Dying To Ask

Jill Martin is coming off one of those "what's next" kind of years. And, she says she's kinder and more grateful because of it. "I mean this year. First it's breast cancer, and you know, through the kitchen sink then a divorce. A new company. But it's it's turning around," says Jill. For 18 years, lifestyle host Jill Martin has dazzled Today Show fans with her style and energy. Her trademark 'Steals and Deals' segments carved a niche in morning television that's been replicated all over. But Jill's uncanny ability to tap into trendy products she believes in have set her apart. Life was going great until it wasn't. Last year she dealt with breast cancer and a divorce while launching a new company. "I would go and do Steals and Deals and then go for chemo, and then lay in bed for the rest of the time," says Jill. A product from that new company was just named to Oprah's Favorite Things. Her health and personal life are back on track. And Jill is sharing her journey about how kindness and gratitude have helped h

Is a phone call an act of aggression? The answer is it depends. The latest digital trend recommends texting before calling someone and it's a dividing people based on their communication preferences. Diane Gottsman is the founder of the Protocol School of Texas. She coaches professionals across the county on modern etiquette which often comes down to communication styles. "My best advice is to read the room," Diane says.  Not sure how your boss wants to communicate with you? Ask. But what about the rest of us? Is it really bad to call a friend who crossed your mind? What about a friend who rapid-fires text missives like they're wiffle balls? It's a digital minefield out there! On this Dying to Ask: How phone calls became so polarizing. How to end an endless text exchange. Why you should never leave a voicemail. What to do when your teens ghost you for hours but expects you to answer immediately.

Can't sleep? You're not alone but getting some good ZZZ's could be one hack away. The U.S. News & World Report annual survey on sleep is out. Survey says: 75% of us are too stressed out to get a good night's sleep. Julia Forbes is the magazine's sleep editor. She says there's a lot keeping us up. "Life stressors. You have work. You have kids. There are big world events that are top of mind that we also cover in our sleep survey," says Julia. Julia's journey to becoming an expert on all things sleep is fascinating. And, she reports getting nine hours of sleep a night so she practices what she preaches. Bad sleep is linked to everything from health issues to mood problems. That phrase "everything is better after a good night's sleep?" It's legit. Want to increase productivity? You need to sleep. Want to be in a better mood? You need to sleep. Having issues with your partner? Try sleeping with or without that partner. Sleep divorces are on the rise for the third year in a row and Julia says some sleep honest

Planning on making a goal for 2025? Don't set it until you road test it. The start of a new calendar year seems like a great time to start a new challenge or resolution. But is it? In this Five with Fitz, we're making the case for road testing a personal challenge in December. Listen to this short episode for hacks on how to make sure that resolution is worth setting.

A recent poll finds Americans are getting more comfortable with AI. But, they're still worried about it.  The survey was done by Bentley University and Gallup. You can check it out here. 56% of people polled say AI's influence is equally good and bad in society. Two out of three of us say we're learning more about it. But only one in 10 describes themselves as knowing a lot about artificial intelligence.  David Pogue has forgotten more about AI than most of us will ever know.  He's one of the top science and tech reporters in the country and a popular keynote speaker on everything from climate change to crypto.  "All people want me to talk about these days is AI," David told me when I moderated his appearance at the Sacramento Speakers Series.  David's main message?  New technology is scary to humans.  Always has been. Always will be.  But resisting change is pointless.  And you might be surprised at some of the upsides of artificial intelligence.  On this Dying to Ask: Why you need to understand and embrace

Think you're busy? Try telling that to time and productivity expert Laura Vanderkam. Vanderkam is the New York Times best-selling author of eight books on time management and host of the daily productivity podcast Before Breakfast. Her books include "What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast" and "168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think." "We all have 24 hours in a day," she said. "And many of the things we think are happening in our lives are based mostly on impressions." Vanderkam says the easiest way to unlock free time is to keep a time log of what you actually do in a day. Often, we think we're busier than we are and can change our relationship with the clock. "People track their time, and they tend to realize well, maybe I do have some free time. It's probably not as much as I want, but it's some. And then once you realize that you're like well, let's figure out ways to work with this," says Vanderkam. In this Dying to Ask: Where we tend to waste the most time How to keep a time log Why

Being bored at the Olympics is a good thing if you're Dr. Marcy Faustin. Faustin is a co-head team physician for USA women's gymnastics. Paris will be her second Olympics. The delayed Tokyo Games were her first Olympic experience. She thought protecting her athletes from COVID-19 and injury would be her main challenge. Instead, she found herself thrust into one of the most seismic moments in sports when superstar Simone Biles had to withdraw from competition to take care of her mental health. "What Simone was able to do is show that you need to take care of yourself first even if she feels the external pressure of the gymnastics community, the Olympics and the world needing her to be the face of the Games. It allowed other people to say, 'I'm not doing OK right now and I'm having a hard time,'" Faustin said. "The Simone effect" rippled through the Games and the world, giving other athletes the freedom to admit the mental toll training and competing takes. Protecting the mind is as important as protecting the

Experience matters. And, it may be the U.S. men's water polo team's greatest asset heading into Paris. Ten of the 13 guys on the roster competed on the Tokyo Olympic team, including three-time Olympian Alex Obert. "There is a huge difference between your first Olympics and your second Olympics, the kind of nerves just knowing what you're going to go through every single day," Obert said. Obert grew up in Loomis, California. He played for the University of the Pacific, the U.S. National Team, played overseas, and competed in two Olympics. He retired after the Tokyo Olympics and took a finance job. Then came the call asking him if he'd come out of retirement for one more go at gold. His wife and employer said go for it. And, Obert made the cut, joining his third Olympic water polo team. Obert says, "Even in retirement, I still had that itch to compete at the highest level. I didn't know if I was going to be able to make the comeback. But obviously I was able to make it enough to come back and help the team, and

Robyn Stevens walks faster than most people run and is on track to make her second Olympic Team. Stevens is the fastest female race walker in the country. Growing up in Vacaville, she said a high school track coach suggested she try race walking. Stevens did and instantly fell in love with the sport.  "It's super technical it's what drew me to it," Stevens said. Women compete in the 20-kilometer distance in the Olympics. The sport relies on precision and power. "With race walking, you have to land with one foot on the ground at all times. You have to land with [a] straight leg that stays straight until it passes beneath the hip," Stevens said. Judges line the course watching for foot infractions and rely purely on what they see. There is no video review. Athletes walk faster than most of us can run. "In a 20k race, I'll average anywhere from a 7-minute to 7:15 a mile," Stevens said. She contemplated retiring after the delayed Tokyo Games where she finished 33rd out of 58 competitors. Two things kept her in th

From grit to glam. Women's Health is celebrating female athletes with its first-ever Olympics issue. Liz Plosser is the editor-in-chief of Women's Health magazine. The July-August issue is a global celebration of women's sports and athletes and spans 10 editions of the magazine worldwide. "We really wanted to focus on women who would share their stories vulnerably, and let us into who they are as human beings, as advocates in their community, as moms as role models. In addition, they're sharing how they train and compete and perform at the top of their game," Liz said. Women's Health drew on the colors of the Olympic rings for inspiration and then took the women out of the gym and into iconic settings for their photo shoots. "We put them in a really epic-like superhero environment because they are superheroes to us," Liz said. "We also wanted to show them an action and reflect." Olympic gold medalist Sydney McLaughlin- Levrone (track and field) is on the cover. Six other athletes are featured in the issue inc

Keana Hunter spends most of her day upside down, trying to avoid getting kicked in the head while hiding from the sun. And she wouldn't have it any other way. The 20-year-old first-time Olympian will represent Team USA at the Paris Olympics this summer. Team USA hasn't qualified in the Olympic artistic team event since 2008. It last medaled in the sport formerly known as synchronized swimming with a bronze at the 2004 Athens Games. Head coach Andrea Fuentes is getting a lot of credit for turning the team around. Fuentes is the most decorated artistic swimmer ever for Spain and won four Olympic medals. Keana and her teammates relocated to Los Angeles for a year, putting their lives on hold to train for 10 hours a day, six days a week. Eight of those hours are in the water. Artistic swimming is considered one of the toughest sports in the Olympics because of its blend of physical strength, flexibility, and performance. "You're upside down in the water looking at your pattern and making sure you're in the right

Katrina Young has unfinished business and she wants to get it done in Paris. The two-time Olympic diver will compete in the U.S. Olympic Diving Trials in Knoxville, Tennessee, from June 17-23. She'll compete in both solo and synchronized events. Katrina grew up in the Pacific Northwest, graduated from the University of Florida with a music degree in 2015 and competed at the 2016 Rio Olympics and the 2020 Tokyo Games. She didn't medal in either. Her third Olympic push has focused heavily on mindset. "You do have to go through this series of moments where the pressure feels very heavy. And I don't think that I've ever gotten into the zone at the Olympics where I've gotten through the pressure," says Katrina. Going for a third Olympic team meant doing things differently. The 32-year-old is a newlywed. She and her husband relocated to the West Coast. Katrina moved to Los Angeles last year to train at the USC pool and pursue her other passion as a singer-songwriter. The change in scenery and shakeup in training ar

They say good things come in threes. Maggie Steffens hopes they come in fours. Steffens is the team captain for the U.S. Olympic Women's Water Polo Team. The team has won three straight Olympic gold medals. Winning a fourth would make history as no team, men's or women's, has won four straight gold medals. We caught up with Steffens and her team at a sold-out exhibition game at Long Beach City College. The crowd was packed with female teenage club players. "I was once that little girl on a pool deck looking up and seeing role models and saying, that's something I want to do," Steffens said. Steffens' team is a team is a mix of veterans and first-time Olympians. She leads with an Olympic mindset grounded in gratitude with an eye on mentorship for the next generation of players. Steffens says, "Going into this Olympics gratitude is one of my biggest things. How cool is it I get this opportunity and how can I make this torch a little brighter for the future of our sport?" Coach Adam Krikorian says his team tries

35 years is a long time to wait for a dream. But Bill May says it's worth it. Bill was 10 years old when he started artistic swimming. He fell in love with the sport and dreamed of going to the Olympics. "Every time someone would tell me no, I'd say watch me. You're going to see me at the Olympic Games. You're going to tell me no and I'm going to say yes. They're going to say that person followed his dreams and there he is at the Olympic Games," says Bill. The problem? Artistic swimming (formerly synchronized swimming) didn't allow men in Olympic competition. Bill quit competitive swimming after watching his teammates win the 2004 Olympic bronze in Athens and put his aquatic talents to work in other ways. He joined the cast of Cirque Du Soleil's "O" and spent 18 years touring with the production. But he never gave up advocating for men to be allowed to compete in his sport at the Olympics. In 2022, the International Olympic Committee announced a rule change that allows up to two men per team in the artistic t

A trip to Paris would be the ultimate revenge after getting dumped for Theo Brunner and Trevor Crabb. Both are veteran beach volleyball players and both got dumped last year by their prior partners. The timing couldn't have been worse. Crabb says it often takes three to four years of playing with a partner to create the kind of chemistry it takes to qualify for the Olympics. "We're one of the older teams on tour. I'm 34 he's 38 . We've been through the partner changes and stuff before," says Crabb. That experience let them get to work while getting to know each other. "As an elder statesman in the sport, I've seen good teams win tournaments who hate each other's guts and don't talk and teams that love each other that can't get it done. All that matters is scoring points," says Brunner. The Paris Olympics will feature 24 teams, of each gender, playing under the Eifel Tower. Team USA has already qualified two women's teams. Countries can qualify a maximum of two pairings per gender and so far no U.S. men's team

The girls in the boat are heading to Paris and Folsom's Michelle Sechser has Lake Natoma to thank. Sechser is a two-time Olympic rower in lightweight double sculls. She fell in love with the sport at age 14 after following her older sister to Capital Crew. That rowing club is based at the Sacramento State Aquatic Center on Lake Natoma and has produced multiple Olympic champions. "When I started at Capital Crew, never in a million years that I think I will be a two-time Olympian," Sechser said.  She started seriously pursuing the National Rowing Team after grad school and came in 5th at the Tokyo Olympics. Lightweight sculls feature athletes much smaller than those found on the eight-person boats. That leads to races being won (or lost) in the blink of an eye. At 37, Sechser is older than a lot of rowers. She'd already planned on Paris being her last Olympics. Then the International Olympic Committee announced her event would be dropped from the Olympic lineup after 2024. Sechser predicts an epic final saying,

Sagen Maddalena has a literal shot at gold this summer at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics. Maddalena is a two-time Olympic shooter and will compete in two air rifle events at the summer games. She grew up in Groveland, California. She was homeschooled in the small mountain town and was introduced to her sport through a 4-H gun safety class. She got hooked and went on to become an eight-time All-American collegiate shooter at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. That led to a career as a sharpshooter in the U.S. Army and these days, Sgt. Sagen Maddalena is a member of the elite World Class Athlete Program, which allows members to train and compete in sports on an international level while representing their country. You might think shooting is a sport of perfectionists. Maddalena says perfectionism actually works against her as an athlete. "I think that's one of the things that makes me so good at it is is that I've put in a lot of hours of work and discipline. I've been stubborn to make sure I follow that disci

The American dream and the Olympic dream collide in Johanna Garton's new book, "All in Stride." All in Stride: A Journey in Running, Courage and the Search for the American Dream is about Olympian Shadrack Kipchirchir and his wife, Sgt. Elvin Kibet, two American professional runners. Both competed in February's U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. Shadrack competed for Team USA in the 10,000m at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics. Johanna Garton is a longtime Colorado-based endurance sports writer who met the married couple in Denver. All in Stride tells the story of how the runners independently made their way from Kenyan villages to American colleges, the military and professional running. Their American dream turns into an Olympic dream as each pushes to represent their new country. Their adjustment to American culture isn't easy and includes brushes with bigotry and intolerance. "I heard about this program that was part of the U.S. Army based in Colorado Springs. It was soldiers in the U.S. Army who also we

Kali Wilding and Shelley Oates-Wilding are on the ultimate Olympic mother-daughter road trip that hopefully ends in Paris. Kali is one of Team USA's top sprint kayakers. Shelley is a two-time Olympian for Team Australia and the current U.S. National Coach in canoe-kayak. Kali grew up in Hawaii surrounded by water and her mother's Olympic legacy. But Shelley says she was careful to not push her sport on her kids. Kali started out as a gymnast but couldn't resist the water. She recently won the K-2 sprint kayak event at the U.S. Olympic Canoe Kayak Team Trials at the CSUS Aquatic Center at Lake Natoma, California. The next and final step in becoming an Olympian is competing in the Continental Olympic qualifier in Sarasota, Florida, in April. An Olympian being coached by a parent who is also an Olympian is rare. And, Kali and Shelley hope to make that dream happen this summer at the Paris Games. "We get to travel so much together. It's crazy fun having a mother as a coach, best friend, travel buddy. It's a dream

Get to know Olympic hopeful gymnast Riley Loos as he tumbles with Fitz through a round of FIVE WITH FITZ. Five rapid fire questions with a bonus question.