Moment. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Jennifer brea was an active harvard phd student that was about to marry the love of her life when she was struck down by a Chronic Fatigue syndrome, the film, called unrest. Welcome this evening, and omar wasow will be here as well. First, the clip from the documentary unrest. That is my husband, omar. I met him when i was 25. We were both at harvard. Getting our phds. Three months later, i knew i wanted to marry him. I mean sure, we all know nothing lasts forever. I just thought i would have more time. And then one day i got a fever of 104. 7 degrees. I got better, but something was not right. Jennifer, take me back to that day and tell me more about what happened. So we had been traveling together and i came back and had a really high fever. And i thought it was just the flu. I had been sick before so i expected i would get better. And when my fever broke i was so dizzy when i tried to get up out of bed i would walk into door frames. And then i started to you know i got better and that whole first year i would get infection after infection after infection. And every time i went to the doctor, he would run his tests and because they all came back normal he told me that i was not sick. And that everything was fine even though i was going down, down, down, down, and it was only when i became completely bedridden that i started to be referred to specialists. And i was eventually diagnosed with conversion disorder, which is sort of a modern day term for hysteria. They told me it was all in my head. When they tell you its all in your head but youre feeling it all over your body, how do you juxtapose what theyre saying with what youre feeling. The funny thing is, i was a phd student at harvard, and said i cant just dismiss what the doctor is saying. I have to gather more evidence and try it out for myself. I walked home from my Doctors Office that day noticing the pain in my legs, feeling how hard it was to walk but i kept thinking well maybe this is not real. Because he is telling me that the symptoms are real but they have no biological cause, so i walked home and by the time i got home i collapsed. And it was the last fever i ever had and then i was in bed for four months. How do you respond . Im talking to you, not a studio full of physicians who say there is no biological connection to it . How do you respond to people who look at you and say what those doctors say jennifer, its all in your head, that its mind over matter . Well, i think that is something we want to believe. So im sitting here in this chair, and my legs, as i put my feet on the floor, all the blood has pulled up underneath my feet. So i have a condition that basically means years of practice. But basically i have a my heart has a hard time pumping the blood up to my brain. And i think for me, what i would say first is there is a lot of evidence. Reams of science, showing the abnormality, and Patients Living with Chronic Fatigue syndrome, it takes a lot of time for the Scientific Evidence to be transferred to clinical practice. The doctors have given me tools, they have for tests that they have and its very hard when a patient comes in with a set of sin symptoms that a doctor has not trained to read, and when they were in medical school and the tests come back normal they have to try to understand the gap between what they see quote unquote objectively, between what the patient is telling them, and what theyre seeing. So youre not bedridden today, youre sitting on the couch with your husband, so something is working. Give me a sense of the journey youre on, at least to this point. On a scale of one to ten, where are you in terms of your strength in capability . So i think i may be about a four. Which may be misleading. Its the magic of makeup, and also i recovered a lot of my cognitive function. But still if i were to walk more than 50 or 100 feet, i would probably you know, collapse on the floor. So its misleading, so i use a wheelchair whenever im out of my house. But i can do a lot of work i love because i have regained some of that brain function. But i still have deficits, so i have not written a book in like six years, i used to read a lot but never will be able to get back and do the kind of Research Work i was doing. And that is why im on this path of being a filmmaker and visual storyteller. What i would say is, this is a part of the mission im on. There is so much science doesnt understand. We know a small fraction of what is there is fto know, we have t listen more to what patients tell us. They say omar, that love conquers all things. Im not saying this because youre here and because were friends, im saying it because i know it to be true. I know people who have been married and a traumatic incident happened, and they are just not the same. Take me back to what happened, you could have said i love you sweetie, but i just dont want to spend the rest of my life since we just got into it having to endure. Tell me about the notion we see and hear and practice that love does conquer all things. Well, you know part of what makes us work is that we just feel incredibly lucky to have each other. I mean, as jen sometimes says, were almost irreplaceable to each other. So there were definitely moments as she was getting sicker and in some ways losing her personality and i felt her almost like fading before my eyes that it was scary. But i also am somebody who is deeply optimistic and just had the sense that we were going to be able to figure this out. We were people who kind of had you know, a spirit of adventure, this was going to be a new challenge for us. And we were going to figure it out. And its been really hard but we bit by bit have made progress and have been able to kind of steel each other so that if my optimism you know, wanes a little like she is able to back me up and vice versa. I wouldnt necessarily say love conquers all, but it absolutely has been a bed rock that has carried us through tough times and strengthened our bond. I mean, as hard as this has been were closer now than when it started. Like the song, how do you lose yourself to someone and never lose your own way . We have known each other for years as i said, and before i became tavis smiley, whatever it means, you were there supporting my dreams and you were always known as an entrepreneur, you went on to get your phd. Of course that is how you guys met. How have you looked after her and not lost your own way . That has been hard, being a caregiver is really hard at the level of when she was at her sickest, i kind of had a vision of what a mom super power was, these meals just appeared. I have to plan meals and have medicine ready. And so its like oh, right. Like that takes work. And you know, it comes being a professor is really demanding, too. So i was pushed to my limit. But i also i feel like my heart is bigger for this experience and there are moments where i dont know, im listening to you know, experiences of people coming back from who were soldiers and their wives talking about caring for them. I just have this deep empathy for that experience. And im grateful to have a bigger heart and so you know its definitely not the journey we imagined for ourselves. But its one that has enriched us and for which as hard as its been there is a lot to be grateful for. I suspect, i could be wrong, you tell me if i am, jen, i suspect there are times when you certainly felt sorry for yourself. But help me understand how you handle perhaps feeling sorry for omar. Before we actually got married we were engaged and i said many, many times to him. You dont have to do this. Like when you asked me to marry you we were signing up for a vision of our life that was you know traveling the world. And having fun. Being free and having a family and all of that. And so you dont have to sign up to do this. And he said to me, you know, are you kidding . You know, i waited my whole life basically. And we really have waited our whole lives for each other. So there is the sense of you know, i am getting better. Its really slow, but i improve year over year through treatment. Through drugs that have helped. And its slow. But regardless, you kind of learn that what matters is what you have together. And even though you know, our lives are smaller in some ways theyre also much richer and much more meaningful. Which is not to say i dont want to get better tomorrow or i wish this. But that i feel like there have been surprising you know, things have come out of it both and the chance to you know make the film and be the artist and i think both to be on this Mission Together to help you know bring to life this community that im a part of. People who have been sick for so long and often dont have a voice and cant show up in person. The film is called unrest, jennifer and omars story, im honored to have you here on the program. Thank you. Always pleased to welcome william smoky robinson to this program. He is one of the best loved voices and prolific songwriters in history. His next project is called Christmas Every day, and features appearances by featured guests. Always wonderful to have you on this program. So glad all of these years later you can do what you do. It seems like you have written every good lyric there is to be written, and you still find motivation to do new stuff. As far as music goes, i still perform. People ask me all the time, who dont know, are you still performing . Because i cant find a replacement. Man, i mean it. I tried it. And it just didnt work. No, no, no, i tried retiring and that didnt work for me. And what this gives me i cant find a replacement for that. You know, i tried other not doing it. And went stir crazy, man. What does it still give you all of these years later . The Live Performance . It gives me a charge that i dont get anywhere else. I love it when we are there, and i hear the people singing back and were reacting to each other. And so on and so forth. You know, tavis, i can be sick and once i hit the stage all that disappears. Because its just the place that is like wonderland for me, and i dont get that anywhere else. I said this before, its worth repeating just to say how much i love and appreciate you and the gift of being in the audience and you always coming out and saying hello afterwards. But there is nothing like being in your audience and your show is different than anybody else in the sense that your lyrics are so powerful and resonant and so loved and appreciated and embraced, that literally, every song you sing the audience knows the lyrics, and to your point there is nothing like being in the audience. And Everybody Knows top to bottom the lyrics of all of your songs. When you see it on stage that they know your stuff, how do you process it . Its hard to process it. But its beautiful, man, like isaii say a beautiful experience, im so blessed. Especially where it happens, when we play in countries where the primary language is not english, and they still know the songs . Cant beat it. I feel like you just keep getting caught up in a love sway. And if that feels like that in the audience, i wonder what smoky feels in the audience . I feel the love sway, the same thing, that happens for me nowhere else in the world. And the impressive thing is not how good you sound on all the tracks of the stuff that we know, but here again in smoky robinsons own way, you have three new songs. How do you write new Christmas Songs . I guess the same process as any other song. You have to realize that youre writing about christmas and what does that mean . And then write from that. You know, and there is a song called the night that baby was born. I want to talk about the three new ones. Well the night that baby was born was inspired by the fact that we actually kind of celebrate Christmas Eve or Christmas Eve is the beginning of us celebrating christmas day. And Christmas Eve is so important. Its for little kids, when santa claus is there, all that. So i think that that night changed the world. Yeah. You know. When jesus was born that changed the world. The whole world took on a new aura, a new meaning, everything on that night. So that is what that is about. Yeah, yeah. There are two others, Christmas Every day. Christmas every day is like our title track. I actually wrote Christmas Every day many, many years ago. But we put it on this record and its just talking about the fact that if the person that you are into, who you love, loves you, then its Christmas Every day. Pretty simple. Absolutely. Im always fascinated how you can write a song. I mean, its one thing to talk about you because youre such a different animal, you have written so much stuff covered by so many people around the world. But whats it like when you write a song that ends up sitting for years and you come back to it for a project like this like decades later. Well, tavis, i have always told you i think that first of all my main goal is to write a song. You know, when i go into the studio, i want to have a song. Because perhaps when i go in there and im recording it on myself or somebody else i may not give it the right treatment. I might not give the treatment that people are going to say oh, i love it. But if its a song, it has a chance to live on and off, and 20 years from now somebody can pick it up and say oh, i like this song, and record it and do the right treatment where people accept it and so on and so on. I always try to start by writing a song, if i had written it 50 years before then it would have meant something or 50 years from now alits going to mean something. It must take a great deal of humility and i am curious how you know the answer to this. Seems like looking from the outside in it must take a great deal of humility, to write a song and get in the studio, and say oh, this is not for me. You wrote this. But you did say but it aint for me. But you know, tavis, ive never done that. If you heard one of my song by some other artist i have written that song specifically for that artist. Ill just use, the song that has become my International Anthem as a songwriter, we sing it all over the world and we dont even have to start singing it, as soon as people hear boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, theyre hearing my girl. That is my International Anthem as a songwriter. So many people come to me and say why did you give a song from the temptations . I say if it werent for the temptations, i probably would never have written that song. Because they were my project, the first hit we had was the way you do the things you do they had so many singers in that group man and i used eddy kendricks to use that song. Wise choice, by the way. All the writers and producers, it didnt mean because i got the first hit, didnt automatic mean i was going to get the record. All the artists, they were open to producing it if the artists liked the song. So they started using eddy to sing the lead, so now i know you have paul williams, awesome singer, david ruffin in that group, awesome singer. So i said im going to write some songs for them. And my girl, i did i told him he was demanding. Come here baby, let me love you i always tease him about that. I did that, i said because he can really sing it. If i get this dude to sing Something Sweet and mellow, and i just wanted him to use it. Because of his voice, if it had not been for them, i would have not written it. So they were the written that it was created. Its always like that. If i go into a studio, and i have something for myself then that is for myself. I dont go in there and say oh, i dont like it for me now, so let me see a song listening to you telling that story i have the same reaction that i always had when i hear or even look or think about the fact that in one group they had eddy kendricks and david ruffin. All of those guys amazing, man. Its cosmically unfair, man. They were an amazing group. And the temptations were a group, you know a lot of groups you work with them and while youre teaching the lead vocals youre doing background stuff. Well, the background i want you to sing such and such. Not with the temptations, man, i started showing david, we were at the apollo theater. So i took they wim down in betw the shows and started showing them my girl. I said david is going to sing this song. David was off to the side, and they were always making their background vocals so i didnt have to worry about that with them. One of the most popular parts of that song is hey, hey, hey, the timations wrote that. Because they were just an awesome group, man. You worked with some good ones, man, you worked with some good ones. The third song here, the original, youre my present. Talk about that. Well, youre my present, i was thinking when i was going to do this christmas record that christmas is a holiday that everyone celebrates, basically. You know. And there are a lot of people who are not in position to give presents, you know. Theyre financially not in position to do it. So youre my present is a song about a dude telling his woman its okay if you dont got no money to buy me a present. Thats all right. Whatever you cant buy me is cool because i got you, and youre my present. So that is what that is about. Youre such a mack. Youre such a mack. Im not sure, i want to play that song, smoky. I like getting presents. Im not sure, i want to play that. But it sounds good, though, those are the three new ones here, but what is the experience like for you, i asked this question of so many audiences that had christmas records, what is the joy for you being on stage just singing Christmas Music to begin with. You know, Christmas Music is joyful basically anyway. So singing it anywhere is good, and normally if you sing a Christmas Song on stage as people know theyre singing it too. And what we did with this record, we did adam anders, the guy who was the musical director on the show glee, i just go to him and tell him what i want. We did different flavors, white christmas, which is normally a ba ballad. We did it like a bosanova, and changed it. We did a new orleans jazz Trombone Shorty killed it. Did he kill it or what . We tried to do different flavors that had not been done before. I love the title, my mother, who watches in indiana, my mother loves Christmas Music. She is the one person, my mom is the person that would play Christmas Music when its 98 degrees in july. She just loves Christmas Music. So you know this season, its one the write. Im going to have you sign it. Its for my mom, its on the way, mom. Smoky robinson, an amazon original. So you can download it at amazon, smoky, good to have you on, my friend, always happy to have you. Happy holidays. I love you man. Thank you for watching tonight, that is our show tonight. And as always, keep the faith. For more information on todays show, visit tavis smiley at pbs. Org. Hi, im tavis smiley, join me next time. Well see you then. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Today on americas test kitchen, bridget prepares coq au riesling, gadget guru lisa reviews waiters corkscrews, and julia cooks the ultimate tuscanstyle beef stew. Right here on americas test kitchen. Americas test kitchen is brought to you by dcs. Dcs manufacturers of professionally styled indoor and outdoor kitchen equipment