The Person Who Believed In Me with David Begnaud
Marlee Matlin | Nobody Stood Up at the Oscars
Marlee Matlin was twelve, performing at a children's theater for the deaf in Chicago, when Henry Winkler accepted an invitation to stop by on his day off. She performed the whole show at him. Afterward she walked up and asked whether she could be an actor in Hollywood, like he was. Before he could answer, her mother pulled him aside and asked him to dampen his enthusiasm — tell her to go to college, get an education, dream other dreams, because Hollywood was not going to be kind to a deaf girl. Winkler looked at her and said she was talking to the wrong man. Marlee didn't learn about that exchange for years. When she did, she says it broke her heart for her mother, who wanted what most mothers want. She also says Winkler rescued her from not believing in herself. They became pen pals, and every letter she sent, he answered — which is how she knew the friendship was real, and, she says, how she came to know she was worthy. A few years after that first meeting she won the Academy Award for Children of a Lesser God, at 21, the youngest woman ever to win Best Actress and the first deaf performer to win at all. She had learned about the nomination from a phone at a rehab center, where her counselor congratulated her and then told her to go clean her room. When the relationship that followed the Oscar collapsed, she turned up at Winkler's door with the statuette in her hand and told him she had this, but no boyfriend and nowhere to live. He and his wife Stacey said stay the weekend. She stayed two years. In this conversation with David Begnaud, Marlee talks about the year she presented the next Best Actor award and chose to speak the nominees' names aloud — a decision she made alone, to show producers she could, and one the deaf community read as a betrayal. She shut them out for fifteen years and says she still carries something like PTSD from it. She talks about what her parents never knew, and what she never told them. And about the tough love from Winkler that she resented at the time and now says was right, including the morning he told her that no, she could not skip an hour of work for her son's first day of kindergarten. Marlee Matlin is executive producer of the feature documentary, Siren: The Voices of Shelley Beattie, available now on HBO. Get more stories that remind you the world is still good. Sign up for our free newsletter: https://www.thedogoodcrew.com Chapters ☀️ ABOUT THIS PODCAST: The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew and often called "America's storyteller." In each episode, David sits down with world-class guests to ask one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? Big names. Honest stories. Relatable takeaways. David is also a CBS News contributor and host of the weekly segment Beg Knows America, which airs every Monday morning. Host: David Begnaud Guest: Marlee Matlin Executive Producer: David Begnaud, Olivier Delfosse, Justin McGoldrick Booker: Sully Bloch Director of Photography: Foster Parks Live Production Technician: Will Whitley (Statik Creative) Social: Gracie Pekrul Theme Music: Slipstream Post-Production: Longwave Digital & David & Luana Co. CONNECT WITH US: The Person Who Believed In Me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/believedpodcast
Chris Olsen | "I Think My Therapist Hates Me"
Chris Olsen has more than 14 million followers on TikTok. At 19 he spent close to a year in a rehab in Boca Raton — six months inpatient with three group sessions a day, then nine months of treatment while bussing tables at a restaurant next to the mall. The first assignment every new arrival got was to write down their ten most shameful secrets. He read his aloud, and the therapist turned to the room and asked whether anyone thought he'd been honest. He had to keep reading them, day after day, until he cried. Her name isn't Lizzie, and she didn't want her photo shown. She was the person he was most afraid of in the building, and he later named his memoir I Think My Therapist Hates Me after what he assumed she thought of him. What she told him years later was that she can usually tell from the start how a patient will do, that she didn't see it for him, and that she was harder on him than on others because she believed he could start over. He's still her patient. He only recently learned she was 26 at the time, following a philosophy her own elders insisted was the only thing standing between her patients and death. She's since left that center and opened a private practice, and the two of them now spend a good deal of time undoing what she taught him. It got him sober. It also locked in the idea that he owed the world a lifetime of making other people feel better — a complicated foundation for a career built on strangers' approval. In this conversation with David Begnaud, he talks about being 14 at a family weekend at his mother's rehab, told by a therapist to make her feel better while she cried in front of the room, and deciding in that chair to stop feeling. About scrolling past a thousand kind comments to find the cruel one, because that's the one that matches the story he was told about himself. And he arrives, mid-conversation, at something he hadn't put together before: that he and his mother each had a harder time with the other sober than drunk. Chris Olson's memoir, I Think My Therapist Hates Me, is available now. Get more stories that remind you the world is still good. Sign up for our free newsletter: https://www.thedogoodcrew.com Chapters ☀️ ABOUT THIS PODCAST: The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew and often called "America's storyteller." In each episode, David sits down with world-class guests to ask one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? Big names. Honest stories. Relatable takeaways. David is also a CBS News contributor and host of the weekly segment Beg Knows America, which airs every Monday morning. Host: David Begnaud Guest: Chris Olson Executive Producer: David Begnaud, Olivier Delfosse, Justin McGoldrick Booker: Sully Bloch Director of Photography: Foster Parks Live Production Technician: Will Whitley (Statik Creative) Social: Gracie Pekrul Theme Music: Slipstream Post-Production: Longwave Digital & David & Luana Co. CONNECT WITH US: The Person Who Believed In Me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/believedpodcast
Thomasin McKenzie | Anxiety and Jojo Rabbit
Thomasin McKenzie grew up in a house in Wellington where everyone acted — her parents coached it, and her grandmother is one of New Zealand's most beloved actors. She'd watched her parents leave for work overseas often enough to know what the job cost, and when she graduated high school her grandmother was relieved she hadn't gone to drama school. Then at 13 she overheard her mother coaching other girls through an audition for a film called Consent, about a New Zealand woman who was raped by police officers as a teenager and not believed in court. Thomasin asked if she could try out. She got the role, and it changed what she thought acting was for. She chose her father, Stuart, as the person who believed in her — not for a piece of advice but for showing up. He was on set with her from the time she was six. What he said before auditions and exams alike was the same thing: enjoy the process. No pressure to win. He was living with her in Prague during Jojo Rabbit when a role she'd already seen herself in went to someone else, and he was there through years of anxiety severe enough that at 21 she couldn't attend her own film's premiere. He never made her feel bad about it. In this conversation with David Begnaud, she talks about what a panic attack actually feels like from the inside, and why it's nearly impossible to describe once it passes — like trying to define a temperature. She' also talks about walking away from Top Gun: Maverick for a smaller film about an unsolved murder case that has since been solved… about being told by a director to stop finding the hardship in every character and find the joy instead… and about moving to London at 22 specifically to stop leaning on her father so hard — which is how she came to see him as a person rather than someone who's supposed to have the answers. Get more stories that remind you the world is still good. Sign up for our free newsletter: https://www.thedogoodcrew.com Chapters ☀️ ABOUT THIS PODCAST: The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew and often called "America's storyteller." In each episode, David sits down with world-class guests to ask one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? Big names. Honest stories. Relatable takeaways. David is also a CBS News contributor and host of the weekly segment Beg Knows America, which airs every Monday morning. Host: David Begnaud Guest: Thomasin McKenzie Executive Producer: David Begnaud, Olivier Delfosse, Justin McGoldrick Booker: Sully Bloch Director of Photography: Foster Parks Live Production Technician: Will Whitley (Statik Creative) Social: Kylee Anderson, Maxim Trofimenko, Gracie Pekrul Theme Music: Slipstream Post-Production: Longwave Digital & David & Luana Co. CONNECT WITH US: The Person Who Believed In Me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/believedpodcast
Chelsea Handler | He Said He Was Coming Back
Chelsea Handler was nine when her oldest brother Chet died — July 10th, in a hiking accident — and she came back to school in the fall to a town full of people asking if she was okay. She hated it. So she told everyone she'd been cast in a movie with Goldie Hawn. Kids started asking for autographs. She doubled down. She wrote to Goldie Hawn asking for a signed photo, and Goldie Hawn sent one. The lie eventually collapsed on its own, because there was no movie, and she says the humiliation of being found out was worse than the pity she'd been trying to escape. Her third-grade teacher, Carol Schectman, watched all of it happen. She could see that a family that had lost its firstborn had scattered into its own separate corners of grief, and that nobody was checking on the youngest of six. She'd drop by the house on a Tuesday night for no clear reason — Chelsea understood decades later that she was taking the temperature of the household. And she'd pull her aside and tell her she was special, without specifying what for. In this conversation with David Begnaud, Chelsea talks about the brother who carried her up the driveway pretending not to know she was faking sleep, and opened her bedroom window in winter because she liked the cold. About her father, who responded to the death by suing the friends Chet was hiking with, and who in her nine-year-old accounting disappeared along with him. About going to therapy at 40 and learning that what she'd felt at nine wasn't grief so much as betrayal because he'd said he was coming back. Thirty years passed and she assumed she'd never get to say thank you. Then a brief mention on Chelsea’s Netflix show led them to reconnect, giving them eight more years together. Get more stories that remind you the world is still good. Sign up for our free newsletter: https://www.thedogoodcrew.com Chapters ☀️ ABOUT THIS PODCAST: The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew and often called "America's storyteller." In each episode, David sits down with world-class guests to ask one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? Big names. Honest stories. Relatable takeaways. David is also a CBS News contributor and host of the weekly segment Beg Knows America, which airs every Monday morning. Host: David Begnaud Guest: Chelsea Handler Executive Producer: David Begnaud, Olivier Delfosse, Justin McGoldrick Booker: Sully Bloch Director of Photography: Foster Parks Live Production Technician: Will Whitley (Statik Creative) Social: Kylee Anderson, Maxim Trofimenko, Gracie Pekrul Theme Music: Slipstream Post-Production: Longwave Digital & David & Luana Co. CONNECT WITH US: The Person Who Believed In Me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/believedpodcast
Bozoma Saint John | Always the Outsider
Bozoma Saint John was 12 when her family landed in Colorado Springs, where her classmates already had a picture of Africa: the child on the UNICEF magnet, flies and a distended belly, worth a penny a day. Her father held two PhDs. Her mother was a fashion designer. Nobody in that house took an American name. Bozoma was strong in math and science and Latin and was going to be a doctor — decided at 12, though she says she couldn't tell you where her parents' plan ended and her own wanting began. Then an eleventh-grade English teacher named Martha Wood assigned a creative writing exercise: describe yourself somewhere else, in the third person. Bozoma wrote it, and Mrs. Wood held the pages up and read them aloud — in a room of native speakers, some of whom had mocked her accent. The room went quiet. It was the first time anyone suggested she could be something other than what had been planned. She starts crying about it thirty seconds into this conversation. Two more people did that for her later. Spike Lee, whose phones she was answering at 23 when she gave him notes on the Bamboozled script — bad notes, she says now — and he slammed his door, and came out to say: you made some good notes, you can stay. And Ari Emanuel, the first boss who ever really saw her, who told her she wasn't Bose at Apple or Bose at Uber. She was just Bose. Did she have an agent? She also talks with David Begnaud about her husband, Peter. They were separated, after the death of their daughter Eve and the blame they'd started looking for in each other, when his cancer turned terminal. He asked her to set the divorce aside, then proposed again — sixty pounds lighter, in a jacket that no longer fit, with a Hostess cupcake instead of a wedding cake. She says yes is still the best one she's ever given.
Tori Kelly | The Internet Made Her a Star
Before Tori Kelly became a three-time Grammy-winning singer-songwriter with a voice that can move stadiums, she was a 12-year-old girl walking into a record label office, wondering if anyone in the music industry would ever truly understand her. She had already been told no by Star Search, lost to David Archuleta, and learned early that being able to sing wasn't always enough. Then Polly Anthony, the first woman to run a major record label, signed her to Geffen Records and gave her something no one else had: the feeling that she didn't need to change a single thing. In this deeply personal and unguarded conversation, the artist behind hits like Nobody Love and the voice of Mina the Elephant sits down with David Begnaud to share the story of the woman who believed in her when she was just a shy girl who wanted to be heard. Tori opens up about meeting Polly at 12 years old, a warm and maternal executive who made her entire family feel welcome and never once suggested she needed to be more outgoing, more bubbly, or more like the Disney kids everyone kept comparing her to. She talks about losing on Star Search at 10, getting cut from American Idol before the top 24 after Simon Cowell called her voice almost annoying, and what it felt like when Polly left Geffen and a new executive stepped in who didn't share the same vision. She shares what it was like to ask her parents to leave the label at 13 because something just didn't feel right, spending years being told by other labels that they didn't know how to package her, and the gut feeling that told her to walk away even when everyone said a record deal was the only way to make it. There's also a raw reflection on reinvention, rejection, and what it means to build a career on your own terms. Tori talks about teaching herself guitar after American Idol, posting covers on YouTube from her childhood bedroom, and the Frank Ocean cover that drew tens of millions of views and proved she didn't need anyone's permission to connect with an audience. She opens up about walking into Capitol Records years later and telling executives I don't feel like I need you guys, but I would love to have a partnership, performing for Ed Sheeran's 80,000-person crowds while pregnant with her son Zayden, and why a 75-seat coffeehouse show where Scooter Braun couldn't even get in became the turning point that led to her Best New Artist Grammy nomination in 2016. She reflects on pivoting to gospel music and winning two Grammys for Hiding Place with Kirk Franklin, collapsing at dinner in downtown LA from blood clots in her legs and lungs and spending a week in the ICU, and returning to American Idol as a mentor to tell contestants that even if they don't win, their career can still be everything they dreamed of. She shares why becoming a mother gave her a peace she didn't know she was missing, why she still feels insecure explaining herself in words but can make you feel everything through a song, and why Polly Anthony's belief in a shy 12-year-old girl is the reason she's able to stand on stage today and sing exactly who she is. Get more stories that remind you the world is still good. Sign up for our free newsletter: https://www.thedogoodcrew.com Chapters ☀️ 00:00:00 Intro: The Executive Who Saw Her at 12 Years Old 00:04:22 Star Search, David Archuleta, and Losing Again 00:05:40 Will Anyone Understand Me? The Shy Girl Who Just Wanted to Sing 00:06:31 How Do We Package That? When the Industry Wanted to Change Her 00:12:40 When Polly Left: Everything Changes at 13 00:19:12 The Frank Ocean Cover That Changed Everything 00:23:29 Walking Into Capitol Records: I Don't Need You, But Let's Partner 00:28:11 Opening for Ed Sheeran While Pregnant 00:32:41 The 75-Seat Coffee House Where Scooter Braun Couldn't Get In 00:35:28 Best New Artist: The Grammy Nomination at Last 00:36:39 The Peace That Came with Motherhood: Success Redefined 00:40:53 Hiding Place with Kirk Franklin: Two Gospel Grammys 00:46:02 July 23, 2023: The Night She Collapsed in Downtown LA 00:48:26 Full Circle at Epic Records: Polly's Old Label 00:49:22 Returning to American Idol as a Mentor: What Am I Doing Here? 00:52:15 I Can Hide in My Music: The Insecurity She Still Carries ABOUT THIS PODCAST: The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew and often called "America's storyteller." In each episode, David sits down with world-class guests to ask one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? Big names. Honest stories. Relatable takeaways. Different paths — same question. David is also a CBS News contributor and host of the weekly segment Beg Knows America, which airs every Monday morning. Host: David Begnaud Guest: Tori Kelly Executive Producer: David Begnaud, Olivier Delfosse, Justin McGoldrick Booker: Sully Bloch Director of Photography: Foster Parks Live Production Technician: Joseph Gabay & Will Whitley (Statik Creative)
Gary Vaynerchuk | A Studio Apartment for Eight
Before Gary Vaynerchuk became a digital media mogul, CEO of a 2,000-person marketing empire, and one of the loudest voices on the internet, he was a three-year-old Soviet refugee living in a studio apartment in Queens with eight family members in rotation. In this deeply personal and unguarded conversation, the entrepreneur behind VaynerMedia sits down with David Begnaud to share the story of the woman who believed in him when no one else could, and how that belief came wrapped in unconditional warmth and a refusal to let bad grades touch his self-esteem. Gary opens up about escaping the Soviet Union at three years old, a place he describes as being like North Korea today, where his parents had to give up everything just to leave and his mother hid a piece of jewelry in his stockings like a cocaine mule. He talks about arriving in America with a couple hundred bucks, living in Edison, New Jersey, and watching his father Sasha work as a stock boy in a liquor store before building Shopper's Discount Liquors from $3 million to $60 million. He shares what it was like to be the lemonade stand kid at seven, the baseball card dealer at 14 who could outsell grown men, and the high school student who got grounded every single report card yet somehow never let it hurt his self-esteem because his mother Tamara celebrated kindness over achievement. Gary also shares why the knitted Jets jersey his mom made him when he couldn't afford a real one will hang in the stadium when he buys the New York Jets. Alongside it, a plaque will say from a boy that couldn't afford a jersey to buying the whole damn team. Get more stories that remind you the world is still good. Sign up for our free newsletter: https://www.thedogoodcrew.com Chapters ☀️ ABOUT THIS PODCAST: The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew and often called "America's storyteller." In each episode, David sits down with world-class guests to ask one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? Big names. Honest stories. Relatable takeaways. Different paths — same question. David is also a CBS News contributor and host of the weekly segment Beg Knows America, which airs every Monday morning. Host: David Begnaud Guest: Gary Vaynerchuk Executive Producer: David Begnaud, Olivier Delfosse, Justin McGoldrick Booker: Sully Bloch Director of Photography: Foster Parks Live Production Technician: Joseph Gabay & Will Whitley (Statik Creative) Social: Kylee Anderson, Maxim Trofimenko, Gracie Pekrul Theme Music: Slipstream Post-Production: Longwave Digital & David & Luana Co. CONNECT WITH US: The Person Who Believed In Me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/believedpodcast
Atsuko Okatsuka | My Kidnapper, My Best Friend
Before Atsuko Okatsuka became an internationally renowned comedian, sold-out performer, and one of the most unique voices in stand-up, she was a quiet eight-year-old girl living in a garage in Los Angeles, undocumented and confused, trying to make sense of why her grandmother had taken her from Japan and why her father never came to get her. In this deeply personal and unguarded conversation, the trailblazing comic sits down with David Begnaud to share the story of the woman who believed in her when no one else could, and how that belief came wrapped in complexity, sacrifice, and what Atsuko calls minor tiny criminal activities. Atsuko opens up about being born in Taiwan, delivered by an untrained OBGYN uncle because her “family loves a discount,” and growing up in Japan with a mother suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. She talks about the speed dating marriage her grandmother arranged in Japan, the moment her mother held a kitchen knife to her own arm at 10 p.m. while Atsuko watched through a sliding paper door, and the night her grandmother put her on a bicycle and rode around Chiba for hours until 2 in the morning to outrun the trauma. She shares what it felt like to be kidnapped the first time when her grandmother rented an apartment five minutes from her dad's house, enrolled her in a school across the street, and her father would stand at the gate watching her play on the playground before quietly going back to work. She reflects on coming to America at eight years old, living undocumented in Uncle Paul's garage, and meeting Uncle JT, a former gang member and Mexican-American outsider at a Taiwanese church who bought her a thrifted guitar she named “Happiness” and taught her to play before Sunday sermons. There's also a raw reflection on survival, identity, and what it means to love the person who took you. Atsuko talks about inventing a game called Ward Off the Demons to try to snap her mother out of psychosis, why she can make strangers laugh but has never made her mom laugh, and how she's moving her mother into the house next door even though her grandmother has had enough and is going back to Taiwan to separate from her daughter for the rest of her life. She opens up about parasailing in Bali with her dad and crashing into rocks because he was trying to make up for lost time, reconnecting with him as an adult on a seesaw at the park where he used to take her as a kid, and why she painted him as the bad guy for years to protect herself from the truth that he missed her too. She shares why she doesn't want kids, why she answers every one of her mom's 40 daily phone calls even though her mom has never come to a show or her wedding, and why she sees her grandmother as both villain and superhero. Get more stories that remind you the world is still good. Sign up for our free newsletter: https://www.thedogoodcrew.com Chapters ☀️ ABOUT THIS PODCAST: The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew and often called "America's storyteller." In each episode, David sits down with world-class guests to ask one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? Big names. Honest stories. Relatable takeaways. Different paths — same question. David is also a CBS News contributor and host of the weekly segment Beg Knows America, which airs every Monday morning. Host: David Begnaud Guest: Atsuko Okatsuka Executive Producer: David Begnaud, Olivier Delfosse, Justin McGoldrick Booker: Sully Bloch Director of Photography: Foster Parks Live Production Technician: Joseph Gabay & Will Whitley (Statik Creative) Social: Kylee Anderson, Maxim Trofimenko, Gracie Pekrul Theme Music: Slipstream Post-Production: Longwave Digital & David & Luana Co. CONNECT WITH US: The Person Who Believed In Me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/believedpodcast
Brian Grazer | Straight F's, But a Gift for Gab
Before Brian Grazer became one of Hollywood's most powerful producers — 43 Academy Award nominations, 320 Emmy nominations, more than $15 billion at the box office — he was a dyslexic kid in the San Fernando Valley getting straight F's, thought of as the boy who couldn't read. Then his grandmother, Sonja Schwartz, told him he was a genius with a gift for gab, and that not knowing an answer didn't make him dumb. It just made him more interested. In this unguarded conversation, the producer behind A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13, Splash, 8 Mile, Friday Night Lights, 24, and Empire sits down with David Begnaud to talk about the woman who believed in him first. He describes turning an empty office at Warner Brothers into his own enterprise, cold-calling the twenty biggest filmmakers in the business with a single promise — he'd never ask them for anything — and getting stopped at the door by Lew Wasserman, who handed him a pencil and a legal pad and told him to come back with something of value. He started writing Splash that year. He also talks about the father who shook off his hand as a child and the father he chose to become instead; about his son Riley, whose Instagram bio reads I am nice and I am caring, and how watching kids hide Riley's lunch became A Beautiful Mind; about standing up too early at the Oscars, and the astronaut who reached across two rows to tell him he'd never made it to the moon either. Get more stories that remind you the world is still good. Sign up for our free newsletter: https://www.thedogoodcrew.com Chapters ☀️ 00:00:00 Intro: The Grandmother Who Said You're a Genius 00:02:01 Straight F's and Deep Shame: The Dyslexic Kid Who Couldn't Read 00:06:28 The Loveless Father: When Dad Shook Off His Touch 00:10:22 Curiosity Conversations: 40 Years of Meeting the Masters 00:18:18 The Warner Brothers Con: Building an Empire from a Law Clerk Job 00:21:42 Grandma Takes Him to the Bosses: Meeting Power at Hollywood Park 00:26:59 The Liar Story: When a Mentor Called Out the Truth Problem 00:37:41 Incorrect: The Coach Who Cut Him and Crushed His Soul 00:54:37 The Teacher Who Hit Him with a Board 00:47:33 The Oscar Moment: Loser, and Jim Lovell's Grip 00:50:39 Deep Throat and Don Rickles: What Grandma Taught Him About Vegas 01:04:50 Riley's Bio: I Am Nice and I Am Caring 01:10:13 What He'd Say to Grandma Sonia: How Much I Love Her ABOUT THIS PODCAST: The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew and often called "America's storyteller." In each episode, David sits down with world-class guests to ask one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? Big names. Honest stories. Relatable takeaways. Different paths — same question. David is also a CBS News contributor and host of the weekly segment Beg Knows America, which airs every Monday morning. Host: David Begnaud Guest: Brian Grazer Executive Producer: David Begnaud, Olivier Delfosse, Justin...
Vivian Tu | "You Deserve a Seat at the Table"
Before Vivian Tu became a multimillionaire financial educator with 6.5 million followers, two New York Times bestselling books, and a chart-topping podcast, she was a 22-year-old analyst sitting on a filing cabinet at JP Morgan while senior traders commanded the room. Then Jean Ma, her first manager and the first rich Asian woman she had ever met, told her: You deserve a seat at the table. Don't sit on a filing cabinet like you are some lackey. In this deeply personal conversation, the creator of Your Rich BFF tells David Begnaud how Jean, who walked into the office in limited-edition Chanel and Gucci stilettos, taught her that life isn't a meritocracy and showed her at a meatpacking-district dive bar that the rules she thought she had to play by weren't the rules everyone else played by. Vivian also gets real about the manager who reassigned her, told her she was "too girly for finance," and mocked her cardigan as a kimono — and why she's thankful he was such a jerk, because it's exactly what pushed her out of JP Morgan and into the life she has now. She talks about walking away from a $600,000 job at BuzzFeed to bet on herself full time, the $100,000 safety net she built just in case (and never had to touch), and growing up the daughter of Chinese immigrants who sacrificed everything so she could be here. She opens up about buying her parents cars and vacations, why her husband Greg is the reason she can take big career swings without fear, and closes with the story that still gives her chills: a woman at the University of Delaware who used one of Vivian's videos to talk her hospital down $5,000 on a medical bill. And yes, she'll admit it — some of her drive really is just pure spite, knowing the guy who doubted her can't walk past a bookstore today without seeing her face in the window. Get more stories that remind you the world is still good. Sign up for our free newsletter: https://www.thedogoodcrew.com Chapters ☀️ ABOUT THIS PODCAST: The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew and often called "America's storyteller." In each episode, David sits down with world-class guests to ask one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? Big names. Honest stories. Relatable takeaways. Different paths — same question. David is also a CBS News contributor and host of the weekly segment Beg Knows America, which airs every Monday morning. Host: David Begnaud Guest: Vivian Tu Executive Producer: David Begnaud, Olivier Delfosse, Justin McGoldrick Booker: Sully Bloch Director of Photography: Foster Parks Live Production Technician: Joseph Gabay & Will Whitley (Statik Creative) Social: Kylee Anderson, Maxim Trofimenko, Gracie Pekrul Theme Music: Slipstream Post-Production: Longwave Digital & David & Luana Co. CONNECT WITH US: The Person Who Believed In Me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/believedpodcast
Nirav Tolia | The Only Indian Kid in Odessa, TX
Before Nirav Tolia became the CEO of Nextdoor, a billion-dollar company connecting neighbors across America, he was a 28-year-old first-time CEO running a struggling startup during the dot-com crash, three weeks away from shutting down. Then Bill Campbell, the legendary Silicon Valley coach who mentored Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and the founders of Google, walked into his office and said the words that changed everything: I don't want fancy quotes. Tell me about the business. In this deeply personal and unguarded conversation, one of tech's most mission-driven entrepreneurs sits down with David Begnaud to share the story of the man who believed in him when he was just beginning to understand what it meant to lead. Nirav opens up about meeting Bill Campbell at 28, a coach who called him boy, sprinkled profanity into every lesson, and taught him that his title was not CEO but coach. He talks about growing up as one of the only Indian kids in Odessa, Texas, a place where people were genuinely happy because they had each other, and how that shaped his belief in the power of community. He shares what it was like to get to Stanford and realize he wasn't prepared for the rigor, how he found his way into tech through an Ethernet connection in his dorm room and an obsession with the Dallas Cowboys, and why he joined a collegiate acapella group that led him to become a business manager instead of a doctor. There's also a raw reflection on sacrifice, purpose, and what it means to be a guardian angel. Nirav talks about leaving Nextdoor in 2019 because he felt like a shell of a man, realizing he couldn't be the best CEO and the best father at the same time, and moving his family to Italy for a sabbatical that turned into years. He opens up about being asked to come back to Nextdoor, why he said yes even though he never thought he'd be a CEO again, and how spending time away from the job gave him the space to reflect and become a better human being. Get more stories that remind you the world is still good. Sign up for our free newsletter: https://www.thedogoodcrew.com Chapters ☀️ ABOUT THIS PODCAST: The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew and often called "America's storyteller." In each episode, David sits down with world-class guests to ask one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? Big names. Honest stories. Relatable takeaways. Different paths — same question. David is also a CBS News contributor and host of the weekly segment Beg Knows America, which airs every Monday morning. Host: David Begnaud Guest: Nirav Tolia Executive Producer: David Begnaud, Olivier Delfosse, Justin McGoldrick Booker: Sully Bloch Director of Photography: Foster Parks Social: Kylee Anderson, Maxim Trofimenko, Gracie Pekrul Live Production Technician: Joseph Gabay & Will Whitley (Statik Creative) Theme Music: Slipstream Post-Production: Longwave Digital & David & Luana Co. CONNECT WITH US: The Person Who Believed In Me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/believedpodcast
Adam Lambert | Done Being Polite
Before Adam Lambert became a global superstar, Grammy-nominated artist, and one of the most electrifying voices in music, he was a 13-year-old theater kid from conservative North County San Diego, struggling to fit in at middle school and trying on his mother's makeup after class. Then Lynn Broyles, a voice teacher with fierce energy and impeccable taste, saw something in him that no one else had: a kid who needed a safe space to just be himself. In this deeply personal and unguarded conversation, the trailblazing artist sits down with David Begnaud to share the story of the woman who believed in him when he was just beginning to understand who he was. Adam opens up about meeting Lynn at 13, a voice teacher who introduced him to Sondheim, cabaret, and the gay cultural lexicon without ever calling it what it was. He talks about growing up with parents who let him wear their makeup and high heels as a toddler, spending Saturdays in a theater company that taught him discipline and teamwork, and the moment he auditioned for American Idol by quitting his job in Wicked with no guarantees. He shares what it felt like to kiss a guy on live television at the 2009 AMAs the night before his first single dropped, getting yanked off Good Morning America because ABC threatened to sue, and why that controversy made him realize his career was about something much bigger than just making music. There's also a raw reflection on identity, fame, and what it means to finally say what you've always felt. Adam talks about starting to feel shame for being gay once he got famous, encountering homophobia for the first time in mainstream America after living in an LA bubble for 10 years, and why he started having imposter syndrome even though he believed he could win. He opens up about fronting Queen for 10 years, performing for millions at Rock in Rio and on the steps of Buckingham Palace, and why being around Brian May and Roger Taylor taught him the gravity of iconic music through osmosis. He reflects on moving to New York, doing six months on Broadway as the Emcee in Cabaret, and bringing Lynn to see the show as a full circle moment. He shares why he's finally ready to stop people pleasing, why his new self-titled album Adam feels like a return to where he started, and why after 17 years in the industry, he's done being polite about what he wants. Get more stories that remind you the world is still good. Sign up for our free newsletter: https://www.thedogoodcrew.com Chapters ☀️ ABOUT THIS PODCAST: The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew and often called "America's storyteller." In each episode, David sits down with world-class guests to ask one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? Big names. Honest stories. Relatable takeaways. Different paths — same question. David is also a CBS News contributor and host of the weekly segment Beg Knows America, which airs every Monday morning. Host: David Begnaud Guest: Adam Lambert Executive Producer: David Begnaud, Olivier Delfosse Booker: Sully Bloch Director of Photography: Foster Parks Live Production Technician: Joseph Gabay & Will Whitley (Statik Creative) Social: Maxim Trofimenko, Kylee Anderson, Gracie Pekrul Theme Music: Slipstream Post-Production: Longwave Digital, David & Luana Co. CONNECT WITH US: The Person Who Believed In Me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/believedpodcast
Ian V. Rowe | The Question He Asked at Twelve
Before Ian Rowe became a visionary educator, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, founder of Vertex Partnership Academy, and author of the book Agency, he was a 12 year old kid from Queens standing in his family's living room, crying and pleading with his Jamaican immigrant parents to let him stay at a junior high school that was about to become all black after white families fled to a newly created annex. Then Linda Talish, his sixth grade teacher at PS 156 in Laurelton, Queens, gave him something he didn't even know he needed: the courage to challenge his parents for the very first time. In this deeply personal and unguarded conversation, one of education's most influential and controversial voices sits down with David Begnaud to share the story of the woman who believed in him when he was just beginning to believe in himself. Ian opens up about meeting Ms. Talish in sixth grade, a Jewish teacher who talked about her heritage with a certain reverence and pride, even in the midst of racial tension that was tearing apart their small middle class Queens neighborhood. He shares what it was like growing up as the son of parents who came to the United States in 1968, the year of Martin Luther King's assassination, with his father becoming one of the first black engineers at IBM and his mother a financial securities analyst at Manufacturer's Hanover Bank. He reflects on the Sunday night before transfer papers were due, standing in front of his parents in their living room, begging and crying to stay at junior high school 231, and saying the words that changed everything: Just because everyone that's left is black, why does it have to be bad?. Get more stories that remind you the world is still good. Sign up for our free newsletter: https://www.thedogoodcrew.com Chapters ☀️ ABOUT THIS PODCAST: The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew and often called "America's storyteller." In each episode, David sits down with world-class guests to ask one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? Big names. Honest stories. Relatable takeaways. Different paths — same question. David is also a CBS News contributor and host of the weekly segment Beg Knows America, which airs every Monday morning. Host: David Begnaud Guest: Ian Rowe Executive Producer: Olivier Delfosse Booker: Sully Bloch Director of Photography: Foster Parks Live Production Technician: Joseph Gabay & Will Whitley (Statik Creative) Social: Maxim Trofimenko, Kylee Anderson, Gracie Pekrul Theme Music: Slipstream Post-Production: Longwave Digital, David & Luana Co. CONNECT WITH US: The Person Who Believed In Me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/believedpodcast
Margaret Cho | Ten Years Sober, Still Counting
Before Margaret Cho became a legendary comedian, Emmy-nominated actor, and one of the most influential voices in stand-up comedy, she was a 15-year-old kid who had just been expelled from one of San Francisco's most prestigious high schools for truancy and bad grades, with parents who had essentially given up on her. Then James Jackson, an English teacher with a Southern drawl, a speech impediment, and a vintage motorcycle, started writing notes in the margins of her essays that changed everything: A+, so great, brilliant, funny. In this deeply personal and unguarded conversation, the trailblazing comedian sits down with David Begnaud to share the story of the man who believed in her when she was just trying to blend into the walls. Margaret opens up about meeting Mr. Jackson at the School of the Arts in San Francisco, a teacher who rode a motorcycle, wore a leather jacket with cigarettes in the sleeve, and spoke like a Southern Barbara Walters. She talks about the composition book he gave her at the beginning of the year, how his handwritten encouragement in the margins reignited the excellent student she had forgotten she was, and why his gentle belief felt so tender it was almost poetic. She shares what it was like to watch him get bullied by jocks in the classroom for being gay, how that made her feel as a closeted teenager herself, and the day she and her best friend Jerry walked out of school forever after those same jocks mocked Mr. Jackson's murder. She reflects on learning decades later that Mr. Jackson had been killed by a homeless teenager he had taken in, and how court documents revealed allegations that Mr. Jackson had sexually abused the boy who killed him. There's also a raw reflection on trauma, survival, and what it means to separate the art from the artist. Margaret talks about being sexually abused by multiple people as a young girl in the 1970s and 80s, a time when young girl sexuality was disturbingly normalized, and how her parents denied it happened and still refuse to talk about it today. She opens up about being raped in high school, headlining the first primetime ABC sitcom starring an Asian American woman in 1994, and being told by network executives that she was too fat to play herself. She shares what it felt like to lose 30 pounds in two weeks on fen-fen, urinate blood in her trailer from kidney failure, and be told not to gain the weight back even after her hair fell out. She reflects on spending a year and nine months in treatment for addiction, learning to wear sobriety like a loose garment, and why comedy is a coping mechanism that gives you hope by making you take an unexpected breath. As complicated as the story is as we present it, Margaret reflects on what she would want to say to Mr. Jackson, why his encouragement led her to encourage younger comedians the same way, and why she's really happy now after arranging her life in the right way. Get more stories that remind you the world is still good. Sign up for our free newsletter: https://www.thedogoodcrew.com Chapters ☀️ ABOUT THIS PODCAST: The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew and often called "America's storyteller." In each episode, David sits down with world-class guests to ask one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? Big names. Honest stories. Relatable takeaways. Different paths — same question. David is also a CBS News contributor and host of the weekly segment Beg Knows America, which airs every Monday morning. Host: David Begnaud Guest: Margaret Cho Executive Producer: David Begnaud, Olivier Delfosse Booker: Sully Bloch Director of Photography: Foster Parks Live Production Technician: Joseph Gabay & Will Whitley (Statik Creative) Social: Maxim Trofimenko, Kylee Anderson, Gracie Pekrul Theme Music: Slipstream Post-Production: Longwave Digital & David & Luana Co. CONNECT WITH US: The Person Who Believed In Me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/believedpodcast Photo Credits: Margaret Cho, Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts Yearbook
Tom Daley | "He'll Never Be a Diver"
Before Tom Daley became one of the most decorated divers in British history with five Olympic medals and five Olympic Games under his belt, he was a terrified nine year old standing on the end of a diving board, crying his eyes out and refusing to jump into the pool. Then Andy Banks, the head coach at Plymouth Diving Club, walked in and said the words that almost ended everything before it started: Tom Daley will never be a diver for as long as he'll live. In this deeply personal and unguarded conversation, the Olympic champion sits down with David Begnaud to share the story of the coach who doubted him at first, then never stopped believing in him, and how that belief carried him through bullying, loss, and the darkest years of his life. Tom opens up about the moment Andy pulled him aside at 12 years old and asked if he wanted to go to the Beijing Olympics in 2008, laying out a roadmap for a kid who would become the youngest British diver to compete at an Olympic Games at just 14 years and 81 days old. He talks about coming back from Beijing and enduring brutal physical and emotional bullying at school, getting rugby tackled in the field and threatened to have his legs broken, all while trying to process what it meant to be an Olympian in eighth grade. He shares what it felt like to lose his father to a brain tumor at 17, just one year before the London 2012 Olympics, and how his dad never cared about results, only that Tom was 18th best in the whole country even if he came dead last. He reflects on meeting Dustin Lance Black, the Oscar winning screenwriter who flew to the UK to see him, only to be told by management that dating an LGBTQ activist would be bad for his image, and how falling in love felt like one more thing he loved that the world said was wrong. There's also a raw reflection on fear, identity, and what it means to thrive under pressure. Tom talks about hitting his head twice while diving, why Andy taught him that the day you stop being scared on the board is the day something goes wrong, and how knitting became the reason he was able to win Olympic gold at the Tokyo 2020 Games. He opens up about coming out at 19 through a YouTube video because he was tired of being misquoted and feeling ashamed, why he believes vulnerability is a practice and not a destination, and how becoming Papa to Robbie and Phoenix is the role he's most proud of beyond all his Olympic medals. He shares what it's like to retire at 30 and wake up every day wondering if he could do one more Olympics in LA 2028, why there's no such thing as good luck only good preparation, and why the greatest form of activism is just living your authentic life every single day. And he reflects on what his father, who recorded everything up until two days before he died, would want the world to know. Get more stories that remind you the world is still good. Sign up for our free newsletter: https://www.thedogoodcrew.com Chapters ☀️ ABOUT THIS PODCAST: The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew and often called "America's storyteller." In each episode, David sits down with world-class guests to ask one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? Big names. Honest stories. Relatable takeaways. Different paths — same question. David is also a CBS News contributor and host of the weekly segment Beg Knows America, which airs every Monday morning. Host: David Begnaud Guest: Tom Daley Executive Producer: Olivier Delfosse Associate Producer: Jonah Johnson Booker: Sully Bloch Director of Photography: Foster Parks Live Production Technician: Joseph Gabay & Will Whitley (Statik Creative) Social Media: Maxim Trofimenko, Kylee Anderson, Gracie Pekrul Theme Music: Slipstream Post-Production: Longwave Digital, David & Luana Co. CONNECT WITH US: The Person Who Believed In Me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/believedpodcast
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