- This and more coming up on the Whitney Reynolds Show.

I became an - Amputee after training for the, the 1996 Olympic trials when I was in the United States Army.

And then seven years after that, I, I made two Paralympic teams and then won a Paralympic silver medal.

- The possibility that my generation could be the first generation to survive ALS.

For so long, people have been told there was little reason for optimism.

Today, science is moving faster than ever.

And for the first time, we're seeing a path toward turning ALS from a fatal to a chronic manageable disease.

The Whitney - Reynolds Show is supported by Kevin O'Connor Law Firm.

When it comes to your injuries, we take it personally.

Together at Peace Foundation, remembrance, resilience, and comfort creating a hopeful space for those who are grieving.

The C. Thomas Group, residential real estate investment and advisory.

The Respiratory Health Association, clean air and healthy lungs for all.

JoePerillo.com, where you can browse their selection of pre-owned vehicles.

Joe Perillo is based in Chicago and ships all over the country.

Children's Learning Place, a school for our earliest learners dedicated to aiding every child with the power of learning.

And West Real Estate Group, providing multifamily investment in property management services.

The Couch Brothers, family and first responder owned.

M.M.

LeFleur for women by women.

Additional funding provided by Home Carpet One, Nuvie, High5 Sports, Brand Appliance and TV.

- Hello and welcome to the Whitney Reynolds Show.

We are thrilled you have found us.

We are a safe space for deep stories, and today's topic is joy in every season.

Awakening the soul of our story.

Might recognize a new look.

We are ready to take things to the next level.

- I' - Watching the Whitney Reynolds Show to your - Home.

Real voice is real lives in every episode.

This is the Whitney Reynolds Show.

- There are some stories you never stop following.

Brian Wallach is one of those.

When we first sat down together eight years ago, Brian was speaking about an uncertain future after his ALS diagnosis.

Today, he has surpassed the life expectancy many are given with this disease.

Though ALS has taken his natural voice, technology now allows him to use a digital version of his own.

As we reunite in their home, we're reminded that while ALS continues to challenge families, groundbreaking research, new treatments, and a community determined to find a cure are giving hope a stronger voice than ever before.

What has this time taught you about resilience and the human spirit?

- This journey has taught me what it really means to never give up.

I've seen incredible strength in patients, caregivers, researchers, and advocates.

Resilience isn't about pretending things aren't hard.

Resilience is about continuing forward despite the challenges.

- We really looked at the sector and tried to figure out what was missing in the fight.

And given our background in legislative advocacy and community organizing, in really understanding how the federal government works, we saw a gap and we knew we could fill that gap and we knew we could have an impact.

And after a few months, it was clear that Brian might be a slower progressor and we might have more time.

- And when we talk about time, the lifespan from diagnosis is typically - What?

Most patients have a life expectancy after diagnosis of two to five years.

That is the current average.

Brian very, very luckily is here eight years later.

- Well, y'all are the breakthrough couple.

You really are.

When I think about breakthroughs, I mean, you two are the ones that come to mind.

What gives you the most hope with what's been happening lately?

- The possibility that my generation could be the first generation to survive ALS.

For so long, people have been told there was little reason for optimism.

Today, science is moving faster than ever, and for the first time, we're seeing a path toward turning ALS from a fatal to a chronic manageable disease.

- ALS doesn't discriminate.

It affects parents, neighbors, advocates, and now another well-known NFL star has courageously shared his diagnosis.

As awareness grows, so does the movement behind it.

Celebrities are joining forces to lend their voices alongside families, researchers, and advocates, proving that together we can bring hope to those living with ALS and move closer to a cure.

Real - Change.

By pushing for historic research, funding, policy change.

- Access and awareness.

- I AMALS is building a world where ALS can be treatable, - Survivable.

- And ultimately curable.

- Since Brian and I started this movement, we have helped generate 1.6 billion.

- With a B.

- With a B, $1.6 billion in new federal funding that would not have existed had this patient caregiver-led movement of IMALS taken place.

And we just testified before Congress to pass legislation that would infuse another 500 million.

- While promising advances are happening in the fight against ALS, Brian and Sandra realized more needed to be done.

Too many families still struggled to find the right doctors and specialized care, so they launched SynaptiCure, making it easier for people living with ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases connect with expert neurological care.

There are now new opportunities when people are getting diagnosed, and it didn't look that way eight years ago.

So now when they are hearing you have ALS, there is some hope.

Tell us about the new drugs that have hit the market.

- Absolutely.

Someone who got diagnosed with ALS who has the SOD1 genetic type of ALS, and they told me that they're on the new treatment from Biogen called Fulsati.

And I cannot explain the level of relief I had when I heard that news because this is an extremely effective treatment.

And I told this newly diagnosed individual, "You could not have given me better news than to tell me that you're on this new treatment because it's only for 2% of the ALS patient population, but it is potentially curative - For some people."

With these recent developments with science, medicine, and even what you guys have created as a couple, what do you hope this next generation of people that get diagnosed feel?

- My hope is that the next generation of people diagnosed with ALS can live long, full lives.

I want them to have effective treatments, real options, and ultimately a cure.

I hope ALS becomes a disease people manage rather than a diagnosis that defines the rest of their lives.

- When we think about advocates and scientists coming together, what does that feel like to you?

- For years, hope often felt like something we talked about in the future.

Today, we're seeing real progress in research, policy, and patient advocacy.

Hope is becoming something tangible that people can actually see and feel.

One of the most powerful things they can do is connect with the incredible ALS community.

There is strength in community and there is hope in knowing that thousands of people are fighting alongside you every day.

- I think whether it's pancreatic cancer or ALS or even reflecting on HIV/AIDS and the breakthroughs we've had there that are making it so that people are living full lives.

I mean, just reflecting on history, we can solve heart problems.

We just need to have the energy to act and to believe in ourselves and to keep going and we can have these breakthroughs.

- You are truly incredible.

Brian, you are a forever friend of the Whitney Reynolds Show.

Seriously, eight years later now, you two, and you're still moving and making change.

I love it.

Okay.

Thank you so much for having me in your home.

- Thank you so much, Whitney, for coming.

- And now to a returning guest who is talking joy in every chapter.

Welcome to the show.

Oh, I'm so - Glad to be back.

- To be back, and that's right.

This is a returning guest for the Whitney Reynolds Show, and my crew has story after story about how you impacted them.

And sometimes you forget when you're a show that there's impact happening all around and literally everybody's story matters, but you really left an impact on our team.

- Well, what happens, I think, as all of us do, we want to show up, we want to inspire, and we think that's kind of a woo-woo word, but when you really look at the word from the Latin root, it means inspiro to breathe life into others.

So if my creator's breathing life into me, it's my responsibility, it's my duty to breathe that life into others.

And I think that's the reciprocation that we need all the time.

- Well, I think you are one of those people that's living that out in so many ways.

But what I love about your story is it's had different turns and it's had moments that are very hard that you were still able to find joy and push on.

- I became an amputee after training for the 1996 Olympic trials when I was in the United States Army.

And then seven years after that, I made two Paralympic teams and then won a Paralympic silver medal in the long jump in Sydney.

- Well, let's back this up real quick because that's a lot of info.

I love it.

It's a lot.

So you were in the Army and you were training for the Olympics.

That's - Correct.

- And that is when you became an amputee.

- Right.

So most people, well, most people think that amputations come from war or from conflict, and of course they do, but the majority of injuries come outside of service.

And I was one of those cases.

I was training, I misstepped a hurdle, dislocated my knee.

Seven days later, I'm left with the choice, keep the leg, use a walker or a wheelchair for the rest of my life or amputate the leg and use a prosthesis for the rest of my life.

- You made that difficult decision.

And when people are facing these decisions, because we all will face difficult decisions, maybe not your exact one, how did you handle that?

- Well, it was tough because I needed a support network that could elevate me.

So first my faith in God, it was my wife that was there.

Alice really elevated me because she said, "We're going to get through this moment together.

This is just our new normal."

And when she said that, that really uplifted me to say, "Okay, what is this for?

What am I designed for now?

Because it's not the other one.

- What - Do we need to amputate in order to elevate?"

That is what started going on in my head.

So I started swimming for physical therapy just to get myself back in the pool or back in some type of shape.

And then everything else, one step in front of the next, turned into seven years later, being on that metal podium.

- Being on the metal podium.

And what I find really full circle is you were training for the Olympics.

And then you won in a whole different realm, but you still want, you have that.

- See, and I think that's true transformation, right?

- Right.

- Most of us really don't want transformation because transformation hurts.

Transformation sucks.

It is a very hard process because you're one thing and you become a totally different thing.

What usually we want is transition.

I want to just step my way to - The next - Day.

Little - Baby climb.

- And I think that's really what my life means to so many people and to myself as I look back and I see it, that we can transform from one entity to the next.

I'm not going to be an Olympic class athlete.

I become a Paralympic athlete.

I'm not going to become a military soldier, a career soldier for life as a military officer.

So I build a program for wounded, ill, and injured service members use sports as a tool for the rehabilitation.

What does that do?

It turns into the Department of Defense's Warrior Games.

It turns into Prince Harry's Invictus Games.

I'm like, what is happening?

But it's just because we make the transformation and we become who we desire - To be.

I want to bring the viewer back to, because you're on the other side and I always love it when guests are able to tie a pretty bow on it for us, but how did you find that hope and joy in the midst?

- I believe it's curiosity.

So we can look back and think about what was, but in being curious, every day becomes new.

Every step becomes new.

I'm learning something new every single moment that I have this life.

And so if I can just bring all of this energy that's around me to look at what's new and what's next, then I can elevate.

I can always see the path because we can always go down the pathway of negativity.

That's easy, but we can choose the joy too.

So let's just choose the joy and elevate.

- I was reading about butterflies and what it actually takes to go through the process to become a butterfly, and it literally is complete transformation.

It's - A complete transformation.

- And when people are in the middle of this transformation, because like you said, people would love to be like, "Okay, let's just go here to go there."

But when you're in the middle of the transformation, there's going to be times that it's tough.

- Commitments are hard.

We don't understand, in my opinion, the audiences I speak to, the CEOs I speak to, we don't understand what a true commitment actually is.

- When - The doctor amputated my leg, I do not get my leg back.

That's a commitment.

When you make a commitment, we do not get back what we decided to commit to.

So now we are on this path of, I don't know how to operate in this new space.

I don't know how to walk on an artificial leg or move a wheelchair to a prosthetic appointment.

I now have to learn and relearn all of these things that I used to know so I'm no longer an expert.

I have to look vulnerable.

And can I do that if I'm an executive and CEO to pull myself back to give myself some space, give myself some grace to actually grow into the new transformation I'm becoming?

- Vulnerability is one of those words that can strike people differently.

- Yes.

- Vulnerability doesn't always mean just like spilling out the tea everywhere you go.

Vulnerability can be in that safe space saying, "Hey, I'm maybe in a difficult season, but I'm going to move forward."

- I've often thought it's more on the person, right?

Because you can choose to release something or not.

You can mask.

You can mask things.

And if I'm just masking my injury, I'm wearing pants today, so I'm masking it, then you really don't know my full story.

And so what I'm saying is just share your story, have your story out there in such a way that it is releasing other people to share theirs.

- Oh, you are so good.

Well, another one of my favorite returning guests.

I mean, it takes a lot to come back on this show.

Oh my God.

You are such an inspiration.

Anything else you want to leave our viewers with?

- Yeah.

I think as we're looking at the whole concept of this, right, a lot of times we think about what we need to add on to our plates.

We think that's going to bring us more joy.

And I'm saying, why don't we just look at what we need to strategically subtract, what needs to be released?

So we go on the diet, right?

At the New Year's or whatever, we make a new year resolution.

And instead of saying, "I'm going to do this," we don't think about what do I need to get out of the refrigerator?

What do I need to bring back from the grocery store now?

Or if I'm going to lose the weight, if did I actually get the gym membership, how am I going to make space and time for it?

And I think that's also a part of this whole journey process, considering the cost of what it is that you desire to do.

- Oh, I love that.

Well, thank you so much for your time.

Absolutely.

- Hey, I'm Caleb.

Hey, I'm John.

We were introduced just by a random friend who was like, "Man, I think that you guys would work really well together."

And so we met on April 15th, 2022, I think.

Yeah, 2022.

So we played around and hung out in the studio and just tried some stuff and experimented for a little while.

That was about four years ago now, and we are so blessed at how far God's brought us.

- Over the years, we've had the privilege of sitting down with artists like Dante Bowe, Phil Whitman, and Jeremy Rosado.

So when Caleb and John broke through with a number one Christian radio hit and earned two Kaleb Fan Award nominations, we wanted to ask a simple question, why this music is connecting with so many right now.

- I think the best songs are written out of honesty, and I think the best songs are written out of just honesty, but honesty with God.

And I think that's kind of what we're seeing.

I think that's what people resonate with.

Not every day is going to be just rainbows and butterflies.

There's tough stuff that we all go through.

People are looking for something, for hope and looking for peace.

And I think people are just starting to recognize that and acknowledge it.

- Different paths brought them together, but a shared purpose has kept them moving forward.

For Caleb and John, the music has always been about something bigger than themselves.

- And the motivation at the root of it is not because we want to be more famous or make more money.

We want to keep our why in mind.

And our why is we are doing things because we are serving God, we are walking in our faith, and we are being vulnerable and telling our stories.

And ultimately, that's what art is, right?

It's telling your own story and pulling from your own experience and bringing that to the forefront of what you do.

When you are strong in your faith, when your faith is so important to you, that becomes your why.

It becomes such a deeply ingrained part of who you are that it just comes out in every facet of what we do.

So I think we keep that why at the center of everything.

And so everything we do where we need to grow, right, we want to continue expanding, it comes back to that why of why we're doing what we're doing.

And that is to share our stories and the hope that it might resonate with other people out there.

- And I think, I think people are just starting to, to recognize that and acknowledge it more and more.

So I don't know if it's going to stick around.

I pray it does.

And, and man, Caleb and I are going to be a part of it.

No matter what happens, we're going to keep spreading the gospel the best we can.

- Sometimes the stories that bring us the most joy also inspire hope.

As Joan Cusack returns as Jesse in Toy Story five, we're looking back at a conversation that just is as meaningful today.

More than 10 years ago, Joan shared the loss of her father to pancreatic cancer and why she's passionate about raising awareness for early detection.

- What I love so much about the Rel Foundation is that they're solely focused on early detection.

So there aren't a million things they're researching.

They're just researching early detection tests.

So, you know, if you get that test earlier, not only does the patient have a little bit better of chance to live, but also you can start doing the research to help kind of try to figure out this really devastating cancer.

- This season, we're reminded that joy isn't just making people smile.

It's also about using the moments that bring us together to inspire hope, spark important conversations, and make a difference.

More of the Toy Story five cast on later this season.

And there you have it.

We hope today's show brought a smile to your face, and you remember joy is in every season.

Always know your story matters.

- The Whitney Reynolds Show is supported by Devin O'Connor Law Firm.

When it comes to your injuries, we take it personally.

Together at Peace Foundation, remembrance, resilience, and comfort, creating a hopeful space for those who are grieving.

The C. Thomas Group, residential real estate investment and advisory, the Respiratory Health Association, clean air and healthy lungs for all.

Joeperillo.com, where you can browse their selection of pre-owned vehicles.

Joe Perillo is based in Chicago and ships all over the country.

Children's Learning Place, a school for our earliest learners dedicated to aiding every child with the power of learning.

And West Real Estate Group, providing multifamily investment in property management services.

The Couch Brothers, family and first responder owned.

MM LaFleur, for women by women.

Additional funding provided by Home Carpet One, Newbie, High Five Sports, Brand Appliance and TV.

- The inspiration keeps coming all season.

Here's what's coming up.

- But there came a point in my life where I hit rock bottom, and rock bottom's a gift if you can survive it.

- When did you know I'm at the lowest I've been?

- Well, you know when you wake up and something bad just happened to you and you have this like three or four second reprieve from remembering that it happened?

I woke up on a ledge in Los Angeles in kind of a flop sweat and I didn't get that reprieve.

I knew something terrible had happened the night before and I'd almost killed myself.

I stood on the ledge ready to jump, took my hands off even to jump and my phone rang - And - Startled me and I jumped down.

And coming out of that hotel room that night, I just decided, okay, I've been ambitious about business my whole life.

I'm going to be ambitious about myself for a while.

I flipped it from protecting the image for so long and then not caring about it.

And that's what that room did.

It was like, well, if the alternative is death, then who cares?

Right?

- Right.

- And so who cares who this avatar is and this thing that you build?

Let's figure out who you really are and be the best person that you could possibly be and whatever's left is left and I can build it back up.

- So I've worked in true crime television for about a decade now, but whenever I started out, I wasn't for my own show.

I was working for CBS News 48 hours.

I feel like part of my calling is just to be a light in dark places and finding true crime was totally unexpected in my career.

I've always been a storyteller, always looked for important stories, hard stories, and the crime beat just really found me.

- When you left the major network, did you have to take a little bit of time to turn up that inner voice where you healed - From - Some of those stories because there is a thing of burnout.

- Definitely.

And I was going from a murder trial to a mass shooting, to a suspected terrorist attack, to a manhunt for a serial killer, just one thing after another.

- Intense chronic nerve pain can be very lonely.

Nobody really understands.

And so to connect with other people that can really understand a deep level what you're experiencing is something kind of magical.

- All episodes are available for streaming anytime.

- I love me.