gonna be Okay.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Brook, thank you so much for blessing us with your
light on the right side.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Thank you, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
That's it for today's show. Tomorrow we have the author
of Reese's book Clubs, may pick Yuleen Kwang. She's here
to tell us all about her debut novel, How to
End a Love Story.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Listen and follow the bright Side on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
I'm Simone Boye. You can find me at Simone Voice
on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
I'm Danielle Robe on Instagram and TikTok. That's ro b A.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Y See you tomorrow, folks. Keep looking on the bright side.
Hosts And Creators
Simone Boyce
Danielle Robay
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