Joey: There are obviously phases of a woman's life, and there are commonalities throughout that for health concerns, things like that, but at each phase, there's something different. What are the top five or top things you think of at each phase of advice for women 's health?

Cheryl: There are some things that stay true throughout your whole life. What are the simplest things we can do as women to stay healthy? We can not smoke. Oh my God, don't smoke. Don't start. If you started, quit. That's the simplest thing you can do. It has the most important impact on your health, and that's true your whole life.

Cheryl: Eat well. We live in a country where we're super-sizing things. We're not eating healthy. In school, we learn about nutrition as a token class in high school, maybe. And then with. It's almost something we never discuss again for the rest of our lives. So eat healthy, exercise, go to the gym, take the stairs, and have a treadmill in front of your TV. These are such simple things that are true throughout a woman's life. And they affect everything.

Cheryl: They affect our fertility. They affect our periods. Being a non-smoker, healthy eating, and exercising are going to affect whether you get cancer or heart attacks. These things are the same throughout your life, but there are specific things in a woman's life that will be different. When I was young and trying to prevent pregnancy, I had certain healthcare needs. When I am now older, and I want to get pregnant, and now I'm pregnant, and I'm scared to death because I've never been pregnant before, and someone answers all these millions of questions I have, that's a whole different chapter in your life.

Cheryl: And when women start to go through empty nesting and then menopause hits, we now live a third of our lives after menopause. And so that's a whole, whole chapter in our lives. And it's so different from the chapters that came before. One of the wonderful things about being a gynecologist and an obstetrician as a specialty in medicine is that I get to see all of those chapters. Every day, I see women in each of those chapters, and every conversation I'm having, yes, it's similar, but it's unique to each patient.

Joey: I was there for all four of my children's birth. And so before the first one was born, I'm one of those people that, like, they have notes that says when he draws blood, like, "Hello, make him sit down. He's. " I pass out. It's not a manly thing to admit, but I'm wearing pink today. And so I feel.

Cheryl: I think you're in touch with your feminine side.

Joey: I feel very. Yes, I feel very in touch with my feminine side. I was a little intimidated by the first one, but it was an incredible experience. And I wonder, since you do that, you're there for so many births, is it still? Is it like, "Ah. ", you know, "It's old hat". You know what I mean?

Cheryl: It's not. I have actually delivered, I kid you not, over 4,000 babies.

Joey: Wow.

Cheryl: That's so many babies. And I've got babies now. I go to my son's high school events, and parents come up, and they go, "Oh, Dr. Serr, you delivered my son." And I look at the son and up at the son taller than me. And I'm like, "Wow." So it's amazing. The wonder never ceases. You're bringing a life into the world. And I get it. I'm the first person to hold that baby as it comes out and the first person as it cries. And it's just amazing.

Joey: We had, knock on wood. When our children were born, they were all easy pregnancies and births, but being in that room is still very stressful. Maybe it's because I was the dad. But that's a lot going on. My wife used the first two pregnancies and the first two births. What do you call it when you get the drugs to help you?

Cheryl: Epidural.

Joey: But then, she read, "Hey, don't do that." Natural childbirths were the third and fourth one—a very different experience.

Cheryl: It's a very different experience.

Joey: Holy moly. There was a lot more going on. And my wife told me afterward, she's like, "I knew it was stressful because you were quiet, and you never stop talking." And I was like, "Oh."

Cheryl: Women had had babies for thousands and thousands of years before we had modern medicine. And so, childbirth is a natural event, and it'll go just fine even if there's no modern science being used. Part of my job as an obstetrician is to be there for the few births that go wrong, for the mom who does hemorrhage, or for the problems with the babies. Every time I do a c-section, I save a baby's life. And we talk, sometimes, in this country about we do too many, but we have to remember the reason we do them is we're saving a baby.

Cheryl: And so there are natural births, and there are not natural births. When it comes to epidurals, everyone else always wants my personal opinion, "Oh, do you believe in epidurals or do you not?" And I must admit, I've had four babies, and I've also had kidney stones. And I've discovered that when I have a kidney stone, I want something to take the pain away, and when I have labor, I do too.

Cheryl: So I had epidurals with all four of mine, but it's a very personal choice. And I tell my patients, I go, "There's no merit badge. When your child goes to college, there's not a question on the application that says, "Did you have a natural childbirth or not?" But it's just a personal decision. It's how you want to experience." And for some women, it's real important. But ultimately, at the end of the day, the goal is a healthy baby and a healthy mom.

Joey: Of course.

Cheryl: And that's what the focus is. And how we get there isn't as important as the end result then. So you have to learn, as a parent, to really roll with the punches. One of the biggest challenges that I've had as a parent is one of my four children is autistic. And that was a real challenge. You feel like it's your own fault as a mom. You can't help it. There's something wrong with your child, and you should have been able to prevent it. And I get teary-eyed even now, and he's 11 years old. But that was really an experience of rolling with the punches.

Cheryl: And we've had to discover how to interact with an autistic child. Autism, obviously, has become a subject that's near and dear to me, but autism is a spectrum disorder, which means that you have children who are affected to various degrees. And so you'll have very severely affected children, and you'll have brilliant, brilliant, intelligent, yet socially awkward children. And anywhere on that spectrum, including autism.

Cheryl: My son, when he was diagnosed, he didn't speak. We were told, as parents, that he would never be able to attend a normal school. We delved both into traditional medicine and holistic treatments, primarily diet and limiting the exposure in our household to toxins. Some of the latest research on autism talks about the fact that maybe autism is actually a genetic mutation that prevents your body from clearing all the toxins that are so prevalent in our modern world.

Cheryl: And so we tested my son to see what was building up in his body, and he was building up flame retardant. He was building up Teflon. These are things that he breathes in or eats Teflon from the cookware. And so we switched out all the mattresses and all the cookware to cast iron. There's a lot of evidence saying that gluten-free diets help, as does milk from glutinous wheat, so the protein in wheat. And there's so many benefits to being gluten-free. It's a huge push across the nation right now. But for autism, it means that your gut isn't as leaky, so you don't absorb the things your body isn't doing as well as clearing out. So we went gluten-free, and we went milk-free. We started speech therapy. We started play therapy. Today, my son is. He just started middle school and is in a regular classroom without an aide.

Joey: Awesome.

Cheryl: So it's amazing. Is he still autistic? Absolutely. But he really. When you're diagnosed, it's not like you're going to be necessarily exactly that way. It's a snapshot of where you are now, and you can improve with therapy and diet.

Joey: That's powerful. I have to be honest with you. While you were talking, I was kind of like. My eyes were getting misty, like somebody was cutting onions or garlic. I'm sure that's what was going on somewhere around here. One of the things I was thinking about while you were talking was what you guys are really into. What's the right term? Well, you're really into Star Wars and Star Trek, but I mean.

Cheryl: You're trying to say I'm a geek?

Joey: Hey, right back at you.

Cheryl: Card-carrying geek.

Joey: May the Fourth be with you.

Cheryl: Okay.

Joey: But you guys went to Comic-Con and.

Cheryl: Yes.

Joey: I was just thinking about the interaction. Because I don't. I. You know, I'm thinking like that's big environment, I'm intimidated by the environment. So how did the family do in this huge environment where everyone's dressed like an alien?

Cheryl: You know, Comic-Con in San Diego is one of the biggest science fiction comic book conventions.

Joey: A Mecca.

Cheryl: And now, it's all over the nudists.

Joey: It's the nerd Mecca.

Cheryl: It's the Mecca. It's Nerd Mecca. I am proud to say that I have won Best in Show at the San Diego comic book convention in the cosplay competition. It's now called Cosplay. I started this when I was in high school. It was just costuming. Now it's cosplay. But yeah, I went to a very tiny little con. Or I heard about a little tiny convention, ran to my grandmother, and said, "Grandma, grandma, teach me how to sew. I need to make a Star Trek uniform." And that was my first costume.

Joey: And that was the beginning. And it culminated with you winning twice?

Cheryl: Culminated. I've won it at the San Diego Comic-Con, the World Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention, the Northern California Science Fiction Fantasy Convention, and many others.

Joey: The San Diego one, that's. It doesn't get higher. That's the world champ. That's.

Cheryl: It's just amazing. It's.

Joey: Yeah, it's the World Cup of.

Cheryl: It's such a fun thing. It is.

Joey: Yeah, sci-fi. What did you guys go as? What was the costume theme?

Cheryl: That year, we did Beauty and the Beast, back when the. Before the live-action film, this was just the animated Disney film. And we did Beauty and Belle and Beast in the beautiful yellow gown, and the Beast in the big blue frock coat, and the whole headpiece. And then we did the clock and the candle, the mirror, and Cogsworth in full parade-style versions with people inside them. And we danced, and we waltzed on stage. And so it's a little mini-production when you go to these conventions.

Joey: Sure.

Cheryl: You have about 2 minutes on stage to present. And it can be as simple as walking across the stage and showing your costume. Or it could be as little as a 2-minute mini-musical that you put together. Yeah, but.

Joey: Do you still get to go to San Diego? Or is that?

Cheryl: You know.

Joey: That's a trap.

Cheryl: It's really hard to get into San Diego. Comic-Con now. You almost have to buy your tickets a year in advance. And they're reserved and online, and often, you end up in an auction. So we haven't been for a couple of years because I have to buy 6 tickets. I can't go and leave the kids. They would not forgive that.

Joey: No, of course not.

Cheryl: But we've been. Worldcon is, actually. We've been going to local Cons and Worldcon. The World Science Fiction Convention is in San Jose next year.

Joey: Are you going to be there?

Cheryl: Oh, of course. Absolutely.

Joey: Oh very nice. And you don't have to give away any secrets, but are you guys going in costume?

Cheryl: We're going in several different costumes.

Joey: No team effort? Everybody has to go their own way.

Cheryl: Oh, no, no, no, no. I meant several different costumes on different days.

Joey: Oh.

Cheryl: So, one group effort, we're probably going to do a Wizard of Oz kind of theme. Probably Citizens of Oz.

Joey: Sounds like you need a seventh person. What are the dates?

Joey: I'm over 6 feet, so if you need somebody taller or something.

Cheryl: I could use somebody tall, that's right.

Joey: Yeah. Something, you know what I mean?

Cheryl: It's fun. It's so much fun because you create it. And for me, it's a thing to do, completely separate from medicine. It's like a whole different aspect of this. My doctor friends say, "You're attending a science fiction convention?" And my convention friends say, "You're a doctor for a living, not a customer?" But it's just a way to create something because I can do recreational costumes where I'm trying to recreate something I've seen in a movie or a comic book. But then you also do original costumes, where you just. You can figure out how to make whatever your mind can imagine.

Joey: Well, if this whole doctor thing doesn't work out.

Cheryl: I've got a backup career.

Joey: So, when I look at this. It's long. I won't even read it because it's so long that I'll be here for a while. But it makes me think about the story I heard about your mom. Where did you get your drive? And I'm like, can you tell that story about your mom? Because that's a cool story. And it sounds like. You know.

Cheryl: The. You know, my family's story on my mom's side of this, of the family, is an immigrant story. It actually starts with my grandfather. And he came from England to Canada when he was about 7-8 years old. He remembers the trip on the steamboat. When they got to Canada, Grandpa went to school. But when he was about 14, it was The Great Depression. And so, he was told, "You need to quit school and go get a job and help support the family." His math teacher, his eighth-grade math teacher, got him a job at the Royal Bank of Canada. So he started, I don't know.

Joey: Good job.

Cheryl: What the heck was he doing? But you know, he was. He had a job, and it paid money, and he wasn't shoveling coal and wasn't outside. And so the family thought it was the best job in the world. Grandpa was very industrious. And so, you know, back before the internet, back before colleges in the middle of Saskatchewan, Canada, he discovered courses by mail, which were offered for the bank employees. So he took almost every course on banking, accounting, anything he could, through these mail-order educations. So, by the time he turned 22, he had officially taken every banking course offered by the bank. And the manager came out and said, "Well, you seem to be a very entrepreneurial young man, you know. What do you want to do with your life?"

Cheryl: And Grandpa tells the story. He says this was the middle of a really bad winter in Saskatchewan, Canada. Really, really, really cold. So he looked at the manager of the Royal Bank of Canada and said, "I have a goal. I want to get the hell outta Canada"

Joey: Yeah.

Cheryl: And so the manager laughed. And then, about two months later, he came out and handed my grandfather an envelope. And he said, "Congratulations, good luck." Grandpa's like, "What's this?" So he opens it up, and the first line says, "Congratulations, you've been promoted. You are the new assistant manager to the Royal Bank of Canada." Gramp's like, "Ah." And he keeps reading down, and it says, "Congratulations, you've been transferred. You are now the new assistant manager of the Royal Bank of Canada in Columbia, South America."

Joey: Oh, wow.

Cheryl: And so he's like, "Ah." So, the second time.

Joey: No more harsh winters.

Cheryl: No more harsh winters. For the second time in his life, he got on a steamer boat and sailed to South America. He worked for the Royal Bank of Canada for the rest of his life. He would travel from country to country and, sort of, they sent him, sort of, to come in and weed out the corruption in the local branches, get everything shipshape, and then move on to the next country. So he met and married my grandmother from Puerto Rico, and they had my mother. They ended up in Santiago de Cuba. And they lived through the Cuban Revolution.

Joey: Oh, wow.

Cheryl: So my grandmother, being from Puerto Rico, is an American citizen. My mother, being the child of an American, was an American citizen. So, they were one of very few Americans living on the island during this time. And when they arrived, Batista, the dictator, was still in power. They were there for two or three years into Batista. And then, they were there when Castro took over for two or three years after Castro gained power.

Joey: Oh wow.

Cheryl: One night, he tells the story. Or Mom tells the story that there was a famous guy, part of Batista's regime, called El Gato. He was a torturer. He actually showed up, and they were arresting all of the foreign bank managers that night because there was a rumor that money was coming from abroad and being funneled through the banks to Castro. So they arrested all the bank managers in the middle of the night and showed up at my grandfather's home to arrest him. And El Gato was there, and he took a liking to my mother, who was 14 then, and started trying to grab her, pull her over to sit on his lap, and start talking about taking her with him.

Cheryl: And my grandmother literally saved my mother's life. She threw herself at the guy to distract him, got my mother out of the room, and told her to run and hide. And she was hiding in one of the closets. And then she started distracting the guy with the new TV they bought. "And wouldn't you like this?" And trying to bribe him and distract him. And then he's like, "Where'd the girl go? Where'd the girl go?" And then he couldn't find the girl. And then he was mad. Then he hit my grandmother, put his foot through the TV, grabbed my grandfather, and went off. And my mom and grandma thought they'd never see my grandfather again. Grandpa was taken away, and he was at a police. They took him to a police station. And at that time, the way he told the story, it was illegal for members of Batista's regime to open foreign bank accounts.

Cheryl: Batista didn't want it. He wanted the money kept on the island. But people would take Grandpa out to lunch, members of the government. And they'd slide him envelopes of cash, and he would open them foreign bank accounts. And he'd take them out to lunch, and he'd slide them papers. And so, when he was arrested, and they took him to the police station, several of the generals. Or I don't know what their rank was that were there, were people he had opened foreign bank accounts for. And so, one of them. They were dividing up who would torture whom, and one of them said, "I'll take him." And took Grandpa, took him to the back, and closed the door. And Grandpa says he got out a bottle of some sort of alcohol. And he sat and said, "We're just going to drink for a couple of hours. We'll get you out of here, Ken." And a few hours later, he let him out the back door.

Joey: Wow.

Cheryl: And Grandpa walked home and showed up. Grandma is, like, shocked that he's still alive. She's busy sewing money into my mother's clothing, hoping, wondering how they will get off the island. The next day, Grandpa went to the bank, and he found out that the government had confiscated all the time cards because they were looking to see if there were any employees with big gaps of time so that they could accuse them of being part of the revolution and arrest them. And so, Grandpa sat with everyone. And he just, sort of, played light. And he's like, "Oh, you know everyone, it's so hard to keep detailed time cards. I don't like to do the math." He was a banker, "I don't like to do the math. Could you just put that you're here every day? Make it simple for me, please." And basically, from that day forward, he gave all his employees carte blanche to be doing whatever they wanted with the revolution. And they had an alibi.

Joey: He didn't leave?

Cheryl: He didn't leave the island. He didn't leave for, like, four more years. And.

Joey: I almost left the interview while you were talking.

Cheryl: And they stayed. And they stayed.

Joey: Yikes.

Cheryl: And it was, yeah. And grandpa was this incredible.

Joey: Wow.

Cheryl: He really felt like he had.

Joey: What is it, is the proper term cojones?

Cheryl: Yes, it is.

Joey: See.

Cheryl: And he had big ones.

Joey: Yeah. Mucho.

Cheryl: But he felt he had a responsibility for the bank. Because, at this point, he was second in charge of the entire island for the Royal Bank of Canada.

Joey: Canada's going to do all right, grandpa.

Cheryl: I know.

Joey: They're going to still be there.

Cheryl: That's what grandma used to say.

Joey: Yeah. Best.

Cheryl: And grandma wouldn't leave if he wouldn't leave. And so eventually, the United States broke off diplomatic relations. And mom actually used to know the daughter of the ambassador. And then she said that that family left. And then this new American ambassador came, and he showed up at the house, and he was asking questions like, "Oh, so you're Canadian? Are you American? You're Canadian?" And figuring this out. And so the day that they were going to leave, that the Americans broke off diplomatic relations, they called my mom or my grandmother and said, "You need to get to Guantanamo Bay." And my grandparents argued because my grandfather picked up the phone and called the Canadian Embassy, and they said, "We're not breaking off diplomatic relations." And so he decided to stay.

Cheryl: My grandmother said again, said, "If you're not leaving, I'm not leaving because you're white, you're going to get yourself killed. At least I can pass." And so they turned to my mother, who was then 16, and said, "What do you want to do?" And she says, "I'm leaving."

Joey: Yeah.

Cheryl: And so grandma's.

Joey: Go, mom.

Cheryl: Grandma was prepared. And so she had the passport, and the school transcripts, and the clothing that had the money sewn into it. And they. Off, they got her to the base. And Mom remembers, and she tells the story, that when she went into the base, all the guards on the Cuban side were holding machine guns and looking down at their feet. And she said she couldn't figure out why they didn't look up. And years later, she said, "Well, they were probably bribed, and they wanted to be able to say "No, I didn't see any Americans."" So she got on a plane, she flew to Miami, she got off the plane, and she said reporters inundated her. And she was scared to say anything because her parents were still in Cuba. So she ran away from the reporters and got lost in the airport. She had no family in Florida. And grandpa had told her, "If you get anywhere other than Puerto Rico, go to the local Royal Bank of Canada and tell them who you are."

Cheryl: And so she found a taxi, and she went to the Royal Bank of Canada, and walked in and said, "Can I talk to the manager?" And told her story. And they could get a long-distance phone call going from Miami to Canada to Cuba and speak to grandpa, and she could tell her family she was okay. And that gentleman, I don't know his name, he took her home and cared for her for two or three months with his family before she finally got a trip back to Puerto Rico. My mom, who was my mom in that period, went and applied to college. She was 16. She's like, "Well, I have to figure out what I'm doing in my life."

Joey: Grandpa's daughter.

Cheryl: Grandpa's daughter. So she went, and she applied to a college. But then they got her a plane to Puerto Rico, so she went to Puerto Rico. And then, at this time, back in Cuba, Castro decided that he wanted to have a Royal Bank of Cuba, and he was going to close the foreign banks, mostly. And so the borders were closed, but grandma and grandpa, being Canadian, were allowed actually to pack their belongings and leave. So grandpa gets transferred to Columbia, where all the drug cartels are, and they.

Joey: Out of the frying pan and into the.

Cheryl: And so they call my mother, and they say, "Well, come live with us in Columbia." And she's like, "No, no, thank you. I got accepted to the University of Miami."

Joey: Nice.

Cheryl: She's like, "I'm going to the United States, and I'm going to college." And my grandma's like, "You're 16, you can't go to college." She's like, "Yes, I have an acceptance letter. I can go to college." And off she went to college. I think she went to Berry University. And.

Joey: I'm thinking of that thought, "No, you can't go to college."

Cheryl: Right.

Joey: "Come to Columbia."

Cheryl: Yeah, "Come to Columbia". And so my mom went to college. She ended up getting. She got a Master's in mathematics. My mother's a very smart woman.

Joey: Wow.

Cheryl: She met my father, who was doing a Ph.D. in electrical engineering. Another very smart man. And they met and married and eventually moved back to Puerto Rico, which is how I ended up being raised in Puerto Rico. Which as I said, I was there until I moved to high school in California.

Joey: So what brought you to California?

Cheryl: Well, parents chose.

Joey: Puerto Rico didn't have a revolution, did it?

Cheryl: No, it didn't.

Joey: Does the story repeat itself?

Cheryl: No.

Joey: And then Oscar De La Hoya and Menudo invaded Puerto Rico.

Cheryl: That's right, Menudo invaded Puerto Rico.

Joey: And at first, people were happy.

Cheryl: And I have to say, I have extended family on the island. Please, anybody watching, donate to the Red Cross. I mean, Puerto Rico has been devastated by this last hurricane. I've got my mother's cousin texting from a phone that she's charging from a car, and she doesn't know because there's no power. The whole island has no power. Now, please, please, please donate to the Red Cross.

Joey: Absolutely.

Cheryl: But it's crazy. But what took me from Puerto Rico to California was my parents ' choice. They're the ones that moved.

Joey: So you didn't have family, it was just like.

Cheryl: The whole. The family moved when I was in high school.

Joey: Oh, the family moved. For some reason, I think I was repeating the story where you had to come out alone.

Cheryl: No. No. That was long. No, the whole family moved to California.

Joey: Where did you guys move to in California?

Cheryl: Marin County.

Joey: Nice.

Cheryl: Yeah, because my parents both ended up with their higher degrees getting into computer programming from the ground up, so to speak. So, that was the hot area for computer programming.

Joey: What year is this? This is like.

Cheryl: Eighties. I graduated in '85.

Joey: Okay. Yeah. Oh man, this is. Silicon Valley's about to explode.

Cheryl: Yes.

Joey: Good timing.

Cheryl: Good timing. So that's what took them to California. But it's funny because my parents all computer, mathematics, and engineering, so when I said I was majoring in biology, they're like, "Well, what do you do with a biology degree?"

Joey: Yeah. There's no future in that.

Cheryl: "Can you really get a job? Does it work for biologists?" But I ended up being a doctor, so it worked out okay.

Joey: Good Santa Cruz. That it. Hold on a minute.

Cheryl: I went to Santa Cruz for college.

Joey: They're not the banana slugs?

Cheryl: They are the banana slugs.

Joey: Okay.

Cheryl: That happened when I was there. We voted in the banana slug. We used to be the sea lions, walruses, or something like that.

Joey: Yeah, Banana slugs.

Cheryl: The banana slugs, that's our school mascot. Yes, it is.

Joey: Pretty good.

Cheryl: We are banana slugs. The day after that vote took place, t-shirts were everywhere. And it's a liberal arts college. So he would show a banana slug with a little book that said, "Plato," with the little cap and gown. And I actually didn't know about the vote. I was too busy studying. And so my cousin in Utah called me and said, "Seriously, you voted for the banana slugs?" I'm like, "What are you talking about?" And then I walk out, there's banana slug t-shirts everywhere. I'm like, "Oh, that's what he's talking about."

Joey: Yeah. That's. I don't know if that's the oddest.

Cheryl: Oddest school mascot?

Joey: Collegiate Mascot? because there's probably some.

Cheryl: I'm sure there are some weirder ones out there, but it's high up on the list.

Joey: Not. Well, I think about it. I guess, clearly, I'm not big into football. That's not intimidating, football's.

Cheryl: But, yeah. I did a University of California, Santa Cruz, for undergraduate biology major. I wanted to be a marine biologist at the time. That or an astronaut.

Joey: Of course. Either one.

Cheryl: One of the two. And then, I ended up at the University of California, San Diego, for medical school. And.

Joey: Oh, I thought it was Davis.

Cheryl: No, medical school was San Diego.

Joey: Okay.

Cheryl: Yeah. And then LA County Hospital, University of Southern California. LA County Hospital for internship. And then.

Joey: Oh, that's probably a great place to do intern. I mean, as far as.

Cheryl: It was an intensive place to do internship. Yes.

Joey: Baptism by fire, right?

Cheryl: Baptism by fire.

Joey: Yeah.

Cheryl: Oh, yeah. And then I ended up in San Antonio. University of Texas, San Antonio, for my residency training.

Joey: UTSA.

Cheryl: And then back out here and straight into coming here and opening a private practice.

Joey: Why Redding?

Cheryl: You know, actually I was brought to Redding. So, a doctor here was looking for a partner, and she had gone to UT. And so she went out there and said, "Is there anyone that wants to come to California?" I'm like, "Me, I want back in California. Please. Please." And so I came here to Redding. The one thing I remember was that we came in and toured the town once. And having. Living in San Antonio, mountains are little tiny hills.

Joey: Yep.

Cheryl: And trees are little tiny sage brushes. So we came out here, my husband and I are driving, we're like, "Look, honey, real trees, redwoods, real mountains." That was all it took; I was Redding bound.

Joey: Did you. You must have come out in the spring, right?

Cheryl: I did, yes. It was beautiful. There was water everywhere. We saw Whiskey Town Lake. It was a really good sales pitch she did, "But the weather's beautiful. The lakes are beautiful. There's so much outdoor stuff you can do. It is just great." And I can live and afford a house here when I can't afford one in the Bay Area. And I have.

Joey: Exactly.

Cheryl: 10 minutes of rush hour traffic.

Joey: What?

Cheryl: Yeah. And for. As a doctor, especially as an OB-GYN, if you've got ladies in labor and live in a big town, you're either stuck in the hospital, or it's. You're stuck there. And here in Redding, I can have people in labor, and I can be home having dinner with my children because the hospital's two minutes away, and I'm not going to get stuck in rush hour traffic.

Joey: You know, I. This is killer. It's some killer stuff. But there are a couple of topics I want to discuss. I feel like I have to.

Cheryl: We got distracted talking about autism and Cuba.

Joey: Well, I.

Cheryl: Not what you expected to talk about at this interview.

Joey: I was. No, I. When you were talking, I had thoughts of things about. That's where some of the younger Americans don't know those stories.

Cheryl: Yeah.

Joey: And definitely, I was in the Marine Corps, and I've been in places. I was in Somalia. And so I know. I don't. I met some of the younger people I really appreciate. I believe that free speech is paramount to a democratic society. You can't have a free society without free speech.

Cheryl: Right.

Joey: That said, some of the younger people who have really awesome Instagram accounts have no clue what they're babbling about.

Cheryl: Yeah.

Joey: They have no clue what they're talking about.

Cheryl: My mother because we actually started the conversation, my Cuba, about what it is. The strong woman in my life. So, obviously, my mother and my grandmother were strong women. But that kind of stuff, when people were complaining about this or that, my mom's answer is, "Ah, you got to vote in an election," or, "Ah, nobody pointed a gun at you today." And it really puts things in perspective when you've seen some of the suffering and oppression in other countries. It makes you appreciate living in the United States. It really does.

Joey: I'll tell you one of the things that makes me appreciate that while you were talking, this went through my head. And why this country is so unique. And I'm not one of those people who drink, "Well, this is a free country." I know there are several free countries. But let's go back to the late part of the 18th century. How many free countries were there then?

Cheryl: Yeah.

Joey: This was a beacon of light, and it set the path for other countries.

Cheryl: For other countries.

Joey: It's why France after they had their revolution. And now you talk about a bloody revolution. But it's why they gave us the Statue of Liberty. Because it was one of those things that say, "Hey, you guys set the bar." I always get conflicted when I see somebody wearing a Che Guevara shirt.

Cheryl: Yeah.

Joey: Because it is very vogue. It's very.

Cheryl: Oh yeah. I think the thing is revolutions occur, hopefully, for good reasons. But you have to rep. You have to. Once your revolution is won, you have to replace it with something better than what was there before.

Joey: And that's only.

Cheryl: That's how it works.

Joey: That's happened less than it has happened.

Cheryl: Sadly.

Joey: It goes the other way. And that at the end it was. It was King George Washington. They were calling him the king. And so, I mean, the precedent that he set.

Cheryl: It was fun teaching my son, who's in high school. We did an online history class for him because he was trying to do band all four years, and he was trying to do the STEM electives all four years. The public schools here have an incredible STEM program. STEM means Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. It's a program, so they do programming, engineering, and all these things. But when you're trying to be a band boy, and you're also trying to be a STEM kid.

Joey: Not in a boy band, but being a band boy.

Cheryl: Not in the band, a band boy. You don't have enough time in your class for the regular, in your schedule for the regular classes. So, we did an online history class. And he and I sat down and went through the whole thing. It was world history. And so it was fascinating explaining to him, making some of these things real with the stuff my family has lived through. What has led you to reach a point in your life where the biggest problem you have is whether you did or didn't get a Venti at Starbucks?

Cheryl: So medicine changes over time. And one of the things for me to do as a doctor is to keep up with it. What's new? What's new and improved? What's new but not really better than what we already have? And there are so many exciting things happening in medicine. Some of it's back to nature. Some of it's, "Let's get back to basics and nutrition." Some of it's, "How can we use technology in new and innovative ways?"

Cheryl: So, as a gynecologist, of course, we talked about the fact that I see people at all the different stages of life. So we get into menopause, and for many years, we did hormones for everyone. It was almost treated like a vitamin deficiency. I go into menopause, I have some hot flashes, I have some night sweats, I have other problems, "Here, have some hormones." So the role of a doctor is to say, "Tell me what's bothering you. And let me tell you all your options and choices on how to try to fix it. And does this choice have some risks or some side effects? Does this? Which one's going to work best for you."

Cheryl: As a parent, you make choices in life. How much are you going to let your children try different things? If they start Tee-ball, do they have to finish the season? I mean, all these decisions you make, we almost overthink it as parents, you know. But one of the decisions my husband and I made early on was that we wanted to put our children into martial arts. And we made the deal, which the children didn't even know about the deal because they were too young. They learned later that the deal was that "Mommy and daddy chose karate. You will do karate. And then you choose your second activity. Whatever you want to be." And they are still doing karate now. My oldest son just turned 16.

Joey: Very nice.

Cheryl: He is a third-degree brown belt.

Joey: Nice.

Cheryl: So he'll test next year for his black belt.

Joey: Oh, very good.

Cheryl: I'm so proud of him. But all of my children have stuck with Scott. The way that he teaches is what martial arts is about. I mean, it's about self-defense, yes. But it's about learning respect. It's about having a drive to improve yourself. The person you're competing against is yourself.

Joey: That's right.

Cheryl: You have to make yourself better. Every time there's a tournament, Scott sits all the kids down, and he talks to them about trying their best. And the phrase that I've heard him say is that "Winning isn't everything, but trying to win is. And your best is good enough. It is good enough. It doesn't matter if it's as good as the next person's, but I expect your best." And they've learned confidence. All of my children have. They're like me. They're very outgoing. They talk, and they have no shyness. And whether they've inherited that from me, I also attribute it to the fact that they've done martial arts. Because if you can get out as a little six-year-old and compete in an entire auditorium in front of three black belts who are going to judge you, then when the teacher calls you up for the spelling bee, that's no big deal.

Joey: No big deal at all.

Cheryl: It's just no big deal.

Joey: Is there anything else? Are there any points that you'd like to talk about? Is there anything that you'd like to do? Anything?

Cheryl: I just want to say that Redding is a great town. It's a great town to live in and to work in. It's a great town to raise kids in. For women, as a doctor, if I have to say something, I have to say, please, self-care is the best form of healthcare. You need not to smoke. You need to diet. You need to exercise. You need to eat right. If I was going to talk as a parent, your best is good enough. Just try your best. You just have to love your children and support them, let them make mistakes and let them learn from their mistakes, and tell them about how rough the world really is so that they can appreciate what they have.

Joey: And I'm going to get misty-eyed again. And yet again, she got me a fifth time. So I know we're going to hug off-camera.

Cheryl: Okay.

Joey: But we always do the handshake.

Cheryl: The traditional handshake.

Joey: Thank you so much.

Cheryl: Thanks.

Joey: I really appreciate this very much.