Tony Perkins on Prostate Cancer, Podcasting & What Still Gets Him Up at 2:30 AM

The career is impressive. The person behind it is even more so. In Part 2, Tony Perkins gets personal — sharing his prostate cancer diagnosis, why he decided to go public with it, and how that decision led to countless men getting tested who otherwise wouldn't have. He also talks about the future of media, the reboot of his comedy podcast You Gotta Be Kidding Me with longtime producer Gary Stein, and the screenplay he's currently trying to sell. Plus his advice for anyone trying to break in today: forget the traditional mold and lead with your passion. 

Transcript

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Welcome back to the progress report on Think American News. I'm Jessica Curtis, joined by my co-host, Rob Somerano. This is part two of our conversation with longtime broadcaster, comedian, and storyteller Tony Perkins. In our first episode, we talked about Tony's incredible media career from stand-up comedy to radio to Good Morning America, Fox Five, NBC Four in Washington. But today we're shifting gears a bit and diving deeper into the personal side of the journey. Talking resilience, perspective, health, and what keeps someone passionate after decades in one of the toughest industries in America. Tony, welcome back for part two. Obviously, there's been a lot of changes since you were a little boy to now in comedy, in uh, you know, news, media, et cetera. Yeah. What do you think the future holds for those things? What do you think the next kind of wave that that might be coming is? I mean, do you do you see that? And Jess, you can even weigh in on this being, you know, in that industry. Um it seems to be evolving a lot. Obviously, what we're doing right now didn't exist, you know, years ago. So what we're doing right now um has is part of the democratic democratization of um communications. Uh, you know, uh when I was growing up, there were three networks in the United States, plus PBS, um and uh and local TV stations, and and and you know, they ruled the airwaves, um, and they set the tone for what uh what the country was talking about and all of that kind of thing. Uh they still do that to some extent, but now uh there are so many channels, there are so many networks, and with the advent of podcasting, uh TikTok, uh Instagram, YouTube, um, anybody can have a show. Um, and now the bulk of those shows uh may not be very good or worthwhile, but there are thousands of them that are. Um, and so you know, now you don't have to, you know, make tapes and you know, if you want to work in the business, oh please, you know, NBC, give me a job, you know. You can you can create your own uh uh uh uh show, uh uh whatever it is, you know, there's Substack, there's all kinds of stuff. You can make yourself an expert on something um and and and and use that to uh uh potentially uh move up the food chain. But a lot of people, not not most people, but a lot of people, you know, for example, in the podcast world, are making pretty good money uh uh uh doing podcasts. Yeah. Uh I I'm not yet, I don't know about you, but right, right. It takes some time, it's a struggle. But you know, you don't need um the big guys anymore. And it has, it has now there's good and bad with that. Yeah. Great that people, that there are more points of view out there, um, that there are more people, you know, you can find anything you're interested in, you can find someone doing it. However, as the three of us well know, we're also living in an age where there is now more uh uh uh um I I don't want to use the term uh fake news, but that but there's more there's more misinformation out there. Um and you know, anyone, anyone now can get on some kind of airwave, YouTube podcast, and talk about the craziest things in the world, and you know, others will watch and believe and spread that word, spread that gospel. You know, we do battle now with all kinds of conspiracy theories. There have always been conspiracy theories, but not in the numbers that we have them now, and and that have not been able to spread as quickly as they can spread now. So there's good and bad with it. Um I think um I think in terms of TV news, there will always be TV news, but um the the influence of the networks is diminishing. Uh we see it every year. Um all the networks are moving into this space that we are in right now at this moment, uh, and streaming and all of that. Uh as far as comedy goes, uh people will always want to laugh, need to laugh, so there will always be comedians, there will always be lots of out uh outlets for them. Um uh and but even that has changed. You know, there are a couple of comedians, quote unquote, who have come up through TikTok and what have you. Some of them have gotten quite big. Um are they real comedians? You could argue, you know, whether they are or not, uh, or what their level of talent is, but uh it's a whole new world. Things are very, very different now. You said it. Tell uh so so you mentioned Gary Stein earlier. Tell us about your podcast that you've got you've got cooking with with your your longtime buddy and former producer. Yes, I saw that you were out there, you're doing it, so it was like we're you know, we're gonna try this again. Um, back in 2014, uh Gary Stein uh is uh one of my best friends. He was my producer at Good Morning America. Uh, we got on now. I started at Good Morning America, and I talked about that first couple of months. Um, you know, one of the things that happened to their credit, they said, you know what, every time we assign Tony a story or he goes out on a remote, he's always with someone different. He needs his own dedicated guy. And uh they someone at the uh at the network knew Gary Stein. He had been a producer with Fox Television and uh Breakfast Time. I don't know if you remember that show, which used to be on the network as a morning show. Tom Bergeron was the host. Yeah, yeah. Um yeah, uh he was a producer and writer on that. Um so they brought him in. I met him, interviewed him actually, and you know, at the end of that interview, I thought, this guy's great, we gotta hire him. So we did. He and I became like this uh almost anything that you saw me do on Good Morning America, whether it was live weather remotes from hurricanes or wildfires or whatever, or whether it was entertainment stuff with Aretha Franklin or uh uh whoever or funny stuff that we did in the studio with the crowd. He was he produced the vast majority of that. Um so we were great friends, we've always made each other laugh. And we did a podcast several years ago, and we did it for four years. Uh, content-wise, it was very successful. We had great guests. Um, it didn't grow like we wanted it to, uh, because it kind of naturally appealed to an older audience. And um at that time, even though it's just 12 years ago, 10 years ago, the ball game was very different. We had to we would tell someone, hey, you should check out our podcast. And if they were an older person, they would say, Okay, where do I get it? What is a podcast? I don't know what that is. So we kind of had to teach people. Well, now everyone knows what a podcast is. So we have rebooted it. We stuh we went back, uh, we started two months ago. I think we're up to episode 10 now, and uh it's called You Gotta Be Kidding Me. Uh You Gotta G-O-T-T-A, uh Be Kidding Me. It is a comedy and entertainment podcast, not news. Uh so again, I'm I'm leading a dual uh a dual life, um, a double life. Um, but it's great. And and we've just started out, so we're in the stages of you know having to grow this thing and publicize it and all that kind of stuff. But it is, it's it we drop one episode a week. Uh most of them are about an hour, and it is it's there's some information and there's some reporting on things going on in the entertainment world, but it's laughs, laughs, laughs. It's it's it's a good time. I'm very proud of it. Yeah, well, I mean, you you said it earlier that you you enjoy laughing. Like, I I feel like if you're not laughing, uh you're missing, you're missing the boat on life. It is people people laugh, people laugh at me and are always like, Oh, you you you tell the best stories and you have all these absurd things happen to you. And I my my whole mo in life is life is all about great stories. And if you're looking for them, they will find you in one way or another, right? So I I I love that. So I I definitely am gonna check it out because I please do, please do laughter is my favorite, favorite, favorite thing. Do you do you ever fully realize um, you know, given given your tenure in in the media world, do you ever fully realize the impact that you've had on so many people that have welcomed you into their homes for decades? How does how does that make you feel? Um so it, you know, it makes one feel great. Um, but uh, you know, I don't, you know, do I ever realize it? I realize it sometimes, but I don't walk around every day with that in my head. But then things will happen or someone will say something. And um several years ago, I got uh, I think it was a a letter. I think it was a letter. Um there's a guy, his uh oh boy, I'm gonna forget his name is Matt Engelbreck, I believe his name uh is his name. He is a TV meteorologist in uh, I think North Carolina. He's been doing it for years now. It's what he always wanted to do. And he wrote to me once and he said, uh, I don't know if you remember me, but I was uh in the crowd at Good Morning America when I was a teenager, had a sign that said something like, Tony, I want your job, or something like that. So of course I gravitated towards him. I talked to him on the air, I had him do part of my weather forecast. And uh, you know, we just laughed about it. Well, you know, he did it. I mean, he is he's a successful meteor TV meteorologist now. And the tape, there's actually you can go, he has posted it. Um, so you can go on YouTube and and find it. And stuff like that is really, really uh amazing to me and makes me very happy. Um, the other thing that just happened recently is um there's a group, an organization here in DC, the National Capital Radio and Television Museum. And uh they sent me a letter um or an email, and um they are uh honoring me later this year with a Lifetime Achievement Award. And you know, when you get something like that, your first reaction is, well, well, wait a minute, it's a little early for that. But I mean, it's not really. I've been doing this 35 years or what have you. And you know, when you when they start to list the different things, um it's like, okay, yeah, there's been there's been a lot of different stuff. I've been um, you know, I've gotten to do some very, very cool stuff, and um I've been very fortunate. So when things like that happen, um, yeah, it you know, it it comes to mind. But you don't walk around like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, right, right. It's it's uh I I always when I when I was working in politics, would always say, you know, my my motivator um was not the paycheck, it was the the impact and the the difference I felt like I was having. So I I could see where, you know, you don't think about it every day, but but you know, when you have those moments where somebody says, hey, you're the reason X, Y, and Z, that's that is that is a cool, cool story and a wonderful, wonderful thing that that you did to help spur that guy's career. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's it's uh it's very special. You know, we're all we're fortunate because we to work in this field, anybody who decides to give you a listen, turn you on, whatever uh we're you know, we're I think we're all grateful for that. And um when you've been able to do it for as long as I've done it and and and have an impact in these different ways. I I'll tell you what, um something that I never planned, um obviously. Um I was uh diagnosed a couple of years ago now, a few years ago now, with prostate cancer. And uh yeah. And um I I you know when you're first diagnosed, if you if you've if they've caught it early, you do what's called active surveillance, which is what I did for two years, um, where they just keep an eye on it. And then it started to um uh become more significant, and they said, Okay, now we need to do something about this, and you need to make a decision. Uh, it needs to be treated. Do you want to do radiation? Do you want to do surgery? And you know, you do all your research and everything. I had surgery. Um, so because I was gonna be out of work for several weeks, um, I thought and this is the truth, and maybe I'm not the brightest guy in the world, but I thought, well, you know what? Um I'm gonna tell people why I'm off uh, you know, because I'm gonna be away for a few weeks. And people, you know, in this business, you know, if you're not there for a week, they're like, what happened? Did you let him go? You know, they're they get paranoid and worried and everything. So I said, Well, let me deal with this. Um, I that's why I did it, kind of uh almost a maybe not a selfish reason, but a very practical reason. But stay in the Yeah, right. But then it mushroomed. And uh so because I did that, I ended up, you well, you know what? I'm gonna be there because there are other people going through this, I'm gonna take them through it. And, you know, interviewed my doctor and camera followed me uh up to the operating room door, but not into the operating room. And I've I told the story and since then have um done several segments on prostate cancer, men's health. I've MC'd uh uh men's health summits and all that kind of stuff. And, you know, I've had many, many, many, many men say to me, you know, because you said uh, you know, we got to get tested and all that kind of thing. I got tested and turns out I had it, I'm going through what you're going through, all that kind of thing. That was um very eye-opening. Um you know, that was that was um, I feel very uh good about that, humbled by it. And it's when you you know it's different if someone says, Oh, I love watching you, you you really make me laugh. That's fantastic, that's great. Yeah. Uh but when someone says, Yeah, I went to the doctor and found out I've got an issue uh because of you, that's that's amazing. That's true. That's a whole different level, right there. That's a whole different level. Yeah. Absolutely. Have you ever worked with Ed Randall before? He was on our show. I have not worked, I know I I have I I've not met Ed Randall. Well, wait a minute. No, wait a minute. That's not true. I did, I did something with him back in the uh let's make sure we're talking about the same Ed Randall. Yeah, sports sportscaster from the uh New York area. Yeah, a lot of people the Mets and baseball. I must have done something, been on a panel or something with him. I don't know him. Obviously, I know who he is. Um but but no, I don't know him. We haven't worked closely together. Yeah, Ed Ed uh, you know, he's very big with um prostate awareness, and we had him on the show, and and you know, sounds like the two of you guys could be a force together in that in that in that arena. So that's why that's why his name is front of mind, because I'm working with an organization that I think he works with uh as one of their ambassadors, and so his name came up. That's yeah, that's yeah, there we go. Big deal. Small world. Yes, it is, it is, it's smaller than you realize. So, so Tony, for young people entering the media uh as their profession today, um, especially those that might not fit the traditional mold, what what advice would you give them about building a meaningful and and lasting career? Uh I think uh especially if you the traditional mode is, you know, uh it's pretty much out the window. I mean, you can still go that route, but you but you don't have to. And so one of the things that's happened over time that's interesting, and this started, you know, 20 years ago, um, but it has it has accelerated. So you look at the the three of us. Uh uh uh Jessica, you're from the world of politics. I'm from the world of entertainment and news. Uh uh Rob, you're from the world of sports, you know, athlete, all that kind of thing. And here we are on this show together, uh uh, you know, talking about a wide and you guys, you talk about a wide variety of things. Obviously, the theme is positivity and encouragement and all that kind of thing. But um now, you know, when I when I was growing up, uh what you wanted to do was get a degree in communications if you want it to be in this world, not so much. You know, I mean, listen, you can get a degree in communications, it can it can be wonderful, you can get some great internships, all that kind of thing. Now, what I frequently tell people is what is your passion? What is it that drives you that you really want to do, that you want to enjoy? If it's something that you can potentially make a living at, why not try that? Because, you know, we all, you know, we're fortunate. We we're not digging ditches, we're not, you know, doing something we don't really want to do. If you can do something that that you love to do, then it's kind of not work. I mean, it's still work, but it but you you know, you don't walk around, you don't walk home or go home at the end of the day like, oh my God, what an awful I hate this job. You know, it's not that. So I tell people, whatever it is that you're passionate about, interested in, pursue that. And if you're interested in this kind of thing, radio, podcasting, television, whatever, you can you can work your way in, make yourself an expert at something, politics. You know, so look at your career, look at someone like George Stephanopoulos. George Stephanopoulos was a political operative, you know, worked for the Clintons, and now he's uh and has been for many years, co-anchor of Good Morning America. You turn on CNN, a lot of those people there uh before being on TV had jobs as lawyers in in politics, uh in the health field, uh, many, many different things. And well, okay, I'm gonna go back to Good Morning America again. Michael Strahead, Robin Roberts. You know, you can so you bring you bring whatever it is that is your specialty, your passion, you bring that to the plate. You can learn a lot of this stuff. Now, does there have to be some innate talent? Yes, but you can learn this, you can practice it, you can uh uh work with a coach or something and all that kind of thing, but that might be your way in, and it will be more fulfilling and satisfying for you, I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And and so my my last question for you is after everything that you've accomplished, what still excites Tony Perkins to get up and continue doing this work every day? Um, so as you can probably tell uh by the wide variety of things that I have done, I I'm very curious. I have uh I have a lot of interests, and one of the things that I like about uh working in news every morning, I I have to admit, I get up at 2.30. That is not fun. Uh but uh but once I get to work, you know, every day is different. And um certainly, you know, when it comes to comedy, like when I did stand-up comedy, um every single show was different. No two shows were alike. People laugh at different things, laugh in different places. You come up with you add lib stuff, it's it's always different, and I like that. Um, and you know, what gets me up is I still have creative energy. So last year, a friend of mine uh that that I went to high school with were dear friends, uh, he's an attorney, but he's very, very funny, very creative. We wrote a screenplay together, and we are currently trying to sell it. Will we sell it? The odds are against us because it's a hard thing to do, but we think it's good. We're making an effort, and so that's something new. That's something, if I'm able to do that, would be yay, that's that's great. If I can make the podcast work, and you know, I'm I don't expect to get rich from it, but if it's something that I can grow and a lot, you know, thousands and thousands and thousands of people are listening to and I'm making them happy and all that kind of stuff, that would be great. So I still feel creative, um, and I'm still curious, and I still like the challenges and the absurdities that every day brings. That's great. Thank you so much, Tony, for being being with us on the podcast today. Really appreciate your time. And thank you, Tony. This has been great fun. Thank you so much for having me. I wish you all the best with the podcast, and uh hopefully we can do this again sometime. Absolutely. And and uh where where can where can people find You Gotta Be Kidd Me. You gotta be kidding me, uh, as we all say, is available wherever uh you download you get your podcasts, most places, uh Apple Podcasts, Spotify, all those places. And uh it's audio and visual. So we're we also have a YouTube channel called You Gotta Be Kidding Me, uh, with Tony Perkins and Gary Stein. Uh just uh search for it and you'll find it and like it and subscribe it, just like you're liking and subscribing to the progress report. Thank you. Thank you very much. Tony, this has been an incredible conversation across two episodes. Your story is a reminder that success isn't always about following a straight path. Sometimes it's about taking risks, reinventing yourself, staying authentic, and never losing your sense of humor through all of life's twists and turns. We appreciate you sharing not only the highlights of your career, but also personal experiences and lessons that shaped who you are today. And to our listeners, thank you for joining us on part two of our conversation with Tony. Be sure to subscribe, share these episodes, and follow the progress report for more conversations with the people making an impact across America. Until next time, keep moving progress forward.