Episode Transcript
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0:00
Yeah, I've been prepping for like a couple of
0:02
different roles recently, and my
0:05
mind, my braining has been just full
0:08
carrying around like multiple
0:10
characters. You know, as an actor, your
0:12
mental space is kind of your office
0:14
like that. That's where we do the
0:17
work, and it's so important
0:19
that we keep our space uncluttered.
0:22
And over my life, I've learned
0:24
that my surroundings play
0:27
a pretty big part in my own mental state.
0:30
Have that is anybody out there noticed something similar?
0:32
I mean, when your space is clear, your mind
0:34
is clear.
0:35
Today's guest, Bobby Burke, has dedicated
0:37
his life to the art of interiors
0:40
spaces while also championing
0:42
an organization that stands up against
0:44
one of the biggest killers of our time.
0:47
So lean in. I'm glad you're
0:49
here.
0:57
Hey, everybody, I'm here today with Bobby Burke. Anybody
1:00
call you Robert?
1:02
No, well they try, but Bobby
1:04
is actually my legal name.
1:06
It is that's Robert.
1:08
I am from Texas, so my name is Bobby
1:10
James, not
1:13
Robert.
1:14
So it's always funny to me when I'll
1:16
get a.
1:16
Legal document sent over to me and they've just assumed
1:18
and they put Robert on there, and I'm like.
1:20
No, that's not my name.
1:22
So it was never you were never Robert.
1:24
I was never Robert.
1:25
Yeah, that's everybody calls me Bobby
1:27
except for Caramo, my cathmate, which
1:30
is the only person that is allowed to call me Bob.
1:32
I say, okay, yeah,
1:36
it's funny. We I just
1:38
ask about names. I don't really know why, but I
1:41
think part of it is because I just don't like mine,
1:44
and so I'm
1:46
always curious how people feel about their own names.
1:49
And I have this funny thing where, speaking
1:51
of Bobby, like, I like the name keV,
1:54
but much better than Kevin by
1:57
the same token. I feel
1:59
like people can Kevu a little too early, you
2:02
know what I mean. Yeah, it's like are you having me already?
2:04
Like like we literally like like literally
2:06
you just took my order. Yeah.
2:08
I was kind of like, I'll get an
2:10
email where somebody calls me Bob and I'm like, what,
2:13
No. And that's a triggering
2:15
one because my mom, when I was little, people would call me
2:17
Bob and She's like, don't call him Bob. That's an old
2:19
man's name. And so that was ingrained in
2:21
my mind, and so when I hear Bob, I think of an old man's
2:23
name. But when I was little, I couldn't stand Bobby.
2:25
I didn't like the name, so I tried
2:28
to I tried to switch it up.
2:29
My middle name is James.
2:30
I tried to get people to call me James, and that
2:32
never happened. And then I had the bright idea to
2:35
go by BJ, which
2:37
luckily, my mom, without
2:39
explaining to me why I shouldn't go by
2:41
BJ, talk me out of going
2:44
by BJH, that's funny.
2:46
That's funny. That's along the same lines
2:49
as when I when my wife was pregnant and
2:51
I told her that I thought Macon was
2:53
a good name for our son, and
2:56
she's like, Macon bake.
2:59
No, that's make it Bacon.
3:01
Oh, that'd be kind of fun, though, I mean not forever,
3:03
but that would be fun.
3:04
He would hate us forever. So
3:07
now we have a goat. We have a goat named Macon.
3:09
But but and he doesn't, he doesn't hate
3:11
us. What part of Texas are you from?
3:13
Originally from Houston or Alvin, Texas
3:15
is a little a little suburb in the southern part of Houston,
3:18
home of Nolan Ryan.
3:19
That's the only thing it's famous for.
3:21
Okay, Okay, I
3:24
have a band and we we often play
3:27
Texas. We're actually just on our way out there, doing
3:29
four shows in Texas in about
3:32
a week. And uh, it's
3:34
it's always, it's always amazing. How
3:36
long were did you? Did you spend most of your
3:38
child out there?
3:39
No, I we instantly moved
3:42
to Missouri, but my
3:44
hands and uncles, my grandparents, they were all in Texas,
3:46
so I would I would spend my summers there.
3:48
So I grew up between Missouri and Texas.
3:52
Houston in the summer, there's a climate.
3:54
Yeah, of all the times to go to Houston
3:56
in summer was not the best time.
3:59
Yeah, So what was it do you
4:01
think that got you into uh,
4:04
design and and and decorating
4:06
and just tell me that path. I mean, it's it's well.
4:09
First off, let me just say that it's
4:11
so fun to talk to you because a
4:14
lot of you know who I
4:16
ended up speaking to and these podcasts
4:19
are actors and musicians and
4:23
not. I mean, we had a sort of out of the box episode
4:26
where I was speaking to Deepak Chopra,
4:28
But but it's mostly been kind of like people.
4:31
I mean, I know that you are in the entertainment industry,
4:33
but but you come to it from
4:35
something that a lot of people would be surprised
4:38
about, but it's it's one of my passions
4:40
and one of my favorite kind of things and interests
4:43
is design and
4:46
architecture. And I
4:51
it's not that I'm I'm good at it or
4:53
really know much about it, but it's just been
4:55
something that I've always kind of loved and
4:58
I I
5:00
I think probably if I wasn't an
5:02
actor or a musician, I think that's probably what I would
5:05
be doing. So so it's fun.
5:07
So I'm curious from your standpoint,
5:09
what kind of drew you to this.
5:12
You know, what I was little, designed
5:15
wasn't something I really
5:17
thought of as like a career or
5:19
a path. It was just something that I
5:22
always kind of got. I remember when
5:24
I was like five or six years old, my
5:27
mom had decorated my bedroom and all
5:29
red, like red curtains, red
5:31
bedspread, red rug, red pillows,
5:33
and I just, even as a little kid, I was like, this
5:36
is not this is not this is not the plot,
5:38
This is not relaxing to me. You
5:41
know, this is giving me anxiety, even though
5:43
you know, obviously I didn't even know what the word anxiety was
5:45
back then, but I was just like, I need
5:48
to do something different.
5:49
So I, you know, I feel like I'm at the Mustang
5:51
ranch or something.
5:52
Yeah, my aunts and grandma would
5:54
always send me, you know, these little twenty dollars checks for my birthday,
5:56
and so I used up all my twenty dollars
5:59
checks to get betting and new curtains,
6:01
you know, as like a little kid. And I
6:03
found this like dinosaur poster because I was assessed
6:05
with dinosaurs that had all these blues
6:07
and greens and yellows in it. And I kind of coordinated
6:10
the pillows on the bed to this poster, and
6:12
I just I knew it made me feel
6:15
better. I knew the blue was more relaxing,
6:18
you know. And again I couldn't articulate
6:20
that as a child, I didn't know why.
6:22
I just had a feeling.
6:23
And so my whole life, I've understood
6:25
the power of transforming
6:28
your space can really transform your
6:30
whole attitude.
6:31
It could really.
6:31
Transform your life. Honestly, you
6:33
know, that's what I do all queer I had transformed
6:35
people's lives by transforming their space. And
6:38
throughout my teens,
6:40
you know, I left home at fifteen, and at some
6:42
points I was homeless, and so like the feeling
6:46
of home was very important to me now, because
6:48
for a while I didn't have a home, so that the
6:50
feeling of.
6:51
Safety, you know.
6:52
And even when I was living
6:54
in my car, you know, I always kept it
6:57
organized and I would I would have betting
6:59
in the back, and I would make the bed every day.
7:01
You know.
7:01
I wasn't one of those people that lived in their car that you could
7:04
see that lived in their car. And
7:06
when I finally got apartments, you know, I made
7:08
sure that I really, even if it
7:10
was stuff that I would find on the street, I would
7:13
set up my home to or what made me feel
7:15
comfortable and safe and secure. And
7:18
you know, I I you know,
7:20
I left home at fifteen, Like I said, I left
7:22
high school at fifteen, so I didn't I
7:25
don't have a formal education.
7:26
And design it's something I've kind.
7:27
Of self taught myself, but
7:31
I've always been.
7:31
Drawn to it.
7:32
And so I was lucky enough that, you know, I ended up working
7:34
in retail stores and the retail management, and
7:36
then I got I started working
7:39
at retail furniture stores, and which
7:41
is how I kind of got into the furniture
7:43
industry. And then I started
7:45
I started my own retail company.
7:48
I first started selling furniture online on
7:50
Bobby Burke dot com. I worked for a company called
7:52
Portico in New York, and I
7:55
had built their e commerce division and one day, unfortunately
7:57
they went bankrupt and I'm like, well, crap,
8:00
what am I.
8:00
Going to do?
8:00
And so I come to the database I had
8:02
built for them. I put it on Bobby burg
8:04
home dot com and I'm like, maybe I'll sell itself or
8:07
two while I look for another job.
8:08
But it did well.
8:10
I was one of the first online retailer selling
8:12
furniture online.
8:13
I stopped on the website just in
8:16
preparation for this, and it's really it's
8:18
pretty impressive. I mean it's very impressive,
8:20
you know, I thank you. There's so much, so
8:23
much. It's really it's what's much
8:25
more than design. If anybody's never been on there, it's
8:27
kind of like a lifestyle. I mean, I saw you have some you
8:29
had a thing with a cattlebell, workout
8:32
or something like that.
8:33
Yeah, it's all about lifestyle and
8:36
living healthy, not just with design, but with
8:38
food, with fitness, with travel, with
8:41
all kinds of things. But then
8:43
after the website it did really well. So I opened
8:45
up my own stores and I had stores in New York
8:47
and Miami and Atlanta and LA and they
8:49
were all retail furniture and accessories
8:52
and home decor, and I would help
8:54
my customers pick out stuff for their houses and help design
8:56
their houses. And then I realized that
8:58
that was way more fun and I had way
9:00
more passion to do that than I did running a retail
9:03
company. So I opened
9:05
up a design division and that started
9:07
being quite successful. So as that gained
9:10
more traction, I started closing stores as
9:12
leases were.
9:12
Up and solely focused on design.
9:15
And then where I came along two years later, and
9:17
oh.
9:17
That's where I am at.
9:18
Okay, so you had so you had
9:20
like brick and mortar retail stores and you close
9:22
them up. Yeah, but you held on to the website.
9:25
Yeah. Yeah, the website is an
9:27
editorial website. Now we actually don't sell anything
9:30
on our web.
9:30
Oh okay, Oh yeah, there's no connection.
9:32
How do you make the choices for like what you steer
9:35
people to? I mean there has to be some kind of a connection
9:37
there though.
9:38
If it looks good. Yeah, And I mean I also
9:40
do have my own collections that I've designed, but
9:42
I don't really actually, I think
9:45
you can buy my rugs and maybe like my wallpaper
9:47
on the website, that's it. And even
9:50
that, honestly, I'm trying to get away from
9:52
I just like my retail partners to handle
9:54
that. And my website. I like to
9:56
just be a place that you can come and find
9:58
beautiful things, and if
10:01
we use a product from somebody else, we link to
10:03
it so you can find it.
10:04
Yeah, and it seems like you have all kinds
10:07
of like price points on there. It's not like super
10:09
super high end necessary.
10:10
Yeah, you know, I've always tried
10:13
to make my brand accessible.
10:15
You know, from the moment I.
10:16
Had my stores and A because I
10:18
think design should be for everybody, and
10:22
B I opened.
10:22
Up my first store.
10:25
November two thousand and seven, and then, of course
10:27
or January, I think February two thousand
10:29
and eight, the whole economy crashed
10:32
and collapsed and bear Stearn's Clothes
10:34
and I had to make.
10:35
A quick decision on where my brand was
10:37
going.
10:37
To go, if it was going to go super high end, if it
10:39
was going to be accessible, and I decided I
10:42
wanted it to be accessible, and I've stayed true
10:44
to them.
10:50
I want to lean in a little bit to this idea
10:53
of the emotional
10:55
connection that people have
10:58
to their living spaces because they don't think that it's
11:00
like necessarily spoken
11:03
about all that often. I
11:05
mean, I I
11:08
mean, because I think a lot of people would look
11:10
at something like the furniture,
11:14
Uh, you know, you knew that you didn't want red
11:16
walls, right, A lot of people would
11:18
say, I don't know, the red walls are
11:20
finding me. I think about my brother who actually
11:22
was him and his wife were actually
11:25
on Queer Eye many many years ago, uh.
11:27
The straight Guy.
11:29
Yeah, original show. They
11:31
did their their their apartment in New
11:33
York, came and did their apartment. I was actually on
11:35
the episode myself. I mean, I you know, showed
11:37
up when the during the big reveal and
11:39
the whole thing. And he's
11:42
not a guy that really he will
11:44
say like he doesn't. He claims
11:46
that he just doesn't see stuff like
11:48
he'll he would never walk
11:51
into a place and say, uh,
11:54
I don't like the way this this looks
11:56
necessarily you know he he
11:58
he Uh. That's
12:01
his own kind of assessment of him. But I do
12:03
think that he has a really a really
12:05
good eye actually, and
12:07
I think that I guess my question
12:09
is, if you're not somebody that considers yourself,
12:15
you know, sensitive to your surroundings.
12:19
How do you talk somebody
12:21
into the idea that whatever
12:24
the furniture, whatever their their
12:26
you know, overall space is
12:28
like is going to give them some kind of internal
12:30
peace or or happiness. Because
12:32
I think a lot of people would go, I don't care. You know, I'm
12:35
happy in a motel sex.
12:38
I think there are there are those people who just who
12:40
think that, and and you know, from
12:43
one hand they might be right, but I think
12:45
on another hand, they don't realize
12:48
just how much your your
12:50
surroundings can affect you. And
12:53
you know, for example, like a clutter and
12:55
chaos around you, like they'd be like, oh, it
12:57
doesn't bother me. Subconsciously
13:01
it does. You know, chaos around
13:03
you really does create chaos in your mind,
13:05
and you may not realize that that might
13:07
be one of the reasons why you're getting anxiety or
13:09
you're stressed out. But you know, when
13:11
you finally do deal with that clutter and you organize
13:14
everything, you kind of take a breath and you're like, Okay,
13:17
wow, I thought that didn't affect
13:19
me, but god, I do feel that there's
13:21
a weight.
13:22
Lifted off my shoulder. So yes, there's
13:24
absolutely those people that are like, ah, that doesn't
13:26
bother me. I don't care. You know, my husband was
13:28
the same way.
13:29
You know, for years, We've been together for twenty years,
13:31
and I used to always be able to
13:33
do whatever I wanted at the home because he just didn't
13:35
care.
13:35
It didn't bother him.
13:37
But over the years, having watched me transform
13:40
our spaces and having seen
13:42
how it has changed the way he feels about
13:44
the space and changed his outlook
13:46
and changed stress levels. Now,
13:49
unfortunately for me, now he has opinions,
13:53
and now I don't just get to do whatever I want.
13:55
He wants to be a part of everything we do in our homes.
13:57
That's all.
13:58
So I think once people will kind of
14:00
experience some type of transformation, then
14:03
they're like, oh, this is better.
14:05
I thought I was fine and I thought it was good, But you're
14:07
you're right, this did.
14:09
Have an effect on me that I did not think
14:11
it would.
14:12
Yeah, yeah, I mean I also
14:14
think that I don't know how
14:16
you feel, but have you noticed with either
14:19
with clients or or with people that you know
14:21
or friends or whatever, that over time,
14:24
your your needs in terms
14:26
of things like clutter, actually
14:28
sort of change. Like I've gotten to the point
14:31
where I just I want
14:33
less and less stuff like like
14:35
like, I got so much stuff in my head.
14:38
There's you know, the hard drive is so overloaded
14:41
right now with junk and
14:45
and and you know, work
14:48
in the world and everything that when I'm I
14:50
mean, you never know it from my background, but I've
14:52
just happened to be I just have to be in the room. It just
14:54
has a ton of shit in it. But but
14:57
but yeah, I I I feel
14:59
like and I think my wife has sort of
15:02
gotten there too. You
15:04
know, when we first met, I
15:07
started out as a super messy person.
15:10
I was, you know, I would just throw
15:12
towels on the floor and you know, the whole thing. When I
15:14
was, you know, a young single guy, and
15:16
I lived in a complete shithole,
15:19
was roach infested and
15:21
and you know, ate out of a pot. I
15:23
mean it was it was bad. And
15:27
I thought maybe I would always be like that,
15:30
And but I really have transformed
15:32
a lot. And when I met her, she
15:34
was pretty messy too. And now boy,
15:36
she's like she's worse than me. I
15:39
mean, she just wants things, you
15:41
know, nice, and once things are, once
15:43
things are nice, that's when she can breathe.
15:46
Yeah, I think it goes back to what we were just scerring about that.
15:48
You know, your brother was like, oh, it doesn't bother me.
15:50
I don't see things, and back then
15:52
you did neither. But over time
15:54
you evolved to see that, Oh, when
15:56
I pick up after myself, when I keep things
15:59
less cluttered, it makes a huge
16:01
difference for me mentally, you know, because
16:03
there's so much going on in our minds,
16:05
especially in our industry, we have so many things
16:07
that we're thinking about that we can't
16:09
have that chaos around you. So I think it is something
16:12
that as a person you have evolved
16:14
to realize that the space around
16:16
you has a huge effect on what's
16:19
going on inside your head.
16:20
And I know you're must
16:23
take up a lot of time doing queer Eye,
16:25
but do you still have time
16:27
for individual clients? Are you
16:29
still working with people in that capacity?
16:31
So I still have a full
16:33
time design firm. So I think in twenty
16:36
twenty three we did sixty homes.
16:38
Oh my god, sixty homes in one year.
16:41
Yeah, wow, how do you have time for that?
16:43
I mean, I have an amazing team. Wow.
16:46
You know, most of the people that have worked for me
16:48
have been with me for years
16:50
and years. You know, it's people
16:52
that started out designing you know, my big guy that runs
16:54
my design firm. He started out as my one
16:57
single employee and my one assistant when I had
16:59
my design firm and grown with me. So
17:01
yeah, I have a really great team. I still
17:03
oversee it as a creative head, but not
17:06
like the day to day installs and stuff.
17:08
Well, let's say somebody didn't have the
17:12
dough for a decorator
17:15
but felt that they wanted to in
17:18
some way transform their
17:20
home, and they're, you know, working with a budget, and
17:22
you know the whole thing. I mean,
17:25
I think a lot of people would say, well, I just really
17:27
don't know where to start. I don't like,
17:30
you know, do I move the couch or you know, whatever
17:32
it is. How would you what would you recommend
17:34
to somebody that wanted to explore
17:37
that.
17:38
I mean, I would always start with getting
17:40
rid of things and organizing,
17:43
you know, I think pers yeah,
17:45
perbs. You know, often the issue
17:48
with your room is that there's this too.
17:50
Much stuff, you know.
17:51
And I mean I can't speak
17:53
for everyone, because I'm sure there are those
17:55
people out there that might thrive in
17:59
chaos, you know, I just
18:01
don't meet those people very often. I might meet
18:03
those people who think
18:05
they do and then when the chaos
18:08
is fixed, they realize, oh
18:10
no, I was just making excuses to
18:13
allow myself to live in this, but now I realize
18:15
this is better. So I would first recommend
18:17
purging, you know, getting rid of the stuff that
18:19
you're just not making you happy. That's, you know, as
18:21
Ariconder would say, is not sparking joy
18:24
because you might realize that you don't need
18:26
to go out and spend money. You fix
18:28
the space by getting rid of the stuff you had
18:31
that wasn't working. So first do
18:33
some purging, you know, do some organization, but
18:36
start out small. You know, oftentimes people
18:38
will try to bite off more they can chew. You know, they'll
18:40
be like, Okay, my garage is a disaster.
18:42
There's stuff everywhere, there's stuff stacked to the ceiling.
18:45
I'm going to try to organize my garage today.
18:48
Well that's a little too much. And then you
18:50
get you don't do it. You stop, you know,
18:52
thirty minutes into it, and you
18:55
didn't get discouraged, and you don't.
18:56
Try anything else.
18:57
But if you start with your joke drawer, everybody's
18:59
got to try it. He's got that drawer that has
19:01
all a crap in it, that just comes from everywhere.
19:04
Start with that.
19:05
If you get accomplished that, then you're like, you get those
19:07
little endorphins of accomplishment. You're like you
19:09
can tackle, Like I can tackle the closet in my room
19:12
now, and then do that, and then work your
19:14
way up to that garage, you know, work
19:16
your way up once you have the confidence and say, you know
19:18
what, I can handle this.
19:19
I can throw stuff out. I'm
19:21
not I'm not.
19:22
Married to these things that are holding
19:25
me captive. I can get rid of this stuff
19:27
and I can live much more.
19:28
Cleaner and organized.
19:31
Yeah, that's very, very good advice. I
19:35
can totally see that. I
19:37
always tell people that, especially
19:40
not people, but you know, my kids basically
19:42
if they're moving because they've moved a couple of times,
19:44
I say, purge before you move, because
19:47
I'll never forget. We had a
19:50
construction thing happening,
19:52
and so there was a dumpster, you know, in
19:54
the in the in the driveway. So I was like,
19:56
oh, a dumpster. This is the greatest thing. I spent
19:59
probably four days, you know,
20:01
bleeding, cursing, sweating, just
20:04
dragging stuff out of the basement to
20:06
put into the dumpster. And
20:09
the stuff that I found that
20:11
we had obviously moved
20:13
from one house to another, probably
20:17
in the eighties. I mean some of this stuff
20:20
belonged to like
20:22
like nanny and nanny that had worked
20:24
for us. It was it was like a couple of pots
20:26
and pans, you know, I mean stuff. I was like to
20:29
how did this stay? Like what?
20:31
What? How did we decide that we
20:33
were going to move and bring uh
20:35
some some some pots
20:37
and pans and a couple of pieces of tupperware
20:40
from that belonged to somebody that
20:42
hasn't worked for us for forty years or
20:44
something, you know. I mean, it was just it was just crazy.
20:47
So I'm all, I'm all about, you know,
20:49
purge and move. And I think that's a really
20:51
really good, really good piece of advice.
20:53
Yeah, you know, we moved from when we moved from New
20:55
York.
20:56
To to la I got
20:58
rid of and ethy
21:01
the only thing we kept was closed. I was
21:03
like, I'm just going to purge and then I completely start
21:05
over.
21:05
I took everything we.
21:06
Had in the house, I donated it and like
21:09
we're gonna we're gonna start fresh.
21:10
That's great, that's great. So
21:13
you'd mentioned that on the on
21:15
the site, it's overall like wellness,
21:18
like what other what other things are you uh
21:22
do you do? I mean you're you're like into food
21:24
and exercise and what meditation
21:26
or any of those kinds of things.
21:28
Yeah, you know, we have a lot of articles on exercising
21:31
and health and recipes for
21:33
for food and you know, we do a lot of recipes
21:35
around.
21:36
The holidays to help you out with that.
21:38
So yeah, the theme is kind of like, you
21:40
know, it's your life, design it well and
21:42
that's you know, not just your interiors.
21:44
It's it's everything that has to do with your life.
21:47
Uh huh. That's great. And what's
21:49
the book do you have? You have a book that you wrote.
21:51
Yeah, yeah, so I have a book called
21:53
Right at Home. It's called How Good Design Is
21:55
Good for the Mind, and it's all about
21:58
figuring out.
21:59
How to design your space.
22:00
So it's all about empowering you to design your
22:02
space because a lot of interior design books
22:04
are an interior designer's perspective on what
22:06
is beautiful, what looks good, this is the things
22:08
you should choose for your home. My book
22:11
is all about helping you figure out what makes
22:13
you happy, because I feel the things
22:15
that you should put in your home are things that make you happy
22:17
because your home is like your foe charger. It
22:19
needs to be the thing that recharges you every night.
22:22
And if you're just filling your house full of things that some
22:24
designer told you were pretty, because that's what's on trend,
22:27
really things that.
22:28
Are you're passionate about.
22:30
Right, So it talks about, you know, figuring
22:32
out the things that make you happy.
22:33
Is going through your.
22:34
Closet, figuring out like, Okay, what are the
22:36
colors I see in my closet, what are the textures I see
22:38
in my closet?
22:39
These are the things I'm loving in fashion.
22:40
These are probably going to be some things I should infuse in my
22:42
decor. You know, what's your favorite food,
22:45
what's your dream vacation, what's
22:47
your favorite television show? Like, think
22:49
this checklist of things that make you happy?
22:52
Those are the things you should start thinking about of how
22:54
you should design your home because again, those
22:56
are the things that are going to make you happy to look at
22:58
every day.
22:59
Sure that makes a lot of sense. I
23:02
have to ask you because now correct
23:04
me if I'm wrong. I didn't see it. But were you on the
23:06
mask singer?
23:07
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah I was. I was on the back.
23:09
I have to know what that experience is
23:12
like, I mean, it just it's such a wild
23:14
idea.
23:15
It's insane.
23:16
So I made the assumption incorrectly
23:20
that there is no way in hell
23:23
somebody is actually singing in those costumes.
23:25
Like I assumed I would have to sing, but I thought I would
23:27
pre record it because I'm like, those costumes
23:30
are heavy, they're massive, you
23:32
know.
23:33
But I was wrong.
23:34
So I had to sing inside this costume.
23:36
And I remember my very first episode, I almost passed
23:39
out from heat exhaustion because I run really
23:41
hot and inside of there was
23:44
so hot.
23:44
In that claustrophobook. I think I would get very
23:46
close to Yes, I played an
23:48
astronaut one time and I had to put the The
23:50
first time, I had to put the spacesuit on it
23:53
and then and then clamp the helmet
23:55
down and stop. I was like, whoa this is I don't know if
23:57
I could do this.
23:58
Yeah, that's literally what that was like a big
24:00
astronaut helmet that that caterpillar
24:02
costume and I had. It was the tallest,
24:04
largest and heaviest costume they had ever done.
24:07
So by episode two, I had to make
24:09
me a vest that I could pack
24:11
with ice, and so I
24:13
wore an ice packed vest to.
24:16
So there's a good a good mic.
24:18
Yeah, there's as a.
24:19
Good headset and a good headset to hear.
24:22
Okay, so you can hear, you can hear yourself and then
24:24
there's like track you're singing to track is
24:26
yeah, oh my god.
24:28
It was quite the experience.
24:29
It was. Were you a singer?
24:30
I mean, were you I've always
24:32
I've always been a singer.
24:34
That was actually my dream was to be a singer. It just
24:36
wasn't in my cards.
24:39
I keep thinking about pursuing a little more.
24:41
Like I've done a few songs. I did a song
24:43
last year with a big Brazilian artist, Rebecca, So
24:45
I have some music out on Spotify. I
24:49
just don't know if I'm in the point of my life where I
24:51
want to start another new
24:53
career. Yeah, come on, man, like
24:57
you you're going your go, You're touring like
24:59
your joy. The thought of touring
25:02
is just not not something that
25:05
I'm I would.
25:06
Yeah, I don't, I don't want it.
25:08
Is it the going from place to place or
25:10
or yeah? Yeah, it's just.
25:12
The last six years, you know, when we have with
25:14
filmed Queer, we've had to move to wherever
25:17
we are and it's six month filming
25:19
so for the last six.
25:20
Years, I haven't really been home.
25:22
So the thought of like going out on the road
25:25
and going on tour and not being home
25:28
just right now is not in my cards. Maybe in
25:30
a few years I'll be like, hey, I'm ready
25:32
to do it. You know, I've thought about
25:35
I'm kind of in the beginning places phases
25:37
of maybe recording a Christmas album for
25:39
next year.
25:40
Hmm, So yeah, I might dabble
25:42
in it and see how I like it.
25:44
Oh, that's cool.
25:45
Yeah, singing's always been a huge pagine.
25:53
If you are inspired by today's episode, please
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26:25
You're here today and the
26:28
organization is Stand Up for Cancer, and I want
26:30
to bring in Julian Adams,
26:33
who is the CEO
26:36
for Stand Up to Cancer. Julian,
26:38
Welcome to the podcast.
26:41
Thank you, Thank you Kevin for
26:43
having Bobby and me on the
26:45
show.
26:46
Do you guys know each other? Now?
26:49
This is the first time we've met.
26:50
Yeah, I've worked with their organization for years,
26:52
but yeah, this is the first time I've got to meet
26:54
Julian.
26:55
And Julian, I think you're new to the gig, right I.
26:58
Am two weeks?
27:00
Yeah, okay, so that is why
27:02
we haven't met that.
27:04
But I joined last summer as
27:06
the chief science Officer, and
27:09
I'm here to talk about why cancer research
27:12
is so important.
27:13
Yeah, I really want to hear about that. Well,
27:15
first off, let me just ask you, Bobby, how
27:17
did you get involved with Stand Up to Cancer?
27:20
So, my father, who just passed
27:23
from cancer in August, has
27:26
battled four different types
27:28
of cancer over the last ten years. So
27:31
when I became
27:33
a person who had a platform
27:36
over the last few years with Queer Eye, I knew
27:38
I wanted to work with an organization that was
27:41
very close to the situation that my family
27:43
was going through, and so I asked
27:45
my team to go out there and find
27:47
me an organization that I could help. And
27:50
that's when I got introduced to Stand Up to Cancer.
27:53
Well, great, great, And how about you Julian,
27:55
how did you end up working for Stand Up to
27:57
Cancer?
27:58
It's a long story. I
28:02
am minded myself to science, even
28:04
as an undergraduate uh in
28:06
college. I did my
28:08
PhD at mi T in
28:11
chemistry, and I knew
28:14
at the very beginning, from the very beginning, I was interested
28:16
in medicine, but didn't go to medical
28:19
school. I just devoted myself to doing
28:22
biomedical research.
28:24
Wow, that's fat I just want to understand this.
28:26
So when you were you were undergraduate, you
28:28
didn't want to be a doctor, but you did want to
28:31
do medical research exactly.
28:33
That's that's really fascinating. I mean, that seems like a
28:35
pretty unusual path.
28:37
It was. I considered going to medical
28:39
school, but as I whimsically
28:41
say, I didn't want it to interfere with
28:43
my education.
28:45
Having having having went through medical
28:48
school myself and I say I went through medical
28:50
school because I went through medical school, because
28:53
my husband went to medical school
28:55
and residency, I can understand it. It has a tendency
28:57
to interfere with other things.
29:01
I wanted to work on big problems and
29:04
really solve h you
29:07
know, fundamental issues that are you
29:09
know, taking our lives. And obviously I
29:11
went into industry I went into the pharmaceutical
29:14
and biotech industry uh for
29:16
over forty years. My
29:18
first drug was for HIV. I
29:21
witnessed HIV when I was a grad
29:24
student emerging in the early eighties,
29:27
and then found myself working in
29:29
HIV research and developed the first one of the first
29:31
drugs for the for
29:33
the treatment of HIV AIDS. And
29:36
then I migrated to cancer because
29:38
I was following some some basic
29:40
research and
29:44
was working on some
29:46
some laboratory work that eventually
29:49
drew me into cancer and I spent,
29:52
you know, over thirty five years of my life involved
29:55
in cancer research, developing drugs, discovering,
29:58
developing, and you
30:01
know, doing the whole gamut.
30:03
I joined Stand Up to Cancer about fifteen years
30:05
ago on the scientific Advisory Committee,
30:09
which was chaired by Nobel Laureate Phil
30:11
Sharp, and so you can imagine
30:13
the interviews I had to get to get
30:15
to this place, and
30:19
I got a
30:21
drug approved for bone
30:23
marrow transplantation. Last year, decided
30:26
to retire, but being on Stand
30:29
Up to Cancer's Advisory Committee, I
30:31
went to Sherry Lancy, our
30:34
chair of the organization,
30:36
and said, look, I have more time on my hands. I'm retired.
30:39
She says, well, come to be our Chief sides officer.
30:42
Wow.
30:42
And six months later I'm
30:44
the CEO and so I'm running the show.
30:47
Wow, that's amazing. Well, I want
30:49
to get into where I want to get into
30:51
where we're at and also what specifically
30:54
stand up to cancer does. My
30:57
question for you, Julian is so
31:01
I people ask me, you
31:03
know, and they often
31:05
asked this of famous
31:07
people, what led you to
31:10
what you do? And you know, it was
31:12
pretty simple. You know, I just wanted to be
31:14
famous, and I wanted people look at me, and I wanted
31:16
to make a lot of money and get girls. That
31:19
was It was very simple
31:22
kind of thing. I later kind of
31:25
learned to understand that
31:27
there was an art to it and that there was a thing
31:29
and it became something that I was passionate for. But the driving
31:32
instinct or motivation
31:34
wasn't that. But I'm curious with you because
31:38
obviously it wasn't to become famous or
31:40
or make money or get Girls's
31:45
the what's the thing do you think that makes
31:47
you be interested in, you
31:50
know, research in medicine,
31:53
in making sick people well, like,
31:55
is there something that's outside of
31:57
the nuts and bolts of it personally
32:00
that is was drove
32:02
you.
32:02
Initially again, as a kid,
32:05
I read the story of Thomas Edison in the third
32:07
grade, literally and
32:10
it just fascinated me. I just wanted to invent
32:12
stuff. I didn't know what I
32:14
wanted to invent. I didn't know, you know, I wasn't going to
32:16
be you know, a movie projector
32:18
it wasn't going to be whatever Thomas Edison
32:21
did. And I just got
32:23
fascinated with health
32:26
and science and biomedical
32:29
applications to improving people's
32:31
lives. I mean, what is it What do
32:33
we have if we don't have our health? You
32:35
know, there's no amount of money or you
32:38
know, toys or things you can
32:40
have if you don't have
32:42
your health. And cancer is
32:44
the second biggest killer. One point
32:46
nine million people succumb
32:48
to this disease in twenty twenty
32:50
three. And cancer is not one disease,
32:52
as you know, it's hundreds of diseases. So
32:55
it just become a complete passion of mine.
32:59
As I got more in to it, It's just you kept
33:01
drawing in, drawn in and drawn in, and
33:04
you know, it defines me. Now I'm a cancer
33:06
researcher.
33:08
It's pretty hard to find somebody that hasn't
33:11
been touched by cancer. In some
33:13
kind of way.
33:15
You're exactly right.
33:16
Yeah, I mean it's it's uh,
33:19
if nothing else by all
33:22
of a sudden, you know, having a little
33:24
scare or whatever. But
33:27
what is it? What what is the Is
33:29
there anything news wise as
33:31
a as an expert on this that you can
33:34
share with us in terms of research or or
33:36
or you know, any any good
33:38
news on the horizon. We're always looking for good news.
33:41
Yeah, there's tons of good news coming. Let
33:43
me start with a little history lasting okay
33:46
in belged me sure, last century,
33:49
twentieth century, it's chema. It's
33:51
taken toxic chemotherapy, cocktails
33:54
of chemotherapy, and you try
33:56
to kill the cancer before the
33:58
chemo kills you. And
34:01
the twenty first century has been an explosion
34:03
of research. We
34:06
solve the human geno at
34:08
the turn of the century, and all of a sudden,
34:10
all these technologies, all these abilities
34:13
to understand how DNA works,
34:16
how cancer emerges, how does
34:18
it develop in the first place, we have
34:20
all of these remarkable discoveries.
34:23
Hundreds several hundred new medicines
34:25
have been approved
34:29
just in the last twenty twenty four years, you
34:32
know, And I've been part of that. I've been part of that
34:34
the whole time, and I just you
34:36
know, it just keeps drawing
34:39
me even further in and I'm even more committed.
34:41
So as I said, I tried to retire, but I
34:43
could just became impossible.
34:46
And then Stand It to Cancer is sort of like the perfect
34:50
landing spot for me, because
34:54
a we treat all cancers. Cancer
34:56
doesn't really know any
34:58
borders. Cancer does know what
35:00
age you are, it doesn't discriminate,
35:03
and the community of
35:06
science is just an international community
35:08
and just trying to solve this nefarious disease
35:11
that catches people too early off
35:13
guard and really doesn't just disrupt
35:15
one life, it disrupts the entire family.
35:18
And listen to Boppy story, just breaks my heart
35:21
to lose your dad, to lose a loved
35:23
one. It's just what's worse.
35:26
Stand Up to Cancer is primarily
35:30
focused on research, Is that correct?
35:32
Yes, We have raised money in
35:36
the neighborhood of about eight hundred million dollars
35:38
since our fifteen year existence
35:41
to fund the best science across
35:44
the globe. We seek out some of
35:46
the more difficult problems, and
35:48
no cancer is spared. We
35:51
look at the rarest cancers all the
35:53
way to the most common cancer like lung cans. So
35:55
we do everything that we can so
35:57
long to advance knowledge to advanced research
36:00
into advanced medicines for patients.
36:03
I want to ask you something, Julian,
36:05
this is actually uh kind
36:07
of brings up an interesting question and
36:11
and and actually, Bobby,
36:13
I'd like you to kind of weigh in on this too. You're
36:17
talking a lot about, uh,
36:20
these incredible medicines
36:22
and this incredible research that that
36:24
we've done in terms of
36:26
finding out about uh, you know,
36:28
you mentioned the human genome and et cetera. How
36:33
do how much does the research
36:36
point to lifestyle in
36:39
terms of trying to remain
36:41
cancer free? And I mean, I know I think
36:44
about this because Bobby's experience with his father.
36:49
I think, I don't know, if I don't want to put
36:51
words in your mouth, but might have had an influence
36:53
on how you've thought so much about exercise
36:56
and diet and and uh
36:58
mental clarity or whatever.
37:00
That is what I mean. Maybe you guys could
37:02
talk about that a little bit.
37:04
I think from my dad it had a
37:06
lot to do with lifestyle. You
37:08
know, my dad drove a truck for
37:11
you know, forty fifty years he
37:14
inhaled you know, toxic fuel
37:17
fumes he smoked for
37:19
fifty years. He
37:22
was also a rancher who dealt with chemicals
37:24
like round up, So I think a lot
37:26
of it was environmental and his lifestyle.
37:29
That being said, I.
37:30
Lost a friend a year and a half ago, super
37:34
healthy, worked out every single
37:36
day, did not put anything
37:38
that wasn't organic into his body. At
37:41
thirty three, he was diagnosed with liver
37:43
cancer and was dead in six weeks.
37:46
So, Julian, obviously you're the scientist,
37:49
but those have been my two drastic different
37:51
experiences. For one, that I was like everything
37:54
that my father did with his life, decisions that
37:56
he made, pointed to sadly
37:59
the outcome where I had friends
38:01
who were very active in
38:03
making sure that they took care of themselves
38:05
and did everything they could for that to not happen,
38:08
and then this still happened.
38:10
So what we know about today's environment
38:13
plays a huge role. It's probably
38:16
the largest contributor. And environment
38:19
includes things like smoking, things
38:21
like overeating. Obesity is
38:23
a huge cofactor, but
38:26
it's also genetics, it's infectious
38:29
diseases. There are numerous
38:32
you know what happens
38:34
during puberty for breast cancer
38:37
in women, all kinds of
38:39
factors that beat to cancer,
38:41
and sadly it's not that predictable. The
38:43
only three things that we know for sure
38:47
is obesity, smoking and
38:49
alcohol overuse
38:52
are really bad. And then of course the
38:54
area you breathe, that water you drink. Of course
38:57
all of that matters. And it's
38:59
just a dialbollical uh
39:01
situation. Uh and Bobby,
39:04
I you know, I just nothing
39:07
is sadder than seeing a young person develop
39:09
cancer and be dead in six weeks. I
39:11
feel free.
39:12
Yeah, that is That's that's
39:15
really rough, really rough. Uh.
39:19
Well, listen, what I'd like to do is,
39:22
uh do a little This is our call
39:24
to action section. I mean, can
39:27
you guys talk about ways
39:30
that people can help,
39:32
uh in terms
39:34
of finding out where to donate or stand
39:36
up to cancer any events. I think it's stand up to
39:38
Cancer as far as I know, usually has some pretty big
39:41
events in the course of the year. What's
39:44
what's what's going on. Let's uh, let's
39:46
let's give them the digits and the websites
39:48
and all that kind of stuff.
39:50
Yeah, we just had a telecast
39:53
this past summer. Uh. It we
39:56
raised millions of dollars of it
40:00
based on the telling patient stories
40:03
and having celebrities come in that's
40:06
that's one of the special uh
40:09
attributes of Stand Up to Cancer. We
40:11
were founded by the entertainment industry,
40:14
and so we have access to all these great celebrities
40:17
and donate
40:19
their time and do these public service
40:21
announcements, et cetera, et cetera. Uh.
40:23
So we're constantly looking for more
40:26
research dollars UH to fight
40:28
these multitude of diseases.
40:31
And it's really it's it's it's our mission. Our
40:33
mission is to fund innovative research
40:35
to detect and intercept and
40:38
and with the aspiration to cure all pants A patients.
40:41
That's that's our north
40:43
star.
40:44
That's good. That's a good one. What's and what's
40:46
the website?
40:46
Is?
40:46
It must be stand Up to Cancer dot com. I would
40:49
think dot org dot
40:51
org. Yeah, stand up to Cancer dot org.
40:53
Yeah.
40:53
We're a nonprofited mind everywhere.
40:56
It's my first time in the nonprofit world, so.
41:00
Getting used to it. Yeah. It's it's a it's
41:02
its own, it's its own thing.
41:04
And it feels good. It really feels good.
41:07
Yeah. Well, you know, congratulations
41:09
Julian on this. Uh what can I call this
41:11
a second chapter or a third chapter
41:13
or you know, or just a
41:16
new gig.
41:17
Yeah, it's a new gig, and it's it's probably
41:19
chapter five or six. Because every time
41:21
I discover a drug, you
41:23
know, I move on, I take
41:25
on another problem and uh, you know, and
41:28
I've been lucky.
41:29
Uh.
41:30
I've discovered for were unique rugs.
41:33
I have two cooking right
41:35
now in the Tight States clinical trials.
41:38
But what I'm most excited about now is
41:42
the ability that we have with all the technologies
41:45
that we have, is to do early detection
41:47
of cancer, uh and
41:49
intercept that cancer. And
41:51
for the first time, last year, we saw evidence
41:54
that for the first time, cancer
41:56
vaccines actually work. We've
41:59
seen in melanoma, we've seen
42:01
it in pancreatic cancer. And so I'm
42:03
really pivoting our organization to
42:06
do what the pharmaceutical industry will never
42:08
do, is to try to
42:11
detect that early detection,
42:13
early intervention with cancer vaccines.
42:16
I think we stand in a very unique spot
42:18
to be able to foster that kind of research.
42:21
I've recently started doing full
42:23
body MRI scans.
42:25
I've now started having won every three years.
42:28
I me at that age where you know, other people in
42:30
my family have My grandfather died of a brain
42:32
tumor around my same age, So every
42:34
three years now, I'm getting a full body
42:36
MRI scan just so I can catch
42:38
things early if I ever too get something.
42:41
But unfortunately, with the health disparities
42:44
in this country, that's not scalable.
42:46
You know. I obviously, Bobby, you
42:49
got to do what you've got to do. But
42:51
if you think about the country wide
42:54
population, you know, we need
42:57
point of care off doctor's
42:59
office. You know, pinprick blood,
43:01
draw saliva,
43:04
you know, something simple that can really
43:08
with great fidelity predict are you
43:10
susceptible? Are you at risk for
43:13
getting cancer? And if
43:15
so, how do you intervene? Again, I'm
43:18
very jazzed about cancer vaccines, but
43:20
there are other modalities that have,
43:22
you know, improvements in surgery,
43:24
improvements in every aspect of
43:26
biomedical interventions
43:30
that if we can get you into remission,
43:32
we don't want your relapse either. So that's
43:35
a place where we just want
43:37
to improve survivorship. And I've
43:39
laid out a bold vision for
43:42
our organization is we want to fund
43:44
research that I want
43:46
to say, in five years from now will
43:48
reduce cancer cancer deaths by
43:50
twenty five percent and in ten years by
43:52
fifty percent. That's you know, and that
43:54
I can die happily. Something
43:57
that's not you know, I have something
43:59
that not can Good.
44:02
For you man, Good for you, man, Bobby,
44:05
Thank you for being here today, looking
44:07
forward to well whatever is coming
44:10
down the road. And
44:13
and you know, I maybe
44:16
I'll have to go back and hear you
44:19
singing that what kind of creature
44:21
were you in that show?
44:22
I was a caterpillar.
44:24
Caterpillar, caterpillar, a very
44:26
long and large caterpillar. All
44:28
right, well we're gonna have to check out
44:30
Bobby Burke as a caterpillar. And
44:34
fellas, it's been really fun chatting
44:36
with you and really fascinating and
44:40
I really do appreciate the work that you're both
44:42
doing, so keep it up.
44:44
Thank you.
44:48
Hey guys, thanks for listening to another episode
44:50
of Six Degrees with Kevin Bacon. If
44:52
you want to learn more about Stand
44:55
Up to Cancer and all the amazing
44:57
work that they do, head to their website
44:59
Stay and Up to Cancer
45:01
dot org that Stand Up to Cancer
45:04
dot org. You can find all the links
45:06
in our show notes and if you like what
45:08
you hear, make sure you subscribe to the show.
45:11
Please tune in to the rest of our episodes.
45:13
You can find six Degrees with Kevin
45:16
Bagan on iHeartRadio Apple
45:18
podcasts or wherever you get
45:20
your podcasts.
45:21
See you next time.
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