For nearly two decades, Joan Lunden welcomed millions of viewers into their morning routines as the longest-running female host of Good Morning America. But behind that familiar presence is a story filled with unexpected turns, bold decisions, and a lot of learning on the fly.

I was honored to be asked to speak with Joan about her new book; a conversation recorded in front of a live audience at Verso Studios in the Westport Library. I am thrilled to share that talk with you now on this episode of Things No One Tells You. Joan reflects on how she stumbled into television at a time when women were barely represented in the newsroom and how what began as a chance opportunity quickly turned into a career that would help reshape the industry.

Joan shares the difficult lessons she learned breaking into a male-dominated field, the mindset that helped her grow into one of television’s most trusted voices, and why sometimes the best career advice is simply to say yes before you know how it will work out.

We also talk about the deeper moments that shaped her life beyond the studio, including motherhood, resilience, and how facing breast cancer changed her perspective.

What You’ll Discover

• Joan’s early career and unexpected start in TV (10:30)
• The challenges women faced in journalism in the 1970s (11:24)
• Why saying yes before you're ready can change everything (17:21)
• The power of having a co-host who is the right fit  (29:34)
• Advocacy opportunities beyond the Good Morning America years (35:44)

From breaking barriers in television news to reflecting on the lessons that have made an impact along the way, Joan Lunden’s story is both inspiring and deeply human. Conversations like this are exactly what Things No One Tells You is all about. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow the show and take a moment to share it with a friend.

This live event interview was recorded at Verso Studios in the Westport Library.

You can watch this interview on YouTube: https://youtu.be/HPbjx3kc1K8

For a full transcript and more, check out our blog post: https://www.lindsaycz.com/show-notes/joan-lunden-39

Check out more from Joan Lunden:

Follow Joan on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealjoanlunden/

Discover Joan’s books, including her new memoir https://joanlunden.com/books/

Support this podcast:

Follow Things No One Tells You on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thingsnoonetellsyoupod/

Stay connected with Lindsay https://www.lindsaycz.com/ and follow her on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lindsaycz/

Subscribe to my YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@lindsaycz

[00:00:23] Lindsay: Hey, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Things No One Tells You.

[00:00:43] And I feel like you always get that, but I really loved, especially I think, 'cause I'm thinking about the moment of all the actors from Bridesmaids and I love that movie so much, but, but I don't know, there's just something so cool about seeing all of these women going up there, you know, talking about also maybe some of them balancing, their job as actors and then being moms.

[00:01:30] They will speak all sorts of different things. And I've worked with them before, but they came to me and said, Hey, Joan Lunden is coming. She's written a new book, by the way. It's number 11. And they were like, would you host this conversation? And I started reading the book as I was prepping for this, and it just, from the jump, captivated me.

[00:02:22] My mom loved to take me on these little adventures, and she was like, I wanna come show you this panel of women who are broadcasters. And it's funny because my dad is always the one that I think about in terms of my career because my dad was a sports journalist,t and I sort of followed more in those footsteps.

[00:03:03] And watching that journey was really cool. And what I love so much about Joan's conversation is Joan's book, and she explains this memoir and why it's different from anything she's ever written. And I think that is a key piece of why this conversation is so powerful. But she really talks about all the hardships that she went through, and the way that she made it work.

[00:03:57] And it really is Joan's new mantra, which is the thing no one tells you, is that reinvention never retires. I also, real quick, wanna give a shout out to Westport Library because I love doing these conversations live. It is so much fun to be there with an audience that, and this audience was really feeding into everything that Joan was talking about.

[00:04:34] I told Joan, I started reading this book on an airplane,e and I literally underlined the first sentence and didn't stop.

[00:04:56] Joan: Yeah.

[00:05:02] Can you share that?

[00:05:22] And, I've shared a lot of different chapters, you know, along my journey. I started writing this one probably about. I don't know, 10, 11 years ago. And then I got diagnosed with breast cancer. And so I put it down. And after a year of very aggressive chemotherapy, I wrote a book called Had I Known, once again sharing another chapter of my life and everything I could learn about that.

[00:06:15] Oh my goodness. Yeah, my six-week book tour got canceled. It still did well, but made the New York Times bestseller list. But then I finally took this back up, and I started writing this book, and a couple of things I think are worth talking about. First of all, I turned the first book into my publisher, and she said, " This is an autobiography.

[00:07:01] She said, " You, they wanna go into those moments of your life. And I stopped and thought about it. I'm a voracious reader. I love books. I love to read, and I love historical fiction. I love mystery thrillers. Anything about the CIA or the Navy Seals, because I did a show behind closed doors where I got to deploy with all the different branches of the service.

[00:07:27] Lindsay: By the way, those stories are incredible.

[00:07:49] And, you know, we would talk, I talk about certain stories, I gotta share this story. She said it is a good story, but probably people have heard about that one. I call it a postcard. It's nice, it's pretty, it looks good, but it's not revelatory. It didn't create a moment in your life where you had to figure out how to navigate your way through that, which created some vulnerability in your life.

[00:08:29] Lindsay: Yeah.

[00:08:44] So I'm much, much happier with the fact that I took all that extra time and rewrote. And I gotta tell you, David Hartman and I, for 10 years, and Charlie and I for 10 years, never. Had the ability to fact-check anything. We didn't have laptops, and we didn't have Google.

[00:09:08] Joan: I have anchors now that see me, and they say, how did you do it when you didn't have Google?

[00:09:13] Joan: And.

[00:09:15] Joan: Well, for me, I'll tell you, writing this book, I was constantly googling because I kept trying to figure out my timeline. So like, I'm setting this scene in the studio, and you know, David and I are there, and I've broken my arm, and it's in a cast, and Al Gore walks in and, you know, the conventions are going on.

[00:09:55] Lindsay: You know what? It's like when your tapes started going to the network. Network. Yeah. And you didn't know, and that's some of the story you talk about in this book. And it was like, how does it get there? It just shows up. But when you talk about that in the book, there are QR codes.

[00:10:11] Lindsay: And we were discussing this upstairs, and forgive me if you guys all know this already, but I think that's such a cool thing, is that the QR code you go up, open up,

[00:10:19] Lindsay: And it opens up the memory.

[00:10:31] Joan: As a weather girl. Yeah.

[00:10:37] Joan: No.

[00:10:40] Joan: There weren't any women on, I mean, for those of you who, you know, are as old as I am. So you can remember like in the, I grew up in the fifties and sixties, there were no women on television news. I mean, it was really an all-male white industry period, across the board. And the only woman I can remember was Barbara Walters.

[00:11:24] And it was only because a family friend who was an ad salesman at a local station said, Hey, what are you gonna do when you get outta college? Like, I don't know. And I was a psychology major. I'd always thought I'd be a doctor just like my dad. And then I'd worked in a hospital right before I went away to college, and I found out pretty quickly that stitches and scalpels were likely not gonna be part of my career.

[00:12:13] Like in 1973, when I started at KCRA in Sacramento, a woman couldn't open their own charge account. Until 1972. Wow. You had to get a, if you wanted a blooming card, it had to be your husband that would get it for you, you know? And Mrs. So and so, you couldn't open a bank account, you couldn't buy property.

[00:13:04] And he said, well, in case you decide to at least ask about it, he wrote down the name of the news director and the phone number. So the next day I. I pick up the phone, and I call him, and this guy says, " You know that bill is down in sales? He told me that you might call,and if I did, and if you did, I'd be crazy if I didn't meet you.

[00:13:47] And after about five minutes, he looked at me. He says, well, clearly you know how to write an interview. Yeah. He said, I think you have something. He said, I wanna take you down to the studio and audition you. I was like. Okay, so I went, and he auditioned me, and he was very nice. He was very flattering, but he didn't have a job.

[00:14:32] There was nothing automated back then. And he had seen that. He walked right out into the parking lot with me and said, I just saw that, and I'd like to make you Sacramento's first weather girl. There are a few stations around the country that are putting weather girls on now. I'm gonna be honest with you.

[00:15:14] Lindsay: I know it, it's funny, Melvin, my husband was up there meeting Joan and asking questions about that. 'Cause it is so interesting. It is such a small group of people that does the role that you have done. And when you were thinking back in this memoir and putting those stories and really going through that process, was it sort of like different things were coming to the surface for you in terms of just realizing your journey?

[00:16:00] The first draft had 196,000, I think, and they said, " No, I mean, quite honestly, this one's probably maybe 106,000. But it's hard, you know, when you try to say, what do I want to leave? This is really kinda my legacy memoir, but I didn't wanna just give you the highlights of my career. I mean, I wanted to take you on that journey of, you know, breaking into an all-male industry as a young female.

[00:16:59] But the job was actually Sunday anchor, Monday through Friday, Street reporter. I'd never actually been a street reporter. You know who, what, when, where, and why you go to fires and political things. And everybody at my station said, " What are you thinking? How do you think you're gonna go to New York City and be a street reporter?

[00:17:47] Lindsay: Right? And I love hearing that.

[00:17:58] Lindsay: Or did they think that the camera crew, because I've had this same experience in sports, I got into sports. I didn't cover sports.

[00:18:28] And they would, they were my guys. Yeah. I mean that they were my confidence. We would be going to a certain interview, and I would be like this: I'm terrified. This is the head coach of whatever team. And they'd be like, this is fine. You know, they become your lifelines.

[00:18:48] It was the first story. Well, first of all, I should tell you my name is Joan Blunden. My dad was Dr. Blunden, and when I got to WABC, they said, " We think that you should change your name. Now, I do remember that when I was a little girl, we would go into a restaurant and you would give your name to the hostess, and you would sit and wait, and then the hostess would sometimes say, Dr.

[00:19:34] I might be famous, but not with your name. No, I did. I started the call by saying, " Remember how dad used to get crazy? I said, well, the news director here kind of feels the same way, so they want me to change my name. And I remember one of the reporters, I don't know how many of you watched, you know, kind of eyewitness news over the years, but they put together this very ethnic group of reporters, for the first time, really Eyewitness News.

[00:20:27] I said, do you think all of California looks like the Ponderosa? And I went, and finally, after a couple of days, they gave me, I'd gone on stories, just kind of watching. And I got called,d and I said, " You're gonna go on this story. And I popped my head very sheepishly into the news director's office and said, I'm going on a story.

[00:21:06] And I said, that seems pretty easy. It got changed in a nanosecond. I said, " Okay, bye.

[00:21:13] Joan: I mean, and literally, I don't even know if it took a minute to have that conversation. And I walked out. When I went to close that story, I had to do it about three times. Joan Lunden, uh, I mean Joan Lunden. But the story I went on was a bombing and conspiracy trial because the Vietnam War was going on, and some activists were blowing up recruiting offices.

[00:21:58] And I said, I don't think I'll have any time to read any magazines there. Okay, so some of you know about a film camera, that big round thing up on the top that houses the film. That's the magazine. And he was asking me, do you think you need a hundred feet of film or 300 feet of film? So he just said, " Okay, so I'll bring a couple of mags.

[00:22:41] You know? I mean, they literally explained to me, they said the next day they sent me to a fire, I jumped outta the car. There's a fire going on. I'm the reporter. I should find out what's going on. I went over to one of the firemen. I'm like, you know, how did the fires start? Again, my cameraman comes running over to me, saying," You can't talk to the fireman, you gotta talk to the man with the white hat.

[00:23:07] Lindsay: That's so funny, right? You have to wait for the PIO. I mean, it's

[00:23:11] Lindsay: But isn't it great? I think naivety is such an awesome thing. I love that you touch on that. Real quick, before I forget, what was your mom's reaction to dropping the bee?

[00:23:27] Lindsay: Yes, and you teed it up that way, which was really,

[00:23:41] Top position on the new news that was, you know, winning all the ratings, so my mom got to see me every day. And then I went off to New York, and I was on New York News. She never got to see me anymore. So she was really sad. And then I got Good Morning America, and once again, my mom got to see me, so she was happy again.

[00:24:17] Because I just thought that was so profound.

[00:24:38] I couldn't close the show, and I couldn't be called the co-host.

[00:24:44] Joan: No, there is nobody else on the show. Oh my gosh. Could do anything. But remember, in his defense,

[00:24:50] Joan: ABC had hired him from Hollywood.

[00:24:53] Joan: He had been a star on Lucas Tanner. Some of you, he was a teacher, I think of Lucas Tanner.

[00:25:04] Lindsay: And they had a different outlook, which I thought was really interesting from the book, too. At that point, NBC was very much more the news division that ran it. Yeah. ABC was very much the Hollywood side of entertainment.

[00:25:35] And it was all in gold and oranges. And our logo was a rising sun. They had Marvin Hamlisch do some nice music, not the news. They wanted to, but we didn't call our experts. Experts, we call them our family members. We. Created like a completely different kind of program that happened to absolutely take off and win the ratings for the next almost 20 years.

[00:26:29] Do not try to fight for equality. Now, this would've been 1980, she said. It's not there yet. We're not there yet. And not just in here, out there, like the country's just not there yet. And if you do that, you're gonna end up exactly where your predecessors ended up, right out the door. This is what you need to do.

[00:27:12] Lindsay: Oh.

[00:27:17] She said, I'll tell you why. " She said, " When I see in Variety that you know, somebody's been cast for a movie or for a Broadway show, I immediately write them a handwritten note. Oh my gosh, you're just absolutely perfect for this role. I can't wait to see it. Please let me know when it's gonna be coming to you know theaters.

[00:28:03] So by default, I got the interview. I really got ready for that interview, and afterwards I wrote him a beautiful thank you note, and cut it a year later. Now he is on for some big movie he was doing,g and he says, I want that same Joan Lunden that interviewed me last time Dave Hartman hears, and he's like.

[00:28:47] Lindsay: What are some of the gems that you have found through your own experience that you, that are maybe things that you have come across?

[00:29:12] I'll tell you that when Charlie Gibson came, after 10 years of being with David. He left, and they tried out a lot of different guys. I really thought Charlie was the guy; he was the Capitol Hill correspondent. He was super smart, but he was just kind of like this, every man's man, he didn't wear how bright he was.

[00:30:12] And I said, I'll take that. And we were always that way. Now, cut to about three months ago, the 50th reunion of Good Morning America. Charlie and Spencer and I went out to dinner the night before, and Charlie said, " You know, I never told you. He said, I, you know, he had read the book. He said, I saw in the book that you talked about that day that I walked in and sat down across your desk.

[00:30:55] You've gotta let the audience know that. And Charlie said, he looked at them and said. I don't think that's how I took this job. That may be the way they've done it for the last 10 years, but I don't think that's what we should be doing. And he walked outta the office, walked into my office, and I knew the second half of the story, which is that he sat down across from me and said, " We're doing this show 50/50.

[00:31:30] Lindsay: Wow.

[00:31:41] Lindsay: And that com, I mean, the camaraderie.

[00:31:44] Lindsay: My God, it's like

[00:31:45] Lindsay: Right. And you, I mean, and that's what it takes to have, I mean, chemistry equals success. It's like that in sports. But in morning shows, absolutely.

[00:31:56] And you know, your husband will tell you guys all know she's married to Craig Melvin, but it's a different time of day.

[00:32:23] I know I'm a big Law and Order fan. But you don't necessarily go over there and say hello. But I was in everybody's living room every day, and they almost, when people meet me out somewhere, I gotta tell you, even to this day, sometimes people will come up and put their arms around me and say, oh my God, I watch you every morning.

[00:33:11] And I'll tell you, when I left GMA, it was almost 1990, the end of 1997, we still didn't have social media. And to me, one of the hardest parts of leaving that show and walking outta that studio that day was disconnecting from the millions of people that shared their morning with me. And remember back then, you know, when I was on that show, there were ABC, NBC, CBS, and then later CNN.

[00:34:07] Second of all, you're not gonna be able to answer all those people. And I said. I'm sure I'll try.

[00:34:16] Joan: Yep.

[00:34:28] How do you describe what that felt like, and was that hard to deal with? Is it after so long of, you know, having such a high-profile job?

[00:34:51] That's kind of how they define themselves. Yes. But when you have such a public-facing job, that is how every, I mean, to this day I'm introduced as the former host of Good Morning America. It's also how you see yourself. It is your definition of yourself. And it's, it was really vulnerable, and it was really difficult.

[00:35:44] Publicly well-known, such a big career. And then I have the other 25 years after, but only now can I look at those 25 years where I refocused, and I focus so much on advocacy. By the way, I did 10 shows since I did GMA, but people don't realize that 'cause they weren't on national TV every single day.

[00:36:27] And I realized that in breast cancer and caregiving, in the American Heart Association testifying before the FDA to get mandatory mammogram reporting, testifying before the House Ways and Means committee in Congress to try to expand the Family and Medical Leave Act to include caregiving at the end of life, as well as newborn care.

[00:37:18] To really kind of understand that and to understand the value that you don't always have to top what you were doing before. You don't always have to do the same thing that you were doing before. And sometimes being open, you're leaving your mind open, and your heart open to other things, where maybe you could make a difference and have something to do that's really self-fulfilling.

[00:37:54] And look, we live in a world today where people are gonna be phased out of businesses. Businesses are gonna cut back. AI is gonna phase people out, and people are gonna find themselves having to reinvent themselves over and over again, as I think never before in our history.

[00:38:25] Lindsay: I also, and I love all the men that are in the audience here, but I think that women are really great at reinvention.

[00:38:33] Lindsay: Right. Well, we have to be. Not that men aren't, but yes.

[00:38:39] Joan: Whoa. Are we multitaskers?

[00:38:45] Joan: Oh, you with a breeze,

[00:39:04] Joan: Yeah, the phone call was 20 minutes after the phone call from the agent, you got the job.

[00:39:10] Joan: 20 minutes later. Congratulations, you're pregnant. And it never really occurred to me, honestly, Lindsay, to say, oh boy, bad timing. That would've been so great, I said, all right, how am I gonna pull this one off?

[00:39:44] Will you ask him if I can bring Jamie with me because I'm gonna be breastfeeding now? Just remember in 1979. Yeah. That was one of the words that the FCC said. You could not say on television.

[00:39:56] Joan: Breastfeeding. You could not say breast or breastfeeding on television. Right. And I was asking him to go to the ABC executives to ask if I could bring my baby to work.

[00:40:28] Yeah. And put a crib in there. They put a crib in my office.

[00:40:35] Joan: Oh yeah. There.

[00:40:40] Joan: And they, I really, and oh, and then we had a press conference, the first day after the show, and the PR guy took me aside and said, whatever you do, don't say that you have that baby upstairs.

[00:41:12] And I open it up to questions, first question. Time Magazine, we hear you're bringing your baby to work. How did you work that out with ABC? Like, my eyes shot to the back of the room where all the executives were, but I had to answer his question.

[00:41:28] Joan: Were they, like I said, well. ABC actually gave it to me in my contract that I could bring my baby to work because I'm breastfeeding.

[00:42:01] Lindsay: That's amazing.

[00:42:08] Lindsay: Yes.

[00:42:11] In a turret. And they had to pull up, you know, like lines to give us electricity so they could plug in the blow dryer so that the guy could blow my hair dry.

[00:42:35] Lindsay: That's so wild. My daughter came with me. I was pregnant at the Indy 500, and they wanted to put me in a two-seater to take a ride around the track, and Mario Andretti was driving, and I said, I can't, I'm like five months.

[00:43:03] Like you were in a car with Mario and ready. But no, not to. I mean, the stories you have with your that's amazing. And that's amazing that they did that. And I love that picture so

[00:43:22] I see him walking in the door to the studio with Jamie in his arms, all swaddled up, and he walks right down the center aisle as all these reporters and hands are to me. And that was the picture on the cover of every newspaper and magazine. Oh. It took us about 10 minutes before everyone realized that the story, the breaking news that day, wasn't who was the new co-host of Good Morning America?

[00:43:53] Lindsay: Did you realize that moment when you were in it? Did it feel,

[00:44:10] But quite honestly, the audience really, they had such a positive reaction. I think they saw me there. Obviously, I had read my research, I was there, I was doing the interview, and yeah, I probably had spit up on me and dirty diapers to change. And that I think endeared me to the public. I will tell you something else that I just learned recently from one of the guys who was the producer when I first went there.

[00:44:53] And he's like, why? Because like nobody wants to see a pregnant woman walking down the street, let alone on their TV while they're eating breakfast for God's sake. And the producer said," Well, that's really not the reaction that we're getting from our audience. Like we've had a real, a really positive reaction from the audience.

[00:45:39] And he said, and we decided not to tell you that at the time. I said, I'm so glad you'd never told me right at the time that the head of entertainment wanted me off the show 'cause I looked so big.

[00:45:51] Joan: And by the way, you know, now you can have these cute little maternity-right clothes with a baby bump. We wore tents.

[00:46:00] Joan: They were tents. So, I mean, I get it that he was saying that maybe it wasn't so appealing.

[00:46:16] Joan: Listen to the mumbling. I've covered five presidents in three Olympics, but it's the seven kids I know that always get the applause, you know?

[00:46:26] Joan: Oh, yes. Here they are. Seven. Now they've grown up a little. The younger ones, the two sets of twins, are now 21 and 23. Wow. Yes. We've had four of them in college for the last four years, and my older girls, who literally grew up in that studio, are now 37, 43, and 45, and two of them are married with little kids of their own.

[00:46:54] Lindsay: Yes.

[00:46:56] Lindsay: Yes. It was awesome to see them back there. What would you say as you think back about your journey? What is the thing that no one tells you?

[00:47:12] Lindsay: So we've gotten into a routine where he always says goodbye in the morning, which I love. Except that sometimes I can't go back to sleep, so that is really nice. So that is one of the things I think if that didn't happen, I would not feel that connection. So that's nice. But yes. So for a hot minute I do.

[00:47:35] Joan: Yeah. Boy, is it very early. And, when it came to the very end, I was quite honestly just beyond exhausted. 20 years of sleep deprivation. And I was really kind of yearning for some normalcy in my life. And I'd met a wonderful man that I knew I wanted to spend my life with.

[00:48:28] Lindsay: Right. So you're like, okay, the outcome is all right,

[00:48:43] And we had these two sets of twins and, you know, now they're just coming out of college. And I've done all of these, in my opinion, different kinds of. Programs and advocacy work. That has meant so much to me, and I've challenged myself. I, for a couple of years, signed on at Lehigh University, and I taught public health and the media, like that was really drawing outside the line, coloring outside the lines, and it was so much work.

[00:49:43] I said, so do you get 'em on those laptops? A couple of people? I said, are you telling me that you get it all? Of your news on your phones,every hand in the whole audience. I said, okay, so the first thing we're gonna do is you are gonna close those laptops. I said, 'cause I don't know whether you're really taking notes or whether you're trying to decide between the red Nikes and the white Nikes.

[00:50:26] I mean, I was so startled by it. And so I said, from now on, this is a no-technology class. And they were like, how are we gonna take notes? I said, I will bring paper and pens. " And the next time I brought paper and pens, and I said," These are, and I, every one of those classes I booked, I ran it like a TV show, and I booked a guest.

[00:50:54] Lindsay: Wow.

[00:51:11] And I mean, and after a couple of classes, they weren't asking questions that said, from now on, you're gonna take two index cards with you, and you're gonna write out three questions. When you come into class, you'll hand me one that's taking roll call, and then you'll be ready. And as soon as I would introduce a guest and I would ask the first couple of questions, I would call on them, and they would have to sit up, like, " Would you please ask question two?

[00:51:39] Lindsay: That's really cool.

[00:51:45] Lindsay: Yeah.

[00:51:56] Lindsay: That sounds awesome though, that I love that you thought about that, and that those guests that you had there, certainly incredible. I wanted to ask you about your advocacy that you mentioned, and a funny story. When I met Joan, we were upstairs in the McCall room, and I said, " Oh, it's so funny. Four years, four hours earlier, I was there with our brownie troop because we were having a brownie meeting in that same room.

[00:52:43] Joan: The bald picture?

[00:52:44] the bald picture while you were going through cancer and getting treatment.

[00:53:03] And she said, oh, you gotta do it right away, otherwise the tabloids will have you dead. And I said, I know that. And she said, I'm gonna have you come in. I won't even put your name on the guest list because she said, I don't want you to have to walk in. And everyone's gonna say, o" Oh, Joan, hi. Why are you here?

[00:53:38] And I knew I'd have to sit there and say it to everyone. And before I left, Robin said, I'm gonna tell you another thing to do. Shave your head. Don't let cancer do it to you. You're gonna have a year of chemo. You're gonna lose your hair. Don't let the cancer do it to you; you do it. So that day I went back up to Greenwich.

[00:54:13] Lindsay: There's a picture. Is that?

[00:54:39] Gotta get my phone on. Have to get to some videotape. I have to video it. And, so People magazine called, and I've done many covers of People Magazine, and they said, "We really want you to do this, and you don't have to do it, Paul, but we'll see when we get there. They came to my house, and we did one shot with a wig.

[00:55:23] And the editor in chief said, not only do you know how iconic that is, but do you know how many people will be inspired by this?

[00:55:31] Joan: I said, go for it. Go for it. Run with it. And, I've had, I remember one woman came up to me one time and said, when I got diagnosed with cancer, all I could think of when they told me that, was that picture of you on the cover of People.

[00:56:03] Lindsay: What did that mean to you?

[00:56:11] Lindsay: How old were they?

[00:56:33] But she's going to, you know, not have her hair because this medicine makes you lose your hair. And they were really worried. You know, and you were, I always worried about how my life and the fact that I signed up for it. It's funny, you never actually sign a piece of paper one day that says, from now on, every nuance of my life is fair game for the public.

[00:57:23] And I said, " That's not reality. I'm happy to say that they grew up to be three amazing, lovely young women. The four younger ones kind of know about my life, but not completely. I think it still kind of astounds them when we go in somewhere, and somebody fawns over me, and they're like. She's just our mother because they didn't grow up in it.

[00:57:55] You know, checked me on all kinds of things, and the four younger ones now are gonna read it. And it's almost like, I feel like they're gonna read about a person in history, but not necessarily their mother.

[00:58:25] Yep. And they, it's like a full-on commercial. Yeah. And these women, it's like someone in their home, and they're like, Joan's coming back. And it was, I mean,

[00:58:34] Lindsay: Yes.

[00:58:49] Lindsay: Yeah. And they're, do your daughters or your kids that are very familiar with their story, did they talk to you about what a badass you are?

[00:59:09] Lindsay: That's awesome.

[00:59:12] Lindsay: What does that mean to you? You're Joan Lunden.

[00:59:32] You were everything important in our lives, and you showed us that we could be more than one thing. So Lindsay is right here.

[00:59:44] Joan: Ran my company for 12 years. Is married to Evan, that's Parker and Leo. They call me Jojo. And over here, that's my Jamie, that's the one I took to work with me that first day.

[01:00:21] Lindsay: Oh, nice.

[01:00:32] Lindsay: Oh, wow.

[01:00:35] Lindsay: That's Wow, what a beautiful family. I think there's a lot more that we could cover. I mean, there are so many great stories, but we were going to open it up for questions,

[01:00:46] Lindsay: Yeah, I mean, we, like, there are so many ways that you were a trailblazer, and I know that, you know, there are stories in here too that are about just things that you've overcome, and things breaking glass ceilings in many ways too. So all of that. But I do, I realize it's eight 16.

[01:01:03] If anyone has a question, I would just ask that you come up and queue up here and ask a question to the mic so we can capture it.

[01:01:16] Maybe we can bring the microphone over to you. There's a quick, oh, there, can you go over there? Do you mind? All right. And then we'll be able to see your pretty face too.

[01:01:35] Audience Member 1: Hi. I am really happy to be here, to listen to you talk about your story and your activism. Do you still do any advocacy and activism? 'Cause it's something that I am involved with right now, and, you know, we do the book signing. I wanted to, you know, briefly just talk to you about that.

[01:02:21] Joan: So I'll take a few of those things. First of all, I've never, ever, before talked about any sexual harassment that I got in my career until this book. So I'll leave it at that, and you can find the chapter called Fire Island Fiasco. It was back at a time when I didn't even think that the phrase HR existed.

[01:03:20] My husband always says, please just say yes. Don't try to tell them all the things you're working on.

[01:03:27] Joan: But I am still involved in several different health campaigns. I probably do a couple of dozen speeches a year in a lot of different categories, you know, whether it's breast cancer, American heart, whether it's caregiving, whether it's successful aging, whether it's women's health, or sometimes just town halls.

[01:03:53] Lindsay: Really?

[01:04:03] And so I went on tour with Tony Robbins right after leaving GMA for two years. We did 24 speeches a year in arenas with 24,000. 'Cause that's Tony. And it was like baptism by fire. But I can tell you that I'm a walking example, that you can turn a complete fear into a complete passion because I do a tremendous amount of it.

[01:04:49] I'm gonna keep working.

[01:05:11] Why did you feel that? Now is the right time to be talking about those examples.

[01:05:32] That wasn't me. But at the same time, if I'm going to tell my life story, I'm just not gonna whitewash it and paint it as all like, oh, it was really all easy. Like, like tell the challenging times as well, and then tell how you kinda muddled through and navigated through it. And to me,t I felt that at this time, I felt that it was important to do.

[01:05:58] Audience Member 2: Well, I have, yeah, a question. I am relating very much to what you said. I came to New York in 1983 from Wisconsin, one of those little girls, you know, just trying to make it till you fake it or fake it till you make it. And, you know, I've endured being the only woman, even now in my business.

[01:06:39] And I, how did you know what you were? Good at, other than that, you were on TV for 25 years,

[01:06:57] I think you have to like to explore a little, you can even think back to what you were passionate about, what really kind of, you know, interested you in your younger life.

[01:07:08] Joan: Yeah. And sometimes those things can be brought up. I mean, personally, you know, I had always thought that I was going to be a doctor.

[01:07:23] Lindsay: Oh, really?

[01:07:35] Dedicated to that idea that I would carry that torch. And then I didn't do it. But ironically, getting breast cancer kind of, and by the way, I hogged all of the medical stories at GMA, all the health stories. And then when I got breast cancer, it was like, weirdly, this gift got dropped in my lap that I said, oh my God, with my platform I can learn everything I can about breast cancer and take my phone into every single appointment and share it with women.

[01:08:30] And pushed it over even more into advocacy, you know? And, you know, if you've taken care of a husband as they've been ill, if you've taken care of older parents, like these are all things, like, I got into the advocacy for senior care and for successful aging by taking care of my mom.

[01:08:55] And boom, you have to learn about assisted living overnight, and that there are eight different levels of assisted living. And so, you know, as I go through different chapters of my life that I've kind of gone through and I've said, you know what? I should work on that. I have a platform, especially, I should work on that.

[01:09:33] Lindsay: them. I love puzzles.

[01:09:41] 'cause I could probably do a thousand-piece puzzle. Don't think it would be a great show. Oh my God. I could probably do a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle in a few hours, which means that it's not as good for my mind anymore because now my mind has kind of learned to do it. They say that the things that will keep your cognitive thinking really, as good as it can be are to learn new things, new languages. There are a million ways to go on babble or any of the things and learn languages or to learn something new, whether it's crocheting or knitting or gardening or piano or whatever it is. and reading and joining a book club so that you not only read, but also are with other people.

[01:10:48] Exercise, and that's one of the most important things because that's what not only creates the blood and the oxygen going up to your brain so that all those little neurons start working, but those are the neurons that best connect to the brainstem. So I've done a lot of studying on this. I love it.

[01:11:12] Joan: Oh, a lot of different things, but I mean, and I, my husband and I, or I got another one for you. So when I was 29 years old, you know what I'm gonna say? When I was 29, I got married, and I married a guy who's 39 and we had three great girls, but it didn't work out.

[01:11:53] Lindsay: That's so great.

[01:11:56] Lindsay: Yeah.

[01:12:03] I wanna know what that little chip is that you have inside you that the rest of us don't have.

[01:12:30] Joan: Yeah.

[01:12:36] Joan: Thank you.

[01:12:45] Joan: Yes.

[01:12:48] Joan: Yes.

[01:12:49] Joan: I do the borders first, but while I'm doing the borders, I look at what the main different things are in the puzzle. So if I see a red barn, I'll start pulling all the reds over here. Yeah. If there are people, I put all the faces over here. I'm a certain little, there's a flag in it, like pick those out.

[01:13:14] Lindsay: Yeah.

[01:13:14] Lindsay: Great. Alright.

[01:13:27] As soon as you're finished with it, you just like, do this. I said, yeah, like, guys fished, they stand out there forever. They finally catch the fish. What do they do? They threw the damn thing back in.

[01:13:40] Joan: Like, come on.

[01:13:42] Joan: It's done. I completed it. It's done. I do take pictures. I just, some of you know, I've shared them on Facebook.

[01:14:19] So I really loved hearing that story. But also, I just think anybody out there that is feeling stressed or thinking about their worth in terms of the job that you do and what that means, I mean, God knows I have been there, you know, stepping away from a place like ESPN to do different things and then feeling like, whoa, where am I?

[01:15:08] It doesn't have to be the forever thing, and when this chapter is done, maybe it's okay to just let it be done and move on to the next thing. That's really like speaking to you at that time. Maybe that's how it's supposed to be. I don't know, just my thinking, but I did really think it was cool how she talked about that.

[01:15:46] So I thought that was really cool. Anyway, Joan, thank you. If you don't have the book, go get it. It's called Joan. It's amazing. Also, I would love to hear what you think about this episode, and thoughts and questions that you have. So I encourage you to follow me socially if you don't, Lindsey @lindsaycz on Instagram.

[01:16:21] Thanks so much for joining me. I can't wait to see you back here next week. Please don't forget, follow and subscribe to Things No One Tells You. And of course, if you're listening to Apple Podcasts, don't forget to leave a five-star review because that's really what helps people get more. Listeners, we would love to grow this community.