BOBBYCAST: #584 - 'Winnie Cooper' Danica McKellar on The Wonder Years, Breaking Rib on DWTS & Her 36-Hour Labor

Danica McKellar sits down with Bobby Bones to talk about what life was really like growing up as Winnie Cooper on The Wonder Years, how she handled fame at such a young age, and why she never fully saw herself the way the world did at the time. She also opens up about her experience on Dancing with the Stars, including the injuries she pushed through, the broken rib that made things even harder, and why the show was more physically demanding than most people realize. Plus, Danica shares stories about motherhood, her intense 36-hour labor, and the perspective that came with becoming a parent.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
I had no idea.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
I think it was in our fourth or fifth season
somebody on set asked me how what it was like
to be America's sweetheart, and I was like, what.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
You might know her as Winnie Cooper on The Wonder Years,
and she's turned that into career that's lasted nearly four decades.
She's an actress, a producer, a Christmas movie staple, and
even a former Dancing with the Stars quarter finalist. She
also graduated summa cum lati from UCLA and mathematics. And
there's a bunch of math stuff I should say, but
I don't know somebody of theorem that she helped prove.

(00:39):
That's how smart she is. She writes books. To me,
she will always be Winnie Cooper from The Wonder Years.
Here she is Danica mckeller. Danic, that's really nice to
meet you.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
You too.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
I would like to start with talking about something that
we have in common, which was we were both on
Dancing with the Stars.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Yes, you were.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
How did you I did not win?

Speaker 3 (00:58):
Okay, I usually don't like but I did. But I
don't care about me. I want to know how you
felt about the whole experience.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
It was, it was I liken it to childbirth. I
understand your wife is about to experience that. It was
the most physically demanding thing that I'd ever done. Except
instead of thirty six hours, which is my child worth
experience labor, it was three months. So it was like,
I mean, it was thrilling and it was awesome. It

(01:25):
was terrifying. I always felt like I was just barely
gonna make it, but maybe not quite. One week I
actually did forget the choreography. You can't quite tell. I
just look a little slop because like I remember what
the moves were.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Like, not when to do it was. It was weird.
So I was wearing these gloves it was this week seven.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
They were mesh and they got caught in VAL's finger
and so he had to like turn me with the
other hand, and it just I'm not I mean, I'm
not a professional dancer. So I was just like what
it was like asking a non actor to improv suddenly
when something happens on stage, like, I'm not prepared to
know how to do that, and so it just kind
of And that was the year that I mean, that
was the week that my rib had been broken, and

(02:06):
so it was like a very challenging experience. But I
thought if I could survive that, like going, oh my gosh,
I don't know my choreography and I'm like on national
television with twenty million million people watching, then you know,
it teaches you to It teaches you to be tough.
It teaches you that you are tough. It teaches you resilience.
I got so much out of that my whole life.

(02:26):
You know, I've loved this sort of charm life. Other
than the fact that my parents got divorced and I
got divorced all that kind of stuff, I've really like
been sheltered in a lot of ways, and so I
was never like like I never was put out in
the in the wilderness and like here survive. You know,
that kind of thing was just never part of my life.
And this experience in Dancing the Stars was very much
like that, because you have to figure out what you're

(02:48):
made of. You know, are you gonna stick it out?
Because it's live, there's no there's no back door to
leave out.

Speaker 3 (02:55):
Of, and noybody else can do it for you.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Nobody else can do it for you, and nobody can.
I mean, your coaches are there, I'll help you. But
the toughness aspect of it was just very new for me,
and it was a wonderful message that I get to
like hear for myself that I can handle tough things.
Aside from the childbirth thing, I knew that one already.
This is this is like another level somehow because it

(03:18):
just lasted so much longer I'd already given birth to
that point.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
Draco is three and a half years old.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
For the for the show, Yeah, it was a crazy
experiment experience for me too, And I like talking to
people that have done it because it is a fraternity
kind of people because it's a little it's trauma bonding
while you're there with the people you're with. Trauma bonding.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
Oh my gosh. I never thought of that, but it
is totally Have you heard about where like if you
have rabbits that aren't getting along, do you put them
in a way like a basket, the lunch basket, and
you shake it a little bit and it trauma bonds
them and then they get along.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
I've never done it myself.

Speaker 3 (03:50):
Were the rabbits though we were the rabbits.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
We were the rabbits, And I've never heard of any
other use of trauma bonding other than the rabbits.

Speaker 3 (03:56):
Yes, I trauma bonded hard with the people on that
show especially, and then it's like a shared trauma bonding
with people who have done it, who felt, oh, I've
never done anything like this. I have felt though, that
it's a different experience. For people that went in with
the dance experience, they loved it and it was brilliant
and it was joy. But it's people like us that
felt really unnatural that I think. I mean, I'd taken.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
Dance lessince before. I love dance.

Speaker 3 (04:18):
I've learned it was great. It's a whole different thing than.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Ball, you know what I like in this too. Well.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
Also just the pressure and the schedule.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
So it's like if you love chocolate, it says it's great, here,
get in this bucket of chocolate, a barrel of chocolate,
and we're going to hold your head underneath it for
like three months.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
Like wait, I know that I love this and there
are moments of.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
Joy and glee and euphoria, but just sandwich between those
is all the terror and like nerves. But that was
it was. I would I mean, I've never traded that
experience for anything, and for a while, I would have said, yeah,
I would do it again if they wanted to bring
me back. They hardly ever do that. But I still dance,

(05:00):
still dance first before I move on to that. So
I remember I used to come home. Did you do
the ice baths?

Speaker 4 (05:05):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (05:05):
Yeah, all the time. Yeah, I said, that's the massages.
All I had to massages.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
That's interesting.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
I was injured too, but it's a whole different story.
But tell me about the ice bats for you.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
So every every night I would pull myself up the
rilling to get upstairs because my legs weren't working, and
I would sit in this ice bath for four to
eight minutes and my husband.

Speaker 1 (05:23):
Would be like, how are you doing that?

Speaker 2 (05:24):
I'm like, sweaty. This is the easiest.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
Part of my day.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
I can just sit here and I'm not gonna let
anybody down. I'm not gonna let myself down. It's all
gonna be fine.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
And yet, you know, I'm.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
So proud of the dances, right, It's like, wow, look
at that, this beauty and the beast number that Veal
put together. That was brilliant. It's like a Broadway show,
so much fun. The tribute that I got to do,
the the must marvel year. It was from my grandmother.
It was twenty ten, my grandmother and my son. My
grandmother passed away, my son was born, and to do

(05:55):
this Billy Joel's Lullaby. It was a contemporary dance.

Speaker 1 (05:59):
It's just beautiful still.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
I mean, I just love that whole experience. It was
just so concentrated values. To say, I wish that they
would give you, guys, like a week off in between
so that you could rest and reflect on what you've
done before rushing into the next one. But that's that's
show biz. No resting, no resting, no reflecting, no reflecting.
But I do still dance, and do you know globs

(06:21):
of schenko I do. Yeah, so I So I do
movies now for Great American Family Channel, and I often
write them and produce them. And so I did a
movie called Swing into Romance that he was the third
lead on and we had like real jive dances and
it was so fun.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
It was just a fantastic experends.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
It's on pureflicks dot Com and I have a bunch
of movies on there right now.

Speaker 3 (06:41):
Twelve I counted. I think it's twelve. I think I
count at least twelve are.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
There twelve, now let go.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
But the dance one is swinging to romance.

Speaker 3 (06:49):
That's fun. Especially I think it's fun that I still
am friends with a lot of them. Yeah, And I
was at dinner a couple of weeks ago and it
was the first time i'd ever met him. A guy
named von Miller who played football. Still plays football the NFL,
but he played from when I remember him with the Broncos.
And he was on Dancing with the Stars. And I
don't want to be that guy who goes, hey, you
won't talk about Dancing with the Stars because some people

(07:10):
may not have enjoyed their experience, right. And we were
a dinner and it was and I didn't want to
say anything, and I never want to be annoying at dinners,
so I'm kind of just quiet. And somebody he was
with says, hey, you should ask him about Dancing with
the Stars. And I'm like, he's still in the NFL.
The last thing he wants to talk about is dance.
I said, I'm not gonna He said, he never gets

(07:30):
to talk about it. He would love to talk about it.
So I said, hey, Vaon, you were on Dancing with
the Stars, right, who was your partner It was like
I brought up some a childhood memory that he just
talked so glowingly about it. It was really cool. So
when I because I knew you were on the show,
I was like, man, I'm going to talk about that
because I love talking about it. Yeah, you hurt your rib?

Speaker 1 (07:52):
I did I broke my rib?

Speaker 3 (07:54):
Okay? Was that on the show that you broke over?

Speaker 2 (07:56):
Yes? So in week three they're in the contemporary dance
told you about the tribute. There was a move where
Val was to throw me up. I was to spin
three sixty and they would catch me. In the end,
we end up doing a one eighty and I kind
of wish that we decided to that sooner rather than later,
because we rehearsed that through sixty again and again and again,

(08:16):
and I would never be kind off balance, and so
this side would come down first and it was feeling sore.
It was bruised, but I was like, yeah, what, that's
what dancers do.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
They tough it out.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
So it after that performance, you know how the body
hangs on until the performance is done.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
It started hurting so badly. I was like, what is
going on? Went to the doctor.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
They said, well, it's not fractured, but just be careful,
put like a rib brace on a okay, great. Next
week was the switch up week, which we did back then.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
I'm not sure if you did.

Speaker 3 (08:44):
No, we didn't do switch Yeah, who did you switch
up with?

Speaker 2 (08:46):
Him? Max Fowl's brother, And so it was. It was
a jive, but it was fine and I wore the
brace the whole time. Week five was my Beauty the
Beast number the quick step. Wore the brace. Week six
where the race, Uh no, we didn't wear the brace.
And in week seven Val was like, you know, are
you ready for Do you think you're ready for Tricksy?
And I'm like, yeah, sure, And it was just that

(09:06):
thing where you know, like the you do a summerrsault
and you grab onto the waists and the other person
to the summersault.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
We just started to try that and we both heard
the crack.

Speaker 2 (09:16):
So my rope was just holding on all those weeks,
but it couldn't actually handle under pressure and the.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
Pain that flooded through my body.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
Went to the hospital or I think it just went
to the doctor and anyway, they're like, yeah, it's broken,
but you can't put a cast on a rib, so
they just would give me like a steroid patch and.

Speaker 1 (09:36):
I kept going.

Speaker 2 (09:38):
So I danced week seven and week eight with a
broken rib.

Speaker 1 (09:42):
In week eight is when I got floted off.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
But back then the way that changes season and season,
but back then, the previous season's vote counted towards the
next I mean, the previous week's votes counted toward that elimination.
So in week seven, which is the first week that
I danced with the broken rib, those vot cast me off.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
And that's what I do too.

Speaker 2 (10:01):
If somebody's injured, I'm like, you know what they shouldn't
They should go home and rest, and so I don't
vote for them.

Speaker 1 (10:06):
And that's that's what happened to me.

Speaker 2 (10:07):
It was probably best, but anyway, I danced, yeah, eight
out of ten weeks, and then of course week ten
we came back and everybody does their dance again. In
week nine they had us do pre tape a dance
for the finale, so I actually technically danced every week
and it was it was just a blast. I had
such a great time for all the pressure and everything else.

Speaker 1 (10:28):
I loved the costumes and I.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
And the camaraderie and the bonding when you're all doing something,
it's kind of nearly impossible, and they really don't show
how hard it is physically and emotionally, because if they did,
I think it would actually bump people out. So that's
why we said it's like a community fratrinity. We all
know what it's actually really like and how challenging it
really is. That's that's the beauty of it, you know.
It's kind of like so my other career is writing

(10:53):
math books, and part of the beauty of math is
that it's challenging. Part of the gift of math is
that it is challenging because it forces your brain to
think in a different way. You get something out of that,
out of thinking you can't do something. Sticking with it,
then you finally get it. Now you've tie yourself too
stronger and smarter than your thought. So that I see
the value in it, and it's great just that I

(11:14):
don't know the audience would necessarily get it, and I
think it's perfect the way they the way they.

Speaker 3 (11:19):
Depict the show doing that show injured, that'd be really tough,
especially a rib, because you breathe and it hurts. I
cracked a rib playing football high school, and it was
miserable for me because that hurts.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
It was the lowest rib, though I think it was
for breaking the rib. I think it was the best
situation I could have had, because I don't remember if
I coughed. It hurt, but breathing was okay and jumping
was okay. I jumped rope for like week seven, the
first beginning of the dance. I'm jumping rope, and I
was like, how are you doing that. I'm like, look,
if I were feeling it, I wouldn't be jumping rope.
But I didn't feel like it was fine.

Speaker 3 (11:52):
I tore my Week one, I tore my shoulder. Oh
my goodness, I fell on TV. Well, the truth is
I never actually finished the dance in practice because you
trained for two weeks before, because a lot of that
first two weeks is just getting acclimated to wearing the
shoes being on the especially for me, I'd never danced
at all, wow, And so I never got our first

(12:14):
dance completed in practice. On the show, I finished the
dance and I realized, probably five to seven seconds before
it was done, that I was going to finish. I
started to get so happy because I never finished it.
As soon as I finished it, I jumped up forgetting
because I haven't spent much time in dance shoes forgetting,
and I slipped and I fell. It's all on you
know what.

Speaker 2 (12:33):
I missed that episode. I have to go back and
watch it.

Speaker 3 (12:35):
I yes, I started swinging my arm. I fell. I
tore my shoulder in All season long, I was getting
injections to kill the pain. And it made me feel
tough like football player. Yes, yeah, except I was wearing
really tight pants with sequence other than that.

Speaker 1 (12:49):
Just like football players. Yeah, yes, totally.

Speaker 3 (12:51):
Yeah, such a fun experience. And I also, your partner's awesome.
He's like he was like the coolest guy. That was
the coolest guy.

Speaker 1 (12:57):
Tough coach, but great, that's what you want.

Speaker 3 (13:00):
Yeah, foreign people are tougher. Mine was Australian.

Speaker 2 (13:03):
Yeah sure, yeah, so she's a friend.

Speaker 3 (13:06):
She was tough. I needed tough. But I found that
the foreign people were tougher than the Mormon people. It's
mostly Mormons or foreign that's pretty much everybody. I found
that the Mormon people were super nice and kind, like extra.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
Yeah it's either Utah or overseas, yes, one of the two.

Speaker 3 (13:21):
Yeah, you say, you know your second career was math books.
Were you really good at math? Like naturally.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
I mean, I don't know. I never thought that I
was really good at math.

Speaker 2 (13:32):
I just really liked the challenge of it, and so
I stuck with it, and so I studied a lot.

Speaker 3 (13:37):
When you were acting as a kid, were you doing
much math? Was your home?

Speaker 2 (13:41):
Oh? Yeah, for sure?

Speaker 3 (13:42):
Were you going to regular school?

Speaker 2 (13:43):
Yes? And then I would get my assignments and take
them to set. So the role of Winny Cooper on
The Wonder Years was not in every scene at all.
So I would work two or three days a week,
and then I'd go to my regular school the other days.
Because we weren't a tape show either, it was filmed,
so the days that you weren't in to see you
didn't have to be.

Speaker 3 (13:59):
That what's the difference in not taped but filmed.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
So tape shows they'll tape, say on a Friday night,
and they rehearse all week long, and then the live
studio audience comes in and they tape it at night.
I mean nowadays it's all you know, recorded a tape
for a film anymore. In fact, that's how we used
to describe them. So we were a film show, meaning
that we just shot the scenes as they happened, and

(14:23):
there was no rehearse the scene and shoot it instead
of rehearse all week, you know, fuss with the dialogue
and then at the end you do it for real.

Speaker 5 (14:32):
Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor,
and we're back on the Bobby Cast.

Speaker 3 (14:46):
How did you get into acting?

Speaker 2 (14:48):
Oh gosh, I so, do you know who Leslie and
Warren is?

Speaker 3 (14:53):
Should? I?

Speaker 2 (14:53):
You should? I know?

Speaker 3 (14:54):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (14:55):
She's an actress. She's probably in probably almost eighty by now.
She was in the Rogers and Hammerstein Cinderella in the sixties,
and then she was in Clue.

Speaker 1 (15:04):
Do you see Clue with Tim Crey? What?

Speaker 3 (15:07):
Oh my goodness, I know.

Speaker 1 (15:08):
Oh this is a great movie.

Speaker 3 (15:10):
No, no, no, you have to watch anyways.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
So watch it before you have a baby, because then
you will build you much. Yeah Clue, that's from Board
Game nineteen eighty five. Yes, okay, yes, Oh my gosh,
it was classic. It's so I'm so excited for you. You
have to tell me after you watch it and tell
me how she love it? Played missus Scarlett.

Speaker 3 (15:25):
Man on the Moon with Jim Carrey about Andy Kaufman.

Speaker 2 (15:28):
No, what, wait, are you just saying that no.

Speaker 3 (15:31):
It's my favorite movie ever. Really. Yeah, I just wanted
to do that back to you that.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
No, I just want to make sure you're actually it's
my favorite movie, and I know you want to do
the vaction mat.

Speaker 1 (15:36):
I just want to make sure you're actually really it's my.

Speaker 3 (15:38):
Favorite movie ever. Okay, yeah, all right, I'll watch Clue.
You watch Man on Man the mone Okay, keep going.

Speaker 2 (15:42):
Okay, get so missus Scarlett played by Lesliane Warren too.
She and my friend my mom were friends because my
mom a long time ago actually owned a dance studio
in San Diego and her uh, Leslian Warren's partner at
the time, Jeffrey, was a choog verer anyway, at my
mom's dance studio. So apparently I was sitting I was
five years old, sitting looking myself in the mirror, making

(16:03):
phases at myself, and Leslie Ane weren't said, that's an actress. Okay.
So a couple of years later we moved to Los
Angeles and Leslie was encouraging my mom to have us
try acting classes, me and my sister if we were interested,
and my mom asked me if I want to be
an actress?

Speaker 1 (16:19):
I was like, what is that?

Speaker 2 (16:19):
She goes, well, it's when you pretend to be somebody
or not. I'm like, hmm, interesting. And I remember for
about a year apparently I My mousse was about a
year later that I said I want to try it.
I remember we had a nanny with a British accent
and were pretending to be her in a shower.

Speaker 1 (16:33):
It's like, that's kind of fun.

Speaker 2 (16:34):
And I would notice kids on commercials and TV and
like that looks sounds fun, and so I asked about
trying it. And so my sister and I started taking
acting classes at least Osterburg Institute in LA when I
think I was seven, she was six. We started doing
a little plays, then we got an agent, and then
we started doing commercials. My mom had a rule, she said,
acting is just a hobby. No series, no movies out

(16:56):
of town. Nothing I wouldn't let you watch, you know.
She had a lot of rules. Well, the part of
Winnie Cooper on The Wonder Year So was supposed to
just be a guest role on the pilot episode. That's
why I was even allowed to audition for it. And
that's why I even had a shot, because let's face it,
I mean a major primetime series on ABC like a
newbie actress.

Speaker 1 (17:11):
There's no way.

Speaker 2 (17:12):
There are lots of other actresses that would have been
in front of me. But it was a small part
on the pilot. I mean it was a significant but small,
like not that many days of work really, and I
got the job. And then midway through shooting, the producers said,
we want to offer a Danica a serious contract from
My mom was.

Speaker 1 (17:31):
Really conflicted about it. I was like, please lease lose Lise.

Speaker 2 (17:33):
And so she got me this fancy lawyer with a
loophole because this is a seven year contract. Imagine whopping
your twelve year old into a seven year contract.

Speaker 1 (17:40):
That's something to think about.

Speaker 3 (17:41):
That well at this time, got it.

Speaker 2 (17:43):
And so she got me this lawyer with a there's
a loophole this we wouldn't be sued for millions of
dollars a week. She's like, anytime you want to get out, Danny,
say the word, I will pull you. But of course
I never did.

Speaker 3 (17:53):
Did you like it?

Speaker 1 (17:53):
I loved it? Oh, I loved it. I loved it
so much.

Speaker 3 (17:56):
Did that role grow yeah, I mean it.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
Was throughout the whole season.

Speaker 3 (18:01):
Yeah, But I mean it started off you said just
a guest. Was it then written after that pilot to
be a forever role?

Speaker 2 (18:08):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (18:09):
Was it because you were that impactful as a kid?

Speaker 2 (18:11):
No, they said that. I mean, I don't know if
they said that Fred and I had a good chemistry
and they just was unexpected and they they just liked
liked me.

Speaker 3 (18:20):
Did you feel famous as aw?

Speaker 2 (18:23):
Not at all.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
I had no idea one.

Speaker 2 (18:25):
I think it was in our fourth or fifth season
somebody on set asked me how what it was like
to be America's sweetheart? And I was like, what what
are you talking about? I was so busy going to school.
I went to Harvard Westlake School in Los Angeles, which
is a private prep school, and so I was going
back and forth between school and set, and I was
very busy with that.

Speaker 1 (18:45):
I never went to Hollywood parties.

Speaker 2 (18:46):
I didn't. I didn't even go to the Emmys that
first year that we were nominated. So my dad has
scheduled a river trip for me and my sister and him,
and we're going to go on the Rogue River in Oregon,
and and you know, you can't fires and stuff, And
it turns out that, oh we were nominated for Best
Comedy Series.

Speaker 1 (19:05):
Well, we couldn't move.

Speaker 2 (19:05):
The trip because of my dad's work issues and schedule,
and so we.

Speaker 1 (19:10):
Didn't We didn't go to the Emmys.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
We went on the On the trip, I remember my
sister and my dad and I were in this little
motel in Oregon and we watched The Wonder Years win
Best Comedy Series on this tiny little television. I remember
jumping up and down on the bed so excited. Woke
up at five in the morning, hit the river and
had like the trip of I still remember the best
memories from that trip, placking, picking blackberries on the side

(19:32):
of the river, and it's just it's, you know, it's
a It's a testament to my parents. And they never
overemphasized the importance of Hollywood or I mean, you can
imagine a lot of stage moms would have been like,
what do you have to go to the Emies? And
I'm going with you? None of that. It was it
was family came first, and that was such an important
lesson and I'm so grateful to both of them for

(19:54):
having those values.

Speaker 3 (19:56):
Did you feel the success of the show grow.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
I mean, I was vaguely where you know, when you're
a kid, whatever you were going through, you kind of
think is normal, So I didn't have that perspective on
it until after. In fact, when I got to UCLA,
the show had ended within a few months of me
graduating from high school, and when I went to UCLA,
I remember thinking, Okay, all right, well that's.

Speaker 1 (20:17):
Done, so we're all going to move on now.

Speaker 2 (20:20):
And of course everywhere I went on campus, everyone was like, Oh,
Minny Cooper.

Speaker 1 (20:23):
Where's Kevin.

Speaker 2 (20:24):
I'm like, what, or should that girl from The Wonder yours?

Speaker 1 (20:26):
Or is that girl from that show?

Speaker 2 (20:27):
I joined a sorority because I just needed to get
away from like everybody just like recognizing me all the time,
and I wanted to find out who I was. I
had no idea. So that's really I think when it
hit me like how big the show was, because it
was just everywhere everybody was calling me by this character name.

Speaker 3 (20:44):
Do people still recognize you as her?

Speaker 2 (20:46):
Yes? But it doesn't bother me anymore. I'm totally great
with it. It's I've come to total peace with it. I
shook a break from acting for four years at UCLA
to get a degree in mathematics, sort of redefined myself
for myself. Then I went back to ashing because I
missed it. I did the West Wing for a year
and then just various things before I landed on a
Hallmark Channel and now Great American Family Channel and doing

(21:07):
these really sweet rom com movies that I just love,
and now I write them and produce them as well,
and it's just been it's been such a great journey.
And I feel like I got so lucky to avoid
the pitfalls of child stardom that happens so often to
kids who because and I understand why it happens. You're
so well known for this one character at a time
in your life when you're trying to figure out who

(21:28):
you are and what your value is, you don't know,
like who would I be if I didn't have this
this character that everyone loves so much, or I didn't
have that show. I had a friend in high school
who had this long, red, naturally red hair, and everywhere
she went, everybody was like, oh my gosh, your hair,
your hairs. Finally she cut it off and died it black,
and she's like, I need to find out, like who else? Like, well,

(21:50):
what else you know? And so for me, mathematics was
that thing. I took a break from it and I
studied math and it gave me something else to hold
on to, something to feel important for valued for. I
had no idea the later I'd end up writing math books.
I just was doing it because I like the challenge
of it and I needed to find out who I
was do something totally different.

Speaker 1 (22:12):
Well yeah, exactly exactly.

Speaker 2 (22:14):
And none of the professors had any idea who I was,
well none of them didn't even many didn't even know
own TVs.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
But they were interested in the way.

Speaker 2 (22:20):
My mind worked, and I and I had a great time.
It was it was just finding out. We're just discovering Danika.

Speaker 3 (22:27):
I have friends that have been successful artists and they
have a song or two that it was a massive song,
and they have a weird relationship with it, right because
when it happens, it's what they're about. It got them there,
and then it's really what they're known for, and they're like,
I'm so much more than this one song. And then
they have this relationshiphere they don't want to play it anymore.

(22:48):
They know people know them and love them for it,
and they begrudgingly play it, right, and then they get
to the point where they're like, why am I fighting this?

Speaker 4 (22:57):
Is?

Speaker 3 (22:57):
That?

Speaker 2 (22:58):
Is that parallel you're yes, well once because when once
I wasn't I guess dependent on it for like, once
that wasn't my where my value came from. You know,
once I was more solidly in a different place in
my life where I was like, okay, well I'm also
I also I am a math author, and I also

(23:18):
like have these other jobs that I've done. And then
I recognize that, oh, this is why a lot, this
is why I get to go on the Today Show
from a math book that's coming out. This is why
so many more kids are being helped by my books
because their parents know me from the show and they say,
oho person to help you with math.

Speaker 1 (23:33):
That was a huge revelation for me.

Speaker 2 (23:35):
I'm like, oh my gosh, this is such a gift,
What an amazing foundation. This is why when I do
a Christmas move for a great American family channel, people
watch it. And the reason my movies do well. Part
of the reason is because automatically I bring them a
warm and fuzzy feeling because it connects them to their childhood.
What an amazing gift. And that's all because of the
wonder years.

Speaker 3 (23:55):
Do you get creepy guys that come up and go
you are my childhood crush just randomly.

Speaker 1 (24:00):
Yeah, but I wouldn't say creepy.

Speaker 3 (24:02):
Okay, I feel like any guy just saying that randomly
would be creepy, So maybe the guy's not creepy. Do
you feel like that's creepy if a guy just comes
up and goes, Hi, you don't know me, but you're
in my childhood crush.

Speaker 2 (24:10):
No, it happens all the time, and people are like,
it's amazing. I got to be part of the childhood,
and I know the people that we admire when we're
kids have a different place in our heart.

Speaker 3 (24:18):
It's absolutely different. We get starstruck and over those people
for sure.

Speaker 2 (24:23):
Yes, yeah, I remember this is a random but I
met Larry Hagman. My mom used to show us Dallas
and I was and I was on the Wonder Years.
It was like I was the height of my fame
from the Wonder Years and I met Larry Hagman. I
was so starstruck I could barely talk. That's just how
it is.

Speaker 3 (24:39):
I really hated the ending. Yeah, I don't know how
you feel about it. Can I tell you why I
hated it?

Speaker 2 (24:45):
Sure?

Speaker 3 (24:45):
I wanted the bow. Yeah, you know, because the final
episode it's like and you know, I met Winnie at
the airport a pair of raising and I was with
and Kevin was with his wife.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
I like that, I know, I know I didn't like
it either.

Speaker 2 (24:59):
But the thing is, the Wonders was all about bittersweet
memories and stuff, everything tied up in a bow. Then
it wouldn't be that show. I know, the dad. Why
did they have to kill off.

Speaker 3 (25:07):
The dad died? I know, Yeah, it's weird. That was
considered a comedy too, I know.

Speaker 1 (25:12):
Looking you know, the first season was more of a comedy.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
Yeah, when Neil Marlins and Carol Black when they were
still producing, when they were still in charge, it was
more in comedy. But then it went on to be
more sentimental, I guess.

Speaker 3 (25:27):
And the brother was never Marilyn Manson, that was.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
The best friend was also never.

Speaker 3 (25:31):
Oh yeah, that's right, so Wayne, they'll get that. It's
been a while since I've watched the show. Wayne was
the brother brother played by Jason Paul. Yes, was the
best friend? Yes, Jo, and you will say that Josh
is not Marilyn Manson? Correct? Did you ever hear that rumor?

Speaker 2 (25:48):
Oh yeah, years before the internet. I heard the rumor,
like like in the nineties. I remember people talking about,
look what, no, how did rumors even ever start? Back
before the internet. I'm been sure.

Speaker 3 (26:01):
I saw. I was doing some research on your math
books before you came in, and so you're on my
TikTok algorithm now. And the episode of you doing the
Mario Brothers television show, Oh gosh, do you remember that?

Speaker 2 (26:12):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (26:12):
It was live, it was live. Those two people are live.
You're a kid.

Speaker 1 (26:16):
Yes, it was a horrible episode.

Speaker 2 (26:17):
It was so the lame. But look, I love Mario
Brothers in general, so it's fine, and they're all lovely people.
But I watched it, and I'm like, what kind of
story is this? I'm like, lying pretending to be an orphan.
The plot was not the best. But actually my mom
was friends with a producer and that's why I did it.
But now my son Draco, who's fifteen, he he has

(26:40):
loved Super Mario Brothers since he was like five or
six years old.

Speaker 1 (26:43):
He still does, and so he thinks it's hilarious. So
just for that, I'm glad I did it.

Speaker 3 (26:47):
Does he watch the show? Has he watched the show?

Speaker 2 (26:49):
He's seen that one episode?

Speaker 5 (26:50):
No?

Speaker 3 (26:51):
I mean wonder yours? Oh how Mario Brothers.

Speaker 2 (26:54):
Right. I showed him one episode of The Wonder Years
and he wasn't then to do it, and he also didn't.

Speaker 1 (27:01):
He was surprised that that was me. I'm like, you don't.

Speaker 2 (27:03):
Think I still look the same everybody else does. He's like, what, No,
And here's the thing. People who grew up, who are
kids When I was a kid and grew up, then
you go, oh, it's the same face. Because we all
grew up. You have to evolve with the person. If
you didn't, then you look back and like, I guess
I could see it.

Speaker 3 (27:20):
Maybe would you want him to get into a creative field?
Does he want to?

Speaker 2 (27:25):
It's so weird because so he's fifteen. When I was fifteen,
I was already on the show. His dad is in music,
and his dad was already composing and knew what he
was going to do, was already doing it. Draco doesn't
know what he wants to do yet, and I don't
even know how to Like, how do I support that?

Speaker 1 (27:40):
He's very creative.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
He plays piano beautifully, he does ballroom dance, he does improv,
he loves all that stuff. He does these science videos,
we do homeschooling and so he does an online science
class and many times they give the option of doing
a video for the project, so he'll do the experiments
of the science sxsper as video. Like he could be a

(28:02):
YouTube star while he's really funny, but none of those
guests publish. It's just for his school, don't. I don't
know what he's going to want to do. It's not
that I want him to get into something creative. I
actually think he should have a trade on the side,
because honestly, AI is coming for all the jobs and
they're not going to come for the pumbing jobs or
electrician jobs, and like, I want you to learn a trade.

Speaker 1 (28:23):
So that's actually something I'm going to be doing with
him helping.

Speaker 2 (28:27):
Just have it on the side. And this is why
I tell people who want to get into the acting business.
I say, look, that's great, but there's so many dry spells,
and it will really mess with your sense of self,
Like when you're not working and you don't know when
you're going to be working again. For me, have something
else that you also can make money at that you
also enjoy doing, and do that thing too. I remember

(28:48):
when I was on the West Wing, Emily Proctor told
me how she would flip houses. That was for sidegig.
She'd buy a house, fix it up over a few months,
and then sell it, and that kept her sane. So
even if you have a regular job as an actor,
it's really good to have something else. So for me,
that was writing math books. I've been writing math books
for twenty years. I think I'm actually finally done. I
think number twelve was the was the final book for now.

Speaker 3 (29:08):
Those are famous last words.

Speaker 2 (29:09):
I know, I know, but I'm If I'm some inspired,
perhaps I will, But for now, I feel like that
was like, okay, good. I blanketed the ages that I
wanted to. I've written the books that I think are
really helpful. I could say, here, take this in homeschool
with it, it'll be great up until you know, high
school geometry, so.

Speaker 1 (29:27):
That I feel good with that. Yeah, it's just it's been.

Speaker 2 (29:32):
It's been such an adventure in so many different directions
in my life so far. And I think part of
the reason why I think I'm probably not going to
do any more math book writing maybe is because I'm
writing scripts now. So I wrote my Christmas movie last
year for Great American, I'm actually writing mine right now today,
Like I was working at think this morning, and I

(29:53):
work on it again later for this coming Christmas as well.
So I definitely love writing, but I'm switching my focus
for now.

Speaker 4 (30:01):
The Bobby Cast will be right back. This is the
Bobby Cast as a young kid. Did you like math again?
I liked the challenge, but yes I did.

Speaker 2 (30:19):
It's like a puzzle.

Speaker 1 (30:21):
Yeah, they're like puzzles.

Speaker 3 (30:22):
I was a really good student. I hated math. I couldn't.
I shouldn't say couldn't, because I don't think that I
can't do anything. That's a double negative. I know, but
I struggled naturally with math, and I didn't struggle with
anything else, like I crushed my standardized test, my act.
My lowest was always math, so I wouldn't have been
drawn to something that I think I found the most
difficulty in. So I'm wondering why you were drawn of

(30:43):
everything you were studying to math.

Speaker 1 (30:46):
I guess I just I like the logical puzzles.

Speaker 2 (30:50):
I just I like how it expands your brain, and
I just like that feeling. And I did do better
on math in English, so I guess I'm better at
math and I am English and memorize for Carevlary and
things like that. I tend to be a pretty literal person,
like I tend to be gullible in that way. I
tend to believe people when they say things. I mean,
you know, But so for me, I think the logic

(31:13):
always appealed to that part of my brain.

Speaker 3 (31:15):
And you've written twelve math books I have. How do
you write a math book?

Speaker 2 (31:19):
I decide what I want to teach, and then I find
a fun way to teach it. So all my books
there are mckller Maths, the mckellermath books. They're all at
mckellermath dot com. They're for ages babies through high school geometry.
So the highest level I have is high school geometry.
Say when you're fifteen sixteen years old. I never did
an algebra two book. People have asked about it, but
there just wasn't as much of demand.

Speaker 1 (31:39):
It's the books.

Speaker 2 (31:40):
My books are not in schools. They are books that
parents buy their kids to help them. Cheaper than a tutor,
but super fun. Again, like I always okay, what's my angle?

Speaker 3 (31:49):
Like?

Speaker 2 (31:49):
I have a book for third and fourth graders called
The Times Machine and teaches times tables right like multification
and division.

Speaker 1 (31:56):
But I come up with fun ways to teach those things.

Speaker 2 (31:59):
So it drove me crazy that it tried to know
crazy that in schools there's so much more demand on
the teachers they don't have time to really drill the
multiplication facts anymore, and so kids don't know them. And
if you don't know your multiplication facts, how do you
reduce their fraction? How do you do basic alergybro without
really struggling? So I was like, I need to write
a book where I make it easier to actually memorize them,

(32:21):
because you need to memorize them. So I have little stories,
a little I mean things like multiples of two or five?
Which are you know? Nine has some really great tricks,
you know, the nine tricks. Hold up your hands.

Speaker 3 (32:31):
At this point I memorized them so thoroughly that I
don't good. Yeah, but okay.

Speaker 2 (32:36):
For people who are listening, take out your hands, look
at them, spread your fingers wide.

Speaker 3 (32:39):
I don't know this, So you're teaching me, okay, good?

Speaker 1 (32:41):
So nine times?

Speaker 4 (32:43):
What?

Speaker 3 (32:43):
Okay, give me number? It's like six six?

Speaker 2 (32:45):
Okay, so count on your fingers one, two, three or
four five six? Put the sixth finger down, which is
probably your pinky, unless if your palms are facing you.
I mean that's yes, five, four fifty four. Put down
your third finger. It's two and seven.

Speaker 3 (32:57):
Hold I knew the answer. My mind is still blown.
So there's some fun tricks like that. Hold on, because
this is cool. I didn't know that. Okay, okay, nine
times four, So I'm gonna put down my fourth finger.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
For thirty six.

Speaker 3 (33:09):
Wait, hold on, one, two, three, four? What am I
messing up here? Because I oh thirty one?

Speaker 2 (33:17):
Yeah, okay, his face, you guys should see his face.

Speaker 3 (33:19):
I didn't know this. I guess I didn't have to
take so.

Speaker 2 (33:22):
Anyway, So those are I was gonna say those are
non and I did put that in the book. But
what I have stories, so like like nine.

Speaker 3 (33:29):
Times twenty seven, guys, twenty seven, this is crazy. I
have adult friends that need to know this but still
don't know that. I'm sorry to interrupt you. I just
never knew that trick.

Speaker 2 (33:38):
Yeah, but but I have I have stories. I have
characters in it. So anytime you see a six, you
know there's gonna be a six sided block. Anytime you
see a four, there's gonna be a puppy because it's
got four legs. So I have like these stories and
so six times seven is forty two. Mister Mouse is
the main character in the book, well and miss Squirrel,
and then there's Danakay characters.

Speaker 1 (33:58):
I'm a little cartoon in it.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
So mister mouse loves cheese, of course, so anytime you
see seven in a story, that means we're talking about, oh,
something happens over a week. So mister mouse eats a
six sided block of cheese because he loves cheese, obviously,
every day for seven days, so this represents six times seven. Well,
at the end of those seven days of eating that
six sided block of cheese, mister mouse is pretty full
and farty two FARTI too. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (34:25):
So so just for if.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
You're you know, an eight or nine year old kid
and you're trying to memory mumification facts.

Speaker 3 (34:30):
I have adult friends that need this.

Speaker 2 (34:32):
Well yeah, anyways, so that's so that's that's the times machine.
But I've got so my goal, and I mean I
teach algebra. A book called hot X Algebra Exposed I
have for middle school Math doesn't suck and kiss my math,
and I we you know, when I introduced algebra, I say, oh,
here's X meat X and then there's a little X
with the dialogue, Bubble says Hi, like he's not so bad.

Speaker 1 (34:54):
You know, we're not gonna call it algebra.

Speaker 2 (34:55):
We're gonna call it happy Land, just you know, trying
to shake up the nerves that kids tend I have
around math, because math can be dull and boring and scary,
but it's all the way it's presented. And so that's
what I learned. When I was in school, I had
a couple teachers, one teacher in particular who made math
so fun. It was the seventh grade that I couldn't
believe it was the same topics. It confused me so much,

(35:16):
and so I realized, wait, this is about the presentation.
Math is a language, and you can talk about anything
in the language of math. I see it's one of
the engineers nodding. I love that. That always makes me happy.
So this is this is my This has been my
mission make math more fun and accessible for kids. I've written,
I think all the books. I'm going to four. My
last one, my twelfth one, came out in November on

(35:39):
the fourth of November, which is what I said for
It's called I Love You one hundred, a counting book
full of love, and it's a really sweet story about
a mother and her son, and it goes through talking
about basically showing her child that no matter what he does,
she loves him, so whether whether he's happy or sad
or makes a mess, so sort of counting all the

(35:59):
way that she loves her son. It's about unconditional love
and also teaching kids how to count to one hundred.
So each page has like a the next decade, and
it's represented by something that sort of, you know, is
evocative of that number of fifties, fifty states, sixty sixty
seconds on o'clock, you know, And it's it's just a
really sweet book and it's available where every books you're sold.
I Love You one hundred.

Speaker 3 (36:20):
That's really cool. Did you go to UCLA and study math?

Speaker 2 (36:23):
I did I have a degree in math? Yes?

Speaker 3 (36:25):
What a degree in math? What does that specifically? Is
there like a version of math you study? I'm very
different kind of question.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
It's pure mathematics, was the name of my You can
do applied math, you can do you know, statistics or economics,
or there's all sorts of things that use a lot
of math in it. But I did pure math, which
means it doesn't really have much application at all, unless
you want to write math books and have.

Speaker 1 (36:47):
A degree of course. I didn't need to.

Speaker 2 (36:49):
I didn't need calculus or real analysis to write my
math books.

Speaker 1 (36:52):
But it gives you curing kind of grab a toss.

Speaker 3 (36:54):
I want to reply back on something you said a
second ago, because it's playning my head over and over
again that you were in labor for the something hours.

Speaker 1 (37:00):
Thirty six hours.

Speaker 3 (37:01):
Yes, we're about to do this.

Speaker 2 (37:02):
I know, I know, I'm so excited for you.

Speaker 3 (37:04):
But that seems like a long time.

Speaker 2 (37:06):
It was because I stubbornly did not want to get
a see section ends, and I eventually I did get
to give birth naturally.

Speaker 1 (37:13):
I did no drugs, yep.

Speaker 2 (37:16):
But it was really funny is that I was gonna
there's this program I don't know if it's around anymore.
It's called hypno birthing. So I had my child fifteen
years ago. He switte, and hypno birthing is like you're
supposed to do it, like everything's calm. I had signs
made for the hospital room, you know, please quiet voices,
hypno birthing in progress. I did all these like now,
I'm sure it helped me to relax. It did help
me in the in the hours and hours leading up

(37:38):
to active labor, because I was just like breathing and calm.
But man, that labor started, it was like, you know,
and I remember thinking, like I just want to see
the scene of somebody walking by, going look at the
sign please quiet voices, hypno birthing and that's hypno birthing. No.

Speaker 1 (37:53):
But it did help me. I will say it did
help me anyway.

Speaker 2 (37:56):
It's it's the most remarculous thing in the whole wide world.
I Draco had his little hand up alongside his head.
He did not He was not easy to come out.
So it was like it was like delivering a thirteen
fourteen pound baby because the centir comference, speaking of math terms,
circumference of his head was bigger than.

Speaker 3 (38:13):
It should have been because his arm was up, his
hand was.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
Right next to with him, and they tried to like
dislodge it and they didn't want to, like, you know,
mess with it anyway. So it took a little extra time.

Speaker 1 (38:22):
But it was.

Speaker 2 (38:25):
It was so cathartic, and not being on any drugs
at all, I got to his and everyone, look, everyone's
first story is different, and there's absolutely no judgment. I'm
grateful that it all worked out that way. It was
very uncomfortable, very very very long time, and the actual
active labor was like nothing. I mean it was it
was like I felt connected to women for like all

(38:51):
the ages.

Speaker 3 (38:51):
Like pilgrim women. Yeah, that's what I think. It's like sixteen.

Speaker 2 (38:54):
I remember that. And I had a duela with me.
I highly recommend a doula. It's your advocate because the
doctor's come and go. When you're in labor for that long,
you're not gonna have same nurses or the same doctors
because they're all gonna go home and got his life.
So having a duela was great and and uh uh
she was fantastic.

Speaker 1 (39:12):
She just she it was like this calming hand.

Speaker 2 (39:15):
And I remember after after I get birth, and oh,
she told me, you're going to have a gurgling sound.
You're going to make a sound, and you're when your
baby comes out, he's going to be making the same
sound that you did. Now again, I don't think. I
think this only exists if you're not taking an every
girl because you're just you're just in it in no way.
I was there with my sister's birth. She's a girl,
she's like, oh, it's like, oh, did I iced to
give the birth? Oh? Cool?

Speaker 3 (39:35):
So different.

Speaker 1 (39:36):
It was so different.

Speaker 2 (39:38):
Her daughter came out so fast that we all like like, well,
you know, it was different.

Speaker 1 (39:43):
So but I loved my experience.

Speaker 2 (39:45):
And sure enough, when when Draco came out, there's this
gurgling like I can almost sense of I can't hear
exactly what it sounds like, but I can sense memory
kind of like I feel it. It was. It was
so primal, and he was making that same guttural sound,
and and he just started to come out, and the
doctor said, reach down and get your baby. He was
like halfway out and I got to finish delivering Draco

(40:06):
throw my stomach. He said, reached down to get your baby.
I didn't even we hadn't even talked about it, and
it was I don't even know how to describe it.

Speaker 1 (40:16):
I felt complete.

Speaker 2 (40:17):
I felt absolutely complete in a way that I could
never describe. It was amazing. And my husband, who was
my accept now but we're all still friends. We all
get along.

Speaker 1 (40:27):
He was he was in the room and he's looked
at me and said, Danica.

Speaker 2 (40:31):
You never have to prove anything ever again. I was like, wow, okay,
I'll take.

Speaker 3 (40:36):
It so in that thirty six hours. This is gonna
be a real dumb question. But do you ever like
fall asleep?

Speaker 5 (40:42):
No?

Speaker 2 (40:43):
Oh, couldn'tess No, No, because the contractions are happening every
ten minutes.

Speaker 1 (40:46):
No, that's the least of it.

Speaker 2 (40:47):
That's the least of it. That's like, oh, that's adorable.
Worrying about not sleeping enough. No, you don't sleep, and
then you don't sleep for a while afterwards too. You
get like little naps here and there, but your baby.
You're in the hospital. You've got this baby, and you're
you know, and the doctors are coming in. They're not
even worried at all about like if you've gotten your rest,
because they're on their schedule and their names to do

(41:09):
what they're doing. And the nurses come in, so you're
getting like maybe an hour or two here and like
here and there, breastfeeding and like just trying to You're like,
how do I fall asleep while holding my baby? And
they prop you up with pillows and stuff, and then
his dad took them for a little while. No, you're
not thinking must sleep. You're not like I'm tired. Maybe

(41:31):
the dad is, I don't know, the mom.

Speaker 1 (41:34):
You're not at all.

Speaker 2 (41:34):
You're in this, there's another program that's running, is the
best way you describe it.

Speaker 3 (41:39):
I'm older having our first kid, so I'm in my forties,
but I understand that, but I still think, you know,
I have these thoughts and feelings probably of what people
do if they're nineteen and they're having a kid. Like
a lot of the obviously the unknown. I do feel
like I at least know who I am, so I
think that's very helpful. I at least know what I

(41:59):
don't want to be based on how I grew up.
But it's weird to go to people that I know
that even work for me, that are fifteen years younger
and I'm like, hey, give me some advice. That's kind
of a weird thing to throw someone younger and be like,
what do you think about it?

Speaker 2 (42:13):
You know what's even wilder is when your child learns
the skill that you don't have. Watching my son play piano,
you're going to love it. It will blow your mind
when your child can do something or teaches you something.
Like we were doing taekwondo for a while in Los
Angeles and he was taking to Edisad to join him
at some point and he was teaching me stuff.

Speaker 1 (42:30):
He was like seven years old.

Speaker 2 (42:31):
It's great. You are going to love being a dad.

Speaker 1 (42:35):
You're going to love it.

Speaker 2 (42:37):
I'm going to give a little one other tidbit that's
sort of it's not really controversial, but it's just something
that I did that most people don't do. You've heard
about the postpartum depression woman. So I believe thoroughly, wholeheartedly
that the reason this happens is because of we are
supposed to consume the placenta, and I did.

Speaker 1 (42:58):
I had a doul it. She took the placenta, made
freeze dry.

Speaker 2 (43:01):
She like freeze dried it, put it into capsules, and
I took that throughout that month or two or whatever
it was.

Speaker 3 (43:08):
You took it for a while. It's not a one
time thing. You don't just eat it and it's over.

Speaker 2 (43:11):
Well, you can, you can, but the way it was,
the way I did it was that. But I will
tell you one thing too, because I'm because I'm I'm
fifty one now and I don't care. I My Duela said,
do you want to taste the placenta like this is
I'd just given birth, And I'm like sure, I mean,
you're not even you're not in your right mind. She
gave me a piece of it, Bobby. It was like

(43:34):
the best filame Mignon that I have ever tasted like,
but more I was embarrassed. I was embarrassed about how
much I loved it. It was bizarre. I thought, what is.

Speaker 1 (43:45):
This some sort of weird like satanic? But like I
get what I.

Speaker 2 (43:51):
You know, we are meant, we are meant to have that.
That was and I was so glad and realizing. I
was like, I am going to just tell people this.
I'm just gonna talk about it when you do pop
yeah some things, because I believe that that's the case.
And I don't know why we got away from what
animals do it?

Speaker 3 (44:07):
Are we away from it? I mean, I feel like
my wife and I have talked about it like it's
not even that weird.

Speaker 1 (44:11):
I don't know, for a you have placenta encapsulation person?

Speaker 3 (44:14):
Is that a person?

Speaker 2 (44:15):
Yes, you get a placenta encapulation person, Well, you don't
have to, you know.

Speaker 1 (44:18):
My sister did it differently.

Speaker 2 (44:19):
She just like took it home and a cooler and
put it in a blender and then made like ice
cubes and made put it in her shake to each
her own, but I recommend highly.

Speaker 1 (44:32):
Bring it with you.

Speaker 3 (44:34):
Will they let you just take it out of this
they will?

Speaker 2 (44:36):
Yeah, has yours. You have to ask that, you have
to ask for it, and you have to have a cooler.
But I mean, like, I didn't trust myself to be
sanitary with like, I didn't know. I just didn't. I
was like, great, you're gonna make me pills. Fantastic. That
sounds neat and tidy and I love that. So that
was that was how I did it.

Speaker 3 (44:48):
Your doula must have been through many of those a
thousand berths and has a relationship with the success of it, right,
And that's why she was, Hey, you should do this.

Speaker 1 (44:57):
Absolutely absolutely. She was like, this is a no brainer.
You must.

Speaker 3 (45:00):
Why do you think that is.

Speaker 1 (45:02):
Because we lose hormones.

Speaker 2 (45:03):
We lose so many hormones and they all go into
the placenta and then that gets taken away. And if
you look at animals, they eat their placent the mom
eats the percenta afterwards. I don't know why somehow we
stopped doing it.

Speaker 3 (45:14):
I guess because should I eat it? They're not my hormone?

Speaker 1 (45:16):
No, they're not. No, No, you don't eat it. She
does oh, oh my gosh.

Speaker 3 (45:20):
I thought you were telling me to eat it.

Speaker 1 (45:21):
No, men don't have postpartum depression.

Speaker 3 (45:23):
Oh my gosh, but we both. No, no, this is
how uneducated I am.

Speaker 2 (45:26):
No, that would be selfish in fact, for you to
have it. No, no, no, she needs it, she needs it.
Oh my gosh. I thought no, no, no, no, no no, no,
you should not give them to her. No, because her
body has just been through something incredible and completely draining.
Your body gets you're you're like functions are sidelined that

(45:48):
maybe gets so big.

Speaker 1 (45:49):
How many weeks is she now?

Speaker 3 (45:51):
A lot?

Speaker 2 (45:52):
Okay, So when I was in my eighth month, I'm
laying on the couch like I could barely get up,
thinking like I couldn't take deep breaths either, you know,
because if you look at the what it looks like
the baby takes up all the space, Like where are
the lungs, where's the stomach? What's happening? I remember saying
I feel like a beached whale in distress. I don't
want to forget what this is, because this is this

(46:12):
is pinpointing exactly how I'm feeling a beached whale in distress,
which is just trying to breed and survive and wait
until the thing is ready to come out.

Speaker 3 (46:23):
I think for me a wonderful tool has been animations
on TikTok because it will show you, well, it shows
you everything right. First of all, it does the thing
that I've always heard, like comparing it to different fruits
and vegetables, and yes.

Speaker 2 (46:35):
The size.

Speaker 3 (46:36):
Well, what I have found for me to be very
helpful is it shows what it does to the other
organs in my wife's body as it displaces all of them.
And for me to see that in a cartoon form, Listen,
I don't feel it, so I don't act like I do,
but it gives me an understanding of what she's probably
going through because it shows that baby's in there and

(46:58):
all your organs are getting shelved up. And I know
everybody else knows this. I think everybody probably knew the
woman only at the percenta.

Speaker 2 (47:04):
I didn't know that a lot of people don't even
think you about eating a percenta like it's weird or
you know, gross or whatever. That's why I did the
placenta pills, because I figured the is called placenta encapsulation.

Speaker 3 (47:13):
Would you have eaten the whole thing if she'd have
given it to you right then.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
Yeah, I probably would have.

Speaker 3 (47:17):
Do you think it was really that good? If you like,
if you were to eat it now, I think it'd
be that good. Or is it because of where you're No,
I think it's no.

Speaker 1 (47:22):
You know, like, when you need something, it tastes better.

Speaker 3 (47:25):
For sure.

Speaker 2 (47:25):
I've experienced that many times. So I am absolutely positive
that that and that's why I said, oh, we're supposed
to have this. No, I don't think that normally I
would have any interest in how this.

Speaker 3 (47:33):
Sounds awful, But I don't know. Maybe it does taste
so good. There's like a placent of market out there.
People gett murdered. Just ssh.

Speaker 1 (47:39):
Why why would you say something that is the darkest.

Speaker 3 (47:41):
Was horrible but it tastes so good though.

Speaker 1 (47:44):
Pregnant woman to get there?

Speaker 2 (47:45):
Okay? No, Instead what you could have said, what you
could have said is there could be a market out
there for women whose placentas are discarded because most of
them probably are in the hospital.

Speaker 3 (47:54):
I like that better.

Speaker 2 (47:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (47:55):
I like that more too, Mark, That's way better.

Speaker 1 (47:57):
That's what we're going to go with.

Speaker 3 (47:58):
Yes, that is that is. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (48:02):
One more thing I want to say about being pregnant.

Speaker 3 (48:03):
I would love No, I love this, Okay.

Speaker 2 (48:05):
So I give a lot of speeches in my career
about like math. People bring me in to talk about
women empowerment and why women should go into math and
stem and all sort of stuff. And there's this thing
that is an elephant in the room that I that
I never want to disregard, which is that like, well,
there's a stereotype of women not being the smartest men.

Speaker 1 (48:22):
And where's I come from?

Speaker 2 (48:23):
Is it really just because men hit them over the
head with a club someday and they're physically stronger and
they told them, oh, you're not as smart. I don't think.
So there's studies and things, but here's here's what I
discovered when I was pregnant. When you are pregnant, your
brain is not your own. Your body deprioritizes your brain
and you can't remember where you put the frozen raspberries

(48:43):
like I have. I literally put frozen raspberries and the
utensil drawer ones when I was pregnant, And I'm like, what, like,
your your brain your brain fog in a way that
you never had before because your body is prioritizing all
this energy to creating this human being, it's it's for
the survival or species. Then after that you are staying
up all night breastfeeding, not getting good sleep. There's this haze,

(49:04):
this you know, having a newborn, haze, having a baby.
And then if you think about for a long time,
for most of history, women many women would go from
pregnancy to pregnancy from say twenty to forty. Well, those
are the formative years you're building your family. You're not
the one who should be making the logical decisions maybe

(49:27):
for important you know, life moves. If your brain is
feeling like that. Now, maybe not everyone gets like that,
but I think most women do to some extent. So
I believe that's where the stereotype came from. And then
that's where you have the stereotype of the wise older woman,
because guess what, she's not.

Speaker 1 (49:41):
Having babies anymore.

Speaker 2 (49:43):
She can think again, she has her brain again. So
I believe this is where it's come from. And because
but now that's outdated, because most women don't spend most
of their adult years of the prime of their life
having babies the whole time. So I just want to
put that out there for all women who are like
pregnant and feeling like they don't have their brain. You don't.

Speaker 1 (50:01):
You don't.

Speaker 2 (50:01):
Your baby has your brains.

Speaker 3 (50:03):
And it makes sense because your body is doing something
else that it feels like it's priority.

Speaker 2 (50:06):
Absolutely, yes, yes, that's it's an incredible job. It's such
an honor to be able to have a child.

Speaker 1 (50:14):
I wanted more.

Speaker 2 (50:15):
We tried for more, it didn't happen, and then I
got remarried and we tried and it didn't happen.

Speaker 1 (50:19):
I have one.

Speaker 2 (50:19):
We're extra close, which is amazing. But I think being pregnant,
having a baby, raising a child is the most beautiful
thing that you can do, the most challenging, wonderful, beautiful
thing you can do.

Speaker 3 (50:30):
Yeah, I'm excited and scared, nervous and all. Yeah, right,
I don't even know, but I know that I don't know,
so I think that helps me a little bit. Like
I was in therapy. I was talking to my therapist
the other day, and I tend to stay hyper focused
and put a lot of energy and attention into things
that are coming up. I'm fixated with my schedule. I'm

(50:50):
always worried I'm going to be late, and he's like, you,
you can only control that so much. But you're so
worried about it. You have all this energy you're wasting
because you're worried you're gonna oversleep to miss your show.
You're worried you're going to And then he asked me
about having a baby, and I was like, I'm not
worried because I know it's going to be hard and
I know so whatever happens, I've had some really hard

(51:12):
things happened in my life and I've figured it out,
and I feel like this is going to be one
of those. I'm going to mess up. I'm going to
do things great. And he said, look what you're doing,
You're able to do that, So why not take the
thing that you're doing. Why not put that into your
everyday life. Like you've gotten through every day ten thousand
times and you've come out okay, and there have been

(51:32):
hard things. And it was like, wow, yeah, he makes
a great point. He should get paid for this. That's
what I thought.

Speaker 2 (51:38):
You're like, oh, wait, I do Yeah, take quite a bit.

Speaker 3 (51:40):
Yeah so that's great.

Speaker 2 (51:42):
Oh that's wonderful.

Speaker 3 (51:43):
Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 5 (51:44):
Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor. Wow,
and we're back on the Bobby Cast.

Speaker 3 (51:58):
The final questions I'm gonna ask you. It's a segment
that I do pretty much every show, but I want
to know when you sit down to do an interview
the three questions that you are asked them most. And
if I did ask them, I'll take it on the chin.
But I want to know when you sit down, you
know you're going to get asked these three questions. What
are they?

Speaker 2 (52:13):
Well? How did you get into acting as one?

Speaker 3 (52:16):
I felt like I had to ask totally.

Speaker 2 (52:17):
I know you, yes, why did you choose Math of
all things?

Speaker 1 (52:24):
And what was it like being in the Wonder Years?

Speaker 3 (52:26):
How do you answer that one? Though that's such a.

Speaker 2 (52:28):
I don't know. People just want they want to They
just they're fan of the show and they just want
to end somehow. I don't and and and I and
a lot of things that I said would have been
part of my answer, Like at the time, I didn't
know the show was so big. It was a lot
of fun. It was work. I was going back and
forth between school and set. It was an amazing experience

(52:48):
you have had. The fans are amazing and I love
I love the aftermath. It's incredible, like having friends everywhere
I go and just you know, oh, and then it's
actually a question I used to always get asked, but
I haven't in a while now. But it was just
to be always was that really your first kiss on
the first episode?

Speaker 3 (53:06):
I felt like that'd be creepy to ask as an
adult to another adult.

Speaker 2 (53:09):
I got it, but it was my first kiss on
camera on camera, but the one that you see was
the sixth take, and the reason I know and that
was the final take, and the reason I know that
is because it was the only one where he started
stroking my hair afterwards.

Speaker 3 (53:22):
Then can ask you a weird question?

Speaker 2 (53:24):
Sure?

Speaker 3 (53:25):
Were you guys ever boyfriend and girlfriend as kids?

Speaker 2 (53:28):
No?

Speaker 3 (53:28):
But we had a.

Speaker 2 (53:29):
Crossing each other and I actually have a letter, a
love letter that Fred Roy from the first after we
did the pilot.

Speaker 3 (53:35):
Then why were you never boyfriend girlfriend?

Speaker 2 (53:38):
I don't know, because we should have just said And
then next thing I know, he's like, here you pull
my finger.

Speaker 1 (53:42):
You know, it just wasn't It was just different. It
was brother and sister.

Speaker 3 (53:46):
Pretty quickly, I'd ask you one more kind of weird question.
This is just as many questions you want. No, No,
I didn't think of it. Did you ever have a
celebrity boyfriend?

Speaker 2 (53:58):
Yes? Jeremy Miller who was on Growing Pains. So and
I was like fourteen fifteen years old during that relationship,
so that was he was on Growing Pains.

Speaker 1 (54:06):
I was on the Wonder Years.

Speaker 2 (54:07):
We would see each other at these like ABC affiliate
parties and things, and yeah, we started dating. I mean
it was like we'd hold hands and kiss.

Speaker 3 (54:15):
It wasn't anything, was he ben sever He was, Yes,
I love Growing Pains. Yes, yeah, yes, yeah, all right.
I think that's all my creepy questions.

Speaker 1 (54:22):
I'm glad this is great.

Speaker 3 (54:23):
This was that should be a whole sec to do
creepy questions. Question save it for the very end so
the person can leave it if they want to. Great, Dany,
this has been awesome.

Speaker 2 (54:30):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (54:31):
Yeah, thank you so much. And then the website for
your books again.

Speaker 2 (54:34):
Is mckellermath dot com. All right, and I'm on social
media everywhere just at danik and mckeller Instagram, Facebook, X.

Speaker 3 (54:42):
Does anybody ever yell Winnie Cooper going through the airport?

Speaker 2 (54:46):
Yes, but you know what it used to basically only
be that now is Winnie Cooper. I love your math
books and the Christmas movies. Yeah, Hallmark or Great American Family.
I've done both.

Speaker 3 (55:01):
Oh so homework's on a bad word.

Speaker 2 (55:02):
No, no, no.

Speaker 1 (55:03):
I was at homework for like seven years.

Speaker 3 (55:05):
I thought I was getting scolded. No no, no, no, okay, God,
so we don't have to believe that there, no.

Speaker 2 (55:10):
But for years now I've had a deal with Great
American Family, so I'm exclusive with them, and I write
and produce and star in movies.

Speaker 1 (55:15):
I have like a guarantee and stuff.

Speaker 3 (55:17):
So okay, yeah, Great.

Speaker 1 (55:19):
American is all.

Speaker 2 (55:19):
And the other thing I will say that we didn't
touch on at all.

Speaker 1 (55:21):
Which is fine.

Speaker 3 (55:22):
It's not fine. So what is it?

Speaker 1 (55:24):
It's my faith journey.

Speaker 3 (55:25):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (55:26):
So for the last three and a half years that
is when I discovered my relationship with God. It's a
completely like it was unexpected. My friend Kennice caaren Bray
brought me to church, and Great American Family leans towards faith.
So I've been able to in exploring this faith journey
on in my life, also getting to explore it on
the page in the scripts that I'm writing for them,
and it's been such an amazing gift. And it's that

(55:49):
timing is God's timing right, Where what are the chances
that I would end up in an overall deal a
great American family channel who's been you know, leaning more sources,
and also discover my own relationship with God. My dad
found Jesus when he was in his forties and tried
to get me over. At the time, I was like,

(56:09):
and I'm so happy, that's great for you. I'm leave
in some sort of higher power thing.

Speaker 1 (56:13):
I don't know what.

Speaker 2 (56:13):
But then it all crystallized for me and I can't
even explain it. It's just been this gift and it
brings me so much joy and I don't worry about
things like I used to. That's the main thing I
don't feel like, because because when you pay attention, you
start to feel God's hand and things and you're like,
oh wait, there's a bigger plan. I can make my

(56:36):
plans and I can try and do my best, but
at the end of the day, it's not actually up
to me to figure it all out.

Speaker 1 (56:42):
And it's such a relief.

Speaker 2 (56:43):
It takes the burden off and it has made my
life so much more joyous.

Speaker 3 (56:49):
I hosted a show with Candace Cameron Beret. She was lovely, delightful,
super fun and warm to be around.

Speaker 2 (56:57):
Yeah, just kids, what show? Is it.

Speaker 3 (56:58):
It was owen wards show. Okay, yeah, we did it.
We hosted it together. She was awesome.

Speaker 2 (57:02):
Yeah, she's great. She's a good friend.

Speaker 3 (57:04):
And you never know, you never know how somebody is
going to be when you never met him because they
cold matched us up. Okay, and then I'm like, all right,
here we go, let's me a full house. It's gonna
be pretty cool. Yeah yeah, And then it was awesome.
She was she was super kind. Yeah to friends, it
will pass her along my best. Then I think we
still follow each other on social media, but I don't
really DM women even to go like have a good

(57:24):
day or it's good. But next time you talk to her, say, hey,
remember that guy Bobby, the kind of nerdy guy with
the glasses. He said really nice things about you. Dan.
I can thank you so much. This has been awesome.

Speaker 2 (57:32):
Thank you too, Thanks

Speaker 3 (57:35):
For listening to a Bobby cast production.