Through Thick and Thin: A Story of Friendship and Reinvention!

Friendship, Tough Times, and New Beginnings: Beth and Tammy's Journey

In this episode of the Samantha Parker Show, returning guest Beth brings her friend Tammy to discuss their 14-year friendship and their upcoming collaborative podcast, 'What Could Possibly Go Wrong.' They delve into their personal journeys, including Beth's battle with alcoholism, the loss of careers, Lyme disease, and Tammy's heartbreaking experience of losing her son. They also share funny anecdotes, their involvement in each other’s lives, and the support system that has kept them strong. The conversation touches on their plans for the new podcast, which will feature their life stories, wisdom, and humor, providing both laughter and lessons for listeners.

00:00 Welcome and Guest Introductions

00:46 Beth and Tammy's New Podcast

01:37 Funny Stories and Friendship

03:35 Beth's Sobriety Journey

05:24 Tammy's Personal Losses

07:00 Beth's Business Ventures

16:43 Beth's Health Struggles

20:58 Tammy's Tragic Loss

23:51 Celebrating Success and Friendship

25:47 A Terrifying Experience

26:33 The Impact of Recent Events

27:07 Free Speech and Its Consequences

28:01 Community Reactions and Support

29:29 Personal Reflections and Grief

31:23 Finding Purpose After Loss

36:15 Launching a New Venture

37:27 The Journey of Writing and Publishing

39:05 Adapting to New Roles

41:31 Final Thoughts and Future Plans

Beth McDonough: 

Youtube: https://youtube.com/@bethmcdonough?si=_lpkHYRoKzszTz-o

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bemcdn?igsh=MTB6azI0amJpaHJmMw==

Tammy Moon: https://www.instagram.com/tammy.moon.m?igsh=MW1iNmxkYzlyb3J4Yw==

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Transcript

Welcome to the show. Today, I've got one guest back and a brand new guest. So we've got the returning Beth. Back on the Samantha Parker show, and I'm so excited because she brought her friend Tammy. Tammy's kind of a batty too. She's in the Batty Club with Beth. A lot of you might remember Beth from one of the past episodes she had an incredible story. You've got an incredible book. It's out now. Hallelujah. And your podcast was extremely popular. I was getting messages like crazy on TikTok

It has high downloads. So Beth, you brought your friend Tammy. Tammy, why don't you introduce yourself, girl

 Beth and I met 14 years ago, when I was in my banking role that I'd been in for 38 years and a mom and all of these things, and going through a divorce. So we have known each other a really long time and, now here we are in an entirely different phase of our lives together.

I wanted to have you guys on the podcast, because one, I love Beth. Beth loves you. So you guys are starting a new co-lab together? We are. We've both gone through a lot the last few years and just as friends you go through so much together, some of it is really great.

Some of it is really hard and you learn a lot from it. We've been talking about this for a while and have decided actually, this is our soft rollout to do a podcast. We're calling it what could possibly go wrong. I think a lot of things are gonna go wrong, but, that's the best part about life.

As we were thinking about what does that mean and why did that name resonate with us? We really thought about what could possibly go wrong. Sometimes. When things go wrong, it turns out right. It maybe isn't what you expected, but it turns out to be right.

There are things that go wrong and it turns into a super funny story that you will tell for decades we'll share a lot of those stories. Oh, we've got so many. Something didn't go right, in fact went wrong, but it turned out to be hysterically funny.

Sometimes things go really wrong, but that's when we learn our lessons and gain more wisdom. Seeing that I'm almost completely silver hair, I have a lot of wisdom. At this point in both of our lives, it was the right time and we wanna be able to share what we've done together.

Some of our separate challenges, but we've done so much together in the last 14 years 'cause we're like. Soul Sisters now, your husband's very understanding. He is. And she did crash our very first date, she did, yeah. But he has rolled with it every step of the way.

But she did, it was a match.com date. We were gonna go out for dinner and to a party after that, so I said, okay, sure. I'll meet you 45 minutes. No problem. She coerces the other friends that we were gonna go out for dinner into a party with, to go where I was with this. New man, I had to check him out and make sure he was worthy of her time.

You know what I'm saying? And so I had just told him, we're sitting at the bar, and I just told him, I said I've got this crazy group of friends. We do everything together. We're inseparable. There's no boundaries no limits. And we are funny as hell, just ask us.

And we're sitting there and I had just gotten those words outta my mouth. Beth walks in and stands next to us and she looks at the two of us. She goes, oh, you two are just fine. And then she gave us, I approved two thumbs up. Then she gave us Groupon to buy drinks our 45 minute date turned into multiple hours. I missed dinner and now we're married. We did fast track but the point is Beth was in the middle of us from our first date and she has not left. There are so many stories about that, that we will share in our podcast.

You're so lucky. I know. I feel like you're pretty lucky that Beth, I wanna come on over. You can talk to my husband, I am real lucky even when she shows up at 2 45 in the morning because, I have Rice Krispies in my cupboard and I can't sleep.

And makes a bowl of cereal and gives her dog some licorice. Those are the kind of relationships of best friends that you only read about in books or see in movies. , It's real.

It's real. Very true. And I think we've got to back up a little bit how long have you been sober? I've been sober for 16 years now. I did not know Drinking Beth. I've only known sober Beth. And she, I think that's in all of our best interests probably.

When I hear these things and when I read the book the first time I'm like, this isn't the Beth. I know this is a different person. And, I fell in love with this version Aw. Of platonic love. It's a real big thing, platonic love. Almost immediately we bonded we've got this group of friends and we vacationed together. In fact we vacationed here in St. George, maybe 12 years ago. That's when Tammy first saw St. George and fell in love with St. George. And she like got misty-eyed. I did. And I'm like, oh, she's gonna wanna move here too.

'cause I knew in my head at some point I was moving to St. George. Lo and behold, I live, on the St. George Municipal Golf Course and 500 steps behind me. Tammy and her husband bought a house. We're keeping it close and keeping it real  it's 0.3 miles if you drive or 500 steps if you walk.

So do you cut across the golf course all the time? Yeah, usually we're in my robe and the dog. Notices or anything? I've gotten a four. Four. Watch your head. Okay. But the dogs know how to go back and forth too, so they just lead the way.

Yeah, because I have two rescue dogs and Beth has, one, just one. I had to put one down. Oh, he was in here sitting on the couch not too long ago. Yeah. Mendel came last time. Mendel's had his 15 seconds. He's a little mad at me because I call him Wendell. We're working through it. '

I call him Menzies. I gave him a bagel. She gave him carbs. Wow. He likes carbs are his thing. Yeah. He definitely likes Cindy Moore and our podcast producer over here. Do you have licorice? Because that's his favorite. No, I'm telling you, he was mad that I called him Wendell. He actually, gave her the dirty side eye.

But he was all about her and I'm like, Hey, I just gave you a bagel. Come on now

 keeping in how we met, I've got to tell this funny story because it is really funny and it lends itself also to the book standby and Recovery. Because our mutual friend Tammy was going through a divorce and she had moved in, with one of our friends, Kristen.

And, when I lost everything, back in 2008 and 2009, I started dog walking and picking up neighbor's, , dog poop, I hate when she does this, and I'm gonna interrupt. She talks about picking up dog poop. No, you had a business that became dog walking.

Boarding, grooming, dog daycare. And she calls, I was picking up dog shit, but she actually had this amazing business. So whenever she minimizes it, I'm like, but you built an amazing business. I did build it. I know you sold it. And I sold it. I did for three years, built it up to 11 employees.

We probably had 40 to 60 dogs on any given day. Anyone who has dogs knows one or two can be a lot to handle. Three years of handling doggy daycare, boarding, grooming that many dogs and walking, I was tired and I was worn out physically, and someone came along and offered me a shot to buy my business and I'm like, huh, I hadn't thought about selling, but now I will.

The offer was right, the time was right. Like I'd built this up and I could keep running it. Yeah. , But I'm one of those people who needs a challenge and a project I made it successful and profitable, so I'm like, okay, I am done here.

Someone else also offered to buy it, so I sold it to one of my employees. 'Cause she knew all the dogs, she knew the business and da. And then I'm like, okay, what now? That same day when I was handing over the keys to the new business owner, I got offered a job at KSTP to get back into television news.

When I was walking dogs and building up the business, our mutual friend Kristen, I'd been walking her dog Cooper for a little bit when I came to her house, we increasingly became friends, I would walk her dog for 30 minutes take care of business and pick up the poop.

Then afterwards I'd hang in her office and talk to her for another 30 minutes or an hour, and we became really good friends. One day she was like, oh, hey, I'm gonna have a roommate for a little bit. She's got a dog. Can you walk her dog too? And I'm like, sure, absolutely. And in my head I'm also like, woo, 20 more dollars that day.

I came the next day she was like so my friend Tammy, is when you walk into our friend's house, you immediately can go in the living room or go upstairs. Those are your two options. And the stairs did not have a wall or anything. So you see what's ever on the stairs going upstairs.

Tammy's legs were hanging down the stairs and she was perched at the top. Kristen's Tammy's going through a divorce. She might have gone out and stayed out with her coworkers last night. She's not feeling great today. So I just, I'd go grab her dog I'm like, is she perhaps hungover and sick?

And she said, yeah. And I'm like, no, all about it. No problem. She and I, we will be good friends. So I started walking her dog, which is how we met each other. We, , formed this really tight group of friends and it's taken off since then. So we joked that the first time I ever met Tammy, I could like.

I saw her girl parts first, and then I saw her face. I had crawled from the bathroom floor to the top of the stairs in a towel. And when you walk in the house, the first thing is the stairs. So she got a bird's eye view of your tutor? Yeah. And I was like, it's love.

We're gonna be great friends. I've been in that position a lot in my life as an alcoholic. Some of it, I remember some of it, I don't I'm not much of a drinker. That was one of those times I was in the middle of the divorce. I was going through hell at work and one of my, bed besties at work were like, it was so stressful.

We're like, , let's go grab a cocktail, go off blow off steam. I'm not quite sure how many we got kicked out of. . Bar, which has never happened to me. She claims she's a rule follower. , And so it's been kicked out of a bar. Beth's been kicked out of a bar.

But yeah so Beth met me, , hungover and mostly naked and it's been love ever since. So when I was still drinking, he then this speaks to you about God, how outta control I get drinking.

I was with a friend and we'd gone to this really swanky hotel. In downtown Minneapolis we were all dressed up. It was New Year's. I still drank at that time. We had asked some ladies at the bar to scoot over 'cause we wanted to sit next to each other they didn't like it, or maybe we didn't ask nicely.

I don't know. I was drinking, so I remember some of it. But my friend kept staring at the woman and she reached over and it's so terrible. She took her finger and she was like. You should shave that.

And we had some drinks in us and she fifi around me. She's this itty bitty, tiny, gorgeous blonde. And and we had some drinks in us. , She and the woman who should shave , got into a little Ted to Ted. I stepped in and I'm like, don't pick on my friend.

I remember the, bouncer came and he grabs my friend from the back of her shirt. He grabs me from the back of our shirt, our little legs are dangling as he's carrying us, walking us out of this hotel. I'm like, oh, this is gonna be all over the news tomorrow. It wasn't, thank goodness.

He, , carries two little girls, dangling out, drops us on the sidewalk, and he was like, you're banned. You cannot come back here. My friend was dating someone at the time and he was standing outside on the sidewalk. Having a cigarette he turned and looked at us and he was like, I've never left you two more.

And we're like, we cannot go out again. We're too old for this. And then, my drinking problems took off. So many things about drinking. Were fun, honestly. But it is such a fine line and when you're drinking, you can't control the line.

You fall over the line. Interesting. Someone I used to work with asked me one time, Beth, I don't know where your line is and this is at work. My answer was, I don't either. Over time, it became very evident that, I'd crossed the line, boundaries, limits.

You don't learn those until you get sober. To be honest. You don't have boundaries when you're drinking. 'cause you don't have boundaries for yourself. , alcohol doesn't negotiate, it just takes it's in the period when I wasn't a raging alcoholic that I met Tammy and met some friends. And then when I got the offer to get back into TV three years later when I was sober, I would come by your house. I would be in a live truck or a van or something.

Oh, and you also watch me on tv. And you're like, who is that? No, she doesn't talk like that because we have Bethy. Bethy talks like this, she's a tornado, she's a puppy, so I'm watching her on air the first time, and I hear this very serious. This is Beth McDonough. I'm like, who the hell is that?

I hadn't met Reporter Beth. So then I teased she's Sybil, right? She's got these different sides to her. She's got her very business personality and then she's got her lighthearted, sweet, funny, thoughtful, get us in a little bit of trouble.

Bethy. That sounds about right. And so that's how we met. And then as we got to know each other I was like, I've got a history. They both sat down and lo and behold, our mutual friend, her father had died of alcoholism. And Tammy experienced losing 25 years ago, this week actually.

Oh, is it? Okay. And then you've experienced some loss was your husband correct? This was our friend Kristen, who I moved in when I,, left my husband, who's also an alcoholic. Her father's an alcoholic and I was very close to him.

I loved him 'cause I didn't have much of a father experience. And so I just adored him. I think it was really a lot of years of drinking he had a lot of other health issues going on, but he passed away 20 years ago. And you lost an ex husband? My first husband, my son's, dad, died June 3rd, 2024.

From chronic alcoholism. And he was only in his. Late fifties. That's awful. Yeah. My, ex-husband, is, also an alcoholic, which was a big part of why I left. Super guy, awesome guy. Sober. But, the alcohol just drove his life and it became scary for me because he had some DWIs that he hadn't shared with me that I found by accident.

I'm not judging, we all make mistakes and we all have things happen, but he didn't share it with me. I was always afraid every time he'd walk out the door, is he gonna get in an accident? Is he gonna get hurt? Is he gonna hurt somebody else?

His son was a little dude. Then I'm like, if he's in the car, if I'm in the car, it was just this chronic worry all the time that something was gonna happen to him or somebody else and our entire world would blow up it sat on my shoulders every single day.

Based on, a previous experience. That you've had with other alcoholics. It's just one of those things for not having any addiction issues. Having so much around me was very strange because it's not like I grew up in that environment. But I have a close enough understanding, having been around it so much.

We have another real good friend here in town that's really going through it. For whatever reason, and we're trying to help, I have a lot of it around me.

People have issues, whether it's alcoholism, substance abuse, mental health, eating disorders, sex disorders, everybody. You just don't get through this life unscathed. I think it's given me more of an appreciation, knowing Beth as many years as I have, she is so solid in her sobriety.

 seeing , what she lost to what she has now, and who she is now in spite of horrible situations at work. She's extraordinary.

And I'm not just saying that because I've seen her go through so many stages except the alcoholism. True. But you've reinvented yourself. 'cause I had to, you've overcome it. It just staggers me what she's been able to do. And that's why whenever she brings up, I picked up dogs.

For a living. I'm like, you had a successful business. It started with D shit. It did. But it was just such a big thing. Lots of people wanna start a business. They fail all the time. She started one from nothing and built this great business and sold it, then got back into our previous business and just rocked it.

And so I'm really proud of her. One of the things that she and I have talked about, a lot of people write books, of what they've gone through. And so many write them really fast. They write them very quickly. So this happened to me today.

I'm gonna write my book next month. Or the first year. Which is dicey at best. None of us do it perfectly that first. It's not proven. A year is fantastic. It's huge. Yes. But lots of people, and you're not going to be one of them.

Fall off the wagon and stuff happens. It's just too soon, you've gotta get some more life and grounding and experience. You haven't learned all the lessons yet in recovery, but after, 16 years, this book is so compelling and it blows your mind the stuff that she's gone through.

Beth wrote a book. It's called Standby. It's out on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Beth and I are gonna be taking her book down the road. Because it's that book is really great she was a former newscaster. You guys just go back and listen to the past episodes, and grab that book. A ton of people from my sphere of influence have been like.

Her book. Oh my gosh. That's great. I'm honored and humbled and thank you. Thank you. And it's just this amazing story of just heartbreaking fall from Grace. And yeah, I'm just seeing the finished product. It sounds like you've seen the journey. Yeah. She's seen the journey.

Health issues with Lyme disease. The last five years, the days where she can't get outta bed, the days that's no joke. Days where, we're walking and she starts to crumble and grabs onto me.

The infection got into my brain. Sometimes I would faint this podcast is, gonna talk about our real lives. Beth has gone through so much. She's gone through alcoholism, losing her entire career. She's gone through cancer twice.

But I don't think you're giving yourself enough credit Thank you. And so that's why when we do start our podcast we have these running jokes in our friendship about, what could possibly go wrong.

Then we get involved and, things go sideways and they're usually pretty funny, we'll circle back to you, but I wanna share one of these funny stories if I can. Absolutely. So I have Lyme disease. I've beaten it into remission now, but it's been a brutal process of years.

Four and a half years. There's some things that happen along the way the brain infection, the lung infection, blood clot. Heart, yeah. So I've had the heart surgery 'cause the infection got into my heart and I was fainting and hitting my head on the ground.

Concussions and that's part of the reason why I moved to St. George to heal one of the many reasons. So Tammy's here and one morning I wake up there was blood protruding from parts of my body that normally doesn't have blood.

And I'm like, you know what I just don't know. So I call up Tammy and I'm like, Hey, I'm bleeding. Can you take me to the er? And she's sure. 'cause we live so close. She was over in nanoseconds I get in the car and I'm telling her about where I'm bleeding from, which is my backside.

And she's okay. And we're being our funny selves. We get to the ER and they're checking us in and I'm like, these doctors have no idea what's about to happen. I've seen her go through. Much health stuff. I try to advocate big time, but also add some levity.

Yeah. Because otherwise it gets really serious. And so I try to add a little levity, but also that second set of ears and eyes and ask the questions and do that kind of stuff. In this case, we were walking in and I'm just trying to keep a little bit of levity in it. The er doc comes in and, apparently it was teaching night so he got a whole entourage of, med students and his people.

And so he's what's going on? And I'm like I have blood, protruding from the backside, and he's okay, so we need to give you a, rectal, who would you like to do that? And I'm like, no, I have not given you a rectal. I was like, what kind of best friend are you?

Now I would've if that were really necessary, but there were two other options and I could be number three. That's amazing. One time I was on a trip and we were on a houseboat, my friend, she was impacted and I was like, I could do this for you,

if I have to do it, I had a doctor and she has fingers of her own, so I knew I could be number three, but if it was needed, I would. So we started laughing the students were just like, they didn't know what to do with this the doctors put on his gloves, and he's I've done thousands of these, so I can do it or you can do it.

And I'm like, okay, you do it. And he's okay, turn over. And then Tammy's still sitting there and I'm like, no. If you're not giving me the rectal, you don't get to see it. You gotta leave the room with everybody else. And I went outside, , I'm like, you don't know. And you can't have the glove as a souvenir.

But we had him laughing pretty good actually. He was. And then I'm sure with the only people laughing in the ER that night, but you have to, 'cause some of these things that we encounter in life, they're so tragic that how do you deal with them?

You gotta laugh your way through it. She is perfect at, yeah, Uhhuh. And so that's just, , it forms more of our relationship and she's like the really funny one, she certainly is part of the standby family now. Congratulations and you're welcome, honored.

I really think the people you hang out with say a lot about who you. Are. You spend enough time with somebody, maybe it's your spouse or your friends, and you pick up some of them. We've spent so much time together, cooter cope, that's mine. You gotta copyright that.

Oh, that's the greatest line ever. We've spent so much time together that we finish, each other's sentences, we sigh at the same time. I can just look at her and know exactly where we're at, exactly what's going on. And the same with me. When you get to that place.

And , our friend Kristen, it's , very much the same way with her. We've got these core friends that we can rate each other. When you have a problem, I know who I'm calling first. I had to make one of those calls last summer, I don't wanna be a buzzkill, but last July 3rd, I lost my only child.

He was, 33 years old. He was riding his motorcycle, which was his favorite thing to do. He was in an accident. I get a call, while I'm here in St. George from the Medical Examiner, which is never a good call to get. It broke you. It did. I picked up the phone and she was my first call.

I'm like, Beth, tommy's gone she was over in nanoseconds and she's on the phone scheduling plane tickets for us to leave first thing in the morning. She's like my triage when there is an emergency and you need stuff done and you need help and resources she's your go-to.

And she did. I'm not long-term care. I'm triage, but my husband's long-term care. She's triage we fly back to Minnesota the next day. Kristen comes in from Denver and the three of us, you're surrounded by love and support, and they're all right there with me, and they've been right there with me, this whole time.

This year has been so much transition for both of us we've talked about it for a long time, but it was the right time because it really reset a lot of my priorities I would not be sitting here had that not happened because I would've still been doing what I've been doing for the last 38 years.

And, you were in corporate America and, now I'm reinventing, I'm trying to figure out who am I now, when I don't have the same purpose. I've been on leave of absence, most of the last year because I haven't been able to, I've been trying to get my act together you're still grieving.

Oh yeah, for sure. And I always will. It's learning how to live with it, learning how to walk with it, learning how to be able to have joy and grief at the same time and not feel bad about it. It's a process every single day. Learning a lot, trying to do all the things I could to try to and comfort yourself.

Yeah. I think it's important we point out something, just because whenever you mention motorcycle accidents, people, get a little funny. Tommy had been, her son grew up on motorcycles ever since these little boy, and you have pictures of him as a little boy his entire life.

He's ridden motorcycles. So he's very, he's a good rider, very experienced, and accidents happen. And that's what happened here. You don't get to take that accident back, it was just a year on July 3rd, and it's. Been, a hell of a year.

When you're really in the midst of it, not everybody can be there for you some of my family, weren't able to be there as much as I would've expected. Some people can't handle the loss and the dynamics.

But my two best friends were there with me instantly and never, my side for weeks. They put their jobs on hold, they put their life on hold to be there with me. And, that's friendship. That's amazing. That's love. That is commitment. That is through thick and thin.

Oftentimes we think of friends and we think we're there when they're down. But I think the awesome thing about this core group of friends is we're also there when they fly. Yes. Yeah. And we. Here for them. And we are excited for them. It's not a competition, it's not a, like underhanded.

It is we want everyone to succeed and shine and be happy. You'd have something great happen at work and I could call my best friends and say, oh my God, I gotta tell you what just happened. And they're not gonna go, I can't believe she's doing that that's not, good friends.

You wanna be able to tell them the great, awesome stuff that you can't maybe tell everybody. Sound bragadocious and there's no envy. So does your TV series come out, right? Oh my gosh. Yeah. She has been very helpful in pushing me to get standby out. For a number of reasons.

That was a go-getter. So impressed. Then I've got the news. I just made a suggestion. You're already doing a big press sort. And have had more PR than I've seen any client come into our sphere with. I suggested maybe you could get St. George News and some local stuff.

Next thing I know, she's in the news. I watched that interview. That was the second one. A photographer came over yesterday and stayed can you tell me about this? She's burying the lead here. Oh my gosh.

He called me while I was putting on makeup, and said, Hey, I know that we're doing this big profile on you. Do you mind if I come over? I'm like, if you come now, I can squeeze you in. He's sure. But I'm gonna be really busy later. Oh yeah. But me, I'm super, a slow bird. Do you know who I am?

And he was like, I don't know how much of it'll be in. He goes, but you just have, and he's in news, and he's man, you've seen some shit. And I'm like, I've seen shit and I've been in shit and I've caused some shit. But watching her in her shed was hard because. She's covering George Floyd riots, and my husband and I are sitting on the couch watching her live.

The Twin Cities blew up terrified for her safety. We're just watching her in the throes of this destruction. And she's out there killing it. She's just doing it. And I'm terrified for her safety. And you didn't even know, like early on I got shot didn't tell anybody other than people at work

I didn't want it to become a thing and I didn't want it to catch fire with, the uprising that was taking place. We kept it quiet for a reason. In July, a couple months later the gun was pointed at my head while I was covering a demonstration and someone said, you're media, you're next.

Peaceful demonstration. After that night, had a meltdown and went to the hospital the next day. We'd had security at my. Home too for a week at that point. And I let Timmy what's going on. And I wasn't gonna go back.

I had to take another medical leave of absence, between the Lyme disease getting shot, then getting threatened, and then I'm like, you know what? All the signs are pointing to this is not gonna end well for me. Question for both of you, and this is a heavy question, but I think you guys will be okay with it.

Did the recent events with Charlie Kirk last week trigger you we also have a local friend whose son, took his life recently and my brother, one of his best friends passed away, in this last week. And because my first thought is their wives, their kids, their moms, their friends.

That's where I go. And it really does I mean, you've seen it and my therapist is okay, you can be compassionate, you can be empathetic, but you can't own their trauma. You gotta deal with your own. This whole country needed a week off.

Yeah, it was. I just think about just who remains and their random savagery of it, shooting someone like that in their neck over a difference of opinion. And just coming from the seat that I sit in this world of communication and broadcasting, I'm like, so what happened to First Amendment free speech?

We all get that. He gets that. Charlie Kirk gets that I worry about where that's going now because, like him or not, what he did was generate free speech and let's open it up. Let's have healthy debates. He encouraged and was like, bring on the healthy debates.

I just worry about free speech and now people are gonna get, yeah. This is the possibility you might get injured over free speech. I lived it so I know what, what can happen. And then you feel terrible. Nobody's a winner in this deal. The suspect, his life is done.

His parents, Charlie Kirk's family, his parents, the suspect was picked up here in St. George, Utah, where we live, and Monday I'm in his mastermind group and the lady sitting next to me is telling me how his parents are in her ward in a church on Sunday. They had church security there.

They made a statement, they want to come to church, do not ask them about this. It feels like she's just rippling in our community, at a different level than just national news. Absolutely. 'cause it did happen so close. And then you're like, you just wonder, you ask yourself so many questions.

And his parents, I'm sure did the very best they could and sometimes all they could, right? Yeah. Like any parent. But he's an adult, so he's responsible for his actions, but then his. Actions, destroyed another family and further polarized the country. Yeah. And I don't know where the free speech is in all of this.

 I keep thinking of all these people, God's called them to some really big positions. That's how I feel about it. Even if it was bad or good, I'm just like, wow. That's back to what could possibly go wrong. Yes. Sometimes really tragic things happen and we learn from that.

And I hate that somebody doing what he was passionate about, regardless of what you think of his positions on things. He was speaking from his heart. He was speaking openly, he was willing to debate, and he lost his life doing that. So what's the worst that can happen? He lost his life doing what was meaningful to him, and damn, we better learn something from that.

I was thinking about his parents. Yeah. They're local business owners and Beth and I were chatting about it you wonder will people continue to use their family's business?

And I said, one thing about this community, in this community, people will rally for their business, it's a horrible thing that happened. Horrific. But St. George has, this massive heart and they've welcomed us. I've never lived anywhere that has, been welcoming him, my son.

Yeah. Because it's just such a calming, peaceful, loving community. We're growing fast. We're sitting in this amazing building that was not here last year. But I still feel like we have that hometown heart. Yes. Oh, what a great phrase. Hometown Heart. And you have lived here a long time now.

I've been here for 12 years, so I'm not from St. George nobody's are you from here? They always ask, how long have you been here? Where'd you move here from? It's 'cause so many people are just coming here and locals are like, oh, get out of our city or whatever.

But I'm at Utah. We paid the taxes. What did you read online about people who were talking about, the shooter's family? Just the fact that they were good, hardworking people there was a call to support them right?

Yeah. I've been listening to a lot of podcasts and stuff lately. I definitely have gone internal, but in the best way, there's a bigger picture here. I've been listening to different people than I normally listen to and every single person I've listened to is we're praying for him and his family.

And I'm like, that's because his family didn't ask for this either, they have effectively lost their boy. And then to have, governor Cox stand up there and say, we're pushing for the death penalty.

And I'm not saying, he doesn't, this isn't about deserve or doesn't deserve. I'm just saying, if you put yourself in the shoes of that mom, wow. She's lost her son. As a mom, my heart goes out to her. , It's still your baby.

You brought that child into the world and, somewhere along the line, something got into him, but it's still her baby. It breaks my heart for everybody involved. I just don't think you can have a conversation right now and not bring that up.

Yeah. Those events. It's gonna be something huge. I remember September 11th, vividly nine 11. And this is gonna be one that I vividly remember as well. I agree with you. The photographer from St. George News who came by the house yesterday, had just come from covering a press conference and shooting some video there at the, suspect's home.

And so it was telling me about that and, given our past histories really interesting. I'm glad you brought that up too it's important and it's what people are talking about right now we have to talk about it. We have to learn the lesson from it.

And I, what could go wrong? What could possibly, there it is, what could possibly go wrong? So we better learn something from this. What could possibly go wrong? Everything. I have a local client here. We an injury law and they've got a pretty big public presence. They're on the buses and the billboards and we do their podcasts and stuff.

I was texting him the next morning at six 30 in the morning and I said, do you just want, your typical nine 11 posts to go out or are we gonna make a statement? And not every client, that was just one that I was like, he's gonna really want to say something. And they did. I was really proud of them.

In fact, they came in this morning portrait podcast episode because they wanted to talk about it I was really proud of them, that they're willing to be like, this happened. We need to talk about it that's really good. And what was takeaway in all of this, especially since, they come from the legal world.

Yeah. So they were, of course, it's a legal podcast, so they were weighing in a little bit about what's happening, what these charges are. But they're just heartbroken, like the rest of us. Yeah. There are no winners in this.

Everybody, you just feel for all parties. Yeah. One of my, my sweet young lady that does my hair, Shelby Day, if you're out there, Shelby Day, I her husband had some friends or relatives that were up close and they are traumatized. The wedding venue here.

The lady that owns it, just sold it the day before this happened to this younger couple. And it so happens that younger couple, so she was selling her business to them and they were on the front row of UVU and were like, can you just take, keep the business running for a couple weeks?

Because they were supposed to take it over the next day and they have literally not been able to. And she goes, my heart was just broken. So she did all the things. And she's just been keeping it running until they can mentally come in and run the business because there's gonna be a lot of people with PTSD from that.

That's not something you can unsee. I thought it was very, and again, I put myself in the position, if I had to see my son's motorcycle accident, seeing the moment he hit that back of that car, that back bumper and flew up his motorcycle, if I had to see his accident online, over

and every time I turn on, I know the public is curious but I think about the people that loved him those little girls and his wife, his parents and his family and his friends are gonna see over and over that horrible moment. And I struggle with having some of those things just be so available.

My daughter, she's 20, but she accidentally saw that poor girl getting stabbed. And I was like, you saw that? She was upset. It was later at night she came into our room, she was upset.

Yeah. And there's been a lot of people being like, why is this online? Because you're just scrolling your feed. And at my core I know social media can do so much. Good. . Think about what you guys are both about to and what you're spreading.

Oh, thank you. There's much good in social media, but what the fuck is that? It's like voyeuristic. It's retraumatizing we all at a certain point get immune to that level of violence when it comes at you from every direction. And so it's hard.

I think about his little girls and his wife and his loved ones, like that image is gonna be out there. And also, their dad didn't just die. He was assassinated, and that's just, how do you even comprehend that I can't even drive down the road that my son had his accident.

I can't even drive down the road. Yeah. Yeah. I've been extremely impressed with his wife, Erica. Do you know her? No. I've watched Charlie Kirk for a couple years. And I've been really impressed, I'm not gonna say all of his ideology is mine, I just loved how he would sit. And honestly, if people would watch the whole videos in context, the amount of kindness that man was showing was wild. It wasn't just like a Christian that was like, you're going to hell. He was just like, oh, here's my opinion.

And he is be nice. And he would tell everyone to be nice and kind. So I watched him for a couple of years. I really liked what he was doing. My kids watched him. They thought he was really amazing the way that he was just communicating,  like an adult wants to have a conversation.

Yes. It was pretty cool. I've been really impressed watching his wife. I cried watching that video. I cried when I saw the posts she posted and it reminds me a lot of Jackie Kennedy. She would change out of the bloody clothes. And she kept I want them to see what they did to him.

And drive home the point. This is how bad it is. This is what it looks like. It's been a lot lately. Check in on your local social media manager, make sure she's okay. She doesn't forget to post. We're scrolling the feed, looking for trends

and I'm like, oh my gosh, I just can't. It's a lot. Yeah. But okay. Turning it back to you guys and just upbeat here, I don't think life always has to be sunshine rainbows. That's one thing I've always stood on. Yes. 'cause if you're always striving for that, you're gonna be miserable.

You're like, why can't I be happy today? And it's maybe something really bad just happened to you, and I think we have both gotten so accustomed to that with each other. We'll have plans to go do something. And Beth is I feel like hell, I can't, I just can't okay, we won't,

or she'll come over a bundle of energy. 'cause she's just been so excited about the book coming out and I've just loved watching it 'cause I have my health back and she's feeling good, right? And I'm sitting there, I'm like I was just sitting in the hammock bawling. 'Cause I don't know when it's gonna hit me either.

We both have such a respect for where we're. At, and our friends have such a respect for where we're all at whatever we are in that moment, we embrace and accept and say, okay, we're changing plans today because, we're just not up to it. . The grief or we're tired or sick or everybody else.

Some days you're just like, today's not the day. And you have to be okay with that. Because it's not a straight path. Regardless of what your journey is, it's never a straight path. I think that's why we're both so excited about this we have had the good, the bad and the ugly.

We've come through it. We're still standing and then . That's the name of book two. It's interesting. There's a local woman, she's in one of my yoga classes that I've become good friends.

With, and I've shared some of my life with her. And then when the book came out, she said, I'd love to read the book, and she has some substance abuse in her family as well. And I'm like, sure. So I gave her the book and yesterday she texted me and she was like, boy you've seen it and you've done it and da.

And when's the second one coming out? 'cause I end the first, standby on a cliffhanger and the second book picks up where Standby left off. 'cause standby is the fall and still standing is, the hard fought comeback. I just thought that was so cool. She was like, when is the second one? And I'm like, we'll get to it in 2026.

I wanna make sure everybody, is aware of this to see what happens behind the scenes when, people get in trouble. But what does that look like? I take people along the first chapter is a slap in the face awake, first you're in jail with me, and then you're in my life.

Good luck with that. The first time you were on my podcast, I just had a PDF copy, . So I read, remember you sent it to me? Yeah. . So I read just the first little bit on my computer, when you came in, I'm like, I've read parts of this. I was drilling you on the book.

I was like, and this part, you said this, remember I had notes? Yeah, you did. She had notes and she was like, I remember this quote difficulty doesn't destroy you. It defines who you are. The fact that you can go through tough stuff and you're surrounded by people you love and that love you, you get through it.

That's how you have to get there. Absolutely. And hanging on to the people that you love and love you, makes for great stories, which we're gonna have a ton of things that are gonna make you pee your pants funny. We've got a legal pad here. We started filling out our stories and we're like, we've got a lot of material to work with.

This is gonna take. Some time. I see you guys doing a standup comedy show. Oh my God. We could, yeah. Actually, we're going to Minnesota, which I know Tammy's, I go too which was funny. I'm like, what's in Minnesota? I guess I'll find out. , You will. We all wonder that before we move there, because normally it's fly over state.

But now I've been in the airport. Great airport. But, we can take the podcast with us. Oh really? Yeah, so you can record after you do your interviews and stuff. It's a lot of fun. I like to take my podcast when I go places

and then it's Hey, I just attended so we'll get you guys to do a podcast on the fly. Oh, I love it. That would be super fun. With good impact and takeaway for people too. If you want to know anything, send Sam your questions. Samantha Parker.

Send Sam the questions. Hey at the samantha parker.com. Hey, real quick before we wrap up, I wanna give Cindy a shout out. We got this brand new camera set up and she's over there actually live editing. She's switching

camera views, and then you'll see her check the audio. And then if you've noticed, she's also been working behind the scenes with the other camera and I've been watching her at the corner of my eye and I'm like, damn, that's a lot of work.

But you must be good at it and you must enjoy it. I love it. Yeah, you do. You love it. So I think we're gonna need tutorials because we're both trying to get up to speed on using all of these amazing tools. Podcast. You're sitting seeing right now. We just got the new camera. So this is your first time too?

, We can do it on the iPad now, but this has taken me years, to figure out the skills and the knowledge to produce something. Even the social media aspect of it. , I've been doing this for a decade. There's so much to absorb.

Holy cow. It's overwhelming. I tell people, if you need help figuring this out, 'cause I had to figure this out on my own hard. So I'm like, if you're wondering what we're using, DM me. I get a lot of feedback on my social media now and all the feedback is, great.

I love to look. Who is she? Where is she? Can I hire her? Yes you can. As long as she doesn't fire me, you can hire her because I'm keeping her. After you came in and you were saying you had someone doing your social media, Cindy and I were like, she's paying someone for this.

I was like, you need to fire them. But that wasn't any of my business to say. You didn't say anything. I knew at the time as they started putting things together, I'm like, oh, we're not on the same page and I signed a contract. Alright, let's make the best of this.

That's also part of. What can possibly go wrong, sometimes we have to do stuff twice. We've done almost everything twice and sometimes we get canceled along the way, because sometimes 1D UI isn't enough. It didn't hurt enough. I gotta get a second one.

For the record, the second one hurt enough. Did its job. We just gotta learn the hard way sometimes. What could possibly go wrong? I just really hope the folks that are listening today will tune in to our show, because I think it's gonna be heartwarming.

It's gonna be funny, and I think there's gonna be a lot of great, bits of wisdom that are gonna come out. We don't get to be this age without having some scars and some stories. And it's gonna be fun. We're gonna have some great guests. I really hope your listeners choose to tune in and listen to our show.

Yeah. So we're shooting to launch the 1st of October. That's the next month, right? September, October. Yep. Yep. So watch. , What could possibly go wrong? And then you guys can follow Beth online. What's your handle, Beth? Yes, my handle. My website and also TikTok. Www.bethmcdmedia.com and I have a stand store.

My book standby is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble. Of course, the stands store everywhere books are sold. Digital versions coming out in one week, so that'll be available for people, the audio is gonna be four to five months. I'm going to do the audio for it, but it takes a long time to record it and then send it to them.

They have to tweak it, edit it. The audibles version will be out within six months. It's in progress. Pops read their books and I love when they they'll be like little side tangents, I love it. It's my favorite thing. Me too. And just having traveled a lot as a news reporter, we would, pop in, CDs and that sort of thing to listen

when were on the road quite a bit. Back in the day, back in the day I used to reserve books on CD at the library. Once they put 'em online, I'd reserve 'em for trips and things like that, we'd go down and get 'em.

I love Audible. That's the next step. We're getting there. It's just gonna take me a little bit 'cause there's about, , 160 pages that I have to read and, not screw up. Then they have to edit me and make it sound better than what I am.

This is a long time. So her mom wrote a book my friend Jeremy, she's been on the podcast a few times, did her own Audible too, and it took her a long time. She was recording in the closet, wasn't she? Hopefully it's on all the walls. The closet is the best place because your clothes or whatever's in the closet, all of that absorbs the echo, sometimes when we are on the road, we would either jump into some. Closet to voice things or cover up with a coat over my head in the middle of nowhere. Coming soon? Yes. Coming soon. You are putting yourself out there on social and you've been modeling. You have some paid modeling jobs.

They are coming. I know it. You have one tomorrow? I have, but yes, please. Would you look at this hair show? Give us a little flip of your hair. Come on. Flip way. Show this flip. I'm going to get it done right after this. So with beautiful hair like that, you have to model mature model.

Yeah. It's been a lot of fun, but it could not be more different than corporate America. Oh, for sure. It's like a completely different. Everything. So tell us about your gig tomorrow, because I think it's so funny. She used to be a number cruncher people. Yes. Sitting at the desk, a desk jockey number cruncher,

so what are you doing tomorrow? The Navy Brooks Brothers suit with the proper heels and the tomy briefcase and all of that. She was a hot banker. Oh man. Especially she has these glasses, she put 'em on. My husband likes it when I put on my dirty banker glasses. Y'all have to start somewhere.

And so tomorrow, I just got this confirmed a few minutes ago, we're doing, a hand sanitizing station, at a grocery store. And so we all have to start somewhere. And they're paying you.

They're paying you to go wash your hands, hallelu, look at the stick. Looking back even a year, you'll be like, that was so funny and so awesome. You know that's what it's like Beth in her dog shit. Yeah. There you go. Thank you. I can't wait until, the adult diaper companies collar and they I did men's ed and I did apply for a job for, I like how you're looking, Joe Panties that have, absorbency granny panties.

I didn't say granny. Let's not disparage if they want to pay me to where they're, I'm good undergarments. So there's actually tons of like underwear that absorbs for people who don't want to period blo. I'm not into that stuff. I'm like, no, I'm not gonna bleed in my underwear.

, But there's tons of that stuff that works really well for people, after I did, a full day of training a few months ago, I was Dr. Back from Vegas, and I called, my husband and I talked for two solid hours, he knows I'm about a three minute talker on the phone.

I'm just not a big phone talker anymore. And I talked the entire way home and he was like, there's my girl. Especially after coming out of the grief. Yeah. And just to have a super excited, something excited about I was excited, and it was fun. The people are great and midlife reinvention,

yeah. Caused by serious grief, your son's death. But you're pivoting. I'm pivoting, I'm reinventing. I'm still have a long way to go. I'm still a newbie in all of this, but I'm excited about it and it feels good. 'cause I lost all my purpose. You lose your purpose.

I was a private banker for over 35 years so now I'm on leave and my whole purpose for that is not there. And I've been a mom, my boy was 33 years old. I've been a mom for 34 counting when I was pregnant with him. And now I don't have anyone to mother.

My purpose was gone. I'm like, why bother getting up? I have no purpose. I've had to really work at finding purpose. And my son was really supportive of this. 'cause we had talked about it shortly before. He passed away and he goes, mom, I'm really proud of you. And my, when you said.

Go out there and be yourself. Yeah, that's what he said. I want you to be you. Sometimes kids, don't tell you things in the moment. And the fact that he was telling me some of these things as an adult, he goes, mom, don't you remember when you dropped me off at school?

And my friends were like, is that your mom? I'm like, you never told me that. But hearing my grown son tell me that he thought his mom was cute, was like, oh, buddy. And that he was excited about this for me but I wasn't ready to pull the trigger then. It's taken me a while to finally say, okay, now's the time.

I'm gonna go do it. You turn it on when you need to. Then I go home put your pajamas on go to bed and sleep for the next two days, what could possibly go wrong? What's your Instagram? We'll make sure your in the show notes.

Tammy dot moon dot m Okay. So you guys can follow them and watch their antics. Might suck you into some of them too. Okay, that's fine. But I think you guys also have a lot of wisdom to share. Yeah, we do. We've got, hard earned, everyone don't get to a certain age in life without stories and scars.

And everybody's got stuff good, bad, and ugly. So we have all of that to share and, stories that we think will make people laugh too. We are really good about, you go through stuff and you learn and there's a takeaway. There's always gotta be a takeaway or a life lesson or a, let's not do that again.

Didn't enjoy paying for it the first time. Let's not screw it up again so we can pay for it twice. We've got a lot of fun wisdom, but practical. And I think it just speaks to where everybody is in this day and age. Some things that we can share, and we're gonna have some awesome, guests that are gonna come in and share their wisdom and their scars and their silver hairs.

And it's an exciting adventure and, it's 180 degree change for me, but this is just right up her alley. She's been in the, public eye and she's been speaking to the world for years I just spent my time, talking to my very interesting clients.

But a different, it's a different world. It's creative. You're late bloomer little late bloomer coming into your own, and, it wouldn't have happened likely, I hate to say this because I would still be doing my job, I'd still be sitting at my desk

for 12 hours a day, grinding through it. It was a great career. I've worked with amazing people and I've been super blessed. But I wouldn't be doing this right this second if I hadn't lost my son. I had to figure out, okay, what's this next phase gonna look like? And I think you know there's more people you're cute. Stop it. Hold, pause, hold, pause. Help, pause. She's gotta wrap this up. Thank guys, we can talk forever. Thank you guys for bringing on the podcast and thank you guys for listening to Listen.

Samantha Parker show and we'll see you next episode.