Stand Up To Cancer with Bobby Berk

Yeah, I've been prepping for like a couple of different roles recently, and my mind, my braining has been just full carrying around like multiple characters. You know, as an actor, your mental space is kind of your office like that. That's where we do the work, and it's so important that we keep our space uncluttered. And over my life, I've learned that my surroundings play a pretty big part in my own mental state. Have that is anybody out

Today's guest, Bobby Burke, has dedicated his life to the art of interiors spaces while also championing an organization that stands up against one of the biggest killers of our time.

So lean in. I'm glad you're here. Hey, everybody, I'm here today with Bobby Burke. Anybody call you Robert?

No, well they try, but Bobby is actually my legal name.

It is that's Robert.

I am from Texas, so my name is Bobby James, not Robert.

So it's always funny to me when I'll get a.

Legal document sent over to me and they've just assumed and they put Robert on there, and I'm like.

No, that's not my name.

So it was never you were never Robert.

I was never Robert.

Yeah, that's everybody calls me Bobby except for Caramo, my cathmate, which is the only person that is allowed to call me Bob.

I say, okay, yeah, it's funny. We I just ask about names. I don't really know why, but I think part of it is because I just don't like mine, and so I'm always curious how people feel about their own names. And I have this funny thing where, speaking of Bobby, like, I like the name keV, but much better than Kevin by the same token. I feel like people can Kevu a little too early, you know what I mean. Yeah, it's like are you having me already?

I was kind of like, I'll get an email where somebody calls me Bob and I'm like, what, No. And that's a triggering one because my mom, when I was little, people would call me Bob and She's like, don't call him Bob. That's an old man's name. And so that was ingrained in my mind, and so when I hear Bob, I think of an old man's name. But when I was little, I couldn't stand Bobby. I didn't like the name, so I tried to I tried to switch it up.

My middle name is James.

I tried to get people to call me James, and that never happened. And then I had the bright idea to go by BJ, which luckily, my mom, without explaining to me why I shouldn't go by BJ, talk me out of going by BJH, that's funny.

That's funny. That's along the same lines as when I when my wife was pregnant and I told her that I thought Macon was a good name for our son, and she's like, Macon bake.

No, that's make it Bacon.

Oh, that'd be kind of fun, though, I mean not forever, but that would be fun.

He would hate us forever. So now we have a goat. We have a goat named Macon. But but and he doesn't, he doesn't hate us. What part of Texas are you from?

Originally from Houston or Alvin, Texas is a little a little suburb in the southern part of Houston, home of Nolan Ryan.

That's the only thing it's famous for.

Okay, Okay, I have a band and we we often play Texas. We're actually just on our way out there, doing four shows in Texas in about a week. And uh, it's it's always, it's always amazing. How long were did you? Did you spend most of your child out there?

No, I we instantly moved to Missouri, but my hands and uncles, my grandparents, they were all in Texas, so I would I would spend my summers there.

So I grew up between Missouri and Texas.

Houston in the summer, there's a climate.

Yeah, of all the times to go to Houston in summer was not the best time.

Yeah, So what was it do you think that got you into uh, design and and and decorating and just tell me that path. I mean, it's it's well. First off, let me just say that it's so fun to talk to you because a lot of you know who I ended up speaking to and these podcasts are actors and musicians and not. I mean, we had a sort of out of the box episode where I was speaking to Deepak Chopra, But but it's mostly been kind of like people.

You know, what I was little, designed wasn't something I really thought of as like a career or a path. It was just something that I always kind of got. I remember when I was like five or six years old, my mom had decorated my bedroom and all red, like red curtains, red bedspread, red rug, red pillows, and I just, even as a little kid, I was like, this is not this is not this is not the plot, This

So I, you know, I feel like I'm at the Mustang ranch or something.

Yeah, my aunts and grandma would always send me, you know, these little twenty dollars checks for my birthday, and so I used up all my twenty dollars checks to get betting and new curtains, you know, as like a little kid. And I found this like dinosaur poster because I was assessed with dinosaurs that had all these blues and greens and yellows in it. And I kind of coordinated the pillows on the bed to this poster, and I just I knew it made me feel better. I knew the

I just had a feeling.

And so my whole life, I've understood the power of transforming your space can really transform your whole attitude.

It could really.

Transform your life. Honestly, you know, that's what I do all queer I had transformed people's lives by transforming their space. And throughout my teens, you know, I left home at fifteen, and at some points I was homeless, and so like the feeling of home was very important to me now, because for a while I didn't have a home, so that the feeling of.

Safety, you know.

And even when I was living in my car, you know, I always kept it organized and I would I would have betting in the back, and I would make the bed every day.

You know.

I wasn't one of those people that lived in their car that you could see that lived in their car. And when I finally got apartments, you know, I made sure that I really, even if it was stuff that I would find on the street, I would set up my home to or what made me feel comfortable and safe and secure. And you know, I I you know, I left home at fifteen, Like I said, I left high school at fifteen, so I didn't I don't have a formal education.

And design it's something I've kind.

Of self taught myself, but I've always been.

Drawn to it.

And so I was lucky enough that, you know, I ended up working in retail stores and the retail management, and then I got I started working at retail furniture stores, and which is how I kind of got into the furniture industry. And then I started I started my own retail company. I first started selling furniture online on Bobby

Going to do?

And so I come to the database I had built for them. I put it on Bobby burg home dot com and I'm like, maybe I'll sell itself or two while I look for another job.

But it did well.

I was one of the first online retailer selling furniture online.

I stopped on the website just in preparation for this, and it's really it's pretty impressive. I mean it's very impressive, you know, I thank you. There's so much, so much. It's really it's what's much more than design. If anybody's never been on there, it's kind of like a lifestyle. I mean, I saw you have some you had a thing with a cattlebell, workout or something like that.

Yeah, it's all about lifestyle and living healthy, not just with design, but with food, with fitness, with travel, with all kinds of things. But then after the website it did really well. So I opened up my own stores and I had stores in New York and Miami and Atlanta and LA and they were all retail furniture and accessories and home decor, and I would help my customers pick out stuff for their houses and help design their houses.

Up and solely focused on design.

And then where I came along two years later, and oh.

That's where I am at.

Okay, so you had so you had like brick and mortar retail stores and you close them up. Yeah, but you held on to the website.

Yeah. Yeah, the website is an editorial website. Now we actually don't sell anything on our web.

Oh okay, Oh yeah, there's no connection. How do you make the choices for like what you steer people to? I mean there has to be some kind of a connection there though.

If it looks good. Yeah, And I mean I also do have my own collections that I've designed, but I don't really actually, I think you can buy my rugs and maybe like my wallpaper on the website, that's it. And even that, honestly, I'm trying to get away from I just like my retail partners to handle that. And my website. I like to just be a place that you can come and find beautiful things, and if we use a product from somebody else, we link to it so you can find it.

Yeah, and it seems like you have all kinds of like price points on there. It's not like super super high end necessary.

Yeah, you know, I've always tried to make my brand accessible.

You know, from the moment I.

Had my stores and A because I think design should be for everybody, and B I opened.

Up my first store.

November two thousand and seven, and then, of course or January, I think February two thousand and eight, the whole economy crashed and collapsed and bear Stearn's Clothes and I had to make.

A quick decision on where my brand was going.

To go, if it was going to go super high end, if it was going to be accessible, and I decided I wanted it to be accessible, and I've stayed true to them.

I want to lean in a little bit to this idea of the emotional connection that people have to their living spaces because they don't think that it's like necessarily spoken about all that often. I mean, I I mean, because I think a lot of people would look at something like the furniture, Uh, you know, you knew that you didn't want red walls, right, A lot of people would say, I don't know, the red walls are finding me.

The straight Guy.

Yeah, original show. They did their their their apartment in New York, came and did their apartment. I was actually on the episode myself. I mean, I you know, showed up when the during the big reveal and the whole thing. And he's not a guy that really he will say like he doesn't. He claims that he just doesn't see stuff like he'll he would never walk into a place and say, uh, I don't like the way this this looks necessarily you know he he he Uh. That's his

I think there are there are those people who just who think that, and and you know, from one hand they might be right, but I think on another hand, they don't realize just how much your your surroundings can affect you. And you know, for example, like a clutter and chaos around you, like they'd be like, oh, it doesn't bother me. Subconsciously it does. You know, chaos around you really does create chaos in your mind, and you may not realize that that might be one of the

Lifted off my shoulder. So yes, there's absolutely those people that are like, ah, that doesn't bother me. I don't care. You know, my husband was the same way.

You know, for years, We've been together for twenty years, and I used to always be able to do whatever I wanted at the home because he just didn't care.

It didn't bother him.

But over the years, having watched me transform our spaces and having seen how it has changed the way he feels about the space and changed his outlook and changed stress levels. Now, unfortunately for me, now he has opinions, and now I don't just get to do whatever I want. He wants to be a part of everything we do in our homes.

That's all.

So I think once people will kind of experience some type of transformation, then they're like, oh, this is better. I thought I was fine and I thought it was good, But you're you're right, this did.

Have an effect on me that I did not think it would.

Yeah, yeah, I mean I also think that I don't know how you feel, but have you noticed with either with clients or or with people that you know or friends or whatever, that over time, your your needs in terms of things like clutter, actually sort of change. Like I've gotten to the point where I just I want less and less stuff like like like, I got so

Yeah, I think it goes back to what we were just scerring about that. You know, your brother was like, oh, it doesn't bother me. I don't see things, and back then you did neither. But over time you evolved to see that, Oh, when I pick up after myself, when I keep things less cluttered, it makes a huge difference for me mentally, you know, because there's so much going on in our minds, especially in our industry, we have so many things that we're thinking about that we can't

And I know you're must take up a lot of time doing queer Eye, but do you still have time for individual clients? Are you still working with people in that capacity?

So I still have a full time design firm. So I think in twenty twenty three we did sixty homes.

Oh my god, sixty homes in one year. Yeah, wow, how do you have time for that? I mean, I have an amazing team. Wow.

You know, most of the people that have worked for me have been with me for years and years. You know, it's people that started out designing you know, my big guy that runs my design firm. He started out as my one single employee and my one assistant when I had my design firm and grown with me. So yeah, I have a really great team. I still oversee it as a creative head, but not like the day to day installs and stuff.

Well, let's say somebody didn't have the dough for a decorator but felt that they wanted to in some way transform their home, and they're, you know, working with a budget, and you know the whole thing. I mean, I think a lot of people would say, well, I just really don't know where to start. I don't like, you know, do I move the couch or you know, whatever it is. How would you what would you recommend to somebody that wanted to explore that.

I mean, I would always start with getting rid of things and organizing, you know, I think pers yeah, perbs. You know, often the issue with your room is that there's this too.

Much stuff, you know.

And I mean I can't speak for everyone, because I'm sure there are those people out there that might thrive in chaos, you know, I just don't meet those people very often. I might meet those people who think they do and then when the chaos is fixed, they realize, oh no, I was just making excuses to allow myself to live in this, but now I realize this is better. So I would first recommend purging, you know, getting rid

Try anything else.

But if you start with your joke drawer, everybody's got to try it. He's got that drawer that has all a crap in it, that just comes from everywhere.

Start with that.

If you get accomplished that, then you're like, you get those little endorphins of accomplishment. You're like you can tackle, Like I can tackle the closet in my room now, and then do that, and then work your way up to that garage, you know, work your way up once you have the confidence and say, you know what, I can handle this.

I can throw stuff out. I'm not I'm not.

Married to these things that are holding me captive. I can get rid of this stuff and I can live much more.

Cleaner and organized.

Yeah, that's very, very good advice. I can totally see that. I always tell people that, especially not people, but you know, my kids basically if they're moving because they've moved a couple of times, I say, purge before you move, because I'll never forget. We had a construction thing happening, and so there was a dumpster, you know, in the in the in the driveway. So I was like, oh, a dumpster.

Yeah, you know, we moved from when we moved from New York.

To to la I got rid of and ethy the only thing we kept was closed. I was like, I'm just going to purge and then I completely start over.

I took everything we.

Had in the house, I donated it and like we're gonna we're gonna start fresh.

That's great, that's great. So you'd mentioned that on the on the site, it's overall like wellness, like what other what other things are you uh do you do? I mean you're you're like into food and exercise and what meditation or any of those kinds of things.

Yeah, you know, we have a lot of articles on exercising and health and recipes for for food and you know, we do a lot of recipes around.

The holidays to help you out with that.

So yeah, the theme is kind of like, you know, it's your life, design it well and that's you know, not just your interiors.

It's it's everything that has to do with your life.

Uh huh. That's great. And what's the book do you have? You have a book that you wrote.

Yeah, yeah, so I have a book called Right at Home. It's called How Good Design Is Good for the Mind, and it's all about figuring out.

How to design your space.

So it's all about empowering you to design your space because a lot of interior design books are an interior designer's perspective on what is beautiful, what looks good, this is the things you should choose for your home. My book is all about helping you figure out what makes you happy, because I feel the things that you should put in your home are things that make you happy because your home is like your foe charger. It needs

Are you're passionate about.

Right, So it talks about, you know, figuring out the things that make you happy.

Is going through your.

Closet, figuring out like, Okay, what are the colors I see in my closet, what are the textures I see in my closet?

These are the things I'm loving in fashion.

These are probably going to be some things I should infuse in my decor. You know, what's your favorite food, what's your dream vacation, what's your favorite television show? Like, think this checklist of things that make you happy? Those are the things you should start thinking about of how you should design your home because again, those are the things that are going to make you happy to look at every day.

Sure that makes a lot of sense. I have to ask you because now correct me if I'm wrong. I didn't see it. But were you on the mask singer?

Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah I was. I was on the back.

I have to know what that experience is like, I mean, it just it's such a wild idea.

It's insane.

So I made the assumption incorrectly that there is no way in hell somebody is actually singing in those costumes. Like I assumed I would have to sing, but I thought I would pre record it because I'm like, those costumes are heavy, they're massive, you know.

But I was wrong.

So I had to sing inside this costume. And I remember my very first episode, I almost passed out from heat exhaustion because I run really hot and inside of there was so hot.

In that claustrophobook. I think I would get very close to Yes, I played an astronaut one time and I had to put the The first time, I had to put the spacesuit on it and then and then clamp the helmet down and stop. I was like, whoa this is I don't know if I could do this.

Yeah, that's literally what that was like a big astronaut helmet that that caterpillar costume and I had. It was the tallest, largest and heaviest costume they had ever done. So by episode two, I had to make me a vest that I could pack with ice, and so I wore an ice packed vest to.

So there's a good a good mic.

Yeah, there's as a.

Good headset and a good headset to hear. Okay, so you can hear, you can hear yourself and then there's like track you're singing to track is yeah, oh my god.

It was quite the experience.

It was. Were you a singer?

I mean, were you I've always I've always been a singer.

That was actually my dream was to be a singer. It just wasn't in my cards.

I keep thinking about pursuing a little more. Like I've done a few songs. I did a song last year with a big Brazilian artist, Rebecca, So I have some music out on Spotify. I just don't know if I'm in the point of my life where I want to start another new career. Yeah, come on, man, like you you're going your go, You're touring like your joy. The thought of touring is just not not something that I'm I would.

Yeah, I don't, I don't want it.

Is it the going from place to place or or yeah? Yeah, it's just.

The last six years, you know, when we have with filmed Queer, we've had to move to wherever we are and it's six month filming so for the last six.

Years, I haven't really been home.

So the thought of like going out on the road and going on tour and not being home just right now is not in my cards. Maybe in a few years I'll be like, hey, I'm ready to do it. You know, I've thought about I'm kind of in the beginning places phases of maybe recording a Christmas album for next year.

Hmm, So yeah, I might dabble in it and see how I like it.

Oh, that's cool.

Yeah, singing's always been a huge pagine.

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You're here today and the organization is Stand Up for Cancer, and I want to bring in Julian Adams, who is the CEO for Stand Up to Cancer. Julian, Welcome to the podcast.

Thank you, Thank you Kevin for having Bobby and me on the show.

Do you guys know each other? Now?

This is the first time we've met.

Yeah, I've worked with their organization for years, but yeah, this is the first time I've got to meet Julian.

And Julian, I think you're new to the gig, right I.

Am two weeks?

Yeah, okay, so that is why we haven't met that.

But I joined last summer as the chief science Officer, and I'm here to talk about why cancer research is so important.

Yeah, I really want to hear about that. Well, first off, let me just ask you, Bobby, how did you get involved with Stand Up to Cancer?

So, my father, who just passed from cancer in August, has battled four different types of cancer over the last ten years. So when I became a person who had a platform over the last few years with Queer Eye, I knew I wanted to work with an organization that was very close to the situation that my family was going through, and so I asked my team to go out there and find me an organization that I could help. And that's when I got introduced to Stand Up to Cancer.

Well, great, great, And how about you Julian, how did you end up working for Stand Up to Cancer?

It's a long story. I am minded myself to science, even as an undergraduate uh in college. I did my PhD at mi T in chemistry, and I knew at the very beginning, from the very beginning, I was interested in medicine, but didn't go to medical school. I just devoted myself to doing biomedical research.

Wow, that's fat I just want to understand this. So when you were you were undergraduate, you didn't want to be a doctor, but you did want to do medical research exactly. That's that's really fascinating. I mean, that seems like a pretty unusual path.

It was. I considered going to medical school, but as I whimsically say, I didn't want it to interfere with my education.

Having having having went through medical school myself and I say I went through medical school because I went through medical school, because my husband went to medical school and residency, I can understand it. It has a tendency to interfere with other things.

I wanted to work on big problems and really solve h you know, fundamental issues that are you know, taking our lives. And obviously I went into industry I went into the pharmaceutical and biotech industry uh for over forty years. My first drug was for HIV. I witnessed HIV when I was a grad student emerging in the early eighties, and then found myself working in HIV research and developed the first one of the first drugs for the for

Wow.

And six months later I'm the CEO and so I'm running the show.

Wow, that's amazing. Well, I want to get into where I want to get into where we're at and also what specifically stand up to cancer does. My question for you, Julian is so I people ask me, you know, and they often asked this of famous people, what led you to what you do? And you know, it was pretty simple. You know, I just wanted to be famous, and I wanted people look at me, and I wanted to make a lot of money and get girls. That was It

Initially again, as a kid, I read the story of Thomas Edison in the third grade, literally and it just fascinated me. I just wanted to invent stuff. I didn't know what I wanted to invent. I didn't know, you know, I wasn't going to be you know, a movie projector it wasn't going to be whatever Thomas Edison did. And I just got fascinated with health and science and biomedical applications to improving people's lives. I mean, what is it What do we have if we don't have our health?

It's pretty hard to find somebody that hasn't been touched by cancer. In some kind of way.

You're exactly right.

Yeah, I mean it's it's uh, if nothing else by all of a sudden, you know, having a little scare or whatever. But what is it? What what is the Is there anything news wise as a as an expert on this that you can share with us in terms of research or or or you know, any any good news on the horizon. We're always looking for good news.

Yeah, there's tons of good news coming. Let me start with a little history lasting okay in belged me sure, last century, twentieth century, it's chema. It's taken toxic chemotherapy, cocktails of chemotherapy, and you try to kill the cancer before the chemo kills you. And the twenty first century

Stand Up to Cancer is primarily focused on research, Is that correct?

Yes, We have raised money in the neighborhood of about eight hundred million dollars since our fifteen year existence to fund the best science across the globe. We seek out some of the more difficult problems, and no cancer is spared. We look at the rarest cancers all the way to the most common cancer like lung cans. So we do everything that we can so long to advance knowledge to advanced research into advanced medicines for patients.

I want to ask you something, Julian, this is actually uh kind of brings up an interesting question and and and actually, Bobby, I'd like you to kind of weigh in on this too. You're talking a lot about, uh, these incredible medicines and this incredible research that that we've done in terms of finding out about uh, you know, you mentioned the human genome and et cetera. How do how much does the research point to lifestyle in terms

I think from my dad it had a lot to do with lifestyle. You know, my dad drove a truck for you know, forty fifty years he inhaled you know, toxic fuel fumes he smoked for fifty years. He was also a rancher who dealt with chemicals like round up, So I think a lot of it was environmental and his lifestyle.

That being said, I.

Lost a friend a year and a half ago, super healthy, worked out every single day, did not put anything that wasn't organic into his body. At thirty three, he was diagnosed with liver cancer and was dead in six weeks. So, Julian, obviously you're the scientist, but those have been my two

So what we know about today's environment plays a huge role. It's probably the largest contributor. And environment includes things like smoking, things like overeating. Obesity is a huge cofactor, but it's also genetics, it's infectious diseases. There are numerous you know what happens during puberty for breast cancer in women, all kinds of factors that beat to cancer, and sadly it's

Yeah, that is That's that's really rough, really rough. Uh. Well, listen, what I'd like to do is, uh do a little This is our call to action section. I mean, can you guys talk about ways that people can help, uh in terms of finding out where to donate or stand up to cancer any events. I think it's stand up to Cancer as far as I know, usually has some pretty big events in the course of the year. What's

Yeah, we just had a telecast this past summer. Uh. It we raised millions of dollars of it based on the telling patient stories and having celebrities come in that's that's one of the special uh attributes of Stand Up to Cancer. We were founded by the entertainment industry, and so we have access to all these great celebrities and donate their time and do these public service announcements, et cetera, et cetera. Uh. So we're constantly looking for more research

That's good. That's a good one. What's and what's the website?

Is?

It must be stand Up to Cancer dot com. I would think dot org dot org. Yeah, stand up to Cancer dot org. Yeah.

We're a nonprofited mind everywhere. It's my first time in the nonprofit world, so.

Getting used to it. Yeah. It's it's a it's its own, it's its own thing.

And it feels good. It really feels good.

Yeah. Well, you know, congratulations Julian on this. Uh what can I call this a second chapter or a third chapter or you know, or just a new gig.

Yeah, it's a new gig, and it's it's probably chapter five or six. Because every time I discover a drug, you know, I move on, I take on another problem and uh, you know, and I've been lucky.

Uh.

I've discovered for were unique rugs. I have two cooking right now in the Tight States clinical trials. But what I'm most excited about now is the ability that we have with all the technologies that we have, is to do early detection of cancer, uh and intercept that cancer. And for the first time, last year, we saw evidence that for the first time, cancer vaccines actually work. We've

I've recently started doing full body MRI scans.

I've now started having won every three years.

I me at that age where you know, other people in my family have My grandfather died of a brain tumor around my same age, So every three years now, I'm getting a full body MRI scan just so I can catch things early if I ever too get something.

But unfortunately, with the health disparities in this country, that's not scalable. You know. I obviously, Bobby, you got to do what you've got to do. But if you think about the country wide population, you know, we need point of care off doctor's office. You know, pinprick blood, draw saliva, you know, something simple that can really with great fidelity predict are you susceptible? Are you at risk for getting cancer?

For you man, Good for you, man, Bobby, Thank you for being here today, looking forward to well whatever is coming down the road. And and you know, I maybe I'll have to go back and hear you singing that what kind of creature were you in that show?

I was a caterpillar.

Caterpillar, caterpillar, a very long and large caterpillar. All right, well we're gonna have to check out Bobby Burke as a caterpillar. And fellas, it's been really fun chatting with you and really fascinating and I really do appreciate the work that you're both doing, so keep it up.

Thank you.

Hey guys, thanks for listening to another episode of Six Degrees with Kevin Bacon. If you want to learn more about Stand Up to Cancer and all the amazing work that they do, head to their website Stay and Up to Cancer dot org that Stand Up to Cancer dot org. You can find all the links in our show notes and if you like what you hear, make sure you subscribe to the show. Please tune in to the rest

See you next time.