‘Today’: What Al Roker Would Tell His Younger Self
It’s always interesting to find out what almost anyone would speak to a younger version of themselves if they had the chance.
It’s especially insightful when it comes from a celebrity or public figure, who seems to have it all together.
Today weather anchor Al Roker broached this question recently and the television personality had no problem answering it right away.
Al Roker has been filming ‘Today’ from his home since March
The morning show co-anchor has been filming his Today segments from his living room at his home. His wife, Deborah Roberts, has been simultaneously filming her segments for rival morning show, Good Morning America, in another part of their house. Roker admitted it could at times get a little strange.
“I think it’s the only time the two network morning shows have been coming out of the same facility, the same house with a married couple,” he told Mario Lopez on Access in May 2020. “I think Guinness [World Records] has to get involved here.”
Roker feels that viewers have liked the peek into anchors’ homes during the pandemic.
“I think people have kind of enjoyed looking into other people’s homes,” he said. “How many times have you been driving around in the evening and you see somebody’s house, and you’re like ‘Oh look at that!’? And I think people are getting to do virtual drive-bys of people’s homes.”
Roker’s new memoir is a tribute to seized opportunities
Al Roker’s new book, You Look So Much Better in Person, explains why it’s those opportunities and opened doors that matter more when they come along than any “five-year plan.”
“Making a five-year plan was never part of my mode of operation,” he writes in his memoir. “In fact, I think if you have a five-year plan you should consider taking a match to it. I have been forecasting the weather for forty years and I can’t necessarily predict tomorrow’s weather with 100 percent accuracy – how the hell would I know what I’ll be doing in five years?”
In fact, the 65-year-old Roker states, “I credit not having a plan with some of the best developments in my life…Not having a plan forced me to work hard, be patient, stay in the long game, be flexible and focus on what really matters, like getting good at my craft and working with good people.”
What Roker would tell his younger self
The Queens, NYC-born Roker was asked recently what he would tell his younger self, if he had the chance?
“I would say, ‘Lose weight sooner,'” Roker readily replied in a July 2020 conversation with TV Insider. The NBC star had gastric bypass surgery in 2003 and lost over 100 pounds.
But Roker reverted from that advice to the message behind his current book: grab those chances that show up at your door because they may not return.
“[O]ther than that, I would say to always take chances, because what’s the worst thing that happens? It doesn’t work, and you pick yourself up and you go forward,” he said. “And for some folks that’s easier said than done, and I understand that.”
