The Whitney Reynolds Show

- This and more coming up on the Whitney Reynolds Show.

- Joseph is one of the most unique, talented people.

He's, he's made me who I am today.

My layers go very deep now and I ha - I'm much more patient.

It's - A journey.

It's a process.

You don't become the version of yourself that you see yourself being instantaneously, but it has to start within here.

It has to start with a place of authenticity.

My - Mom was really there raising a stay at home mom, and her sisters had also come with her at a young age to this country.

So I was just surrounded by this like community of women.

And you know, Women Employed is an organization that is about 50 years old and working to advance economic equity for women.

- I was diagnosed with Turett's when I was eight years old.

It was much more severe when I was a kid.

It always typically gets easier for people as they get older.

No, definitely my mom.

As soon as my interests started getting sort of weirder, unlike other kids, she always did her best to celebrate whatever I was interested in and yeah, really supported me.

- The Whitney Reynolds Show is supported by Kevin O'Connor Law Firm.

When it comes to your injuries, we take it personally.

Together at Peace Foundation, remembrance, resilience, and comfort creating a hopeful space for those who are grieving.

The C. Thomas Group, residential real estate investment and advisory.

And the Respiratory Health Association, clean air and healthy lungs for all.

JoePerillo.com, where you can browse their selection of pre-owned vehicles.

Joe Perillo is based in Chicago and ships all over the country.

Children's Learning Place, a school for our earliest learners dedicated to aiding every child with the power of learning.

And West Real Estate Group, providing multifamily investment in property management services.

The Couch Brothers, family and first responder owned.

MM LaFleur, four women by women.

- Additional - Funding provided by Home Carpet One, Nuvie, High Five Sports, Grand Appliance and TV.

- Hello and welcome to the Whitney Reynolds Show.

Today we are looking at what it means to truly be a supportive pillar in someone's life and the impact that can have.

Awakening the soul of our story.

Might recognize a new look.

We are ready to take things to the next level.

- You - Are watching the Whitney Reynolds show.

Be careful.

- Real voices real lives in every episode.

- We're talking who was there for you and you're one that really brings home this idea that you can be there for yourself.

- At some point when you're trying to become this version of who you are and you visualize and you manifest and you have these hopes and dreams but don't necessarily know how you're going to figure it out, but you start chipping away and all of a sudden the work and the pieces and the people start to come together and you start to get affirmations from other people around you.

And it's beautiful.

- You went on the voice and had no chairs turn around, which some people are like, "Okay, Whitney, why are you telling us this?"

But that was a moment for you that really you said, "This is a starting point."

Some people, if they got there, would say, "This is the top of the mountain," but you didn't.

Yeah.

- Going into that experience when you're at what seems like the pinnacle of your career, you're on national television, you're like, "This is my moment."

And then to see your family and the B-roll and everybody's there for you corralling around you, and then that moment kind of deflates, it was absolutely devastating.

It was tough.

Even though there was result of rejection, but in the moment it felt like they're just listening, they're hearing me, and whatever may come at the end is not really a factor because this is me, this is who I am, this is my moment to not be judged for my height.

It's just purely my voice.

- Supported by his family, grounded by his faith and strengthened through rejection, Chan discovered that believing in himself became the next chapter of his story.

When you walk into any place, people probably say, "Hey, he's tall."

- They see me before they hear me or know anything about me.

Yeah.

- And that's kind of been your whole life.

- Since I was like 14, I grew up to six seven, six eight.

So from a very young age, it was always everybody's watching everything I do.

I can't mess up.

- When did you step into falling in love with music?

- It happened almost instantaneously when I was two years old.

I used to have my parents corral around me and I would put on concerts for them.

So that led into leading worship with my dad every Sunday in church.

And from there, it kind of just manifested into this sort of thing where that was my fallback.

Every single time I had something going on in life, that was my safe space.

It's interesting because you don't start out that way at all.

It's a journey.

It's a process.

You don't become the version of yourself that you see yourself being instantaneously, but it has to start within here.

It has to start with a place of authenticity.

- Do your lyrics reflect your journey?

- Absolutely.

On the song Way Out off of our newest album, Boyhood, it's like, "I'm on an ace high, all in."

You know what I mean?That's kind of like the feeling.

I'm on an Ace high, all in, shakedown, no it ain't nothing at all.

I'm moving on.

I'm doing my thing.

Even though the fear of failure after the rejection, that was when I was like, "You know what?

This is my time."

- I love it.

Well, thank you so much for coming on.

- Thank you so much for having me.

- A mother-son team.

Now let's find out how they are in this together.

You are a pillar when it comes for your son and understanding at a young age about being on the spectrum.

- Understanding it and living it are like two different things.

- When Bridget Shipman's son Joseph began losing his speech, she knew something deeper was going on.

What followed was a mother's relentless mission to understand her son's autism diagnosis.

That is so true when you break it down like that.

Understanding it, you can say, "Oh, of course."

But living it, you had a baby that was talking normally and then regressed.

- I took him for an evaluation for speech because he didn't have sentence structure.

So it really is the metaphor for the puzzle.

It really is.

You get one little piece to it and then you have to find the next piece.

So that's how the diagnosis came.

Although this happened, Joseph's diagnosis was in the 90s.

The emotional part of this journey is still the same.

So you know it, you deny it because denial is powerful.

And then you finally go, "Yeah, my child has a long life disability, but we're going to be okay."

- Right.

That same journey would actually lead Joseph somewhere few could have imagined behind a microphone as a radio host.

When were you diagnosed?

- I was diagnosed around two or three years of age because I developed faster than normal.

Obviously a lot of people on the spectrum are different, but I developed having language early.

I spoke in small sentences in a couple of languages by the time I was one, walking early, all that.

But then when I was around two, there seemed to be a regression in skill.

So where I was talking, I withdrew, I talked less.

The questions were being asked and they had, I guess, several professionals look at me.

And eventually there was a doctor out in Oklahoma who was able to observe me through tape and she said, "I think he might be on the spectrum somewhere."

And the diagnostic criteria was different back then.

So even though I didn't get the label, I was definitely in that spectrum.

- And with saying that you got tape sent to Oklahoma, you're not from Oklahoma?

- No, I'm originally from Arkansas.

I was born in a relatively small town called Mountain Home.

And yeah, we had to send video footage out to other people.

My mom and dad even looked at universities in Boston to try and get resources because, well, it was just the 90s and relatively rural Arkansas.

So they had to find connections, use the ones they had.

- So they really sought answers for you.

- Yeah.

- I would say you are what we call a mom on a mission.

You sought answers pretty hard.

- I think that's why it's referred to as a journey.

Joseph, against all odds, trust me, his prognosis and his future was so daunting.

And I was told Joseph's not going to be able to go to school.

He'll never be independent.

I didn't really accept any of those answers.

I'm not saying that that's a good thing, but it's what kept me going because I thought to myself, there has to be an answer and we're going to try everything as long as it doesn't hurt Joseph.

It's positive.

It's going to make a difference for his life.

And the goal was always Joseph is going to be independent.

- When it comes to radio, you do have an outstanding voice, for one.

- Thank you.

- And then this is like where you feel at home in a radio studio, which I think for the viewers is one of those moments of don't tell people they can't do something or don't say something is too big for them to get over because this is huge in the fact of you went from talking to regressing and now made a career out of it.

- Oh yeah.

And I'm still keeping my skills up too.

I do work for a volunteer radio station, a nonprofit in the town where I live.

And yeah, I also help my mom set up the podcast that she does with the audio.

And even though I'm not in radio right now, I still have my home studio set up, but I have to have some kind of microphone or music or something near me.

Yeah, it's a wonderful skillset to have.

- What began as one family's journey became a mission much bigger than themselves.

Bridget and Joseph realized the same experience could look completely different through the eyes of a mother and a son.

So together, they turned those perspectives into a movement to help other families navigating the neurodivergent world feel seen, understood, and connected.

Okay, let's talk about this book.

Yes.

Okay.

So tell me, tell me about it.

- Yeah.

So my mom and I just, we've had a lot of conversations in that.

And just one night she asked me, "What do you think I am to you just in terms of who have I been in your life, especially as a mom and you being autistic and stuff?"

And I thought about it and I was reminded of a quote from Bruce Lee about teachers.

He said that a teacher is not somebody who just gives out answers.

Like you ask a question, it's like, oh, this is what it is.

It's somebody who points the path for you to walk and find.

So I kind of told her, I think of you like that because it's not like you give me all the answers and I can't think for myself, you point the way and help me figure stuff out.

- Ooh, that is so good.

- So we came up with that being like, yeah, the mother's guide through autism.

It just kind of came out of that.

And just in terms of the unique selling stuff, instead of just writing a book where it's just one tone where there are mother sections in that, there's a mom's side that's just for that side of it.

And then if you flip it over, there's my part that you read the other way.

So you kind of have a two tones in one situation - There.

Oh my goodness.

That is incredible.

When you compare the pages of what you're writing on, even though that's one side, one side, if you were to line them up side by side, are they completely different?

- I think they are different, especially because in the intention of the audience they look after, because my mom is a teacher first and foremost, and she was a mother too.

So I think she was trying to answer the questions that she had when she was trying to figure stuff out for me.

And yeah, she's just given her experience through that.

And then my part of the book is very much more kind of a straightforward explanation.

I can't remember what magazine it was, but it described my part as quietly philosophical, I think correctly, gently philosophical.

And I kind of appreciated that because my experiences have forced me and piqued my curiosity to ask all those kinds of questions.

And I'm just really happy to be able to write down, give my perspective and my experience as an example.

- Well, you have the confidence of a lion, and do you have to say that a lot of that is due to your parents?

- I think I realized as I grew up how lucky I was to have not just the access to some resources and that, but also parents who were willing to work to actually find them when they weren't available back in the day.

- Right.

- Yeah, they were willing to go all across the country and yeah, they used their connections, they met and talked to people.

And yeah, if I didn't have that support, I don't know where I'd be at.

- It was like you were there for Joseph.

- Right.

- But he has really raised you up - - He has.

- To the mom and the teacher you are.

- Joseph is one of the most unique, talented people.

He's made me who I am today.

My layers go very deep now and I'm much more patient and loving and understanding, not just to my family, but to all people.

I really respect every single human story and I think there are lessons in everything.

There's not a person that you will meet if you're open that you won't learn something from them.

And so I really try to live with that intention of, oh, okay, what can I learn from you?

And that's what he's brought out in me.

- With our viewers that are watching today, it might not be your diagnosis that is theirs, but it's one of those things that we all have something, right?

And if we can learn to surround ourselves with people that lift us up and realize that that could be our little secret sauce to being wonderful, what a huge deal that can make.

- As long as the support's there and there are people who help you believe in yourself, that's the big thing.

- Today through their nonprofit, Spectrum Connection of Arkansas, they continue creating community and conversations for the neurodivergent individuals across their home state and beyond.

No one reaches the top alone.

Behind every woman who succeeds is a community that believed in her, encouraged her, and helped open the next door.

Women Employed is building exactly that type of community while championing fair pay and greater opportunity.

What I love about your story, Amber, is it's you've made way for others in similar situations to how you were raised.

- I was born and raised here in Chicago.

I'm the daughter of immigrants from the Dominican Republic, and my parents came to this country for a better life, and they had me and my sister, and we grew up here on the north side of Chicago, and my dad had to work.

So my mom was really there raising us stay-at-home mom, and her sisters had also come with her at a young age to this country.

So I was just surrounded by this community of women.

And Women Employed is an organization that is about 50 years old and working to advance economic equity for women.

It connected the dots for me.

It showed me from a policy and an advocacy level, all the things that my mom and my tias and the women in my life were dealing with and how we can make actual changes.

- I kind of knew ahead of time that it was going to be difficult for my family to be able to afford college out of pocket because my parents are Latino immigrants.

My parents made the decision to basically drain their entire retirement funds.

And so equitable funding is important because it makes sure that students get equal access to the same opportunities irrespective of what they can afford.

- We are an organization that focuses on building the economic power of women through a variety of channels, one being policy and advocacy, another being research, and then we also do innovative program that brings about systems change.

So the majority of our work takes place on the high level.

Then when you think about the work that I'm able to direct and lead and really focus on those women that have been pushed to the margins that are in low paid roles and create policy change that has immediate impact on their life.

For example, when we passed Paid Leave for All, 1.2 million people now have access to a day off pay that they didn't have before.

- Women Employed looks at these issues from a gender lens.

It was great to partner with Women Employed in a coalition of other advocates to pass landmark legislation in the city of Chicago.

- The Paid Time Off Law will provide the most expansive paid time off benefits to workers across the country, and that's here in Chicago.

We're going to be the first city to actually recognize that workers really deserve that dignity to be able to take off for means other than an illness.

- I have come to realize like with every story that I tell, I realize somebody feels more seen, somebody feels more heard, and somebody feels more recognized.

So I think there's absolute power in talking about your background, talking about your experiences, because the connections are there and then like together all of those stories can help push that social change.

- Beyond all the glitz and glamor of the show, it's finding your avenue of celebrating who you actually naturally are and not having to hide that at all.

And I think Kinky Boots really breaks down the barriers of all the characters and the masks that they wear and shows that whoever you are and however you are, you're celebrated.

So I play Harry, so that's Charlie's best friend.

You only see him for a little bit.

He's in the beginning, he sings this song, Take Wt You Got.

And a great part about Harry is he's in the pub and just having a good time with his friends and Charlie's sort of there trying to get his attention and you almost can't take the party out of Harry, which I kind of love.

And I also play Charlie once a week, so it's great getting to do sort of both sides of the coin on that.

- Who did that for you growing up?

Because I don't think you just land one day on the Broadway stage.

- No, definitely my mom.

As soon as my interests started getting sort of weird or unlike other kids, she always did her best to celebrate whatever I was interested in and yeah, really supported me.

- You mentioned just being your true self and you do have Tourette's.

How has that impacted you as a person?

- Yeah, so I was diagnosed with Trett's when I was eight years old, a series of vocal or motor tics, motor being physical actions.

So I always describe it as like when you get a sneeze, it's always an involuntary sort of action, and that for me appears in all sorts of other ways.

And it was much more severe when I was a kid.

It always typically gets easier for people as they get older, but it's still something I deal with every single day.

And being on tour, it's great having a good group of friends who at some point sort of notice.

They're like, "Hey, when you' stressed or something backstage, I see you kind of doing these things."

But my friends here are really great about supporting me, not always paying too much attention or giving me my space.

- With having Tourette's and being on stage, was that ever something that you thought would impact your career?

- Something I like to say is that in the beginning of my childhood, Tourette's really made me feel perceived by other people in a very negative way.

I always felt very looked at, especially when it was more severe.

Once I started doing theater, I felt like it was an environment where I was able to be creative and silly and weird, and everyone's already kind of doing vocal warmups and weird face stretches, so I could almost chameleon blend in.

But I felt like the stage really gave me an understanding of positive perception from people.

Usually I don't have a lot of issues ticking on stage.

I feel like I've been able to sort of differentiate the world that I'm in and looking at other cast members and my teammates and really being locked into the world rather than letting my tics sort of overcome me.

- Well, you are amazing and seeing you on stage and that song is truly incredible.

What is your goal as an actor overall?

Is it to keep doing Broadway, keep doing tours?

- Well, I actually am also a writer, so I actually have a show in the city right now that's going up in July.

It's a parody musical of Dune.

It's called Doone the Doomsical, but overall, I've been doing a lot of writing over the years.

I am actually passionate about incorporating some of my experience with Tourette's and putting that on stage.

I think it's sort of a difficult challenge portraying especially how severe that disorder can be.

It's a huge undertaking, but yeah, to keep on creating and like understanding myself and understanding life, you know?

I love - That.

Well, thank you so much for coming on.

- Yeah, thank you.

- As we wrap today's show, this topic actually followed me into a recent experience with my son.

We though we were simply signing up for goat yoga, a little fun, but we ended up learning about who was there for our instructor when she needed it the most.

After losing both of her parents and her job, she found joy through a goat yoga experience, and that helped her smile again.

Today, she's paying that gift forward by creating a place where others can laugh, reconnect, and find joy in their own season.

Sometimes being there for someone starts with simply giving them a reason to smile.

Today's stories remind us that being there for someone can actually change everything.

Remember, your story matters.

- The Whitney Reynolds Show is supported by Kevin O'Connor Law Firm.

When it comes to your injuries, we take it personally.

Together at Peace Foundation, remembrance, resilience, and comfort creating a hopeful space for those who are grieving.

The C. Thomas Group, residential real estate investment and advisory, and the Respiratory Health Association, clean air and healthy lungs for all.

JoePerillo.com, where you can browse their selection of pre-owned vehicles.

Joe Perillo is based in Chicago and ships all over the country.

Children's Learning Place, a school for our earliest learners dedicated to aiding every child with the power of learning, and West Real Estate Group, providing multifamily investment in property management services.

The Couch Brothers, family and first responder owned.

M.M.

LaFleur for Women by Women.

Additional funding provided by Home Carpet One, Nuvie, High5 Sports, Brand Appliance and TV.

- The inspiration keeps coming all season.

Here's what's coming up.

- I knew something terrible had happened the night before, and I'd almost killed myself.

I stood on the ledge ready to jump, took my hands off even to jump, and my phone rang and startled me and I jumped down.

And coming out of that hotel room that night, I just decided, okay, I've been ambitious about business my whole life.

I'm going to be ambitious about myself for a while.

- Intense chronic nerve pain can be very lonely, like nobody really understands.

And so to connect with other people that can really understand at a deep level what you're experiencing is something kind of magical.

You know, maybe I should try and help them.

It's actually been healing for me.

The more I help, the more I heal, which.

So now I better get up and do a whole bunch of good - Today.

And to come from a family who doesn't usually do musical theater, you know, all of them are either doctors, lawyers, or nurses.

And so for me to do theater is very out of the realm of what my family does.

All episodes are available for streaming anytime.

- I love me.