meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
The Steve Harvey Morning Show

Overcoming the Odds: A deeply personal exploration of fatherhood, addiction, and resiliency from Craig Melvin, news anchor of NBC’s Today show.

The Steve Harvey Morning Show

iHeartPodcasts

Society & Culture, Comedy

4.52.2K Ratings

🗓️ 14 June 2024

⏱️ 30 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Craig Melvin.  

For Craig Melvin this book is more an investigation than a memoir. It's an opportunity to better understand his father; to interrogate his family's legacy of addiction and despair but also transformation and redemption; and to explore the challenges facing all dads--including Craig himself, a father of two young children.

Growing up in Columbia, South Carolina, Craig had a fraught relationship with his father. Lawrence Melvin was a distant, often absent parent due to his drinking as well as his job working the graveyard shift at a postal facility. Watching sports and tinkering on Lawrence's beloved (but unreliable) 1973 Pontiac LeMans were two ways father and son connected, but as Lawrence's drinking spiraled out of control, their bond was stretched to the breaking point. Fortunately, Craig had a loving, fiercely protective mother who held the family together. He also had a series of surrogate father figures in his life--uncles, teachers, workplace mentors--who by their examples helped him figure out the kind of person and father he wanted to be.

Pops is the story of all these men--and of the inspiring fathers Craig has met reporting his "Dads Got This Series" on the Today show. Pops is also the story of Craig and Lawrence Melvin's long journey to reconciliation and understanding, and of how all these experiences and encounters have informed Craig's understanding of his own role as a dad. 

Support the show: https://www.steveharveyfm.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

If you're about to make a change in your life and you feel uncomfortable, that's the best feeling you can have.

0:07.0

Because for the first time in your life, you're making a decision that's going to be best for you and not what somebody told you to do.

0:16.0

And that's when all bets are off.

0:18.0

Welcome to Money Making Conversations.

0:20.0

I'm your host with Sean McDonald.

0:22.2

Our theme is there's no perfect time to start

0:24.3

following your dreams. I recognize that we all have different definitions of

0:28.0

success for you and maybe the size of your paycheck. It's time to stop reading

0:32.0

other people's success stories to start living your own.

0:34.3

Keep wedding.

0:38.3

My next guest is Craig Melvin. He's the co-host of the Today Show

0:44.0

and the author of the book, Pops,

0:45.7

learning to be a son and a father.

0:48.0

You may know Craig is an award-winning news anchor,

0:50.1

as I said earlier, on the Today's show.

0:52.0

You also have seen him on MS NBC Live and the host of Dateline.

0:55.4

He is on the show discussed his book, Pops, learning to be a son and the father.

0:59.1

It's the story of all the father figures in Craig's life and that includes inspiring men from his program or his series called

1:06.4

Dad's Got This series on NBC news today. These experiences and encounters have shaped

1:12.3

Craig's understanding of his own role as a dad, and I'm sure I can be related, we won't have a nice conversation.

1:17.0

He has two young children.

1:19.0

Please welcome the money-making conversation, my man, Craig Milvan.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from iHeartPodcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of iHeartPodcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.