The Person Who Believed In Me

Before Ian Rowe became a visionary educator, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, founder of Vertex Partnership Academy, and author of the book Agency, he was a 12 year old kid from Queens standing in his family's living room, crying and pleading with his Jamaican immigrant parents to let him stay at a junior high school that was about to become all black after white families fled to a newly created annex. Then Linda Talish, his sixth grade teacher at PS 156 in Laurelton, Queens, gave him something he didn't even know he needed: the courage to challenge his parents for the very first time. In this deeply personal and unguarded conversation, one of education's most influential and controversial voices sits down with David Begnaud to share the story of the woman who believed in him when he was just beginning to believe in himself.

Ian opens up about meeting Ms. Talish in sixth grade, a Jewish teacher who talked about her heritage with a certain reverence and pride, even in the midst of racial tension that was tearing apart their small middle class Queens neighborhood. He shares what it was like growing up as the son of parents who came to the United States in 1968, the year of Martin Luther King's assassination, with his father becoming one of the first black engineers at IBM and his mother a financial securities analyst at Manufacturer's Hanover Bank.

He reflects on the Sunday night before transfer papers were due, standing in front of his parents in their living room, begging and crying to stay at junior high school 231, and saying the words that changed everything: Just because everyone that's left is black, why does it have to be bad?.

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Chapters ☀️
Chapters

00:00:00 Intro: The Teacher Who Gave Him the Courage to Say No
00:00:40 The Racial Tension in Laurelton: When the White Kids Left
00:03:54 The Play That Changed Everything: Welcome Back, Sauter
00:14:24 The Sunday Night I Challenged My Parents
00:22:42 Just Because Everyone That's Left Is Black, Why Does It Have to Be Bad?
00:27:27 From Brooklyn Tech to Cornell at 16: Working My Butt Off
00:28:10 Vertex Partnership Academy: Creating Coming of Agency Moments
00:38:51 The Four Cardinal Virtues: Courage, Justice, Temperance, and Wisdom
00:53:11 The Teachers Union Sued Us: Six Days Before We Opened
01:00:49 The Success Sequence: Education, Work, Marriage, Then Children
00:56:38 Social Capital Is the Currency of America
01:08:31 From 470 Million Dollars at Gates to Running Individual Schools
01:19:06 Have You Done Your Best? The Booker T. Washington Lecture

ABOUT THIS PODCAST:
The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew and often called "America's storyteller." In each episode, David sits down with world-class guests to ask one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? Big names. Honest stories. Relatable takeaways. Different paths — same question.

David is also a CBS News contributor and host of the weekly segment Beg Knows America, which airs every Monday morning.

Host: David Begnaud

Guest: Ian Rowe

Executive Producer: Olivier Delfosse

Booker: Sully Bloch

Director of Photography: Foster Parks

Live Production Technician: Joseph Gabay & Will Whitley (Statik Creative)

Social: Maxim Trofimenko, Kylee Anderson, Gracie Pekrul

Theme Music: Slipstream

Post-Production: Longwave Digital, David & Luana Co.

CONNECT WITH US:

The Person Who Believed In Me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/believedpodcast

Before Margaret Cho became a legendary comedian, Emmy-nominated actor, and one of the most influential voices in stand-up comedy, she was a 15-year-old kid who had just been expelled from one of San Francisco's most prestigious high schools for truancy and bad grades, with parents who had essentially given up on her. Then James Jackson, an English teacher with a Southern drawl, a speech impediment, and a vintage motorcycle, started writing notes in the margins of her essays that changed everything: A+, so great, brilliant, funny. In this deeply personal and unguarded conversation, the trailblazing comedian sits down with David Begnaud to share the story of the man who believed in her when she was just trying to blend into the walls.

Margaret opens up about meeting Mr. Jackson at the School of the Arts in San Francisco, a teacher who rode a motorcycle, wore a leather jacket with cigarettes in the sleeve, and spoke like a Southern Barbara Walters. She talks about the composition book he gave her at the beginning of the year, how his handwritten encouragement in the margins reignited the excellent student she had forgotten she was, and why his gentle belief felt so tender it was almost poetic. She shares what it was like to watch him get bullied by jocks in the classroom for being gay, how that made her feel as a closeted teenager herself, and the day she and her best friend Jerry walked out of school forever after those same jocks mocked Mr. Jackson's murder. She reflects on learning decades later that Mr. Jackson had been killed by a homeless teenager he had taken in, and how court documents revealed allegations that Mr. Jackson had sexually abused the boy who killed him.

There's also a raw reflection on trauma, survival, and what it means to separate the art from the artist. Margaret talks about being sexually abused by multiple people as a young girl in the 1970s and 80s, a time when young girl sexuality was disturbingly normalized, and how her parents denied it happened and still refuse to talk about it today. She opens up about being raped in high school, headlining the first primetime ABC sitcom starring an Asian American woman in 1994, and being told by network executives that she was too fat to play herself. She shares what it felt like to lose 30 pounds in two weeks on fen-fen, urinate blood in her trailer from kidney failure, and be told not to gain the weight back even after her hair fell out. She reflects on spending a year and nine months in treatment for addiction, learning to wear sobriety like a loose garment, and why comedy is a coping mechanism that gives you hope by making you take an unexpected breath. As complicated as the story is as we present it, Margaret reflects on what she would want to say to Mr. Jackson, why his encouragement led her to encourage younger comedians the same way, and why she's really happy now after arranging her life in the right way.

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Chapters ☀️
Chapters

00:00:00 Intro: The Teacher Who Wrote Notes in the Margins
00:02:34 The Composition Book: When an Adult Finally Noticed
00:07:27 A Southern Barbara Walters on a Motorcycle
00:12:39 The Murder That Changed Everything
00:19:23 Growing Up in a Gay Bookstore: Finding Safety
00:25:20 A Lot of People: The Sexual Abuse Nobody Wanted to Hear About
00:32:48 Jerry: The 40-Year Friendship That Wasn't Platonic or Romantic
00:38:20 Too Fat to Play Myself: The ABC Show That Broke Her
00:43:14 A Year and Nine Months: Institutionalized and Determined to Live
00:47:13 Comedy as a Shield and a Sword: The Social Contract
00:53:19 Purge Makes Plenty: Writing a Joke Every Morning

ABOUT THIS PODCAST:
The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew and often called "America's storyteller." In each episode, David sits down with world-class guests to ask one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? Big names. Honest stories. Relatable takeaways. Different paths — same question.

David is also a CBS News contributor and host of the weekly segment Beg Knows America, which airs every Monday morning.

Host: David Begnaud

Guest: Margaret Cho

Executive Producer: David Begnaud, Olivier Delfosse

Booker: Sully Bloch

Director of Photography: Foster Parks

Live Production Technician: Joseph Gabay & Will Whitley (Statik Creative)

Social: Maxim Trofimenko, Kylee Anderson, Gracie Pekrul

Theme Music: Slipstream

Post-Production: Longwave Digital & David & Luana Co.

CONNECT WITH US:

The Person Who Believed In Me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/believedpodcast

Photo Credits:
Margaret Cho, Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts Yearbook

Before Tom Daley became one of the most decorated divers in British history with five Olympic medals and five Olympic Games under his belt, he was a terrified nine year old standing on the end of a diving board, crying his eyes out and refusing to jump into the pool. Then Andy Banks, the head coach at Plymouth Diving Club, walked in and said the words that almost ended everything before it started: Tom Daley will never be a diver for as long as he'll live. In this deeply personal and unguarded conversation, the Olympic champion sits down with David Begnaud to share the story of the coach who doubted him at first, then never stopped believing in him, and how that belief carried him through bullying, loss, and the darkest years of his life.
Tom opens up about the moment Andy pulled him aside at 12 years old and asked if he wanted to go to the Beijing Olympics in 2008, laying out a roadmap for a kid who would become the youngest British diver to compete at an Olympic Games at just 14 years and 81 days old. He talks about coming back from Beijing and enduring brutal physical and emotional bullying at school, getting rugby tackled in the field and threatened to have his legs broken, all while trying to process what it meant to be an Olympian in eighth grade. He shares what it felt like to lose his father to a brain tumor at 17, just one year before the London 2012 Olympics, and how his dad never cared about results, only that Tom was 18th best in the whole country even if he came dead last. He reflects on meeting Dustin Lance Black, the Oscar winning screenwriter who flew to the UK to see him, only to be told by management that dating an LGBTQ activist would be bad for his image, and how falling in love felt like one more thing he loved that the world said was wrong.
There's also a raw reflection on fear, identity, and what it means to thrive under pressure. Tom talks about hitting his head twice while diving, why Andy taught him that the day you stop being scared on the board is the day something goes wrong, and how knitting became the reason he was able to win Olympic gold at the Tokyo 2020 Games. He opens up about coming out at 19 through a YouTube video because he was tired of being misquoted and feeling ashamed, why he believes vulnerability is a practice and not a destination, and how becoming Papa to Robbie and Phoenix is the role he's most proud of beyond all his Olympic medals. He shares what it's like to retire at 30 and wake up every day wondering if he could do one more Olympics in LA 2028, why there's no such thing as good luck only good preparation, and why the greatest form of activism is just living your authentic life every single day. And he reflects on what his father, who recorded everything up until two days before he died, would want the world to know.
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Chapters ☀️
Chapters

00:00:00 Intro: The Coach Who Said He'd Never Make It
00:06:35 Standing on the Board, Crying: The Day Andy Walked In
00:08:52 Do You Want to Go to Beijing? The 12-Year-Old's Olympic Plan
00:13:29 The Perfectionist Who Felt Everything Too Deeply
00:16:13 Titian: Learning to Compete Every Single Day
00:17:59 It's About Bloody Time: Winning Gold After Four Olympics
00:18:26 The Bullying After Beijing: When Being an Olympian Made It Worse
00:20:21 Everything I Loved Got Taken Away: Dad, Diving, and Being Gay
00:30:17 18th in Rio: The God Wink and Your Story Doesn't End Here
00:40:13 The Fear Is What Stops You Making Mistakes
00:41:45 Knitting Saved My Olympic Gold: Finding Calm in the Chaos
00:43:13 Nothing Will Ever Compare: Life After Retirement at 30
00:44:34 Papa: The Role I'm Most Proud Of Beyond All the Medals
00:46:05 LA 2028: Could I Do One More?
00:51:16 The Perfect Little Boy Syndrome: Overachieving to Hide Being Gay

ABOUT THIS PODCAST:
The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew and often called "America's storyteller." In each episode, David sits down with world-class guests to ask one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? Big names. Honest stories. Relatable takeaways. Different paths — same question.
David is also a CBS News contributor and host of the weekly segment Beg Knows America, which airs every Monday morning.
Host: David Begnaud
Guest: Tom Daley
Executive Producer: Olivier Delfosse
Associate Producer: Jonah Johnson
Booker: Sully Bloch
Director of Photography: Foster Parks
Live Production Technician: Joseph Gabay & Will Whitley (Statik Creative)
Social Media: Maxim Trofimenko, Kylee Anderson, Gracie Pekrul
Theme Music: Slipstream
Post-Production: Longwave Digital, David & Luana Co.
CONNECT WITH US:
The Person Who Believed In Me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/believedpodcast

Before Harvey Mason Jr. became the CEO of the Recording Academy and a legendary music producer who worked with Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, and Michael Jackson, he was a college basketball player at the University of Arizona headed to the NBA. Then a torn ACL ended his career in one awkward landing, leaving him watching soap operas in a dorm room, depressed and driving around Tucson pitching jingles to Chinese buffets and brake shops. In this deeply personal and unguarded conversation, the Grammy executive sits down with David Begnaud to share the story of the man who believed in him when he was still figuring out who he was: Clive Davis, the legendary music mogul who put him in a room with Aretha Franklin and changed everything.

Harvey opens up about the day he walked into Clive's bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel, nervous and blown away by the flowers and the speakers and the man who had signed his father as an artist decades earlier. He talks about playing I Like Them Girls for Clive, watching him close his eyes and nod his head, and getting the yes that gave him a confidence boost he didn't know he needed. He shares what it was like to produce Aretha's vocals, pushing her so hard she sent a furious letter to Clive saying Harvey wasn't the right producer, only to send him flowers the next day after hearing the recording and calling it one of her favorite vocals ever. He reflects on recording Whitney Houston for seven hours when she'd only promised him 15 minutes, convincing her to keep going by saying his only job was to make fans say that's the best Whitney Houston song I've ever heard.

There's also a raw reflection on belief, identity, and what it means to be pushed. Harvey talks about his father, drummer Harvey Mason Sr., who believed so fiercely in him that it became both a gift and a weight, and how that shaped the way he raised his own kids. He opens up about playing for Coach Lute Olson at Arizona, feeling like Olson didn't believe in him for years, and only realizing decades later that the hardest coaching was actually the deepest belief. He shares what he learned from teammate Steve Kerr, who asked the team on a bus ride how can you be sleeping on the way to the game? and taught him there was another level to greatness. And he reflects on what it means to be the first Black CEO of the Recording Academy, why he's never content, and why the truth is when you're in the moment of somebody believing in you, sometimes it doesn't feel like belief at all.

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Chapters ☀️
Chapters

00:00:00 Intro: The Man Who Believed When the Dream Ended
00:02:02 The Bungalow Meeting: When Clive Davis Said Yes
00:09:27 Producing Aretha: The Flowers After the Fury
00:13:36 Seven Hours with Whitney: Negotiating with a Legend
00:15:53 What Makes a Great Producer: Listening and Serving
00:18:21 The Weekend Controversy: Leading Through Change
00:20:45 Coach Olson: The Belief That Felt Like Doubt
00:26:26 The Final Four and Steve Kerr's Leadership
00:28:13 The Torn ACL: When Basketball Dreams Die
00:29:47 Selling Jingles in Tucson: The Pivot to Music
00:43:35 The Pressure of a Legendary Father
00:42:31 I Love Watching You Play: Parenting Differently
00:48:26 First Black CEO of the Recording Academy
00:51:10 Coach Olson's Final Words: You'll Be As Successful
00:52:08 Never Fulfilled: The Lists and the Chase
00:56:20 To Clive: You Changed the Trajectory of My Life
00:59:11 The Ultimate Form of Belief: When It Feels Like Doubt

ABOUT THIS PODCAST:
The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew and often called "America's storyteller." In each episode, David sits down with world-class guests to ask one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? Big names. Honest stories. Relatable takeaways. Different paths — same question.

David is also a CBS News contributor and host of the weekly segment Beg Knows America, which airs every Monday morning.

Host: David Begnaud

Guest: Harvey Mason Jr.

Executive Producer: Olivier Delfosse

Associate Producer: Jonah Johnson

Booker: Sully Bloch

Director of Photography: Foster Parks

Live Production Technician: Joseph Gabay & Will Whitley (Statik Creative)

Director of Social: Mariah Maull

Theme Music: Slipstream

Post-Production: Longwave Digital

CONNECT WITH US:

The Person Who Believed In Me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/believedpodcast

Before Sebastian Maniscalco became one of the highest paid comedians in the world — selling out five shows at Madison Square Garden and earning his own Sirius XM channel — he was a waiter at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills, spending seven years serving nuts to celebrities while bombing at open mics. Then Mitzi Shore, the legendary owner of the Comedy Store, saw something in him that the rest of the industry had missed. In this deeply personal conversation, Sebastian sits down with David Begnaud to share the story of the woman who believed in him when he barely knew her, and how she gave him the one thing he needed most: a place to belong.

Sebastian opens up about the moment Mitzi grabbed him after his audition and said the words that changed everything: Come back for 10 minutes next week. He talks about skipping straight to paid regular status, getting hot spots one week and 1:30 a.m. slots in front of four people the next, and how Mitzi manipulated lineups to build his thick skin without him realizing it. His relationship with her was never verbal — her love came through the stage time she gave him, and his came through never letting her down.

There's also a raw reflection on family and work ethic. Sebastian's father Cecilion, a 79-year-old hairdresser, still cuts hair and refuses to retire because he believes stopping means dying. He rented Sebastian a lawnmower as a kid to teach him about business expenses — making him cut grass while allergic to it — and after a quadruple bypass, his first question from the hospital bed was when he could go back to work. Sebastian bought his parents cars last year, because the journey was never just his. He covers a lot of ground

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Chapters ☀️ Chapters

00:00:00 Intro: The Woman Who Gave Him a Stage
00:03:00 Why Her? The Audition That Changed Everything
00:09:29 The Hulk Hogan Documentary: A Morning Cry About Family
00:11:20 From Anger to Disbelief: Finding His Voice on Stage
00:13:36 Seven Years at the Four Seasons: The Nuts That Never Got Stale
00:16:18 Renting the Lawnmower: Learning Business from Dad
00:21:40 Selling Satellite Dishes in the Ghetto: The Kiosk Days
00:29:54 The Photo That Made Him Cry: When They Were a Unit
00:33:37 AI and Comedy: Using Technology to Brainstorm Ideas
00:39:53 The Grind: Boxing Rings, Bowling Alleys, and Blood-Stained Canvas
00:42:05 The Sandman Moment: Worst Night Ever, Best Lesson Learned
00:45:40 From 91 People to 91,000 Tickets: The Madison Square Garden Journey
00:47:39 The Introvert Comedian: Steam Rooms and Recharging Alone
00:52:36 The SNL Sketch: When Marcello Called
00:53:59 Thank You, Mitzi: A Relationship From Afar

ABOUT THIS PODCAST:

The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew. In each episode, David asks one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? David is also a CBS News contributor and host of Beg Knows America, airing every Monday morning.

Host: David Begnaud

Guest: Sebastian Maniscalco

Executive Producer: Olivier Delfosse

Associate Producer: Jonah Johnson

Booker: Sully Bloch

Director of Photography: Foster Parks

Live Production: Joseph Gabay & Will Whitley (Statik Creative)

Social: Mariah Maull, Maxim Trofimenko, Kylee Anderson

Theme Music: Slipstream

Post-Production: Longwave Digital

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/believedpodcast