Committed

What was supposed to be a few months of travel for Garrett and Jessica Gee quickly turned into a lifestyle and a career. The couple figured out how to become travel influencers, how to get brands to pay them and their young family to travel the world. Part of me wanted to find out that this wasn’t a dream...that traveling with three small children was actually exhausting and tedious, but the truth is that Jessica and Garrett make it seem easy, and beautiful. And in a time when we are all stuck at home for the foreseeable future, their nomadic family feels like the escapism we desperately need.

What would it take for a sixteen year old boy to hike the entire Appalachian trail with his mom? That's what we are talking about today with Jessica and Largo, the mother and son duo we chatted with last week about traveling the world as a family. Jessica and Largo saw their relationship and their bond change and evolve during their months together on the trail. Sometimes Jessica was the caregiver and sometimes it switched to Largo. Sometimes they talked about everything under the sun and sometimes they were silent for days on end. They bother emerged from this journey changed and ready for the next phase in their relationship when Largo leaves the family nest.

As a parent, how do you transcend the regular run of the mill parent/child relationship? How do you turn your bond into a real friendship? When Jessica's two kids were young, she pulled them out of traditional school, began homeschooling them and started traveling abroad. They left the U S a decade ago in search of a more authentic path. Since then they've lived in an RV in Europe for three years, learned to sail and crossed the Atlantic together as a family. This has been challenging and insane and also delightful and wonderful. Today we're talking to Jessica and Largo, her 17-year-old son, about how this lifestyle has strengthened their bond. This is the first in a two-part episode. In the first episode we dig into the foundation of their relationship and next week are getting into the mother-son duo's decision to hike the Appalachian trail together.

Janae and Tricia are sisters in law. That means they're related by marriage, but they didn't have to choose each other. They didn't have to choose their bond or their commitment or their friendship. But they did. And for years, the two of them have been each other's rock. Back in September of 2023, this bond helped them get through an unimaginable tragedy. Trisha was camping with her family in upstate New York when her nine-year-old daughter Charlotte was abducted from the campground. Over the next 47 hours Trisha and her family went through the worst possible thing that parents can go through. Janae, took over the reins of the investigation.She knew that she had to be the strong one. This is a story of courage and bravery and love. It’s also the story of the commitment between two women who would stop at nothing to bring a little girl home.

Vince and Madison met the way a lot of millennials are meeting these days—on Hinge. Vincent Madison, it met in the way that a lot of millennials are meeting these days. On hinge. They went on one date and they've spent every single day together since then a year and a half ago. Vince and Madison are still young and they're still toeing the waters of this commitment thing, but they are in it! Not too long after they got together their relationship went viral when Madison posted a video of Vince crying on TikTok. It went viral and racked up more than 4 million views.

Buddy Woodall is serving three life sentences for murder. In January he'll celebrate his 22nd wedding anniversary to his wife Kristy. When Buddy was sentenced he asked Kristy to divorce him, he begged her to divorce him. She refused. She says she will stay with him until the very end. This is their love story. It starts when they were 15 years old and Kristy hit Buddy in the head with a volleyball in gym class. It takes them through the difficult early days of their marriage when they were just trying to make ends meet and it follows them through Buddy's arrest, his trial, his sentencing and now his time in Telfair State Prison. Buddy and Kristy believe they have a love that transcends the prison walls.

Back in 2018 we talked to Kristy and Buddy Woodall. If you don't remember that episode, on March 16, 2001 Buddy Woodall was arrested for the double murder of Lavelle Lynn and Robert Van Allen which would be known in Georgia as the Labor Day Murders. Buddy is currently serving three consecutive life sentences and still claims his innocence. This week are are catching up with Kristy to talk about how she still holds onto hope for Buddy's release even though it gets harder every single day.

Erica Cerulo and Claire Mazur met in college in 2002. They bonded instantly. Fast-forward to 2010 when they founded the popular fashion and design website Of a Kind. Since then the two women have created many, many things together, most recently the publishing company, 831 Stories. They are business partners and lifelong friends. This season we're expanding the scope of Committed. Because not all commitment resides within a marriage. In many ways a business partnership is like a marriage and frankly, a marriage is also like a business partnership. There's so much we can learn from all different kinds of commitment. And that's what we'll be exploring in the coming months. Today, we're going to talk to Claire and Erica about creating and building things together and the lessons a business partnership can give a romantic partnership.

Laura and her husband met in college. They got married quickly and had four sons. Laura’s husband was born a man, but always felt like something else, always felt like a woman. After thirteen years of marriage Laura's husband transitioned into a woman named Samantha. Now Laura and Samantha are navigating their new relationship as parents, partners and wives.

Many of our committed guests have become like family to us. We've stayed in touch and followed their journeys. Some of the pairs have stayed together and some haven't. That's the cycle of commitment. Love doesn't have to last forever to be beautiful and to contribute to our lives. When we first met Samantha (episode SUDDENLY SAMANTHA), she had just transitioned. After 13 years of marriage, Samantha and her wife, Laura, we're adjusting to how that transition would impact their marriage. Laura and Samantha eventually split up and Samantha began navigating the world as a single lesbian woman. Today we are talking to Samantha four years later about how she has rebuilt her life and found love again.

This is the first of one of our BEST OF COMMITTED episodes. We're going to be compiling different shows on various themes in the hopes of both inspiring you and perhaps starting a conversation. One of the things that's amazed me about the couples on this show is the ability for love and commitment to withstand some of the worst tragedies that you could ever imagine. And it's these episodes that have personally given me hope in some really dark times.

What makes a great marriage, or even a good marriage? Today we're talking to Frances Mayes, bestselling author of the mega-hit novel Under the Tuscan Sun which has been a touchpoint for women going through any kind of life change or reinvention for nearly 30 years. Now Frances has a new novel called A Great Marriage, to which she brings a lifetime of wisdom from her own two marriages and her parents' tumultuous union. I adore this quote from the book: "You can hammer out a good marriage. Great is a whole other thing. Boiled down, way down, a great marriage happens when two people are big enough to want more for the partner than they want for themselves. Not just as much. More.” Order A Great Marriage today. Support the show and get 50% off your first Factor box, plus 20% off your next month with code COMMITTED50 at https://www.factormeals.com/committed50

What happens when you meet the right person at the wrong time? In this heartwarming episode, Nina and Mario recount their love story that began with a chance meeting in Central Park in 1999. From exchanging shy hellos to an unexpected reunion two decades later, their romance is straight out of a movie. Discover how they reconnected after years apart, overcame personal challenges, and are now planning the adventure of a lifetime together. This is a journey of love, separation, and a beautiful reconnection that brought two passionate souls back together when they needed one another the most. Learn more about Nina and Mario's GoFundMe for their Sicily adventure here and follow Nina here.

Casey and Steven met on a study abroad program in Morocco when they were juniors in college. After school they traveled to Beijing to teach English and then to Mali to live in Timbuktu. Travel does something to a relationship. It creates intimacies and speeds up the way we learn about one another. Now, two decades later, Casey and Steven have opened an Inn together in the Catskills, they have two daughters and they have found a sense of balance and give and take in their relationship that allows the other one to thrive. Follow Steven here to see more of his art and his wonderful children's books. You can pre-order Steven's new book What is Color? here. Check out The Spruceton Inn here. VISIT BetterHelp.com/committed today to get 10% off your first month.

Today we have a very special episode of the podcast Love Letters in our feed. Ever since Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey was a kid, music has played a major role in her life. “Eye of the Tiger” got her pumped for basketball games. She caught sets from Joan Baez and Melissa Etheridge working as a cocktail waitress. When she came out in her early 20s, she found solace in the Indigo Girls. These days, the governor uses music to center herself, especially at hard moments. She and her partner, Joanna Lydgate, sit down with Meredith to talk about how music helps them in their lives and in their relationship. Get more Love Letters here. This episode is brought to you by Better Help. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/COMMITTED, and get on your way to being your best self.

Jessica found out her husband Steve was gay a year and a half into her marriage. They broke up, got back together and tried to make it work because they were living in a very conservative Christian community. And in the midst of it all she met Matt and fell hard for him. Eventually Jessica and Matt got together and today they work with Jessica's ex-husband Steve on a podcast. They share stories of love, marriage, coming out, divorce, remarriage, and co-parenting to help others know they are not alone. They are trying to break down stereo-types about what divorce and co-parenting look like every single day. It isn't always easy and it definitely isn't always perfect but they are constantly trying to find new ways to support one another. Listen and subscribe to the Husband in Law Podcast here.

For the past five years, Alex and Christina had been running a bookstore that is both their primary income as a couple and their passion. They opened A Novel Idea, bookshop in Philly, a year before the pandemic hit. And when the city closed all of its stores, they had to completely rethink everything about their small business. They had no one to lean on, but one another. For better. Or worse. This is a story about perseverance and pivoting, about love and about following your dreams. It's about how the things that should break us often bring us closer together. Learn more about A Novel Idea here.

Molly and Ash met when Molly was in her late thirties, newly separated from her husband and the mother of a four year old. She was just started to explore her sexuality and wasn’t looking for anything serious. But you know what they say…make plans and the universe laughs. Molly and Ash fell in love and quickly knew they wanted to be together, but that meant navigating how to blend a family and reconciling the fact that Ash wanted their own biological child and Molly did not want any more kids. The two of them are here today (and spoiler, they have a new baby) because they put in the work. Their story is a gorgeous narrative of the ways we need to change, adapt and grow for love and family.

Manny struggled with porn addiction for years. He told himself that when he met the right woman he would be done. Then he met Becca and knew she was the one. But the night before his wedding he was still watching porn and he was so far gone in his addiction that he couldn't perform sexually on his wedding night. Manny and Becca struggled with Manny's porn addiction for years until both of them finally reached a breaking point. This is the story about how they made it out the other side. Learn more about Manny and Becca's porn addiction courses at their Team Vulnerable website here.

The FBI came to Carl and Amy Nelson's house in the middle of the pandemic. That's when Carl found out that he was under investigation for a federal crime. Over the next two years, the couple had most of their money and assets seized by the government. What wasn't taken, they had to sell to pay for lawyers. They lived in constant fear of the FBI returning one morning and arresting Carl in front of their four daughters. And to this day, both Amy and Carl insist that Carl has done nothing wrong, and he has yet to actually be charged with a crime. But still the two of them have had their lives ripped apart in ways that could have completely destroyed their marriage. People ask Amy all the time. Why are you still with him? People can't believe she stuck by his side. She can't imagine not doing it.