Margaret Cho | Ten Years Sober, Still Counting
An hour before Margaret Cho arrived to tape this episode, David Begnaud's team found something in court documents neither of them had known. She had come to talk about Mr. Jackson, her high school English teacher in San Francisco — a man with a Barbara Walters voice, a motorcycle, cigarettes rolled in his sleeve, who wrote encouragement in the margins of her composition book at a point when her own parents had given up on her future. He was murdered while she was still in school. What the filings showed was that his killer, a homeless teenager Jackson had taken in, told a probation officer he had been groomed and abused by him. The claim has never been tested by a jury. Begnaud told her before the cameras rolled and offered to call the whole thing off. She stayed.
What follows is a conversation about how to hold both of those things at once. Cho talks about being expelled for truancy and transferring to the arts school, about the first A+ that reminded her she had once been a good student, and about the day the jocks in her classroom joked that the teacher had gotten what he deserved — after which she and her best friend Jerry walked out of the building and never went back. She never got a diploma.
She also talks with unusual directness about her own history of sexual abuse, which began around age five and involved, by her count, a lot of people. About the ABC sitcom that told her she was too fat to play herself, and the diet drug that cost her a working kidney. About a year and nine months in an institution, ten years sober, and the friend who didn't make it. And about the encouragement she now gives away freely to younger comics, because she knows exactly what it's worth.
Get more stories that remind you the world is still good. Sign up for our free newsletter: https://www.thedogoodcrew.com
Chapters ☀️
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. Different paths — same question.
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: Margaret Cho
Executive Producer: David Begnaud, Olivier Delfosse
Booker: Sully Bloch
Director of Photography: Foster Parks
Live Production Technician: Joseph Gabay & Will Whitley (Statik Creative)
Social: Maxim Trofimenko, Kylee Anderson, 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
Photo Credits:
Margaret Cho, Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts Yearbook
More description
An hour before Margaret Cho arrived to tape this episode, David Begnaud's team found something in court documents neither of them had known. She had come to talk about Mr. Jackson, her high school English teacher in San Francisco — a man with a Barbara Walters voice, a motorcycle, cigarettes rolled in his sleeve, who wrote encouragement in the margins of her composition book at a point when her own parents had given up on her future. He was murdered while she was still in school. What the filings showed was that his killer, a homeless teenager Jackson had taken in, told a probation officer he had been groomed and abused by him. The claim has never been tested by a jury. Begnaud told her before the cameras rolled and offered to call the whole thing off. She stayed.
What follows is a conversation about how to hold both of those things at once. Cho talks about being expelled for truancy and transferring to the arts school, about the first A+ that reminded her she had once been a good student, and about the day the jocks in her classroom joked that the teacher had gotten what he deserved — after which she and her best friend Jerry walked out of the building and never went back. She never got a diploma.
She also talks with unusual directness about her own history of sexual abuse, which began around age five and involved, by her count, a lot of people. About the ABC sitcom that told her she was too fat to play herself, and the diet drug that cost her a working kidney. About a year and nine months in an institution, ten years sober, and the friend who didn't make it. And about the encouragement she now gives away freely to younger comics, because she knows exactly what it's worth.
Get more stories that remind you the world is still good. Sign up for our free newsletter: https://www.thedogoodcrew.com
Chapters ☀️
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. Different paths — same question.
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: Margaret Cho
Executive Producer: David Begnaud, Olivier Delfosse
Booker: Sully Bloch
Director of Photography: Foster Parks
Live Production Technician: Joseph Gabay & Will Whitley (Statik Creative)
Social: Maxim Trofimenko, Kylee Anderson, 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
Photo Credits:
Margaret Cho, Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts Yearbook
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