Fame, Pressure & Healing with Nia Sioux

Couple Things with Shawn and Andrew

Shawn Johnson + Andrew East

Society & Culture

5.0 • 39.9K Ratings

🗓️ 7 May 2026

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Nia Sioux joins us for a deeply honest conversation about growing up in the spotlight, navigating toxic training environments, body image, and learning how to separate discipline from emotional harm in competitive performance spaces. We also discuss the culture of “tough love” in dance and athletics, and how harmful behavior is often normalized or disguised as discipline, passion, or preparation for success. Nia also talks about her book, Bottom of the Pyramid, and the themes that inspired it — including resilience, triumph, and defining success for herself.Beyond the entertainment industry, this episode explores confidence, burnout, mental health, womanhood, and the process of rebuilding a sense of self outside of performance. A thoughtful, vulnerable, and incredibly important conversation that we loved so much! Love you guys! Shawn & Andrew https://www.instagram.com/niasioux/ https://linktr.ee/niasioux?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMjU2MjgxMDQwNTU4AAGn4QQkztuGCYOTk9ao7Li_pViWJqPQoM3xhVXS_wrHGnDfRzjUGXUH9ICiKgA_aem_bxAGkwkF5Do78XDwxxzB0g Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	What's up, everybody? Welcome back to a couple things interviews. With Sean and Andrew. Today we have a very
0:05.0	large name, Nia Sue. You probably have known of her and watched her grow up on the screen from what she
0:12.4	became famous for, which was dance moms. But today we are talking about her book and how she is
0:17.1	here to tell her story her way. I was really impressed by Nia and how she communicated herself and has dealt with a lot of
0:24.2	hurdles in life and really come out better and now is sharing her experiences in a way that I feel
0:32.0	like is balanced and with hopes of improving other people's lives.
0:37.3	She is so articulate for her age and she's so much... and with hopes of improving other people's lives.
0:43.8	She is so articulate for her age and she's so mature and just it was wonderful to have her here.
0:47.5	Yeah. Thank you, Nia, for your time. If we want to find out more about Nia and what she's up to,
0:52.2	including information on how to buy her book. We'll link it down below. But without further ado,
1:13.0	Nia Sue. Nea, welcome to the show. How are you? I'm good. How are you? Thanks for having me. Glad you're here. Welcome to Nashville. Thank you. I'm going to start with the oddball question here. I'm curious. Do you know the origins of your name, Nia Sue? Kind of. Well, Nia in Swahili means purpose.
1:13.4	Okay.
1:15.0	And then Sue.
1:15.8	Thank you. My gosh.
1:16.7	Thank you.
1:17.8	And Sue, my middle name is, you know, there's the Native American tribe, the Sioux.
1:25.7	Yeah.
1:26.2	So I'm part Native American. So that's why my parents named me like Nia Sue.
1:31.2	So is your middle name. She's actually my middle name. So I go by Nia Sue, but my full name is Nia Sue.
1:35.9	But my stage name is like Nia Sue, but it's also my own name as well. Yeah. Okay. Great. Congratulations on
1:41.9	your book. Thank you so much. How has the process been? It's been great. Right. I mean, this whole thing has been so wonderful. It really has. It's been very, I don't know, like it's just getting to meet everyone and talk about my story and meet people who resonate with it. It just, it means a lot. It means a lot.
2:03.1	And I don't take any of it for granted. Has it been cathartic actually going back and reflecting on
	...

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