Mitch Albom: You Don't Need Magic For a Second Chance. You Need This.

Are you living the life you were meant to live? What if you had a second chance?

In this interview, legendary author Mitch Albom joins us on the Uncorked podcast to discuss his incredible life journey and the powerful themes in his new book. From his early days as a musician and a top ESPN sports writer to the life-altering experience with his professor Morrie Schwartz that led to the global phenomenon "Tuesdays with Morrie," Mitch shares the pivotal moments that transformed his perspective on success, love, and legacy.

Dive deep into a conversation about empathy, regret, and the profound discovery that a second chance is not a magical gift, but a choice we can make every single day. Mitch also opens up about his inspiring philanthropic work in Detroit and Haiti, offering a powerful reminder that the greatest legacies are built on hope.

Introduction to Uncorked and Mitch Albom

Hello and welcome to Uncorked. I'm Jerrold Colton along with Bill Green. We talk about wine, life, and business. And we have a really special guest here today. We're not at our usual locale of Saddlehill Winery, but we're right around the corner, Temple Beth Sholom in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, where today's guest kind of grew up in this community. And we're here to talk about his new book. He is one of the legendary best authors on the planet. Why don't you introduce Mitch Albom?

Mitch, it's really a pleasure and an honor to have you here, but I gotta tell you, honestly, while we went to the same Hebrew school, you're a year older, and I remember you vividly walking down the hallways. But it wasn't until the early 90s when I saw you on The Sports Reporters on ESPN, I said, "Wait, I know that guy." And we've been following your career, and it's just been amazing. You're a terrific journalist, writer, screenwriter, philanthropist, which is really... I love learning about all your things that you're doing in Haiti and Detroit. Welcome to Uncorked.

Thanks. Thanks for having me. I don't know anything about wine or business, so we're gonna have to just talk about life, I think.

The Inspiration Behind "Twice"

Let's talk about life, because what was the inspiration on having second chances?

Well, this new book, Twice, is about a guy who has the ability to do anything in his life a second time. And the motivation for it was probably getting older. As you get older, more and more people around you talk about the things that they should have done or that they didn't get a chance to do, but they don't do it. When you're younger, you think, "Oh, I should get out of this career and try that." You do it. "I should get out of this relationship and try that." You do it. It seems to be that at a certain point in life, people just stop changing and then they just start regretting. So I wanted to write a book about, well, what if you did have the power to go back and change everything? Would it necessarily be better? And of course, as the character finds out in the book, not necessarily. Especially when it comes to relationships, love in particular.

And obviously, the character Alfie is a fictional character. But there's so many lessons in this book and all your books that apply to real life, and I think that's really probably what your goals are.

Yeah. And actually, a lot of the stuff that happened to Alfie in that book happened to me. I think you'll find most writers, even though they write novels, a lot of the incidents will come from their own life. So Alfie is not particularly skillful when he's a teenager with girls and a lot of embarrassing moments. And I didn't have to make any of those up. I just thought back to a couple of mine and threw them in there.

Reflecting on a "Twice Life"

Well, obviously in your own life, I don't know that you've got—call them second chances—but there's been transformations and pivots and things like that. So you were originally headed for a music career and then wound up in this thing called writing?

Yeah, I really... one of the reasons I thought I could do this book is because I'm sort of a walking example of a "twice life." I've had a couple of different existences. That was one. I started out as a musician, then ended up as a writer. But that's not all that unusual. In your 20s, you try one career and you do something else. For me, the real pivot came right about at the almost midpoint of my life. Well, let's hope not now that I do the math, maybe the third point. But I was 37.

Up to that point I had been really a gung-ho sports writer, Type A personality, 100 hours a week working. I was on ESPN three days a week. I lived up in Bristol, Connecticut just to do their... I launched ESPN2 with Keith Olbermann and Suzy Kolber. You know, do The Sports Reporters on Sunday morning, write five columns a week, do a radio show, do any television. I never said no to anybody for anything because I always thought, well, they won't ask again if you say no.

The Story Behind Tuesdays with Morrie

And then when I was 37, I had this experience with my old college professor, Morrie Schwartz, that turned into the book Tuesdays with Morrie. And it was just supposed to be... it was just sort of a screeching of the brakes. He was dying from Lou Gehrig's disease and I went to go visit him, thought it would be one time. I went again and again, and he started going every Tuesday. And we sort of did this last class together and what's important in life when you know you're going to die.

It was very apparent to me that here was this person who I really respected and loved when I was a student and he was dying, and nothing that I did in my life resembled what was important to him as he died. And I started to think about, well, really, if when you die, you don't talk about your work and you don't talk about your money, and you don't talk about your accomplishments, and you just talk about the people in your life and the love that you have in your life... I'm on a pretty bad path here. If I should suddenly die or find myself with a disease like he did, I wouldn't have very much in my life to look back on.

And so Morrie, kind of between inspiring me and kind of scolding me—he did both—I wrote a book about our experience together to pay his medical bills. And that was really the first time I'd ever done anything that was really for somebody else. Up to that point, almost everything I did was just for my career, my betterment. I wrote the book just to pay his medical bills. It was funny because nobody wanted the book. So I really thought, well, I'm really just doing this as a labor of love. But it was good training because I hadn't done anything as a labor of love.

I wrote it for a publisher who was the only publisher that was interested in it. And when they printed it, they printed 20,000 copies. And I thought, well, all right, I did something nice for somebody. Now I'll go back to sports writing. And what happened was... it didn't let me go back to sports writing because Tuesdays with Morrie became something that nobody could have anticipated. And it went on to sell millions of copies, and it became the biggest memoir of all time.

Still, right?

Oh, yeah. Still. Probably unless another memoir comes along and sells 20-something million copies. But the funny thing was that it wasn't just a book. It was the way that people reacted to me. Instead of being in the airport and people coming up to me and saying, "Hey, who's gonna win the Super Bowl? Sports Guy. Sports Guy." They didn't even know my name. They just recognized from ESPN. "Sports Guy, who's gonna win the Super Bowl?" And you'd say, "Patriots," and keep going. Cause the answer was always Patriots, not Lions back then. That would have gotten a laugh.

The Impact of Success and Grief

But then all of a sudden, I noticed about a year after Tuesdays with Morrie was people would come up to me, they'd say, "You're Mitch Albom, right?" And I'd say, "Yeah." And they'd say, "Well, my mother died of cancer, and the last thing we did was read your book together. Can I talk to you about her?" And you can't go "Patriots" and just keep going. You have to stop. You have to listen. You have to talk. And I have stopped and listened and talked. Not hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands of times. And you become sensitized to people's heartbreak and grief.

How many people in the world are walking around with a broken heart and you wouldn't even know it if you looked at them? My world began to change, and my concerns began to change, and I became more empathetic. That's blossomed into more than you have time to hear, but a whole long life of dedicating myself to charitable work in Detroit and in Haiti and with kids in an orphanage. All that kind of stemmed from that pivot that happened when I started to spend time with Morrie and do something for somebody else.

So I really do live, or have lived, a twice life. And the life I live now doesn't even resemble the life I lived back then. And I think that that can be true of a lot of people who feel like they can't change. That's not true. You can always change. You know, the whole thing about second chances is that you don't need a magical power to have a second chance. Like the character in the book, "second chance" is the next minute of your life, and you apply everything you've learned up to that point. That is your second chance. And your third and your fourth and fifth and thousandth and ten thousandth.

Mission in Haiti

It's such an inspiration, because I think being somebody that has also spent a lot of time giving back, there's always a skepticism like, "Why are they doing it? What's their motive? Is it for a tax deduction? What is it?" But when I look at it, and I'm sure we share the sentiments, it's an honor, it's a privilege, it's not an obligation. And what you do in Detroit and what you do in Haiti... when I saw your presentation about Haiti, wow. That was just mesmerizing. Where's it going now, Haiti?

Well, I've been in Haiti since 2010, so going on 16 years. And I go there every month. I operate an orphanage there. Haiti is the second poorest country in the world. It's right off of our shores. It's not in Africa, where all the rest of the poorest countries are. It's not in some faraway Asian part. It's an hour and a half from Miami. And yet you would be going back in time to go there. If you look at the suffering and the starvation and the lack of education, the lack of funds, the lack of basic water or health...

And our kids... we run an orphanage there in Port-au-Prince. Port-au-Prince is now 90% controlled by gangs. We're in the 10% area that isn't. But our kids have not left our orphanage grounds in four years. They can't even go outside. Too dangerous to be shot or kidnapped. When I go down, I have to take a helicopter into the city because you can't fly into Port-au-Prince anymore. They closed the airport two years ago. They shoot at the planes when the planes come in, so there are no planes. You have to take a helicopter and land in a secret location and then get in an armored car with bodyguards and drive to the orphanage. Just to get to an orphanage.

This is an orphanage where we now spend a huge portion of our budget on security. We have 24 armed security guards just ringing our place for an orphanage. It's preposterous, and this is what you have to do just to try to get by there. But thank God our kids are thriving. They go to school four hours a day in English and French on our campus. So they don't leave. The school's right there. And they all have their own beds and all get three healthy meals a day, and we have doctors and nurses on staff, and we have a music program and an arts program.

They end up graduating. And every one of our kids so far has earned a college scholarship here in the United States, and two of them are in medical school. I don't say that in any kind of bragging way. I say it to say, you see? This is... kids just need a chance. You give them a chance and they'll thrive. But if you deny them food and water and education, then they're not going to go anywhere. So, Haiti's a real challenge. And if anyone wants to help us, they can find out more about it at havefaithhaiti.org. That's our website.

Well, you know, Mitch, I know you're on a book tour now and you're super busy. My foundation, the Saddlehill Foundation, would love to support. And we'll get in touch with your people to make a donation and would love to be involved.

That's very kind, and thank you so much for your time. And I hope before you leave, you'll sign a book for me.

Defining a Legacy

Before you go, I want to talk legacy just for one second. And that is because for me, my legacy, if my life were to end right now, is my children. My children and everything that they created after. But for you, you've left quite a legacy of your work as well as the orphanage as well as the homeless work you've done with S.A.Y. Detroit. What to you is legacy?

Hope. That's all I want to do after I'm gone. I've inspired some hope.

Well, you have.

Hope will take care of itself. If you inspire hope in other people, they'll do things that will lead to great things. I don't need anything... I don't need to have accomplished any more than that. If I inspired hope in other people, then they'll take it from there.

Well, you are an inspiration. And as a person who loves the written word, I've never read anybody who uses it better than you do. And the things of when people approach you and tell you how you affected them... I mean, I wonder what it feels like to you knowing that. I mean, I've spent many hours in my bed reading and crying and laughing to your words. You've changed my life and affected my life, and you've done that to millions of people all over the world.

Thank you. Well, that means a lot to me. Thank you. That's very kind of you to say. Thanks for having me on your show, guys.

Conclusion and Sign-Off

It's really our honor. It's a pleasure. Please read this and all the other Mitch Albom books. You will not be sorry. Twice. A really special one coming up. And thank you for spending the time with us. Glad for coming back to this community that I know still is home.

This is home. Well, thank you. Good to see you.

Thank you. So thank you, Mitch Albom, on behalf of Bill Green, Jerrold Colton. Thank you all for listening to Uncorked. We'll catch you next time.