Transcript of Talking Dateline: The Family Plot

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Hi there, I'm Keith Morrison, and this is Talking Dateline. And we are joined today by the illustrious Josh Mankiewicz. Actually, the real Josh Mankiewicz, as opposed to some, you know, fakery Josh Mankiewicz, which I've been seeing on social media lately.

I'm Josh Mankiewicz. I'm Josh Mankiewicz.

Will the real Josh Mankiewicz please stand up?

I think an argument can be made that that's the real Josh Mankiewicz. Oh, wait a minute.

You're the fakey guy. That's right. The other one was the real one. He looked like a nice fella.

So, I'm here in Boston to meet in person somebody that I really only know from the online world. And here's the thing. His name is Joshua Mankiewicz. Alert viewers of Dateline may have noticed that's also my name. So I thought it was time that we meet. Josh Mankiewicz.

Josh Mankiewicz.

Josh Mankiewicz.

Good to meet you.

Nice to meet you.

You're taller than I expected. You're taller than almost any other Mankiewicz that I know.

Now, anybody who has not seen this reunion of the 2 Josh Mankiewiczes on social media might be able to find it. Uh, anyway, we have Josh Mankiewicz to talk about the episode, our season premiere, Um, of our 35th season. It was called The Family Plot. The story begins with a man shot to death in the foyer, I guess, or the hall of his, of his in-law's house, mother-in-law's house. And then there's a long and twisted investigation to see what happened. And I will say that from very early on in this episode, nobody else may have noticed it, but I sure did, that that young detective, A, was Very impressive. And B, looked so much like a guy you could see on Scandinavian murder mystery stories on television named Ólafur Ólafsson. Have you ever seen him?

Oh, he's the star of Trapped, which is—

Exactly that.

Iceland, is set in Iceland. So good.

But the, you know, the doggedness and the sincerity were also shared traits. And I was, you know, I was an admirer of that.

He did a great job.

Yeah. Well, anyway, before we get to the story, why don't you listen to the episode if you haven't yet? You can find it right below this one or stream it on Peacock and then come right back here. And when you come back, we'll have more from Tracy Grist's police interview the night Matt was killed. And later we'll answer some of your questions from social media. All right, let's talk Dateline. This was a good one. This was just, I love the investigative part of it. It really followed this investigative trail. What was your impression of the thing when you— when you began to hear the details?

Well, I mean, it is mind-boggling when you sort of look at this. I mean, they lured this guy from California to Utah. You know, mom sort of involved as many members of her family as she could in doing that. And they all kind of, I guess, did what she said. I guess they were kind of used to that over the years. And then they tell this phony story that Matt, the victim in this, you know, came in aggressively and pushed Kevin up against a wall and he had a knife. And like instantly, you know, there's things wrong with that scenario. I mean, it fell apart from the beginning. I mean, Kevin, the brother who fired the shot, the shots, he was— Matt was shot 7 times.

Yeah.

He was taken into custody that night despite his argument that it was a self-defense shooting. The cops didn't believe that for a second. And Kevin, I think, was never out of custody again. Like, no, like he went in instantly and that was the end of that. And then the only question was, who else was involved?

The hapless Kevin, I think you could say.

And by the way, if they thought they were gonna get away with it, that plot started crumbling from the beginning. Uh, you know, he's shot through the wrist, but he's still holding the knife. He's holding the knife in his wrong hand. He took off his shoes before he came into the living room. Right? Something that home invaders generally don't do.

Well, they clearly were a bunch of amateur murderers. No question about that.

I think the plan was to just make it sound like Matt was an angry, you know, vengeful guy. And he, you know, came over, barged in, you know, they'd taken the screen door off to make it easier for him to come in the house. And she says, she says to him in the calls, like, you're coming in, right? You're going to come in. I need your help with the kids. You know, getting all their stuff. And the kids' stuff was not packed, which would— which it would have been if Matt's going to collect them and they're going to go home.

Of course.

Everything about this fell apart. You know, there are blankets on the furniture to keep blood spatter off it. That's not something you generally do. Kevin, who fires the shot, has a holster in his pocket. I don't think you walk around your house at night with your gun in a holster on your hip unless you're planning to or expecting to use it. That definitely stood out for police.

No question. That's the old Chekhov notion that if a gun makes an appearance, it's going to be used in the next act. And it was indeed in this story. Yeah. But the— I'm interested in the architecture of this family. My impression was, and I'd like to know your impression, is that it all went back, as you said, To the mother. What was your sense of her character, her personality, her— maybe her psychiatric quirks?

She had gotten away with a lot of crimes smaller than this, as far as we know. But she'd gotten away with a lot of crimes, like all her life. Some of them she justified by saying she needed to feed her family. So that's why she shoplifted. But she also stole money from her friends, from people she knew regularly.

And so I said, we can no longer be friends.

Traci denied stealing from Terry but seemed fine with that long friendship being over, as long as she didn't get into trouble.

She has a way of talking her way out of things that blows my mind.

So what I think she thought is that I am smarter than law enforcement, kind of in the aggregate. And if we tell a plausible story, we'll get away with this too. Now, the issue of why Matt Restelli needed to be executed is it can't be explained. The only issue is to save her daughter Kate some headache and heartache and financial responsibility in a divorce. But like, like, like, this was not a terrible guy. I mean, mom didn't like him, But like, there was nothing about Matt Restelli that should have made anybody think, let's kill him.

So the mother was a, a, not only a thief and a, and a lawbreaker, but she was, it seems to me, or at least from what I could discern, remarkably manipulative.

She had a Svengali-like power over her kids.

She reminds me of Sante Kimes, uh, about whom we did a number of stories.

Yeah.

Um, and, and, and, and the similarity, uh, also includes the fact that the children are still besotted with their mother. Uh, the sons in Chaim's case still talk about how much they love her, even though, uh, she did all these dreadful things and made them do dreadful things. And I was fascinated by Tara Lynn and how she, you know, wanted to believe, uh, that there was nothing terribly nefarious, nefarious going on.

Taryn is a wonderful character. And also, I think basically a very good person. Uh, I think nobody wants to believe the worst about their family. And I think Taryn has a lot in common with a lot of other families.

Yeah.

I think it's very hard to believe that this mom that you've seen sort of get away with little things over the years has now graduated to the big time and is doing a murder. And, you know, when Kevin was arrested and then, and then Kate, I think Taryn, still expected very quickly, um, uh, that the police were gonna realize they'd made 2 giant mistakes and set them free. You know, you can see her in this episode sort of starting to change the way she thinks about her mom and sort of what, what, what hell she sort of wrought on her, on her brother and her sister.

Mm-hmm.

And, and, and other people in the family too. And I mean, that was the, the huge value of of Taryn is that she's sort of changing her opinion. Maybe at the same time the audience is kind of realizing, wow, this is a lot bigger than I thought. And then, you know, at the end, I think Taryn came, came to and does realize the way things really are. Now, you know, I mean, there was— there are people in this story, um, uh, uh, uh, in the Restelli family who believe that Taryn has some culpability here for which she's never been charged. But there is— there really is no evidence that Terylyn had anything to do with this, except it was her idea apparently to put the AirTag in Matt's truck. But that was at the time when she believed that Kate was escaping an abusive relationship. So that kind of made sense in that context.

Her older sister and her mother kept telling her again and again what an awful, awful person, um, the husband was and that he, you know, was dangerous and that if you're going to leave this man, you better do it without announcing it because if you announce it, he might kill you. I mean, it was that kind of serious, uh, allegation. And why wouldn't she believe it? You know, she wasn't—

Right. I mean, nobody wants to believe the worst about their family.

All right. Well, speaking of Tracy, when we come back after this little break, we'll hear more from Tracy's police interview The night Matt was killed.

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How does the Adelson case intersect with this one, and how did you find out about it?

You know, we were already interested in this story.

Yeah.

But then we found out that Tracy, the mom, had searched online. The cops found this on her devices. Uh, had searched online, um, new Dateline episode on the Adelson case. Uh, you know, uh, various searches about, about Donna Adelson and And, you know, the 2 cases are so similar, right?

Yeah.

I mean, there's a divorce, there's a contentious custody battle. Now, in, in, in this case, the divorce hadn't even been filed yet, right? And it was just sort of this sort of thinking down the road to like, what's going to happen if there is a divorce and where are we going to live and who's going to get custody and where the kid's going to be. But there was in this case an impending divorce and an impending custody battle, and there was an actual one with the Adelsons. But In the same vein, it is the mom, the matriarch of the family, Donna in Florida and Tracy in Utah, who sort of puts this conspiracy into motion and involves other people, some members of the family. In this case, it was all members of the family. But these 2 cases are remarkably, stunningly familiar. And, you know, look, I mean, sort of my, you know, the question I keep coming back to is when I say to the prosecutor, Did they miss the part of our story where those people get caught and convicted? And he just kind of shakes his head and says, I, um, I think that Tracy thought that she could do it better than Donna Adelson.

But there's also something where, uh, I've seen it before, and I don't really wish to cast aspersions on mothers-in-law, but there are certain people who do not like— whether it's father-in-law, mother-in-law— do not like the person who's marrying into the family.

Sure.

And that dislike will get to the point where something has to be done about that person. And I mean, you just see how it all developed.

Yeah, in that this family, right? And Matt's family, they have a lot in common, right? There are plenty of situations in which one or both families believe that this marriage between their children shouldn't have happened. and should end. And that is going on all over the United States. And that is also where, you know, sometimes, you know, manipulation of children by their parents for their own ends happens, right?

Sure.

You know, your mother and I have thought a lot about this, and we think that you and so-and-so should not be together anymore. And I think that you are— this is a lost cause for you, son or daughter. And, uh, you know, you should get out. I think that goes on all the time. Uh, you know, parents sort of trying to run their lives by remote control, run the lives of their kids. But for it to go to murder, well, that's a little different.

Yeah.

That's, that's something you don't see every day.

It's a reach. It's a reach.

All right.

I was fascinated also with Kate's behavior. I wouldn't have imagined it, but her infidelities were kind of stunning. How, how long did it take after he was killed before she was out there?

I mean, I mean, he wasn't— Matt wasn't even in the ground when she was going on her first date. It's— I mean, first of all, there's no, uh, evidence that, that we know of that Matt Rastelli was unfaithful to his wife during their marriage. That certainly didn't come out. Um, there is plenty of evidence that Kate was stepping out all the time on him. Um, as the years went by. And then, you know, right after Matt is shot to death in her mom's living room, right? And she has to see his body as she leaves the house, right? This is assuming that she has nothing to do with it, right? She's still going out on a date, like, within a week. I have to say, I— that is a coldness that I'm— maybe I should be familiar with it, but I'm not.

No, that's, that's a new one on me. That kind of, uh, speed with which the behavior begins. Yeah. And you would think that she would be aware that maybe people might be keeping track of her activities.

That's one thing that you sense that they sort of didn't think about was, you know, a murder investigation doesn't end the night the person is killed and the body taken away. What Kate was thinking is sort of hard to fathom. Um, I think she was recording Matt's— her phone calls with Matt because she thought it was going to turn up in court someday as evidence in a divorce case. Why she kept those recordings, I don't understand. I, I, I, I mean, this—

Mm-hmm.

This was not an impossible plot to unravel. I mean, the evidence was pretty much sitting there on their devices. And, and I would like to point out, police did not get all those devices the first day. There was several days went by.

Yeah.

When those devices and all that, that damaging information was still in the— it was still the property of Tracy and Kate. Now, again, if you, if you delete that stuff, A seasoned digital forensic examiner might be able to recover it, or at least reveal that it had— something like that had been deleted. So, I mean, there is that. But there clearly was a sort of disconnect from the evidence that existed to sort of Kate and Tracy believing, well, we're home free. And even if we're not home free, Kevin's going to take the fall, not us.

Well, that was fascinating how not only would Kevin take the fall, but maybe he'd kill himself afterwards. And that was okay with the mother.

They were sort of ready to sacrifice him. I mean, it— the sense you get from listening to them is that they saw Kevin as damaged, an asset to be sort of used the way they wanted to without any concern for his welfare or future, and essentially expendable. And—

Yeah.

You know, he's Tracy's son, just like Kate and Taryn are, are her children. It's, it's, it's horrifying, frankly, to think about a mom thinking about her kids like that. But that is apparently where we are.

Yeah, I guess so. Then that, that phone call from jail that Kevin, um, you know, revealed that he was in part of the plot.

No.

Let me remind all viewers and listeners of something that is very widely known in criminal justice work, which is when you make a phone call when you're incarcerated, you, Keith, I think might particularly want to pay attention to this just because I, you know.

Right.

There is a placard on the wall in nearly every correctional facility that I've ever seen that says essentially, Your phone call is not private. This— it's being recorded and it's going to be listened to by other people. Something to that effect. Like, this is not— do not think of this as just private line to the outside. The only time you really have any privacy is when you're speaking with your attorney. But you're talking to anybody else in your family or any one of your friends, they're listening. And I think Kevin thought that because he had already been acquitted of conspiracy, right, that he could then essentially confess to it, which is what he did. And, you know, if he makes that call before the verdict, well, then that's evidence. It comes in, he gets convicted, right?

The, um, the character I liked in addition to, um, your young detective was the brother, um, Mark. We had 2 brothers, but yeah, Mark was the Mark was the one that, yeah, was primarily in the piece. Both seemed like fine people, but, but there was something about Mark that really, uh, that really got under your skin.

He's a, he's also, he's a very good guy. And I think, you know, as is frequently the case when this kind of thing happens, people are left with sadness and anger.

And regret.

'Cause, you know, he hadn't spoken to his brother in a while because the Kate thing was so unpleasant. And he was like, you know, I, I just can't deal with this. When you, you know, I, I don't know that he said these words to Matt, but I think his, I think what he, I think his feeling was when you finally deal with this cancer in your life, which is your wife, then we're going to have a relationship again. And again, that is an understandable thing. You cannot fault anyone for wanting to protect themselves and their family and their kids from sort of the psychological damage of being exposed to somebody in your life that is sort of damaging to others, right? Exposing them to this other terrible relationship that's playing out in front of them. Uh, So I think he thought like, look, you know, when you get right with your life, um, I'll, I'll, we'll be back. And, and then, you know, Matt's gone. And I think he's thinking it was, oh, you know, I should have called him. Well, I mean, I understand that. I don't think it would have changed anything, but it's a, it's a, it's a very understandable reaction.

Sure it is. And now he raises the children, which, uh—

Now, now he's got Matt's kids. And, you know, I mean, that's telling you what kind of person—

Yeah.

Right? He is, right? Because that— I mean, that more than whatever he did with that relationship with his brother and Kay, stepping up now and raising Matt's kids, like, that tells you who he is.

You know, these, um, That great old expression that Murphy came up with, it's not about the murder, it's about the marriage. It applies so well, but it is shorthand. The murder is about so much more than just the marriage. It's about all kinds of, you know, psychiatric difficulties that too many people face in life.

You know, a Guy I know is a homicide detective says that he can classify all murders into the motive is money, love, or pride, right?

Right.

It's, I'm doing this for the insurance money, or I'm doing this because I don't love you anymore, but I do love this person and I want to be with them now, or it's pride. And this is pride. There's no Financial windfall here for anybody with Matt Rastelli being killed. This is not about love. Kate was not in love with somebody else.

Yeah, I kept waiting for the insurance payout, that there was some— gonna be some several million dollar policy or something.

This appears to be about pride, power, and control, which was sort of who Tracey was and who she'd been for a long time, I think.

We've talked about Tracey, but we also have more from her interview with police the night Matt was killed. At this point, investigators are still trying to figure out what happened, but the officer already seems to think Tracey knows more than she is telling him. So he's on to her. Let's listen.

I am so in shock. Like, I'm—

I—

did his parents know? Did someone call?

Um, I, I assume someone has at this point. I, I've only been here with you, to be honest, so all that information I don't even know myself. Um, so just to be like candid, I, I kind of feel like you do know a little bit more than you're letting on.

Nope.

Okay. It was—

he appeared I was in the kitchen.

I guess I'm more, more talking about with kind of stuff with, with Kevin.

With Kevin?

Nope, not at all.

No idea where he was.

No.

Okay, okay.

Well, again, honesty, it's, it's the best policy.

I'm telling you, I almost know nothing.

Well, I just wanted to come in here and see if you did remember anything Because again, like I said, I know you were saying like a lot of I don't knows, and so I just wanted to see if you remembered anything else and talk you with a little bit, but nothing comes to mind at all.

I interacted with, with Matt for all of like maybe 3 seconds, and I didn't see Kevin, and Matt went around the corner. And by the time I got— I don't, I don't even know. I didn't see anything. All I heard was noise.

What were the noises that you were hearing?

The shots.

That was the only noises? There was no conversation, no confrontation at all?

Not that I heard.

Okay. Gotcha.

Honesty is the best policy. Yeah. Not apparently in that family.

Um, no, apparently not.

I mean, Yeah.

Fascinating to, to listen to her answering questions from the officers. The, the soft-spoken, calm, composed sort of demeanor that made it sound like she was almost angelic. Yeah.

Yeah. Doesn't sound like a murderer. No, she's got a whole act. I mean, it's not hard to see why she sort of got away with things, um, and was able to kind of talk her way out of trouble repeatedly. And it's a couple of things. One is it's sort of that persuasive, gentle manner that she has, right? And, uh, and she is smart. She is not a dumb person. I mean, they made some dumb mistakes, but she's not dumb.

No.

Well, I can see why this, this tale of family dysfunction would be the season premiere. It's quite a story. Where does it, um, you know, among, among family stories you have covered, how does this one rate?

I would say right near the top. I mean, I, it is mind-boggling.

Well, when we come back, let's have a look at some of the social media questions that we got from this episode. Okay, now we're going to answer some of your questions and comments from social media. First, we have an audio message from a Dateline viewer who did not leave their name. Hmm, I wonder why. Let's listen to that.

Hi, I just watched the recent episode, uh, called The Family Plot, and I'm curious to know what flight or freeze spectrum is. I've heard of the fight or flight response, but I'm not familiar with flight or freeze spectrum. And then also, um, there's so many questions that I had about this episode and comments, but one thing that I want to comment on that brought me to tears was, um, Josh Mankiewicz talking to Katie and Kevin's father and encouraging him that there's so much more to life to live. Um, despite the tragedies that have unfolded. And I did cry. I cried. I cried a little bit. Cried a lot. All right. Thank you.

It was a nice little moment that you had with, uh, with him actually.

Stan. Yeah. I mean, first of all, like you, you and I, like, We're accustomed to asking the questions in these interviews. Generally, we are not asked questions by the people we interview, and certainly we're not asked questions the way Stan asked me that question, which is like, you're kind of an expert on this, what's gonna happen to me?

That—

I've never heard that before. You being the investigative reporter, and you, you've seen stuff like this all the time, How am I supposed to move on from this? Does that make sense, what I'm asking you? There's a myth out there that some legal proceeding can somehow turn the clock back to when your kids were not convicted murderers and Matt was still alive. You will, because you have other children, figure out a way to go forward from this. Uh, so I was definitely unprepared. I'm glad that I actually did answer that. So that, that made me very happy. And that's sort of what why I included it, because it was so unusual. Like, that just— I've never had anything like that happen in all the years at Dateline, that somebody asked me, you know, how am I going to deal with this over the years? And I know you know this, because you've seen all these people who've gone through this. So I'm, I'm, I was glad that I was able to help him at all. Because he's having a very tough time. I mean, those are his kids too.

And he will, he will for some time. I mean, lots of us have been through this kind of thing and it doesn't go away. It never goes away. You just have to figure out how to deal with it.

The other part of her question is what Tracy describes as the— what does she say? The fight or freeze.

The fight or freeze, yeah.

Yeah. In psychological terms, it's frequently talked about the flight, fight, freeze, or fawn syndrome. And it's all sort of, you know, responses that different people have from their sympathetic nervous systems to how they react to a particular trauma.

Sure.

And so, you know, Tracy's saying, you know, when, when, when this trauma happened— and by the way, I don't think anybody believes this— when Tracy's saying when the shots rang out, Um, I froze. That's why I took so long to call 911. Again, this is one more thing that I, I— they clearly did not plan for. Other people are going to hear the shots. Other people are going to call 911. The amount of time that you think you have— I think they were waiting to make sure that Matt was dead. That's what I think. I think they were— I think they were waiting to make sure that he couldn't testify. that he couldn't give his side of the story. And then they put the knife in his hand, the wrong hand. Unbelievably dumb.

The wrong way in the wrong hand.

Yeah, right. Facing the wrong way in the wrong hand. And I think only then did they call— did they call 911. And they were pretty surprised. I think Tracy was pretty surprised to hear from the 911 operator, uh, yeah, we already know about it, we're on our way. And then they were there like that because they'd already had a big lead time.

Here's a question from 2009KKLA on Instagram. Interesting name. Does the grandfather, Kate's dad, have any contact with the kids? He seemed to love Matt and knew his daughter and ex were trouble.

The short answer is I don't know if he's having any, any contact with the, with, with Matt's kids. I know that the— I mean, I don't think there's a lot of contact between those 2 families at all. The caveat to that might be That like Stan's not really a part of that family anymore and hasn't been for a long time. So, so, uh, uh, maybe he will, but I, I'm actually unaware of any contact that, that he has with, with his grandchildren.

@BobbyG62 said, I was wondering about the knife in his hand. Was it tested for DNA to see who all touched it? It was put there, in my opinion.

Yeah, it had a mix of DNA on it. They did test it, but it didn't prove that it was Tracy's and it didn't prove that it was Kate's.

Marsha Barrett said, This one was a tough watch. This poor man was set up so coldly by his own in-laws. I do have a question. Did the police do gunshot residue tests on the mother, daughter, and son just to verify if it was Kevin who actually pulled the trigger?

Well, no, because, you know, Kevin, like, admitted to it. I mean, there wasn't any question about whether or not anybody else pulled the trigger. And also, we don't know what happened In the moments after, even if, if you, even if you believe Tracy Kate and Kevin's story, we don't— it's not clear what happened in the moments after he was shot. Like, if you fire a gun in self-defense and then hug your mom because this terrible thing just happened, you can transfer some of that gunshot residue to them, right? So I mean, that wouldn't necessarily prove anything either way. It goes all over the place.

Yeah.

But no one, no one denied that Kevin actually pulled the trigger. This wasn't about who shot Matt Restelli. It was about the, the, the plot that got Matt Restelli into that living room.

Well, now we have some comments. @SpoonyLoopen, which is a name I absolutely love, said, yeah, I don't think they're very good true crime fans. They wouldn't have made all those rookie mistakes. Have to agree.

No argument.

No. @SheBuster85 said, poor Matt, he didn't deserve this. Well, I'd have to agree with that also.

No one deserves this.

No. And then @ItsMyGrayLife said, this was such a great season premiere, Josh. Take a bow. And Lester, oh my gosh, this is gonna be a great season. I just know it. And then Keith, I can't wait to hear from you. Well, that may happen at some point, but, um—

I, I agree. This is gonna be a great season, Arthur.

I mean, 35 years, Josh. It's been a while, right?

I mean, look, look, when you and I joined this program in 1995, I did not think to myself, oh yeah, now you're set. This is the, this is the, this is it. You'll do this the rest of your career until you retire. I, you know, nothing lasts 35 seasons in, in TV.

Yeah.

It's very, very, very rare. And that is, uh, That's partly because of the people that you don't see on Dateline, the people behind the cameras and the editing equipment and our producers.

More than partly, Josh.

Yeah. And all our researchers and the APs and all the people who fly the drones, all the stuff that you sort of don't see. And also, you know, hugely— I hope I'm pointing at you because I never know how this comes out on camera.

No, it's the other way, Josh. Point the other way.

No, no, no. Um, okay. All right. Yeah, I'll do that.

But somebody else.

Yeah, well, there are other people too. I mean, there's all the other people who have— not only— they're not only the other people, you know, Blaine and Andrea and Lester, but also all the people who have been Dateline correspondents over the years and who sort of helped us get where we are. But, but like, who we really need to thank, uh, is, is you, like listeners and viewers. Who, uh, that's why we're here about 35 years later. And so, uh, thank you, all of you.

Yes, it was an unexpected gift and one we're very happy to have. Even if it involves spending more time than any reasonable person would want to do with Josh Mankiewicz.

I knew that was coming.

I had to, I had to deliver some insult. It was kind of a lame one though, don't you think?

No, it was good. It was, it was right sort of in character.

Well, that brings us to the end of our delightful program with Mr. Mankiewicz, and it's been nice to see you again, as always.

Well, it's very nice to see you. I saw you very briefly when we were on the Today Show together, and I don't see you enough, in all truthfulness, despite how incredibly mean to me you are all the time. I'm trying to overlook that.

Yeah. It's nice to see you, Josh.

Nice to see you. Remember, if you have any questions about this episode or any other episode or any questions that you would like to ask us, you can reach out to us on social media at @DatelineNBC. You can also leave us a voicemail, which is 212-413-5252, for a chance to be featured right here. And let me just say, like the woman who, uh, did not leave her name but recorded that message earlier about how great I am, let me just say—

Oh yeah.

Talking about how great a job I did, That's gonna get you on Talking Dateline. That's just a little inside tip. Uh, and you can also watch the video version of Talking Dateline on YouTube or on the NBC News app. Keith and I and Andrea and Lester and Blaine will see you Fridays on Dateline on NBC.

Indeed we will.

I'm Craig Melvin.

Cheers.

Cheers.

Cheers.

I've always been a glass half full kind of guy. And now I'm talking to some people who look at the world that way too. Some really fascinating folks who share their defining moments, their triumphs, their challenges. Their stories are funny and quite candid. So I hope you'll join me each week. And who knows, you might just come away with your own glass half full.

Search Glass Half Full with Craig Melvin from today on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.