Comfort Food with Kelly Rizzo

Dr. Laura Berman spent decades helping people through their most painful experiences. Then she lost her 16-year-old son, Sammy, to an accidental fentanyl overdose, and had to rethink everything she thought she knew about grief.

She joins Kelly for an intimate conversation about surviving unimaginable loss and her book, Crying Out Loud, which Kelly calls the best book she’s ever read on grief. It brings together Laura’s professional knowledge and her experience as a grieving mother to offer something people desperately need: real, practical steps for getting through their grief.

Kelly and Laura share the moments their lives changed forever, the anxiety that followed, and what it takes to begin living in a world that no longer feels safe. Laura explains why grief isn’t only something we think about, but something we experience in our bodies, relationships, and daily lives.

They talk about finding support, making room for overwhelming feelings, maintaining a connection with the person you’ve lost, and allowing joy back in without leaving your love behind. Laura also shares how her book offers different exercises for different days, including the days when you can barely lift your head.

This is a conversation about a path through grief, taken at your own pace. Sometimes that means five minutes at a time. Sometimes it means ten seconds.

Find Dr. Laura Berman’s book, Crying Out Loud, and her community, the Grief Healing Collective.

Follow Kelly on Instagram @kellyrizzo.

This episode is sponsored by Lifeway Foods. Look for Lifeway Kefir and Farmer Cheese in the dairy aisle.

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Craig Conover was bullied as a child, then faced ridicule as an adult for loving to sew. Now, he’s sharing that experience through his new children’s book, Patchwork, to help kids understand that the things that make them different can become their strengths.

The Southern Charm star joins Kelly for an honest, funny, and personal conversation about bullying, heartbreak, and finding the confidence to build a life other people might not understand.

Craig opens up about the criticism he faced for sewing, how childhood experiences stayed with him, and why he wanted to write a book that helps children and parents start conversations about bullying.

He also shares what it’s been like to process a public breakup, learn to travel alone, and figure out what to do with three years of good memories after a relationship ends. Craig and Kelly compare notes on grief, gratitude, and letting go of the pressure to hit certain milestones by a certain age.

Plus: solo snowboarding in Switzerland, his move into romantic acting, and why he’s learning to stop waiting for permission.

Follow Kelly on Instagram @kellyrizzo and Craig @caconover.

This episode is sponsored by Lifeway Foods. Look for Lifeway Kefir and Farmer Cheese in the dairy aisle. learn more at www.lifewaykefir.com

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Kelly saved one of Sabrina Zohar’s dating advice videos two days after her first date with Breckin. The message? You don’t need to text every day, and you don’t need to turn one good date into your entire future. More than three years later, Kelly gets to thank Sabrina in person.

The host of The Sabrina Zohar Show joins Kelly for a candid, funny conversation about dating anxiety, anxious attachment, mixed signals, and what a healthy relationship actually feels like.

They get into the difference between wanting reassurance and getting to know someone, why consistency can be more attractive than chaos, and how to stop making someone else’s behavior a verdict on your worth. Kelly opens up about dating after losing Bob, protecting her independence, and learning to say no without a long explanation. Sabrina shares her own painful relationship experiences and what finally helped her change her patterns.

Plus: separate bedrooms, the pressure to follow a relationship timeline, and Sabrina’s book, Why Am I Like This?, including the two questions she returns to: “How old do I feel?” and “Where did I learn this from?”

Follow Kelly on Instagram @kellyrizzo, and find more from Sabrina on The Sabrina Zohar Show. @thesabrinazoharshow

This episode is sponsored by Flav City. Explore their Protein Smoothies at shopflavcity.com.

Go Buy Sabrina's new book: Why Am I Like This? Out Oct. 16th.

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What happens when you’re already hurting, and then you judge yourself for not handling it better?

Kelly sits down with mother-daughter duo Barb Schmidt, known online as Peaceful Barb, and Michelle Maros, the team behind the nonprofit and online community Peaceful Mind, Peaceful Life, for an honest, surprisingly funny conversation about trauma, grief, recovery, and learning to be on your own side.

Barb shares her experience recovering from bulimia and childhood trauma, and how mindfulness became part of her life more than 40 years ago. Michelle opens up about losing her dad at 21 and why losing her nearly 20-year-old cat reminded her that every experience of grief is different. Kelly shares how anxiety and PTSD have shown up since losing Bob.

Together, they talk about letting go of grief timelines, interrupting negative self-talk, the lasting impact of comments about our bodies, and finding people who make us feel less alone. Plus, Barb explains her practice of stopping, pausing, and asking yourself what’s actually happening when emotions feel overwhelming.

Find Barb online as Peaceful Barb, and explore their work through Peaceful Mind, Peaceful Life. https://peacefulmindpeacefullife.org/

Follow Kelly on Instagram @kellyrizzo.

Follow Barb on Instagram @peacefulbarb

Follow Michelle on Instagram @michellemaros

This episode is sponsored by Lifeway Foods. Look for Lifeway Kefir and Farmer Cheese in the dairy aisle. https://lifewaykefir.com/

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Cheryl Burke spent 26 seasons and 17 years as one of the most iconic pros on Dancing with the Stars. Then in one year, she walked away from the show, went through a divorce, and moved to a city where she didn't know a soul. Starting over at 38 with no idea what her favorite color even was.

Kelly and Cheryl connected through mutual friends and bonded over tough times, and this conversation goes wide open. They talk about the addiction to chaos and what it takes to finally choose peace, learning you can be okay alone after never once being single since age 13, body image trauma from years in a world that shamed curvy dancers, going sober, choosing celibacy (and why it's way more nuanced than the sound bite), perimenopause hitting at 42, and the quiet guilt that comes with feeling genuinely happy after grief.

This episode is sponsored by Lifeway Foods. Find more info at https://lifewaykefir.com/

Please follow Kelly on Instagram @kellyrizzo and follow Cheryl at @cherylburke.

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This episode was recorded in early 2024, and it means even more now knowing everything Dave has been through since. He was diagnosed with Stage 3 Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, beat it, and then just seven months later was diagnosed with a second cancer. He has since been declared cancer free, and everything he says in this conversation about finding joy, honoring the people you've lost, and getting through the unthinkable hits differently with that context.

Dave Coulier was one of Bob Saget's closest friends from the very beginning, dating back to a comedy club in Detroit when they were 18 and 21, broke and scrappy and just trying to make each other laugh. He talks about what made Bob tick, what Bob was really like behind the Danny Tanner reputation, and why humor has always been the way their group got through the darkest moments.

And Dave has had a lot of dark moments. In a single year, he lost his best friend Bob, his brother Dan to suicide, and his father. Nine people total in 12 months. He opens up about finding his brother, the conversation he had with his dying father where he grabbed his hand and just talked, and why he believes comedy isn't just a career, it's a survival mechanism.

Please follow Kelly on Instagram @kellyrizzo and follow Dave at @dcoulier.

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Kelly sits down with Courtney LaCorte, aka Cheese Gal, the Nashville-based content creator who accidentally built a brand around beautiful, approachable hosting and never looked back. They make the Bob Martini together (Stoli Elite, no vermouth, stupid cold, dead penguins floating), talk about the reality behind the perfectly curated feed, and get into what it actually takes to build a community online without chasing virality. Courtney also opens up about her early 20s divorce, her years as a flight attendant, and how a career pivot four and a half years ago changed everything. Plus: her new cookbook "Oversharing from My Kitchen to Yours," why she closed her storefront to bet on herself, and what real comfort food looks like when life gets hard.

Follow Kelly on Instagram @kellyrizzo

Follow Cortney on Instagram @cheesegal

Buy Cortney's Book "Oversharing" OUT NOW on Amazon https://link.amazon/B08IXaDCO

This episode was sponsored by FlavCity. Get the limited edition Pumpkin Spice Latte All In One Protein Smoothie HERE- https://www.shopflavcity.com/collections/protein-smoothies

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Kelly sits down with comedian Kelsey Cook, whose brand new Netflix special Happy Hour is out right now and it is absolutely spectacular. Kelsey grew up in the most wonderfully bizarre household: her parents met at a professional foosball tournament, her mom is literally in the Foosball Hall of Fame, and her dad toured Europe and Hawaii as an International Yo-Yo Man. But underneath all that quirk was a painful childhood divorce that gave Kelsey the kind of dark fuel most comedians run on.

Then Kelly and Kelsey get into the full-circle moment of how Bob became a mentor early in Kelsey's career, and what his generosity meant to a young comic just trying to get in the door. It is a truly beautiful conversation.

And then things get really real. Kelsey opens up about her mom's frontotemporal dementia, a rarer and often misunderstood form of the disease that can strike people in their 60s, and the night a routine emergency surgery during the pandemic changed everything overnight. Two women who have experienced two very different kinds of grief sit down and get incredibly honest about what the long goodbye actually looks like.

Go watch Happy Hour on Netflix. It's HILARIOUS.

Follow Kelly on Instagram @kellyrizzo

Follow Kelsey on Instagram @kelseycookcomedy

Thank you to Lifeway Foods for sponsoring this episode. To learn more about Lifeway visit. https://lifewaykefir.com/

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This week Kelly is getting really personal about one of the most common fears in the grief and dating world: what does it actually look like when your new person truly honors your late spouse?

Kelly opens up about all the specific, beautiful ways her boyfriend Breckin shows up for both her and Bob's memory. From always asking about Bob in everyday conversation and never making it weird when Kelly wants to talk about him, to sitting by her side at Bob's charity event Cool Comedy Hot Cuisine while Bob's legacy plays out on the big screen, to building genuine relationships with Bob's daughters, his friends (yes, including Stamos), and even his ex-wife. He has even been open to visiting Bob at the cemetery with Kelly, which means everything to her.

Kelly also gets into one of the most important things she has learned: love is not a finite pie. You can give 100% of your heart to the person you lost and still have a full 100% to give to someone new.

For every widow or widower out there wondering if it is possible to find someone who truly gets it: this episode is for you. That person exists. And you should never settle for anything less.

Follow Kelly on Instagram at @kellyrizzo

And please don't forget to give Comfort Food a rating and a review!

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Nina Parker is one of those people who walks into a room and owns it. She's hosted TMZ Live, co-hosted E! News, and is now co-hosting Keep It on Crooked Media. But what you really need to know is that she is one of the most honest, grounded, and genuinely funny women I have met in a long time.

We started talking about grief, because that's just what happens when two women who have been through real loss sit down together. And we never really stopped going deep. We got into perimenopause and why the medical system is failing women on this (doctors get ONE hour of certification?), being confidently child-free in a world that still doesn't fully accept that, dating in your 40s and why it can actually be kind of amazing, standing up to online trolls with zero apology, and what it looks like to choose yourself, fully, without explanation.

Nina gives real advice unapologetically. This one is a must listen.

Thank you to Flav City for sponsoring this episode. Learn more at shopflavcity.com.

Follow Kelly at @kellyrizzo

Follow Nina at @theninaparker

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Kelly sits down with Joey Zauzig, aka the internet's best friend, and this might genuinely be the most fun episode of Comfort Food ever. Joey is the wildly popular content creator and Instagram personality known for his direct, no-BS take on dating, relationships, and real life, and the energy between these two is absolutely unmatched from the first second.

They get into everything: how Joey went from posting thirst traps to becoming the person millions of people DM when they're going through a breakup, what it actually feels like to carry that kind of responsibility, and why staying authentic online sometimes means being willing to be completely cringe. They swap divorce and dating stories (spoiler: Joey has a blind date tonight), debate who should always pick up the check, and break down the unwritten rules of texting and ghosting.

Plus: they are officially launching a cooking series together. Skinty Italian. Coming soon. You're very welcome.

Follow Kelly @kellyrizzo

Follow Joey @joeyzauzig

Thank you LifeWay Foods for sponsoring this episode. Learn more at lifewaykefir.com.

Join Kelly in Chicago with Byline Travel, September 10-14. Apply here: byline.travel/experience/kelly

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What would you do if a DNA test revealed you were the granddaughter of the man behind some of the most infamous murders in American history?

That is exactly what happened to Sophia Maddox. At just 22 years old, she learned that her grandfather was Charles Manson. Her father never knew who his dad was, spent years searching through ancestry databases, and then one day a half-brother called with news that would shatter everything: "Are you sitting down? Your father is Charles Manson."

In one of the most jaw-dropping, deeply moving conversations ever on Comfort Food, Kelly Rizzo sits down with the brave and brilliant Sophia Maddox, director of the Hulu documentary MY GRANDFATHER CHARLES MANSON. Sophia opens up about the moment her father found out, the moment SHE found out, and what it actually feels like to share DNA with a man that the world associates with pure evil.

But this episode is about so much more than Charles Manson. It is about generational trauma, about breaking cycles, about a grandmother who took a devastating secret to her grave, and about a young woman who chose radical honesty over comfortable silence. Sophia brought cameras into her own therapy sessions, pitched a documentary to Disney and Hulu as her very first pitch ever, and came out the other side with a story that will stop you in your tracks.

This is raw. This is real. This is one of those episodes you will think about for a long time.

MY GRANDFATHER CHARLES MANSON is streaming now on Hulu.

Also, Join Kelly in Chicago Sept 10-14 2026 for a full luxury culinary and cultural exploration of Chicago. Visit byline.travel/experience/kelly today to reserve your spot.

Follow Kelly on Instagram at @kellyrizzo

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This week Kelly is going solo, and she is getting real about the relationship rules she wishes someone had handed her back in her 20s and 30s. The kind of wisdom you can only earn the hard way, through mistakes, growth, and a whole lot of lived experience.

Kelly covers the big ones: why cheating isn't just wrong but genuinely not worth the anxiety and guilt it costs you, the trap of getting too drunk and picking fights, the immature habit of starting conflict on purpose just to test how much someone loves you (she'll be the first to admit she did this), why you should never publicly call out or embarrass your partner no matter what, and the game-changing power of seeking to understand where your partner is actually coming from before you react. She also gets into why you can never love someone enough to change them, the importance of putting your partner's feelings first in a healthy relationship, and one of her most important lessons: never shrink yourself to make someone else comfortable.

These are the rules Kelly learned the hard way. And she wouldn't trade the lessons, but she hopes you can learn a few of them a little easier.

Also, Kelly has an exciting announcement: she is hosting a five-star VIP trip to Chicago September 10 through 14, curated with Byline Travel. Think the Peninsula Hotel, exclusive restaurant experiences, chef and cocktail demos, and so much more. Spots are limited, so check it out at byline.travel/experience/kelly

This episode is sponsored by Lifeway Foods. For more info go to lifewaykefir.com. Thank you Lifeway for being such an incredible partner!

Follow Kelly on Instagram @KellyRizzo

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Some conversations you plan for a long time because you know they're going to matter. This is one of them.

Kelly sits down with one of her closest and dearest friends, Melissa Mickelson, for a raw, honest, and deeply moving conversation about widowhood. Kelly lost her husband Bob four and a half years ago. Melissa lost her husband Dean nine months ago. And as Melissa puts it, she watched Kelly go through it first and had no idea she'd one day be living the same unimaginable reality.

Together they talk through what it actually feels like to navigate grief from the inside, including the "10 seconds at a time" advice Kelly gave Melissa on that very first night that has stuck with her ever since. They get into what helps and what doesn't when someone you love is grieving (hint: you don't need to fix it, you just need to witness it), why you should always bring up the person who died, how to text a grieving friend without making it worse, what it's like to go back to work when your whole world has changed, how grief literally rewires your brain, and why both of them refuse to let this break them.

Melissa also shares how her TikTok account has become a space for sharing grief insights, and the beautiful mantra from her wedding vows that now guides her every single day: choose your heart.

This one is for anyone who has loved and lost, and for anyone who wants to show up better for someone who has.

This episode is sponsored by Lifeway Foods. For more info go to lifewaykefir.com. Thank you Lifeway for being such an incredible partner!

Follow Kelly on Instagram @KellyRizzo

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Kelly has been wanting to have this conversation for a long time, and she's so glad she finally did. Her guest is Lindzi Scharf, a writer, entrepreneur, and mother who lost her daughter Evan at just three and a half years old to an incredibly rare mitochondrial disease. Evan was only the 27th child in the world known to have her specific condition.

What makes this conversation so special is the way Lindzi talks about Evan. It is not dark or heavy. It is full of joy, full of love, and full of the kind of hard-earned wisdom that only comes from living through something this profound. Kelly admits she was nervous to have a child loss parent on the podcast, scared of saying the wrong thing. But Lindzi has a way of making you feel like you can ask anything, and that saying the wrong thing is always better than saying nothing at all.

They talk about what it was like to know from early on that time with Evan was limited, how that shaped the way Lindzi chose to live every single day, and what it means to actively choose joy in the face of the unimaginable. They also get into what people can do to support a grieving parent, how to talk about someone who is gone, and the complicated question of past versus present tense. Plus, there is a beautiful connection involving Evan's favorite song that will give you chills.

This episode comes out right around what would have been Evan's birthday. Happy birthday, Evan.

Follow Kelly on Instagram @KellyRizzo and keep the conversation going there.

You can find Linzi on instagram at @lindzischarf

Thank you to Lifeway Foods for sponsoring this episode. For more info about Lifeway please visit www.lifewaykefir.com

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Kelly is going there. She has hinted at this story before, but this is the first time she has ever shared the full, unfiltered details of her worst breakup ever. And yes, it is as shocking as it sounds.

It was 2015. Kelly was 36, living with her boyfriend, had just bought a house with him, and was basically planning a future together. Then the day before the movers arrived, he sat her down and ended it. Out of nowhere. No fighting, no warning signs, just a rug pull that left her suddenly homeless, heartbroken, and starting completely from scratch.

Kelly walks through every detail: what he said, what she thought, the moment months later when he showed up crying telling her she was the love of his life, and then the phone call where he took it all back. And then, four months after blocking him forever, she met Bob.

But this episode isn't just the story. It is also a genuine, practical guide for getting through a brutal breakup. Kelly shares what actually helped her: finding her own space, letting her people in, leaning into spirituality and self-help, not letting herself spiral into self-blame, and yes, getting back out there. She also gets honest about the anxiety that kind of heartbreak leaves behind, and how she still works through it today.

Follow Kelly on Instagram @KellyRizzo and keep the conversation going there.

Thank you to Marconi Foods for sponsoring this episode. Use code KELLY for 15% off at marconi-foods.com

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Content warning: This episode contains a candid discussion of suicidal thoughts. Please listen with care.

Kelly and Alison Victoria have been friends for years, both Chicago girls with more in common than they ever got to explore until now. This is the conversation they've been wanting to have, and Alison chose Comfort Food as the only place she'd tell this story for the first time.

For the first time ever, Alison opens up about a four-year legal nightmare that nearly destroyed everything she had built. It started with a business partnership that seemed promising and spiraled into eight lawsuits, forensic audits, unpaid contractors, permits that were never pulled, and headlines calling her a fraud. She lost her house. She lost her car. Her bank account was drained. And at her lowest point, she called a friend and said she didn't want to live anymore.

This conversation goes there. All of it. How Alison kept showing up anyway, how HGTV had her back when she was terrified they would fire her, and how she rebuilt from zero into the thriving, Emmy-nominated career and life she has today. She also talks about what she learned: that the truth always prevails, that patience is a real virtue, and that grief comes in more forms than most people realize, including the grief of losing yourself.

This one is a must-listen for anyone who has ever felt buried alive by someone else's mess.

If you or someone you know is struggling, please reach out to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988.

Follow Kelly on Instagram @KellyRizzo and keep the conversation going there.

You can follow Alison Victoria at @thealisonvictoria

This episode is sponsored by Marconi Foods. For 15% off use code KELLY at Marconi-foods.com

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This one is so special, and Kelly is so glad to be bringing it back.

When Kelly first dreamed up this show, John Stamos was one of the very first people she thought of. He's a beloved actor, musician, and New York Times bestselling author of "If You Would Have Told Me." But more than any of that, he is one of her dearest friends and one of the greatest sources of comfort she's had since losing Bob.

In this conversation, Kelly and John go deep. They talk about the Full House legacy and what it really meant to him to finally come to terms with a show that changed millions of lives. They share stories about Bob, including the night they found out he was gone, and what those first impossible days looked like for both of them. They talk about grief in the most honest way: prayer, therapy, the moment you stop fighting the pain and just let it move through you, and why keeping someone's name alive is one of the most loving things we can do.

And then there's a very special moment near the end: the world premiere of a song Bob wrote and performed on his last tour, "I'm Not in Love with My Wife's Father." Kelly had been waiting so long to share that with the world, and getting to do it with John made it all the more meaningful.

If you've ever loved someone and lost them, this one is for you.

Follow Kelly on Instagram @KellyRizzo and keep the conversation going there.

Follow John at @johnstamos on Instagram

And thank you to Marconi Foods for sponsoring this episode. Find more info at marconi-foods.com and use code KELLY for 15% off!

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Egg freezing has become almost a cultural mandate for women in their 30s. And if you haven't done it, people want to know why. Today I'm talking about why I chose not to, and what that decision taught me about knowing yourself, trusting your gut, and pushing back on the idea that there's one right answer for every woman.

This isn't an anti-egg-freezing episode. It's an honest look at the pressure we face, the way love and timing and circumstance can shape a decision that feels impossibly big, and why peace with your choice matters more than what anyone else thinks you should do.

Whether you're in the thick of this decision, already made it, or just want to understand it better, I hope this one hits home.

Follow me on Instagram @KellyRizzo and let's keep the conversation going there.

And thank you to Marconi Foods for sponsoring this episode. For 15% off use code KELLY at check out and visit marconi-foods.com for more info and to try the new Platinum Giardinera today!

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Okay, this one is a little different from our usual Comfort Food conversations, and honestly? I'm so glad we went there.

My guest is the gorgeous and refreshingly honest Catt Sadler, and we get into two topics that I think so many of you are going to relate to. First: plastic surgery. Catt was truly one of the first women in the public eye to openly document her facelift (plus neck lift and upper blepharoplasty) at 48 years old, at a time when people were shocked anyone under 60 would even consider it. Three years later, she has zero regrets and zero filters about the whole experience. We talk about the real recovery (hint: it was harder than she expected), the issues she dealt with post-surgery, how she found her Beverly Hills surgeon Dr. Kim, what she actually paid versus the insane prices you see floating around now, and where the line is between wanting to look your best and chasing something that can never be fixed with a scalpel. Such a good, honest conversation.

Then we shift to something that genuinely surprised me when I first heard about it: Catt is really, really close friends with her ex-husband's now wife. I'm someone who is close with my partners' exes, but this is the flip side of that story. Catt shares how it started at her son's 7th birthday party and turned into an almost 20-year friendship, and why she thinks the kids being able to witness it has been one of the greatest gifts she could give them.

So much warmth and truth in this one. Follow me on Instagram at @KellyRizzo and let's keep the conversation going!

And follow Catt at https://www.instagram.com/iamcattsadler/?hl=en

And thank you to Marconi Foods for sponsoring this episode! Learn more about Marconi at https://marconi-foods.com/ and use code KELLY for 15% off.

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