Megan McCain has entered the chat. Hello. Welcome to Megan McCain has entered the chat. Today we are going to mix things up a little bit. We are actually not really going to do a very political show. We are going to do a special Valentine's Day show. It's all about love and relationships and marriage because I'm always curious about how other couples make it work in the wild world we're in. So it's amazing to welcome my friend Jules Solomon and her husband, actor Jonathan Sheck. And then Peter and Jen Hagseth, you know Pete from, the host of Fox and Friends Weekend. And they both are here to talk about how they make their relationships work, marriage, kids, all the things. And I had a really fun time interviewing all of them, Miranda. And it's nice to switch it up a little bit to do a theme show because we love a theme here.

At this podcast and we love a good love story. So that's always fun, too.

Yes. And I want to tell you, I spent Friday night with my daughter throwing up on me starting at midnight until six in the morning, like every 45 minutes, every half hour. Poor thing had a stomach flu. I was like this. People want to talk about love and marriage and the flowers, dates, whatever. No, this is marriage. When your husband is washing the sheets and putting them in the washer and dryer and you're helping your daughter. I'm bathing her and getting all the cool towels and trying to get her to stop throwing up and texting the doctor and all the things. And that is marriage to me, is the puke at two in the. I hope Ben still can find me somehow attractive again because there's vomit all over myself right now. But she's totally fine. It was just one night thing, thank God. Just FYI. But that's what I did on Friday night. All night long.

Yeah, that's lovely. I'm trying to remember what we did Friday night. My daughter had a school Valentine's dance. Her best friend's mom was like chaperoning. And she sent me a very cute, very awkward picture of Coco with her boyfriend. I will send you a text of it. She got a little boyfriend and I'll send you a picture because it's very awkward. She thought the whole thing was going to be slow dancing. She's seven. She has no idea what. Yeah, the entire time was going to be slow dancing. And she was like very excited. And I said, no, it's going to be like how you dance in your room where you stand in a circle with your girlfriends and you just jump up and down.

Totally wanted to wear high heels, and.

She made me curl her hair, and she wore makeup. Oh, my God. It was adorable.

I love that she's getting so big. Are you and Nick doing anything for Valentine's Day? Do you care?

I mean, it's on a Wednesday, and he was a server and bartender for ten years of our relationship, so we've never made Valentine's day, like, a thing. So he loves to cook, so he will probably cook something special. I'm not sure. We probably won't do anything special just because we don't really do Valentine's Day. Yeah, I got stuff for the girls.

That's cute. Yeah. Valentine's Day is tricky because I was single for a long time. I didn't get married till I was 31 or 32. I don't remember. 32, I think. And I always want Valentine's Day also to be singles awareness day. And I want people who are single and maybe not in a relationship not to feel like this is an awful day. So I do galentines and palantines, too. I, too, am not like. I think it's kind of like a corporate holiday. Ben and I don't have plans, so I don't know if that makes me, like, a bad wife. I have no idea. But it's a complicated holiday, and like I said, with this show today, I hope that we're not only just talking about love and marriage, but all these people are giving advice. If you're single as well, which I always love some good love advice. And it's a weird holiday, but I feel so forced. Right.

Like, in school that you had to do the Valentine's exchange, and there's, like, a lot of obligatory things that are attached to the day, and I don't always love that part of it. But if you feel like doing something, do it. And I like that of it. But, yeah, we will exchange, like, small gifts or whatever, and it's not a huge deal, so there's never any expectations.

Let's just put it that way. Those candy hearts with the words on it are some of my favorite candy.

Though I will say those things are delicious.

Actually.

I do. I expect those.

Yeah, expect those, for sure. I changed my mind. I'm expecting that on Valentine's Day as well. Yes. And we have a political show coming up on Wednesday, so don't think that we are just, like, bucking everything. We got to mix it up once in a while, you know what I mean? I just don't want to just do horse race every single episode, and it's such a bummer right now. Politics is such a bummer. And yeah, I'm really excited to do this theme. I also want to give a little disclaimer. Next Monday is President's day. We're actually not having an episode. I have to actually go to Florida for a speech and then the studio is closed on Monday and it was just too complicated. And I know you have two kids. Monday is obviously president's day off when we record and no one has childcare. We have to take care of our kids, obviously, when they don't have school. Totally amazing. And vine. But we will not have an episode next Monday. Please forgive us. We were still here. Every time I don't do something, if I don't show up at something or something doesn't happen, people are like, are you canceled?

Did you get sick? Yes. Did you get fired? No. We are just not having one on Monday. But we will make it up to you. We're going to figure out a way to make it up to you. I promise.

We'll tack an extra show on at the end.

We'll do an extra show. I think we should figure out to do another special like this. And I got to brainstorm what it's going to be, but we'll get there. Anything else you want to share? Miranda?

Happy Valentine's Day.

Happy Valentine's Day. I love you. It's important to celebrate all forms of love, friendship, love, romantic love, family, love of the housewives, love of pop culture. Oh, last final thing, do you care about the Super Bowl?

I mean, I watched it. It was fine. I don't every, all I've seen of it are pictures of Taylor Swift and her boyfriend, like hugging at the end. And so I guess that's nice and cute. I thought Usher did a great job and I got really excited when ludicrous me, too came out at the end.

I was like, yes. The only thing I cared about too was Usher. And then when that, yeah, I was like, that is like the siren song for older millennials. That beat with Usher dancing, it was.

Almost like a whistle. I was just like, uh oh, someone give me a jello shot.

The other thing is I totally want us to go to Las Vegas to see Usher's residency because it's supposed to be incredible. And then seeing him last night, I was like, God, he's such an, I have somehow forgotten what an amazing performer he is. And aging like wine. Totally fantastic. So that's on my new amazing catalog of music.

He should have done the super bowl forever ago. But I'm so glad that we got it last night because it was so good. Yeah, my littlest got up and started just dancing on her own. Music was so good. And then I was horribly embarrassing. Coco, my oldest, because I was, like, singing and dancing and she's like, oh, she's like doing that thing where she's like, covering her eyes like it's a hat. Because she just could not stand the side of me.

I saw these memes that were like, now we're the demo. Like, the boomers are no longer the demo for the Super bowl. Now we are so glad the Super.

Bowl music is finally good and it's not boring anymore. He's like, no, we're just old now.

And it's like, oh, no, I know. I was like, it's the way we work with our parents. When, I don't know, whatever, like Stevie Nix or someone performed, I was like.

I was like, no offense. I remember when the who came out and I was like, call me when the game's back. And he's like, I like the who.

It's fine. Don't be offended.

I know.

I was so into it last night. I was like, I think this meets that mole because I'm the demo now.

Yeah, no, I was very into. That was my favorite part. I was just cleaning up after everybody the rest of the time because I didn't want to deal with the mess. But lots of good food and it was nice. It was nice to stay home. And I didn't go to a party.

I didn't either. Ben did. You know, that's good. But I was just like, whatever. We had a friend in. Like, I was like, let's watch the halftime show. And then that's okay with that. Thank you, Miranda. I think we're going to get started. And like I said, we are welcoming our friends Jules Solomon and Jonathan Sheck and then Pete and Jen Hexeth and like, such wonderful couples to welcome on Valentine's Day. So with that, let's get started. Welcome back to Megan McCain has entered the chat with me, Megan McCain. This is our first inaugural, inaugural love episode. And normally I'm not a very cheesy or saccharine person, but I felt like we need to take a break from the news and politics because it's just pretty intense right now. I am so excited to welcome my friends Julie Solomon, Jules and Jonathan Sheck, saying it the right way. Jonathan is a famous actor and writer and star of Blue Ridge, which is a new series that's going to be airing later this year. I've seen pictures and stills of it. I'm really excited. You look like a cowboy. It's totally up my vibe. Jules Solomon is a brand strategist, bestselling author of get what you want, and she is the host of the Influencer podcast.

First of all, thank you both so much for taking time today. I'm so happy to see you both.

Thanks for having us.

Yeah, thank you.

So I wanted to start with, I actually have never met you two in person. We are social media friends, but I feel like I know you so well, Jules, because I message you almost every.

Day on social media, like, daily, going back and forth.

Yes. And I think part of it is because there is a bond with women who were pregnant during the pandemic, and you and I were both pregnant at the same time. But I wanted to start out with, first of all, you guys have this really beautiful, picture perfect relationship on social media. I have a ton of friends that follow both of you, and you really appear to have it all figured out. And I know sometimes things on social media can be deceiving, but I wanted to just first start out with, how did you guys meet? Because I realized I don't actually know the answer to that.

Yeah, we met over a decade ago randomly. John was in Nashville, Tennessee, which is where I lived at the time. We are back here now, but we'll talk about that. And I was on the board for a charity event called Make a Wish. And make a wish has an annual charity event that they do every year with a lot of athletes and celebrities.

Waiting for wishes.

Yep. Called waiting for wishes. And you would actually go to the palm restaurant, and the patrons would wait on you, hence the name. And so we met there, and it was just a very random evening of meeting under that situation.

Yeah. I was with my friends from Rascal Flats, and they walked over with me to Jules and said, he looked at the mole in your face. He said, that's a beautiful. She's quite beautiful. I hope no one else thinks she's as beautiful as I do.

Can I ask, were you been around a long time? You've been doing movies and television? Mean, it seems like since I've been alive for a very long time. And I know that Jules wasn't your first wife. And I want to ask both of you, I have found dating when people sort of know your name to be an extra layer of complicated. An extra layer know. You never know if someone's going out with you for the right or wrong reasons. You never know if people have preconceived notions about you. I want to ask both of you, but start with you, John. How is it when you approach a beautiful woman at a charity event and you just go for it, maybe knowing that she already knows who you.

Oh, I think I was kind of banking hoping that she did know who I was, get her attention from all these other guys. But yeah, I saw her. I thought she was the most beautiful thing I've seen. And I was hoping no one else thought she was that beautiful. And turned out she is just that beautiful. But she turned out to be way better than I could ever imagine.

Yeah. Jules, when he approached you, what did you think?

Well, it was funny because I had noticed him earlier and actually had told one of my really good friends who was single during this time.

I was like, you should go talk to that guy.

I was kind of playing matchmaker in some ways, but then she was like, she had started seeing this guy and she was like, I think he's going to come. Whatever. So that was my initial reaction. I didn't know his name, but I recognized him from that thing you do. Because when I was in fourth grade, that was like the biggest movie ever. And I remember just always seeing it on television. But I didn't really know him for any other reason than that. And I thought that he was interesting and very attractive and wanted to kind of get to know him more. So that was the initial feeling. I was definitely drawn to him.

Okay, cut to. You guys end up obviously dating, being together. How did you decide to get married again, Jonathan? Because I know you're married before. And Jules, what was your decision making? Because obviously there's a lot of women that listen to this podcast. We've actually been getting a lot of feedback that are single and really having a hard time sort of like, navigating the dating space right now. I think everything's really complicated with social media and just like the time we're in. How did you feel like you were ready to get married? And what was the feeling and emotions that took place where you were like, okay, I'm ready to do this with this guy who has been married before.

Yeah, I remember my mom was like, so you want to move to LA to start dating a twice divorced actor? Awesome, sounds great. Great decision. And I can say that laughing because I love him so much and adore him now, but I had actually been married before, so I had married a college sweetheart of mine that did not work out and was coming off of that. Still feeling very, I think, confused because I was 26 years old, but I had a better understanding at that time of what it is that I knew that I didn't want. And so being very clear in that, I think, helped me just stay open, I think, because I was divorced, and he can definitely speak from his perspective. We both went into this relationship with kind of leaving the fantasy behind. It wasn't this fantasy thing of, oh, this man's going to come in and sweep me off my feet and give me everything that I've ever wanted. And I think because I had been married and divorced, the reality of what it really takes to make a relationship work had sunk in for me. And so for us, it was really about building a family, and that was the root system that allowed us to grow.

It wasn't about just getting, quote unquote married, having a wedding, having, like, a Hollywood. I remember him telling me that he was like, I don't want to just date someone else to take on a red carpet. I want a family. I want to have a family. And so we really led with that, and I got pregnant, and we had our son. And so that was really the catalyst that, I think, made that initial decision, I think, different in that case.

She took all the words away, basically. I remember telling her I didn't want to have the red carpet being the reason why you're dating me.

Yeah.

And it wasn't, but it was before with a lot of other people, and I got to know Jules a little bit more and more. I just fell madly in love with her in a different way, and we started talking about family, which I don't think I've ever really got around to doing with anyone else. And in a whole different way of looking at us as a unit to raise children and make a home, it's actually possible for someone like me at my age.

Well, did you get pregnant before you got married? Yeah, I got pregnant about six months.

Before we got married.

That's obviously ups the ante completely. I also want to say there's no judgment about being married before. My husband was married twice before I married him, too. So I always joke that I'm like, third wife club, and he doesn't think.

That'S always very funny.

We have something else in common. I want to cut to parenting with you guys, because, again, Jules has been someone that I have really relied on for a lot of. As silly as you gave me diaper recommendations early on when I was like, I cannot figure out which diapers are the best ones. Why are they making this. This complicated and stuff with breastfeeding and breast pumping. And I know you know this, John, but the women who help other women in child situations are like angels walking among us because it's hard to feel vulnerable, like, oh, my God, I have questions, and I don't want to be like a bad mom, and I don't want to sound like an idiot. And you've just helped me so much. So I want to cut to parenting. Because you both have wildly successful careers, that makes parenting challenging. How have you been able to navigate having your son before you got married and then having your young daughter just a few years ago? What has that challenge been like with the work life balance? Which is kind of a cliche question, but it is the question I think a lot of people want to know the answer to.

Well, Jules works from home, and then when I go to the set, she's able to go with me if we need. But there's been Covid and a strike. It's been difficult, but we just got to be together. I think the one thing that Tom Hanks told me when I first started dating my first wife, he said, there's a two week rule, Jonathan, don't go past two weeks without seeing her.

Oh, that's good.

I know he said that. Rita told me that, and I could not abide by that rule prior. But now with Joel, it's no brainer because we got it set up so that we can make it happen.

And I think, too, just letting go of for me. And it's not that it works for everybody, but I had to just let go of a lot of that fantasy ideal that I think women especially are told through storytelling and the media and society as we're growing up, that you're going to get married and it's going to look this certain kind of way, marrying someone who has a very unique work situation where our entire life is at the mercy of a production schedule, that I knew that I couldn't set myself up for. These premeditated resentments. If he missed a birthday, if he missed holidays that were important, I had to really remember that his intentions are gold and that they're good. And even though things may not work out perfectly and he may miss something, that it's like, oh, man, that really stinks. I can't let it go to the degree of resenting him because I knew what I signed up for. I mean, he was an actor. I knew that. I learned more as we got into the relationship, the breadth of what that means. But I couldn't hold him up to some unrealistic standard that wouldn't be fair to him or his work because he was coming with 30 years of that when we met.

And so I think that a lot of that was me just realizing that if I wanted to make this work, it really was about me giving 100% and him giving 100% and doing the best that we can. And even though it's not going to be perfect every day, leading with that, instead of, well, so and so's husband's home by 06:00 and so and so is. And it's like, that's just not the reality for us. So I'm not going to set myself up for some kind of expectation. That's not ideal.

Why did you guys choose to leave Los Angeles and go back to Nashville? You're both laughing. Sorry. It's a weird question.

Ahead of the curve. But my son had to go into school, and we wanted to find the right school for him. He's dyslexic, and I was concerned that the California schools wouldn't take care of him. And I didn't like the way they were handling him or handling us, actually, when we were looking at those schools. And then we came out to Nashville and we went to one of the schools, and before he left, they asked if Kema wanted to come to school. They would love to have him. And I thought that was kind of what I wanted more than anything. And her family's from here. The way our children can have family, I thought that was important. So schools were number one. That was definitely the reason why we moved. And then being around family for the kids when we would raise them, and.

Just the value system. I mean, we saw the writing on the wall, and especially John. I mean, John moved to LA, what, 1989? My gosh, he's seen a lot of iterations of that city. And I'll be the first to say everyone loves to Poopoo on Los Angeles. There's a lot of things that I love about that city. I got married in that city. I had my first child in that city. I have incredible friends and relationships.

Get married in Maryland.

Well, had my marriage in that mean.

We get married in Maryland for a.

Well, we got.

Our wedding was there, but our marriage and our time of building that unity, it was in LA. So I have a lot of really beautiful, happy, amazing memories of Los Angeles. And with that to is. It's a very big state. I don't think that it's managed appropriately for a slew of different reasons, which that could be a whole other podcast episode, but I think that when I think about family first and people first and values first, it's not something that that state puts first. And I knew that if we wanted our children to have any sort of integrity and value system and what it does, and it doesn't mean that my friends that are still there, that children go to school there, don't have a value system just for us and what value meant to us. We knew that we needed a different situation.

It takes a village.

It really does.

Yeah, it really does. So this village was better than that village. We knew it.

I think that's so important, John, because that's one of the things that I've had to learn. My in laws actually live like ten blocks away from us. And even just having my mother in law to be able to come and Ben and I can go get dinner. My husband, it's incredible how important that is. I, too am not like I lived in Los Angeles at two different periods of time in my life for about five years. I, too think there's like a lot of amazing people in LA. And for me, it's just sad to see what's happened to the city that could be what it once was when I lived there, like ten years ago. But I know for me, Ben and I were living in New York during the pandemic. And then, for all the reasons you can guess, we ended up staying here in Virginia. People ask me if I think it's impacted my career, and I don't really know the answer to that. Is it hard for you as an actor, John, not being in Hollywood and the hustle and bustle? I don't know how acting works or anything like that, but I know that it's a company town.

Company people. Do you think it's impacted your career in any.

Oh, I don't know. I think that I left everything that I wanted behind and everything that stuck was meant to stick.

Yeah, that's good.

And I've always been good. Going into the unknown and this move to Nashville is no different.

Jules, can I ask you, my husband doesn't look like her husband, but he still is on Fox News and I find him very handsome. I always thought he looks like, thank you so much. I think he looks like rip from Yellowstone, but that's just me. But every once in a while there's a lady that'll hit on him at a party or slide into a DM or whatever, and I hate it. And I'm not crazy jealous, but I'm definitely still back off. How do you deal with having an actor husband who I'm sure somewhere along the line in the ten years you've been together, something like that has happened, and then vice versa. John, how do you deal with. Jules is gorgeous. She's on social media. She has a very successful company. How do you guys deal with jealousy and sometimes the outside world not being respectful of marriage boundaries?

Yeah, it's a great question, because over the years, John and I have been together for ten years, over ten years now. The amount of people that have slid into his dms, the photo, I mean, it happens. And I really feel that at the end of the day, we set the tone. He sets the tone with that. I set the tone if that's being delivered to me, because we can't necessarily control if someone wants to send us an appropriate picture, but we can control what happens with that. And so that's where I can check my jealousy a little bit, because my trust in him to set the tone and to act in integrity with that to where I don't really have to worry, quote unquote, is really how I've led with that. And then also, too, I think that there's a bit of part of human nature, I think, especially for actors, it's like you want to be reminded that you're attractive. You want to be reminded that people find you attractive, especially in his line of work. So to some degree, I think it's good for the ego to like, oh, someone noticed me. Okay, that's great.

But making sure that you stay within the lines of your integrity within your marriage, I think is super important. And for me, I'm so in my zone, I don't even pick up on that. If that's being received to me, I'm completely oblivious to it. And I do think that that's an energy thing. I think that there is a possibility where people can kind of put out that energy and it's either received or it's not. And so there's a lot of layers to that, I think.

Good answer.

What do you do when people hit on jewels in front of you?

They hit on in front of me, but I don't feed into any of it. I would tell my son, I can't tell my daughter this yet. She can't quite understand. But if you feed into that, that's going to make your choice one way. If you don't, then your choice will be something else. And I've witnessed it over and over and over again, not being a good choice to feed into the jealousy or the envy. And, yeah, kind of take pause see what it really is. Know that I have my soulmate, my love, my truth right here in front of. So never have a problem.

Do you feel like John because you got married to Jules a little bit later? You'd been married before. Were you just, do you think, really ready, like you said, to meet the right person? What changed in your head and heart that allowed. Because I felt like I didn't meet my husband until I was really ready, and I was not the person who was even capable of being married up until the point that I met him. Why do you think you were in a place and had done, clearly, a lot of life experience, a lot of work, had your heart broken, had some famous breakups. Why do you think Jules finally was, like, the right moment, right time, right person? Not too deep of a question, but.

Yeah, I think that's basically it. I think finally I was just allowing everything that was in my way, all these defects of my character, to be gone so that I could just be present with her, let her know exactly who I am, not what she may fantasize for me to be, and that there's not a secret between us. I told her everything about me. We didn't do that from the start. But eventually, she knows me. She knows me, and she loves that part of me that you would think that I would have to keep a.

You know.

And John's talked about this publicly. I mean, he's. John's sober now. There was a lot of past addiction and just a lot of things that were there. And I think that I did meet him at a time in his life where he was ready to just let go of all of that. He was ready to get the help that he needed and get the support that he needed and to know, sober up any kind of factors of his life that he felt he needed to so he could really step into being the best version of himself. And then that allowed me to also focus on my own stuff. I mean, I'm not. So, you know, that as well, I think was a huge key in us connecting the way that we did. Like you said, megan, I mean, there was a version of myself that would have never been ready for this at all in my past. And so I really had to start to step in and take ownership of the things that needed to change in my life, too.

How do you talk to your kids about the scary world that we're in? And if that's as simple as, like, Miranda, my executive producer, she's. Her daughter had to start doing shooting drills. And again, Miranda, we can cut that out if you're not comfortable with me sharing that. And her daughter has had just obviously a lot of anxiety because she has to explain even what a shooting drill is like, why does it even exist? And my children are three and one, and I'm like, oh, my God, I can't even imagine what is coming next. How do you parent and talk to your children in what is arguably some of the most scary times since the.

Would love to touch on this first. And you can touch in. So we live in Nashville, Tennessee. We have very, very dear friends of ours who are parents at the Covenant school, which endured a mass shooting a little less than a year ago, last March. And the Covenant school is a very conservative christian school. Most of the parents are gun owners themselves. And so having that hit so close to home, and it was the same grade that my son was in. One of his friends on his baseball team was literally in a classroom getting shot at, the smoke inhalation. He had to go to the hospital for smoke inhalation. It was very intense and layered. And so aside from the politics of all that is there, we really had to start to realize this new world that we live in. I mean, no longer is it fire drills and tornado warnings, but it's shooting drills that our children are having to be accustomed to. And so the things that we really talk to them about first, I mean, we're gun owners, and so safety first with really understanding that line of thinking. And if you go to a house where there's guns, this is what we do and this is what we don't do.

But really talking to them, I think about the compassion and the empathy and what it means to truly be a leader. I think that that's what children need. They need to feel confident in leadership. They need to feel like they can advocate for themselves and they can speak up and speak out for themselves no matter what the situation is going on. Because if you don't feel confident and comfortable enough with speaking up and speaking out, that's where the trauma can just get stuck and stagnant, and a lot of bad things can happen from that. And so that, to me, was a big eye opening of, I'm going to have to start having these more real and raw conversations with my son about what it means to be a child in America today and how can he play a part for the good. And that's where to me, that's where that leadership comes in. And being able to advocate for himself, that's so scary.

My father was a Baltimore city police officer. And one thing about my dad, he would bring the work home. He couldn't shut it off. And I think I've been able to look at my life and be able to realize that I can't control everything on the outside, but I control the things on the inside. So that the choices that I make, not in these extreme situations, just even the simplest choices that we can make will vibrate and hopefully make this scenario better than it could be. A shooting incident is something that we cannot control. I mean, there's an addiction within this country that I would love them to look at it that way. So this is just worst thing ever. You can't just have children being massacred in one country and not dress it for what it really is.

It's everyone's worst nightmare. I think it literally is.

I mean, we pulled him out of school that day because it was only about 4 miles from his school, our son's school.

I was filming, and she texted me. She told me it was our school.

Because we didn't know at first. It just said, like, small christian school was just.

Here I am playing a tough cop, and I was a. Yeah, I'm sure.

I mean, that's. Again, I think it's everyone's possible worst nightmare. I think that's really good advice, though, that you can only control internally. It's true. I mean, we can all only control what we can control. John, I know that your new show, is it wrapped already? Blue Ridge. When is it airing? And can I ask you, how do you choose your roles at this juncture in your life? Is it better if it films near you? You have this really amazing career, lots of different kinds of projects, lots of different kinds of movies. How did you choose this specific one? And again, where can everybody find it soon?

Well, it's Blue Ridge, and it comes out April 7 on the cowboy way channel.

I love that channel. I do.

It was produced by Insp, which is the channel that plays all the know. I had a younger actor than I asked me the question, how do I choose my roles? And I keep coming back to they choose. Just literally, I gave up everything that I was so that I could go into the unknown to find what was supposed to be there for me. And I asked a friend of mine to help me find work. His name was Nick Gonzalez, and he introduced me to Gary Wheeler. And Gary Wheeler called me up, and this is when we moved to said, you know, jonathan, I'm making this movie called Blue Ridge. It's about a guy who leaves California and moves to a small town to be with his family. And I was, oh, yeah, I think that'd be good for. So obviously, was it me choosing that or it choosing me? And it just fit right in. Then, you know, after Covid, they came around and said, jonathan, we're going to turn Blue Ridge into a tv series. And I was like, why are you going to use me? And they did. We shot six episodes. We shot the first season just before the strike.

It'll come out April 7, and we're starting to work on the second season, even though it hasn't come out, but they believe in it enough.

That's very exciting. I'm really looking forward to it. When I saw you announced it on social media, I was like, well, I'll obviously be watching that. Jules, I want to ask you, how does one become a brand strategist? When I first was following your work, I was like, it's really interesting. You're kind of like a soothsayer psychic of things that are going on in the world and what works and what doesn't. How did you get into that? Because you're obviously very successful as well. It just seems really complicated for me. It feels like a very complicated business.

Yeah, you're not alone. A lot of people say that it feels very complicated. I think it's not as complicated for me, just given my background. So I started out in corporate America as a publicist. I was a music publicist and then a book publicist. So I learned a lot of know tools and systems when it comes to marketing, advertising, pr, branding, you name it. And then as the media landscape was changing and blogs were becoming more popular, et cetera, I saw an opportunity to kind of pivot the work that I had been doing on the PR side into the online space. And that is really how I got started. I kind of went from handling pr for authors and musicians to really consulting what we now call today's content creators, influencers and thought leaders that are online on how to actually build a brand. Because I started to notice that a lot of them had something, but they were kind of getting so lost in the glossy glamor of things that they were kind of forgetting that what they were supposed to be doing is actually building a business from this. It's not just about having a following, but what do you actually do with this platform and how can you monetize it for good and create positive impact in the world?

And so that was really the catalyst that started my business that I have today. And then from that I have online courses and coaching programs and the podcast, and I speak on stages, I have a book, all of those things. But really it's about building a personal brand and how you can do that. And that's really the gist of it.

Do people ever come to you with crisis? Like, I have totally screwed up my life, I've made the wrong move, I've done the wrong interview, because I always wonder about that part of it. Do you ever have to help someone sort of rehabilitate their brand?

Yeah, with crisis management, it's not as much as they made a public f up, and now we've got to figure it out. It's more that they, over time, allowed complacency and stagnation to just kind of dilute the brand. So instead of going like narrow and deep, they were just kind of going surface and wide. And so they come to me to kind of reclaim what that bigger vision is and that bigger purpose is at least for the work that I do. So luckily it's not too much of a massive crisis as it is. Like, oh, if I don't turn this ship around, I'm going to not be relevant tomorrow. So how can I reinvigorate the relevance and really the perception that people have of my brand? Because that's really all that branding is. At the end of the day, it's your reputation, it's the perception of what people have at whatever it is that you throw at them.

Do you ever do any work with John? We tried.

It's kind of like I've tried to support him along the way. You have support and I have. I mean, we're here to always support each other and have each other's back. But for us, I feel like we.

Come to each other for every shitty.

First draft that we have, we throw.

It right at the other person, get great feedback with my book proposals and contract. I mean, so many things. But when he needs like a tried and true specialist or something that he's doing, I always refer him out just because I like to keep church and state pretty clean.

She's awfully busy.

You are busy. I like to do that with me and Ben too. We never do interviews together, never do anything, because I'm like, it's just too. We're not Joe. And like, I just feel like it's too much of like, I don't know. And I also, like, I agree, sometimes it can be hard. We're coming up on Valentine's Day. I think it's a really cheesy holiday. I think it sometimes can make people feel like lonely. And I called it singles awareness day to my friend who's single that was staying with us. What advice would you give to people? Because we've talked about your love and your relationship, but what would you give to people who are still like, where you guys used to be when you're single? Trying to figure it out, maybe having a really hard time dating or whatever. What advice would you give to people listening. Is that hard?

I mean, I can start it if.

You want to think you'll answer it way better. I would say something like, let go and let God.

That's nice.

Change the things that you can.

It is.

Let you let go and let God is always great advice, though.

It's a great one. I feel like relationships, again, it's not this end result. I feel like people make up and tell themselves that once I get the guy or once I get the girl, or once this happens, then I'll be happy and everything will be great. And so they keep waiting for this destination or this end result to complete them, to make them happy, to make them feel fulfilled and fulfilled. And it's not a destination. It's literally a day to day process. Our marriage has been able to work for a decade plus because we truly do the work of ourselves. Every single day I wake up and I do my own work. I do my own personal development work, my own emotional work, my own spiritual work, John, the same thing. And so we're able to meet each other only because we're able to meet ourselves every day, wherever that may be.

And finally come to a place where we can love ourselves first.

Yeah, that would be my biggest piece of advice is like, stop waiting for the destiny. Stop waiting for your externals to change, to get the life that you want. The life that you want happens when you choose to change what is going on inside you, how much.

And that's your part to play faith, play a role in your relationship?

Oh, it's everything. I think, at least for me, it's a spiritual solution.

Ever heard that before?

I have. How do you put that into action? Or is it just personal like the.

Two of you individually practice? I mean, for me it's prayer, it's having a purpose greater than myself. It's being of service to others when I'm getting lost in my own bs, it's taking care of my children, it's keeping my people that I can count on. It's kind of like small but mighty. I believe as you get older, it's less about the fluff and more about what really matters. So, yeah, I mean, to me, it's a lot of that, and it's a lot of just really being willing to take a hard look at yourself to be like, what is my part to play in my own misery? What is my part to play in me not getting what I want in my life, even if it's just 1%. We all have a part to play in the reality that we're experiencing that we call our life.

And then there's one more. The thing that I never want to let go is giving it back. Doing the work and then giving it.

Back, I think that's so important. And I think that's something that my husband and I have had to work on as well. And it really is something that brews like fruit of the labor. The last question I want to ask you is you're both very prominent on social media, very active. I really love the way you share your life. I mean, I think it's probably one of the ways in this weird world we're in. One of the ways, like, totally related to you, Jules, because we have a lot in common in our personal stories and motherhood humor is very. Yes, our humor. I wasn't going to expose you because I have a little bit of a dark sense of humor, and I feel like sometimes I send you things. I'm glad she's not easily offended by some of these memes and stuff, but I do not. John, you can look at it. It's just funny, silly stuff all day, but you never know with people. I do want to know, how do you choose what to share and not to share? Are there any boundaries? Is there anything with your kids? I think you guys, like I said, run a really great balance.

But did you have any conversations about it beforehand? How do you do it?

We did not have any conversations about it beforehand. I think that we've talked about that. To me, I try to keep social media really kind of business and brand focused. I will share a bit of my personal life more on stories and things like that, but I am pretty private about diluting so much just because I think it gives people out there just enough of an opportunity to tear you apart, and it's just not necessary. And I do have a lot of friends. I'm sure you do too, Megan, that because of the brands that they've built on social media, their brand really is their family, and just, like, opening up their entire lives to strangers and documenting everything. And I'm just a believer in there has to be some things that are just sacred and some things that are kind of left to mystery and mystique. I think that's also how you not only just protect your peace, which is super important, but having those really important boundaries. I think there's a difference between sharing with authenticity and wanting to inspire or hopefully impact someone versus curated authenticity where you're just, like, bleeding all over everybody on social media as a way to fill some kind of void.

And so to me, I try to be very aware of that, but if something is really important to me or to my belief system or to my faith, I will share it, because that is also just such a huge part of who I am. Yeah, that's my take.

I try to entertain because that's what I am, entertainer. However, if there's something that I know the truth of and it's important for me to give back, I definitely use my platform to be able to do that and do that for others who can't speak up for themselves.

Well, and sometimes he won't be aware. He'll be, like, recording something, but then our address will be in the background. John, take that down. He's like, oh, I didn't see that. He'll film things out of fun.

It's not our address. It's usually her naked in the back.

Probably get more followers awareness.

No.

It's so funny. Yeah, I think you got to strike a fine balance. I agree, too. I find that people who broadcast everything all the time, like the Instagram people, where it's just everything. I agree with you. You got to really keep some things private and sacred, Jules. And really, I have such just admiration for both of you. I think you're like such good people, such interesting couple. So much things figured out in life, and I'm so grateful. Jules, I can't say this sincerely enough for how much you have helped me through the very interesting, complicated, wonderful journey of motherhood. I think you should do more in that space. I think you should do a mother book. I know it's a little cliche, but you really just so non judgmental, compassionate, highly intelligent. And I just want to tell you how grateful I am for your friendship. And, John, really, you just are such a wonderful, lovely, intelligent human, and I really can't thank you enough for taking time this afternoon.

Well, thank you. We admire you.

Thank you.

We're so grateful for just your authenticity, your realness, your ability to speak up and speak out on what really matters in this world, especially in today's world, because that becomes more and more of a challenge for people. And so we need more incredible women like you speaking up and using your voice.

Guys, gonna make me cry. Thank you. Do me a favor the next time you guys come to Maryland. I'm close. Happy Valentine's Day.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Welcome back to Megan. McCain has entered the chat. The best part about doing this podcast is sometimes I'm like, I love these people. Let's see if they'll come on. And then they say yes. And that happened today with these people. My friends Pete and Jen Hexeth are here today. You really need no introduction, but just in case people don't know, they are the husband and wife duo. Together, they are the father and mother of seven children, which is amazing and wonderful and also kind of crazy. They live in Tennessee. Jen, until recently, was Fox nation's vice president of programming and she previously ran Fox and Friends. She was in the business for 25 years and is now momming it. And Pete is the Fox and Friends weekend co host and hosts everything on Fox Nation and on Fox, including the recent amazing documentary, which, by the way, my in laws are obsessed with and have watched twice, called Poison Ivy, which I was featured in, all about how Ivy League schools are indoctrinating your children. I'm not sending mine there. Pete is author of battle for the American Mind about k twelve education. All of that is a mouthful.

Thank you so much for coming on today. I'm really so excited to be interviewing you both for our special Valentine's Day episode.

Thank you.

Megan, I have to ask one quick question. I just wanted one little baby political question. Even though we're not doing a political show. And I know, Jen, you're not as political as Pete in your commentary, whatever. But feel free to jump in if you want. Pete, this report about Biden being non compass mentis, not remembering when his son died, that came out for the DOJ. I have been really upset and uncomfortable, and I don't understand how Democrats are still keeping him as the nominee. I don't understand why I have to be put in a position where I am somehow responsible for monitoring the health of my president. I think it's a total deal breaker. What was your reaction? And again, Jen, jump in if you want. What was your reaction when you read it? Because I was really freaked out and then staggering. Right, Megan?

You're totally right. And Jen, you should chime in because my wife is the brains behind half my commentary. Smarter on all this stuff. This is a real no, it feels like the type of thing that breaks a presidency. Right. It ends it effectively that when you have an arbiter like a special counsel using basically pejorative language to describe an elderly man who can't really remember when he was vice president. I mean, it's staggering lack of competency that I think reshuffles if they thought they could run all the way through the ticket with a basement strategy. I think that report rejiggered everything. What changes? I don't know, but I think it was as big as we think it was, rocking the political world in Washington.

I agree. I mean, it was definitely as big as we think it was. What's shocking is that nothing may change, but talking to someone outside of this world today, just a nurse, young woman trying to just make a living, doesn't get involved all the time to watch news. I told her about the story and she just said, I don't understand what? How does that happen? And then I tried to explain it. She said, I just don't have any words. And I think that's the biggest summary. It makes no sense because it makes no sense.

Well, last final thing to ask you both. 86% of the american public in a bipartisan poll are uncomfortable with President Biden's age. It's hard to find a majority on anything in the world. I mean, I guess that's like 86% of Americans probably like ice cream. It's almost unfathomable. Numbers. How do they continue this? How do you do this? And do you believe the Michelle Obama rumors?

I mean, you tell me. I mean, what, 90% of Republicans, 70% of Democrats don't want job, think he's too old to run again? You've been around DC. Those numbers do not exist.

Do not exist. No.

Santa Claus doesn't have those numbers. It's a consensus. I don't believe the Michelle Obama rumors because I don't think she wants it. I think if she wanted it, she could be the nominee and she would be in a poll position. But for some reason, she's disgusted by the political realm. It feels like I could be totally wrong. Maybe they seduce her into running as the most formidable candidate and she's the only one that gets them past the obvious roadblock, which is how do you get rid of the old white guy and skip over the black woman? And you do that with Michelle Obama and the credibility the Obamas have had inside the progressive movement. But I don't think she wants it. So where do they go? That's why I have said if I had to bet my wife and I's mortgage, which we're not going to do, but if we had. I would bet that Biden's the nominee because the status quo is the most likely scenario, which is shocking.

See, and I don't think Democrats do anything by accident, and I include the media in the democratic party. And so for them to come together against him in any form or fashion, I feel like there's a plan. I don't know that it's Michelle, but.

They'Ve given up on think, you know, you guys should start popping champagne soon, because I think it's just Trump winning. I don't think you can put this know, weekend at Bernie's scenario to the american public. I don't care who you are. People are.

I think they know that, too. Yeah, I think they know that, Megan. And because they hate and fear Trump so much, that's why I think they got to bring someone in from the bullpen.

I agree who it is because I just think there's just no way people I know who are not fans of Trump would still vote for him over this. So I want to move on to something happier, because we could talk about this. I could talk about this the whole episode, but it's day for Valentine's Day when this podcast comes out. And I want to ask you guys, first and foremost, seven children. I'm sure you get asked this all the time. I have two, and I spent my Friday night getting thrown up on all night by my daughter who got the stomach flu. And I was like, my husband's, like, really wants a third. And I'm like, this is why I have questions about a third, because we changed the sheets, like, six different times. Just puke all over me. Whatever. How do you guys do it? Seven is five more than I have. Do you have any secret? Do you have any advice for people?

Well, I will start by saying, for me, going from one to two was the hardest.

Okay, that makes you feel a little.

Better once you got two down. Just keep adding it.

Okay.

She should continue. I mean, she's the real expert on understanding this. They're a little bit older now to the point where they're kind of just a gathering hurricane that is self regulating. It's like its own ecosystem, and we're sort of an appendage. And our job is to adjust their compass both academically, spiritually, and sort of with respect, with authority, and all of those things. But they run. As you know, we have a blended family, and so we work really hard to forge that. And I think far more, maybe successfully than we thought we ever could. And they love each other, but, yeah, when they were really young. I don't even remember. How did you do it? It's sort of a fog.

Seven. And it is a fog, but just like with anything else, with one or two, it just multiplies and you just do it. There are multiple people throwing up, and everybody's got something. I mean, week of Christmas, I think we had four lost teeth.

Oh, my God.

And we were like, oh, can we hire a tooth fairy? There were more teeth, and we were just some drowning in teeth. But you just do it just like you do anything else. And it's fun because you love them. But there are days where this is what it's important, is to prioritize your marriage, and you go, you know what? Someone else is going to do this for a day or a night, and we're going to go take a breath together and figure it out. But ultimately, there is no secret. It's your own instincts. You know it, you love them. You have to discipline them. Probably that's the biggest thing. That is the biggest thing now that I'm thinking about it, is the discipline, because without it, they don't know any better. They'll just keep taking. That's what they do.

Yes.

And I remember when the moment that I was a little uncomfortable with, but our two year old, our youngest, she was two or maybe less than two, and didn't want to eat. And Pete sat at the table with her for an hour and a half until she ate every bite through tears, through everything. And I'm like, she's so young. How could she know this? But sure enough, she knew it didn't happen. And, like, drawing those boundaries in a healthy way is so important, even at a young age.

I love that. I think that's great. Go ahead. Sorry, Pete.

No, I feel like food is one of the rare places where you can actually communicate some level of standards with your kids at that age. They don't know what's going on, but they do know if you give them something, their job is to either consume it or not consume it, throw it, push it, reject it, eat it, not eat it. And so in some ways, that was like a mini window through which we sort of started to approach honoring your father and mother, respecting what you've been given, being grateful for what you have, not being picky. It's hard, though, because you have some kids that are easy and some that are really tough. And, I don't know, we try to check each other, and I can be a bit more of the disciplinarian, but she does it very well. Too. And so we kind of look at each other, engage it. I'll say this, Megan, I was going to write a Book. I joked about it with my wife called Pete's politically incorrect guide to parenting.

Please write this book. I'll be your first buyer.

The problem is my kids aren't grown yet, so I don't know if it worked.

I think, though, like, a real life guide to parenting by a not woke. I come from a military family, so everything. I'm the disciplinarian. I'm way worse than Ben. I'm like, bedtime's at this time. Bath prayers. I feel like I'm like a little von Trapp family with it, but I have learned through mom groups and things that I'm kind of out of fashion with it. Everyone's like, there's something called free range parenting where kids choose their time. And I was like, that's psychotic. I think that's absolutely crazy. And I think I would have a nervous breakdown if that. So I love this book idea. I think you should do it and pitch it. And I really support you writing this.

Well, Megan, I will say this. We have a phrase in our family called communism. Bad for governments, good for kids.

Yes. That's the title. Yes.

Like, hey, here's the standard. We're all going to eat at this time. We're going to pray at this time. We're going to do this together. We're all wearing this, and they're going to get older, so they're going to have their own personalities and their own. There's going to be some not fracture, but you got to get some wiggle on that. But I think you're exactly right. Parenting has basically turned into, I'm my kid's friend. I'm their bra.

Bullshit. That's crazy.

It is bullshit. But we've been raised to be respectful, is their coaches are kind of their bro and their teachers are kind of their bro. So a lot of the influences they have have this different dynamic with people that used to be straight up authority figures, and so then they think that can encroach into the house, and then they're like, it's, yes, sir. And that's a lot different than what it is in a lot of other places. And we're still trying to figure it out, but we know this is our little window to create little God fearing kids.

I think everyone's trying to figure it out, but I also think not being the friend is so important to me. And I was joking that my entire media career has really helped with parenting because I don't mind being hated. My daughter didn't want to take a bath, and I was like, you have to take a bath. You have to take a bath for bed. She was like, I don't want to. Blah, blah, blah, mommy. And I was like, you know what? Look on the Internet, take a number, get in line, like, whatever. So I definitely feel, like much more old school with parenting. I do want to ask, you know, you have this beautiful marriage that I think a lot of people look up to. Just know you're both public people. I mean, obviously, Pete, more than Jen, but this is your second marriages. There were marriages beforehand. I think it's your third. Pete, how did you guys know that you were the one you guys met at like, I'm really just feel I'm my husband's third wife, too. And he always jokes that this is it. I'm not going to be like Larry King and get married, like eight times this works, or it's just like never happening.

So I have no judgment about multiple marriages. I'm the product of multiple marriages. But how did you guys know? And it's complicated to meet at work. Do you have any love story stories you can share? How did you guys feel a connection immediately? What's the beginning stages of your love story? And how did you know that you guys were the one?

Babe?

Jenny, if you don't want to answer.

First of. No, no. First of all, I love that question because I love the setup of the question. And life is very complicated, and we have a temptation to want to whitewash things and say, oh, this is neat and tidy. Laying bare our relationship. There's nothing neat and tidy about this sort of origin story, except when we look back on it, I can't help but feel like God's hand was in it and that beautiful. There's a lot of complicated parts, right? But ultimately, this is the person that I was supposed to be with. And through that relationship, I've grown closer to Christ and we've moved to a school and we've moved to a church. And it's taught me a lot more about covenant and commitment inside a marriage that I think didn't have as much meaning or understanding for me. And life is messy and all that, but I met the person who has. I mean, when you find somebody from the moment you met them that you want to spend every minute with and you're unconcerned about and you want to have a child with and you want to have more and you want to have a family, and you want to do life by, and they make you appreciate things at a deeper level.

They make you a better husband and a better father in ways you were very complacent previously. And so that was her. I can't tell you why at the moment I met her, that was the pleading on my heart, but it was. And obviously, she's staggeringly beautiful, and that's true, too. But it was the connection that we had, and we had every reason to sort of retreat. And instead, every sign that I feel like I got was charge ahead. And I'm grateful to God that we did.

What about you, Jed?

Yeah, I agree. It was one of those moments where nothing made sense. But the feeling of it all was the most comfortable feeling I've ever had and where I had, on paper, a very easy life, a wonderful life, a privileged life, and kind of blew it up. And I couldn't have ever been happier. So with all of the complications and all of the difficulties, it was still better than anything I could have imagined. And like you said, we obviously believe that God had a hand in that because we didn't do that on our own. And I wonder sometimes, because I'm like, okay, I know now, I know that feeling. But when people ask you and your kids someday ask you, how did you know? It's easy to possibly mistake that the first time or maybe the second time, because you don't know until you know. But when you know, it's undoubted.

Can I ask you guys? So I met my husband in Miranda, almost 2015. 2014. Yeah, it was like, right before Trump was nominated, or it was like the election second beforehand. That's how I always remember. And up until that point, I had dated. This is going to shock you. Mostly liberal directors, entertainers. Very. I was like, I'm not dating anyone in politics. It's okay if I don't date a conservative person. Actually dated a magician. Like, crazy, like, really the wrong people. And when I met my husband, I thought initially, before we even went on a date, I was like, he's going to be too conservative, and it's going to be weird. And I actually found that. I know, it's so funny now, and I actually found that a, obviously, everything in our life fit so much better because I didn't have to apologize or explain my beliefs to anyone. And then as we've gotten together in the past almost ten years, I have become much more conservative and then just much more grateful to be in this foxhole of life in general. And then, just like the crazy world, we're living in with someone who agrees with me on things like your.

You know, we did this documentary. We did interviews for you together about how the Ivy League schools and the woke stand life that we're in is just not okay for me and our kids. And I'm so grateful I ended up choosing that person. How important has it been for you two to have a similar worldview, similar faith and similar politics? Because I keep telling my girlfriends, date conservative. It's just easier. They don't want to be players, they don't want to be polyamorous, and they'll go to church with you, and all of it's so much better. How important do you think that was to your initial meeting and then to your marriage now?

I think it's so important to the marriage because you start at a place of unity, and then you are able to grow. And we've both grown so much, especially in our faith and certainly in just the vision of what we want for our kids and for ourselves, because obviously, we're still growing, too. And if you don't start at that place, then you're spending your time trying to get there, and you don't really get anywhere because you don't agree. So it's not that people opposites can attract or you can't get along and make it work, but I just think it's a much more powerful force if you start at a place of unity, no doubt.

And I can't conceive of trying to listen. Our kids parenting is impossible, and they're in God's hands, and you can do everything right, and still things can go sideways. So I know that. But all I know is that this dangerous, difficult, secular, woke world that they're entering into, if there's any hope for them, they have to be prepared. And if they're getting mixed signals about who are we? What do we believe? What is our history? Is our country good? Is our country bad? Who created us? Who's our savior? Those types of things, if those are mixed and there is a discord, I just don't think we live in a time where we have that convenience of sort of. Let's debate it out, and then when you get out in the world, you'll figure it out for yourself, too. I mean, obviously that will happen. The world has gone from choppy waters to tsunamis. Our job is to, I think, try to shepherd them as best we can while we have them, knowing that God ultimately steers the ship. But you can want what's best for your kids, but if it's not ingrained in who you are and your relationship.

Then what you find out from your kids is they look a lot more at what you do than what you say. And especially when your whole job as dad is to talk on tv and they're like, here's dad again. Talk. Dad wants to talk politics. It's more of like, okay, what does dad do? And I'm not perfect at that, but I do know that because of our marriage and because of our relationship, it's made me a much more intentional and better father with the time that I do have with all of them in many different ways. And I credit her for that. And that, I think, is a sign of a good woman and a good marriage.

You said that writing this book changed you and Jen's life. Can you explain to me why.

Battle for the american mind was a providential book on a lot of levels, from the co author that I met in writing it to where we are today? So I grew up in public school. So did Jen. Our assumption was our kids are going to go to public school. Good enough for me, good enough for them. We had some kids in public school, then Covid happened and we got them out of masks and into a catholic school and all that. But education was something we knew was important, but we were still kind of peddling in the status quo of kind of what we thought existed or what we thought we could mold them around. And then I went down the rabbit hole of sort of the red pill rabbit hole of classical christian education through the research of this book. And I remember turning to Jenna multiple times, you remember this, babe? When I was like, you got to read this. You have to read people. How do we not know this? How did I not know this? How did they bury this? So there was this discovery ongoing. And as we started discovering classical christian education, which was effectively the core of education for 2000 years in the west, especially for our founding generation, that unleashed the brilliance of that generation.

You go, how did they bury it? And why am I not giving this to my kids? And it became almost this ticking clock in my head as we were writing and finishing this book. It's like I'm writing a book about classical christian education, how important it is. And I don't even have all my kids in classical christian education. We need to do this right now. And so we picked up steaks from New Jersey. We're both employed at Fox for a second. Sorry, you go ahead.

He was knee deep in this every know and having these revelations every day and absolutely coming to me. But I wasn't as far along, so I was like, okay, slow down. We're not ready to change everything just yet. But then the more I read, it was like, dang, I can't unsee that. I can't. It's there now. I know it, and it's terrible. So it is one of those things that is just so staggering and so important that you just couldn't, as a parent, in good faith, ignore it. You had to make a change. And that's where we said, okay, we're going to do this. It didn't mean it was easy. And we were like, oh, you know what? We'll just leave New Jersey and go to Tennessee. I mean, it took a lot of prayer and a lot of thought, but we knew the answer. We knew we had to do it. It was just, how did we get there?

Sure. Well, I wanted to ask you about moving to Nashville or moving to Tennessee. I think you guys live outside of know. It's a big life, don't I think Kara or Booker told me you guys moved to Nashville. And I was like, I'm not surprised. I was like, I just don't. I don't. I don't know you that well, but I know Pete somewhat well. And I was like, I bet they were red pilled out of the state just like the rest of us. Is that a good indicator of what happened? Because you do have to think about your children in a totally different way. And then on top of everything else, is something Ben and I have challenges. Know, Pete, you're on tv. You're a target to people. People like to purge. I mean, we get yelled at airports, know someone come up to us in a restaurant, and there's just a hostility towards conservatives or justice in these type of cities. How much did all of that play into as well, that you just want, like, safety and like minded culture around your kids as well.

The like minded culture was so important because what we realized is so many of us thought, well, we live in a good neighborhood, and it's got to be a good school, and that's fine. But it's not fine. It's not enough. We needed more ingrained in the actual culture all around us, and we found that here it was. Just get tired of going against the grain. And like you said, sometimes apologizing or trying to twist your values so that you felt like they were accepted by someone else or even starting to explain to your kids, well, we go to church on Sunday, so nobody else goes. They go play lacrosse. Well, we are going to church on Sunday and it just an effort. And you come here and you're like, oh, everybody thinks like we think and not that we need that. We certainly like diversity of thought, but not in your everyday, every moment of your life where you're just trying to put 1ft in front of the other.

No, I agree completely. And so once we realized this, we looked at red states and I went, and over the three weeks, I visited about a dozen classical christian schools on my own dime, just running around, partly researched for the book, really selfishly, where are we going? And then we found a wonderful rural, blue collar, conservative, classical christian school north of Nashville. And we were like, that's it. And it wasn't an immediate revelation. Jen visited and she was like, oh, my goodness, what are we?

You know, Excel? And had all the school names and the distance from the school to the airport and then distance that flight is to New York because he knew he'd have to go back and took in all these things into consideration. But even though I had agreed to it and I knew I wanted it, it was still a culture shock for me. Even though I wanted a culture shock, when you do know there's still an adjustment. And so we went into this school and I was like, okay, no, it's small. There's no primary colors. Everything's brown. I would be terrified as a child. And I was like, no. Then we visited more and more, but then the more I read, primary colors are just a distraction. It's all a distraction. All these fun posters and all these things on the wall from the core of why you're there. And the second time, months later, we went back and visited the school again. The first time, it was after hours and there were no kids. And then I saw with the kids and they were just so joyous and happy because they were getting their value from the things that matter and not from the posters on the wall.

And they were engaging in a story that includes them of all of human history and answers the big questions of who created me and what is my relationship with my creator and what is good, what is beautiful, what is wise. All of those things are sort of intertwined in every aspect of it. So, yeah, we picked a school. We moved to the school and we drew a 20 miles radius around it and said, we want to live somewhere close to the school. And then we made sure we were right outside of Davidson county, which is Nashville county coming out of COVID we're like, we're going to live in a red county, too, because now you'll find out that even in conservative states, there's shades of red. Right. But we knew we were home on election night 2022 when they called the state of Tennessee with 0% reporting for Governor Bill Lee. And we're like, okay, I think we're finally in a state where there's sanity reigns. But for us, last thing, and I'll be quiet. It was about intertwining three things at once. It was the home life, with the school life, with the church life.

And we thought we were moving for a school and we really moved for a church and a faith family, many of which go to the same school. And so we want our kids to have kind of over concentric circles where it's not like, oh, over here in school, these are my school friends, where we do our secular thing over here. And then on Sundays, I got my church friends and then we do some praying. But then I leave that. So it's trying to be intentional about all aspects of it which we do not have. Perfect and then yet media. And what do you do with all that?

We were super behind, so we went heavy.

I think, though, look, I grew up conservative. I've always been conservative. But there was a period of my life where I was more open to, like you said, having discussions about the other side. And post Covid, I just have seen the other side. I know that you want me locked down, masked and scared for the rest of my life. I know that you want my kids talking about 30 different genders. I know that you want free Palestine posters in high schools. I'm just not doing it anymore. And I feel very defiant right now in how I feel. And I think having kids really does change the game. At least it has for me. I want to know, though, it is still an uphill battle culturally, obviously, the left just dominates entertainment, dominates everything except Fox News on News. I feel like I am playing like whack a mole with things sometimes. But I want to know for you, how do you combat it? Because like you said, there's still things out of our control. And I really do feel like my way is right and that way is wrong and I'm not going to hedge on it.

You shouldn't hedge and you absolutely should. I mean, I would say trust your gut as a parent, but you obviously are super informed just as a person and, you know, it's just wrong. What do you do if you don't find a school and you can't home school? And I'll say home school. To me, growing up is unheard of. I didn't know anybody that didn't. I didn't live around that culture at all. That was something that was weird. And now, if I had known, maybe I would have started doing that. And there's so many options for it. You think of it as just someone that sits with their mom and does homework, but there's groups that get together. It's all about having control over what your children are learning. And it's such a great option, I think. And I don't know that a lot of people know all of the ways that you can approach it. And I think you can home school and be a working mom if you want, depending on your situation. But at the very least, knowing what they're going into and if they're going into something you don't like, don't send them in.

That's simple, Jen. I can balance it at home, and I can do.

But why do you want to undo it?

They're so little.

Just give them the good stuff.

Yeah, that's exactly right. If the world is doing it, I think my view is if the world is doing it, then run the other way is basically more or less the standard. And for me, back when we were looking around, it wasn't even BLM or trans flags or any of that or free Palestine. It was recycling. Like, the whole school was obsessed with recycling. I'm like, why do we do Veterans Day? Do we do Veterans Day? Do we do the pledge of allegiance? Or do we just recycle? There's always something. There's sort of a different religion on display, and so look for those warning signs, which you're already doing. But then I think, how do I put this? You don't want to put a cocoon around your kids, but at the same time, you've got to be careful not to send them conflicting messages, I think. And this is what we're trying to figure out. Okay, so you've got school and you've got church, and you got that. But what about devices? What about social media? What about Netflix? What about movies? What about. About. So it's not that you could do this and protect them from everything, but we're trying to think as intentionally as we can about how does every aspect of our life try to reinforce what we believe is good, true, and beautiful so that our kids don't have a secular core, but a christian veneer, where they're like, this is what we do.

But really what I'm interested in is everything the world has to offer, which I think fails them. And we don't have a perfect. Our kids don't have phones, and if I have my way, they won't have a phone till they're 30.

But that's not going to happen.

It started at 13 and it's slowly moved up to now. I think it's at 16 and may go higher than that and maybe a flip phone or whatever. But I know our kids, they're wonderful kids, but they're not mature, developed enough to think they're going to post things that are edifying totally or glorifying to God or useful or thoughtful, and instead they just get dragged down a rabbit hole. And same thing with alternative media. I don't want them wasting their time watching nonsense when we're trying to fill their heart with good things. And that's hard because most of the world is other stuff.

Can I ask you, how do you guys focus on your marriage? Because most churches, most therapists say like, you got to do your marriage first and then the kids. Do you guys do like a date night? I mean, I can't imagine your schedule with like Pete, you traveling to fox and friends on the weekend in New York. You guys have a wild schedule in General, with all your work and your kids. How do you guys foster your marriage?

I agree 100% with the therapists. Yes, you put your marriage first. We were able to do it largely by working together, even though we weren't always working on same projects. But that was a shared event that we had and we still do, obviously, with current events. We can understand that through the lens of work. And now that I've left, I have a little more free time. And I think we'll just continue to do that. I go when he goes to speeches, I'll travel with him. Or we make time where we can. We don't usually have a date night, per se. Sometimes today, coming up soon for my birthday, he said, let's do a shopping trip.

Which, of course, good idea. Sure.

I'll carry your bags all day while you buy things. Great.

And the better part of it is not the stuff we buy. It's just hanging out all day and seeing what he likes and what I like and grabbing some food.

I just realized that all is not right with the world if she is not right. And she's an utterly rational, wonderful human being. And so I've clearly messed something up. If she's unhappy, really, I've gotten to know that about her. It's usually not her, it's usually me. And she's maybe a much better person in that context. And so a lot of it turns. We still put our kids to bed pretty early. And I think there's also this temptation to be like, oh, my kid's 13, he should stay up till 1130. I still don't think much good happens between 830 and 1130 if you're 13. Totally. For the most part, it's still pretty early bedtimes. And so we steal an hour. We steal an hour and a half and we pour a glass of wine and chitchat and download on the day. And I think the biggest frustration we might have is when we're not able to connect on a regular. Frankly, that is a new thing for me in a relationship, is to be 100% like, communication all the time. What are you excited about? What's your heart heavy about? What should we be doing better?

What's the update on the kids? And sometimes it hasn't been a vacation for the two of us in a while, but what we've said before is when you feel like at some level every day is that vacation, because you get to spend it together, then you know you're really blessed. And I certainly feel that way with this one.

I love that. I love everything about this. You guys really do have such a beautiful relationship and it's such a good example to people. Again, not everybody meets their high school sweetheart and that's it forever. My dad was married before he met my mom again. I'm my husband's third wife too, Jen, so I actually have a bathrobe that says third wife club. And he does not think that's funny. He does not like it, does not think it's funny. My girlfriend made it for me anyway, just did a little fit take. I want to ask you just one question about work. Pu hosts this like, wildly popular show, Fox and Friends on the weekend. It's such an important show because I think it's just fun to have a conservative weekend. Fun show that shows that republicans aren't always just talking about everything serious all the time. What do you love about your job? What do you love about still being in the Fox family? Become such a big person on the network. When I worked at like, the best part about for me working at Fox was that it really is a family based company and they really foster relationships among the talent and respect is really important.

Only network I ever worked at that really emphasized that. What do you love about doing know you have to sacrifice going from Nashville to New York on the weekend, leaving your wife and family. What do you still love about your job?

Well, yes, and amen to everything you said about Fox. I mean, I love the people I work with, especially Will, and know we're genuine friends. And when you get to fly somewhere and you're like, oh, I like the people I work with. And we get to talk about stuff we care about. And then that extends to producers, it extends to other shows, extends to executives. It really is the kind of environment you want to be a part of and is really rare in media and tv and you know it in other contexts. Megan so does Jen. There's a lot of environments that are not like this. So that's super special. And then also just to have the platform to talk about the things we care about. And Fox is the kind of place where you can talk about your faith, you can call out wokeness, you can talk about loving your, I mean, the recipe isn't that complicated. How about we just love God and love the country and love our families and support american citizens and enforce our border and love the cops? If we just do a few basic things, the recipe is not hard.

And that's frankly what I think Jen was really good at for a really long time is knowing the viewers of Fox and Fox Nation and respecting like, that's what I think a lot of networks don't have is you've got people in ivory towers who sort of look down on average Americans and program toward the way they should culturally adapt them. And Fox says, hey, we love a lot of the things you love and our programming is going to reflect it. And I do want to note this, so it doesn't, Jen, while she is now, I'll say this for you, babe, mostly home, she still is going to be the executive producer of the Patriot Awards, which is our annual award show on Fox Nation. So Fox wouldn't let her go. They wouldn't let her go completely. So they've still got her in that context. And she's built an amazing award show that I'm proud to just, it's the combination of the people and the opportunity.

To.

You talked about we should be able to love God and love the cops and all these things. Even if you don't feel that way, it's the opportunity to let you do that and let us explore those stories. And there's no censorship. Lots of people like to say there is in certain places, but there's not. I mean, it is the most free media company I've ever seen.

It's so true.

It really, and then, and then backed up with nice people, caring people, and that makes a huge difference.

Yeah. It's the most family supportive company I ever worked for. And like I said, I always had the best time. My husband still works there, so. Good. But I love Fox, and I just think that it's so important to have that outlet. And again, I worked at so many other companies and other places, and they really hate republicans. I always say, like, I've been inside the mothership and they hate you. Don't get it in any way miffed at all.

Don't get it twisted.

They hate you, and they want us to be gone, which is also part.

Of my red pilling.

But whatever. My last final question for you guys. You work with this amazing company, our riveter. They're american goods that I understand military spouses make. I have a few of their bags. It's a really wonderful company, a great cause. How did you guys get involved? What are you doing with our riveter? Tell me everything.

It was spontaneous, Megan. It was actually really fun to make this video with Jen because we haven't done a lot of things together because as an executive at boxers, usually just isn't forward facing. But I'm kind of like, hey, people would like you more than me anyway. Please help me out here. Plus, you're the one that likes these bags a lot. I love the concept. I got to know them through Fox and friends. They were on a couple of times featuring these bags. And it's so cool because these are military spouses who move all the time, so it's hard to, like, you can't move your profession when your husband or your wife is moving from base to base every two to three years. So our riveter says, okay, we're going to train you on a skill set of apparel or handbag making. And then wherever you are, you can assemble these bags as a way to make a living as an american made company. They just need promo for people to be aware of it. And so the first couple of times I did it, I brought purses back from the set to Jenna, and she was like, oh, these are great.

And then they reached out to me and said, hey, we have this new line. Have you seen it? I said, no, but it was just kind of spontaneous. Said, no, we'd love to promote it and push it out there because we need to be supporting these american made companies.

It's not an official relationship or anything. They're not paying us or anything. But what really got us that we said in the video is when they said, well, yeah, QVC said they can't sell it because people don't care about made in America. It's too expensive, and I couldn't believe it. And maybe that's QVC's business model and that's what they've found, but that's not true. People do care and people will buy it. And so we wanted to share that story and give people the opportunity to make that decision for themselves and not let QVC tell them that they don't want to buy it.

That seems, like, really insane not to say you don't care about american made. I'll pay a little extra if it's american made. I think QVC is wrong. Pete and Jen, last final. Just to end this. I know we're late on time. It's Valentine's Day. Some people are going to have a wonderful Valentine's Day because they're in love, like you guys. Some people are going to have a bad Valentine's Day because it's a hard day when you're single. What advice would you give to people who want what you have, who are looking to find the one want to have again? What you have, kids, faith based, all the things. What advice would you give to people right now?

Don't give up. Don't settle. And take a look at where you're. Don't.

You can meet people, not Tinder.

Right.

I get what you're saying. Yes.

And don't judge people right away. Sometimes it takes time.

Pete.

Yeah. What she's saying is she didn't like me at first, and it took.

Oh, my. Kidding.

I'm just kidding. I just think for men and for me, focus on your faith. Know who you are and what you believe and ultimately love your wife and love your family, and in whatever circumstance you find yourself in. And it may be simple, it may be complex, but your kids really do look at. It's hard to know exactly what they'll take away from it, but they'll know if you're fully invested in who they are. And that's something that Jen reminds me of all the time. We would have nine or ten if we could. Let's just put it that way. I'm not here to weigh in on your husband's side here, Megan, but you'll never regret more is my honest opinion about that. And there's such a blessing on your life. And it's our charge to be fruitful and multiply. And it's a bunch of little conservative christian patriots running around. World could use a little bit of that.

Yeah. You guys have such a beautiful family.

Yes, sir. Sorry. He did say something that back to the singles. He said know yourself. And I think that is super important, too, because if you're dating and you're not really comfortable with yourself yet, you're going to fill that with what other people are, even though that might not be the person you want to be with or a good match for you. So find your own confidence and know who you are, and then it'll be easier to find the person that you want to be with.

Yeah, I love that. And I just want to thank you guys again, Pete and Jen, for taking time. I know you're so busy, so many kids, so many jobs, all the things, and I really appreciate you taking time. And please check out Pete's poison Ivy special on Fox Nation. I was a part of it not to humble you again for doing that. No, it's so good and so important. And you can obviously find Pete on Fox and Friends weekends. Jen producing the Patriot awards. That's amazing. I love the Patriot Awards. And you can follow them both on social media. But thank you. I really, really appreciate, it's been really fun.

Thank you so much. Have a good Valentine's Day with your hubby.

Happy Valentine's Day. I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day. Thank you for listening to our first inaugural love episode. Maybe we'll do another one. As you know, Miranda and I just love themes. I will do political moments during each time, but every time, a holiday, an event, a Lunar new year, anything. We love a theme, and it just felt right to do today. And I really love the conversations we had. So, Miranda, thank you. And we'll have to do this again.

Thank you. Are we going to crack some beers during St. Patrick's Day episode?

We should do something for St. Patrick's Day. We got to think about that. I have to think about this, too.

We got about a month to get busy.

Yes, we will think of something. All right. Thank you. See you guys on Thursday. Thanks for listening to this episode of Megan McCain has entered the chat brought to you by Teton Ridge. I am your host and executive producer, Megan McCain. Additional executive producers Miranda Wilkins, Eric Spiegelman and Wynn Weigel. Our supervising producer is Olivia Decopoulos. Our senior guest producer is Kara Kaplan and associate producer Austin Goodman.