[NEW EPISODE] Thoughts Become Things

Cali Alpert has an amazing repertoire of experience to share - what a treat for our listeners!

Her passion for and knowledge of psychology, spirituality and the personal growth space blend to create soulful storytelling across the board.

Cali has interviewed Whoopie Goldberg, Steven Tyler, Deepak Chopra, Halle Berry, Richard Branson, Jessie Jackson, LL Cool J., Drew Barrymore, Dr. Andrew Weil, Jim Carrey, Cameron Diaz, Robert Plant, Harrison Ford, , Bruce Willis, Will Smith, Quentin Tarentino, Tony Bennett and more.

The audience will hear about Cali's achievement of three, straight Emmy Awards;

her identification as a storyteller and "deep question asker;" what she has learned

from interviewing an amazing A-list of diverse people.

‍

Music:  https://meditationmusiclibrary.com/ The tune is "My Relaxing Piano."

Show Notes

Segment 1

In this episode of The A Train to Sedona, Linda Marsanico welcomes Emmy-winning producer and podcast host Cali Alpert, who shares how her transformative travels ignited a deep curiosity for people’s stories and cultures. Cali reflects on how breaking free from societal expectations and embracing solo adventures allowed her to cultivate confidence, intuition, and spiritual growth. Their conversation invites listeners to explore their own paths toward self-discovery, reminding them of the profound wisdom gained through vulnerability, connection, and stepping into the unknown.

Segment 2

Cali Alpert shares a powerful story of serendipity, recounting how a chance encounter with a stranger on a flight led to an unexpected reunion in New York City, reinforcing her belief in divine orchestration over coincidences. She emphasizes that living authentically and embracing joy naturally aligns us with higher frequencies, inviting synchronicities as affirmations of being on the right path. Cali also reflects on her evolving spiritual journey, highlighting how personal growth and spirituality are deeply intertwined, requiring both emotional healing and an embodied connection to the divine.

Segment 3

Cali Alpert emphasizes the profound importance of sharing personal stories as a means of leaving a meaningful legacy and fostering self-growth, offering "legacy interviews" to help individuals reflect deeply on their life experiences. She shares how her own inner work and psychological healing have been her greatest accomplishments, highlighting the courage it takes to confront personal challenges and evolve spiritually. Cali also reflects on embracing life transitions with vulnerability, drawing inspiration from spiritual teachings like those of Ram Dass, and encouraging others to shed attachments and reconnect with their authentic selves.

Segment 4

Cali Alpert reflects on her journey as a storyteller and spiritual explorer, sharing insights from her Emmy-winning career in television production and her personal growth through embracing vulnerability. She discusses the profound process of shedding ego, embracing gratitude, and reconnecting with the inner self, likening the spiritual path to peeling back the layers of an artichoke to reveal the heart. The conversation concludes with Cali's emphasis on the power of storytelling to heal and inspire, alongside her invitation to others to embark on their own paths of self-discovery and spiritual exploration.

Transcript

00:00:55.090 --> 00:00:56.539 Linda Marsanico: Hello, everyone!

00:00:56.690 --> 00:01:02.360 Linda Marsanico: I'm Linda Marsanico. Welcome to the A. Train to Sedona. Broadcast.

00:01:03.480 --> 00:01:08.739 Linda Marsanico: The A train to Sedona is also a book. I wrote a memoir

00:01:08.960 --> 00:01:15.690 Linda Marsanico: about my road to love and compassion in it. I share my failures and my successes.

00:01:16.020 --> 00:01:18.190 Linda Marsanico: and I wrote the book so that

00:01:18.620 --> 00:01:26.049 Linda Marsanico: my journey could inspire yours. My hope is that your journey would be more efficient and easier for you.

00:01:27.410 --> 00:01:34.530 Linda Marsanico: You can buy a signed copy of the A. Train to Sedona on my website@lindamarsenico.com.

00:01:36.810 --> 00:01:41.799 Linda Marsanico: You can also buy it at retail and bookstores.

00:01:42.870 --> 00:01:49.680 Linda Marsanico: Now let's remember that in New York City the a train is an express train. So hop on board.

00:01:50.720 --> 00:01:52.620 Linda Marsanico: I have a free gift for you.

00:01:53.080 --> 00:01:55.690 Linda Marsanico: the cheat sheet for high vibration living

00:01:55.980 --> 00:02:00.000 Linda Marsanico: now this world has been dramatic and chaotic, and it's

00:02:00.260 --> 00:02:08.190 Linda Marsanico: puts us off balance. These 7 exercises can help you bring your energy, your vibration, to where you want it.

00:02:08.910 --> 00:02:18.779 Linda Marsanico: There are exercises to bring you to the present moment. There is a guided meditation, a walking meditation, one to have you surround yourself in violet light.

00:02:19.030 --> 00:02:22.690 Linda Marsanico: and you can download a free copy@lindamarsenico.com.

00:02:24.090 --> 00:02:32.199 Linda Marsanico: I have 2 disclaimers, one, that this broadcast does not create a professional relationship.

00:02:32.420 --> 00:02:38.380 Linda Marsanico: and 2, that the opinions expressed here do not represent talk, radio, new York City.

00:02:39.590 --> 00:02:43.260 Linda Marsanico: Today, I have as my guest, Callie Alpert.

00:02:44.180 --> 00:03:00.350 Linda Marsanico: Callie Alpert is a three-time emmy-winning interviewer, producer and podcast host who has created content from multiple networks, such as Nbc. Discovery, E. Sony and fox

00:03:00.720 --> 00:03:07.589 Linda Marsanico: platforms, such as Facebook, Youtube, Dodo, Eonline, Spotify.

00:03:07.970 --> 00:03:14.309 Linda Marsanico: and TV hosts such as Jane, Pauley, Meredith Vieira, Dr. Oz.

00:03:14.680 --> 00:03:18.770 Linda Marsanico: Her deep listening and adept question-asking skills

00:03:19.490 --> 00:03:32.550 Linda Marsanico: have garnered her, a reputation for heart string, storytelling, and intimate conversations from which listeners can gain wisdom, access their own vulnerability, laugh.

00:03:32.750 --> 00:03:33.700 Linda Marsanico: cry.

00:03:34.020 --> 00:03:40.710 Linda Marsanico: Callie's subjects range from Cheryl Crow to Richard Branson, Deepak, Chopra to Halle Berry.

00:03:40.990 --> 00:03:48.550 Linda Marsanico: war vets to agoraphobics and everyday everyday heroes to incarcerated mothers.

00:03:49.310 --> 00:03:54.750 Linda Marsanico: Her knowledge of psychology, spirituality, and the personal growth space

00:03:54.880 --> 00:03:59.659 Linda Marsanico: blend to create soulful storytelling across the board.

00:04:00.140 --> 00:04:04.779 Linda Marsanico: Her new life guidance business is called the inner viewer

00:04:05.140 --> 00:04:08.339 Linda Marsanico: where she merges her intuitive, questioning.

00:04:08.890 --> 00:04:15.880 Linda Marsanico: personal healing journey and wisdom gathered from years in the personal growth, space

00:04:16.200 --> 00:04:23.970 Linda Marsanico: to help individual clients and groups find new ways to their more or most joyful selves.

00:04:24.550 --> 00:04:25.840 Linda Marsanico: Welcome, Kali!

00:04:25.880 --> 00:04:30.639 Cali A.: Thank you, Linda. It's so nice to be here that was like a this is your life.

00:04:31.020 --> 00:04:33.250 Cali A.: Walk down Memory Lane. Thank you for that.

00:04:33.420 --> 00:04:38.070 Linda Marsanico: Oh, you've had quite a lot of stellar experiences.

00:04:38.560 --> 00:04:45.470 Linda Marsanico: and I was wondering when you think of yourself from the age of college, what would you consider

00:04:45.970 --> 00:04:51.610 Linda Marsanico: the influences to bring you to where you are as you sit here with us today?

00:04:52.300 --> 00:04:57.899 Cali A.: Oh, my goodness, wow! Thank you for that question as to get us into this conversation today.

00:04:58.480 --> 00:05:00.332 Cali A.: Oh, my lord,

00:05:01.670 --> 00:05:16.470 Cali A.: Probably everything, every moment that might sound like a bit of a throwaway answer. College itself was the 1st time that kind of broke out of being a good behaved, academically oriented little girl which might be counterintuitive

00:05:16.730 --> 00:05:30.669 Cali A.: to go into college, and certainly I worked hard, but I also played really hard, and it was the 1st time in my life I was more of a free spirit, and on that part of me I'd always been a little bit more fearful and anxiety ridden and contained. And

00:05:31.570 --> 00:05:40.769 Cali A.: yeah, just smaller and more specific in my presentation and my behavior and the level of freedom that I enjoyed as a human.

00:05:41.180 --> 00:06:05.389 Cali A.: So that was probably that was a big door opener, and then I would say the very 1st thing after college was the 1st travels I did to 1st travels period in any sort of real global way, except for some travel. I'd done domestically as a child with my family and in Northern, you know, North America, but went to Europe for a few months with a friend, slash boyfriend of the time.

00:06:05.790 --> 00:06:13.880 Cali A.: and that was my 1st taste of the world, and just the magic of what it means to be around different cultures and different people.

00:06:14.506 --> 00:06:18.343 Cali A.: Not living inside. Pardon me, not living inside of

00:06:19.550 --> 00:06:32.260 Cali A.: a paradigm. That sort of dictated what I should be doing with my days, you know, from going. Being a student to knowing I was an aspiring working woman. This was the in-between chapter of that and that

00:06:33.000 --> 00:06:40.449 Cali A.: travel which led to many crazy adventures and many stories that I won't take too much of our time with right now

00:06:40.550 --> 00:06:51.659 Cali A.: was just an eye opener for me, and made me realize how much I love the world, and how curious I was about other parts of the world, and it was a springboard for a lot of traveling that I ended up doing

00:06:51.790 --> 00:07:00.339 Cali A.: years later, and for many years I haven't as much recently, but I am a big traveler, gypsy spirit, and that woke it up. I didn't know that that was in me

00:07:00.480 --> 00:07:06.770 Cali A.: to the degree that it was so, I would say that that actually was one of the bigger influencers in me, and just the

00:07:07.240 --> 00:07:10.019 Cali A.: life trajectory that I jumped onto.

00:07:10.740 --> 00:07:16.740 Linda Marsanico: So that trip to Europe was this Pandora's box of.

00:07:16.740 --> 00:07:17.340 Cali A.: Hmm.

00:07:17.340 --> 00:07:21.269 Linda Marsanico: Venture and the expression of who you are in a bigger world.

00:07:21.270 --> 00:07:28.409 Cali A.: Yeah, exactly. It was. It wasn't I mean, we could say probably, that it in some ways

00:07:28.880 --> 00:07:42.400 Cali A.: perpetuated or drove forth my curiosity about people and their stories, which is very much what my, as you, you know, just so beautifully introduced. What led to my professional life.

00:07:42.890 --> 00:07:47.799 Cali A.: Actually started those seeds started. Even when I was a little kid I was with microphones and my Teddy bears in.

00:07:47.800 --> 00:07:48.370 Linda Marsanico: Oh!

00:07:48.370 --> 00:08:03.500 Cali A.: Well, so I always knew, or my soul always knew, on some level, even if I didn't know intellectually what I was, what I was driven toward. But yes, I would say that just the world opening up and just finding meaning, lots of characters, learning more about myself.

00:08:05.890 --> 00:08:12.370 Cali A.: Learning more about the world cultural places, iconic places, history. This was a time

00:08:12.510 --> 00:08:15.229 Cali A.: I graduated college in 1985.

00:08:15.640 --> 00:08:16.620 Cali A.: And

00:08:17.880 --> 00:08:23.745 Cali A.: so these travel. I'm sorry. Yes, in in 1985. It was a long time ago.

00:08:24.090 --> 00:08:52.249 Cali A.: but anyway, it was before the Berlin Wall came down, for example. So we were in Germany on both sides of the wall at that time, and that was a very telling experience, but it was a little lost on me because I wasn't. I was a little naive. Then, thankfully, the friend I was traveling with was way smarter than I was with all matters of the world, and I got educated pretty quickly, but a lot of it was more because I was there experiencing what it was like to be in a supermarket in East Berlin in 1985

00:08:53.580 --> 00:09:08.969 Cali A.: and just how people were living. So those types of realities, just as one example of what what later would become some very deep and humbling and powerful and poignant experiences in all corners of the world, I would say, that's what 1st opened me up. And I think

00:09:09.080 --> 00:09:14.239 Cali A.: I say this a lot to people when I'm mentoring or speaking, especially to young women.

00:09:14.640 --> 00:09:36.169 Cali A.: If I need to kind of generalize that, I think it's probably one of the most informing experiences anybody can have is traveling, I think, especially for women alone, at least when I started to do it more on my own. Throughout the years that followed this particular trip. It was extremely

00:09:36.430 --> 00:09:46.399 Cali A.: powerful and educational and informative. Yeah, really shaped who I am on a lot of levels and ultimately tied back to my professional career, because it just

00:09:46.970 --> 00:09:50.660 Cali A.: sparked and underscored how curious I was about things and about

00:09:51.170 --> 00:09:53.760 Cali A.: people and the way they lived, and what their stories were.

00:09:54.960 --> 00:10:01.260 Linda Marsanico: You mentioned traveling alone? Did you go by yourself solely to where did you go by yourself?

00:10:01.710 --> 00:10:25.399 Cali A.: When I was so this is now, if we jump forward, see how old was I then it's so funny to think back to these chapters of my life. So in my after that trip, and then getting into the earlier parts of my career, I started to ogle like travel brochures to all kinds of far reaching places.

00:10:25.670 --> 00:10:32.790 Cali A.: and I was always waiting for the right opportunity, the perfect person, the right boyfriend, the right friend, to go with, and

00:10:32.890 --> 00:10:42.819 Cali A.: when a lot of years went by for some of these bigger trips that I was dreaming of envisioning, that you know, whoever that perfect travel companion was didn't

00:10:42.960 --> 00:10:44.159 Cali A.: show up.

00:10:44.260 --> 00:10:47.389 Cali A.: I decided it was silly for me to continue to wait.

00:10:47.390 --> 00:10:47.860 Linda Marsanico: You know.

00:10:47.860 --> 00:11:06.450 Cali A.: And I was wasting time. And what am I waiting for? And I literally jumped on an airplane to India, Nepal, and went by myself. I'm sorry I went to Costa Rica 1st by myself. This was back in the early nineties before there was any infrastructure, and I got myself into all kinds of situations.

00:11:06.780 --> 00:11:11.399 Cali A.: you know, driving with, and my Spanish had to come back

00:11:11.880 --> 00:11:39.209 Cali A.: very quickly, just as a survival mechanism, because it was. It was always a safe, beautiful place, but there was no infrastructure at the time. The way there is now there, so no like traffic lights it was, make a left at the volcano and wash your fingers. And you know, hope that I just remember a lot of darkness and a lot of random roads that weren't developed and trying to find my way. After that I went to India, and Nepal and I went trekking in the Himalayan mountains. But I am yeah. So these were trips that I did by myself.

00:11:39.480 --> 00:11:58.260 Cali A.: jumped on airplane, had long layovers in airports that were very daunting, got to Kathmandu, found myself a Sherpa to go trekking in the Himalayan mountains for a handful of days, and then it went. From there I traveled a lot around the world by myself. I did.

00:11:58.840 --> 00:12:01.599 Linda Marsanico: It sounds like that's part of your personal growth.

00:12:02.450 --> 00:12:17.431 Cali A.: I think it would. It probably is one of the more important parts of my personal growth, especially again early on when you're you know when I'm still finding myself, and wasn't as didn't have as much life experience as I do now in my early sixties.

00:12:18.780 --> 00:12:42.321 Cali A.: So many things have to develop in those situations right just between your your confidence, your awareness, your mechanisms, your keeping an eye out for yourself, for safety, you know, from safety purposes. Not that I put myself in any abjectly dangerous or reckless situations, but certainly you always have to be aware and mindful, and I was going to a lot of developing countries because I was very drawn to them. And so

00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:56.730 Cali A.: they were really beautiful, powerful experiences where I met lots of people. And that's when I started to learn the magic of synchronicity and the people I would meet, that I knew I might have met them in the middle of a

00:12:56.930 --> 00:13:19.609 Cali A.: an obscure desert in Morocco, but it ends up that our cousins are. I'm making this part up. I'm not getting too detailed the specifics, but you know I something would circle back, and I'd meet up with them again coincidentally, and I put that in quotes because I don't believe in coincidences in New York City a month later, when I didn't even live in New York City anymore, I was living in La at the time.

00:13:19.610 --> 00:13:27.450 Cali A.: So I have a lot of really huge sort of serendipitous global stories that are real wild

00:13:28.337 --> 00:13:32.990 Cali A.: and in and of themselves are great stories. But they also reminded me

00:13:33.130 --> 00:13:43.989 Cali A.: of just the magic of when you follow what your heart desires, and you are relaxed, and you sink into what's calling you that there's always magic that's holding you.

00:13:44.190 --> 00:13:49.119 Cali A.: And so those were huge, very deep, personal personal growth experiences for me.

00:13:49.400 --> 00:13:52.120 Linda Marsanico: We have to take a break soon.

00:13:52.220 --> 00:13:56.440 Linda Marsanico: but I'm wondering when we get back if you would tell us a story

00:13:56.700 --> 00:14:01.459 Linda Marsanico: about something on your travels. I know you have lots of stories.

00:14:01.780 --> 00:14:02.530 Linda Marsanico: How does.

00:14:02.530 --> 00:14:03.359 Cali A.: I do?

00:14:03.460 --> 00:14:06.800 Cali A.: I do. I'm gonna I'll try to summon one up during the break. How's that.

00:14:06.800 --> 00:14:07.740 Linda Marsanico: Sounds fabulous.

00:14:08.390 --> 00:14:10.719 Linda Marsanico: Anyway, we can go on to break now.

00:14:11.040 --> 00:14:14.450 Linda Marsanico: and we'll be back with a personal story from Callie Alpert.

00:15:58.640 --> 00:16:04.870 Linda Marsanico: Hello, everyone! Welcome back to the A. Train to Sedona with my guest, Callie Alpert.

00:16:05.250 --> 00:16:09.089 Linda Marsanico: and I'm so looking forward to the story that you're going to share with us.

00:16:09.090 --> 00:16:25.099 Cali A.: Thank you for digging a little deeper. I was breezing over not to hide anything, but because I just wanted to. I didn't want to take up too much time. This is probably one of my top, 2 or 3 favorite global serendipity stories, and I'll try to consolidate it to the best of my ability.

00:16:25.938 --> 00:16:44.560 Cali A.: When I went on that trip to India and Nepal, it was prompted by an old friend who was a travel writer who I knew from the United States who had said, Oh, why don't you come to India in a few months I'll be there. I'll have a friend or 2 with me. You'll find me in this rice, Paddy, on this day like literally, it was kind of like a.

00:16:44.560 --> 00:16:45.210 Linda Marsanico: That's Patty.

00:16:45.210 --> 00:17:10.869 Cali A.: You know, it was kind of pretty obscure. It wasn't. It was. It was obscure and fun, and very adventurous. And so I did, and I ended up meeting his friend, and he and I ended up falling in love, having a vacation romance, and then it launched into a 5 year intercontinental relationship. This particular person was living in Prague in the Czech Republic, and I was living in Los Angeles.

00:17:11.069 --> 00:17:18.930 Cali A.: I was very, very broke and very unemployed, but I had a lot of time on my hands. It was during the early stages of my television career, and one of the.

00:17:19.910 --> 00:17:23.139 Cali A.: you know, periods of like less employment.

00:17:23.631 --> 00:17:34.549 Cali A.: So we were back and forth a lot between those 2 places to be able to have time together on one trip I had a late excuse me, a layover in London.

00:17:35.240 --> 00:17:57.039 Cali A.: and this was before 9 11, when I was working in the entertainment television profession. And so I had business cards at E entertainment television in this case that were able sometimes got me upgrades if I schmoozed in the right way on the right day, and so I sat in business class. I ended up next to a young man, pardon me.

00:17:57.800 --> 00:18:03.950 Cali A.: who also was not intending to be in that seat, but he got upgraded because he was having some back issues.

00:18:04.110 --> 00:18:16.040 Cali A.: He was from New Zealand, originally living in London. He was going back to New Zealand to say goodbye to his ailing father, and I was driving, flying back to Los Angeles to go home.

00:18:16.350 --> 00:18:19.300 Cali A.: We had a very poignant, powerful

00:18:19.900 --> 00:18:22.880 Cali A.: 11 h on this plane flight.

00:18:23.020 --> 00:18:34.680 Cali A.: tears, music, telling life, stories, sharing woes and travails. It was very intimate and very intense and very and platonic. He was married. I was in love with my boyfriend.

00:18:34.850 --> 00:19:03.939 Cali A.: We got off the plane in Los Angeles at the airport. We didn't exchange. Didn't feel like an appropriate, necessary thing to do, said goodbye with that kind of sideways. This was powerful, and thank you, and wishing you well, and that was it. 3 weeks later I come back to New York to visit my family and be back in New York. I'm from New Jersey originally to be with my family for a birthday. We're at a restaurant that we picked to have dinner or brunch, or whatever it was in New York City, in the Flatiron district.

00:19:04.460 --> 00:19:17.770 Cali A.: and who walks over to my table. But this person from the airplane. He had gone to New Zealand. He had said goodbye to his dying father. He was on his way back to London, and Pit stopped in New York City for 3 days to see some friends.

00:19:17.770 --> 00:19:18.280 Linda Marsanico: Hmm.

00:19:18.552 --> 00:19:34.360 Cali A.: So I have goosebumps, because it was way more poignant than that at the time I'm rushing to, just to give you the you know the nuts and bolts of the story, and then from there we actually did end up, keeping in touch and seeing each other periodically when when we were in the others, respective city.

00:19:34.540 --> 00:19:48.689 Cali A.: but that was one of many stories, and it just again to me, synchronicities and serendipities. I'm not a believer in coincidences. I believe that everything is divinely orchestrated

00:19:49.270 --> 00:19:49.935 Cali A.: and

00:19:51.000 --> 00:20:02.539 Cali A.: Besides, whatever was the reason, he and I were meant to bump back into each other again, it reminded me of the power of on a larger level, of what happens again when you

00:20:03.390 --> 00:20:07.139 Cali A.: live your life, when you, when you melt into a larger

00:20:07.720 --> 00:20:20.840 Cali A.: energy, a larger frequency by doing things that are just organic, and bring you joy and bring you gratitude when you put yourself in those situations. And you say, yes, there's magical things that happen, and to me

00:20:21.300 --> 00:20:23.819 Cali A.: synchronicities are confirmation of that.

00:20:24.020 --> 00:20:27.709 Linda Marsanico: Yes, it's a beautiful story. Are you still in touch with this person?

00:20:27.710 --> 00:20:34.280 Cali A.: Haven't been no, not in many years. We were for a good amount of years, and then we lost lost track. Yeah.

00:20:34.280 --> 00:20:40.630 Linda Marsanico: So maybe you won't anymore. But if there's any unfinished dynamic you may run into, you never know.

00:20:41.316 --> 00:20:43.373 Cali A.: You never know.

00:20:44.060 --> 00:20:51.449 Linda Marsanico: Perhaps you you got closure from the restaurant and being in touch, and we're supportive of each other. It's just a very beautiful story.

00:20:51.783 --> 00:20:52.449 Cali A.: Thank you.

00:20:52.450 --> 00:20:53.409 Linda Marsanico: Sharing it. Calvin.

00:20:53.410 --> 00:20:54.569 Cali A.: Thanks for asking.

00:20:55.690 --> 00:20:57.949 Linda Marsanico: I wonder if you could share

00:20:59.120 --> 00:21:01.880 Linda Marsanico: the role of spirituality in your life.

00:21:02.320 --> 00:21:03.370 Cali A.: Hmm!

00:21:03.790 --> 00:21:06.129 Cali A.: It's the most important thing to me.

00:21:09.490 --> 00:21:14.050 Cali A.: So important and so deeply in my DNA and my body that it's hard to talk about it.

00:21:14.570 --> 00:21:20.729 Cali A.: and I might have gotten a little bit more reticent over the years, because these words and terms and

00:21:21.140 --> 00:21:29.420 Cali A.: ethos have gotten more popularized, which is a beautiful thing, but sometimes I get a little like I don't do. I want to be one of those people that's over talking these words.

00:21:30.170 --> 00:21:34.600 Cali A.: That said for me. It started very early. I was.

00:21:34.840 --> 00:21:38.060 Cali A.: I have very clear recollections. As a young child of

00:21:38.550 --> 00:21:43.320 Cali A.: knowing I grew up Jewish in a semi-observant household, not very religious.

00:21:44.280 --> 00:21:57.500 Cali A.: but I also separately remember knowing that there was some body somebody at the time. I thought it was a person or a being that was overseeing everything that was happening here in our silly lives here on earth.

00:21:57.780 --> 00:22:03.539 Cali A.: up in the sky, you know, which is not where I believe it all lives right now. But it's natural to, you know. Look up.

00:22:04.635 --> 00:22:05.340 Cali A.: And

00:22:05.860 --> 00:22:13.009 Cali A.: then and I just kind of carried that with me. It wasn't very developed. I didn't study it, or really dig into it too deeply. At that point.

00:22:13.300 --> 00:22:15.960 Cali A.: When I was in my early twenties

00:22:16.230 --> 00:22:23.500 Cali A.: after college starting my work career in New York City, I was dating a young man who

00:22:23.730 --> 00:22:26.020 Cali A.: was carrying crystals in his pocket.

00:22:26.020 --> 00:22:26.500 Linda Marsanico: Hmm.

00:22:26.560 --> 00:22:34.400 Cali A.: And had lost a sibling, and so he was delving into his healing process in this way, and it

00:22:35.030 --> 00:22:46.760 Cali A.: turned me on to seminars. I would go to Angel seminars, and I didn't even know. You know, it's kind of interesting, because when you're just starting out, you're not really on a specific path

00:22:47.080 --> 00:22:53.390 Cali A.: in terms of checking the boxes. Of what type of modalities you're checking into, or what

00:22:53.850 --> 00:22:57.629 Cali A.: classes you're taking or what books you're reading. It just kind of starts to happen.

00:22:58.120 --> 00:22:59.510 Cali A.: Least it did for me.

00:23:00.050 --> 00:23:08.479 Cali A.: and then it went from there. I mean, it was really a combination of a deep therapeutic process that I got into in my thirties.

00:23:08.670 --> 00:23:13.750 Cali A.: coming out of relationships that were not healthy with men, and reenacting

00:23:14.130 --> 00:23:20.299 Cali A.: old dynamics with my family of origin that, you know, take a lifetime sometimes to unpack into.

00:23:20.300 --> 00:23:20.630 Linda Marsanico: Yes.

00:23:20.630 --> 00:23:22.080 Cali A.: Yeah, to

00:23:22.450 --> 00:23:27.169 Cali A.: soften. I won't say they ever go away, but they soften. You make better friends with them. Right?

00:23:27.320 --> 00:23:43.499 Cali A.: So it was kind of a combo platter for me. My therapeutic process was helping me to kind of gut out feelings and make more space for the spiritual piece to come in which is, I'm a huge believer in. Even now, when I talk to my clients and Mentorees, I'm

00:23:43.700 --> 00:23:54.190 Cali A.: a big believer that you can't just focus on spirituality and do like the bypass. You have to also gut out the real human stuff because we're in human body, right? We're in human experience.

00:23:54.310 --> 00:24:01.300 Cali A.: And that comes with a lot of feelings and traumas and stuff and neuroses and all those fun things.

00:24:02.300 --> 00:24:03.610 Cali A.: So

00:24:03.880 --> 00:24:11.199 Cali A.: it just kind of gently evolved. And then I started digging deeper. I had beautiful teachers that would start to show up

00:24:11.950 --> 00:24:14.859 Cali A.: therapist that I'm deeply grateful for

00:24:17.690 --> 00:24:23.729 Cali A.: And then I started working more. I'm kind of jumping, because it's such an interesting question to really think about.

00:24:24.350 --> 00:24:28.560 Cali A.: to go backwards and think about what the the path has been, because there's no

00:24:29.220 --> 00:24:40.540 Cali A.: there's no clear marker, you know where you can say, or at least for me, where I can say, Oh, this was a revelation! And then it led me to this. It's been like a slow evolution with a lot of breakthroughs and turning corners and

00:24:40.700 --> 00:25:00.509 Cali A.: then digging deeper. But I can say, like in my twenties, it was just a concept in my thirties. It was more therapeutic and psychological than it was spiritual. And then, in my forties and fifties it became more deeply spiritual, where I guess I just started to make more space for my desire for divinity and

00:25:00.994 --> 00:25:14.830 Cali A.: having more of a relationship and an embodiment of that, instead of just thinking about it intellectually, because there's such a big difference. I think people get really lost sometimes in the intellect, intellectualizing of spirituality.

00:25:15.180 --> 00:25:33.820 Cali A.: And then there's a it's a different thing to really embody it and live it every day. Right? Yeah. And also just to learn what mindfulness is, and presence. And you know I started going on retreats and finding more people that were spiritually minded that could teach me or support me.

00:25:33.990 --> 00:25:35.320 Cali A.: Early on.

00:25:35.450 --> 00:25:38.561 Cali A.: I remember feeling kind of lonely about it.

00:25:39.110 --> 00:25:58.950 Cali A.: because I didn't. I thought I was one of the only people on the planet, you know, when you feel like you're the only person on the planet that thinks or feels the way you do. But so many of us feel that way. And it's a beautiful thing when, years later, you can realize that. So yeah, that's that's the gist. But I would say my deepest spiritual work has been in the last 10 years.

00:25:59.690 --> 00:26:00.836 Cali A.: My fifties,

00:26:01.680 --> 00:26:06.119 Linda Marsanico: So personal growth and spirituality are intertwined.

00:26:06.610 --> 00:26:07.640 Cali A.: Would you say?

00:26:09.330 --> 00:26:10.909 Cali A.: I would.

00:26:12.010 --> 00:26:17.120 Cali A.: Yeah, that's really interesting to think about

00:26:17.320 --> 00:26:20.139 Cali A.: for me. They have been sort of one in the same.

00:26:20.600 --> 00:26:20.940 Linda Marsanico: Hmm.

00:26:20.940 --> 00:26:24.267 Cali A.: And it doesn't mean that, that's all there is, you know.

00:26:25.160 --> 00:26:33.160 Cali A.: personal growth can come in so many different forms. It doesn't have to be in a from spirituality per se. I believe that personal growth is spiritual.

00:26:33.330 --> 00:26:33.910 Linda Marsanico: Yes.

00:26:33.910 --> 00:26:53.130 Cali A.: But you know there are so many different versions of what personal growth can be right, whether it's just learning to meditate or learning how to slow down or learning how to sleep. Better taking care of yourself, but I guess for me they all fall under the umbrella of spirituality to different degrees.

00:26:53.340 --> 00:26:54.140 Linda Marsanico: Yes.

00:26:55.130 --> 00:27:00.220 Linda Marsanico: Would you say something about your work as interviewer?

00:27:01.990 --> 00:27:18.000 Cali A.: Yes, thank you for asking. So, Interviewer, the interviewer.net is my website interviewer, being a play on being an interviewer, INNE. R. Viewer, thanks to my partner, who came up with that name.

00:27:20.030 --> 00:27:26.170 Cali A.: And it's a culmination of my many years as an interviewer interviewing

00:27:26.400 --> 00:27:53.681 Cali A.: hundreds, if not thousands, I'll say hundreds. And I want to exaggerate of people of all walks of life earlier in my career, with celebrities and rock stars graduated to real people, with all kinds of really beautiful and fascinating stories and stories to share and issues, to heal, from to subcultures, to more recently spiritual luminaries in the wellness world. That's where I've been really for the last 1015 years.

00:27:55.230 --> 00:28:04.360 Cali A.: and so they yeah, I would say that they have really helped, informed

00:28:04.870 --> 00:28:08.770 Cali A.: this particular pursuit, because I have a

00:28:09.310 --> 00:28:23.540 Cali A.: a reserve of collective wisdom that I've had the honor of gathering from all these wise and smart and achieved change makers, combined with the fact that I've been working in the wellness industry for 1015 years. Now, in very, you know, different ways.

00:28:23.990 --> 00:28:28.330 Cali A.: and my own personal healing journey, which has been a very deep one.

00:28:28.500 --> 00:28:30.659 Cali A.: having been raised by a mentally ill mother

00:28:31.410 --> 00:28:37.040 Cali A.: and a complicit father, both of whom I love very much, but definitely brought a serious ride with it.

00:28:37.360 --> 00:28:51.980 Cali A.: And so, and my understanding of ancient wisdom, traditions through this process has all culminated to this offering. Now that I have, which is the interviewer, interviewer.net where I do one on one life, guidance

00:28:52.420 --> 00:28:54.169 Cali A.: sessions with people

00:28:54.310 --> 00:29:13.809 Cali A.: to help them through my series of question, asking sort of intuitive question, asking to help them unlock their own answers. Some people would call it therapy. Some people would call it life coaching. I'm not certified in any of those things, but that's what people feel like when they have the experience of me. And then I also offer legacy interviews.

00:29:13.850 --> 00:29:24.759 Cali A.: I help people with coming up with their own personal story narrative for their own life, if they need it professionally, or if they want to find their own voice. Personally.

00:29:24.960 --> 00:29:28.400 Cali A.: they're not comfortable in settings where they feel

00:29:28.540 --> 00:29:35.229 Cali A.: empowered to communicate in the way that they want to. I can help them with that as well. So that's just a little taste.

00:29:35.750 --> 00:29:36.600 Linda Marsanico: Lovely.

00:29:36.900 --> 00:29:46.809 Linda Marsanico: We are ready for a break when we come back. Will you say something about the legacy, the legacy of what did you call it the legacy, something

00:29:47.620 --> 00:29:52.599 Linda Marsanico: that you you work with your clients to develop a legacy interview.

00:29:53.140 --> 00:29:56.020 Cali A.: Oh, the like! I can talk a little bit more about that if you'd like absolutely.

00:29:56.020 --> 00:29:56.500 Linda Marsanico: I'd like to.

00:29:56.500 --> 00:29:57.809 Cali A.: Be happy to. Yeah, of course.

00:29:57.810 --> 00:29:58.530 Linda Marsanico: All right.

00:29:58.760 --> 00:30:03.379 Linda Marsanico: So off to a break, and we'll be back to learn more about legacy interviewing.

00:31:41.670 --> 00:31:47.809 Linda Marsanico: Hello, everyone! Welcome back to the A. Train to Sedona with my guest, Callie Alpert

00:31:47.930 --> 00:31:51.590 Linda Marsanico: Callie! Do tell us about this legacy legacy situation.

00:31:51.590 --> 00:32:04.249 Cali A.: Well, 1st of all, I'm a firm believer that we all have a story. Everybody has a story to tell whether you share it with the world, or share it with your family, or share it with your relatives, is

00:32:04.380 --> 00:32:14.050 Cali A.: very individual, right? But I believe that everybody has something significant and more important in their lives, or more important to share than they might even realize or recognize.

00:32:15.890 --> 00:32:23.510 Cali A.: as we've already talked about. I spent the last, you know 30, 35 years facilitating other people's stories.

00:32:24.490 --> 00:32:31.840 Cali A.: And I, when I I started in entertainment programming and I was interviewing

00:32:32.120 --> 00:32:36.950 Cali A.: celebrities and rock stars and all that kind of fun, glamorous material.

00:32:37.120 --> 00:32:44.660 Cali A.: And then I moved on to real people, as I call them, in quotes more everyday people, with everyday stories and extraordinary stories at that.

00:32:44.680 --> 00:32:48.919 Cali A.: And and I found that that's really where my deeper interest lies.

00:32:49.770 --> 00:33:02.210 Cali A.: So now, all these years later, as my TV career has kind of waned, and in some ways I've aged out of it frankly, a little bit, even though I still, you know, do freelance work occasionally, and I'm open to it.

00:33:03.730 --> 00:33:19.869 Cali A.: I found that there's a lot of people that want to share their own stories for their own posterity to have for them, for their families. And so legacy interviews, which is a part of what I offer is the interviewer.net.

00:33:20.020 --> 00:33:23.580 Cali A.: It's just a part of a tentacle of the business

00:33:23.770 --> 00:33:42.499 Cali A.: is interviews where people can. You know it can do it in all kinds of different forms. But it's really just a way to get your life story down and to be asked what I would like to think are pretty insightful and deeper probing questions that you can have either to use for a memoir that you want to write

00:33:42.610 --> 00:34:04.290 Cali A.: or to leave for your relatives, or as a personal exercise in your own psychological growth. You know, the intention really, for me doesn't matter. Although people have a variety of different intentions, the process is the same, which is to give somebody a voice in a way that they might not have had it before, and then to have a final product to kind of walk away with.

00:34:05.610 --> 00:34:11.909 Linda Marsanico: Do they come away with a CD or video? How do you arrange that?

00:34:12.520 --> 00:34:31.890 Linda Marsanico: I do it? There's a few different ways. You can do it on zoom, just as like a zoom recording. That's a video and audio, you know. It could do just audio. It really just depends on what someone's preferences. I do know people. I don't. I'm not so much in the business of this. There are people that do it way more in depth because they're focused solely on that where they'll collect.

00:34:32.100 --> 00:34:37.929 Cali A.: Old archival materials and photo albums and family pictures, and put together.

00:34:38.682 --> 00:34:49.679 Cali A.: You know, a real, proper biography, beautiful cinematic creation. I'm capable of doing that, because it's my experience. But it's not where my offerings lie right now. Yeah.

00:34:50.260 --> 00:34:58.179 Cali A.: so. And I always, I mean, I advise having it in both formats, because if you have it on video and audio, you can always strip the audio and just use that

00:34:58.360 --> 00:35:26.129 Cali A.: type of file. But I think, and also, I also think it's an interesting exercise in self growth. A lot of people don't like to look at themselves or listen to themselves. And so, while it's not my place to force that. I think it's I would. I encourage it because I think it's a great. It's literally a mirror, right of looking back at yourself and hearing yourself talk about your highlights, of your life experience and outstanding stories and philosophies and

00:35:27.480 --> 00:35:28.510 Cali A.: lessons.

00:35:28.690 --> 00:35:35.360 Linda Marsanico: Yes, yes, it sounds amazing, Kelly, what aspect of your work

00:35:36.330 --> 00:35:40.630 Linda Marsanico: do you treasure the most in the past in the present?

00:35:40.630 --> 00:35:41.640 Cali A.: Hmm!

00:35:43.651 --> 00:35:48.828 Cali A.: Well, I said to a friend recently, as I was encouraging her

00:35:50.180 --> 00:35:54.520 Cali A.: to revisit the idea of therapy for her own well-being.

00:35:55.080 --> 00:35:57.599 Cali A.: and I was going on a little bit of a rant

00:35:57.730 --> 00:36:07.159 Cali A.: about how instrumental it's been in my life I can't imagine not having, and I'm still actively, always in some modality of therapy or learning, or

00:36:09.440 --> 00:36:13.149 Cali A.: I would say my inner work is my biggest accomplishment. Frankly.

00:36:13.150 --> 00:36:13.940 Linda Marsanico: Hmm.

00:36:14.493 --> 00:36:19.190 Cali A.: And I don't know that might not be what you're asking, so I don't mean to be cute about it. But

00:36:20.132 --> 00:36:23.680 Cali A.: and I'm happy to answer from a more professional standpoint, too.

00:36:23.900 --> 00:36:33.229 Cali A.: But I would say that that's probably my large, my biggest accomplishment. My partner and I joke a lot about our inner currency, you know, like when you have hard won

00:36:33.420 --> 00:36:43.772 Cali A.: wealth internally from your life, lessons from challenges, from travails, from growing up, and having to for me more specifically,

00:36:44.580 --> 00:36:49.499 Cali A.: having to even learn that I had trauma, psychological and emotional trauma.

00:36:50.470 --> 00:36:58.539 Cali A.: We all do to some degree. So I'm not alone here, certainly, and a lot of people have way, worse degrees, and then other people have more gentle degrees

00:36:58.760 --> 00:37:10.670 Cali A.: of it. But I would say, that's been my biggest learning, and given who I am as a very deep, very feeling, highly sensitive, human and and empath.

00:37:11.450 --> 00:37:39.749 Cali A.: trying to an idealist trying to find my way in a world where I didn't really feel like there is. There's a play, you know, having to kind of I won't say unlearn that, but find a more holistic way to live in this world being made that way when I was younger, being encouraged to be more pragmatic and not be so sensitive, and all those things. That's just one little piece of it. Large, long times of loneliness, singleness, scarcity.

00:37:43.250 --> 00:37:53.580 Cali A.: I just. And and again, just how I'm made, and the devotion that I have given to my inner therapeutic and psychological work like I've really dug deep.

00:37:54.230 --> 00:37:59.910 Cali A.: And I'm really proud of that, because I think that that's 1 of the more courageous acts we humans can take is to

00:38:00.110 --> 00:38:07.279 Cali A.: look at ourselves in the mirror, and to get to know ourselves better. I also think the world would be better if we all got to know ourselves better.

00:38:07.600 --> 00:38:10.179 Cali A.: So that's probably my biggest accomplishment

00:38:11.054 --> 00:38:15.720 Cali A.: professionally, which may be what you're maybe what you're really asking.

00:38:15.720 --> 00:38:20.559 Linda Marsanico: You say that I want to say that the inner work is really the purpose for being on earth. In my opinion.

00:38:20.750 --> 00:38:21.930 Cali A.: Yeah, I do, too.

00:38:21.930 --> 00:38:35.589 Linda Marsanico: It's the treasure, it's it's the heart and the soul of our purpose. And how wonderful that you take it so seriously and have grown so much, and yes, I would like to hear about the professional aspect as well.

00:38:35.590 --> 00:38:39.771 Cali A.: Yeah, thank you. And also just want to button that up. I really feel like,

00:38:40.350 --> 00:38:58.189 Cali A.: I do agree with you. I think that that's why we're here. I could talk to all my beliefs, you know, kind of Vedantic beliefs in Karma and subsharas, and being here to live out and heal our stories that we bring from other lifetimes and but that's all just like

00:38:58.320 --> 00:39:11.519 Cali A.: semantics. It doesn't matter. It's really just like healing our healing. Our stuff, I believe, is why we're all here, and learning that I call it Earth school, that there's a curriculum, and when it's time to graduate you leave your body. You know I really firmly believe that.

00:39:11.880 --> 00:39:17.320 Cali A.: And I do believe that again, like the greatest act that we can really

00:39:19.820 --> 00:39:26.409 Cali A.: adhere to, to, kind of become better people, and to help others is to dig into our own our own Psyche. So

00:39:26.710 --> 00:39:31.760 Cali A.: that aside professionally, oh, my goodness, wow!

00:39:33.780 --> 00:39:35.340 Cali A.: That's really a

00:39:36.200 --> 00:39:48.969 Cali A.: You'd think that would be such a simple question to kind of recall, like what moment was the most I've had a lot of for me. Probably it's been moments, I mean, I could talk about accolades and awards, and I

00:39:48.970 --> 00:39:52.770 Cali A.: someone over. I have my 3 Emmys right over here.

00:39:53.093 --> 00:39:53.740 Cali A.: Thank you.

00:39:53.740 --> 00:40:02.729 Cali A.: Thank you. And I say it not because you know it. I had them in storage for almost 5 years. I haven't seen them, because my life has been a little more transitory in the last few years.

00:40:02.870 --> 00:40:24.239 Cali A.: and so I purposely made a point of digging them out. When I recently relocated my storage and didn't go through most of my things, those just to remind me of what I still have inside of me from creative juice and professional ability, because sometimes I've lost my way with that, and felt like I maybe am dried up and not, you know, not

00:40:24.370 --> 00:40:28.490 Cali A.: not so much going on anymore, professionally. Yeah, camp moments. I know

00:40:28.490 --> 00:40:46.989 Cali A.: better now, but I had to remind myself. That's why they're sitting over there, and a Buddha that I dug out. That was also very important to me. Those are my 2 things and my photography, my creative endeavors. So I would say. But beyond that would really be the moments that I had with people where I could see that in my process of interviewing them

00:40:47.280 --> 00:41:13.849 Cali A.: something got unlocked where they had an awareness, where we had a moment, where I was able to give a voice to somebody who was otherwise voiceless. I've had plenty of stories I've done of people that were really on the margins, and if I had the opportunity, number one, to make them feel a little less lonely and a little more seen and heard, and then also giving them a platform to, you know, to empower themselves in whatever way those would be my highlights.

00:41:15.609 --> 00:41:23.039 Cali A.: Now, it's a different sort of highlight.

00:41:23.580 --> 00:41:33.369 Cali A.: That is because I'm in a transitional place with my career again, having been laid off a year ago from my last job.

00:41:33.870 --> 00:41:36.430 Cali A.: and being asked

00:41:36.770 --> 00:41:44.130 Cali A.: by whomever larger power to figure it out again and start over at this stage in my life.

00:41:44.340 --> 00:41:49.489 Cali A.: and trying to pull together all the pieces of my knowing and my experience, and

00:41:49.690 --> 00:42:19.470 Cali A.: whatever hard won wisdom to share with other people. So anytime that I have the opportunity to do that, for example, with my clients, or when I even have a new door open where someone is interested in me coming in and doing a workshop, because I'm also doing mindful communication workshops. I just started. I did a few test test runs at the local university here in the Hudson Valley, I would say I'm on my way to another highlight, even if I'm not like shining and glowing and celebrating it every day, because it's still scratching away.

00:42:19.620 --> 00:42:22.849 Cali A.: So yeah, I would say, those are a few examples.

00:42:23.730 --> 00:42:25.960 Linda Marsanico: And what courage to be shifting!

00:42:27.560 --> 00:42:29.539 Linda Marsanico: Having all your experience

00:42:30.100 --> 00:42:40.719 Linda Marsanico: brings you with all of your experience, you bring a lot to the shift. But of course it's the unknown, and that's the highlight of personal growth to be on the edge

00:42:40.860 --> 00:42:48.430 Linda Marsanico: of our comfort zone. It's it's not easy. It's it's challenging and and sometimes scary.

00:42:49.670 --> 00:42:56.070 Cali A.: To say the least, you're absolutely right. It's the my beautiful teacher and and dear friend

00:42:56.360 --> 00:43:07.029 Cali A.: always reminds me of. You know the being the the importance of being okay with the being nowhere and being nobody is kind of a little mantra that we have. You know that I have in my head.

00:43:07.810 --> 00:43:13.740 Cali A.: Robbed us, the beautiful teacher and iconic spiritual

00:43:14.610 --> 00:43:23.899 Cali A.: wonder. I don't even know how to describe RAM Dass, who was very highly responsible for bringing a lot of Eastern spirituality to the to the United States.

00:43:26.270 --> 00:43:31.560 Cali A.: has a it was a book or just a documentary. I can't remember if it was both called, you know, becoming nobody.

00:43:31.800 --> 00:43:56.119 Cali A.: It's definitely a documentary. It's beautiful documentary. That's online. And I can't remember if it was based on a book or not. It's yeah. It's his story, but it's about becoming nobody. So it's about shedding all of the layers and the identities and the things and the attachments. And the I'm important because I do this, and I've achieved that. And I'm attached to this person. And my bank account says this

00:43:57.460 --> 00:44:11.059 Cali A.: and it's about shedding all of that, so that we can just get to the basic core of who we are and the true beingness. So to your point about being nowhere or being my words being nobody.

00:44:11.280 --> 00:44:18.200 Cali A.: I think it's probably the most important sacred aspiration we can have. If you're on a spiritual path, there's a lot of people that

00:44:18.410 --> 00:44:22.572 Cali A.: would think I'm Kooky to even use these terms.

00:44:23.550 --> 00:44:24.330 Cali A.: But

00:44:24.660 --> 00:44:33.609 Cali A.: people that speak this language, or spiritual aspirants would, you know, would would probably agree that it's it's at least a goal.

00:44:34.210 --> 00:44:37.380 Cali A.: whether we get there or not in this lifetime is a different story, right?

00:44:37.380 --> 00:44:39.310 Linda Marsanico: To be simple, to be loving, to be.

00:44:40.010 --> 00:44:44.489 Linda Marsanico: Be grateful to be true to self, and of course the journey is within.

00:44:45.170 --> 00:44:50.719 Linda Marsanico: Now, with that it is around that time to take a break, but when we come back

00:44:51.520 --> 00:44:55.810 Linda Marsanico: I'd like to ask you what it was like to receive 3. Emmy Awards.

00:44:56.279 --> 00:45:00.089 Cali A.: Okay, I'm happy to share another story or 2 with you. Thank you.

00:45:00.090 --> 00:45:05.070 Linda Marsanico: Okay? And so we can take our break right now.

00:46:39.070 --> 00:46:55.779 Linda Marsanico: Hello, everyone! Welcome back to the A. Train to Sedona with my guest, Callie Alpert, and I realized, Kelly, we were talking about being humble and being simple and being grateful. And then I jumped to tell me what it was like to get an Emmy 3 times in a row.

00:46:55.780 --> 00:47:06.059 Cali A.: And boy, do I have an egoist story for you, Linda? Not but I'm still unabashed about sharing it. So this is all. When I was working on the Dr. Oz show.

00:47:06.548 --> 00:47:31.331 Cali A.: I work there. I helped launch the show in the field department. There's in Talk show world. There's a studio area where the guests come in. And you know that's the primary part of the hour of whoever's on the show. And then there's the field unit which are those of us who are kind of like. We're almost like filmmakers or mini documentarians that are going out into people's lives and and getting kind of the pre story the back story.

00:47:32.630 --> 00:48:02.019 Cali A.: I won't say too much about Dr. Oz these days. I don't want to get too political, but I will say that he was. He and the show were a very hard. It was a difficult show to work on, but at that time, when I knew him. It was a really beautiful and authentic experience with a lot of integrity. I'll leave it all there for now. But I just sometimes I feel like I have a need to disclaim my my past with them with that part of my life.

00:48:04.050 --> 00:48:07.870 Cali A.: So these shows were field

00:48:10.300 --> 00:48:24.019 Cali A.: primarily, field shows. They were not the typical shows we did, and I certainly can't take credit for these were. These were like the whole show team working. I had a lot of guidance and supervision on it, like there's specific episodes that get

00:48:24.060 --> 00:48:47.950 Cali A.: submitted for for Emmys, like they do for all kinds of award shows. So it wasn't about the show as a whole. It was about specific episodes, and they were all very field heavy. They had to do with going to having clinics in areas of the country, where at the time their health insurance was very challenged, and giving people a lot of help and attention medically from him and his team that these different

00:48:48.160 --> 00:48:52.214 Cali A.: areas we're not typically privy to

00:48:53.280 --> 00:49:06.700 Cali A.: anyway. So that's just about the material for the show. So the Emmys were hosted. They were. They were broadcast in different ways with different potency. Each year we were nominated while I was there over the course of

00:49:06.860 --> 00:49:32.729 Cali A.: 5 years we were nominated, I guess 5 or 6 times for those seasons, and then 1, 3. They went on, I believe, to win more after I left the show, but the broadcasting and the profile of the experience of going to the Emmys changed every year. So when I was there early on, there were still a lot more. They were handled by Cbs. They were broadcast. There was more money. The whole team was flown out there.

00:49:32.840 --> 00:49:53.909 Cali A.: and so the 1st year, 1st year, second year we went. We didn't win, and we were all ready with our makeup and our dresses, and the Sony was kind enough to support us and glamming us up, and the whole thing putting us up at nice hotels. And it was really a fun experience by the 3rd time that we went back

00:49:54.850 --> 00:50:18.350 Cali A.: hoping that we'd all win this time I, and probably some of my colleagues, because we were a bunch of high tempered women that were on the field producing team had already sussed out what happens when you win? And you're called up on the stage. What's the camera shot? And who gets seen how many heads, how many faces. If you have a team of 20 people whose mom's gonna see them and whose mom isn't going to see them. I had it all sussed out

00:50:18.350 --> 00:50:44.720 Cali A.: so thankfully we won, and we ran up, and I knew exactly where I wanted my not so little head to be, and and I was very successful at it, and, you know, got to wave to my friends in TV land and the whole thing. But A great honor, a very exhilarating, I think after that, years later the whole presentation waned and it got smaller. I think they might have been broadcast, only online, and then maybe not broadcast at all. I can't remember all the details.

00:50:44.900 --> 00:51:12.029 Cali A.: but it was a very it was fun. It was a fancy experience. It was the daytime Emmys, so we were sharing the stage and sort of the evening with a lot of soap opera performers, and I didn't watch soap opera, so I didn't really know who anybody was, I just knew they all looked great, and the ones I was at were in Vegas. So, not being a Las Vegas girl, not having a lot of experience there. It was fun and sort of an aberration to have that kind of

00:51:12.490 --> 00:51:30.589 Cali A.: abundance and opulence around for a few days. And yeah, it was lovely. It was really lovely, but I just laugh when I think about the strategy. I'm looking at my little zoom frame now, and it's about the comparable to the way we were strategic about making sure we were seen in a mob of heads accepting an award behind him. Yeah.

00:51:31.220 --> 00:51:32.609 Linda Marsanico: Thanks for sharing that with us.

00:51:33.176 --> 00:51:34.310 Cali A.: You're welcome.

00:51:35.490 --> 00:51:42.180 Linda Marsanico: I wondered what it feels like to be interviewed right now. Yeah.

00:51:42.180 --> 00:51:44.799 Cali A.: Thank you for that. That's so nice.

00:51:44.970 --> 00:52:10.199 Cali A.: It took me. It's really nice. It's easier and harder. Historically, I've always had an easier time asking and a harder time talking about myself. But that's very deep that goes back to all kinds of mechanisms in me. That might not. That had an easier time being interested in other people or asking the questions versus feeling like I had something to say that was noteworthy or

00:52:12.040 --> 00:52:21.420 Cali A.: When I you were asking me before the show before we went on. Live today about the show that I did for talk radio. And I see this very network

00:52:21.530 --> 00:52:24.499 Cali A.: back in 2017 2018,

00:52:24.560 --> 00:52:48.160 Cali A.: and my co-host at the time we were doing a half hour show, and we weren't interviewing people, and my co-host asked me like, let's go to an hour, and let's just be you and I. And I remember very consciously saying, I'm not comfortable with that. I don't know that we're interesting enough, or have that much to say. And thankfully he, with his nudging, and also us interviewing people and kind of growing and expanding the format of the show.

00:52:48.160 --> 00:52:55.189 Cali A.: I grew into talking more about me and my own experience, and realizing maybe I did have something valuable to say.

00:52:56.610 --> 00:53:03.489 Cali A.: After all these years now of having been a storyteller story facilitator helping other people tell their stories.

00:53:03.800 --> 00:53:19.420 Cali A.: I'm more committed to telling mine because I'm realizing that there there is a pretty thick story in there, and as my mom is actually on her very final decline right now, it's a very deep culmination of 61 years of an extremely informative

00:53:19.560 --> 00:53:28.770 Cali A.: well, who doesn't have informative experiences in their family. But a very deep story that I once I can get it out of my body want to share.

00:53:29.220 --> 00:53:38.940 Cali A.: And so this process helps me. And I thank you for this opportunity and for this conversation, because it it helps to

00:53:39.530 --> 00:53:43.890 Cali A.: get that flow going, because it's not my historic conditioning.

00:53:44.220 --> 00:53:46.860 Linda Marsanico: So thank you for being a part of it.

00:53:47.180 --> 00:53:50.190 Linda Marsanico: of course, and you are so articulate, and

00:53:50.940 --> 00:53:55.340 Linda Marsanico: you have so much to share. Gala. It's been an absolute pleasure.

00:53:56.070 --> 00:53:57.170 Cali A.: Thank you so much.

00:53:57.170 --> 00:53:58.570 Linda Marsanico: On the show with me.

00:53:58.810 --> 00:54:04.390 Linda Marsanico: I wonder if you could talk a little bit about spiritual explorer.

00:54:05.920 --> 00:54:09.446 Cali A.: Oh, cause I use that term sometimes on my social media or

00:54:11.188 --> 00:54:16.300 Cali A.: wow! These are good curveball questions. I like this.

00:54:20.110 --> 00:54:21.659 Cali A.: I think a.

00:54:21.880 --> 00:54:42.470 Cali A.: The reason that I came up with it frankly was probably because I needed to have some more clever, short monikers for social media when my social media helper was trying to get me online, and I was promoting different interview shows I was doing. That was the impetus. But I think spiritual explore. I used to call myself a seeker.

00:54:42.530 --> 00:54:55.250 Cali A.: And then, in my own process, I realized that none of us are. We might think we're seekers. But really all everything's already here. It's already inside of us, and it's really more about shedding and just getting back to revealing.

00:54:55.630 --> 00:55:02.349 Cali A.: revealing it to ourselves like an onion. I call it an artichoke, because you get back to the heart of things right when you peel the layers.

00:55:02.540 --> 00:55:03.010 Linda Marsanico: Me!

00:55:03.413 --> 00:55:06.240 Cali A.: That was my food, my food analogy.

00:55:07.017 --> 00:55:12.422 Cali A.: So I would say that that's sort of what spiritual explorer means to me is just

00:55:13.910 --> 00:55:21.180 Cali A.: being on a path back to remembering ourselves and all that that embodies.

00:55:21.440 --> 00:55:32.489 Cali A.: and all the different directions and paths we go in this big maze right, and we choose to go left to this retreat and right to that relationship, and through this door to

00:55:33.320 --> 00:55:43.009 Cali A.: reading a book or making a big mistake, or having difficult tragedy, you know, crisis in our lives, but then we also always emerge at the on the other side of the maze.

00:55:43.150 --> 00:55:53.799 Cali A.: irregardless of which way we take. So I would say that that somehow that visual is popping in, and that to me kind of embodies or encapsulates what spiritual explorer is.

00:55:54.380 --> 00:55:57.240 Linda Marsanico: I'm going to always associate it with the artichoke I.

00:55:58.500 --> 00:56:03.820 Linda Marsanico: And when you get to the artichokes and you get to the heart, which is, it's such a.

00:56:03.820 --> 00:56:04.310 Cali A.: Yeah.

00:56:04.310 --> 00:56:08.930 Linda Marsanico: Journey to be heartfelt, and to be directed by the heart.

00:56:08.930 --> 00:56:09.460 Cali A.: Hmm.

00:56:09.460 --> 00:56:13.589 Linda Marsanico: So I want to thank you so much for being with me today.

00:56:14.160 --> 00:56:15.909 Linda Marsanico: How can people find you.

00:56:17.831 --> 00:56:27.059 Cali A.: So the best place to find me is my current website, which is the interviewer INNE. R. viewer.net.

00:56:27.190 --> 00:56:52.949 Cali A.: There's a contact information there. If anybody would like to talk further or like to reach out for a free consult for any of my offerings, there's my Bio, and some information and pictures of some of my interviews that I did most recently with Omega Institute. That's where I was for 4 years. And yeah, that's probably that's the best place I'm on social media, but not very actively. I have, you know, on Instagram, at Cali Alpert.

00:56:54.280 --> 00:56:54.930 Linda Marsanico: Thank you.

00:56:54.930 --> 00:56:55.890 Cali A.: Facebook, yeah.

00:56:55.890 --> 00:56:56.550 Linda Marsanico: Okay.

00:56:57.660 --> 00:57:05.610 Linda Marsanico: as we close for today, I want to say that next week is going to be a very unusual format for me. You're going to tune in and see

00:57:05.950 --> 00:57:10.110 Linda Marsanico: Linda Morrisonico. I'm going to talk about my biography.

00:57:10.490 --> 00:57:19.699 Linda Marsanico: Give some information on the development of my book. What I was experiencing in writing it. I'm going to tell stories about Sedona that are not in the book

00:57:19.970 --> 00:57:31.509 Linda Marsanico: I'm going to read from different stories, including reflections which are at the end of each chapter, which are so light and airy, and sort of encapsulate the chapter.

00:57:32.830 --> 00:57:35.679 Linda Marsanico: So I look forward to seeing you next week.

00:57:36.580 --> 00:57:41.199 Linda Marsanico: 12 noon on Wednesday, January 15.th Callie.

00:57:41.660 --> 00:57:43.829 Linda Marsanico: It's been as I said, it's been a pleasure.

00:57:44.110 --> 00:57:47.519 Cali A.: Thank you so much for having me blessings to you for the New Year. Linda.

00:57:47.850 --> 00:57:50.559 Linda Marsanico: Blessings to you too, and to all the listeners.