March 27, 2023 • 25 mins
In this episode Tudor is joined by legendary FOX News Senior Meteorologist, Janice Dean. Janice talks about the heartbreaking loss of her in-laws during the COVID-19 pandemic and her fight for answers from former Governor Andrew Cuomo. Janice dives into some great, heartfelt stories from her recently released book "I Am The Storm" and once again proves she's so much more than just "the weather lady on FOX" - you don't want to miss this amazing episode! The Tudor Dixon Podcast is part of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Podcast Network with new episodes every Monday, Wednesday, & Friday. Subscribe now at TudorDixonPodcast.com
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to the Tutor Dixon Podcast in the Clay
and Book podcast Network. Welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcast.
I'm Tutor Dixon, and I'm excited to have you join
us for the podcast, where we want to focus on
true stories of Americans from all walks of life. As
many of you know, I ran for governor in the
(00:21):
state of Michigan last year, and I became frustrated with
what I was seeing in my states. So as I
traveled around, I heard stories from people who were desperate
also to write those wrongs. A lot of that connected
to the pandemic, and many of those stories were actually
about people who had lost loved ones and the pain
of not being there by their side during that time.
(00:42):
And that resonated with me because I actually lived through
this pain myself. My grandmother died alone in a nursing home,
but interestingly, it wasn't COVID that ended her life. She
was suffering from a broken heart, and so many people
that I talked to Michigan went through the same thing.
So in Michigan are nursing homes were locked down, and
then folks were actually allowed to go outside and meet
(01:04):
family members outside, but then they locked down again, and
I remember one of those last conversations I had with
my grandmother. She looked at me and she said, I
don't think I can do this anymore. And you know,
when you're younger, you don't really get what that means,
because I hadn't been locked alone, and she was locked
away alone. And so when she was locked down for
(01:24):
the second time, the nursing home called us, and even
though she had been really healthy, they said, she's just
going downhill. We know it's not going to be long now.
And truly, it was just dying of a broken heart.
And I remember looking through the window with my girls.
We were holding my girls up to the window to
say goodbye to her, and looking down the row and
seeing families down the row looking in the windows to
(01:46):
say goodbye to their loved ones, and thinking, how can
this be happening. It just was so surreal to not
be able to hold their hands and say goodbye. And
my guest today has a similar experience a little bit
more severe than that, but I want her to share that.
I want to say this about her. She is an
incredibly unique woman. And I say that because you've likely
(02:09):
watched this woman on TV and when you watch her,
you can just feel the joy that comes from her.
And I want to explain that because I think oftentimes
people mistake joy for happiness, but joy is really a
heart condition and joy comes directly from your soul. And
I would say that this is truly visible when you
see Jana Steine. I think that's why it's so powerful
(02:31):
to hear her advocate for nursing home victims. And she
did this in New York. That experience drew her to
other people. She calls it a David and Goliath story,
and I think if you think about what she was
able to do, she was really talking about this and
going up against Governor Andrew Cuomo, the Goliath of New York,
someone who was being held up as someone who was
(02:52):
going to run for president. He was getting Emmy Awards
for presenting his COVID plan, and she the whole time
knew what this had done to her personally and done
to so many other people in the state of New York.
So Janice, she spends her days as the senior meteorologist
for Fox News, but she is blessed with the gift
of storytelling like no one else, and through the pain
(03:13):
of her own crisis. She brought us the book I
Am the Storm. It's inspiring, it's American, it is strength,
and above all else, it is faith. And I'm excited
to dive into the details today with Fox News Senior
meteorologist and author Jannas Deane. Welcome to the podcast. Oh tutor, congratulations.
This is a great form for you because you are
(03:35):
such a great communicator. I watched you when you were
running for governor. I obviously know your story, and I'm
so glad that you have this platform now to talk
to regular Americans who are still three years later wondering
what happened, you know, not only to people we lost,
(03:56):
but the origins of COVID. I think it's really important
that we lean on our government officials to have a
full investigation and hearings, um, you know, because we can't
go through something like this again. And if we don't
dig deep and find out the really big problems, the
deadly problems that our government uh, you know, let us into,
(04:19):
then we're going to do that again. UM. So I'm
really grateful to you and your advocacy. Uh. And I'm
really I'm really proud of you right now for you know,
taking this next step into broadcasting because you're good at it.
Oh well, thank you. I want to say this is
something that is a total, totally a side note, but
we watch Fox and Friends every morning and my girls
(04:40):
call you the Angel, which I think is so cute
because when you come on, you have this glow around
you and they always go, oh, look, the Angel. The Angel.
She's out there telling us about the weather. So um.
And that's why I say, I really you do exude joy,
and we just can tell that you really care about people.
And I know that's why you wrote the book I
(05:00):
Am the Storm, and I think so many of us
feel that. I love that title. I just love it
because so many of us feel that when we are
fighting against all of the things that we're fighting against
right now, and there are so many people that are
standing up, whether it is for their child. I know
a lot of people have autistic children and they feel
like they're really fighting for their child all the time,
(05:20):
whether it's for your loved one in a nursing home,
your loved one, whether they're sick. I mean, so many
of us feel that way. But you are really able
to put a lot of these stories together. So I
wanted to know if you could share a few of
those stories with us. It started off with our story,
our family story. My husband lost both of his parents
in separate elder care facilities in New York during the pandemic.
(05:41):
Our governor, like Governor Whitmer, had a mandate to put
COVID positive patients into where our most vulnerable resided. And
from that moment, even though I knew I was up
against a goliath in Andrew Cuomo, a dynasty politician, has
been in the governor's mansion for decades, you know, including
(06:02):
the time he spent with his dad when Mario Cuomo
was governor here. You know, I had people telling me,
why are you doing this. He's not going anywhere. He's
the terminator. That's what some of the reporters here in
York called him, the terminator. And but I had truth
on my side. I had the angels on my side,
and I thought it was important, because my family went
(06:23):
through this in thousands of others, that I use my
platform here at Fox to be able to deliver that message.
And I'm so grateful that they allowed me to do that.
I do the weather, as you know, I've been here
twenty years doing that same job, which I really love.
I'm not a political person. I always say the red
and blue on the map or areas of high pressure
and low pressure. So but I had to tell the
(06:46):
story because I just found myself in a position of
I have to do this for others. I have to
do this for my family. And while I was writing
that chapter, I was trying to find others that were
doing similar situations where something is happened to their family
or something had happened in their life that was, you know,
against all odds. But even against those odds, they rise,
(07:08):
They rose to the occasion. And so some of the stories, well,
obviously a lot of them are COVID related. You talked
about parents and what they were seeing in schools and
the fact my little boy couldn't sit in front of
an iPad all day. He was having breakdowns, he was
having anxiety attacks. So we actually put him in a
(07:29):
Catholic school which was closed for one day during the pandemic.
And I think a lot of parents realized, you know,
we have to stand up. We're our kids best advocates.
So I have stories about that, about parents who decided
that they were going up against school boards to try
to make it a better place for their kids and
(07:51):
other kids. My husband is a firefighter. So one of
the stories in there is about Ray Pi for a
good friend of ours who sadly passed away a few
years ago from nine to eleven related illness, and he
spent his dying days going to Washington, d C. To
beg you know, lawmakers to pass laws and healthcare so
(08:12):
that our government would take care of those who were
dying after digging from the at ground zero for months.
So that's a story that I really identified with because
he was up against so much and he used his
power to be able to tell a story that he
(08:33):
was dying of the same cancer and that he knew
he was going to die, but he wanted to make
sure that healthcare was in place for his brothers and
sisters who were also dying of the same related illness. Well,
I love this because I think that so oftentimes people
feel like they can't do anything for themselves, that they're
stuck in a situation. And I think that the pandemic
(08:56):
really gave us that moment where folks said, Okay, I
have to advocate for myself, and we have moments like
this throughout life. I had this moment when I was
diagnosed with breast cancer. And it's just funny because the
number of people in your life that say you have
to immediately do something, go with the first doctor. The
doctor is telling you this, and you realize in that moment,
(09:17):
I have to figure out what is best for me.
And I went from doctor to doctor until I got
the story that was, Okay, this is not going to
be my story. This is how I'm going to go forward.
And you mentioned sending your son to Catholic school, that
same thing happened to us as well, because we were
in the public schools and my husband and I are
both working, and we thought, what is going to happen.
(09:38):
They're never going back to school. We don't know, so
we put our kids in private school. And it was
just I like to look at the blessings through crisis,
and that was a real blessing for us because that
changed their lives, just the way they interacted with other students,
with teachers, and it's sort of kind of pushed this
whole school choice movement across the country. I think that
(10:01):
these moments that you're talking about gave kind of empowered
people to think about life in a different way and
take life by the reins on their own, don't you
thinks absolutely. I think the pandemic really shook us up
because we were kind of locked away. We were put
into a box, and we didn't want to be in
that box anymore, and we saw what was going on.
The thing that made me crazy is we weren't able
(10:23):
to see our loved ones before they died. But yet
it was encouraged to go out and protest the Black
Lives Matter and listen, I'm all for protesting. You know,
you do what you have to do to raise awareness
for your cause. But the fact was they were giving
them privileges that we could not have. So, you know,
to be locked away and see all of this happening
in real time, it's like, you know, you were living
(10:45):
in a bizarro world. And we really did rise up
as parents, as people who were seeing these injustices being
done in front of our eyes and rising to the occasion.
And we were lucky that we were able to find
the Catholic school. I was a big belief in public school.
I went to public school too, so you know, and
we were lucky that we were able to have the
(11:07):
money to do that. Many people don't, and we are
supposed to be taking care of our kids, especially under
privileged children, and we did them a huge disservice like
we did for our elderly. So that was the premise
of the book. And you know there are great stories
in there as well that aren't listen out of tragedy
comes purpose, I believe, but you know there are also
(11:30):
a wonderful story about a woman who is going to
turn one hundred years old. And a story that really
inspired me to write the book was Maureen Flavin, who
was the one who gave the forecast that changed d
Day to a day later. It was the invasion was
supposed to happen a day earlier, and there was a
big storm on the horizon and she was forecasting from
(11:52):
a little lighthouse in the corner of Ireland, and that
information got to our Allied forces in General Eisenhower, and
he changed the date. So her forecast changed the trajectory
of the world. And you know, that story spoke to
me because as I was doing my advocacy Governor Cuomo disgrace.
(12:14):
Governor Cuomo and his administration were cutting me down because
of my profession a weather forecaster. She doesn't know anything,
because she's just the weather lady. But here's a woman
whose forecast changed the world and saved thousands of lives. So,
you know, it kind of came full circle. And I
you know, I have to say I've written several books.
They've all been very important, but this one is very
(12:36):
special to me because of all of these great people
and these stories that maybe people have never heard of before.
I had never heard that story, and I thought that
was an incredible story. And I love the way you
relate it to today and what you were able to
do and how important every person can be in the
role that they play and how it affects history. That
(12:57):
to me is totally amazing. You also have a story
in there of a family who was encouraged to abort
their baby, and that to me is incredibly powerful because
I had a family member that was in the same situation.
They found out that the baby would be born without
a left hand, and it was interesting because immediately the
doctors were like, here are here's the information about abortion,
(13:17):
and there was this process of going through and saying, okay,
but this is a baby that's not going to know
any different. She's that'll be all she knows. Is life
without a left hand? And does that mean that that
life is not worth living? And just going through that
process of discovery and the love of this child and
watching this child come into the world and pushing back
(13:38):
on that establishment. But you had a similar story in there.
Will you share a little bit about that. Yeah, they
called they called the baby David because of David and
Goliath in the battle that they were going to face
with this child. And it brings tears to my eyes
because she little literally David's mom told me about the
(14:02):
moment that she was in the hospital room with the
doctor and saying, your baby is probably not going to live.
And if the baby does live and you give birth,
he's probably going to die within hours. And they did.
They gave her, you know, the options. You either have
the baby and he's probably going to die, or you know,
(14:24):
you terminate the pregnancy, and there was sort of a
leniency towards that. But they decided the dead Vilers that
they were going to have this child. You know, they're
a family of great faith, and they didn't even think
about terminating the pregnancy. And now baby David is, you know,
three and a half years old, and he's got a
(14:45):
lot of challenges, but he is the light of their life,
and and what a great opportunity for their other children
to learn from from baby David and all of the
challenges that he faces. But they say he's one of
the most joyous, laughing all the time. They can't imagine
their life without David. So it was a beautiful chapter
(15:08):
to write, and I'm glad I was able to tell
their story. I think it's so important to go back
to what you said. This isn't political. You are not
political about this. This is just sharing stories, and you
share stories that affect people on both sides of the aisle.
But you're really encouraging. And one of the things that
(15:30):
I think was so powerful to me during that time
of COVID because I was watching you. I was watching
you on Twitter, and I was watching these attacks. And
sometimes these attacks are so silly, and yet they still
can get to you deep down. I mean, I obviously
went through running for governor and people say ridiculous things,
but if you let them, they can take you down.
(15:52):
And there were the attacks that would say sanyere Lane.
Even Twitter, I noticed what saying, is this weather really?
What did you think when that happened? I knew they
were censoring me. Somehow there was I don't know how
they would do it. But if I would tweet every
time I would tweet something about Governor Cuomo or mandates
(16:14):
or something having to do with the seniors that died
in nursing homes, people would send me screenshots of my
tweet saying is this tweet about the weather? And they
had to say yes or no click on it. So
they were clearly trying to censor me or trying to
silence me that way by saying, hey, ladies, stay in
(16:36):
you're lane. You're only supposed to be talking about weather here.
I still don't know why that happened. I'd love Elon
Musk to look into that, because I don't know if
that happened to anyone else. People who so, people who
do the weather, people who have the sports, people that
do business, they can't have opinions something that has happened
to their family. Is this about sports? Is this about
(16:58):
the economy? I don't know if that happened to anybody else.
I didn't see it happened to anyone else, And that
was to me. Honestly, it was so bizarre because the
first time and it kept happening because I saw it
happened several times, and it actually happened to me too.
When I would see your tweets that would come up
and I would think, how did they even know? I
mean that is that is pretty crazy to think that
(17:20):
they can pinpoint exactly what your profession is and decide
whether or not you should be talking about something. But
I think that's also what people need to understand about
technology today. People can really these other countries can go
in and they can determine everything about you. And that's
why we do have concerns about social media, but we
really saw it targeting you, and so you had to
(17:42):
be very strong, because I think that is I think
it is so offensive for Twitter to say, you know,
are you out of your lane? But you were, you
were strong and you kept doing this. So what are
your words of encouragement to other people who feel like
they're being attacked? And certainly anytime somebody steps out, whether
it is to run for office or just to speak
their mind or stand up for their child, I think
(18:03):
it's easy to get pushed out of the spotlight and
pushed away. So how do you encourage people to stay
with it? I think now more than ever, we're finding
our voices. I think the pandemic one silver lining from
that is that we are rising up and saying this.
You know, this didn't feel right and we have to
find out why. I would say, keep going, and in advocacy,
it's not a week, it's not a month, it's years.
(18:25):
It's a lifetime, right, And I have met so many
wonderful families, you know, through our grief, we have met
families that have gone through the same thing, and they're
the ones that give purpose and give strength. Right, there's
strength in numbers. I found that if you have a
message and it resonates and it's truthful, you're going to
find others that will stand with you to deliver that
(18:46):
message as well. And I think I think that's so important.
You know, the book is called I Am the Storm.
It's because you know that's saying. The devil whispers to
the warrior and says you're not strong enough to withstand
the storm. The warrior says, but I am the Storm.
And I think that that's what I carry with me
is I had truth on my side, I have the
(19:07):
angels on my side, and I had the tremendous support
of so many others that were lifting me up as well.
What was it like for your kids to see you
out there, because obviously they see you on TV all
the time and they know what your job is, but
they do see you as someone who focuses on whether too,
so suddenly they see you in a different capacity where
(19:28):
you really are going up against the governor. And that
changes things for children as well. And I think that's
something that people don't always think about. When you have
kids and you're out in the spotlight like this, it
affects your children. I'm sure they were somewhat protected in
a Catholic school, but did they ever experience any pushback
from that? That's a good question. I mean, as we
(19:49):
were going through it, I would tell them what I
was doing. I mean we were I had a home
studio at the time because we weren't coming into into
Fox during the pandemic. So I was lucky enough that
I had a great company that built a studio inside
my house in a spare room. And my kids would
hear me, right, I would do the weather and then
I would do another report about Andrew Cuomo and they
(20:11):
would come out and they're like, Andrew Cuomo is a
bad guy ray Mom, and I'm like, listen, I don't
know what he's like as a person. I can just
tell you what I know and what he his leadership
did to our family. And I think they know that
what I was doing was important. They have not read
the book, you know, they're twelve and fourteen, but they
(20:32):
know their mom is a strong lady and will stand up.
And I, you know, I write the small story in
there that is very relevant of my youngest son being
bullied in school, and that was very tough because I
did everything I could as a parent. This was happening
in the Catholic school, by the way, after we put
him in. He was new and he was getting bullied
(20:54):
and he would come home crying. I did everything I
could in my power. I talked to the teachers, I
went into the principle and we did everything we possibly
could until one day the bully decided to target one
of his buddies, one of Theodora's buddies, and he stood
up for his friend. You know, he would come home
(21:16):
crying and not stand up for himself, but he stood
up for his friend in the schoolyard against this bully,
and he came home and told me that and how
proud he was, and I just thought to myself, my goodness.
If I if there's any lesson that I could give,
it's you know, it's standing up for others. That's sometimes
more important. So, you know, I'm just proud of my children.
(21:38):
And of course I will be open and honest. They've
been to rallies with me. They you know, my husband
has been to Albany with me, and someday, you know,
I will tell them the full story. I just want
to lead by example, you know. And and if at
the end of the day, if they're proud of their mom,
then man, that's the best compliment you could ever give me.
That is awesome. I love that. And I think girls
(22:00):
went through the same thing, and they watched some of this,
but they had the same question for me, because I
think that you can get really focused on what you're
doing as an adult and your kids are kind of
on the sidelines wondering what exactly is happening. So they
said the same thing about Gretchen Whitmer. They one morning,
I remember they said, do we hate Gretchen Whitmer. And
(22:22):
it was like this moment where I'm like, Okay, this
is very important for me to explain. And I said, no,
we don't. And I said, and I don't, you know,
I don't know her personally at that point, I had
never met her. But I said, I don't like what
she wants to do with the state, so we call
those her policies. That's what I don't like. But I
don't I don't not like her as a person. In fact,
(22:42):
we should continue praying for her. And so it is
a teaching moment. And I think that sometimes as a parent,
you can get really focused on one thing and then
your kids are always there to bring you back to reality.
And people used to say, are you getting a big
head doing this? And I would say, I have four
girls in my house. There's no way to get a
big head because they're conso darrying everybody a part, you know.
(23:03):
But it was good too, because you're that role model
and you have to make sure that your kids see
something that is positive and that you're fighting. Like I said,
when I look at you, I see joy and that
just really emanates from your personality, and that, I think
is why you have so many people who come to
you with their stories and trust you to tell their stories,
(23:25):
and you tell them quite well, so thank you for
doing that. And tell people where they can get the book. Well, online,
you can go to the regular places like Amazon and
Barnes and Noble, and they are in the bookstores. For
a while, they weren't in the bookstores, but that's a
completely separate story. We had a hard time getting them
into bookstores, but they're there now. But I will say
(23:46):
that if you buy the book, you know, give it
to someone else, pass it along. And I love when
people tell me they went to the library to get
the book, right. I love the process of writing books, Tutor,
but to sell it as a really tough thing, you know,
and we're in really tough economic times right now. So
I always say that if you have the book and
you enjoyed it, pass it along to someone else, and
(24:08):
that would make me really happy. Well, I love that,
and I think it is so important for people to
in this time when we have so many questions about
things to read inspiring stories. So thank you for inspiring people.
Thank you so much, Oh, thank you, And I hope
to have you on my podcast as well, because I'm
an equal appreciation of what you've done with your platform, Tutor,
(24:30):
And again I'm so excited for you and congratulations on
this new adventure. Thank you. We'll do that. That will
be lots of fun. Janisteine, thank you so much, author
of I Am the Storm and Fox News Senior Meteorologists.
Make sure you get your own copy or, like she said,
share it with someone else. It is I Am the Storm.
It is a compilation of David and Goliath stories going
(24:52):
up against Goliath, but also really inspiring stuff. And thank
you so much for joining me today. I'm the Tutor
Dick sin podcast. For this episode and others, go to
Tutor Dison podcast dot com. You can subscribe right there.
Join me next time on the Tutor Dixon Podcast. Have
a great day, everyone,
You're listening to the Tutor Dixon Podcast in the Clay
and Book podcast Network. Welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcast.
I'm Tutor Dixon, and I'm excited to have you join
us for the podcast, where we want to focus on
true stories of Americans from all walks of life. As
many of you know, I ran for governor in the
(00:21):
state of Michigan last year, and I became frustrated with
what I was seeing in my states. So as I
traveled around, I heard stories from people who were desperate
also to write those wrongs. A lot of that connected
to the pandemic, and many of those stories were actually
about people who had lost loved ones and the pain
of not being there by their side during that time.
(00:42):
And that resonated with me because I actually lived through
this pain myself. My grandmother died alone in a nursing home,
but interestingly, it wasn't COVID that ended her life. She
was suffering from a broken heart, and so many people
that I talked to Michigan went through the same thing.
So in Michigan are nursing homes were locked down, and
then folks were actually allowed to go outside and meet
(01:04):
family members outside, but then they locked down again, and
I remember one of those last conversations I had with
my grandmother. She looked at me and she said, I
don't think I can do this anymore. And you know,
when you're younger, you don't really get what that means,
because I hadn't been locked alone, and she was locked
away alone. And so when she was locked down for
(01:24):
the second time, the nursing home called us, and even
though she had been really healthy, they said, she's just
going downhill. We know it's not going to be long now.
And truly, it was just dying of a broken heart.
And I remember looking through the window with my girls.
We were holding my girls up to the window to
say goodbye to her, and looking down the row and
seeing families down the row looking in the windows to
(01:46):
say goodbye to their loved ones, and thinking, how can
this be happening. It just was so surreal to not
be able to hold their hands and say goodbye. And
my guest today has a similar experience a little bit
more severe than that, but I want her to share that.
I want to say this about her. She is an
incredibly unique woman. And I say that because you've likely
(02:09):
watched this woman on TV and when you watch her,
you can just feel the joy that comes from her.
And I want to explain that because I think oftentimes
people mistake joy for happiness, but joy is really a
heart condition and joy comes directly from your soul. And
I would say that this is truly visible when you
see Jana Steine. I think that's why it's so powerful
(02:31):
to hear her advocate for nursing home victims. And she
did this in New York. That experience drew her to
other people. She calls it a David and Goliath story,
and I think if you think about what she was
able to do, she was really talking about this and
going up against Governor Andrew Cuomo, the Goliath of New York,
someone who was being held up as someone who was
(02:52):
going to run for president. He was getting Emmy Awards
for presenting his COVID plan, and she the whole time
knew what this had done to her personally and done
to so many other people in the state of New York.
So Janice, she spends her days as the senior meteorologist
for Fox News, but she is blessed with the gift
of storytelling like no one else, and through the pain
(03:13):
of her own crisis. She brought us the book I
Am the Storm. It's inspiring, it's American, it is strength,
and above all else, it is faith. And I'm excited
to dive into the details today with Fox News Senior
meteorologist and author Jannas Deane. Welcome to the podcast. Oh tutor, congratulations.
This is a great form for you because you are
(03:35):
such a great communicator. I watched you when you were
running for governor. I obviously know your story, and I'm
so glad that you have this platform now to talk
to regular Americans who are still three years later wondering
what happened, you know, not only to people we lost,
(03:56):
but the origins of COVID. I think it's really important
that we lean on our government officials to have a
full investigation and hearings, um, you know, because we can't
go through something like this again. And if we don't
dig deep and find out the really big problems, the
deadly problems that our government uh, you know, let us into,
(04:19):
then we're going to do that again. UM. So I'm
really grateful to you and your advocacy. Uh. And I'm
really I'm really proud of you right now for you know,
taking this next step into broadcasting because you're good at it.
Oh well, thank you. I want to say this is
something that is a total, totally a side note, but
we watch Fox and Friends every morning and my girls
(04:40):
call you the Angel, which I think is so cute
because when you come on, you have this glow around
you and they always go, oh, look, the Angel. The Angel.
She's out there telling us about the weather. So um.
And that's why I say, I really you do exude joy,
and we just can tell that you really care about people.
And I know that's why you wrote the book I
(05:00):
Am the Storm, and I think so many of us
feel that. I love that title. I just love it
because so many of us feel that when we are
fighting against all of the things that we're fighting against
right now, and there are so many people that are
standing up, whether it is for their child. I know
a lot of people have autistic children and they feel
like they're really fighting for their child all the time,
(05:20):
whether it's for your loved one in a nursing home,
your loved one, whether they're sick. I mean, so many
of us feel that way. But you are really able
to put a lot of these stories together. So I
wanted to know if you could share a few of
those stories with us. It started off with our story,
our family story. My husband lost both of his parents
in separate elder care facilities in New York during the pandemic.
(05:41):
Our governor, like Governor Whitmer, had a mandate to put
COVID positive patients into where our most vulnerable resided. And
from that moment, even though I knew I was up
against a goliath in Andrew Cuomo, a dynasty politician, has
been in the governor's mansion for decades, you know, including
(06:02):
the time he spent with his dad when Mario Cuomo
was governor here. You know, I had people telling me,
why are you doing this. He's not going anywhere. He's
the terminator. That's what some of the reporters here in
York called him, the terminator. And but I had truth
on my side. I had the angels on my side,
and I thought it was important, because my family went
(06:23):
through this in thousands of others, that I use my
platform here at Fox to be able to deliver that message.
And I'm so grateful that they allowed me to do that.
I do the weather, as you know, I've been here
twenty years doing that same job, which I really love.
I'm not a political person. I always say the red
and blue on the map or areas of high pressure
and low pressure. So but I had to tell the
(06:46):
story because I just found myself in a position of
I have to do this for others. I have to
do this for my family. And while I was writing
that chapter, I was trying to find others that were
doing similar situations where something is happened to their family
or something had happened in their life that was, you know,
against all odds. But even against those odds, they rise,
(07:08):
They rose to the occasion. And so some of the stories, well,
obviously a lot of them are COVID related. You talked
about parents and what they were seeing in schools and
the fact my little boy couldn't sit in front of
an iPad all day. He was having breakdowns, he was
having anxiety attacks. So we actually put him in a
(07:29):
Catholic school which was closed for one day during the pandemic.
And I think a lot of parents realized, you know,
we have to stand up. We're our kids best advocates.
So I have stories about that, about parents who decided
that they were going up against school boards to try
to make it a better place for their kids and
(07:51):
other kids. My husband is a firefighter. So one of
the stories in there is about Ray Pi for a
good friend of ours who sadly passed away a few
years ago from nine to eleven related illness, and he
spent his dying days going to Washington, d C. To
beg you know, lawmakers to pass laws and healthcare so
(08:12):
that our government would take care of those who were
dying after digging from the at ground zero for months.
So that's a story that I really identified with because
he was up against so much and he used his
power to be able to tell a story that he
(08:33):
was dying of the same cancer and that he knew
he was going to die, but he wanted to make
sure that healthcare was in place for his brothers and
sisters who were also dying of the same related illness. Well,
I love this because I think that so oftentimes people
feel like they can't do anything for themselves, that they're
stuck in a situation. And I think that the pandemic
(08:56):
really gave us that moment where folks said, Okay, I
have to advocate for myself, and we have moments like
this throughout life. I had this moment when I was
diagnosed with breast cancer. And it's just funny because the
number of people in your life that say you have
to immediately do something, go with the first doctor. The
doctor is telling you this, and you realize in that moment,
(09:17):
I have to figure out what is best for me.
And I went from doctor to doctor until I got
the story that was, Okay, this is not going to
be my story. This is how I'm going to go forward.
And you mentioned sending your son to Catholic school, that
same thing happened to us as well, because we were
in the public schools and my husband and I are
both working, and we thought, what is going to happen.
(09:38):
They're never going back to school. We don't know, so
we put our kids in private school. And it was
just I like to look at the blessings through crisis,
and that was a real blessing for us because that
changed their lives, just the way they interacted with other students,
with teachers, and it's sort of kind of pushed this
whole school choice movement across the country. I think that
(10:01):
these moments that you're talking about gave kind of empowered
people to think about life in a different way and
take life by the reins on their own, don't you
thinks absolutely. I think the pandemic really shook us up
because we were kind of locked away. We were put
into a box, and we didn't want to be in
that box anymore, and we saw what was going on.
The thing that made me crazy is we weren't able
(10:23):
to see our loved ones before they died. But yet
it was encouraged to go out and protest the Black
Lives Matter and listen, I'm all for protesting. You know,
you do what you have to do to raise awareness
for your cause. But the fact was they were giving
them privileges that we could not have. So, you know,
to be locked away and see all of this happening
in real time, it's like, you know, you were living
(10:45):
in a bizarro world. And we really did rise up
as parents, as people who were seeing these injustices being
done in front of our eyes and rising to the occasion.
And we were lucky that we were able to find
the Catholic school. I was a big belief in public school.
I went to public school too, so you know, and
we were lucky that we were able to have the
(11:07):
money to do that. Many people don't, and we are
supposed to be taking care of our kids, especially under
privileged children, and we did them a huge disservice like
we did for our elderly. So that was the premise
of the book. And you know there are great stories
in there as well that aren't listen out of tragedy
comes purpose, I believe, but you know there are also
(11:30):
a wonderful story about a woman who is going to
turn one hundred years old. And a story that really
inspired me to write the book was Maureen Flavin, who
was the one who gave the forecast that changed d
Day to a day later. It was the invasion was
supposed to happen a day earlier, and there was a
big storm on the horizon and she was forecasting from
(11:52):
a little lighthouse in the corner of Ireland, and that
information got to our Allied forces in General Eisenhower, and
he changed the date. So her forecast changed the trajectory
of the world. And you know, that story spoke to
me because as I was doing my advocacy Governor Cuomo disgrace.
(12:14):
Governor Cuomo and his administration were cutting me down because
of my profession a weather forecaster. She doesn't know anything,
because she's just the weather lady. But here's a woman
whose forecast changed the world and saved thousands of lives. So,
you know, it kind of came full circle. And I
you know, I have to say I've written several books.
They've all been very important, but this one is very
(12:36):
special to me because of all of these great people
and these stories that maybe people have never heard of before.
I had never heard that story, and I thought that
was an incredible story. And I love the way you
relate it to today and what you were able to
do and how important every person can be in the
role that they play and how it affects history. That
(12:57):
to me is totally amazing. You also have a story
in there of a family who was encouraged to abort
their baby, and that to me is incredibly powerful because
I had a family member that was in the same situation.
They found out that the baby would be born without
a left hand, and it was interesting because immediately the
doctors were like, here are here's the information about abortion,
(13:17):
and there was this process of going through and saying, okay,
but this is a baby that's not going to know
any different. She's that'll be all she knows. Is life
without a left hand? And does that mean that that
life is not worth living? And just going through that
process of discovery and the love of this child and
watching this child come into the world and pushing back
(13:38):
on that establishment. But you had a similar story in there.
Will you share a little bit about that. Yeah, they
called they called the baby David because of David and
Goliath in the battle that they were going to face
with this child. And it brings tears to my eyes
because she little literally David's mom told me about the
(14:02):
moment that she was in the hospital room with the
doctor and saying, your baby is probably not going to live.
And if the baby does live and you give birth,
he's probably going to die within hours. And they did.
They gave her, you know, the options. You either have
the baby and he's probably going to die, or you know,
(14:24):
you terminate the pregnancy, and there was sort of a
leniency towards that. But they decided the dead Vilers that
they were going to have this child. You know, they're
a family of great faith, and they didn't even think
about terminating the pregnancy. And now baby David is, you know,
three and a half years old, and he's got a
(14:45):
lot of challenges, but he is the light of their life,
and and what a great opportunity for their other children
to learn from from baby David and all of the
challenges that he faces. But they say he's one of
the most joyous, laughing all the time. They can't imagine
their life without David. So it was a beautiful chapter
(15:08):
to write, and I'm glad I was able to tell
their story. I think it's so important to go back
to what you said. This isn't political. You are not
political about this. This is just sharing stories, and you
share stories that affect people on both sides of the aisle.
But you're really encouraging. And one of the things that
(15:30):
I think was so powerful to me during that time
of COVID because I was watching you. I was watching
you on Twitter, and I was watching these attacks. And
sometimes these attacks are so silly, and yet they still
can get to you deep down. I mean, I obviously
went through running for governor and people say ridiculous things,
but if you let them, they can take you down.
(15:52):
And there were the attacks that would say sanyere Lane.
Even Twitter, I noticed what saying, is this weather really?
What did you think when that happened? I knew they
were censoring me. Somehow there was I don't know how
they would do it. But if I would tweet every
time I would tweet something about Governor Cuomo or mandates
(16:14):
or something having to do with the seniors that died
in nursing homes, people would send me screenshots of my
tweet saying is this tweet about the weather? And they
had to say yes or no click on it. So
they were clearly trying to censor me or trying to
silence me that way by saying, hey, ladies, stay in
(16:36):
you're lane. You're only supposed to be talking about weather here.
I still don't know why that happened. I'd love Elon
Musk to look into that, because I don't know if
that happened to anyone else. People who so, people who
do the weather, people who have the sports, people that
do business, they can't have opinions something that has happened
to their family. Is this about sports? Is this about
(16:58):
the economy? I don't know if that happened to anybody else.
I didn't see it happened to anyone else, And that
was to me. Honestly, it was so bizarre because the
first time and it kept happening because I saw it
happened several times, and it actually happened to me too.
When I would see your tweets that would come up
and I would think, how did they even know? I
mean that is that is pretty crazy to think that
(17:20):
they can pinpoint exactly what your profession is and decide
whether or not you should be talking about something. But
I think that's also what people need to understand about
technology today. People can really these other countries can go
in and they can determine everything about you. And that's
why we do have concerns about social media, but we
really saw it targeting you, and so you had to
(17:42):
be very strong, because I think that is I think
it is so offensive for Twitter to say, you know,
are you out of your lane? But you were, you
were strong and you kept doing this. So what are
your words of encouragement to other people who feel like
they're being attacked? And certainly anytime somebody steps out, whether
it is to run for office or just to speak
their mind or stand up for their child, I think
(18:03):
it's easy to get pushed out of the spotlight and
pushed away. So how do you encourage people to stay
with it? I think now more than ever, we're finding
our voices. I think the pandemic one silver lining from
that is that we are rising up and saying this.
You know, this didn't feel right and we have to
find out why. I would say, keep going, and in advocacy,
it's not a week, it's not a month, it's years.
(18:25):
It's a lifetime, right, And I have met so many
wonderful families, you know, through our grief, we have met
families that have gone through the same thing, and they're
the ones that give purpose and give strength. Right, there's
strength in numbers. I found that if you have a
message and it resonates and it's truthful, you're going to
find others that will stand with you to deliver that
(18:46):
message as well. And I think I think that's so important.
You know, the book is called I Am the Storm.
It's because you know that's saying. The devil whispers to
the warrior and says you're not strong enough to withstand
the storm. The warrior says, but I am the Storm.
And I think that that's what I carry with me
is I had truth on my side, I have the
(19:07):
angels on my side, and I had the tremendous support
of so many others that were lifting me up as well.
What was it like for your kids to see you
out there, because obviously they see you on TV all
the time and they know what your job is, but
they do see you as someone who focuses on whether too,
so suddenly they see you in a different capacity where
(19:28):
you really are going up against the governor. And that
changes things for children as well. And I think that's
something that people don't always think about. When you have
kids and you're out in the spotlight like this, it
affects your children. I'm sure they were somewhat protected in
a Catholic school, but did they ever experience any pushback
from that? That's a good question. I mean, as we
(19:49):
were going through it, I would tell them what I
was doing. I mean we were I had a home
studio at the time because we weren't coming into into
Fox during the pandemic. So I was lucky enough that
I had a great company that built a studio inside
my house in a spare room. And my kids would
hear me, right, I would do the weather and then
I would do another report about Andrew Cuomo and they
(20:11):
would come out and they're like, Andrew Cuomo is a
bad guy ray Mom, and I'm like, listen, I don't
know what he's like as a person. I can just
tell you what I know and what he his leadership
did to our family. And I think they know that
what I was doing was important. They have not read
the book, you know, they're twelve and fourteen, but they
(20:32):
know their mom is a strong lady and will stand up.
And I, you know, I write the small story in
there that is very relevant of my youngest son being
bullied in school, and that was very tough because I
did everything I could as a parent. This was happening
in the Catholic school, by the way, after we put
him in. He was new and he was getting bullied
(20:54):
and he would come home crying. I did everything I
could in my power. I talked to the teachers, I
went into the principle and we did everything we possibly
could until one day the bully decided to target one
of his buddies, one of Theodora's buddies, and he stood
up for his friend. You know, he would come home
(21:16):
crying and not stand up for himself, but he stood
up for his friend in the schoolyard against this bully,
and he came home and told me that and how
proud he was, and I just thought to myself, my goodness.
If I if there's any lesson that I could give,
it's you know, it's standing up for others. That's sometimes
more important. So, you know, I'm just proud of my children.
(21:38):
And of course I will be open and honest. They've
been to rallies with me. They you know, my husband
has been to Albany with me, and someday, you know,
I will tell them the full story. I just want
to lead by example, you know. And and if at
the end of the day, if they're proud of their mom,
then man, that's the best compliment you could ever give me.
That is awesome. I love that. And I think girls
(22:00):
went through the same thing, and they watched some of this,
but they had the same question for me, because I
think that you can get really focused on what you're
doing as an adult and your kids are kind of
on the sidelines wondering what exactly is happening. So they
said the same thing about Gretchen Whitmer. They one morning,
I remember they said, do we hate Gretchen Whitmer. And
(22:22):
it was like this moment where I'm like, Okay, this
is very important for me to explain. And I said, no,
we don't. And I said, and I don't, you know,
I don't know her personally at that point, I had
never met her. But I said, I don't like what
she wants to do with the state, so we call
those her policies. That's what I don't like. But I
don't I don't not like her as a person. In fact,
(22:42):
we should continue praying for her. And so it is
a teaching moment. And I think that sometimes as a parent,
you can get really focused on one thing and then
your kids are always there to bring you back to reality.
And people used to say, are you getting a big
head doing this? And I would say, I have four
girls in my house. There's no way to get a
big head because they're conso darrying everybody a part, you know.
(23:03):
But it was good too, because you're that role model
and you have to make sure that your kids see
something that is positive and that you're fighting. Like I said,
when I look at you, I see joy and that
just really emanates from your personality, and that, I think
is why you have so many people who come to
you with their stories and trust you to tell their stories,
(23:25):
and you tell them quite well, so thank you for
doing that. And tell people where they can get the book. Well, online,
you can go to the regular places like Amazon and
Barnes and Noble, and they are in the bookstores. For
a while, they weren't in the bookstores, but that's a
completely separate story. We had a hard time getting them
into bookstores, but they're there now. But I will say
(23:46):
that if you buy the book, you know, give it
to someone else, pass it along. And I love when
people tell me they went to the library to get
the book, right. I love the process of writing books, Tutor,
but to sell it as a really tough thing, you know,
and we're in really tough economic times right now. So
I always say that if you have the book and
you enjoyed it, pass it along to someone else, and
(24:08):
that would make me really happy. Well, I love that,
and I think it is so important for people to
in this time when we have so many questions about
things to read inspiring stories. So thank you for inspiring people.
Thank you so much, Oh, thank you, And I hope
to have you on my podcast as well, because I'm
an equal appreciation of what you've done with your platform, Tutor,
(24:30):
And again I'm so excited for you and congratulations on
this new adventure. Thank you. We'll do that. That will
be lots of fun. Janisteine, thank you so much, author
of I Am the Storm and Fox News Senior Meteorologists.
Make sure you get your own copy or, like she said,
share it with someone else. It is I Am the Storm.
It is a compilation of David and Goliath stories going
(24:52):
up against Goliath, but also really inspiring stuff. And thank
you so much for joining me today. I'm the Tutor
Dick sin podcast. For this episode and others, go to
Tutor Dison podcast dot com. You can subscribe right there.
Join me next time on the Tutor Dixon Podcast. Have
a great day, everyone,
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