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Speaker 1: Aero dot net. It's more than just a podcast. It

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is a collection of podcasts, twenty of them so far,

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because I believe in the power of choice. And speaking

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of the choice, one of those podcasts is called The Choice. Sure.

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Every day we start off with a prayer. Everybody needs

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a prayer, right, If not, okay, well maybe one day

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you will. And then we get into things that really

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do affect our lifestyle. It is a choice. We get

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one of those every single day. The Choice on Aero

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dot net a R r Oe dot net. Enjoy your exploration, Steve,

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what are you doing today, dude? Yeah, I'm down here

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in Carolina or we got ten inches of snow. Oh

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my god. We're not used to this kind of a mess.

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Speaker 2: You know, it always gets cold.

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Speaker 3: But like this is just a streak of every day

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where it's signal digets. Man, it's crazy.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. You know, I just described you as somebody. You're

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the one that starts the conversation and we're the ones

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that continue it. What is it like to be the

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origin or or the seed of that opportunity to really

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get involved in social conversations.

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Speaker 3: Well, listen, I remember when I was on the Spring

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Show and I would be sitting in the front row

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there and you know, Jerry B. Holstler Shaw want to

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be interviewing somebody. And I always always sit there and

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I thought, boy, I would ask this or I would

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ask that, because you know, the number one thing you

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do is a polacement, is you're interviewing somebody, right, You're

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interrogating or interviewing. And so when I was on the show,

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I'd always be like, oh, I would have done this,

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I would have done that. So when you get that

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opportunity and you get the control, you know, the narrative,

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the format, it's a good.

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Speaker 1: Feeling to be able to have that courage and confidence.

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Is it really all owed to the to the police department,

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Because I mean even as a regular everyday person, I

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mean you come across as somebody who really gives it

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damn about honest to god people.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I think there's a lot of reasons

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to get into place work. And I always thought, you know,

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my father was a Chicago policeman, and you know, I

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wanted to be one because I liked I liked the

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action of it. I never wanted a job where I

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sat behind a desk. I wanted to be you know,

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it was exciting to be a policeman. And one of

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the great things is you just meet, you know, different

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people every day of your life. And it was a

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great training ground because you do learn a lot of

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people's skills, You learn how to extract the truth out

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of people. So it was it was a really unbelievable

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training ground for me to take out to the stage

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when I got my own show.

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Speaker 1: How are you able to keep your thoughts fresh and aware?

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Because I know that every time that I tune in,

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every single season, you've always been at the helm of

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your game, in other words, right there where we need

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to be talking about.

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Speaker 3: Well, I'm very fortunate to have a wife that runs

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my show and probably the best producer on TV, and

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she gets stories that are interesting.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 3: I'm always good as the people and the stories they bring.

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So my staff, my wife does a great job of

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changing things up, not being too repetitive with certain storylines,

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so it keeps things interesting and listen, you know, and

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I have to realize I'm aging. You know, I've been

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a TV for thirty two years, so I'm going to

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be sixty two, so you know, you have to keep

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that in mind too. But one of the things about

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staying young is you know, staying active, staying engaged. Yes,

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And the show provides me with that, right because when

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you're talking to people, I'm listening to stories. I'm trying

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to figure things out. So it's a good thing for

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me to keep doing the show.

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Speaker 1: Well, I'm so glad that you credit your wife with

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helping you out. And the reason why is because there

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are many times that my wife will say something and

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if I don't get it written down and start doing

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the work, then I've missed out on a major situation.

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Like I did. I did a big thing today, the

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research on how illegal it was for single women of

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the nineteen fifties to own a home, and it's like,

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what the what the what the? And you know what, Steve,

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that comes directly from you, because I know that you

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have planted a lot of courage inside my heart.

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Speaker 3: Well, that's nice to hear it because I tell the

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story all the time about when I was on Spiritual,

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which was the fallest time of my life. But the

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drawback was when I was on public or I would

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get correspondals and people are like, you know, just to

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a soul cliche, Oh, where did what trailer.

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Speaker 2: Park did you get these people.

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Speaker 3: Out of it?

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Speaker 2: Well, it's not just get got old. And I never

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liked that.

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Speaker 3: But when I do my own show now, people say, hey,

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you know, I was involved in a domestic violence situation

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and when I watched your show, it gave me the

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courage to leave. Or I was being sexually assaulted and

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I was watching your show and it gave me the

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courage to speak up and you know, you know, get

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out of that situation. So then when you hear people say,

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because you know, when you're doing the show, you might

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might impacting one or two lives, but you forget that

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when people are watching the show, you're impacting thousands of

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people's lives.

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Speaker 1: Yep, please do not move. There's more with Steve Wilcos

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coming up next, celebrating thirty years of his own TV show.

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We are back with Steve Wilcos. Do you feel like

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a preacher sometimes or a psychologist? Because I mean, once

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you open that door, man, those real people with real situations,

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they come a run and they don't mind just opening

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up those floodgates.

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Speaker 2: No, I feel like a policeman. That's it.

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Speaker 3: I mean, even there, you know, even after doing nineteen

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years of my show. If you ask me, why do

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I identify as all my careers, it would be a policeman.

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I mean, I certainly wouldn't say talk show host would

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be the first thing out of my mouth, even though

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it is the longest job I've ever had. But when

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I look back in my life, I really enjoyed being

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a policeman. And It's been a long time since I've

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been a policeman, but it was probably the job that

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I've had that gave me the most satisfaction. Now, the

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job that I enjoy the most is the television show

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because it provides me with a great life. I've got

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to do a lot of great things because of the show,

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experiences that I never would have had if I, you know,

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it wasn't a TV. So I do enjoy the perks

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of being on TV, but as far as you know,

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personal satisfaction and just the excitement of being a policeman,

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the pride of putting on the uniform, nothing about that.

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Speaker 1: See, this is every bit the reason why I think

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You've got this innate ability to be able to fit

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into any city, any country at any time, because you

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freaking get it. You understand that we are real people

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out here. And that we are really watching you.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean everybody, you know, A lot of life

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is what you make of it, right, But sometimes things

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happen and you know you're behind the eight ball. And

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I just always when I was a policeman, when you

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got back Missus Smith's stolen car, or you track down

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Missus Smith's runaway teenager, when you stop somebody from robbing

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Missus Smith on the street, there is no better feeling

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in the world when.

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Speaker 2: I tell you that, when you help somebody.

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Speaker 3: Where they thought, you know, everything's just gonna go away,

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or they don't know where to turn to, and you

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can affect that person's life by doing your job, there

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is no better feeling in the world.

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Speaker 1: Let me tell you what's the one show that you're

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still wanting to do. For instance, like people will say,

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do you want to talk to Paul McCartney, No, I

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want to talk to Paul McCartney's guitar tech. That's the

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person I want to talk with. Who do you want

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to have on that show one day that people go,

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oh my god, only Steve could have done this.

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Speaker 3: Well, you know, we're a show that we deal with

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regular people. We're not a celebrity driven show. When you know,

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that's what a lot of success in the show is

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because you know, daytime viewership, like daytime viewing ours is

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a big pie, right, and everybody's got to stick their

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hand in there and grab their slice of the pie. Well,

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nobody's grabbing for my slice because everybody else is doing celebrities,

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they're coming on to promote there the next movie or

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you know what relationship they're in, or whatever the case.

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And I'm dealing with just regular people that are just

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trying to get to the next day. They're not going

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back to their Beverly Hills mansion or getting on their

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private jet. So you know, I'm interviewing your next door neighbor.

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You know I'm interviewing your cousin. Yeah, so there's nobody

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that I say, hey, you know, when my show is over, someday,

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would I love to have a sports show, like basically

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a baseball talk show and talk to like some baseball

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players and.

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Speaker 2: Managers and like, That's what I would.

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Speaker 3: Like to do because I'm a huge baseball fan. But

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as far as my show goes, you know, we're the

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champion of the underdog, and underdogs you will get.

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Speaker 1: Well, I can't thank you enough for what you have

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done with this nation in the way of serving in

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the Marine Corps. Then you served the nation and the

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city in a police department, and now you're doing this

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show hitting thirty. So therefore, mean everything about you has

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been about the community. Is that coming from your mom

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and dad or who planted that seed inside that heart?

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Speaker 2: Well that that definitely comes from my mom and dad.

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Speaker 3: You know, like I said, my dad was my hero,

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and he served in the militaries in the Korean conflict

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and was a placement himself. So when I when I

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was a kid, I looked up.

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Speaker 2: To my dad. My dad was superman. And you know,

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you know my parents they.

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Speaker 3: Were married a long time, sixty five years, and they

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just you know, they they went to work, they came home.

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I remember, you know, we lived in my grandmother's building,

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and it was always a sense of family. You know,

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we had all my aunts and uncles were you know,

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they would always come to my grandmother's building. And you know,

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we didn't have a lot of money, and you don't

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need a lot of money. You're happy and you know,

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and and there was a sense of always doing the

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right thing. Uh, you know, if I was goofing around

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and my neighbor doing something I wanted I shouldn't. Some

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you know, adult down the street told me to do something,

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knock it off. I didn't talk back. I listened to

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him because I knew if I didn't, he'd go to

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my father and I'd get my buttwet.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 3: So those just those just good times and good lessons.

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You know, I was very fortunate to grow up when

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I did and where I did.

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Speaker 1: Wow, dude, you got to come back to this show

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anytime in the future. The door is always going to

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be open for you.

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Speaker 2: Thank you. I appreciate that you'd.

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Speaker 1: Be brilliant today. Okay, Steve, all right about it, you too,