The Person Who Believed In Me with David Begnaud

Ezra Frech was eleven, sitting on the couch watching the Rio Paralympics, when he decided what he was going to do with his life. He went and found his mother and asked whether she thought he could make the Tokyo 2020 team. He was unranked. The odds were close to nothing. She said yes. He started getting up at six to jump in the backyard, watching technique videos after school, building a team around himself. Five years later — the pandemic added one — he made it.
The athlete he’d been watching on television that day was Roderick Townsend, the greatest Paralympic high jumper who has ever competed, who went a decade without losing. Years later Townsend became his coach. In practice he ran something called continuous makes: Ezra would drive ninety minutes to Orange County, warm up for an hour, and if he missed the first bar, practice was over and he drove home. Before competition the instruction was to not look at his parents in the stands, because seeing them would drop his shoulders. You can hug later. Three months after that, Ezra won his first world title and broke the world record. A year after that, two Paralympic golds in the same week.
In this conversation with David Begnaud, Ezra talks about losing that world title three months before Paris, and the coach who flew from Arizona to Los Angeles every week until the Games to make sure it didn’t happen again. About the four-year-old on a preschool playground who kept apologizing to him for his leg. About dancing on a running blade he balances on by a couple of centimeters, because the safer prosthetic would have meant playing it safe. And about the pressure he puts on himself to look fine — which is the one thing in the hour he hesitates before answering.
Ezra Frech is a two time Paralympic gold medalist and currently competing on ABC's Dancing with the Stars.
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Chapters ☀️
Chapters

00:00:00 Intro: The Paralympic Athlete Who Saw a Boatload of Potential
00:02:43 The Living Room Epiphany: I Can Do That
00:06:27 The Four-Year-Old on the Playground: You Don't Got to Be Sorry
00:20:55 The Script: Are You Curious About Ezra's Leg?
00:23:41 Everybody Stares at Everybody: Choosing Curiosity Over Judgment
00:25:36 The Zoo Animal Years: Feeling Like an Outsider
00:37:34 Footloose and Dancing on a Blade: Why He Shows His Prosthetic
00:40:08 Angel City Sports: Why LA Didn't Have What Oklahoma Did
00:45:46 Continuous Makes: You Miss, Practice Is Over
00:50:54 The World Title Lost Three Months Before Paris
01:07:28 Lean Into the Extreme: A Man of Extremes
01:15:32 Wisdom Comes From Hardship: The Nine-Year-Old on Ellen

ABOUT THIS PODCAST:
The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew and often called "America's storyteller." In each episode, David sits down with world-class guests to ask one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? Big names. Honest stories. Relatable takeaways.
David is also a CBS News contributor and host of the weekly segment Beg Knows America, which airs every Monday morning.
Host: David Begnaud
Guest: Ezra Frech
Executive Producer: David Begnaud, Olivier Delfosse, Justin McGoldrick
Booker: Sully Bloch
Director of Photography: Foster Parks
Supervising Editor: Joey Izzo
Social: Allison Childers
Theme Music: Slipstream
CONNECT WITH US:
The Person Who Believed In Me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/believedpodcast

Joe Manganiello was 25, newly sober, broke, and showing up to AA meetings as they started so he could leave the second they ended. A 78-year-old man in a tweed coat took him by the arm one day and said he'd like to take him to lunch. They went to an English tea house in Santa Monica. John Edward Robinson III ordered everything — the full afternoon tea, every dessert on the menu — then explained he was diabetic and would be watching Joe eat them. He knew Tennessee Williams. He knew Elizabeth Taylor. Joe went back to the next meeting so he could take John to lunch.
Months later Joe picked him up at his house and found a collection of mug shots on the wall. They were John's: a San Francisco shooting-gallery heroin addict, two DUIs in a single day. Joe says that without the hand on his arm he doesn't stay in the rooms, and without the rooms he has none of the life that followed. John lived long enough to watch him go from working off the back of a construction truck to True Blood, and had people bring him Joe's magazines when he was bedridden.
In this conversation with David Begnaud, Joe talks about the seven years his body tried to kill him — the rashes, the bleeding, the misdiagnosis, the month on his side, and the night Sofia Vergara had to authorize surgeons to remove his entire large intestine while he was unconscious. He talks about the avatar he built and then resented people for believing. About giving away his gun. About Finding Your Roots discovering that his father's father wasn't his father, and that he descends from a man named Plato Turner who fought in the American Revolution. About a Santeria ceremony in Ecuador and a week-long ritual in Cuba, and realizing only later whose gods those were. And about a sick chihuahua nobody would keep, who made him a caretaker again at the exact moment he'd stopped being one.
Joe Manganiello's memoir Bloodlines is available now wherever books are sold.
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Chapters ☀️
Chapters

00:00:00 Intro: The Sweet Little Old Man Who Grabbed His Arm
00:02:40 The Mug Shots and the Power of Change
00:04:15 Twenty-Five and Angry: Early Sobriety Struggles
00:10:07 Mount Lebanon and the FBI Dream
00:11:53 Misunderstood: The Avatar He Built
00:20:28 Upstream Swimming: Lessons From Dad
00:23:46 Finding Your Roots: The DNA Revelation
00:30:33 Thirteen Years of Silence
00:40:17 The Wedding and the Bleeding
00:44:15 Shutting Down Production: The Ambulance Call
00:46:09 The Night He Thought He'd Die
00:57:11 Deathstroke and the Will to Fight
00:59:09 Ecuador and the Cuban Shaman
01:09:20 Baited and Switched: The Marriage Unravels
01:11:25 The Gun and the Dog Who Saved Him
01:15:18 Big Man, Little Dog: Defending Bubbles
01:17:18 Meeting Caitlin: The Pittsburgh Connection
01:19:46 The Storm Is Over

ABOUT THIS PODCAST:
The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew and often called "America's storyteller." In each episode, David sits down with world-class guests to ask one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? Big names. Honest stories. Relatable takeaways.
David is also a CBS News contributor and host of the weekly segment Beg Knows America, which airs every Monday morning.
Host: David Begnaud
Guest: Joe Manganiello
Executive Producer: David Begnaud, Olivier Delfosse, Justin McGoldrick
Booker: Sully Bloch
Director of Photography: Foster Parks
Supervising Editor: Joey Izzo
Live Production Technician: Will Whitley (Statik Creative)
Social: Allison Childers
Theme Music: Slipstream
YouTube Strategy & Packaging: David & Luana Co.
CONNECT WITH US:
The Person Who Believed In Me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/believedpodcast

Heather McMahan used to stalk Joan Rivers' shows. She bartended across the street from a basement comedy club in Hell's Kitchen, so she knew where the unmarked back entrance was, and one Fat Tuesday she got off early and waited outside it. When Joan came out, the first thing she said was: oh my God, you're gorgeous. Then she handed her a string of Mardi Gras beads and gave her ten minutes she didn't owe her. Over the next few years, in book-signing lines and outside theaters, Joan kept telling her the same thing — keep going, you have a commercial look, go to LA.
So she went. Within her first 24 hours in Los Angeles she'd been in a car accident and had an allergic reaction to a bad spray tan, which she read as the universe telling her to go home. Two weeks in, a bartender friend called to say Joan had just walked into a restaurant in Beverly Hills. Heather drove over, went to the table, said she'd taken the advice and moved, and declined the photo the assistant offered. On her way out, Joan came looking for her across the room: you've got chutzpah, you listened, you're going to make it. Heather got to the valet, called her father, and dry-heaved into the phone.
In this conversation with David Begnaud, she talks about the father who mailed her sorority a list of ten reasons she should quit theater and join the Air Force, and who died of pancreatic cancer seven days after his diagnosis at 57. About writing him a million-dollar check she couldn't cover, and cashing it two years later. About self-financing all three of her specials rather than wait for permission, and getting the Netflix call from a wine cellar in Florence. About the Ryder Cup, and the death threats, and what Joan would have told her to do about it. And about the bee that keeps turning up — her father's sign, and, she discovered years later, Joan's emblem too.
Heather McMahan's new special By a Thread premieres on Hulu on October 16, 2026.
Get more stories that remind you the world is still good. Sign up for our free newsletter: https://www.thedogoodcrew.com
Chapters ☀️
Chapters

00:00:00 Intro: The Woman Who Said You're Going to Make It
00:06:45 The Restaurant in Beverly Hills: Joan's Blessing
00:09:25 You Did the Work: Dropping Business Cards and Hustling
00:12:46 Wasted Potential: The Biggest Pet Peeve
00:15:12 Bouncing Back: Joan's Book and Life Lessons
00:17:47 Seven Days: When Dad Got His Diagnosis
00:21:44 The Son I Never Had: Turning Grief Into Comedy
00:28:12 Self-Financing Dreams: The Risk That Paid Off
00:31:28 Change Your Attitude: Dad's Life Lesson
00:46:28 The Ryder Cup Controversy: Growing Balls
00:53:39 Boston Robin: The Mom Who Reads Lines
00:56:50 IVF Journey: What Nobody Tells You
01:04:37 Madison Square Garden Dreams: What's Next
01:06:54 The Bee Connection: Dad and Joan's Shared Symbol
01:07:45 Get Up and Get Moving: The Joan Rivers Takeaway

ABOUT THIS PODCAST:
The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew and often called "America's storyteller." In each episode, David sits down with world-class guests to ask one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? Big names. Honest stories. Relatable takeaways.
David is also a CBS News contributor and host of the weekly segment Beg Knows America, which airs every Monday morning.
Host: David Begnaud
Guest: Heather McMahan
Executive Producer: David Begnaud, Olivier Delfosse, Justin McGoldrick
Booker: Sully Bloch
Director of Photography: Foster Parks
Live Production Technician: Will Whitley (Statik Creative)
Social: Allison Childers, Gracie Pekrul
Theme Music: Slipstream
Post-Production: Longwave Digital & David & Luana Co.
CONNECT WITH US:
The Person Who Believed In Me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/believedpodcast

James Brown was in fourth grade when a teacher saw him reading a book called So You Want to Be a Doctor and told him he should consider another career. “Kids like you, she said, do not do well in math and science.” He never told his mother. He carried it alone, and it held him back for years. Then two middle school teachers in Washington, D.C., pulled him aside with a different message: honey, you can do this. Simple as that. Deep Southern care wrapped in belief he hadn't heard before. He started to think maybe he could.
At 14 he was cut from one basketball team and kept by another coach who saw him miss an undefended layup in front of the whole school. The students laughed. The coach, Don Fugle, kept him anyway because he paid attention. A year later Morgan Wooten recruited him to DeMatha, handed him three sheets of fundamentals, and told him to pick one: all county, all state, or all America. James took the third sheet and worked it religiously. He became one of the best high school players in the country. He was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks in 1973 and cut at the end of training camp. He went home and didn't leave his bedroom for two weeks.
In this conversation with David Begnaud, he talks about the lie he told Morgan Wooten at basketball camp that spiraled into a Friday afternoon confrontation about integrity. About his mother calling the gym to say practice ran too late and if it happened again, JB couldn't play. About Senator Ted Kennedy flying him to Capitol Hill to pitch Harvard. And about leaving Fox for CBS on a handshake, turning down a counter offer because his mother taught him your word is your bond.
James Brown is a three time Emmy Award winner, Pro Football Hall of Famer, and host of CBS's The NFL Today. He has hosted more Super Bowls than anyone in television history.
Get more stories that remind you the world is still good. Sign up for our free newsletter: https://www.thedogoodcrew.com
Chapters ☀️
Chapters

00:00:00 Intro: The Coach Who Called Out the Lies
00:05:04 The Ray Rice Commentary and Speaking Truth
00:08:43 The Fourth Grade Teacher Who Said Kids Like You Don't Succeed
00:14:37 The Two Teachers Who Said You Can Do This
00:15:55 The White Shadow: The Coach Who Kept the Kid Who Couldn't Play
00:20:49 Morgan Wooten and the Three Sheets: The Roadmap to Excellence
00:37:40 Cut Twice: The NBA Dreams That Didn't Come True
00:47:49 The Lime Green Suit and the IBM Interview
00:52:10 The Answer Can Be Found in Love
00:53:49 Katrina, Alfreda, and Unconditional Love
01:00:22 The Bank Is Closed: Leaving Fox for CBS
01:17:52 We Got Them Right Where We Want Them: Down Six with 30 Seconds Left
01:20:53 Come Back in 10 Years: How Morgan Wooten Measured Success

ABOUT THIS PODCAST:
The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew and often called "America's storyteller." In each episode, David sits down with world-class guests to ask one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? Big names. Honest stories. Relatable takeaways.
David is also a CBS News contributor and host of the weekly segment Beg Knows America, which airs every Monday morning.
Host: David Begnaud
Guest: James Brown
Executive Producer: David Begnaud, Olivier Delfosse, Justin McGoldrick
Booker: Sully Bloch
Director of Photography: Foster Parks
Live Production Technician: Will Whitley (Statik Creative)
Social: Allison Childers, Gracie Pekrul
Theme Music: Slipstream
Post-Production: Longwave Digital & David & Luana Co.
CONNECT WITH US:
The Person Who Believed In Me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/believedpodcast

Howie Mandel got expelled from high school in Toronto for calling a contractor out of the Yellow Pages and asking for a 25-foot addition to the school library. He scheduled the appointment during math, because that classroom's window looked out on the field, and then — this is the part he finds most revealing about himself — he didn't tell a single other person. He sat alone watching a man with a clipboard and a tape measure, waiting for a joke nobody else knew was happening. He was thrown out of a different school for retrieving a bent Snickers bar from the swimming pool with his mouth. He has no diploma.
By the early eighties he was a working comedian in Los Angeles, and the Tonight Show booker had told him flatly he'd never be on: not Johnny's cup of tea. So when he heard Joan Rivers — then guest-hosting for Carson and out-rating him — would be working out her monologue at the Comedy Store, he called Mitzi Shore and asked for the 9:55 spot, the five minutes directly before her. He woke up that day with a high fever. He went anyway, and the adrenaline carried him, and she passed him on the stairs and said he was so funny. Then she talked to Mitzi for forty-five minutes while he slid down the wall outside and lay on the steps waiting. When she finally came out, she gave him a phone number. He did the Tonight Show that week. McCauley called the next morning. He went on twenty-two more times with Johnny.
In this conversation with David Begnaud, he talks about being diagnosed with OCD in his forties only because his wife gave him an ultimatum, and about accidentally disclosing it live on Howard Stern's show — convinced in the elevator down that his career was finished, until a stranger on the street whispered me too. He talks about the half hour he spent punching a locked doorknob in Malibu. About why he believes no one should ever apologize for a joke, and why he made an apology video anyway. And about what Joan gave him beyond the booking, which was permission not to care what the room thought.
Howie Mandel is the longest running judge on America’s Got Talent, available to watch on NBC and Peacock now.
Get more stories that remind you the world is still good. Sign up for our free newsletter: https://www.thedogoodcrew.com
Chapters ☀️
Chapters

00:00:00 "The majority of the world does not have a sense of humor"
00:03:18 The Johnny Carson litmus test
00:04:40 Toronto, 1977: stand-up on a dare
00:06:42 The contractor and the school library
00:12:02 The Snickers bar in the pool
00:13:26 "I just wanted to have a group laugh"
00:17:02 Kelly Ripa and the apology video
00:20:38 Addicted to social media
00:26:30 The 9:55 PM spot and the fever
00:31:57 Lying on the stairs, waiting for Joan
00:33:00 The Tonight Show, twice in two weeks
00:36:30 Joan's last show and Chris Rock's 62 seconds
00:43:00 Nothing is too soon: laughing at his father's funeral
00:58:28 The Howard Stern disclosure, and a stranger who says "me too"

ABOUT THIS PODCAST:
The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew and often called "America's storyteller." In each episode, David sits down with world-class guests to ask one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? Big names. Honest stories. Relatable takeaways.
David is also a CBS News contributor and host of the weekly segment Beg Knows America, which airs every Monday morning.
Host: David Begnaud
Guest: Howie Mandel
Executive Producer: David Begnaud, Olivier Delfosse, Justin McGoldrick
Booker: Sully Bloch
Director of Photography: Foster Parks
Live Production Technician: Will Whitley (Statik Creative)
Social: Gracie Pekrul
Theme Music: Slipstream
Post-Production: Longwave Digital & David & Luana Co.
CONNECT WITH US:
The Person Who Believed In Me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/believedpodcast